"Mother?" No one answered Cherrykit's quiet pleading.
Birchkit hissed in disgust. "I should've fought the human! Why didn't you let me?" he asked, turning an accusing glare onto Cherrykit. She quailed at his glance.
"Sh-she told us to go!"
Pikekit sat in silence, the calmest of the three, though no one could mistake it for anything but grief. "Do you remember Hibiscus?" she asked. After a moment, her siblings nodded. "Maybe she'll take us in; she said that she'd help us if we ever needed her."
"But...but how are we going to find her?" asked Cherrykit. "She has only visited us a couple of time and she never told us where she lives!"
"We'll find her," said Birchkit, determination entering his voice.
For three days, the triplets wandered the streets of the city. They hunted for themselves and stayed out of the way of older cats. Sunhigh on the fourth day, they found Hibiscus, their mother's friend who took them in after hearing their story. She told them that any friend or kit or Carppelt was a friend of hers, and that they would always have a place with her.
Seasons ago, Carppelt had told Hibiscus about the clans and so when the kits requested a clan-type apprenticeship and training, the older molly humored them by performing the ceremonies she vaguely remembered to renamed them Cherrypaw and Birchpaw as warrior apprentices and Pikepaw as a medicine cat apprentice. Over the course of almost eight moons, Hibiscus taught the three how to better hunt, fight, and track, and in accordance to Pikepaw's wishes, taught the black tabby what the elder molly knew about herbs and healing.
By the time the triplets were about fourteen moons old, they were well-muscled young adults and Hibiscus thought it was time they received their full names in accordance. While Hibiscus mainly entertained the thought to humor her charges, they were extremely enthusiastic about the idea.
"I think-no, I know that it's time you received your full names," said Hibiscus one day as the four cats rested in the sun.
Birchpaw's ears perked up. "Really? I bet that because I'm the best at everything, I'll have the coolest suffix ever!" he bragged to Cherrypaw.
Cherrypaw snorted with suppressed laughter. "Well, I'm more well-rounded than you," she retorted. "You couldn't hunt to save your life!"
"Hey!" he complained. "I'm not that bad, am I?" he asked Pikepaw.
Pikepaw's whiskers twitched. "Well, I'd say that you shouldn't hold your hopes up..." she teased, barely holding in her own laughter. While she was clearly the calmest of the three, her tail twitched in a manner reminiscent of a cat ready to pounce, the only sign of her eagerness.
When Hibiscus saw just how eager the triplets were to receive their names, she asked them to recite the suffixes and their meanings in order for her to choose the most suitable name for each. After some careful consideration, Hibiscus chose Cherryfang for her excellent hunting and fighting skills, Birchclaw as he was the largest and best at both intimidation and fighting, and Pikepelt for though she had no ability or personality described by the suffixes, she was nonetheless a hard worker who had a talent for diffusing conflicts. The three were content with Hibiscus's decisions and declared her to not only be the best mentor in all the world, but also the best mother they ever had. Even a few days later, Hibiscus glowed from the praise.
Three moons later, Cherryfang and her siblings had decided to put their plan into motion. Growing up and hearing about what Riverclan was like, the three wanted to create their own clan. Their own family. Their own home. Pikepelt had wanted her sister to wait, as they were hardly considered adults, but Birchclaw was all for going ahead. When asked, Hibiscus was interested in helping to set up the new clan for she had grown attached to the kits and viewed them as her own. However, she expected that she would simply help find willing cats and then go her own way. Instead, the triplets asked if she was willing to join their currently unnamed clan as a warrior, as Cherryfang was considered the de-facto leader, Birchclaw was her deputy, and Pikepelt was the medicine cat. Hibiscus was stunned; they wanted her to join? An ordinary alleycat with no knowledge or connections to the clans? She agreed, of course, and was renamed Whiteclaw for her white fur, fighting prowess, and protective nature. The last thing that needed to be decided was the name for the budding clan. They eventually decided on "Cherryclan" after the leader, no matter how much Cherryfang protested. Her siblings also insisted on calling her "Cherrystar" despite her lack of nine lives because, as Pikepelt argued, it would show other cats that she was clearly their leader and was special.
Another moon was spent on teaching Whiteclaw more about clan traditions, honing their skills, and deciding on a direction in which to travel. Once decided, they started heading to the northeast in hopes that they could find more cats for their clan and a territory to settle in. The journey would end up taking seasons, a length that none of them had originally intended to travel.