Ashenkit watched as, when the moon was starting to disappear in the sky, the deputy padded into camp with her cats behind her. They were battered, with blood on their fur and looked exhausted, but they all wore smiles on their faces. Wildstar jumped down from the Winding Stone, where she was keeping watch, and padded into the group of warriors as Mousetalon rushed into his den. First, she padded up to Lionsplash and shared a few words with him. He nodded, letting out a purr. Wildstar was emotionless as she turned tail and weaved through the cats, stopping in front of Tundrawind. The two spoke for a few heartbeats, before the light-pelted tom nodded just as enthusiastically as his counterpart. Wildstar turned and went back to the Winding Stone, leaping on top of it.

She didn't bother calling her cats together, since they were all sitting in the clearing. "Two apprentices fought well today," she began. Ashenkit tossed an excited look over to Amberkit. The six kits were still sitting at the entrance to the Nursery: as soon as the Queens had heard that LightClan might attack camp they didn't let the kits set a paw outside of the den. Amberkit was looking just as excited as she was. "Duskpaw, Streampaw, come forward." The two apprentices didn't hesitate in weaving their way through the injured cats and stopping in front of the Winding Stone.

Wildstar turned her head to the sky, where the first stars were just starting to disappear. "I, Wildstar, Leader of DarkClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these apprentices. They have trained hard to understand your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn." The dark-pelted leader turned her blue eyes to the two apprentices below her. "Duskpaw, do you promise to live in and like the shadows, to protect the legacy of our darkness and give up your life for it if needed?"

"I do," Duskpaw meowed.

"And Streampaw," Wildstar meowed. "Do you promise to live in and like the Leaf Bare dark, to protect the legacy of our darkness through Leaf Bare and give up your life for it if needed?"

"I do," Streampaw meowed.

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior names. Duskpaw, from this moment on, you shall be known as Duskecho. StarClan honors your courage and intellect, and we welcome you as a full warrior of DarkClan." Wildstar leapt down from the Winding Stone and set her head on Duskecho's head, the newly named warrior licking her shoulder in return.

"Streampaw, from this moment on, you shall be known as Streampath. Starclan honors your subtlety and strength, and we welcome you as a full warrior of DarkClan." The two cats repeated the actions that Wildstar had done with Duskecho.

"Duskecho! Streampath! Duskecho! Streampath!"

The kits happily joined in with the cheering, jumping to their paws. Mousetalon, who had come out of his den as Wildstar started the ceremony, padded up to the new warriors and started working on their wounds.

"Well, go on, off to bed," Hazelgaze meowed.

"But we want to go congratulate Duskecho and Streampath!" Amberkit meowed.

"You can do that in the morning, but for now you need some sleep," Honeyfall meowed, nudging her kits towards their nest. Hazelgaze followed in her pawsteps. Ashenkit curled up next to the warm pelts of Amberkit and Ripplekit. She closed her eyes and feel asleep.

X X X X

Ashenkit leapt at her brother, who was staring into space. She easily brought Ripplekit to the ground, and the two rolled in the dirt for a few heartbeats before the mostly dark-pelted she-kit had her brother pinned. "C'mon, Ripplekit!" Ashenkit complained. "You barely even fought back!"

"I don't get why I should," Ripplekit complained. Ashenkit blinked in surprised. "All that fights bring are injuries. If we were still NatureClan…"

"Then we'd still need warriors," Ashenkit argued. "I heard Kinkpaw and Nettlepaw talking about how they were scenting fox on the territory last moonrise."

"But there would be less fighting."

"But without Dark and Light, we wouldn't be here."

"I'd rather have less fighting than…" Ripplekit trailed off, and Ashenkit's eyes widened. She was proud to be DarkClan, and couldn't imagine any other life for herself. It was like Echocliff had told her before: she was a proud, dark-pelted cat who would live a great, happy life.

"So you really do want to be a Medicine Cat," Ashenkit meowed, getting off of her brother. The tom nodded, getting onto his paws and shaking out his fur, trying to get out the dirt clinging to it. Her sister, on the other paw, didn't mind.

"Yeah," Ripplekit meowed. "But based on how Hazelgaze looks at you and Amberkit when you're play fighting, I don't think that it'll be received very well."

"Well, I, uh…" Ashenkit didn't have a response. It was one thing to realize it, but when she already knew and was worried for her brother, and Ripplekit was worried, too? How was she supposed to respond? She gulped. "If you want… I can be there with you when you tell her."

Ripplekit's ears perked. "Really?" she nodded, and a heartbeat later her ears were filled with the sound of him purring. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Okay, okay, calm down," Ashenkit meowed. Ripplekit nodded, going to grooming his dark pelt, as if he needed to do something to keep himself busy. "When do you want to tell her?"

The dark-pelted tom hesitated. "When we're half a moon away from starting our apprenticeship." The she-kit nodded in agreement. The tom stood and started to pad away before Ashenkit stopped him.

"Ripplekit?" she asked. He turned his head over his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"What if Hazelgaze doesn't let you be Mousetalon's apprentice?" he stiffened before he answered.

"I guess we'll figure that out if it gets there."