Yay, a review!
The Last Moongazer; Thanks so much for pointing out my errors! I'll go back and fix them and remember them for next time. I hope that I fixed them in this chapter, but I may have missed a few. Thanks so much!
Alright, disclaimer: I don't own Warriors. That right goes to the Erin Hunters.
Now, on with the chapter!
The cold mist of the Mooncloud hung in the air as slowly, cats began to pad into the clearing. At the last half moon there had been only 11 cats. Now there was 18.
As cats began to talk and greet each other, Orangestone silenced the crowd with a flick of her tail. The orange dappled she cat gestured to the other full medicine cats and they all padded forward.
"Tonight," Orangestone began, taking a breath, "We must welcome 7 new medicine cat apprentices. This is unusual for us, as we have never had to many new medicine cat apprentices in a single moon. But we welcome them with open minds and hope StarClan accepts them and guide them in the path of a medicine cat."
"Arcticpaw, please step forward," Orangestone called. A small black kit, just barely an apprentice, stepped forward. "Arcticpaw, is it your wish to train in the hard, long path of a medicine cat with only StarClan to guide your paws?"
"It is." His mew was barely a squeak. The black tom bounced excitedly and Orangestone smiled.
"Then you are now a medicine cat apprentice of SwiftClan. Welcome, Arcticpaw. May StarClan walk your dreams and light your path."
Silvermask stepped forward next. "Marshpaw, please step forward." Yet another black tom kit, this one a bit older, stepped forward to meet the dark silvery-gray she cat. "Marshpaw, is it your wish to train in the hard, long path of a medicine cat with only StarClan to guide your paws?"
"It is," he boldly answered, meeting his mentor's light green gaze. She gave a nod and continued on with the ceremony.
"Then you are now a medicine cat apprentice of DarkClan. Welcome Marshpaw. May StarClan walk your dreams and light your path."
This process continued as five more medicine cat apprentices were accepted; Yarrowpaw of SmokeClan, Specklepaw of LakeClan, Reedpaw of CloudClan, Cloudpaw of BrightClan, and Featherpaw of SnowClan.
"Now," Rowanpool continued, "You must be accepted by StarClan. Go to sleep and you will awake in StarClan's forest."
All 7 of the new apprentices curled up in the grass and slowly fell asleep.
Arcticpaw's POV
My name is Arcticpaw. I had just been declared an official medicine cat apprentice of SwiftClan. I didn't want to be a medicine cat apprentice at first. But one day I woke up and a voice told me that I needed to be a medicine cat apprentice. So that's what I did.
I thought that the voice urging me to do this was mine, I thought it was all in my head. But when I awoke in StarClan, I was surprised to hear that voice once again.
"Arcticpaw, wake up," it said, "I don't have much time! Wake UP, Arcticpaw!"
I felt a paw jab me in the side and woke up, startled. I was surrounded by StarClan figures, nudging the other medicine cat apprentices awake around me. I noticed that all nine of us - all nine of the medicine cat apprentices - were here. If this was my StarClan ceremony, why were the rest of them there?
"Oh good, you're awake!" the voice said, shoving me to my paws. "I was getting worried for a second there that we wouldn't have enough time."
I glanced over at the others. Rainpaw was standing up, looking curiously at a silver and white tabby she cat, whose eyes looked as urgent as the cat in front of me. Specklepaw was staring at a dark brown tabby tom, and Cloudpaw was looking at another silver tabby.
I looked back at the small cat in front of me. She was small, but not the smallest of the cats before me. Her ginger pelt was dappled with black and brown, her green eyes a sparkling emerald green.
"Who are you?" I asked her suspiciously, my light blue gaze holding her emerald colored one.
"Emeraldheart. Well, technically Emeraldpaw, but StarClan gave me my warrior name after I died. Cool, huh?"
"Yea," I said slowly, still suspicious, "Cool."
Soon Dreampaw, Yarrowpaw, and Featherpaw were on their feet. Dreampaw's tortoiseshell pelt was bristled with irritation as she seemed to argue with the black tom in front of her. Yarrowpaw was chattering happily with her reddish brown and white tom. Featherpaw was already sitting by her dappled gray she cat like she had known her all her life. Marshpaw and Reedpaw were still on the ground, moaning. I could here the two's whines from where he was sitting across the field.
"Arcticpaw? Arcticpaw? Hello? Are you in there?" Emeraldheart was waving her ginger and black tail in my face.
"W-what? Sorry, must have been thinking."
The she cat rolled her eyes and took a step forward. "I said, StarClan accepts you as a medicine cat and as soon as Marshpaw and Reedpaw get up, we'll get the meeting started."
"Meeting? Is this normally what medicine cat apprentice ceremonies are like?" I questioned, meeting her emerald gaze once more. I could hear Reedpaw yelling at his StarClan cat, a white tom, annoyance and anger showing through his voice. The ignorant tom! I can't stand him.
"Are you crazy? Obviously this isn't traditional, as Rainpaw and Dreampaw are here, when they already had their ceremonies. Just wait and save all questions until the end of the meeting." She flicked her tail and began pacing.
I turned my head to Marshpaw, who had just gotten up. His StarClan guide, obviously the youngest of the StarClan warriors before him, a black and white she cat, was scolding him and muttering to herself.
"Finally!" I heard Emeraldheart sigh, padding to join the rest of the StarClan warriors.
"Welcome," the black tom cat who had been talking to Dreampaw spoke, his loud voice booming in the empty clearing. "My name is Cindercloud. We will speak frequently, you kits and us. Let us introduce ourselves. You already know me so," he broke off to let another cat speak.
The brown tabby, Specklepaw's guide, spoke next. "My name is Brackensky."
They went down the line, introducing themselves; Brokennose was the white tom; Squirrelnose was the reddish brown and white she cat; Marigoldhawk was the silver tabby and white she cat; Mistypaw for the white and black she cat; Seastreak was the other silver tabby; and finally, Sorrelpool for the dappled dark gray she cat.
Cindercloud picked up again after they finished. "We, StarClan, about a moon ago, sent a prophecy to your clans. This prophecy is about you nine."
"What's the prophecy?" Featherpaw asked, shrinking back shyly. Sorrelpool, her guide, shot her an encouraging smile and nodded.
"Ah yes," Cindercloud said, "I suppose you deserve to know. Don't tell a single cat about this, okay?" All nine of us nodded our heads and the black tom continued to speak. "When the stars are corrupt with blood, only nine, who can speak to the night, will be able to restore the stars to their beautiful shine."
Wow! A prophecy! On my first night as a real medicine cat apprentice, accepted by StarClan! He could wait to tell Orangestone!
But then he remembered: he can't tell Orangestone. Cindercloud said that he couldn't tell anybody.
Cindercloud continued after a pause to let the prophecy soak into us all. "We want you to meet here every moon, so we can talk to you all and you can learn what is happening in other clans. Things are going to get worse very fast, so we need you to keep in touch with each other."
"Also," the black tom continued, "each of you has more power than you could ever imagine. As a bonus, you have us. We will always be there with you."
The nine cats were already beginning to fade.
"Dawn is approaching!" Cindercloud announced, looking around at the other StarClan cats around him. "We must be going. Remember! We are always with you. Meet here every moon. We'll see you soon."
And with that the StarClan cats had faded into nothing.
When morning approached, I got up and yawned. All the other medicine cat apprentices were waking up around that time as well. Orangestone, who was chatting with Spiderface, padded over to me, a grin on her face.
"How did it go?" she asked me, her amber eyes bright.
"It was great," I told her. And it was true. Visiting StarClan had really been the greatest experience of my life.
That's when saw them all.
All the StarClan cats were standing in the middle of the clearing. Each guide was walking towards whoever they were leading. Emeraldheart came bounding up to me a grin on her face.
"Hey Arcticpaw! Cindercloud told you we'd see you soon, huh?"
From the relaxed look on Orangestone's face, I knew she couldn't see Emeraldheart. But surprise lit the faces of the other medicine cat apprentices as well. Small cats with eyes stretched wide in shock scattered the clearing.
"Let's get this adventure started!"
What did you think? Was it a bit better? There was a lot of information I wanted to get in this chapter, so it wasn't the most exciting, but you got to meet one of the main characters! From now on, most of the chapters will share the POV of two or three different main characters, so review and maybe I'll get the next chapter up soon!