What if I DID own Warriors? This would happen in the 1st series…
Chapter 1 – Into the Wild
Rusty padded into the forest. The day before he had met a she-cat in the forest who had told him about groups of wild cats that lived in the forest: SkyClan, ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan and ShadowClan, and she was called Birdstar, leader of SkyClan.
Then she had asked whether he wanted to join SkyClan!
Rusty had said yes, and she had told him to meet her deputy today! Rusty gazed in awe at the swirling, dappled patterns the light made as it shone through the leaves. Bird song chimed over the rustling of the green leaves of newleaf, and Rusty's paws padded softly on the flat forest floor. There was not much undergrowth, but the tree branches were in leaping distance, although only just.
"You need to use your nose more, kittypet," a voice growled, and Rusty whipped around in surprise, to find that Leafblade, the deputy, was standing a tail-length from him.
"I-I'm sorry," Rusty stammered, and the deputy's eyes softened slightly.
"You must learn that when you become an apprentice," Leafblade meowed, and Rusty felt a thrill run through him. Apprentice! "How old are you, exactly?" he asked curiously.
"Six moons," Rusty meowed.
"Exactly?" Leafblade blinked when Rusty nodded. "Well, you're the exact age a kit needs to be to become an apprentice. Anyway," he gave his dark tabby pelt a shake, "time to go."
Then, without warning, he bounded away. Rusty leaped after him, his paws thudding on the floor.
They pounded towards a huge clump of gorse bushes. Leafblade ran confidently towards it without breaking pace, and Rusty wondered whether they were going to crash into it.
He was about to veer away, until he noticed a tunnel in the gorse, sloping downward.
They ran down it, and burst out. Rusty gasped. It was a hidden hollow in the ground! The gorse walls surrounding it were curved over at the top, making it look like it wasn't hollow inside.
Cats were milling around, sharing prey or grooming themselves.
"What are they doing?" Rusty asked, his voice hushed with awe. And he had used to think that these cats were savages!
"Sharing tongues," Leafblade meowed, completely unimpressed by the camp. "At sunhigh, like today, cats groom each other and share news. It is an important custom for our Clan, and is a way of bonding."
Rusty nodded.
"That is the warriors' den," Leafblade pointed with his tail to a bush with low, spreading branches and sweet-smelling white flowers. "The apprentices' den is in that fern bush. The elders' den and the nursery are in bramble thickets, the medicine den is in that hollow between the roots of the oak tree, and the leaders' den is in the hollow in the roots of the willow tree."
Rusty memorised each den. He wondered whether he'd remember all the cats.
"You think there are so many cats?" Leafblade asked, as if he'd known what the kittypet was thinking. He sounded amused. "We haven't had any kits in a while, and our Clan is quite small."
Rusty blinked.
"Birdstar is coming," he meowed suddenly.
Rusty opened his mouth, and the Clan leader's scent hit his scent glands. A few heartbeats later, she slipped out of the dark gap in between the roots of the willow tree. Her head and shoulders pushed the low-hanging willow branches aside; they created a curtain over the trunk.
She padded over to the two cats standing in the mouth of the gorse tunnel.
"He came," she purred to Leafblade.
"He seems strong," Leafblade meowed, and Rusty felt proud that the deputy had complimented him.
"Are you ready?" Birdstar asked.
Rusty felt that he had something caught in his throat, stopping him breathing. He nodded.
Birdstar held his gaze for a few heartbeats, and Rusty saw the wisdom in her golden gaze... something deep she knew.
Then she turned and bounded over to a thorn tree covered in green leaf buds, growing beside the willow tree.
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Skythorn for a Clan meeting!" Birdstar called, her words ringing through the camp like bird song.
Leafblade led Rusty forward, until they were in front of Birdstar's branch. Then he bounded onto the biggest of the enormous tree roots jutting out of the floor.
The cats crowded around Rusty, and he felt his pelt burn with all the confused stares.
"SkyClan," Birdstar began, "we all know how little warriors we have, and not many apprentices, so -"
"But this doesn't mean we have to take in a kittypet!" a cat spat from behind Rusty. He swivelled his head around and saw a beautiful young she-cat, with silver fur, darker ears and tail-tip. She looked the same age as him. Her blue eyes, glaring up at Birdstar, flashed like ice.
"Be quiet, Icepaw!" a cat standing beside her, hissed. Rusty guessed it was her mentor. The cat was a dark tortoiseshell with amber eyes, and her pelt contrasted with Icepaw's pale grey fur.
Birdstar twitched her tail. "StarClan has given me a sign that he must join!" she called over the muttering of her Clan.
They fell silent immediately, shocked. Rusty stared at Birdstar in amazement. A sign? Why hadn't she told him?
"A kittypet can't learn the warrior code!" a cat spat, Rusty looked at the black tom with dark-blue eyes. He was standing beside a blue-grey and white she-cat. "Once a kittypet, always a kittypet!"
"I can learn!" Rusty flashed back, his fur bristling.
The black cat flashed his eyes mockingly. "Sure, why don't you go and catch some Twoleg pellets for us? Not likely!"
Rusty stiffened. Leafblade padded through the crowd until he stood right next to the ginger tom.
"The black tom is Shadowfur," he murmured in Rusty's ear. "You must show him - all of them - that you can learn."
"How?" Rusty mewed in desperation, he turned around, but Leafblade had gone back to the tree root.
Rusty craned his neck. Shadowfur was quite close...
"You won't survive the next leaf-bare!" Shadowfur crowed. "Kittypets are the softest cats - you probably won't last half of what a kit could do in battle!"
Rusty felt anger stirring inside him. A low growl came from his throat. He pounced.
He barrelled into Shadowfur; the black warrior was thrown off balance by the unexpected attack. Rusty leaped forward, slashing his claws. Shadowfur dodged with alarming speed; he swung his body weight around and knocked the ginger kittypet to the ground.
Rusty felt Shadowfur's weight on him, squashing him, as he pinned Rusty to the ground.
Rusty, thinking furiously, went limp, and Shadowfur relaxed his hold, yowling triumphantly.
Rusty pushed forwards with all his strength; his forepaws snagged in soft belly fur and he swung them down with all his might.
Shadowfur howled and fell back. Rusty jumped on top of him, pinning him down.
"Rusty has won!" Birdstar bounded forwards, knocking them both apart. "Rusty has won a battle for his honour." she continued, gazing around at each of the cats. "He has a Clan cat's spirit, and he will be trained as an apprentice."
Rusty felt another thrill run through him.
He gazed at the other cats, and saw them looking at him with new respect in their eyes.
"Until he has earned his warrior name," Birdstar meowed clearly, "this apprentice will be named Firepaw, in honour of his flame-coloured pelt." As she said it, a shaft of sunlight shone down on Rusty's - no, Firepaw's, fur, making it blaze like flame.
The new apprentice raised his head with pride, enjoying the warmth of the sun.
"We have so few warriors in our Clan," Birdstar meowed, "so I will mentor him." Shocked gasps came from the Clan, and Firepaw's eyes flew wide with astonishment. "I will ensure that he becomes a warrior SkyClan will be proud of!"
She bent her head, and murmured quietly in Firepaw's ear, "I will help you fulfil the prophecy. Fire will save the Clan."
She said it so quietly, Firepaw wondered whether he'd heard her right.
"Now, there are three other apprentices who were apprenticed this morning." she meowed louder, to the whole Clan. Firepaw saw she was looking at Icepaw - oh, no! - and two other cats who looked like her brother and sister.
"Since they have done nothing but clear bedding for the day, all four of the newest apprentices will go on a border patrol with their mentors." Firepaw felt excitement coursing through him. "They will be able to see the territory, too."
Leafblade stretched, and padded over to a brown tabby, mewing something to him. Then the whole Clan broke up, doing their own things, while a small cluster of warriors gathered around the deputy.