Chapter 8

"Pure as Snow."

2/10/18 - 2/11/18 - 2/13/18 - 2/14/18 - 2/15/18 - 2/16/18

~ Swanpaw ~

He would be lying if he didn't admit that he had nightmares about Rosefoot burying him six fox lengths underground since their late night excursion. Three days since then, Curlyfur is keeping her promise to make him a warrior before her kitting day arrives.

A day has officially passed and Swanpaw, Shellpaw and Heronpaw's warrior assessment is beginning this afternoon. Unfortunately, Frecklespots still hasn't been found. Some cats suspect that Cinderfall is responsible for her disappearance after seeing Olivestar talk to him. Cinderfall didn't have anything to do with Frecklespots' disappearance, Swanpaw knows that.

But what proof did he have, except for his suspicions that is related to this weird scar he knows for certain that wasn't there beforehand?

The final assessment is a fishing expedition. Swanpaw crouches down near the stream, keeping his pale blue eyes fixed on the eventual catch. He catches a pinkish grey flash and swipes the stream, pulling a salmon out to the shore as it flails around.

Swanpaw bites down on the salmon and drops the dead body.

Please. I'd like a better challenge!

Swanpaw's wish came true.

The white tom pulls out a large piece of tuna that flops around, thrashing its tail and cuffing Swanpaw's cheek, knocking him down. The tuna hobbles towards the lake until Swanpaw pounces on it and bites its gills. The tuna writhes and thrashes, as it slowly becomes weakened and falls still.

Swanpaw breathes heavily as he stands up, almost anticipating the tuna making a surprise attack. He snorts.

Serves you right!

Swanpaw drops the tuna with his salmon, and is already tired. A shrill cry ripples in the air, but Swanpaw pays no mind as he returns to his spot. Several heartbeats pass when a shadow whisks over Swanpaw's head.

Loud, wingbeats from behind pick up wind and Swanpaw is suddenly in front of a large, mighty bird with brown feathers a white head and yellow beak, it flies up with a minnow in its talons.

Anger bursts through Swanpaw. "Give that back!"

The white tom attempts to take the minnow from the eagle, and the large bird flaps its wings to knock him back. Swanpaw clamps his mouth over the minnow and breaks off the front half, while the eagle manages to fly off with the other.

Swanpaw spits out the half minnow on his pile. His hunt lasts through the evening, and he still ends up with three catches… and a fish head. Swanpaw leaves to find Curlyfur when he hears squawking, he cranes his head around and sees a flock of seagulls hovering around his defenseless fish.

"No you're not!" Swanpaw snarls as he clips his claws on a seagull's leg. One seagull pecks Swanpaw's shoulder while the other bites his ear. Swanpaw furiously spits at them as a seagull makes off with the minnow head.

"I hate birds!" He yowls.

Swanpaw looks for an opening when a dark brown shape latches himself on a seagull.

"Swanpaw!"

To his shock, Shellpaw grapples a seagull down before delivering two lashings on the face and sending it off. Brindleclaw, Lilacpaw, Toadheart, Whitefang, Curlyfur and Cinderfall were swarming the flock, slashing and biting the white and grey birds as they retreat, one by one.

The RiverClan cats catch their breath, and Swanpaw is frozen over his two remaining fish with his guard up until Shellpaw approaches him.

"We heard your loud mouth all the way from camp. Heronpaw kept insisting on checking on you." Shellpaw is glaring at him, in which Swanpaw returns it.

"What were you thinking, Swanpaw?" Curlyfur scolds her apprentice, looking over his pelt. "Seagulls are vicious bullies when they're together."

Brindleclaw inspects Swanpaw's catch with Lilacpaw by her side. "We should take these back before something else happens."

Lilacpaw glances at Swanpaw. "You caught all of this?"

The white tom's forelegs unlock and almost stumbles over his fish.

"Uh, yeah. I would've had more if those seagulls hadn't interfered."

Shellpaw stops next the unattentive Lilacpaw to narrow his eyes on Swanpaw. Toadheart and Whitefang each pick up a separate fish, Cinderfall whisks his tail over Swanpaw's shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.

"I like the size of that tuna."

~ Lilacpaw ~

A large crowd gathers around Heronpaw, Shellpaw and Swanpaw in preparation for their warrior ceremony. Cinderfall gives each one of his sons a lick on his forehead before sitting behind them.

"We're older than they are." Robinpaw grumbles, sitting next to Lilacpaw with Storkpaw and Grasspaw. "How come their becoming warriors before us?"

"We're only older by a week." Grasspaw said. Robinpaw glares at Grasspaw, who almost winces under his yellow gaze.

"You guys are lucky." Storkpaw says, yawning. Lilacpaw is hardly paying attention. Her pale, green eyes were on Swanpaw's dignified stance.

She remembered Shadepaw telling her how their spy mission went the morning after.

"Swanpaw laughed? I think you're still delirious from sleep."

"He was, too!" Shadepaw insisted.

"How do you know he wasn't faking it?" Lilacpaw asked.

Shadepaw shuffled her paws. "I don't think he would if tried… Not anymore."

Swanpaw's nothing but an oddity to Lilacpaw. First he's trying to be nice, and now he's speaking to Heronpaw.

Surely, that's a good thing?

She wanted to be happy now that Heronpaw is spending time with someone other than his brother, but Swanpaw wasn't what she expected.

~ Swanpaw ~

"I, Olivestar, leader of RiverClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these three apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in return."

Olivestar looks down on Shellpaw.

"Shellpaw. Do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do." He replies.

Olivestar nods approvingly. "Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Shellpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Shellclaw. StarClan honors your tenacity and sense of duty, and we welcome you as a full member of RiverClan."

Shellclaw licks Olivestar's shoulder before stepping back. The brown tabby she-cat turns her attention to Heronpaw.

"Heronpaw. Do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Heronpaw nods, nervously. "Y-Yes. I do."

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Heronpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Heronflight. StarClan honors your compassion and cunning, and we welcome you as a full member of RiverClan."

Heronflight licks Olivestar's shoulder and sits down. Swanpaw looks at Olivestar evenly.

"Swanpaw. Do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do." Swanpaw replies coolly.

"Swanpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as… Swanheart. StarClan honors your fighting skill and bravery, and we welcome you as a full member of RiverClan."

The white tom licks Olivestar's shoulder and steps back, their Clanmates chanting their names.

"Shellclaw! Heronflight! Swanheart!"

The newly named warriors bask in the praise. Swanheart's eyes subconsciously trails over to the apprentices den and finds Lilacpaw looking startled and tearing her gaze from him.

Was she staring at him?

"Congratulations." Cinderfall purrs, brushing his chin over Heronflight's ears.

"RiverClan is lucky to have you three."

Shellclaw sighs. "I wish Fallenbird was here."

Swanheart ignores the rush of guilt, having practiced doing when he talks with Heronflight. Cinderfall nods, solemnly.

"I wish your mothers were here, too." His light blue eyes lingers on Swanheart.

He's referring to Frecklespots. Swanheart lowers his head. Frecklespots brought him mixed feelings for so long, but now that she's gone he feels an empty hole in his stomach.

Cinderfall helps with the feeling, but only a little. He wanted Frecklespots back.

Swanheart coughs. "May I be excused?"

Cinderfall laughs. "Swanheart, you're a warrior now, you don't need my permission unless I was the leader."

The white tom nods before padding in a beeline for Lilacpaw, Curlyfur appears and causes him to halt.

"I'm so proud of you, you grumpy little snowball." Curlyfur nuzzles her former apprentice. "Remember about your night vigil. No talking, no sleeping and no moving."

Swanheart nods. "I know."

"You're growing up. I wish Frecklespots was here to see what you've become."

"Yes… I think Stonefoot is looking for you." Swanheart nods to the pale grey tom padding through the crowd.

Curlyfur rolls her eyes. "Oh, I think he's just gonna scold me for that seagull incident."

Swanheart brushes past Curlyfur as she leaves to meet with Stonefoot. To his luck, Lilacpaw is alone and is staring at him with slight curiosity.

The pale silver tabby she-cat still makes him nervous and wobbly in his forelegs.

"... Congratulations." Lilacpaw says, hesitantly.

"Thanks." Swanheart replies.

"... Mom appreciated the tuna. The warriors had to break it into pieces for Curlyfur and the elders, but they knew that she would have the whole fish to herself if she had the stomach for it."

Swanheart grins, puffing his chest out. "I'm glad to be on her good side."

Lilacpaw's eyes narrow - and Swanheart quickly deflates.

"Sorry, habit."

"I can see that."

Swanheart swallows and shuffles his paws. "I look forward to yours, Lilacpaw."

"... Thank you."

Heronflight bounds to Lilacpaw when Swanheart backs away. He slipped up, but he spoke to Lilacpaw without driving her away.

Shellclaw presses his shoulder with Swanheart's.

"How's Lilacpaw?"

The white tom scowls as he takes his shoulder back. Shellclaw glares at him.

"Heronflight might be fooled, but I know what you're doing. After all, you wouldn't be the first to steal someone's mate, you're Frecklespots' son."

"I'm sorry. I don't listen to bastards." Swanheart hisses, scathingly.

Shellclaw whirls around with his hackles rising. The dark grey tom pauses, then stalks away from Swanheart with a bristling pelt.

Swanheart is only nice to Heronflight, Shellclaw is nothing but a pain in his flank. And he doesn't see any benefit from being nice to him anytime soon.

The white tom approaches the fresh kill pile where Daisypelt is licking the bones of the tuna tail. He picks up a trout and notices Lilacpaw and Wavepaw next to him. Swanheart pauses in thought, then, he touches Lilacpaw's shoulder before placing the trout in front of her.

Lilacpaw blinks in surprise, Wavepaw watches with a wide grin. Swanheart dips his head and picks a perch before leaving.

"How romantic." Wavepaw purrs.

Lilacpaw snorts as she takes the trout in her jaws.

~ Lakemist ~

The dark grey and white she-cat almost feels sorry for the three new warriors. A wind is picking up and making it colder than usual. Lakemist is carefully stepping over cats who were already deep in sleep. She hears one cat, however, kicking in her nest.

Icestripe?

The white, silver-striped she-cat is kicking her forelegs and tearing bits of her nest, a small trail of tears fall down her muzzle. Lakemist frowns softly and slowly crouches down and shakes Icestripe's shoulder.

Icestripe's eyes force themselves open, she stares at Lakemist.

"Are you okay? You look like you've seen a Dark Forest cat."

"No." Icestripe whispers. "Just a… bad dream."

"... Will you be okay?" Lakemist can see the haze of fear in Icestripe's blue eyes.

"I will - don't worry." Icestripe rolls over with her back to Lakemist. The dark grey and white she-cat reluctantly enters her nest.

After several heartbeats, Icestripe is squirming in her nest. Lakemist didn't fall completely asleep and looks at the she-cat in distress.

What's she dreaming of?

Lakemist steps out of her nest and drags it to Icestripe's, she settles down and rests her tail on Icestripe's back. The white and silver-striped she-cat slowly stops the fighting and falls still.

Relieved, Lakemist allows herself to drift into sleep.

A/N: Yeah... I don't know what was up with Fanfiction the last time I posted, but for a while I was unable to receive chapter notices - which included my own. It stopped now, and I hope you liked Swan, Heron and Shell's warrior names, and the DBZA reference I put in there.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a fantastic weekend. ~ Kyubi