A wail suddenly broke out, shattering the dream. Skykit stumbled awake, colliding into Mintkit. Mintkit never seemed to notice.

"No! NO!" a tom yowled, "Not my daughter!"

Otterpelt, Skykit, Mintkit, Dapplekit, Bramblekit, Yarrowkit, and Sagekit ran out of the den.

A grey tom crouched over a white dappled she-cat.

"Fishscale? What happened?" Otterpelt rasped.

Fishscale slowly rocked back and forth, closing his blue eyes and murmuring something.

"What happened?" Mousestar bounded down from her den.

"Speckledpaw… she… she…" Lightstream, a light grey tabby she-cat, whimpered. "Speckledpaw was killed… by a group of…"

"Foxes," Spottedpaw meowed softly, "My sister was killed by foxes."

Spottedpaw was a pretty tortoiseshell she-cat with icy blue eyes.

"How many?" the leader asked.

"I-I don't know…" Spottedpaw confessed, "There was about… five… eight maybe…"

"There was twelve foxes," Cheetahfang, a golden-brown tom, meowed.

"What?" Mousestar was outraged. Most of the Clan was out of their homes by now. "And all of them were together?"

"Yes," Cheetahfang nodded.

Mousestar mumbled something to the deputy, Brindlefur, a dusty brown tom before meowing to her entire Clan: "Otterpelt will bury Speckledpaw's body. The Clan will sit vigil tonight. In the meanwhile… Spottedpaw, sit at the foot of Hightree."

Mousestar clawed her way up the giant oak, and peered down at the cats below her, not bothering to call them together. Then, she coughed to get everybody's attention - although she didn't really need to.

"Wow! Spottedpaw must be getting named a warrior!" Bramblekit whispered to Skykit, who just simply nodded.

"I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down at this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of the noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Spottedpaw, do you promise to follow the warrior code and defend the Clan, even at the cost of your life?" Mousestar meowed.

Spottedpaw nodded and meowed, "I do."

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Spottedpaw, from this day forth, you will be known as Spottedbrook! We welcome you as a full warrior of TreeClan," Mousestar meowed.

Spottedbrook nodded simply, still grieving over her sister's death.

Mousestar flicked her grey-brown tail and looked down at Speckledpaw's lifeless body, whose coat was stained red with blood.

"I ask my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. She has learned the warrior code and has given up her life in the service of her Clan. Let StarClan receive her as a warrior. She will be known as… Speckledleaf!"

The Clan remained quiet for a second, then Skykit's voice rang out: "Spottedbrook! Speckledleaf! Spottedbrook! Speckledleaf!"

Then the Clan joined in, Skykit seriously didn't know if she was supposed to chant Speckledleaf's name, but she didn't really care.