Fight scenes are a pain. I apologize in advance.

Delilah slept the rest of the night, but woke up her usual time in the morning. Rusty was still curled up and snoozing, and Delilah decided to let him sleep. She'd come back to him later, after saying her own goodbyes. She ignored the bowls of food and water and made her way outside. The sun was already warming the air, and she took a moment to bask in it before turning her back on the forest and starting her journey farther into town.

She passed quite a few houses before stopping in front of an alleyway. She pricked her ears to listen, and heard the sounds of pawsteps further in the darkness. A smirk passed her muzzle, and Delilah sunk into a crouch before stalking her way towards them. The darkness swallowed her up, but she wasn't worried. If anything, she welcomed it.

The pawsteps disappeared with no warning. Delilah froze, barely daring to breathe, and a cat leaped onto her from its hiding place. Delilah hissed and twisted around, throwing the cat off her. They landed with an 'oomph' and Delilah pounced, landing squarely on their shoulders. The pair wrestled and growled before separating, ending their spat as quickly as it started.

A cut on her cheek stung, but Delilah gave no hint it bothered her. Out here, any weakness shown would be taken advantage of, even by the cats she called her friends. "Quick as ever, Asha." she meowed with a twitch of her whiskers.

The cat in front of her was a few moons her elder, being a full year old to Delilah's six. She was thin, bordering on malnourished, but there was strength in that slender frame of hers. She was pretty too, with light gray fur that turned silver in the right light, and thick tabby stripes and spots on her legs. Green eyes glittered, and a pink tongue swiped around a white muzzle. "You almost got me that time. Still unsheathed your claws too early though. I heard them clacking on the asphalt."

Delilah cursed and glared at her paws, as if blaming them for their betrayal. "That was my last chance, too." she grumbled under her breath.

Asha, who'd gone to casually looking over her own paws, whipped her head up to glare at her. "What do you mean your last chance? Are your twolegs leaving? I know you aren't letting them take you to the vet. You have too much fight in you to let yourself get fat and lazy like all those other kittypets, and you're far too devoted to your brother to leave him for too long."

Delilah huffed. Nobody could say Asha didn't know her. "You know those Clan cats that live in the woods?" Asha nodded with her eyes narrowing. "They've invited Rusty and I to live with them. You know how he is with the forest. He's joining them at noon, and I'm going with. Part of their stipulation was that if we join the Clan, we stay with the Clan. Meaning this is probably going to be the last time we see each other."

Asha didn't answer for a long time. Or it felt like a long time. She stared at Delilah, not letting her thoughts show. Delilah didn't let it bother her. Asha would speak when she was ready. Finally, the older she-cat meowed, "Are you sure? You've heard the stories. They're greedy, and ruthless, and cruel, and there are dangers in the forest you can't possibly imagine. Are you prepared to fight their battles for them? To lay down your life for cats who would abandon you as soon as you're not useful anymore?"

Her words stung, and Delilah flattened her ears. "That sounds more like life here than in there. Tell me Asha, if you hadn't seen something in me that first day we met, would we be having this conversation? If I was as weak and useless as the average kittypet, would you have given me a second glance?"

She wouldn't have. Delilah knew that without even thinking about it. Asha knew it too, if the frown on her face was any indication. "Fine. But if you're going out there, there's no way I'm letting you go without being certain you can take care of yourself." She rose from her sitting position, and a prickle of fear crept down Delilah's spine at the look in her eye. "Defend yourself!" And she leaped forward with claws unsheathed.

Delilah reacted on pure instinct. She rose up on her hindpaws to meet her, a snarl on her muzzle like she was fighting for her life. And in a way, she was. Asha might have been older and had more experience, but Delilah had weight on her side. She caught Asha in her paws and allowed herself to fall to the floor, but got her hindpaws in front of her and under her opponent. She pummeled her paws into Asha's stomach, tearing away tufts of fur.

Asha snarled and clamped her teeth on Delilah's ear, sending fiery pain through her body. Delilah screeched and kicked upwards with her hindpaws, sending Asha flying as far as Delilah could send her. She stood as fast as she could, breathing heavily. Blood dribbled down her newly ripped ear, and Delilah knew it would scar. She yowled in fury and sprinted towards Asha, who met her with a hiss.

They boxed back and forth, claws ripping and tearing into fur and flesh. Asha caught Delilah on the face, slicing across the bridge of her nose, and Delilah responded with an upward strike to her nose with as much power as she could put in it in hopes of dazing her. It worked. Asha backed up, blinking and shaking her head to clear the stars, and Delilah saw her chance to end it.

Once more she tackled Asha, and they rolled once, twice, before Delilah ended up pinning Asha down with an unsheathed paw at her neck. "Yield." She demanded, pressing her claws against the unprotected skin just enough to threaten.

Asha glared up at her before sighing and going limp. "I yield." Delilah released her and backed away, keeping her claws out in case it was a trick. The two she-cats panted in silence, letting the adrenaline run it's course. Asha was the first one to speak up. "Good fight. I've taught you well." Despite the fact that they'd pretty much just been trying to kill each other, Delilah glowed with pride. "Let's get something on those wounds of yours before you leave. Your new friends might not take kindly to you using their supplies already."

The thought hadn't even occurred to Delilah, and she followed Asha wordlessly to a yard that had a fountain in it. Asha dipped her paw into the water and used it to clear away the worst of the blood. "Don't wash it all away." Delilah suddenly said. "The Clans think about as much of kittypets as you do. I need some way to get them to take me seriously, and what better way is there than to show them I can fight just as well as they can?"

Asha hummed in understanding and continued attempting to clean Delilah off. They sat in quiet once more, and once more Asha was the one to break it. She spoke quietly, as if not really wanting to say it. "For what it's worth… I will miss you." Delilah didn't answer, but purred instead and nuzzled her gently. "Okay, done."

Delilah looked into her reflection. Unlike Rusty, she wasn't completely orange. The top half of her face was ginger, and three small ginger spots were on her muzzle, just above her mouth. The rest of her face was white, and that white expanded down to her throat and chest. Three of her paws were white as well. She also didn't wear a collar. Her housefolk had tried, but Delilah kept getting rid of them, so eventually they'd given up on it.

The fight had left her with wounds that would scar, but she wasn't worried. Looks weren't important, so long as she could fight. Her ear was torn at the top, missing a good chunk, and her shoulders and chest were cut as well. None of them were bleeding anymore, but there was just enough pink around them to suggest they'd only just stopped. It was exactly what she'd wanted. "Perfect." she purred.

She glanced up at the sky to check the position of the sun. She still had a bit of time. "Come on, let's go visit the others. I want to say goodbye to them too." Asha nodded and led the way. The rest of the time Delilah had left was spent visiting friends and causing trouble for any passing twoleg. It was always fun to weave between their legs when they weren't expecting it to make them stumble.

At one point one of her wounds opened up again. It wasn't a bad one, but it was enough to make the smell of blood noticeable. Delilah would have licked it clean again but Asha was quick to point out the time. Delilah snapped her head up to look at the sun again. She was almost late! "Oh crap!" She leaped to her paws and touched noses with Asha. "I've gotta go, I'm late. Thank you for everything Asha, you've been the best friend and teacher I could have asked for. I'll never forget you. I have to go though. Bye!"

She hared away, hearing Asha's farewell from behind her. Her paws thrummed on the asphalt, making the pads of them smart, but she couldn't slow down. She got to the place that was her yard and swore she heard Smudge calling after her, but even if she hadn't been late she probably would have ignored him.

Finally Delilah paused, panting, just beyond where she and Rusty had had their encounter. Up ahead, she could hear the deep rumble of Lionheart's voice. "Where's your sister? I told you, it would be either both or neither."

Rusty was quick to attempt to reassure him, though his own uncertainty bled through his voice. "She'll be here, I promise! I don't know where she's gone, she wasn't there when I woke up earlier-"

But an unfamiliar voice cut him off, and the alarm in it caused the tension in the air to double. "Wait. I smell blood."

Her breath steadied, Delilah called out, "Yeah, that'd be me." She pushed her way through the foliage to enter the clearing. There was a white tom there, as big as Lionheart, and Delilah narrowed her eyes at him. "I thought only Lionheart was escorting us. Unless the big bad warrior thinks he couldn't handle two itty bitty kittypets?"

Both warriors started bristling. Lionheart jerked his head in Delilah's direction and growled, "See what I meant? Zero discipline, zero respect." The white tom muttered something Delilah couldn't hear, but it made Lionheart snort before addressing her directly. "This is Whitestorm, a senior warrior alongside myself. He came only to meet you two and judge you himself." Delilah gave a sarcastic smile that only a fool would think genuine, and the gesture caused the cut on her nose to stretch. She winced at the sting and licked a paw to wipe off the bead of blood.

Rusty frowned at her, eyes flicking around to take stock of each cut. "What happened to you? Asha again?" Delilah nodded but didn't speak. She knew how he felt about her friend. Rusty scowled at her. "Why do you hang out with her when every time leads to you getting hurt?"

She scowled back and added a glare for good measure. "Because she makes me a better fighter. The better I am at fighting, the better I can protect you."

He flattened his ears and narrowed his eyes until all Delilah saw was slits of green. "I don't always need you to protect me, you know. Just because you're the better fighter doesn't mean I'm afraid to use my claws."

She growled and was about to retort that he shouldn't have to use his claws when Lionheart broke in with a twitch of his tail. "As fascinating as this discussion is, we're wasting daylight. Come."

Aaaaand more running. Delilah sprinted after them with Rusty at her side. She kept her eyes on Whitestorm, knowing he would be the easiest to spot if she wound up losing them. And it was a possibility. She and Rusty were smaller, with shorter legs, yet neither warrior seemed to care. They leaped over logs with a single bound while the two siblings had to climb over with an undignified scramble.

At one point there was a gully in the ground that was too wide to jump over. A stream of water was swirling and churning. The warriors waded through it like it was nothing. Disgust curled Delilah's lip and she shuddered. It was a feeling Rusty obviously shared, but he trooped forth with a stubborn tilt to his head.

Welp. Guess she had no choice. Delilah followed him through the water, and she had to hold her head up higher to avoid getting splashed by the current. She hated being so small. It wasn't even like she was abnormally small. Plenty of kits her age were this size. She'd grow eventually. But her growth spurt could not come soon enough.

Eventually they stopped. Rusty and Delilah paused behind them, and for all her boasting about her physical fitness, Delilah was panting just as hard as Rusty was. Lionheart and Whitestorm were watching them, each sitting on a stone that sat on top of an out of place ravine. "We are very close to our camp now." Lionheart meowed.

Delilah could see Rusty glancing around, attempting to see anything that suggested cats nearby. She had no idea what he was expecting though. She could see Whitestorm getting impatient, so she wordlessly flicked her tail under Rusty's nose, hinting to him what to do. He got it and smelled the air. "I smell cats."

Lionheart and Whitestorm exchanged amused looks. But instead of leading the way into camp, they looked at her. "And you, young Delilah? What do you smell?"

Delilah closed her eyes to better concentrate on her nose. She took a deep breath and took a moment to attempt to sort them. There were many cats, exactly like Rusty said, but Delilah took it a step further. "Bluestar and Graypaw haven't been by today… But other cats have. Maybe… three? I think?"

At best, it was an educated guess. The smells of the cats right in front of her were muddling her senses, but she THOUGHT there were three fresher ones underneath it. She couldn't tell which direction it was going though.

Either way, it was enough for the two of them to exchange surprises looks. "Indeed. That would be our sunhigh patrol." Lionheart meowed. "There will come a time when the both of you will be able to name these cats by scent alone. If you are accepted into the Clan."

… If? If?! Were they telling her that after all of this, there was STILL a chance they wouldn't be taken in?! Because if that was true then Delilah would set the whole place on fire. Somehow. She'd find a way!

Lionheart turned and made his way down the ravine. Rusty followed him and Whitestorm gestured for Delilah go after. She glowered at him but acquiesced, descending the ravine carefully.

The gorse of the barrier prickled along her sides, but what was on the other side was well worth it. An earthen floor that had once obviously been a stream was now packed tightly to the ground from seasons upon seasons of paws walking on it. Bushes of ferns and gorse were intersected with tussocks of long grass and tree stumps. A fallen tree lay on one side of the ravine, in front of which a small group of old cats were gathered.

The true marvel was a seemingly obsequious pile of rocks in the middle of the camp. There was a single large one in the center of it that a bunch of other, smaller rocks were leaning on, but the bigger one was definitely the centerpiece of it. There shouldn't have been any reason it grabbed Delilah's attention like it had, but it did.

Cats had noticed the newcomers in their home. Delilah twitched her ears to catch some of the murmurs that were making their way around the camp. Some of them questioned who they were, and a few of them brought up the scratches and blood on her, wondering if they'd captured her at the border. A small smirk crossed her muzzle, one which she worked to hide. Clearly Bluestar hadn't shared her plans to allow the kittypets to join.

Lionheart pointed out the nursery to them, stating how the care of the kits was a duty shared by all the queens of the Clan. Would that be expected of her as well? Delilah flattened her ears and eyed him suspiciously. "Now when you say ALL of the queens…"

Whitestorm chuffed in laughter and spoke in a reassuring voice. "Perhaps not the best phrasing. When he says all queens, Lionheart only means the ones that WANT to have or care for them. Not every she-cat ends up having kits, and that is perfectly fine." Delilah couldn't hide her relief as well as she could a smirk. Whitestorm blinked and tilted his head at her in what she could only guess was curiosity. "Do you not want children of your own someday?" he asked.

Feeling self conscious, Delilah could only shrug. "It's not so much the kits that bother me so much as the…" She wrinkled her nose, waving her paw in the air as if urging the correct word to appear in her mind. "I guess you can say the monotony of it. I'm not the kind of cat you'd want to stick in one place or I'd go stir-crazy. If I can't be out there, then what's the point of me being here?"

The two warriors hummed and exchanged glances that once again Delilah couldn't read. It was getting really annoying. But they didn't continue the conversation, and for that Delilah was grateful. "Bluestar is coming." Lionheart informed them, and Delilah got a kick out of Rusty hastily smelling the air and seeming pleased with himself with the gray she-cat appeared from behind the pile of rocks. Was there a den back there?

Bluestar padded towards the group with a relieved look on her face. Rather than address the two kittypets, she spoke instead to her warriors. "They came." she purred. Had she doubted them? She faltered momentarily at the blood scent on Delilah. "You're hurt."

Delilah gave a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes. "It's like you guys have never seen blood before." she grumbled in annoyance. "Yes, I'm hurt. I got into a fight with a friend that said she wouldn't let me go unless I could defend myself. And as you can see," she sat back on her hind quarters to spread her forelegs and bring even more attention on her minor wounds, "I defended myself." She righted herself and rolled her shoulders, working the muscles loose. "I already washed them off, if you're concerned about that."

Bluestar hummed and stared before disregarding her and looking instead at Whitestorm. "Well? What do you think?"

The white warrior looked at the two kittypets and nodded slowly, as if it pained him to admit it. "They kept up well, despite their puny size… And despite Delilah's attitude problems, she does seem strong." She straightened up at that, only to hiss when he went on. "We did go through that gully with the water though. You know the one. She should see Spottedleaf later to get something on them to avoid infection."

The whole point of her washing off the cuts was so they WOULDN'T waste their time on her! She started to protest but Bluestar steamrolled right over her, like she hadn't even spoken. "It's agreed then?" They both nodded, Whitestorm more decisively than he had earlier. Bluestar seemed pleased. "Then I shall announce their arrival to the Clan." She turned and took three bounds to the top of the largest boulder. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather here beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!"

Whitestorm and Lionheart nudged the two up to the smaller bundle of rocks to the side. Rusty climbed his way to the one slightly below the one Delilah chose while the warriors sat on the ground in front of them. Their towering height made it so their heads were all level. Bluestar's call was loud and clear, bringing more cats than Delilah had ever seen to crowd around the bottom. There were tabbies and tortoiseshells, black cats and white cats, and long pelts as well as short pelts.

She even spotted Graypaw mixed with the crowd, sitting next to a pretty tortoiseshell she-cat. She looked young too, only a bit older than Graypaw. Was she an apprentice as well? And behind them was a gray tabby tom, larger in size than both of them. His stripes were black as shadows, and his eyes held an unfriendly glint to them. Perhaps it was premature of her, but Delilah decided right away she didn't like him.

Her eyes flicked about the crowd, picking out certain cats here and there. Some cats met her gaze curiously, while others glared. Some even ignored her, turning their heads to speak to the cat next to them. A ginger she-cat sat near the pile of brambles Lionheart had pointed out as the nursery, and she met Delilah's eyes with a wary, yet curious light to them. Next to her was a beautiful pure white she-cat with blue eyes, who was whispering to the queen next to her and remained unaware that Delilah was looking at her.

They all fell silent when Bluestar spoke though, and Delilah was amazed at the power she had over these cats. Their respect of her was as obvious as the full moon on a clear night. "ThunderClan needs more warriors. Never before has there been so few apprentices in training. It has been decided that ThunderClan will take in two outsiders to train as warriors…"

ThunderClan didn't seem to like that. There were whispers about now, and Delilah pricked her ears to try and hear them. But they were too low and indistinct for her to pick out individual words, and she stopped trying with a scowl that bordered on a pout. Bluestar went on, ignoring the whispers. "I have found two cats that are willing to become apprentices."

"Lucky to become apprentices!" a voice yowled from the crowd. It was easy to hear, as the shock had silenced any cats that might have spoken up.

Immediately Delilah was on her paws, bristling. "You'd be lucky to have us!" she shot back. She could see Rusty craning his head to spot the outcrier, but Delilah didn't bother. He'd reveal himself eventually. Lionheart hissed at her to sit down. She did so reluctantly, but glowered out at the crowd to show she was not. Happy.

Bluestar ignored the both of them and continued on. "Lionheart and Whitestorm have met them both and have agreed with me that we should train them both alongside our apprentices."

Now everybody's attention turned to them. Delilah could feel their gazes on her pelt, examining her cuts and scars, but she raised her chin high. She wouldn't cower before these Clan cats like the kittypet they all thought she was. But it was clear Rusty wasn't feeling her confidence. She heard him swallow nervously, and shifted just slightly so her paw brushed his fur. She was exactly where she should be, watching his back. His shivering faded, but only just.

Now the caterwauling started, cats throwing questions left and right. "Where do they come from?" "Where did she get those wounds?" "What a strange scent they carry! It's not the scent of any Clan I know!" Did they expect that Bluestar would recruit cats from the other Clans? If so these Clan cats were dumber than Delilah thought.

That same voice from earlier rose up above the wailing. "Look at his collar! He's a kittypet! This Clan needs wildborn warriors to defend it, not another soft mouth to feed." There was murmuring in agreement and Delilah growled at them all. "As for the she-cat? Look at those scars! It's clear she's a rogue. What rogue could possibly learn our ways? All they know is greed and they're only loyal to themselves."

Once again Delilah leaped to her paws and yowled for all to hear, "You know, it's funny you say that! This morning a friend told me the exact same thing about Clan cats. What makes you so different from me, huh? From us?!" She heard Lionheart whisper to Rusty, telling him the cat was named Longtail, but Delilah ignored them, choosing to continue antagonizing Longtail into outing himself. "Newsflash, fleabag, this is my brother. I'm a kittypet too. But my claws are just as sharp as yours and I'm willing to prove it! Come and face me, you coward! If you think you're so high and mighty, get out here and prove it!"

She dropped into a crouch and drew her lips back, waiting for some dramatic parting of the crowd to reveal her opponent. But nobody moved, and all eyes remained on her. Nobody was even paying attention to Rusty, who Delilah could sense looking swiftly through the crowd. "Oh well that changes everything! Two kittypets for the price of one!" Were the circumstances any different, Delilah would have appreciated the heavy sarcasm. "Do you see this? Says she's a kittypet, acts like a rogue. How could we ever trust her?"

There were yowls of agreement. Delilah hissed and lashed her tail, but didn't move. She couldn't pick out who was speaking and didn't want to just lunge into the crowd. That was just asking for somebody to get hurt. And as much as she wanted to hurt Longtail, nobody else deserved it for his stupidity.

He continued to prove it too, but he made the mistake of switching targets. "At least she doesn't have a collar though." He jeered at Rusty. "Your collar is the mark of the twolegs, and it's noisy jingling will make you a poor hunter at best. At worst, it'll bring the twolegs into our lands, searching for the poor lost kittypet who fills the forest with it's pathetic tinkling! It'll alert our enemies that you're an outsider, even if that stench of yours doesn't."

He dug his own grave by finishing off his speech with, "Once a kittypet, always a kittypet."

Delilah howled a challenge, but was shocked when she was beaten to the punch. Rusty hissed below her and charged into the crowd, immediately heading for one cat in specific. Obviously he'd found his target. Delilah grinned and crouched, ready to join in, when Whitestorm raised a paw. "Wait." she gaped at him, asking wordlessly to please explain why in the hell she would do that. "You've made your statement. It's your brother's turn. Let him prove his worth."

He… had a point. She'd already shown her strength. Time to let Rusty show his. So though it turned her stomach, Delilah sat back down and watched. Her paws itched to run to Rusty's side, where she'd always belonged, but she silently commanded them to stay. Rusty was actually doing well. There were a few times he left himself open and a few times he didn't take advantage, but in all Delilah approved.

Whitestorm had to physically hold her back when Longtail got Rusty's collar between his teeth and pulled. The choking sounds coming from Rusty's throat echoed in Delilah's ears and she knew she'd have nightmares to come. Why wasn't anybody stopping this? Would she really have to watch her brother die right in front of her? The answer was no. With a startling 'snap', Rusty's collar broke. The two fighting cats were flung apart and were panting a few feet apart from each other. Longtail had the collar in his mouth, the clasp broken and mangled.

Bluestar stopped everything with a thunderous yowl. The crowd silenced and Rusty and Longtail stared at each other, the light of battle still in their eyes. Bluestar leaped from the Highrock and gave a brief command to Whitestorm to let Delilah go. As soon as she felt him release her, Delilah was speeding off. She almost ran right into Rusty with how fast she was going.

Delilah ignored Bluestar when she started speaking to the Clan. There was a nasty looking cut on Rusty's forehead, just above his eye. "You're hurt." she meowed despairingly. She gently used her claws to bend his head toward her, licking it clean. Rusty mumbled for her to let him go, and she did without comment, too relieved to care about the public display of affection. "It's not too deep. Surface wound, at most." She looked over at Longtail to check his damage and felt savage satisfaction at the bloody rip in his ear. "You still need work, your balance was all over the place, but we can get to it later. You got him good!"

Rusty practically glowed at the praise and Delilah purred in amusement. She didn't give out compliments lightly, not even to him, so his pride was well earned. Delilah noted the silence and looked over at the Clan cats, many of which were smiling at the two of them. Immediately she scowled at them all and snapped, "What're you lookin' at?!"

Bluestar was the one who answered her, a gleam in her eyes. "I believe, young one, they are looking at two of ThunderClan's brand new apprentices. If you so choose it." Delilah looked at Rusty and gestured for him to answer for both of them. He nodded solemnly, and Delilah internally rolled her eyes at his dramatics. Rusty moved slightly away from her to sit in a sunray, rolling his shoulders to loosen them. Bluestar took the collar from Longtail and padded over to lay it at Rusty's paws. She touched his ear with her nose and whispered, just loud enough for Delilah to hear, "You look like a brand of fire in this light."

Her eyes flashed with hidden meaning, and Bluestar turned to face her Clanmates. "From this day forward, until he earns his warrior name, this apprentice shall be known as Firepaw, in honor of his flame-colored coat."

Oh. Right. Name changes. That would make sense, wouldn't it? Delilah watched with the rest of ThunderClan as he kicked dust and earth over it, like he was burying dirt. She smiled at him as the Clan cheered his new name, and stepped forward when Bluestar turned to her. "As for you…" Bluestar looked over her, and Delilah figured she was looking for something to name her. She raised her head in challenge and Bluestar looked her in the eyes before coming to a decision. "From this day forward, until she earns her warrior name, this apprentice shall be known as Sparkpaw, for the spark of defiance in her eyes."

This time the chants for her name were less sure, but the newly named Sparkpaw smirked. She liked it. Bluestar leaned closer to her and whispered, just like she had to Firepaw, "Keep that defiance. Use it, shape it, and it will serve you greatly. You have potential, Sparkpaw. Don't let your pride make that go to waste."