Chapter 5:

At the Gathering Thornpaw saw Flamepaw talking to some other cats. He padded over to her to meet her friends. "Oh! Hi, Thornpaw!" she purred as the two touched noses gently. "This is Tinypaw, cat of LeafClan, and his sister, Brightpaw!"

"Hi, Thornpaw!" Brightpaw mewed to the tom. "Hi!" Tinypaw meowed, looking up at Thornpaw. "LakeClan should be here by now." Thornpaw slowly whispered. "I wonder where they are." As he spoke, LakeClan came dashing out of the bushes. Suddenly, Thornpaw leaped out of the way to let a dark brown tom go tumbling to the ground. "Are you okay?" Tinypaw squeaked. "Yes, I am okay." The tom meowed gruffly. He padded away and started to wash himself.

The four friends sat there for a few heartbeats then Thornpaw give Tinypaw a glance and meowed, "I'll be right back." Thornpaw ran over to Weedstar to help him up onto the Great Rock, because he had whitecough, and then ran back to Flamepaw and the others.

Cautiously, Thornpaw put his head on Flamepaw's warm flank, breathing in her warm scent. Thornpaw thought suddenly, I could do this until the next moonhigh…. Or maybe even longer! Soon he heard a yowl from the Highrock and sat up instantly. "Cats of all Clans!" Beestar yowled, with annoyment in his tone. "NightClan's leader would like to speak first."

"Thank you, Beestar." Icestar meowed. "I would like to say that one of CloudClan's warriors tried to kill me," he meowed his eyes darting to Silverclaw. "Who did it?" came a faint voice from the other side of the rock.

"Silverclaw was the one who did it!" He pointed to her angrily with his tail. Weedstar didn't say anything. He just looked at his paws in shame. Lightstar spoke up. "Same with us, except they have been stealing our prey." Lightstar looked at Weedstar like he was a TwoLeg.

"We caught them on a patrol!" Featherfrost, the GrassClan deputy, yowled.

"They invaded our camp!"

"They took our prey!"

"He tried to kill our warriors!"

There was a great yowling among the four Clans. Lightstar quickly held up her tail for silence. "Is that true?" Beestar meowed. Before Weedstar could protest, a cat yowled, "Of course its true! I saw myself that he was stealing our prey and rolling in mud to cover their tracks!"

"They think all the other Clans are stupid and soft hearted. They think they can just take all the things that they need and get away with it!"

"Everyone agrees that Clans cannot trespass on another's territory... BUT NO! CloudClan thinks they're the best!"

"YEAH!"

Again, Lightstar impatiently held up her tail. "Weedstar, I can understand a few stolen rabbits and mice. But, trying to kill another leader?" Lightstar shook her head. "That's not right!" Slowly, a murmur of agreement rippled through the four Clans. Weedstar nodded, but still said nothing.

As if they were still making their choice, clouds crawled over the moon. CloudClan and LakeClan started to disappear into the bushes, filing back to their territories. Lightstar jumped off the rock and nodded to Icestar.

He slowly nodded back. Lightstar signaled with her tail and soon had her Clan following their deputy into the bushes. Lightstar's and Icestar's eyes met. They seemed to be whispering words to each other:

If this happens again, you know what to do.

The next moonhigh, Icestar yowled, "All cats old enough to catch their own prey join me for a Clan meeting!" All of the cats came out of their dens looking sleepy-eyed. "It is time for Flamepaw to become a warrior." He meowed calmly. "Flamepaw, come up here." Her heart pounded as Flamepaw jumped forward onto the rock. "I, Icestar, leader of NightClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and we commend her to you as a warrior in turn.

Flamepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan even at the cost of your own life?" Icestar meowed seriously.

"I do." Flamepaw whispered.

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name, Flamepaw, this moment on you will be known as Flamewing. StarClan honors you for your cunning and intelligence and we welcome you as a full warrior in NightClan." Icestar finished. Icestar touched his muzzle against mine and Flamewing licked his shoulder in return. "Flamewing! Flamewing! Flamewing!" All the cats yowled, loudest of all, Leafstorm.

Flamewing sat down while a few cats went back to sleep. Some just wandered off. Flamewing sat in silence as the cool breeze flew past her.

The next morning, Rockpaw came dashing up to me. "Flamepaw!" Flamewing looked at him like she didn't know who he was. "Oops-Sorry! Flamewing," he corrected himself. "Want to eat? Or hunt?" Flamewing shook her head. "Oops!" Rockpaw meowed sheepishly. "Sorry!"

At that moment, Leafstorm came up to Flamewing and mewed, "Flamewing, you may speak now." She nodded my thanks as Leafstorm padded away.

"In a minute," Flamewing meowed to Rockpaw. She padded over next to Leafstorm and asked, "Do you know how to fish?" Leafstorm blinked. "Of course I do!" she mewed.

"Can you teach me?"

"Sure," So we slipped out of camp and headed to the river. "All you need to do is look in the water and wait for a fish then you just scoop them out like so," she scooped up a fish and then slammed it against a rock for the kill. "See, easy." Leafstorm meowed. "May I try?" Flamewing asked. Leafstorm nodded. "Sure you can! You're a warrior now!" She purred.

Flamewing patiently waited for a fish and found one. She picked it out of the water and slammed it against a rock. Leafstorm was right. It was easy.Flamewing thought. As they padded back to camp, Flamewing saw Icestar laying in the warm patch of sun so she went over to him and dropped a fish next to him then meowed to him, "You should eat, Icestar. It will be good for you." He looked up at Flamewing then at the fish. He pulled it close to him and took a bite. "Good." He murmured. Leafstorm put the other fish on the pile. It was getting bigger. That's good, she thought.

Flamewing went up to Rockpaw and asked "So…. Can we finish meeting everyone?"

"Sure." The two cats went over to the elder's den. "Flamewing, this is Cloudheart and Orangeblaze." he said then murmured "I'm never going to get used to that name." He meowed. Flamewing let out a mmrreeooww of laughter.

Cloudheart was a pure white she-cat with brown paws and Orangeblaze is a brown tom with white and amber flecks. "Let's meet the queens… and their cute kits!" Rockpaw meowed.

Flamewing and Rockpaw padded over to the den where the queens rest and Rockpaw mewed as he pointed to the correct cats in turn. "This is Blackcloud, Pinkflight, and you know Frostblaze and Dawnflower." Dawnflower was the only queen with two kits that looked just like her, an amber she-cat and tom with dark green eyes. She was Flamewing and Rockpaw's mother. Flamewing went over to her and licked her in congratulations. Pinkflight was brown with black paws and blue eyes. Blackcloud was black and had white paws. "I think that's it." Rockpaw meowed. They padded out of the den and Flamewing suddenly asked Rockpaw, "Do you want to come and hunt with me for a while?" Rockpaw blinked. "Sure." So Flamewing and Rockpaw padded out to find some prey. "Find any?" Rockpaw asked after a while. "No," Flamewing meowed. "Let's go look by the Thunderpath." Flamewing ran over to it, smelling, then recoiled at the scent. Yuck! TwoLegs stink! She slowly thought. Suddenly, a TwoLeg came by and tried to grab her. It missed and she hissed then fled. "What happened?" Rockpaw asked when Flamewing came with her fur puffing out with surprise.

"I thought I saw a rogue. Let's go look somewhere else." Flamewing lied.

We need to meet up soon so we can help our Clans… I know, since Wetstar said to meet in four moons, we should do that... When is the fourth moon? Flamewing counted. The fourth moon is the next moon! We'll meet then! At Fourtrees after the Gathering. Flamewing thought as Rockpaw and she went back to camp.