Okay here is the next chapter sooner than I thought
Chapter 12
Firepaw nudged Ravenpaw awake from his slumber, the thin black tom blinked sleepily at him from his nest.
"Come on Ravenpaw, it promised you that I would take you to see Scorchpaw tonight." He hissed quietly in his ear. Ravenpaw had been staying in SkyClan for almost a quarter moon. Firepaw had continued with his late night training sessions, with Yellowfang and Scorchpaw but, hadn't taken Ravenpaw with him out of fear that the two might get caught, but Firepaw was confident that this night the two wouldn't get caught sneaking out together. Ravenpaw yawned softly and stretched quietly out of his nest. He murmured for Firepaw to lead him out of camp and followed quietly behind him. Firepaw lead Ravenpaw to the spot near the nursery that Firepaw always used to sneak out of the camp. They moved quickly and silently through the forest keeping a watchful eye out for Smokecloud and Spiderleg who were on guard for the night.
The soon reached the birch tree where he and Scorchpaw had been training with Yellowfang. He could just make out the smooth black and white pelt of Scorchpaw and the larger ragged form of Yellowfang. The she-cat's large orange eyes stared owlishly at them as they approached. Firepaw could see Scorchpaw's excitement of seeing his old friend.
"Ravenpaw it's good to see you, you look better." Scorchpaw meowed happily as he padded forward to greet his friend. 'It is true' Firepaw thought to himself. Even though Ravenpaw hadn't been a part of the SkyClan camp for long he had gained a little weight and wasn't as scrawny as he was when he first came to camp, though he was still quite thin. As the two apprentices caught up with each other, Firepaw came over to speak with Yellowfang, there was something that Firepaw didn't understand about the dark gray she-cat and his curiosity was getting the better of him.
"Yellowfang, may I speak with you?" Firepaw meowed quietly to keep the other apprentices from overhearing their conversation. Yellowfang blinked owlishly at him, the nodded silently moving away from the other two.
"I can see there is something on your mind that you wish to ask me." The older she-cat rasped softly. Firepaw nodded slowly watching the she-cat curiously before speaking what was on his mind.
"Yes, I want to know why you were banished. I don't understand why ShadowClan would banish such an important cat from their camp with no good reason." Firepaw questioned. Yellowfang stared unblinkingly at him, and then gave a raspy purr at the fiery apprentice.
"I wondered when you would ask me why I was banished." She purred. "It isn't a pretty story, but since you asked I will tell you." Firepaw sat down to listen closely to the story. "Not long after Brokenstar came into power in ShadowClan did things begin to change within the Clan. He changed the age that kits could become apprentices to 3 moons instead of 6 moons and he has forced elders to live apart from the clan." Firepaw stared at her in shock.
"But, why would he do that?"
"He feels that all cats should look after themselves and not care for other cats." She hissed softly. "Anyway because he was making kits become apprentices early he took out the kits of one of our queens to train them. Unfortunately he killed them while he was training by giving them wounds; that only warriors should have. By the time they were brought to me, StarClan had already claimed them. Brokenstar blamed me and had me banished." Yellowfang finished with a sad shake of her head. Firepaw could hardly believe what he had heard. Scorchpaw and Ravenpaw who had come over to hear Yellowfang's story also seemed to shiver in fear and disbelief of what they had been told.
"Brokenstar is horrible." Scorchpaw growled. Ravenpaw nodded in agreement.
"What's done is done; all we can do now is to prepare for the future." Yellowfang rasped, "Now I want you to try this move."
The three apprentices's trained through the night with Yellowfang, and headed for their respective dens later into the early morning. Ravenpaw and Firepaw snuck quickly and quietly back into their nests, letting sleep and Longpaw's snoring put them to sleep. When they woke in the morning, Goldenstar had taken the pair out for a hunt until sunhigh, later she had put them both in charge of caring for the elders, something Ravenpaw had been doing often during his stay in SkyClan under the supervision of at least one other cat in camp.
Close to dusk, Firepaw and Ravenpaw had just finished changing the bedding of the elders and were going to gather some fresh-kill for them, when Firepaw noticed something off. He looked around and other than Smokecloud and Spiderfang who had been on guard duty last night he didn't see any other warriors in camp.
"Ravenpaw, when Goldenstar left us, what was she doing?" asked Firepaw nervously.
"She was leading a patrol toward the ThunderClan border; she took Stonetooth, Owltalon, and Dovefeather with her. Ashstorm took out another patrol to check out the RiverClan border with, Lightningstrike, Runningstream and Icefeather. Hawkwing is leading the ShadowClan border patrol with Sootpelt, Grayfeather and Silverwind, and Finchflight went hunting with Mapletail and Longpaw.
"Then who is guarding the camp?" Firepaw nearly screeched in worry. Ravenpaw's eyes widened in the realization, that there may not be any warriors in camp. "Go check the warrior's den." Ravenpaw nodded and quickly raced into the den and coming out looking less worried.
"Smokecloud and Spiderfang are still here, but they're still tired from guard duty." Firepaw yawned a little shaking his pelt in an attempt to shake away his fatigue.
"Yes and Blackflower just moved into the nursery."Firepaw murmured. "These patrols are getting harder to keep track of, I think Ashstorm put too many cats on patrol. Who's in charge of the camp?"
"I guess Smokecloud," Ravenpaw meowed, glancing around noticing for the first time how empty the camp was.
"I'll check the nursery; go see if Fallowpelt is in her den."Firepaw meowed quickly, racing off to look into the nursery. When he got there he saw that Snowfall, Squirrelfur and Blackflower were the only queen's in the den. The three queens looked up in alarm at Firepaw's sudden entrance.
"Is everything alright Firepaw?" Snowfall asked in concern.
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you but I was trying to see who was in camp and who wasn't in the camp the camp is nearly empty." Firepaw explained. The queens gave equal looks of worry and Squirrelfur padded out of the den to take a look. Her sons Stormkit and Rainkit tried to follow her out only to be stopped by Snowfall who gathered them up with her own two kits. FIrepaw saw Sharpkit and Leafkit watching him curiously from their mothers' nests and Sunkit came over to sit beside him. Squirrelfur returned shortly after confirming what Firepaw had said.
"Where are Redflower and Thrushfur?" Firepaw asked
"They went out for a hunt, together not too long ago." Blackflower meowed softly. Leafkit and Sharpkit bounced out of their nests in excitement.
"We can help guard the camp, we're big enough." Sharpkit meowed pointing his tail at Leafkit and Sunkit.
"Can we help too?" meowed Stormkit
"We wanna help guard the camp." meowed Cloverkit.
"You'll do no such thing. None of you are apprentices yet so you won't be guarding camp." Snowfall meowed harshly. "None of you are allowed out of the nursery until one of the patrols comes back."
"Is Fallowpelt here? She can help us guard the camp she used to be a warrior before she became a medicine cat." Squirrelfur meowed curiously.
"Let me check." Firepaw meowed moving out of the nursery, he spotted Ravenpaw making his way over to him.
"Fallowpelt is in her den she is mixing herbs just in case." Ravenpaw panted out. "What should we do now?"
"Let's go feed the elders." Firepaw suggested as he glanced once more around the camp. "They're probably wondering what's taking us so long and there isn't much else we can do." Firepaw quickly made his way over to the fresh-kill pile pulling out a thrush and a magpie, Ravenpaw pulled out a robin and wren; and followed the fiery ginger apprentice toward the elder's den. As Ravenpaw followed he heard the sound of cats entering the tunnel, but breathed in the unmistakable scent of ShadowClan and yowled an alert.
Within an instant the camp had exploded with screeches and yowls, fur was flying and a bitter tasted of blood filled the air. Firepaw grappled with a large brown to with a stumpy tail, and was able to send him racing for the tunnel with a well-placed bite along his spine. Firepaw could see Toadleg and Ivyclaw bravely facing a light gray tom with a black tail. Firepaw spotted a brown tom with a battle scarred face making his way to the nursery. Firepaw raced over to stop him, but was stopped by a silver tabby who knocked Firepaw onto his back. The tom slashed his claws into Firepaw's shoulder and tried to sink his teeth into Firepaw's throat. Firepaw slashed at the tom's stomach with his hind claws, sinking his fangs into the tom's foreleg. He kicked forward with his legs forcing the tom to flip over him landing on his back. Firepaw took the opportunity to rake his claws across his belly. The tom yowled and wrenched himself free racing for the tunnel. Firepaw turned back toward the nursery and saw Ravenpaw trying to fight off the brown tom with a battle scarred face. Firepaw started forward to help him, but a flash of dark ginger fur barreled into the tom before he could reach him. 'Redflower' Firepaw thought as he saw the fierce queen battering the tom with all her fury. Twin flashes of gold raced across the clearing ripping into the battle with ferocity and Firepaw felt relief. 'Goldenstar and Finchflight are back.' Firepaw thought briefly and he raced over to help Longpaw who was pinned beneath a ginger she-cat and sank his teeth into her scruff pulling her off of him allowing Longpaw to score her pelt with his long claws, the she-cat screeched and twisted around trying to get free. Firepaw released her and she took off for the entrance. Firepaw saw Stonetooth grappling with a large white tom with black paws, and Dovefeather fighting a silver gray tom. Firepaw raced over to help Dovefeather when he saw a tortoiseshell she-cat sneaking up behind her. Firepaw pounced landing on the tortoiseshell's back. The she-cat rolled over trying to squash him beneath her. Remembering his training with Yellowfang, Firepaw darted out from underneath the she-cat and raked her belly with his claws. The she-cat thrashed and darted for the tunnel. Firepaw quickly glanced around the camp and saw Smokecloud and Squirrelfur chasing the last few ShadowClan cats out of the camp. The queens quickly raced back into the nursery to check on their kits. Firepaw looked for Ravenpaw and saw him leaving the nursery. Goldenstar climbed the high branch. Firepaw could see her pelt was littered with scratches.
"Is everyone here alright?" she called. The clan meowed confirming that no one had been lost in the fight. "What happened?" Fallowpelt stepped forward.
"Firepaw and Ravenpaw noticed their weren't at least three warriors in the camp, and they both took it upon themselves to make sure that everyone in camp was aware of it, not long later Ravenpaw called out an alert that ShadowClan was attacking." She answered. Goldenstar nodded. Redflower came out of the nursery and padded forward to address the Clan beckoning Ravenpaw forward with her tail as she moved.
"Goldenstar the kits are safe, Ravenpaw protected them from Clawface and helped me guard the nursery from ShadowClan." The red queen spoke firmly "I believe he is sincere in his wish to join our Clan." Stonetooth sniffed.
"He did what any other Clan cat in this forest would have done; kits are protected in the warrior code." He growled. Redflower fixed him with a glare.
"Well if he was spying for ThunderClan what use would he be to them dead? Because that is what would have happened if I hadn't assisted him." She hissed in fury. Firepaw remembered that Clawface was close to delivering a kill bite to Ravenpaw before Redflower attacked him. Stonetooth glared back at the red queen, but didn't say anything else. Just then the other patrols came barreling through the tunnel. Hawkwing's patrol had returned, from their border patrol, with their pelts covered with scratches and bite marks, while Ashstorm's patrol looked fine. Goldenstar padded over to address the two patrols.
"The camp was attacked while we were gone, ShadowClan could still be in the forest. Ashstorm take your patrol out to check and make sure they are gone." Ashstorm nodded in understanding rounding up the cats in his patrol and storming out into the forest. Goldenstar turned her attention onto Hawkwing. "Did your patrol run into ShadowClan?"
"Yes, but I don't think it was the same group that attacked the camp. We just got finished fighting them off before we returned to the Camp, we didn't encounter any others on our way back, but we smelt ShadowClan near the camp entrance." Hawkwing answered, the licked a scratch on his shoulder.
"You and the others should go let Fallowpelt check your wounds." She told him, calling for Fallowpelt who had finished looking at the apprentices' wounds. The brown tabby she-cat bounded over to the patrol, she had a few scratches on her pelt, which showed she had participated in the fight that had occurred. Goldenstar padded away to look at the other cats in their clearing as they licked each other's wounds, reassuring each other after a terrible invasion of the camp. She let her amber gaze fall on Ravenpaw, who had come to sit between Firepaw and Longpaw, and watched the three apprentices as they talked about the battle, waiting patiently for Fallowpelt to come treat her wounds. Dovefeather padded up to the trio of apprentices and looked expectantly at Firepaw.
"Hello Dovefeather," Firepaw meowed a little hesitantly.
"Hello Firepaw, I wanted to thank you for watching my back and apologize for the way I've been acting, I don't like being treated as if I'm incapable of looking after myself, and having you and Lightningstrike fighting over who is the better protector of me made me feel as though you thought I couldn't take care of myself. I was hoping we could be friends again." She finished, looking hopeful. Firepaw watched her and nodded slowly as if not fully believing her.
"Yes I'd like that." Firepaw meowed at last. Dovefeather purred happily lying down beside the ginger apprentice to hear what happened before the attack.
Near moonhigh, the patrol had returned with no other sightings of ShadowClan. Which comforted the cats a little, but everyone was still surprised that ShadowClan had made it that far into their territory without anyone seeing them. Goldenstar leaped onto the High branch to call a clan meeting.
"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join underneath the High Branch for a clan meeting." She called out. The clan gathered in the clearing looking up at Goldenstar from her position on the High Branch.
"Cats of SkyClan, it is clear that ShadowClan has become a serious threat to our Clan, however this does not mean that I want to simply give them what they want." Cats yowled in agreement. Goldenstar waited for silence before speaking once more. "There were too many cats out today and this is only because I had cats defending the RiverClan and ThunderClan borders. These borders still need to be defended but not with the large patrols we took out today. For now one we will be keeping a closer eye on the ShadowClan border, smaller patrols will watch the other borders, until ShadowClan is no longer a threat "The cats meowed their agreement.
"For now we will work on repairs, and I want the nursery reinforced. We will begin repairs immediately, but before I end this meeting there are a few things I must do." She meowed, she fixed her amber gaze on Ravenpaw beckoning the dark apprentice to come forward. "Ravenpaw, you fought bravely to defend our Clan and risked your life to protect our kits. I would like to extend to you the chance to join SkyClan as a true apprentice." Ravenpaw stared in surprise, and warmly bowed his head to the golden leader.
"I accept, ThunderClan is no longer the clan I trust, SkyClan is my home now it is an honor to be a part of it." He meowed. Many clanmates yowled in approval, but Firepaw could see that some of the Clan was still reluctant to except the former ThunderClan apprentice into the Clan. Goldenstar nodded in acceptance as well.
"I call upon my warrior ancestors to give this apprentice a new mentor. Ravenpaw, you have lost your first mentor, so your new mentor will be Hawkwing. "Goldenstar meowed as she beckoned the large brown tabby over.
"Hawkwing, you are now ready to take on another apprentice. You will be mentor to Ravenpaw, you have shown yourself to be a warrior of Strength and Patience. I'm sure you will pass on all you know to this apprentice." She finished. Ravenpaw shivered a little as he looked up at the large tabby tom, but relaxed a little when he saw Hawkwing give him a reassuring look and touched noses with him.
"Ravenpaw, Ravenpaw, Ravenpaw" the clan chanted. Ravenpaw followed his new mentor to wait for the meeting to end. Goldenstar raised her tail for silence.
"There is one more thing I must do before this meeting is over. Firepaw and Longpaw step forward. Goldenstar leaped from the High Branch to stand before the two apprentices.
"Firepaw, because of yours and Ravenpaw's quick actions you allowed the Clan to be prepared for the attack on the camp, and you as well as you Longpaw fought bravely to defend the camp and I feel the time has come for you both to be made warriors." Firepaw nearly dropped his jaw is shock and Longpaw could only lift his chin in pride.
Goldenstar turned to look at Finchflight," are you satisfied that your apprentice is ready to become a warrior?"Finchflight nodded, the pride in his eyes unmasked.
"Yes, he is ready" Goldenstar nodded in acceptance and turned her attention back to Longpaw.
"I Goldenstar, leader of SkyClan call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn."
"Longpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?"
"I do "Longpaw voiced with barely contained excitement.
"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Longpaw, from now on, you will be known as Longclaw. SkyClan welcomes you as a full warrior." Goldenstar touched her muzzle to Longpaw's head as he leaned over to lick Goldenstar's shoulder. He then padded over to stand beside his former mentor and watched Firepaw with excitement. Firepaw watched Goldenstar's shining amber gaze fall onto his bright emerald eyes.
"I Goldenstar, leader of SkyClan call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn."
"Firepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?"
"I do" Firepaw meowed with determination.
"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Firepaw, from now on, you will be known as…"
Sorry to leave it as a cliffhanger, but I can't decide what Firepaw's warrior name should be. I believe that cat would get a different name if they live in a different clan that's why I didn't name him Fireheart.
So far the names I have come up with that I like are: Fireblaze, Firestorm, Firebird, Firefang, Firestrike, Firelight, and Firehawk. I've decided to let some of you tell me which I should pick or you can give me a name that I can consider.