Beyond The Stars

Chapter 2

The breeze ruffled her dark fur and her eyes shimmered like jade in the light of the late afternoon sun. Her tail flicked anxiously from left to right as she stared ahead of her in the direction of the medicine cat's den.

Shadefoot sighed and looked over to where she knew her sister, Moonsong, was now training her own apprentice. The black she-cat was just glad to see her sister happy again. The death of her mentor had been extremely hard on Moonsong.

Icestorm was a fantastic medicine cat, and Shadefoot could still recall the days when she would wake up to play with her sister, only to find her with Icestorm in the medicine cat's den.

"Shadefoot? Are you alright?" Shadefoot spun around to see her best friend, Springmist, staring at her with a worried expression.

"Thinking about your sister again?" the dark-furred she-cat slowly nodded in response to her friend's question.

Shadefoot blinked and looked up at Springmist with a curious expression. "Yeah, how'd you guess?"

Springmist laughed and playfully cuffed one of her friend's ears. "Oh come on Shade! I've known you for like your entire life!" Shadefoot laughed and twitched her whiskers.

"That's true."

Silence fell on the two she-cats yet again.

"So now what?"

Shadefoot sighed yet again for like the fifth time and twitched an ear. "I don't know Spring!" she meowed softly.

Springmist was about to ask Shadefoot about how her relationship with Swiftstep was going, but she was interrupted by Dawnstar.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather around the Tall Bush for a FlowerClan meeting!"

Blinking in confusion, the pair of she-cats patted over to the base of the tall bush to see what their leader had to say.

From across the clearing, Shadefoot saw her sister sitting in front of her den with Softpaw sitting patiently and calmly beside her.

Dawnstar waited for everyone to gather before she started speaking.

"Attention, FlowerClan!" she began calmly, her green gaze sweeping over the Clan as she spoke. "It has come to my attention that we will need a new replacement deputy until Sweetfoot has had her kits!"

The whole Clan fell silent at those words.

But then, one cat spoke up in a small voice, "um, Dawnstar? Are you sure that we have a cat to fill the position of temporary deputy?"

Shadefoot hissed lowly and glaired at the cat who had spoken. "Are you questioning our leader's choices, Stripetail?" Shadefoot mewed with an angry flick of her tail.

Stripetail opened his mouth but no words came out. "That's what I thought," Shadefoot smirked to herself and turned back to face Dawnstar, who'd been watching the exchange with a calm and amused gleem in her eyes.

Dawnstar cleared her throat and continued speaking, "and so, I say these words in front of both our warrior ancestors and Sweetfoot, the new temporary deputy of FlowerClan is Echosky."

"Echosky! Echosky! Echosky!" the whole Clan cheered.

"I also have another thing to announce," Dawnstar spoke. "Eaglespots, is Lilypaw ready to become a warrior?"

Eaglespots nodded. "She is."

Lilypaw's eyes went wide with surprise.

"I, Dawnstar, leader of FlowerClan, 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. Lilypaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?" Lilypaw didn't hesitate. "I do." "Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior name. Lilypaw, from this moment on you will be known as Lilycloud. StarClan honors your kindness and spirit, and we welcome you as a full warrior of FlowerClan."

"Lilycloud! Lilycloud! Lilycloud!" the Clan cheered Lilycloud's new name.

"As of tradition, Lilycloud will sit in silent vigil all night and guard the camp while the rest of us sleep. You are all dismissed!" when Dawnstar was finished speaking, a few cats went to the prey pile to get something to eat before going to sleep for the night.

As Shadefoot was making her way to the warriors den to get some well-needed rest, she caught sight of Lilycloud being congratulated by her mother, Featherberry.

Shadefoot could distantly recall that Lilycloud had, at one point, had a brother. Tanglekit, if she remembered correctly. But according to Moonsong, poor little Tanglekit was just too week, and sadly he didn't survive through the night.

Lilycloud's sister, Rosepaw, was still in training but from what Shadefoot has been hearing from other cats is that she would be having her final assessment in just a few sunrises from now.