Part Two. Determination of Life or Death.
"Watch out." Brightpaw screamed, flinging herself at the nearest beast. Pack pack kill kill.
The monsters growled. A horrible feeling crept through Brightpaw, they were dogs! Everything made sense, the feathers scattered around, the dog scents and the trampled undergrowth. It was a pack of dogs! Brightpaw was too stunned to move.
A huge dog smashed his paw down nearly crushing Brightpaw. This snapped her out of her daze and she attacked, raking her claws down the beast's mussel. Blood flew everywhere, staining Brightpaw's white and orange fur red. Briefly, she wondered if Swiftpaw was okay, but she didn't have to think long. Swiftpaw was fighting a dog twice the size of hers with the strength of StarClan. They had a chance! Brightpaw whipped around and snarled at the dog. It threw itself at her and bowled her over, pinning her down with its superior weight. The dog pummeled Brightpaw. All she could do was writher around and feel her strength die. Then Swiftpaw crashed into the dog. It fell over giving Brightpaw the chance to escape. The dog that had Brightpaw pinned was now fleeing into the woods. So was the one Swiftpaw was fighting earlier.
"You really should be a warrior." Brightpaw mewed limping over to him.
"Thanks." He mewed gruffly, "Now let's get out of here."
The cats started back toward the woods. "Brightpaw look out!" A huge dog, bigger than both of them that they had chased off charged at Brightpaw. Brightpaw was too stunned to move. Swiftpaw crashed into it. Knocking it off course. The dog reared up on its hind legs and brought its huge paws down on top of Swiftpaw. Crushing him.
"NO!" Brightpaw yowled, and charged at the dog. Rage made her blind to pain as she tore into the dog's flesh. The dog swiped at her face. It tore the off the flesh and most of her ear. The pain was searing but she ignored it. The dog ran off into the brambles. Brightpaw padded stiffly over to her friend.
"That's twice tonight I've saved you." Swiftpaw rasped.
"Stop trying to talk." Brightpaw hissed franticly.
"Brightpaw give me my warrior name." Swiftpaw mewed, "I want to be a warrior when I go to StarClan."
"You are not going to…"
"Yes Brightpaw, I am. Please just give me a warrior name. I trust you more than I trust my own clan leader! Please."
Brightpaw took a deep breath, "I Brightpaw, apprentice of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look at this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand your noble code and in turn he shall be made a warrior. Swiftpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code for the rest of your life?"
"Yes, I do."
"Then by the power of StarClan I give you this name, from now on you will be known as Swiftbreeze."
Swiftpaw gave Brightpaw's shoulder a respectful lick. "I couldn't have asked for a better ceremony." He mewed softly.
"But I messed it all up!" Brightpaw wailed.
"No, I like it." Swiftpaw protested, "Goodbye Brightpaw. You'll be come a warrior for this."
Brightpaw threw back her head and yowled, "Swiftbreeze, Swiftbreeze!"
She headed sadly for the woods in case the dogs came back, but she barely made it tree fox-lengths before she collapsed and fell asleep.
For the second time in a moon Brightpaw awoke in StarClan's forest.
"No, no, no! I can't be dead!" she wailed.
"You're not." Mewed a soothing voice that she recognized as Yellowfang's. "I'm just telling you that you didn't follow my warning."
Brightpaw remembered what Yellowfang had told her.
"I'm sorry." Brightpaw mewed.
"So you should be." Yellowfang mewed harshly. She disappeared and where Yellowfang stood was a puddle of water. Brightpaw padded up to it. She braced herself for the sight for her face. She looked down. The sight made tears come to her eyes. This brought more pain. The whole side of her face had been ripped away. All of a sudden Brightpaw couldn't see out of her left eye. Then she couldn't hear. Now the pain began to return. Little at first then terrible. StarClan's forest began to fade away. Then out of the mist came Swiftbreeze.
"They accept me as a warrior!" he mewed excitedly. Then he faded away as well leaving Brightpaw alone in a world of fog and mist.
"You will live with this burden of your mistake." Yellowfang's voice echoed everywhere, "Constantly you will be reminded of what you did. Never will the scares heal of will the fur grow back."
The forest disappeared completely and Brightpaw woke up in back in the forest. She opened her eyes to see Fireheart, Graystripe and Sandstorm looking over her. Brightpaw moaned and turned her head. At this, the three yowled to another cat to go get Cinderpelt. That was all Brightpaw heard before she was out cold again, images of her terrible night flashing in her dreams. The most vivid of all was when the dogs first attacked saying, Pack Pack Kill kill.