River Of Fire

CHAPTER 19

Twigpaw’s heart was pounding uncomfortably as she left the camp and padded into the forest with Sparkpelt by her side.

I know I’m ready to become a warrior, she thought. I don’t think I can bear it if it doesn’t happen today. Suppose something goes wrong? I’m so tired of waiting!

She knew that somewhere in the forest Finpaw was doing his assessment under Larksong’s watchful gaze, but there was no sign of them now, only a fading scent trail from when they had headed out shortly before.

To begin with, Sparkpelt took the old Twoleg path that led to the abandoned den, but before they reached it, she veered off into the undergrowth and halted beside a bramble thicket.

“Right,” she meowed. “I want you to catch as much prey as you can by sunhigh. You won’t see me, but I’ll be watching you.”

This is it! Twigpaw struggled to keep her voice steady as she replied. “Okay, Sparkpelt.”

Her mentor’s stern gaze suddenly softened. “No need to be nervous,” she meowed cheerfully. “You’re an excellent hunter, and hedgehogs will fly if you don’t pass this assessment.” With that she turned and rapidly disappeared among the ferns.

Twigpaw stared after her. Since her return to ThunderClan, she had felt that Sparkpelt didn’t like her much, and hadn’t wanted to be her mentor. Now she was heartened by Sparkpelt’s praise, and her confidence flowed back like a stream released from the ice of leaf-bare.

I can do this!

Parting her jaws to taste the air, Twigpaw picked up the scent of vole, and located it underneath a nearby holly bush. She fell into the hunter’s crouch, then crept forward until she was close enough to pounce, and she killed the vole with a swift bite to its neck.

“Thank you, StarClan, for this prey,” she murmured.

The easy catch made Twigpaw feel even more confident. Gazing around her at the sunlit forest, glowing with the reds and golds of leaf-fall, she felt energy filling her like rain filling up a dip in the ground.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” she mewed aloud.

Sunhigh was approaching, and as Twigpaw waited for her mentor to return, she felt satisfied with her hunt. She had caught several more pieces of prey, scratching earth over them until she was ready to carry them back to camp.

Now Twigpaw spotted a blackbird that had alighted on an ivy-covered tree stump in a clearing just ahead of her. Making sure that her tail was low and still, she stalked carefully toward it.

At the last moment, the blackbird took off. Twigpaw leaped, remembering the trick Sparkpelt had shown her for hunting birds, and aimed her body above where she could see the blackbird. She intercepted it easily, and landed with the bird in her jaws.

Just as Twigpaw turned, carrying the blackbird, she heard the rustling sound of something racing through the undergrowth. Dropping her prey, she picked up the scent of rabbit, and not just that.

There’s something else. Twigpaw drew in a deep breath to taste the air. Finpaw’s scent, too!

A heartbeat later, the rabbit shot out of a bank of ferns and raced across the clearing toward Twigpaw. Finpaw was hard on its paws. The rabbit let out a squeal of terror as it spotted Twigpaw right in front of it, and it veered aside, but Twigpaw was too fast for it. With a massive leap, she slammed a paw down on its hind legs, while Finpaw pounced on its shoulders and bit its throat to kill it.

“Great catch!” A voice came from behind Twigpaw.

She turned to see Larksong emerging from the undergrowth with Sparkpelt just behind him.

“You’ve both hunted very well,” Larksong continued.

Sparkpelt nodded. “We’re especially impressed by your teamwork, catching that rabbit,” she meowed. “And, Larksong, did you see the way Twigpaw caught that bird? I couldn’t have done better myself.”

Twigpaw felt almost embarrassed at the gleam of approval in her mentor’s eyes. Pride warmed her from ears to tail-tip, particularly when she remembered how she and Sparkpelt had gotten off on the wrong paw.

Sparkpelt thinks much better of me now. I must really be doing well!

As Twigpaw and her Clanmates returned to the camp, laden with the prey the two apprentices had caught, Lilyheart and Ivypool came bounding up to them.

“We were watching for you,” Lilyheart meowed. “It looks as if you had a good hunt.”

“We knew you’d do well,” Ivypool added.

Twigpaw was purring so hard she had to let her prey drop. It meant a lot to her, to be praised by the cat who had mothered her and her first mentor in ThunderClan. She left her kits in camp, just so she could wait to congratulate me!

“Let me take that.” Ivypool collected her catch and carried it off to the fresh-kill pile. Lilyheart laid her tail over Twigpaw’s shoulders and guided her toward the medicine cats’ den.

Alderheart was waiting there, and Twigpaw’s eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the two cats who were with him.

“Hawkwing! Violetshine!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Alderheart arranged it,” Hawkwing meowed.

“Yes, I talked Bramblestar into letting them come,” Alderheart added, obviously pleased with himself. “I didn’t want them to miss your warrior ceremony.”

“It’s really going to happen, after so long!” Violetshine purred, pressing her muzzle into Twigpaw’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Alderheart,” Twigpaw mewed, blinking at him gratefully. “This means so much to me.”

A scurry of paw steps announced Finpaw’s arrival; he threw himself on Hawkwing, butting him in the side with his head.

“Take it easy,” Hawkwing protested with a mrrow of amusement. “Show a bit of respect.”

Twigpaw remembered Finpaw telling her that Hawkwing had helped take care of him when he was a kit and his father, Sandynose, was missing. It was good to see that they were still close.

“I’m so glad you’re here to see me become a warrior,” Finpaw declared. “It’s almost as good as having my own family here. Are they all okay?” he added, suddenly sounding a little nervous.

“They’re fine,” Hawkwing assured him.

“And they don’t mind that I came to ThunderClan?”

“Oh, they mind,” Hawkwing replied. “They didn’t want to lose you, and they think you should have stayed with SkyClan. But I think they’ll come around after some time has passed. You can always talk to them at Gatherings.”

“Thanks, Hawkwing,” Finpaw mewed fervently.

“It’s all my fault,” Twigpaw murmured, her pelt prickling with guilt at the thought that she had dragged Finpaw away from his family and his Clan.

“No, it’s not, you daft furball,” Finpaw whispered back. “I’d rather be here with you anyway.”

Twigpaw’s heart swelled with happiness. I’ve had so many challenges, these last few moons, but I’m so lucky to have found Finpaw and to have him in my life.

“Come here,” Lilyheart meowed to her, stepping forward again. “I think you’ve got half the forest in your pelt.”

“Yes, you can’t be made a warrior looking like that,” Violetshine agreed, combing a dead leaf out of Twigpaw’s fur.

Twigpaw ducked away. “Paws off!” she protested. “I’m not a kit!” She gave her pelt a shake and her chest fur a couple of quick licks. “There. Happy now?”

“I think you look fine,” Hawkwing purred.

“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting!”

The yowl startled Twigpaw. While she had been talking to her kin, she hadn’t realized that her Clanmates had begun to gather around. Now she looked up to see Bramblestar leave the Highledge and leap down the tumbled rocks into the camp. Sparkpelt and Larksong followed close behind him.

“I hear that I have to make two new warriors,” Bramblestar meowed.

He padded forward to take his place at the center of the circle of cats and beckoned with his tail for Twigpaw to join him.

Twigpaw felt her paws tingling with excitement as she joined her Clan leader. She was finding it hard to breathe. She had heard the words of the warrior ceremony so many times, and now, at last, they were to be spoken for her.

“I, Bramblestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn.”

Now Bramblestar rested his amber gaze on Twigpaw; she raised her head to look at him without blinking.

“Twigpaw,” the Clan leader continued, “do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?”

All Twigpaw’s heart was in her words as she replied. “I do.”

“Then by the powers of StarClan,” Bramblestar declared, “I give you your warrior name. Twigpaw, from this moment you will be known as Twigbranch. StarClan honors your energy and the way you have carefully thought out where you belong. You have proven over and over that your heart is in ThunderClan, but I’m also impressed by the way you care for all the Clans, and for how they function together. Having such a wide view will make you a stronger warrior.

“I give you the name Twigbranch in memory of the way you came to our Clan as a small, fragile kit, and have grown into a strong warrior, just as a twig grows into a branch. We welcome you as a warrior of ThunderClan.”

Twigbranch shivered with happiness as Bramblestar rested his muzzle on her head. She gave his shoulder a respectful lick, then withdrew to stand again beside her kin and Finpaw.

“Twigbranch! Twigbranch!”

As the rest of her Clan acclaimed her, Twigbranch looked around at their shining eyes and waving tails and knew that, at last, she belonged.

She watched as Finpaw had his warrior ceremony, nodding in agreement as Bramblestar praised his courage and his dedication to his new Clan, and joined in joyfully to chant his warrior name, Finleap.

The clamor was still continuing when a sharp cry rang out over the camp from Brightheart, who was standing guard at the mouth of the thorn tunnel.

“Bramblestar!”

Every cat whirled to face the camp entrance. A jolt of alarm ran through Twigpaw as she recognized Grassheart and Strikestone, who had burst into the camp and were racing across to the crowd of ThunderClan warriors. Their eyes were wild and their fur bristling.

Brightheart bounded after them. “I couldn’t stop them!” she gasped.

Bramblestar thrust himself to the front of the crowd, sliding out his claws and letting his shoulder fur bristle up. “What does this mean?” he demanded with a lash of his tail. “What are you doing here?”

Grassheart and Strikestone skidded to a halt in front of him. “I’m sorry, Bramblestar,” Grassheart panted. “We haven’t come to attack you. But the missing ShadowClan cats are back—along with Tigerheart. We need Hawkwing.”

Shocked caterwauls rose up from the assembled ThunderClan cats.

“Tigerheart!”

“Where has he been?”

“Is Dovewing with him?” That was Ivypool, pushing her way through the crowd to face the two intruders with anxiety in her blue eyes.

The intruders didn’t seem to be listening to the questions of the cats who were pressing around them.

“Hawkwing, you have to come now,” Strikestone meowed urgently. “Tigerheart is dead!”