Warriors: Air (Warrior Cats Fan Fiction Book Three)

Chapter Two

"Lightfrost! Lightfrost! Lightfrost!"

As the cats chanted her new name, Lightfrost couldn't help but feel good. I never thought I'd make it to being a Warrior, she thought. I wish Brightpaw was here, too.

With a pain, Lightfrost missed her sister, who had died fighting the wolves. Lightfrost had almost given up being an apprentice due to her grief, but she had realized that that wouldn't change anything. Brightpaw is dead and she's not coming back, Lightfrost thought. I can't let my pain distract me.

Her mother, Flightbreeze, and her brother, Briarclaw, came over to congratulate her.

"I'm so proud of you!" Flightbreeze purred, licking Lightfrost's head.

"Thanks," Lightfrost said.

"It's a great name!" Briarclaw agreed, nodding. "It suits you!"

"Thanks!" Lightfrost said again. She nudged her brother teasingly. "I should have gotten my name before you! You got yours so early!"

"Only because Firenose died," Briarclaw said, ducking his head.

I guess we all have a lot of cats to grieve over, Lightfrost thought.

"Now both my kits are all grown up," Flightbreeze said, tears in her green eyes as she smiled at her son and daughter. "I couldn't be prouder, and I'm so glad we decided to stay in Snowclan. Brightpaw would be proud, too."

Lightfrost rolled her brown eyes. Brightpaw was gone, it didn't matter what she would have thought. They'd never know.

"Don't act like that," Briarclaw whispered to her, his eyes pleading.

"I'll stop acting like that once you've told me you've actually seen Brightpaw in Starclan," Lightfrost hissed.

Briarclaw shifted his paws awkwardly. In the last few moons, her brother hadn't reported seeing Brightpaw in Starclan.

Just another reason not to believe Starclan's real, Lightfrost thought smugly. I don't need dead cats guiding my paws, I'll blaze my own trail, thanks.

"I also have another announcement," Marshstar said from the top of the Round Rock. "Now that Lightfrost is a Warrior, we're in need of new apprentices. Sunkit, Dapplekit, would you come here, please?"

The two kits jumped up with excitement and ran over to the Round Rock. Their parents, Sauseyheart and Sourlight, purred with happiness as they joined them.

"Oh, how nice!" Flightbreeze said. Lightfrost knew that her mother was friends with them.

I remember when I became an apprentice, Lightfrost thought wistfully. With Brightpaw...

"Sunpaw, you will be apprenticed to Brownstep," Marshstar meowed, "and Dapplepaw, you will be apprenticed to Dawnglide."

Marshstar had chosen her own kits as mentors for the new apprentices. They were still the newest Warriors in the Clan, not counting the apprentices' own parents, but they were respectable cats nonetheless. They'll make good mentors, Lightfrost thought, catching Brownstep's eye. The tom winked at her, and she ducked her head, blushing.

"That is all," Marshstar said, leaping off of the Round Rock.

"Wait, there's one more announcement," a cat spoke up.

Everyone turned to stare at Cloverfern. The gray she-cat had spoken up. She looked at everyone. "I'm expecting kits," she said. She sounded excited, but her green eyes looked sad.