Chapter One
"We should play a game." Cassie stated, looking around the living room. Megan was sitting on the couch, petting Easter; Ramona was sitting in front of, but facing away from, the computer as she talked to Joel and Loki; Rayalan was crouching over Victoria where she was laying on her favorite cardboard box; Tasha was standing in front of the kitchen doorway; and Nik was sitting on a chair next to the table.
Cassie already knew that Schuylar, Nathan, and Tylvetter were in Schuylar's room and that Crystal, Angel, and Riley were upstairs.
"What sort of game?" Rayalan asked, in a soft voice so that she wouldn't disturb the cat.
"I don't know; a game-like game."
Rayalan almost laughed and turned back to giving Victoria attention.
"How about a warriors game?" Tasha suggested, walking over.
"I'd play." Nik agreed.
"Sounds good." Rayalan murmured. Then, in a slightly louder voice as she turned her head, "what about you Megan?"
"Sure." Megan agreed.
"Yay" Cassie said. "Someone should ask the others, Raya."
Rayalan laughed. "I think you could ask better than that."
"Please?" Cassie added too sweetly.
With another laugh, Raya slid her hands out from underneath Victoria and stood up.
"I'll ask the boys if you'll ask Crystal and Angel."
"Okay"
Rayalan turned around and knocked at Schuylar's door and listened closely to hear him invite her inside. She walked in to see them putting their shoes on.
"Where are you going?"
"We were about to go to the park." Schuylar informed her.
"I was going to invite you to play Warriors with us." Raya said, slightly disappointed before thinking of an idea. "Maybe I could convince the others to play at the park instead."
Schuylar surprised her by agreeing.
"Do you want to come, Nathan?" Schuylar asked, looking at his friend.
"Why not?" Nathan conceded with a shrug.
Raya half-hopped on one foot as she left to check if that was acceptable to the others.
After talking with everyone in the house, all the people younger than thirty were allowed and willing to walk down the street to play their game.
The park in question was a large, forested canyon with a stream running through it and lots of fair-sized clearings. It was bordered on one side with a fairly busy street, a lake on another, and a field of grass on a third. The fourth side opened directly out into the city. The field was also a campsite in summer.
Schuylar and Nathan were at the front of the group talking; Crystal and Angel were playing around; Tasha, Cassie, and Nik were talking together; and Megan and Rayalan were talking at the back of the group while Raya made sure nobody fell too far behind.
Once they got into the park, Schuylar paid less attention to talking and more to leading everyone to a clearing that he went to often.
He sat down when he got there and the others followed suit, sitting in a rough circle.
"So, who's leader?" Schuylar asked.
"We should vote." Rayalan suggested.
"Okay, who's in the vote?"
"Um," Raya looked around. "Suggestions?"
There was a general chuckle at her tone before anyone thought of possible leaders.
"I think Schuylar should be leader." Cassie commented. Schuylar hissed, smiled, and accepted himself as a possibility.
"Well, I say Nathan should." Megan said
"Crystal." Angel added with a nod.
"I think I could be a good leader." Tasha spoke up.
After a moment's silence, Raya spoke. "Okay, so we're voting on Tasha, Crystal, Nathan, and Schuylar. Who votes for Crystal?"
Angel raised her hand.
Raya glanced sympathetically and somewhat apologetically at Crystal as she continued the vote. "Tasha?"
Tasha and Nik both raised their hands.
"Schuylar?"
Schuylar glowered at Nathan as he, Cassie, Crystal, and Rayalan all raised their hands.
"Nathan?"
Megan immediately raised her hand and Schuylar followed soon after.
"Okay, so Schuylar is the leader." Raya concluded. Then she turned to speak directly to her elder brother "What's your name?"
"Darkstar. What about- Oh, wait. Snaketail?"
"Yeah," Raya agreed with a smile. "Nathan, what's your name?"
"I don't know. Brighttalon I guess. Cassie?"
"Silverfire. Crystal?"
"Wildear. What's your warrior name Angel?"
"Dawnbranch."
"I'll be Shiningheart." Tasha commented. "How about you, Nik?"
"I'll be Eaglewing."
"Megan?" Raya asked when she noticed that her friend hadn't spoken yet.
"I'm going to be… um… Blackhawk." Megan answered. "We're going to need a deputy and medicine cat."
"Well, medicine cat is obvious and Brighttalon is my deputy." Darkstar responded.
Snaketail smiled at her new position and went to congratulate Brighttalon. After everyone made their congratulatory comments, they sat down again.
"I think that Nik, Angel, and Megan should play apprentices. Does anyone disagree?" Darkstar asked.
"Why do I have to be an apprentice?" Blackhawk whined angrily.
"I was making a suggestion because you still ask me to teach you to fight."
"Whatever." She sighed in a defeated tone.
"I really hate that word. Anyway, we need to do a ceremony thing."
Darkstar stood up and, after looking around for a little bit, went to stand on a smooth rock.
"We're gathered to give people their names and mentors. Megan, you're my apprentice. Until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Blackpaw.
"Brighttalon, you need an apprentice; you'll be mentor to Dawnpaw.
"And Shiningheart, you'll be Eaglepaw's mentor."
Following Darkstar's example, each of the mentor's shook their apprentice's hand before reclaiming their seats.
"Let's find a camp." Silverfire suggested.
"That was somewhat random." Snaketail pointed out, looking at her friend oddly.
"Well, we should!"
"I wasn't disagreeing."
"Okay," Darkstar cut in. "We can explore for a little while and then meet up back here."
Everyone got up and began going their own way until they heard Darkstar call them back.
"I was actually thinking about sending distinct patrols. Brighttalon, will you take Dawnpaw and Wildear? Shiningheart, please take Eaglepaw and Silverfire. Snaketail and Blackpaw can come with me."
Brighttalon led his patrol off the path and further down into the gorge while Darkstar led his group further up the gorge and off the path, and Shiningheart led her two further down the path than they had gotten before.
After half an hour to an hour, all three patrols were back.
"Shiningheart, you can report first." Darkstar decided.
"We didn't find anywhere that would make a good camp but we did see plenty of wildlife."
"Okay, it's nice that you saw the wildlife but not really too helpful. We're not going to need the food."
"Yeah, it was just nice."
"Okay. What'd you find Na-Brighttalon?"
"We found a pretty nice spot. It's well hidden and big enough to accommodate us and probably several other people."
"Sounds nice. Lead the way."
Brighttalon, Wildear, and Dawnpaw stood and led everyone else through the undergrowth (occasionally warning them of difficult areas) until they were in front of a huge cluster of bushes.
Darkstar glanced questioningly at Brighttalon when they stopped and, with a smile, Brighttalon crouched down and crawled through a hidden tunnel.
Darkstar looked over the rest of his clan before following Brighttalon. After crawling approximately fourteen feet Darkstar found himself in a large clearing with a leaf 'ceiling'. The rest of the clan filed in behind him with Wildear and Dawnpaw at the back.
"We wouldn't have found it if it weren't for Wildear ignoring me."
"Good thing that I did or we would still need a camp."
"Are there any dens?" Shiningheart asked.
"Yeah. There's a good-sized area over there, smaller ones on both sides of it, another big one over there, and two tiny places over there." Brighttalon answered.
Shiningheart and Snaketail went to explore them, followed soon after by their clanmates.
Shiningheart went to see the first one Brighttalon pointed. A careful look exposed the den to be several times bigger than necessary for the few people that were here. Shiningheart also found that there was a very thin wall between the den she was in and a slightly smaller one. She walked out of the larger den and over to the side of it where Brighttalon said there would be a third den. After a bit of searching, she found a thin crack between branches. She pushed at it with one hand and found that the branches slid easily to the side to show another, more closed den that had moss growing across the floor. She left that one after just looking around for a little bit and went to the opposite side of the camp where she could already see an entrance to the second large den that Brighttalon mentioned. This one seemed a bit more open than the other two that she'd been in but still warm.
'A good warrior's den.' Shiningheart thought before leaving to explore the last two dens.
The next one proved to be very small in comparison to the others but still big enough to house at least four people. The last one was the smallest one yet, Shiningheart could easily move around in it but too many more people and it would begin to feel rather crowded.
"I want to camp here." Snaketail was saying when Shiningheart left the last den.
"Yeah, but everyone would need to talk to their parent-people." Wildear pointed out.
"Actually," Darkstar added. "It's getting pretty late. We'll have to head back soon."
"We should get more people and play tomorrow. We won't have to worry about finding a camp then and people could get the necessary permission." Snaketail suggested, hopefully.
"Maybe not tomorrow, but definitely soon." Eaglepaw agreed.
"What do you think, Darkstar?" Silverfire asked.
"Meh, sounds good."
After discussing it a bit, everyone agreed on next weekend.
They left the park in much the same way they came in, with Darkstar and Brighttalon at front and Snaketail and Blackpaw in the back.