"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!"

Tigerclaw paused in the middle of his meal with Fireheart as the call from his Clan leader sounded from the top of the Highrock. He glanced around the camp in confusion for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on when he spotted Stormpaw standing proudly next to Dappletail. A spark of joy flared up in his chest as he finally realized what was happening. His daughter had passed her final assessment and would be joining him and her mother in the warriors' den. Judging by the pride glowing in Fireheart's eyes, the flame-colored molly knew what was about to happen as well.

"Come on, let's go," she meowed eagerly. "I want to see our daughter receive her warrior name."

"Of course," Tigerclaw purred.

He followed Fireheart as his mate walked over to sit in the front of the clearing next to Bluefur and Rosetail. A few tail-lengths away, Mosspaw, Mistypaw, and Stonepaw were looking at Stormpaw with awe in their eyes. It was obvious that they were happy for their denmate. Tigerclaw noticed, however, that Mosspaw's eyes held the smallest bit of sadness in them. He felt a twinge of sympathy. The two cats had spent nearly their entire lives together and they had become close. It must have been hard for Mosspaw to know that she would be without her best friend for at least another half a moon.

Bluefur apparently noticed as well, for she padded over to her daughter and murmured gently, "Don't worry, you'll be a warrior soon enough and then you'll get to share a den with Stormpaw again."

"Cats of ThunderClan, today is a day that marks a bright future for one of our apprentices," Sunstar began. "Stormpaw has successfully completed her training and will ascend to the rank of a warrior of ThunderClan."

Tigerclaw's heart swelled with pride at the joyous expression in the tortoiseshell molly's eyes. She gazed up at Sunstar with rapt attention, her legs trembling so much from the excitement that he was amazed she didn't topple over. Beside him, Fireheart purred softly, gazing at their only kit with all the motherly pride and love she had ever shown her.

"Stormpaw," Sunstar continued, looking down to meet the apprentice's eyes. "Do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do," Stormpaw meowed firmly. No one could doubt her conviction.

"Then by the power of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Stormpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Stormflare. StarClan honors your enthusiasm and your kindness and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan."

He leaped down from the Highrock and touched his muzzle to Stormflare's head. Stormflare licked his shoulder respectfully and stepped back, her head held high with delight.

"Stormflare! Stormflare!" Tigerclaw and Fireheart began cheering for their daughter.

"Stormflare!" Bluefur, Mosspaw, Mistypaw, and Stonepaw quickly took up the call.

As the rest of the Clan continued cheering Stormflare's new name, Tigerclaw approached the tortoiseshell warrior and touched his nose to her cheek. Stormflare purred happily and nudged her head against his shoulder, her green eyes glowing. Fireheart padded up beside them and licked her shoulder affectionately.

"Congratulations," she murmured. "We're so proud of you."

"Thanks, Fireheart," Stormflare meowed happily.

"Remember, you'll be sitting vigil tonight," Tigerclaw reminded her. "Keep silent until dawn unless there's an emergency. Then and only then are you allowed to speak in order to wake up the Clan."

"I know, Tigerclaw," Stormflare replied, nodding fervently. "I won't forget, I promise."

At that moment, Mosspaw, Mistypaw, and Stonepaw came racing over to Stormflare and practically pounced on their former denmate. She let out a yelp as they crashed into her, nearly knocking her off her paws. Laughing, she caught herself and allowed her friends to congratulate her.

"Congratulations, Stormflare!" Mosspaw meowed excitedly.

"Sunstar gave you the coolest name ever," Mistypaw added, her eyes wide. She looked at Bluefur. "Do you think Sunstar will give me a name like that when I become a warrior?"

"I'm sure he'll give you a perfectly nice name," Bluefur replied.

As the Clan began to disperse, Tigerclaw walked back over to the clump of ferns where the warriors shared their meals. Fireheart and Stormflare were already waiting for him with two mice and a rabbit to share between them. He sat down next to the flame-colored warrior and took a bite out of one of the mice, feeling her flick her tail against his ears warmly.

"Is it just me, or does fresh-kill taste even better when you share it with warriors?" Stormflare asked.

"Well, you wouldn't be the first cat to feel that way," Fireheart meowed.

When they had finished their meal, Bluefur padded over to join them. Tigerclaw glanced up at the deputy, waiting to hear what she needed from them.

"Tigerclaw, Fireheart," she greeted them. "When Stormflare gets ready for her vigil, I want you two to take the twilight patrol to Fourtrees. Whitestorm and Redtail reported yesterday that they caught some stale rogue or loner scent on our territory near that area and I need you two to check it out. I don't expect they're too much of a threat, but I'd rather we deal with them now."

"Of course," Fireheart meowed, dipping her head. "We'll sort it out if there's any trouble."

Bluefur nodded and padded over to the other side of the camp to speak to Sunstar. Out of the corner of his eye, Tigerclaw noticed that Fireheart had a strange, slightly tense expression on her face. Puzzled, he nudged her shoulder gently, turning her attention onto him.

"Is everything alright?" he asked in concern.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Fireheart meowed quickly. She shook her head. "I was just wondering if maybe, perhaps, the loners Whitestorm and Redtail scented at Fourtrees could be...you know...them?"

Tigerclaw understood immediately. Several seasons had passed since Fireheart had last seen her littermates that day by the Twolegplace border and there hadn't been any sign of them since. She had never been particularly bothered by this, always maintaining her belief that Socks and Ruby would be picked up by a sympathetic Twoleg eventually, but Tigerclaw knew that she didn't like the idea of another surprise encounter with them.

"Who are you talking about?" Stormflare asked curiously. Fireheart had never talked about her brother and sister with her before.

"Nobody important, sweetheart. Just my littermates," Fireheart meowed dismissively.

"Your littermates?" the tortoiseshell warrior repeated, her eyes wide. "I didn't know you had siblings. Can I meet them?"

"You don't want to meet them, Stormflare. They don't like Clan cats and they're not exactly pleasant to be around," Fireheart told her. "Besides, I don't know where they are right now. The last time I saw them, they were living as loners. For all we know, they could be anywhere in the world right now."

"Oh, okay," Stormflare agreed with a nod. Clearly, she wasn't too upset about not getting to meet her mother's littermates.

Later that evening, Stormflare settled down in the middle of the camp for her vigil as Tigerclaw and Fireheart left for their patrol. Fireheart suggested bringing along Whitestorm since he had been one of the cats to scent the rogues. Tigerclaw saw the sense in her thinking, so he invited the white warrior to accompany them. Once everyone was ready, the three warriors departed the camp and headed off in the direction of Fourtrees.

"So where did you find the scent?" Fireheart asked once they were nearly at Fourtrees, glancing over at Whitestorm.

"Just on our side of the border," Whitestorm answered. "Near the stream that we cross to get to the Gathering."

Fireheart nodded and Tigerclaw followed her as she turned towards the stream. As they continued along their path, a strange scent filled his nostrils. The scent was that of a rogue or a loner and from what he could tell, there were at least two of them present, both of them mollies. It was strong and fresh, meaning they had to be close by. However, Tigerclaw was puzzled to note that although the rogue or loner was clearly still present, he couldn't see any sign of her anywhere.

"Do you see anything?" Whitestorm asked.

"Not yet," Tigerclaw meowed, still trying to spot where the rogues were.

"That's weird," the white tom commented. "The scent is still fresh and it's strongest right around here, so they have to be here somewhere."

Suddenly, Fireheart pricked her ears. "Wait. Do you hear that?" she whispered.

Tigerclaw strained his ears, trying to pick up on what the flame-colored warrior had heard. A few heartbeats later, he heard it. Coming from somewhere in the bushes was the sound of a kitten mewling in distress.

"It's coming from over there," he meowed, pointing to the left with his tail.

Without hesitating, Fireheart bounded over in the direction he had pointed in and started sifting through a thick bush. Not even a heartbeat later, she let out an exclamation of shock and stumbled back. Tigerclaw watched as the flame-pelted molly's eyes widened in disbelief, feeling a stab of worry. Without waiting for her to speak, he raced over to her side and peered down into the parted foliage. The sight that greeted him sent a jolt through his chest so powerful he was amazed he didn't fall over.

Curled up just under the bush, mewling and crying out in hunger, were two ginger tabby kits.

Fireheart and Tigerclaw are about to adopt two more kits. Yay for babies! And Stormflare is now a warrior, so double yay!

Speaking of kits, there's one topic I need to address. Due to some plot changes I've made to the story, I won't be able to use all of the kit names I had planned for Fireheart and Tigerclaw's children since there just won't be enough time. And besides...I really don't want to have too many nursery arcs.

Therefore, I'll be using Petalkit and Beekit for the two rogue kits and she and Tigerclaw will have one more litter with two kits. The options for names for their second litter are as follows.

1. Flykit

2. Scorchkit

3. Daisykit

4. Briarkit

The two names that receive the most votes will be the ones that get chosen. There will be one molly and one tom in the litter. Someone in the reviews for the last name vote mentioned that they prefer to choose names based on appearance, so the molly will be a solid black kit and the tom's ears will be too big for his head and his head will be too big for his body, so he will think he's a chihuahua.

Just kidding, he's going to be a Quince clone.

(Also, please tell me that someone got that reference.)

Responses to a few reviews:

KrazyKube and Kitty-Guardian Hootryd: Since I'm responding to the same part in your reviews, I'm writing one reply for both of you. You're right, Fireheart will not become ThunderClan's deputy or leader in this fanfic since pretty much every single AU out there aside from medicine cat Fire fanfics have him becoming leader eventually. Besides, in canon, he never actually WANTED to be a leader or deputy and instead had the position dumped on him like the worst surprise gift ever. So in this universe, Fireheart gets to happily serve her Clan as a regular warrior instead of being forced into a leadership position at a ridiculously young age.

On another note, since there's no "Fire will save the Clan" prophecy (actually, there aren't really any prophecies aside from the one Goosefeather received that resulted in Moonflower's death but that took place well before the events of the story), while Tiny/Scourge will eventually make an appearance, he will not be joining ThunderClan. I really don't like prophecies since they're poorly written at best and I just find it easier to work without them.

tristanwaltz1: Yes, they'll both be in the story :).

wildtrance: I'm glad you enjoyed it! They're still very much attached to their parents even though they've left the nursery.

Thanks for reading!

-TheShadowedWarrior