Shrewpaw hesitated before padding into Firestar's den. This was it; the time had finally come when the clan leader would announce whether or not he and Swiftpaw would stay in ThunderClan. Shrewpaw was nervous, however. A large part of him feared rejection from the flame colored tom.
"Get on with it!" Cloudtail, standing behind Swiftpaw who was next to the brown tom, growled.
"It'll be alright, Shrewpaw." Swiftpaw lowered his mew so that Shrewpaw struggled to hear him. "Light wouldn't have sent us down here if she didn't believe Firestar would accept us. Anyway, he accepted Daisy, and she's the most pathetic cat in all of existence. We'll be fine. Sootfur's our father, remember?" He smiled with confidence and disappeared into the den.
As Shrewpaw trailed behind his companion, his anxiety increased to the point where he wondered if the life of a rogue would be so bad. What if they did get accepted, and someone found out about them? What if they couldn't stop Tigerstar and Hawkfrost? What if Light or StarClan took them back? What if-
His pessimistic thoughts were interrupted by Firestar's strong meow. The leader was lying on his nest; Brambleclaw, Sandstorm, and Graystripe were with him. "Greetings, Shrew and Swift. Cloudtail, thank you for retrieving them. You may go." The white warrior dipped his head and turned towards the exit, yet the last longing glance he sent the den told Shrewpaw that he wanted to stay and hear what was going to happen.
After his nephew left, Firestar continued. "When I was still the young deputy of ThunderClan, we had an apprentice who thought he was mistreated by not receiving his warrior name. He took Brightheart- Brightpaw at the time, and she's Cloudtail's mate now- and they launched an attack on the dog pack living at Snakerocks…" His green eyes clouded as if Swiftpaw's dead body was once again at his paws. "He was killed."
"Why are you telling us this?" Swiftpaw glanced away from the cats in front of him. The early morning sunshine brought a dim light into the den, illuminating the scars on Longtail's former apprentice.
Sandstorm spoke this time. "My daughter had a friend in the old forest where we used to live. Twolegs were destroying our home; as you can imagine, prey was very scarce. Thornclaw took his apprentice hunting, and my daughter's friend was killed by a Twoleg monster."
Heart pounding, Shrewpaw felt as if he could once again feel the pain shoot through his body. His neck wound began to throb.
"Why are you telling us this?" Swiftpaw repeated himself and stared into Firestar's eyes.
"Because," the tom replied, "those cats were named Swiftpaw and Shrewpaw."
Shrewpaw did his best to hide his neck wound and look surprised. It was difficult since he had actually lived through one of the scenarios they had described. Glancing to his left, he could see Swiftpaw trying the same; it was harder for him to hide his wounds.
Brambleclaw muttered something under his breath. It was clear that he noticed their lack of shock; Firestar and Sandstorm were fooled by the acting.
"What happened to you two?" Tigerstar's son padded up to them and nosed Swiftpaw's scarred pelt along with Shrewpaw's messed up neck.
"I'd rather not talk about it," whispered Swiftpaw. He dramatically dropped his tail to the ground and clamped his eyes shut. "Bad memories."
You've got that right. Shrewpaw attempted to change the subject. "Does this mean we aren't going to be able to join ThunderClan?"
"Great StarClan, no! Of course you can stay; we'd never reject Sootfur's kin. The ceremony will be held shortly. I need to speak with Sandstorm and Brambleclaw about mentors."
Shrewpaw's heart soared. He was going to finish his training! "Thank you so much!"
Sandstorm purred in amusement. "Why don't the pair of you go and meet the other apprentices?"
"Great idea!" Bounding out of the den with Swiftpaw at his heels, Shrewpaw felt as if he was a kit fresh out of the nursery once again. The tom felt like he could jump down from Firestar's den and fly. His good mood was ruined, however, the moment he turned and fell right on top of Jaypaw.
"Hey, watch it!" The prickly tom snarled and jumped to his feet. "Well, well, well. It's Shrewpaw. Or are you still hiding behind the name of Shrew?"
"Mousebrain! You told him about us?!" Swiftpaw lashed his tail and hissed; Shrewpaw thought he'd pounce on him.
"No. You clearly forgot that Jaypaw is one of the cats with the power of the stars in his paws." Shrewpaw lowered his voice. No cat was nearby, but the risk was too great to be taken.
Swiftpaw nodded and didn't speak, so Jaypaw continued. "The both of you are fools. This isn't your time to live. You had your chance and missed it. Swiftpaw, you should've worked harder to impress Bluestar in a way that wouldn't have threatened your life. Shrewpaw, you shouldn't have been spacing worse than a Twoleg spotting us run by." He snorted. "Now you've thrown the entire forest into jeopardy just because you thought StarClan was unfair to you two. Guess what, Selfishpaws? You died. Deal with it."
Swiftpaw growled. "You don't get it, Jaypaw! You'll never understand the crap I've been through, so shut up and get your facts straight first. I highly suggest you get these," he spat at the juniper berries now scattered around them from the collision, barely missing them, "to Leafpool before I rip all of your fur off!"
They had gathered an audience from Swiftpaw's rant; to Shrewpaw's relief, none of them questioned how they knew Leafpool.
"What's going on?"
"Settle down, all of you!"
"It seems like Firestar's making a mistake. Swift is pretty violent."
No! "Stop it, Swiftp- I mean, you two! You're going to be clanmates after the ceremony, so stop fighting!" He was just as angry as Swiftpaw was, but there was no reason to skin Jaypaw because of it. That would make things worse, and they didn't need worse. Shrewpaw padded in front of Swiftpaw; he cut off the tom's sight of Jaypaw.
Swiftpaw hissed. "Out of my way! I swear I'll-"
"You'll what? Ruin everything we've been through because you can't hold back your anger?"
"You're just going to accept what he said?! What's wrong with you? He openly mocked us and said that we're the lowest of lows, but you think that's okay?"
"Of course I don't!" Shrewpaw cursed under his breath. Jaypaw was sitting back with a smirk plastered on his face, and Shrewpaw would've liked to have flayed him then, but what caught his attention was Firestar padding out of his den. He would see the crowd; Shrewpaw prayed that he could at least make Swiftpaw settle down. "Look. Not everyone is going to accept us…" He hissed under his voice. "Think about Light. We proved ourselves to her; we can do it again."
"I don't need to prove myself to anyone! You shouldn't either!"
"Things don't work that way!" The brown tom scraped the ground with a front paw.
Swiftpaw arched his back, lashed his tail, and narrowed his eyes at Shrewpaw and Jaypaw threatingly. "Oh, foxdung!" He whirled around and pushed his way past Honeypaw and Cinderpaw. The two she-cats were staring at Shrewpaw and Jaypaw with open shock.
"Wait! Swiftp-uh, stop!" Shrewpaw followed his friend, but the tom just glared at him and settled down outside of the apprentices' den.
The crowd began to break up; it was soon revealed that Firestar was the reason. The ThunderClan leader was standing next to Jaypaw, and he frowned as the medicine cat apprentice wouldn't speak.
"Shrew! Come over here." The brown tom, heart thudding like a startled bird, slowly made his way over to Firestar. "What happened? What is wrong with your brother?"
"He, well, got into a fight with Jaypaw. I tried to calm him down, but he ended up yelling at me as well…"
"I could see that for myself." Firestar's whiskers twitched. "What was it about? Jaypaw, what did you say to him?"
Please, Jaypaw, please don't give us away! "I…" The gray tom frowned. He glanced around, seemed satisfied, then spoke. "I told Swiftpaw that he didn't stand a chance with Hollypaw." Shrewpaw held back a thankful and shocked cry. "Shrew backed me up, right Shrew?"
"Eh? Uh, yeah! I mean, Hollypaw? Come on." He grunted.
Firestar narrowed his eyes, shrugged, and glanced up to the Highledge. "It's time. Shrew, get your brother and come with me. We should have your apprentice ceremony now."
Questions for those of you good with family trees!
a) Are Cinderpaw and Poppypaw related? I know Sootfur and Sorreltail were littermates, so that makes Cinderpaw and possibly Poppypaw cousins to Shrewpaw and Swiftpaw since they lied about Sootfur, correct?
b) Okay, so I've been informed that Swiftpaw is Goldenflower's kit. Who is the father? Does it say?
Wow. Looking back, Swiftpaw is really emo. I'm so sorry, Swiftpaw fans.
