A/N: Actually, second allegiances will be after this chapter, because in the last chapter, the patrol was supposed to leave already, but as I was writing I was like, hey, Russetpaw should fight an owl! And that ran on for a bit, so if I had had the patrol happen in the same chapter, it would have been like 6,000 words long! Anyway, this is a real chapter, and if you were wondering, that owl Russetpaw got was a Great Gray, and the daddy of those eggs. Also, Blackfoot plushie for Escaping Dreams! And now, chapter seven begins!
The apprentice whisked away from Nightkit to join the warriors, and stood by her sister, Foxpaw. She cast a glance back toward her friend, and saw that his amber eyes burned with worry. She wanted to tell him that she would be fine, but she couldn't promise that. Not ever. Raggedstar led the patrol out of camp, and Foxpaw bounded up to join her mentor, so instead, Russetpaw dropped back by Whitepaw, who looked very excited. "My first real battle! And yours too, Russetpaw! Aren't you excited?" The ginger she-cat met the younger apprentice's gaze evenly. "StarClan willing, there won't be a battle. But no, I am not excited. I'm afraid." Whitepaw looked astonished, and was about to speak when Littlebird cut her off. "Spoken like a warrior, Russetpaw. You remind me of Cedarstar when he was young." she sighed.
Russetpaw couldn't bring herself to be proud that she'd been compared to her father, not when her little brothers and sisters were in the nursery, intensely vulnerable. She felt glad that Raggedstar had left such a strong patrol behind to protect the camp. She knew the warriors would give their lives to protect all of the kits. But there were so many to keep safe! She reeled them off in her head; Brownkit, Lizardkit, Snakekit, Owlkit, Skykit, Duskkit, Vinekit, Frogkit, Clawkit, Stumpykit, Brightkit, and, most important to her, Nightkit. Dawncloud's kits were hardly kits anymore, but she felt her heart pound with worry over them, one in particular.
Carrionplace came into view, and the patrol stepped up its pace. Whitepaw stumbled over a rock, and Littlebird helped her to her paws. They were lagging behind, so Russetpaw nudged the apprentice forward; she'd taken up the rear of the patrol with Hollyflower at her side. They reached the border, which went from the Carrionplace down to the Thunderpath. WindClan territory here was just a small strip between the ShadowClan border and neutral territory around Highstones. They had almost finished heavily marking the border, their scent mingling with WindClan stench, when a skinny tom appeared, an apprentice at his side. He paused to mark the border, then noticed the huge ShadowClan patrol only a tail-length away. He yowled in surprise. "What are you all doing there, trying to scare the crap out of me?" Raggedstar looked at him incredulously. "Did you just say-" The WindClan apprentice cut him off. "What's your name?" he asked cheerily.
The big tabby drew himself up and spat, "I am Raggedstar, leader of ShadowClan, and do NOT interrupt me again!" he thundered but still the apprentice, who looked to be little more than a kit squealed. "That's a funny name! I'm Berrypaw!" Russetpaw exchanged an amused look with Whitepaw. She whispered back, "WindClan cats are as mad as hares." Russetpaw stifled a chuckle and replied softly, "Maybe it's because they eat them!" She and Whitepaw lapsed into silent laughter. The WindClan warrior tasted the air, ignoring his mouse-brained apprentice, and then yowled loudly, seemingly at nothing. Russetpaw looked at Whitepaw bemusedly at the random cat, but her amusement died as WindClan warrior after warrior flooded out of the rabbit warrens, until their patrol was heavily outnumbered.
Raggedstar held his ground and said, "Heatherstar! What is the meaning of this?" The pinkish gray she-cat slid out from the ranks of warriors and smiled devilishly. "Meaning of what, Raggedstar? It was you who brought a battle patrol to our border." she had the voice of an apprentice, high-pitched and very... immature, so unlike Raggedstar's commanding hiss as he said, "This is no battle patrol. We are marking the border." Heatherstar smiled sweetly in a way that made Russetpaw nauseous. "Well then you can help us by marking along the new border, over there." She nodded at a space about ten fox-lengths from the real border, farther into ShadowClan territory. Her leader bristled and snarled, "WindClan will never have those lands. They belong to ShadowClan!" Beside her, Whitepaw flattened her ears, glaring at a huge WindClan tom, who met her gaze with the light of battle in his amber eyes. Russetpaw lowerd herself into a battle crouch and put one paw in front of the younger apprentice, claws unsheathed. She glared at the warrior and mouthed, "You're mine," acting a lot tougher than she felt.
He showed his teeth, and Russetpaw realized he looked exactly like Vinekit, only with amber eyes! He even had a long, long tail like her half-sister. She shivered, and realized she'd missed Heatherstar's reply. But she did hear Raggedstar yowl furiously, "SHADOWCLAN!" and she knew that the battle had begun. The long-tailed warrior was sprinting for Whitepaw, and Russetpaw bristled, jumping in front of her, but the warrior was headed off by Archeye, who tackled him into the dirt and started fighting with him. She looekd around frantically and saw Foxpaw, struggling with a WindClan she-cat twice her size. She ran for her sister and reached them in the blink of an eye. She raked her claws down the pale gold tabby's shoulder and she screeched angrily. Faced with both apprentices, she dashed off for an easier fight. "Coward!" Russetpaw shouted after her, but she was cut off by a terrible scream of pain.
Whitepaw's face had been brutally slashed by a reddish brown WindClan tom, and he was pinning her down, about to go in for the kill. "No!" Russetpaw said, terror pulsing through her paws for her friend. As she reached the tom, she rammed into him headlong, not waiting to think of a strategy. She pummeled him with powerful back paws, claws tearing into his belly fur, and crunched down on his foreleg, sinking her teeth in down to the bone. He yowled in pain, but he was an adept fighter and kept landing hard blows on Russetpaw. But she was driven by fear for Whitepaw, so she kept fighting even as exhaustion crept in. She scored her claws across his face strongly, and he turned tail to flee, but there was another WindClan cat waiting to take his place.
Russetpaw wanted wail with the unfairness of the fight, as this tom was nearly as big as Raggedstar, but she was ShadowClan; never to back down from a fight, and to use cunning and power to win a fight, not brute force, nimbleness, or speed. She would fight for every mouse-length of her territory. However, this fight was not her own, as Archeye saved Whitepaw once again by intervening, and with Littlebird at his side, they would easily beat the warrior. She turned to Whitepaw and saw that she was badly injured, one side of her face bleeding heavily. She saw Oakpaw make a WindClan she-cat run away, screeching, she called for her brother desperately. The small brown tom dashed over and his eyes widened in horror as he looked at Whitepaw's injuries. The she-cat lay on the ground, her breathing shallow, and her white fur stained red with her own blood.
"Get her out of here, Oakpaw. I can't do it." she told him. Her brother nodded and took Whitepaw's scruff delicately in his teeth. He dragged her away, but Russetpaw couldn't bear to watch, so she turned back to the fight. Foxpaw was slashing her claws at a large brown tom. Her sister had a few scratches, but she was far better off than her opponent. Raggedstar was grappling with the black and white warrior with the long tail and Hollyflower was locked in combat with Heatherstar. Wetfoot battled with Berrypaw's mentor. Berrypaw himself charged at Russetpaw. She nipped his tail and hissed, bristling to twice her size. That was enough for the young apprentice, and he tucked his tail between his legs and scarpered. The golden tabby she-cat, Dawnstripe, Russetpaw finally remembered, stalked up to her. Russetpaw hissed, "Thought you'd had enough earlier?" Eyes flashing, she hissed, "Not on my life!" Russetpaw narrowed her eyes and snarled, "So be it."
She dove for Dawnstripe, snarling before clamping her jaws down on the warrior's shoulder. The WindClan cat ripped away from Russetpaw as a yowl came from the center of the fighting, "WindClan! Retreat!" Russetpaw recognized Heatherstar's raspy voice and smiled triumphantly. She caught the long-tailed warrio's eye as he turned away from the battle and stuck out her tongue kittishly. She looked through the ranks of ShadowClan warriors, trying to find Foxpaw. But when she did, she wished she hadn't.
Foxpaw was standing over the brown tabby WindClan cat she'd seen her sister fighting with earlier. He was dead. Even from here, Russetpaw recognized Foxpaw's claw marks. One of her claws had a slight list to it, and every time Russetpaw glanced in a puddle at her face, she would see those claw marks. She padded over to Foxpaw as if it were a sister's green eyes were horrified as she first at the cat she had killed and then down to her bloodied claws. Russetpaw rested her tail on Foxpaw's shoulder, but she flicnhed away and stared open-mouthed into the dark ginger apprentice's eyes.
Heatherstar snapped, "Reedfeather! Where have you gotten to? Reedfeather!" No cat answered her, and she turned around, eyes glittering, and saw that the WindClan tom was dead. The leader gave a cry of despair and ran over to Reedfeather's still form. Russetpaw tried to shove Foxpaw away, but before they could get away , Heatherstar shoved her face into Foxpaw's and hissed, "You've killed my deputy, foxdung!" Foxpaw flattened her ears and lifted her paw, as if expecting the gray she-cat to attack. Raggedstar shoved his way over and spat in Heatherstar's face, "Take him and go! This is what happens when you try and take our territory, remember it. Just think, Clan deputy, killed by an apprentice!" Heatherstar's eyes smoldered with fury, but she had sustained heavy injuries, so she simply dragged her warrior away by the scruff. "Back to camp. Now!" Raggedstar ordered sharply, and the patrol turned to leave.
Russetpaw brushed her fur against Foxpaw's, then dashed over to Oakpaw, who was with Whitepaw a few fox-lengths away. She was still bleeding from the deep scratches on her face." Oakpaw, find some cobwebs." she told him quietly, then started gently cleaning off the blood. The rest of the patrol left without noticing that three of the apprentices weren't with them, and Russetpaw felt a flash of annoyance toward Raggedstar. She dressed Whitepaw's wound with cobwebs as best she could, but she was no medicine cat. " Let's get her back to camp." murmured Oakpaw, and brother and sister dragged her to the dark hollow side by side.
Yellowfang finished dressing her wounds, then sent her from the den to make room; not one of the battle patrol had gotten away unscathed, but Whitepaw was easily the most injured. Littlepaw told Russetpaw that her friend would never be able to see from that eye again. Across the den, Archeye and Littlebird were curled into one nest snugly, wrapped in cobwebs. Russetpaw felt a stab of envy at their closeness. They were always there for each other, had kits, and shared something that Russetpaw had never felt; Love. Sure, she loved her mother, father, sisters and brothers, but it wasn't the same. She wanted to have a mate, to have a littler of kits at her belly. She pushed the thought away; someday, maybe. But not now.
Just then, Raggedstar called, "May all cats old enough to catch their own prey please gather beneath the Great Pine for a Clan meeting!" Whitepaw gave a small sigh of sadness and poked her ravaged head out of the den, and Russetpaw gave her ear a friendly lick as she went out to see what was going on, though it was probably just a report on how the battle went. The Clan gathered, and Raggedstar started the meeting. "Today is a day of triumph," he began, "but also of sadness. Our patrol fought with a great number of WindClan warriors today, when they tried to expand their territory into ours. They tried to take Carrionplace from us, and a good stretch of plain territory as well. But did we let them?" a pawful of voices shouted, "No!" but the rest were painfully silent. "No, we didn't! We fought them, and an apprentice took the life of their deputy!" There were shocked murmurs that rippled through the crowd, and Foxpaw stared at her paws.
"Though their warrior outnumbered us, we are strong, and we fought them off!" Raggedstar growled inspirationally, but his voice dropped to a low note of grief after. "But it was not without a price. All of us were injured, but there is one of us whose life will forever be changed by today's events. Whitepaw." The huge tabby tom raised his head to the stars and informed the Clan, "Whitepaw was blinded and gravely injured by the WindClan warrior Talltail." There were pained gasps from all around, and Russetpaw hung her head. "Whitepaw can never be a warrior." Wait, what? Russetpaw thought angrily. "Raggedstar, no!" she shouted, not really thinking straight. "She may be blind in one eye, but she still has one! I will help her learn to fight again once she's healed. She will be a warrior! She has to be!" Raggedstar looked her over, then dipped his head and said doubtfully, "Very well. You may try to help her learn, Russetpaw, for her mentor will not be able to." Before any cat could question him, he continued, "Littlebird has requested to join Stonetooth in the elder's den, and Archeye will be joining her."
The two cats twined their tail and stood before the Clan with their heads held high, and Russetpaw noticed for the first time the gray around Littlebird's muzzle. "Littlebird, Archeye, is it your wish to give up the name of a warrior and go to join the elders?" The mates said at the same time, "It is." Raggedstar dipped his head respectfully. "The Clan honors you and all the service you have given to the Clan. I call upon StarClan to give you many seasons of rest." They nodded, and Raggedstar continued with the meeting. "Now, today, three cats have proved to me that they deserve an honor that would not normally be bestowed upon them for a few more moons." He looked out over the crowd and met his apprentice's eyes. "Foxpaw proved her excellent fighting skills today, skills that the hardiest warriors were no more than equal to. Oakpaw saved Whitepaw's life in the battle, and she would likely have died without him. But there is another apprentice who has proved her worth today more than the others. Russetpaw brought back an owl on a solo hunting patrol, as most of you know, as well as several more bits of fresh-kill. The owl will feed a good number of us tonight, and I've never heard of a cat bringing down an owl in it's own hollow before, let alone an apprenitce. Russetpaw also aided Oakpaw in saving Whitepaw by fighting off Talltail and preventing him from ending her life. She also fought with several other WindClan warriors and is still mostly unharmed. These three apprentices will now be given warrior status." Raggedstar announced.
There were nods of approval, and Raggedstar began the ceremony that Russetpaw had been waiting for since she's been a kit. She gave her fur a few quick licks, pride swelling in her. "Hollyflower, Wetfoot, are you satisfied that your apprentices are ready to become warriors?" Wetfoot said solemnly, "Yes." while Hollyflower mewed, "Definitely!" Raggedstar smiled and added, "I am also satisfied that Foxpaw is ready to be a warrior." Clearing his throat, he said clearly, "I, Raggedstar, leader of ShadowClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these apprentices. They have worked hard to understand the ways of you noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn. Oakpaw, Foxpaw, Russetpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and to defend this Clan, even at the cost of your own lives?" Oakpaw meowed, "I do." Beside her, Foxpaw said shakily, "I do." Russetpaw then finished, "I do." Raggedstar paused for a moment, perhaps thinking of names for them, then meowed, "Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior names. Oakpaw, from this moment forward you will be known as Oakfur. StarClan honors your bravery and loyalty. Foxpaw, from this moment forward you shall be known as Foxheart. StarClan honors your strength and fighting skill."
Foxheart exchanged a glance with Russetpaw, obviously uncomfortable with her less-than-perfect name; Foxheart made her sound like an evil warrior, not a name to be proud of. "Russetpaw, from this moment forward you will be known as Russetfur. StarClan honors your cunning and hunting ability. We welcome you all as full warriors of ShadowClan." The crowd started to cheer, but Raggedstar waved his tail for silence. "There is one last ceremony for me to perform tonight. Dawncloud's kits have reached their sixth moon, and it is time for them to be apprenticed. Russetfur glanced over to see Nightkit and his littermates looking at once shocked and pleased. "Kits, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day until the day you earn your warrior names, you shall be known as Stumpypaw, Brightpaw, Clawpaw, and Nightpaw. I ask StarClan to watch over you all unti lthe day when you find the courage and strength of warriors in your paws."
"Foxheart, you are ready to take on you first apprentice. You have shown that to me today. You will be Stumpypaw's mentor. I trust you to pass on all the skills and courage I taught you." Foxheart touched noses with the short-tailed apprentice, and Raggedstar continued with the ceremony. "Brightpaw, your mentor will be Oakfur. I'm sure he will teach you not onkly how to be fearless in battle, but also to have compassion for those in need of it." The black and white she-cat touched nose with Oakfur. "I will mentor Clawpaw, and make sure he will be a warrior all of ShadowClan will be proud of." After pausing to touch noses with his new apprentice, he finished, "Russetfur, you will mentor Nightpaw, and teach him all of the skills you possess." With a rush of pleasure at having her friend as an apprentice, she touched noses with him. Russetfur chanted with the rest of the Clan, leaving out her own name, "Littlebird! Archeye! Foxheart! Oakfur! Stumpypaw! Brightpaw! Clawpaw! Nightpaw!" She brushed her dark ginger fur against his black pelt and he said cheekily, "So what next, mentor?"
