Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

48🌙

"It smells like wolf. We must be careful." Tinypaw cautioned.

"I think it's blowing down from these hills." Crescentpaw spoke while craning her neck, looking toward some blue-black hilltop edges. They nearly blended in with the sunless sky above.

Some of the knolls were uneven or rocky. Barren and craggy, they looked uninviting to cats. Spindly thornbushes, prickle plants and bramble thickets grew in swathes across parts of the hummocks. A few ash trees grew in scattered clusters at the foot of the them.

Adjacent to the Moonpool, but much higher up, these knolls carried hilltop winds down the slope and toward the foothills. Above them, a flock of crows cawed, making their way over.

"I smell it too." Cheetah's gaze was worrisome, and she flattened her spotted black ears. The golden she-cat stilled beside them, as Crescentpaw gazed at the claw-tipped moon above.

"We only have a few minutes to wait." She turned her gaze on Cheetah, her tone flat and serious.

"I need you to climb a tall tree. The one that's growing sideways on the edge of that hill." She nodded at the rim of a far-off slope.

"Watch out for wolves, especially around those ridges. Yowl if you see any."

"I will! I'll yowl louder than a kittypet asking their twoleg for wet food!" Her tail waved.

Tinypaw looked amused at her regale. Cheetah turned away, grinning over her shoulder as she padded away. She was swallowed by the shadows lain upon the grove edges.

Crescentpaw had expected her to be upset, or even jealous.

Huh. She's fine with us having our warrior ceremonies without her. Cheetah hadn't even asked about getting her own 'paw name. She hadn't insisted to see the Moonpool either.

Surely Cheetah still wanted a mentor and a clan name. And yet she had encouraged them without mentioning her own problems. Crescentpaw purred.

In every way, Cheetah was revealing herself to be more competent as a potential Riverclan warrior. She hadn't complained a single time along the Moonpool journey.

"Although annoying, she's funny in a way." Her littermate nibbled at a grass seed stuck between her toes.

"Well, Crescentpaw. Go ahead and start. Say the words to give me my warrior name." Tinypaw walked over the lip of the Moonpool's edge, which was angled in a way that you had to walk up and over the swell to see it.

Crescentpaw followed her. I'm going to become a Riverclan warrior now.

She could finally prove herself as the adult cat that she was. She could have more allowances to make change within her clan. Within all the clans.

The she-cat was exhilarated when she saw the waterfall. Its top was lit with faint moonbeam, but Crescentpaw noticed that the water was still dark.

"A cloud is passing over the moon," Tinypaw reassured her before she could say something.

"By the time it moves it'll be Moonhigh, and the moon will shine in the reflection of the pool, I think..."

Is this right? One last prick of doubt wormed its way into her thoughts. Should we have waited for Riverclan's new leader to give us our names?

And how much would their clanmates say about them? Her stomach churned again. What if it gathers so much attention to us that they figure out we're missing our claws?

The thing was, Crescentpaw couldn't bear to not tell them. She refused to have her own warrior name in her head, while the rest of her clan kept calling her 'Crescentpaw.'