Incessant birdsong filled the air, and Waterpaw could just make out the slowly rising sun outside the den if she tilted her head at the right angle. It looked like it was morning. Well, clearly it was morning, but… couldn't she sleep for just a bit longer? Her denmates were still sleeping, so it was fine for her to keep sleeping for a little while longer too. She closed her eyes; she'd get up in a couple more minutes.

A couple minutes later, she was fast asleep again. Relentless rain and thunderstorms filled her dreams, as they had for a long time now. Unnerved by the nightmares, she drifted between waking up and going back to sleep for a while. It was hard for Waterpaw to remember the last time she'd dreamed about something normal, like hunting. Now all her dreams seemed to be about one of two things: the terrifying prophecy she was involved in, or…

A cold breeze blew through the apprentices' den and she shuddered, jolting herself fully awake for a few moments- she noticed that the other nests in the den were now empty- before she began to sink back into uneasy sleep. She stayed in this state for a couple more minutes- or maybe it was longer than that; who could tell- until an unexpected voice woke her from her restless sleep.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below Shale Hill for a Clan meeting!"

Waterpaw was more than startled by Miststar's call, but she composed herself. She shook her pelt, gave herself a couple of licks to smooth her fur out, and padded into the harsh morning sunlight, wondering what this was all about. She sat down next to her friends; none of them seemed to have any idea what this meeting was for either. "Maybe Storkflight's kits are going to be apprenticed?" Shellpaw suggested.

Oakpaw shook his head. "Can't be. They're too young."

A senior warrior shushed the apprentices, which Waterpaw had been thinking of doing herself. She liked her friends, but why did they have to be so loud, especially when Miststar was about to start talking?

"I've gathered you all here today to perform one of my favourite duties as leader- particularly when it's for such a marvelous young cat," Miststar purred. He made a beckoning motion with his tail, and it took Waterpaw a moment to realize his eyes were on her. "Step forward, Waterpaw."

Waterpaw gulped. Was she in trouble? She racked her mind for something bad she could have done, but she was fairly certain she'd been well-behaved for a good while. She hadn't talked to any cats from other Clans (she'd barely even interacted with any of them at the last Gathering she'd been to), and she hadn't broken the warrior code in any way. So if she wasn't in trouble, what was going on?

Judging from how happy Miststar looked, she guessed that wasn't the case. She took a couple steps forward, still not entirely sure what was happening, even though looking back on it later, she really should have been.

"I, Miststar, leader of RiverClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice," the leader continued. It was only then that Waterpaw finally figured out what this meeting was for, and she blinked, stunned at the realization. "She's trained hard to understand your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn."

Even now that Waterpaw knew what was happening, she still didn't quite understand it. Why was he making her a warrior now?! She hadn't even had an assessment! And it wasn't like she'd done anything too spectacular in the past few days- the last really "heroic" thing she'd done had been well over four moons ago, when she'd rescued Grasspaw from the owl- an act she hadn't even gotten that much recognition for, although of course everyone had been overjoyed when she came back. Sure, she'd been training for long enough, but why have her warrior ceremony now?

Wait… was this what Miststar had thought she'd been trying to tell him the previous day? No wonder he'd run off to talk to Foxfang, then! Waterpaw's mind reeled. How could the leader have misinterpreted her so badly? Of course she wanted to be a warrior, but she could have waited if it had meant Miststar finding out that Patchfur was breaking the warrior code!

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

"I do," Waterpaw meowed readily. Even if she hadn't expected to be made a warrior right then and there, that didn't mean she was going to object to any of this.

Miststar beamed. "Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name," he meowed. "Waterpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Watersplash. StarClan honours your strength and enthusiasm, and we welcome you as a full warrior of RiverClan."

He rested his muzzle on her forehead and she gave his shoulder a lick. As the crowd began to cheer her new name, Watersplash wondered for a moment if she'd been named for her dead brother, Splashkit. But then she saw Miststar exchange a glance with Foxfang and she realized without a doubt that she'd been named in honour of Lakesplash. It made sense; she'd died recently; she'd been the mate of her mentor- former mentor now, she realized with a pang of excitement- and besides, Watersplash's dead family members were never talked about, or even really acknowledged at all, for that matter.

"You'll have to sit vigil tonight, of course," Miststar told her as the cheers were dying down- which took a long time, because every cat loved Watersplash. She loved their praise, and to her delight, no cat had shouted louder than Minnowleap.

"That fine," she purred in response to the leader. "I don't mind sitting vigil."

Watersplash thought she could use a night alone with her thoughts. She just hoped those thoughts wouldn't drift too far across the border this time.

The waves leaped dauntingly high, reaching out for the petrified cat standing on the rock. They let out a shrill wail, jumping back as the highest wave yet crashed against the pillar of crumbling stone. "Save me!" they shrieked, ears pressed against their head.

"I'm trying to!" Grasstail called, grinding his jaws in frustration as he attempted to hold on to the slippery rock. He heard another wail from above. "Just hang on," he assured the cat on the rock. "I'm almost there!"

He put one paw above the other, over and over again, but he kept sliding back down. Far, far, below him, the waters beckoned. He trained his vision on the cat he intended to rescue, but it was impossible to reach them. They kept on getting farther and farther away, and the waves kept getting higher-

Suddenly lightning struck the pillar, lighting up the swirling gray sky so that Grasstail could just make out the figure of a second cat looming behind the first on the rock. He opened his jaws to warn them, but he was silenced by frothy white waves. Lakewater filled his mouth and he choked, slipping down the rocks toward the churning abyss of water.

"Don't fall!" the cat on the rock cried. "You have to save me!"

Grasstail wanted to. He had to! But he couldn't! He pushed himself upward, letting go of the rock for just an instant- just as a giant wave swept over him, yanking him away. His last sight was of the cat on the rock, yowling in desperation and terror, as their last chance was pulled away from them.

"Brother!"

Grasstail was jolted awake with a harsh jab in the ribs. He looked up, his eyes taking a second to adjust to the darkness, to see Appleshine glaring at him. Her angry green eyes shone so brightly in the dark of night that it looked like they were white.

"You fell asleep," she hissed. "You know we're not supposed to fall asleep during vigil! That defeats the whole purpose!"

Shame heated Grasstail's cheeks and he ducked his head apologetically. "Sorry," he muttered.

"Good," Appleshine sniffed, straightening back up and returning to the oath of silence that the siblings had broken.

For a while Grasstail was pleased that his littermate hadn't escalated the matter into a full-blown argument. Then he narrowed his eyes and peered past Appleshine. Even in the dark, he could just make out the pale shape of Berryheart, her head drooping and her whiskers quivering slightly. At first Grasstail assumed she was just still depressed about Owlwing dying- no cat could have blamed her; so was he- but then she snored softly and he knew that wasn't the case.

"Hey," he meowed accusingly to Appleshine. "She's asleep! Why not scold her?"

Appleshine took a moment to respond. When she did, her voice was completely flat. "She needs her sleep."

"What, and I don't?"

Appleshine's only reply was an indignant huff, and Grasstail knew he'd got her there. Not that it did any good, because she let Berryheart keep on sleeping. Whatever; it wasn't his problem if his sisters still acted like kits even now that they were warriors.

Now that they were all being quiet again, and Grasstail was making a renewed effort to stay awake- he had no idea why he'd fallen asleep earlier- he let his mind wander. He thought about how stupidly overprotective of Berryheart Appleshine could be sometimes; he thought about Owlwing, and wondered if she was watching him from StarClan; he thought about what he was going to do in the morning when it was going to be his first full day as a warrior.

He thought about his nightmare, and all the similar nightmares he'd had before it, although this time things had been different from how they normally were. Most of the time when he had those kinds of dreams, he was the only one in them up until the end. That was when the second cat would appear, their pelt dripping with water, staring at him as he sank. But who was this cat who'd been standing on the rock?

Maybe it was nothing. Maybe his dreams were just dreams. StarClan wouldn't want to send him visions after all. Even if Grasstail was a warrior now, he was still just an ordinary cat- not like…

He thought of waves gently lapping at the beach, the sands of which were still frozen from leaf-bare, scraping against his paws. He thought of a voice telling him to hang on; they were going to be fine. He thought of long, elegant blue-gray fur, sparkling blue eyes, and a fluffy white tail waving energetically in the air.

Grasstail tried not to think about her. But once the thoughts entered his mind, they just couldn't leave it. He hadn't seen Waterpaw in moons. The last time he'd seen her, he'd been horrible to her, and told her things he didn't mean. He wished he could just leave it at that forever, but he couldn't.

Ignoring Appleshine's whispered protests, he rose to his paws and walked out of the camp. His littermate ran after him for a few seconds but then stopped and went back to her post. Grasstail felt a pang of satisfaction; he guessed she didn't see the point in trying to stop him, and neither did he.

He was going to see the cat he'd promised himself to never see again.

Although sleepiness tugged at her, Watersplash kept herself awake through a combination of discipline and counting the stars. She'd gotten to a little over a hundred a couple times before skipping one or counting the same one twice or not being sure if something was a star or something else, and starting over again.

Watersplash knew she could never count every single star in the sky anyway. There was one star in Silverpelt for every cat who had ever died- or at least the ones who were still remembered by those who lived. Apparently when a cat had been forgotten by everyone, they faded away into total nonexistence. Waterpaw suppressed a shudder at the thought of ever being utterly forgotten like that. She hoped that after she did whatever amazing thing she was supposed to do, future generations would pass down stories of her accomplishments forever so she'd never fade away.

An owl hooted somewhere in the distance. Watersplash tensed up, recalling the time she'd been carried away by one of those terrifying nocturnal birds. Of course no such thing could happen to her now; she was a warrior now, and more or less fully grown. Maybe she'd still get a little bit bigger, but not by much. And besides, she assured herself, the owl that had hooted just then had sounded like a smaller species- nowhere near as big as the one that she'd fought before.

Even so, she remained slightly on edge, hoping it would stay away from the RiverClan camp. It hooted again and another owl responded from closer by, but still too far to pose a threat. Watersplash shifted her weight from side to side, training her eyes on Silverpelt and starting to count the stars over from one again.

It didn't take long to lose track once more. Trying and failing to hold back a giant yawn, Watersplash hoped that the sun would come up soon. She'd never really understood the point of sitting vigil anyway. The new warrior had already promised to defend the Clan with their life! What was sitting up all night and staying silent supposed to prove on top of that? But blah, blah, Clan traditions. No cat would catch her complaining.

Watersplash drank in the night air. On it were all the familiar scents that filled her nose every day. But there was something different this time- something there that wasn't supposed to be. It was barely detectable, as it was strongly masked by the smell of flowers, which was all the more concerning- somebody was trying to hide their scent! Too tired to identify the scent that clearly didn't belong, but was nonetheless a little too familiar, Watersplash rose from her post and started sniffing around. She knew she'd get her pelt chewed off if she was caught violating the vigil, but protecting her Clan from any potential attackers was more important than some dumb old-fashioned rules, right?

The little creek at the edge of the camp where she was sitting vigil had a clump of reeds next to it. On the other side of the creek were a patch of wildflowers that had been flattened out- this must have been what the intruder had rolled in to mask their smell. Well, it had been a good effort, but the wet pawprint on the stepping stone in the middle of the creek kind of gave them away. Drawing her lips back into a snarl, Watersplash dropped low to the ground and slowly crept toward the patch of reeds, her tail twitching.

The reeds rustled as she snarled, and a second later they parted and a cat bolted out, lunging at Watersplash with a hiss. She jumped back, batting them out of the air and pinning them down. It was too dark to see them properly, but as they pelted her underbelly with a series of kicks, her mind finally made the connection between the flower-masked scent and the cat struggling beneath her.

Watersplash let go, watching the other cat's narrowed green eyes widen in surprise that then became recognition. As his eyes adjusted to the dark, so did hers, and she realized with a jolt how much her old friend had grown.

"Grasspaw?" Watersplash's voice came out sounding like a question, the answer to which she searched for in his face. He lowered his head, obscuring those answers from her, before replying.

"It's Grasstail now, actually," he muttered, scuffing his paws awkwardly in the dirt. Then he locked eyes with Watersplash. "I came to see you."

Watersplash wasn't sure what the best response would be. An amused "I can see that"? A confused "But why?"? Or should her response be angry after such a long time with no contact between him, after he'd left her with a claim that he wanted nothing to do with her?

Finally, she settled on something simple. An exchange of facts, like what might transpire between two friendly acquaintances at a Gathering. "It's great that you're a warrior now," she meowed. "So am I. I just had my ceremony today."

"Shouldn't you be on your vigil, then?" Grasstail asked.

"…I am," Watersplash confessed. "You turning up kind of forced me to break it," she added with an accusing glance at him. "So you really shouldn't be the one to bring it up if you're just going to… um… be the one who made it…" she trailed off into a mumble. Watersplash was usually pretty good with words, but tonight must have been an exception.

Grasstail held her with an unreadable expression for just a little too long before admitting, "I'm supposed to be sitting vigil as well. My littermates and I all just became warriors today, too- or should I say yesterday, since it's past moonhigh?"

"It's past moonhigh?" Watersplash looked up at the sky. The moon did indeed seem to be sitting a bit lower in the sky than the last time she'd looked up. "Huh. Guess you're right."

They looked at each other for a few more awkward moments, bound by silence and things unsaid. Then Grasstail spoke up again. "So, what's your warrior name?"

"Watersplash."

"Nice." Grasstail gave her a shy smile, and Watersplash's heart started to pound. She didn't understand why; they'd only been friends before, and now they weren't even that. She had no idea what Grasstail was trying to pull here, and she hoped he'd explain himself before she lost her generous supply of patience. "It's a very pretty name," the WindClan tom continued, dropping his gaze to his shuffling paws. "It suits you."

"Your name suits you, too," Watersplash blurted before she could stop herself. She wanted to clamp her tail over her mouth. What was she doing?! She had to stop encouraging this!

"Thanks," Grasstail murmured. He lifted his gaze back up to Watersplash, and she was taken aback by the beauty of his eyes. "Your name is better, though."

Watersplash shrugged, trying to seem casual. Inwardly, she was panicking. She forced her breathing to stay steady, but it was quite the arduous task. Grasstail took a couple steps closer to her, regarding her wistfully. She yanked her gaze away from his eyes before she could lose herself in them.

"What do you want?"

She hoped the question hadn't come out sounding too harsh, but judging from Grasstail's reaction, it had. Watersplash felt a pang of guilt, but she ignored it. As much as she liked him- even now after all that had happened between them-, Grasstail couldn't just march right out of her life and then march right back in again more than a season later!

The greenish-gray tom hesitated, looking away when he finally said, "I needed to see you again."

Desperation filled Watersplash- desperation for an answer; desperation for a reason; desperation for an excuse to do what she wanted to do more than anything else- as she spoke. "But why did you want to see me?!"

Grasstail ground his jaw a bit and moved his tongue around the corners of his mouth before he answered. Watersplash could tell he was thinking hard about his answer- was he choosing his words carefully to best reflect how he felt, or was he just trying to concoct some half-hearted apology?

But all her doubts vanished as soon as he spoke. "I didn't just want to see you. I needed to see you," Grasstail explained. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Watersplash's heart started pounding again. She was certain that Grasstail could hear it pounding against her ribcage. "Because…" He gulped, and Watersplash could have sworn she could see him blushing under his fur. "Because I like you better than any cat in my own Clan, and I didn't mean it whatsoever when I said I didn't want to be with you, and even if you only ever want to be friends, I still want that more than anything else as long as it's you."

Once he was finished, he took a few deep breaths, staggering a bit as if he couldn't even believe what he'd just said. Watersplash could scarcely believe it either, but deep down inside she knew she wanted to. She knew she could trust Grasstail with her friendship, with her heart, with her life.

"I'm so happy you want to be friends again," she purred, moving in to nuzzle Grasstail's chest. She had to stoop down a little to do it, but she didn't mind. He looked so adorably flustered when she did it that she moved up to his shoulder, tilting her head up to give his muzzle a lick.

"I'm gonna have to go back home before the sun comes up, but I want to see you again soon," Grasstail murmured, giving Watersplash an affectionate forehead lick. "Meet me at the lake tomorrow night- where we met up that one time, you remember?"

Watersplash nodded. "I can't wait," she purred.

Grasstail drew away, blinking slowly at her once before turning away and disappearing into the reeds. Watersplash was left with a pounding heart and a broken vigil, both of which she could blame on him.