Author's Note: This chapter also has a mild cliffhanger. But since _ is in this, I think it's fine ;) I didn't want to spoil the surprise of what would happen, especially _!

Please read & review, but most of all enjoy!

Chapter 13 | Warrior

Lightningpaw took a deep breath, glancing between Stormstar and Sparrowstar. He suddenly started doubting his plan but there was no time to do anything but go through with it. He opened his mouth… "Neither."

"What?!" Claystar growled, infuriated. "You don't choose either of them? Well, I suppose we'll kill them both."

This was the moment Lightningpaw had been waiting for. He tensed his muscles as Claystar opened his mouth to give the order… and leaped. He quickly pinned Claystar down and he couldn't escape, despite his angry thrashing.

Lightningpaw glared up at the ThornClan warriors. "You want your leader? Come and get him."

The ThornClan warriors glanced hesitantly between Stormstar, Sparrowstar, and Claystar. They couldn't get Claystar back without Lightningpaw being able to hurt him first. "We choose Claystar," Riverclaw announced eventually. Seedclaw and Swallowtail nodded in agreement. Lightningpaw let Claystar up. Claystar gave Lightningpaw a murderous look but limped away.

Lightningpaw dashed over to his mentor and father. Stormstar dusted himself off and praised, "That was amazing, Son! You just defeated an entire patrol of ThornClan warriors and you didn't hurt anyone! You are definitely more than worthy of your warrior name!"

"Yeah," Sparrowstar agreed. "It's been an honor mentoring you, Lightningpaw. You're the greatest apprentice I've ever trained."

Lightningpaw felt overwhelmed, proud, and elated, all at the same time as he bounded back to camp. I'm a warrior! He'd be able to pursue his destiny and rebuild WaterClan! Soon it would be back to its former glory, led by Lightningpaw himself!

As Lightningpaw gave himself a quick grooming, Stormstar leaped onto the Great Rock. "Let all wolves old enough to catch their own prey gather here for a Clan meeting!"

This is it, Lightningpaw thought. The moment I've been working towards all my life. I'm going to be a warrior.

Quailfur appeared, as did many other MoonClan wolves. Cloverpaw and Mousepaw smiled at Lightningpaw warmly, and Oakfur gave him a dipped head. Swiftbreeze and Yellowtail beamed at him, too proud for words.

Stormstar gazed down at his son with pride. "Lightningpaw, come here."

Lightningpaw was too excited to walk normally, and he scampered like a cub over to the Great Rock.

"I, Stormstar, former leader of WaterClan, call upon my ancestors to look down on this apprentice," Stormstar began. Lightningpaw finally realized that he was almost a warrior. A warrior! Stormstar continued, "He has trained hard to learn the ways of your noble code, and I commend him as a warrior to you in his turn."

He turned to Lightningpaw. "Lightningpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Lightningpaw swallowed, but his voice came out strongly as he made the vow that would shape the rest of his life. "I do."
"Then by the power of MoonClan, I give you your warrior name. Lightningpaw, from this moment on you shall be known as Lightningclaw. MoonClan honors your bravery and loyalty, and we welcome you as a full member of WaterClan."

Stormstar rested his head on Lightningclaw's shoulder, and Lightningclaw licked his father's shoulder lovingly.

"Lightningclaw! Lightningclaw!" The MoonClan warriors chanted and cheered Lightningclaw's new name. Eventually they all returned to MoonClan, except for Quailfur. Her eyes shone.

"Son, you will never know how proud I am of you right now," she said lovingly. "Rebuilding WaterClan is your destiny, but enjoy life, too. There is a reason for sweet honey and beautiful days." With that, she too faded away into the twilight, smiling gently.

The lions smiled at him. "Great job, Lightningclaw," Yellowtail praised. "Now you can move your nest into the warriors' den."

"Yeah," Lightningclaw joked. "I spent so much time on that den that it would be a waste for me to not use it."

Swiftbreeze laughed. "Well, do you want to have some fresh-kill and get started on your vigil?"

"Absolutely," Lightningclaw said. He ate a mouse and then settled down in front of the camp for his silent vigil.

As the sun rose over the WaterClan camp, Lightningclaw knew that his vigil was almost over. But it wouldn't be over until one of the lions told him it was over, and they hadn't emerged from their dens yet. But Lightningclaw was fine with that; it gave him more time to watch over the peaceful camp.

Yellowtail padded out of the warriors' den, squinting against the bright morning sun. "I think your vigil is over, Lightningclaw."

Lightningclaw got up, stretching his muscles.

Swiftbreeze appeared in the clearing. "There's a new warrior in the camp! Congratulations, Lightningclaw!"

Lightningclaw dipped his head. "Thank you, Swiftbreeze. Let's do patrols. Yellowtail, could you hunt by the Old Pine? And I'll patrol the FrostClan border."

"Sure!" Yellowtail agreed, and dashed off into the woods.

"Lightningclaw, could you also get some chervil?" Swiftbreeze asked. "It only grows along the FrostClan border and I don't feel safe going there by myself."

"Of course." He knew what chervil looked like and anyways, Swiftbreeze was smart enough to know that with FrostClan's hostile behavior, she wouldn't be safe along the border.

With newfound confidence, Lightningclaw jumped over the camp thorn barrier and dashed through the forest, feeling the energy course through his paws. Soon, he was patrolling the FrostClan border. He noticed something off right away. The FrostClan scent markings were much farther into WaterClan territory than they should be. Lightningclaw let out a low growl. So FrostClan had decided to indirectly invade, huh? He would teach them a lesson. Lightningclaw was a warrior now and nothing was going to stand in his way, and definitely not FrostClan, those dishonorable wolves. They weren't even worthy of the wolf name. FrostClan deserved to be called rats, not wolves.

Lightningclaw sniffed the markings. They were just stale enough that he knew he wouldn't be able to catch the patrol; they were probably already at camp. Instead, he drenched the markings in WaterClan scent and bounded to the real border, which connected to the Howl Time place. There he set the real markings extra-strong and picked off a good clump of chervil for Swiftbreeze.

With one final sniff, Lightningclaw determined that no FrostClan warriors were around, and headed back to camp. This was a definite problem, but he wouldn't dare face the whole of FrostClan without Yellowtail. Even he had his limits, and he didn't want to test them. Lightningpaw sniffed contemptuously as he raced through the forest and jumped over a fallen log. FrostClan and ThornClan just wouldn't stop at anything for more territory.

When he returned to camp, Swiftbreeze was there, soaking horsetail and then letting them dry in the sun. She looked up at Lightningclaw. "Awesome! You got lots of chervil!" She took the herbs and carefully tucked them away in her den.

When she came back into the clearing, Lightningclaw updated her as to what had happened while he patrolled. Swiftbreeze stiffened and let out a low growl, the black fur on her spine prickling angrily. "FrostClan. I should've known they would try to avoid a conflict, the cowards."

Lightningclaw agreed wholeheartedly with her. "Yes. We need to teach them a lesson."

Yellowtail returned from hunting, and Lightningclaw filled her in on what had happened. She had almost the same reaction as Swiftbreeze, growling, "I can't believe that they still want more territory. They've got way more than we do! We need to tell them that they can't invade and make sure they understand."

"But we can't invade their camp," Swiftbreeze warned. "That's barbaric. We need to meet a patrol and make sure they understand."

"How do we make sure that we'll be patrolling when they patrol?" asked Yellowtail thoughtfully. "We could set a guard, but that's risky and it probably won't be worth it."

"We'll just have to patrol more often and hope we get lucky," Lightningclaw growled. "I was planning on upping the patrols anyways. Swiftbreeze, I know you're important as is, but I was thinking that you need battle training."

"That's true," Swiftbreeze replied, appearing not to be offended. "If I have battle training, then I can patrol with Yellowtail."

"Yeah," Yellowtail agreed, "I wouldn't feel safe on my own."

"Everyone get some fresh-kill," Lightningclaw ordered, "and meet me in the training hollow at sunhigh."

Swiftbreeze ducked a paw swipe from Yellowtail and lunged for her legs. Yellowtail saw her come and neatly avoided the tackle. Swiftbreeze staggered to get her balance back, but Yellowtail was already on her, pinning.

"Alright, stop!" called Lightningclaw from the edge of the training hollow. He walked towards the lions. "Swiftbreeze, that tackle was a good move, but if you try it, you'll have to be fast or wait until your opponent is unbalanced."

Swiftbreeze nodded, struggling to get her breath back.

Lightningclaw turned to Yellowtail. "That was very good, dodging like that, but don't delay. Swiftbreeze could've escaped if you were a millisecond slower."

Yellowtail conceded, "All right. Can we do two-on-one practice against you? Lions against wolves? Swiftbreeze and I need to get used to working with each other."

"Yes, we'll do that." Lightningclaw crouched down in an offensive position. Yellowtail lashed her tail, fine-tuning her balance. Swiftbreeze bunched her hindquarters, ready to leap.

"Start!" growled Lightningclaw. In an instant, he'd pinned Yellowtail. He planted a paw on her and started for Swiftbreeze, but she was gone. He looked around, catching a glimpse of black fur-

Both lions surged into Lightningclaw. Swiftbreeze had managed to release Yellowtail, and they battered Lightningclaw with pretend swipes. Lightningclaw's mind worked furiously, looking for weak spots.

He tucked his head and rolled out of their grasp, and before Yellowtail knew what had happened, Lightningclaw was on top of Swiftbreeze. The two lions' eyes met, and they knew what to do. Swiftbreeze suddenly took the offensive, battering Lightningclaw with her forepaws. Yellowtail snuck up behind him and at the same time, Swiftbreeze bucked Lightningclaw and Yellowtail pinned his head and forepaws while Swiftbreeze controlled his back end.
There was silence as the lions searched for signs of breaking free and Lightningclaw looked for weak spots in his opponents' guard.

Lightningclaw surged upward, knocking both lions off, and with a forepaw each he pinned the lions' chests. Swiftbreeze looked at Yellowtail, more incapacitated than herself; Lightningclaw had thought correctly that Yellowtail was more of a threat.

Swiftbreeze slowly moved her paw towards Lightningclaw's back leg, and then in one quick movement, hooked it out and rolled him onto his stomach, pinning his paws and his legs. Yellowtail quietly sat on his head. The wolf beneath them was still, and then he said, "Do you want to end the fight now or should I break out?"

"Break out," Yellowtail chose. With a roar, Lightningclaw reared and the lions were knocked off. Swiftbreeze realized with a jolt that Lightningclaw had been going easy on them, probably for learning purposes.

"Great job, guys!" Lightningclaw enthused. "You two work really well together."

The next morning, the lions and Lightningclaw patrolled FrostClan together. Lightningclaw scouted ahead while the lions carefully checked the border and renewed the scent markings extra-strong.

There was a yowl from up ahead, and Swiftbreeze glanced at Yellowtail. "Let's go!" Yellowtail hissed, and the lions raced ahead.

"Race you," Swiftbreeze whispered.

"You're on!" Yellowtail laughed. They zoomed ahead even faster but in the end, Swiftbreeze's lighter body won. But she didn't have a chance to enjoy her victory as they plunged into battle with a FrostClan patrol. Suddenly the wolves drew back, revealing Lightningclaw pinned under thirteen enormous warriors. They watched as he exhaled and the warriors pressed harder, choking him.

"Let Lightningclaw go!" Swiftbreeze demanded.

A snow-white she-wolf with dangerous blue eyes stepped forward. Snowstar! Yellowtail realized with a gulp. Snowstar wasn't known for her skill in battle, but for her ruthlessness and willingness to fight dirty. Snowstar hissed in an icy voice, "If you value your warrior, then concede your territory to FrostClan."

The warriors on top of Lightningclaw pressed harder and his eyes bulged, looking pleadingly at the two lions.

Yellowtail felt frozen. She would never forgive herself if she let Lightningclaw die; but then again WaterClan might never recover without any territory. Her mouth opened soundlessly and she looked back and forth.

Snowstar's eyes glittered dangerously. "You'll notice that Claystar gave Lightningclaw almost the same choice. Pick now, or ThornClan and FrostClan together will annihilate you."

With a sneer, she added, "And this time, nobody's going to save you."

A/N: Ooh, I wonder what's going to happen! :)