"Otterclaw please!" Adderpaw yowled before he tackled her. He bit her shoulder and clawed her flanks. "We are in battle. No cat can be friends." He hissed and bit her neck. Everything faded to black as he got off her. "Adderpaw? Sandpelt? No! No! Nooooo!!!!" Thrushstripe yowled. "Please be okay..." His voice faded as Adderpaw opened her eyes. Everything was starry. Am I dead? She thought. An unfamiliar cat walked up to her. It was an orange tom who's fur looked like fire. "Greetings young one. I am Firestar." Adderpaw sat down and looked at her paws. They were clear and had small stars around them like mist. "Am I... Am I dead?" She asked Firestar. "I am sorry to say you are dying." He replied. "But I can't be! Can't you stop me from dying?" She pleaded. "Only a cat willing to give their Starclan life to save you can. My mate, Sandstorm, died but Spottedleaf saved her."
"But..." Adderpaw shifted her paws. "I wasn't clan born. I have nobody who can save me!" She said frantically looking at the cats around her. She crouched down her heart beating faster and faster. "You have me. And I don't want to be in Starclan." A calm voice rang out loudly. Sandpelt! "You would give up your Staraclan life to save me?" She mewed and looked up at the starry warrior. "Yes. Let's get on with it." She touched her nose to Adderpaw's and a jolt shot through her like lightning. "Adderpaw. Adderpaw you can't be dead!" Windpaw's yowl startled her. "I'm alive mouse-brain." She mewed standing up with a grunt. She shook off her sister and father who had joined Thrushstripe in the vigil. Windpaw and Ravenstar licked rapidly at her pelt.
Her paws were black once again. No misty stars. They weren't clear either. Hawkpaw burst through the gorse tunnel fear clouded his eyes. He swept his gaze over the clearing and he landed it on me. "Adderpaw!" He yowled with relief. I ran over to him and he licked my ear. "Thrushstripe said you were killed!" He mewed in between licks. I sat down next to him in front of the apprentices den and Windpaw brought us a dove. "There you go love doves." She purred and ran back to Blackpaw. I flattened my ears and looked away. I felt Hawkpaw twine his tail with mine.
A chill ran down my spine. Is Windpaw right? Doesn't Hawkpaw like me as much as I like him? She thought. Then Adderpaw remembered how he ran to her when she woke up from almost dying. "Hey, Hawkpaw? I know it's a stupid thing to ask but...." She said shifting her paws awkwardly. "But what?" He said moving closer to Adderpaw. "I wanted to ask y-" A yowl cut her off. Ravenstar was leaping into the massive Boulder lit by the moonlight. "All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the high rock for a clan meeting!" He called. His mew rang out through the camp.
"We have an apprentice who passed his warrior assessment and deserves his warrior name." He said after the clan settled and Hawkpaw padded to the center of the small space the cats left. "I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down at this apprentice and approve of my choice to make him a warrior of Thunderclan!" Me said looking at silverpelt and then at Hawkpaw.
"Hawkpaw. From this day on your warrior name will be Hawktail. Will you promise to uphold the warrior code for as long as you live? Until you go to hunt with starclan?" He finished. "I do." The tabby warrior said. Ravenstar touched his nose to the top of Hawktails head. The warrior licked his shoulder in response. "HAWKTAIL HAWKTAIL HAWTAIL" Adderpaw yowled with the rest of the clan. Hawktail puffed his chest out and faced the clan swelling with pride.
As everyone padded away Adderpaw ran over to Hawktail, "congratulations!" She purred. "Thanks!" He mewed. "I should go start my vigil." He said licking her ear quickly and muttering something that sounded like "meet me, snakerocks, dawn" she flicked her tail tip and padded to the apprentices den. She would miss the warmth of Hawktail lying next to her. She pushed her way in and curled up in her nest.
>*<
