Path Of A Warrior: Book Two

Chapter 1

FLAREPELT

Flarepelt shuffled her forepaws on the snow. The sky was finally glowing with the signs of light as dawn slowly crept up in.
Flarepelt let out a quiet purr of pride. After all those moons training under Poolstar, she'd never thought she would become a warrior!

She briefly glanced at Shinefall who still watching the sky.
And what would I do as a warrior without her...? Flarepelt couldn't help but wonder. Not too long ago, Flarepelt held a harsh grudge over Shinefall, refusing to speak with her at all costs. She wondered what it would of been like if she still felt that anger.

She then quietly turned her head to Alderclaw who was quietly grooming himself.
She didn't know what to feel about Alderclaw, but all she knew that he was loyal to IceClan and not a kittypet anymore. She felt a silent, awkward guilt for taunting him for his origins.

She then blinked to see Shadowwing, looking up at the sky attentively with such focus, she adored it. During that dark time, Shadowwing was always there to comfort her when she felt lonely, and always made sure she was the one who got fresh-kill. She remembered hunting with him, and joking how they would get prey names for their warrior names.
She loved him.
And he loved her.

She was shaken awake from her thoughts as she realized it was finally morning as Shinefall turned to her and Alderclaw. "You're guys' names are so cool!"
Alderclaw put a paw to his chest teasingly, "Of course I do, I have the suffix Claw in it," he grinned.
"I'm so proud of us," Shinefall commented. "We had to deal with that stuff back in our apprenticeship—woah. Now we can say back in our apprenticeship!"

Flarepelt couldn't help but letting out a burst of laughter and felt a thrill of triumph as she thought about it. "We have authority now!" She stood up and looked down at the ground and forcefully kicked snow away with her paw. "HEY SNOW! MOVE SOMEWHERE ELSE!"
"Now all the kits and the future apprentices will respect us! We're amazing!" Shinefall mewed. "We can go on patrols and do what we want!"

Alderclaw smiled. "You know what this means? We get to sleep in the warriors' den now! Wanna go make our nests?"
"Yes! Absolutely!" Shinefall said, turning her head to the warriors' den. "This is gonna be so fun!"

The three friends padded over to where the warriors' den was at the entrance when Shadowwing cast a glare at the Shinefall and Alderclaw with a grunt before padding on.
Flarepelt sighed, she should of expected that. He must be mad over missing the battle, she would too if she were in his place.

Alderclaw looked behind his shoulder, raising an eyebrow as he climbed up the steps to the warriors' den. "Is something wrong with Shadowwing?"
Flarepelt shook her head, climbing up after him. "No, of course not! He's just upset he didn't get to be in the battle."
"Understandable, it was fairly exciting," mewed Shinefall, who was already at the top, waiting for them. "He'll probably move on from it soon. There may be more battles in the future he'll be apart of."

Flarepelt stepped her head in the stone den only to see Splashstream and Jayclaw were still asleep on the other side of the den.
Appreciation swelled in her throat as she stared at her sleeping mother. Back when Flarepelt was an apprentice, (and with her fight with Shinefall) her mother was always there to support her and sometimes offered advice.

She padded inside padded towards a moss nest in the middle of the stone den and curled around, letting out a sigh of relief.
Her ears perked as she suddenly heard loud snoring and lifted up her head to see Alderclaw already sleeping while Shinefall looked amused from her nest. "Well, it's gonna be hard to sleep with that noise in the den, isn't it?"