Warrior Cats: Sky of Storms

Chapter 9

"Echowing! Echowing! Echowing!" Waterstorm ran up to her, purring excitedly. Echowing rubbed her head across his chest fur and felt comfort wrap around her.

Wavepaw ran up to her, chanting her new name. Echowing waved her tail proudly. Mothwing emerged from her den and said, "Congratulations, Echowing, but hard times are coming." She looked at Wavepaw, her legs shaking. "For both of you. Blood will spill onto black unless Echo comes to save."

Echowing watched her leave, replaying the prophecy in her mind. Did it have something to do with Mudfur's prophecy?

"Don't listen to her," Wavepaw said softly. "She only speaks in riddles now that she's dying."

Echowing nodded, but she was still troubled. Mothwing spoke quickly with Mistystar, then yowled in a raspy voice to gather the Clan.

She stood under the shade of the Highrock, and Wavepaw looked worried.

"Cats of RiverClan!" She said, "I will die soon, but I am happy to do so with such a great apprentice." Mothwing's eyes glinted as the Clan turned to look at Wavepaw. "She knows all the herbs and how to use them, and she believes in StarClan more than anybody else."
Mothwing stepped forward to Wavepaw. Her eyes drooped and she shook on her legs as if they were twigs.

As she spoke the words of her ancestors, her eyes didn't look like she meant it. "I, Mothwing, medicine cat of RiverClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of a medicine cat, and with your help, she will serve her Clan for many moons."

Mothwing looked up at the sky, where warriors of StarClan were just beginning to appear. "I give you your new name, Wavefire, because you burn through the waves of your past, and obstacles in the future, to save anyone."

Echowing knew she was talking about her father. Waterstorm nudged his littermate.

Mothwing jumped up onto the Highrock while the Clan chanted her name. Echowing jumped up to her friend, chanting the loudest. Mothwing gave a yowl to silence and continued.

"I also have something to confess." She took a deep breath. "Mudfur didn't choose me because StarClan gave him a message, it was my brother's doing. He put the moth wing in front of the medicine den." The Clan murmured.

"StarClan never accepted Mothwing?" Whispered Pebblepaw.

Mothwing looked down at RiverClan and closed her eyes. "When I die, my body will be buried, and my spirit will die as well. I do not believe I will descend into StarClan, because I do not believe in StarClan."
Yowls of fury rose from the Clan. Bluetail yowled, "How can a medicine cat not believe in StarClan?"

Wavefire looked down, embarrassed. Mistystar jumped up onto the Highrock again and silenced the Clan, while Mothwing sat back with her head bowed.

But before Mistystar could speak, Wavefire stood up, staring at her old mentor with cold eyes. "Our code is different from the warrior code. It reaches across boundaries. To us, every cat is simply that– a cat, with the same right to live as any other. We made a promise to heal and protect, remember?"

Sunbeam stepped forward, looking up at the Highrock, her face expressionless as she stared at Mothwing. The Clan murmured, and Echowing spotted Swallowtail walking up to stand beside her sister.

"We have our flaws," Sunbeam said. "But we overcome them. And sometimes, it's our flaws that make us who we are." Mothwing nodded to Sunbeam thankfully.

Swallowtail blinked at the medicine cat, but Mothwing was looking at Wavefire's cold face. Mistystar turned to Mothwing and said, "Destiny isn't a path any cat follows blindly. It is always a matter of choice, and sometimes the heart speaks loudest. Listen to your heart, because that's where your true destiny lies."