"Brightfire! Brightfire!"

The jubilant cries of her clanmates voices filled her ears and a warm feeling of joy spread throughout the torbie she-cat's chest. A purr rumbled from deep in her throat as she gazed up at her leader with proud eyes, lifting her chin high. Redstar looked down upon her and her fellow newly named warriors.

"Tonight, you shall sit vigil in silence, as all warriors who came before you have done," the russet-furred tom bellowed, a satisfied gleam in his emerald eyes.

"And give us a good night's rest!" remarked one of the older warriors, as the clan's cheers died down into purrs of amusement. Brightfire flexed her claws, feeling energy and excitement pulse through her. A warrior at last! The moons leading up to this moment had been long and tiresome; her mentor, Leafgaze, had been strict and trying, often pushing Brightfire to her limit. It was thanks to him, though, that she'd passed her assessment with flying colours, and now had the skills of a true warrior to show for all her hard work.

Her eyes flickered towards the apprentices, Silverpaw and Juniperpaw, who sat a few tail lengths away. Silverpaw's grey eyes were wide with excitement and the tip of her tail twitched; no doubt she was imagining what her own warrior ceremony would be like, although that day wouldn't be for a few moons. Juniperpaw, however, was glaring at his paws, his ears flattened against his skull.

Suddenly, Brightfire's happiness was replaced with sympathy for the golden tom. Juniperpaw's mentor had been his father, Lionstar. AmberClan had had an abundance of apprentices this season, and Lionstar had stepped in to mentor his only son when no other warrior was available. The former leader had been a kind and patient mentor, encouraging Juniperpaw to do his best when others would have seen him as a lost cause.

However, less than a moon earlier, the valiant leader had perished in a border battle with TwilightClan. The rain that night had been heavy, pounding down on the screeching cats as they flew at one another and sent mud spraying up while lightning lit the sky. The stream that marked the border between the two clans had overflown, and in the midst of the battle Lionstar had fallen in to the frigid black waters. Brightfire, only an apprentice then, had witnessed it all, but returned with not a scratch on her to give Juniperpaw the bad news. Since then, Juniperpaw had fallen behind in his training, despite that Redstar had replaced Lionstar as his mentor, and had not been able to receive his warrior name with her and his littermates.

After the chorus of cheers died down, Brightfire padded over to Juniperpaw and gave his ear a gentle lick. "I'm sure it'll be any day you get your name, Juniperpaw!" she reassured him, pressing her side to his.

"Yeah, right!"

A scathing voice behind her made Brightfire's fur bristle. She turned to face the rowan-furred tom that sauntered up to them, a sneer spread across his face.

"Juniperkit would be better as fox bedding than a warrior!"

Brightfire hissed, but it was Silverpaw who spoke up.

"Leave him alone, Cardinalclaw! Juniperpaw'll make as good a warrior as any!" the young apprentice spat, her eyes blazing as she defended her friend.

Cardinalclaw's eyes glinted. "Shut up, mouse!" he growled, his tail fluffing up as Silverpaw continued to glare at him with a defiant expression. The broad-shouldered warrior focused his attention back on Juniperpaw. "If he's so great, why didn't Redstar make him a warrior today? Even our own leader can tell how useless he is!"

"That's enough, Cardinalclaw," Brightfire warned, her voice steady but still threatening. "Or do I need to teach you another lesson?"

That seemed to get his attention. When she was still an apprentice, Brightfire had taken on all four of Cardinalclaw and his cronies – Larksong, Dovestrike, and Thrushwing – for her warrior assessment. With Leafgaze's training, sending them hurling face-dirt into the dust had been a cinch. Even her mentor, so often difficult to please, had been surprised, and taken to calling her the invincible apprentice with an affectionate purr. Cardinalclaw was still sore about losing to her.

"Whatever!" he sneered, making sure to whip the tip of his tail against Juniperpaw's nose before he sulked off.

Brightfire sighed and let her muzzle rest against Juniperpaw's cheek. He looked more miserable now than he had before, his whiskers drooping towards the camp floor. "Don't listen to him."

"He's right, though," came Juniperpaw's sullen reply, "I failed my assessment. It'll be ages before Redstar thinks I'm ready again, and by then you'll be moons into being a warrior. Silverpaw will be a warrior before I am!"

"It wasn't your fault you failed," Brightfire argued softly. How could it have been? The whole clan had mourned Lionstar's passing, but none so much as his son. Lionstar and Juniperpaw had been extremely close, and his father's death had shaken the young tom to his very core. "Redstar understands that. No one expects you to have the skills of a seasoned warrior just yet," she continued, laying her tail across his shoulders.

Silverpaw nodded her agreement, "You'll be a warrior soon, Juniperpaw!" she promised, grey eyes bright. "Cardinalclaw's a mousebrain."

Juniperpaw opened his mouth to reply, but his words were silenced as a loud yowl split the air.

Heads turned towards the camp entrance, where a small brown apprentice burst in panting. Brightfire immediately recognized Fawnpaw, one of the younger apprentices, despite that her fur was ruffled up and scratched with burrs.

"Fawnpaw," Redstar called, jumping down from where he'd been sat on the rocks above his nest to oversee the naming ceremonies. "What is it?"

"There's been an attack!" Fawnpaw squeaked, her voice shrill. Immediately meows of discontent began spreading through the cats. Brightfire watched Honeynose, a calico queen, hurriedly usher her kits back into the nursery despite their protests, and Cardinalclaw pushed himself to the front of the gathering warriors as if to state his importance.

Redstar quickly silenced his clan with a sweep of his tail. "Where is Gorseclaw?" he demanded, turning back to Fawnpaw. Gorseclaw, AmberClan's deputy, was Fawnpaw's mentor. Brightfire shivered when she noticed he had not followed his frightened apprentice in.

"He's by the TwilightClan border," Fawnpaw blurted, visibly shaking. "We were hunting, and we split up, and – and –"

"Slowly," Redstar murmured, padding forwards. "Fetch Whiterabbit," he added to a blue-grey she-cat, Mistystep, beside him. Brightfire watched the senior warrior rush over to the medicine cat's den, her tail disappearing behind the curtain of lichen that hung over the entrance.

Fawnpaw gulped, her eyes wide as if the horror of what she'd seen was still fresh in her mind. "I went closer to the border," she explained, "but when I got there, all I could smell was the stench of blood!" Once more, shocked murmurs rose up. Fawnpaw trembled as she wailed words Brightfire had never hoped to hear.

"Amberfall is dead!"