Chapter Five

"Mudstar?" Bramblenose asked. Her leader weakly looked at her.

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About a week later, the Clan was starting to recover.

Mudstar announced to Moonclaw that her apprentice was going to become a warrior. They held the ceremony soon afterward.

Mudstar called the Clan to a meeting.

"Lightpaw step forward please."

Lightpaw's white coat gleamed in the fading light.

"I, Mudstar, leader of FireClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Lightpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of you life?"

"I do," Lightpaw answered.

"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Lightpaw, from this moment you will be known as Lightstreak. StarClan honors your courage and your determination, and we welcome you as a full warrior of FireClan."

Mudstar rested his muzzle on Lightstreak's head, and she gave his shoulder a respectful lick.

"Lightstreak! Lightstreak!" the warriors below called her by her full name.

Frostface was her mother, and she and Moonclaw(mentor) looked proudly at Lightstreak. The kits mewed proudly up at their older sister too.

"Thank you Mudstar," Lightstreak meowed when the rest of the cats dispersed. "But why am I a warrior? We did not win the battle against WaterClan."

"You're right, we didn't. But that does not mean that I shouldn't be proud of you for trying your hardest." Mudstar licked the top of her head fondly.

She mumbled thanks embarrassingly, and padded off to the warriors' den with her father, Muttermouth.

Bramblenose was missing. Mudstar looked around for his deputy, but he couldn't find her anywhere.

"Where has she gone now?" he murmured to himself. "Did she miss Lightstreak's warrior ceremony?"

Almost immediately, he pushed that thought away: Bramblenose never missed an apprentice, warrior, leader, deputy, or even a medicine cat ceremony. So where was she now?

Then he spotted her coming in the entrance of the camp. He rushed over to her.

"Where have you been?" he asked the she-cat.

"Hunting," she meowed.

"Where's the prey then?" Mudstar couldn't see any or smell any.

"I couldn't find any." Bramblenose parted their conversation and went to congratulate Lightstreak.

"What's wrong with her?" Mudstar wondered. He went to speak with his medicine cat, who had also witnessed and heard everything.

"Greentree, do you know what's wrong with her?" Mudstar asked as they padded to her den.

"From all the wisdom I gained after being a medicine cat for so many moons, my guess is that she's met with another cat and she loves him."

"What?" Mudstar hissed.

"That's the only solution I can come up with. I've never known any cat to come up with an excuse of hunting to skip a warrior ceremony, especially the deputy. And the fact that she came back with no prey or scent on her that indicates she was hunting adds on to my suspicions. Otherwise why would she leave your little talk as abruptly as she did?" Greentree meowed as the 2 cats sat down.

Mudstar realized with a jolt that everything his wise medicine cat said was true. "I hope she has a good explanation for her meeting with Rippedwhisker!" he growled as he stood up.

Greentree looked startled. "What does Rippedwhisker have to do with this?" she asked.

"I saw how he and Bramblenose looked at each other at the Gathering last time. I asked her about that on the way home," he admitted. "But it was as if she wasn't listening. She just said, 'Yeah ok Mudstar, I'll think carefully about what you said.' But I bet her mind was on something else, but I didn't say anything else because we reached the camp then."

Greentree nodded as she let the details suck in. "So she has been meeting with Rippedwhisker ever since the Gathering! She probably chose this time to sneak out because she knew of the ceremony! She most likely hoped she will be back on time before it was over."

"What could she and Rippedwhisker have done in that short time?" Mudstar asked.

Greentree shrugged and sighed. "Now, Mudstar, leave this old cat. She is tired and would like privacy and appreciate sleep."

Mudstar gently licked the old she-cat and left the den, passing Rockpaw on the way. He saw Bramblenose, Mosswhisker, and Mossheart enter the warriors' den. Lightstreak was sitting vigil outside near the entrance of the camp.
Mudstar padded silently to his den and fell asleep.

The next morning, Mossheart woke up and found that her friend, Bramblenose, was gone. Her nest was pretty cold, so she guessed that she had been out for a while. She prodded Mosswhisker and murmured, "C'mon you great lump of fur! Let's go hunting!"

Mosswhisker yawned widely, and shook herself. Then she noticed that Bramblenose wasn't there.

"Where's Bramblenose?" she asked as she followed her younger sister out.

"I don't know," Mossheart meowed. She spotted Mudstar talking with Lightstreak several fox lengths away.

Mudstar dismissed her, and the white tabby went to earn her well deserved rest.

"Mudstar, we're going to hunt," Mosswhisker announced.

"Okay," Mudstar nodded. "Do either of you know where Bramblenose is?" he asked.

"No," Mossheart answered. "We'll look for her while we're hunting though," she added.

"Thanks," Mudstar nodded and stalked away to the nursery.

"So not even Mudstar knows where Bramblenose is," Mossheart sighed as she and her sister ran towards Preyhill. Both of them had completely forgotten that Preyhill now belonged to WaterClan.

"Where could she be?" Mosswhisker wondered.

"Is she so desperate not to let anyone know? And we can't track her because of the heavy dew this morning."

Mossheart motioned to Mosswhisker not to move while she pounced and neatly killed a mouse.

"Freeze, FireClan!" came a sharp voice from behind them. "What are you doing, stealing prey from our territory?!"

"Your territory!" Mossheart spat after she dropped the mouse. "Watch what you're saying, Hawkstar!"

The silver tabby glared at the two sisters. "How dare you tell me that when you seemed to have forgotten our fight?! Preyhill is WaterClan's now!"

"Ooh, fox dung! Talking mushrooms, I forgot!" Mossheart took a step back.

Hawkstar, Silverpaw, Brownear, and Loudheart advanced to them. Hawkstar flicked her tail.

Mossheart gasped as Yellowtail and Rippedheart blocked them from the right. Hawkstump and Mossfur blocked them from the left, and Sunheart, Clawshadow, and Icetail came from behind.

"Well, FireClan? What have you got to say for yourself?" Hawkstar asked menacingly.

"Leave them alone, Hawkstar! They haven't done anything wrong!" came a voice from behind the WaterClan cats.

"Not done anything wrong?!" she spun around. "Rippedwhisker, back, to camp! Hawkstump, go back with him!" she ordered.

Hawkstump obediently left, and turned around when he noticed that Rippedwhisker wasn't following. He turned around, and with shock saw Bramblenose come up next to Rippedwhisker.

"What is this?" Hawkstar meowed. "What are you doing with Bramblenose?"

"She –" Rippedwhisker began.

"Never mind. Lets escort these cats back to camp."

With Sunheart, Clawshadow, and Icetail in the lead and Hawkstar and Hawkstump at the rear, the cats entered FireClan's camp.

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SORRY GUYS IF IT SEEMS TOO RUSHED!!!