Warriors~A New Story

New Apprentices

Previously on A New Story

"Do you back down from a challenge?" Rusty pinpointed Longtail, flattened his ears, narrowed his eyes and hissing, leaped through the startled cats to fling himself onto his tormentor.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I looked and saw that Longtail was completely unprepared for Rusty's attack. He staggered sideways, losing his footing on the hard-baked earth. Filled with rage and desperation to prove himself, Rusty dug his claws deep into Longtail's fur and sank his teeth in. I wondered if I should stop the fight, but I wanted Rusty to prove himself worthy of soon becoming a warrior of ThunderClan. I watched on as I saw that the other cats had to spring out of the way to avoid the two cats. Rusty scratched and struggled. I saw that the other cats around them were wailing with excitement. Longtail gripped Rusty's collar and was tugging, and tugging very hard. It looked like Rusty was struggling to breathe, but he used all he strength to pull away and suddenly I heard a loud snap and saw that he was free.
Longtail tumbled away from him. Rusty scrambled to his paws and he looked around him. Longtail was crouching three tail lengths away, and dangling from his mouth was Rusty's collar, mangled and broken.

As Bluestar went and silenced the noisy crowd, I leaped down off the Highrock and ran towards Rusty "Rusty! Are you okay?" He flinches "Yeah I think I'm fine, I have a cut above my eye though." I look at his eye and see blood dripping down from the cut. I look over at Longtail and see that his left ear was badly torn and blood dripped down his lean shoulders onto the dusty ground "It looks like you did some damage to Longtail" I say to him as Rusty looks over at Longtail still spitting daggers with their gazes.

Bluestar stepped forward and took the collar from Longtail. She placed it on the ground in front of her and meowed "The newcomer has lost his Twoleg collar in a battle of his honor. StarClan has spoken its approval, this cat has been released from the hold of his Twoleg owners, and is free to join ThunderClan as an apprentice." I jump up and down and squeal "Yay!!!" Rusty looks at me and smiles. Shadowpaw walks over "Great job Rusty. I really hope I don't have to fight anyone now" He chuckles.

Bluestar walks over to us. She looks at Rusty. Rusty looked at Bluestar and solemnly nodded his acceptance. He stood up and stepped foward into a shaft of sunshine. The pool of light blazed bright on his orange pelt, making his fur glow. Rusty lifted his head proudly and turned around to look at us. Bluestar placed the shredded collar on the ground in front of Rusty. She touched his ear gently with her nose. I faintly hear her say "You look like a brand of fire in this sunlight." I saw that her eyes flashed briefly. "You have fought well." She then turned to the Clan and announced "From this day forward, until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be called Firepaw, in honor of his flame-colored coat." Without hesitation Rusty turned and kicked dust and grass over his collar as though burying his dirt. All the other Clan cats went back to their normal duties or went and chatted among themselves excitedly.

"Go Firepaw!!" Me and Shadowpaw exclaim as he walks over to us. "Thanks guys" He hugs the both of us "Wait" Shadowpaw said "Am I a ThunderClan cat too?"  "I don't know.." I say "I'll go ask Bluestar for you okay?" I offer "Okay thank you Moonpaw!"

I trod over to Bluestar's den as I see Tigerclaw go in her den. I wonder why he went in there. I shake off the thought and walk into her den "Bluestar!" I see her laying in her nest as her and Tigerclaw are chatting, they look at me. "Oh sorry..Did I come in at a wrong time?" I ask apologetic "No not at all" Bluestar says "What is it that you need Moonpaw?" "I was wondering if Shadowpaw was an apprentice too." She looks away as if she was deciding, she then looks back at me "Yes he is. May you declare him as a ThunderClan cat?" My eyes beam as she says that "Of course!" I run out of her den and hop on to the Highrock "Let all those cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highrock for a small Clan announcement!" I say loud enough for everyone to hear. I see cats come over looking confused "What's this about?" One of the cats said. I look over at Shadowpaw and motion him up here with my tail *Ahem* "As StarClan has spoken and approved of this change. I declare that this once ShadowClan cat now be apart of ThunderClan. May you all treat him like a normal ThunderClan cat." Some of the cats look shocked "How do you know hes not a spy?" An elder she-cat that I assume was Dappletail "If he was a spy, wouldn't we be scenting more than one ShadowClan cat by now?" She backs down and sighs.

I jump down off of the Highrock with Shadowpaw.  "Hey Shadowpaw?" He looks at me "Want to go hunting? The prey pile looks low." He nods "Wait for me by the entrance I'm going to let Bluestar know where we are going." He walks over to the entrance.

*Little time skip to after I told Bluestar*

As I walk out of Bluestar's den I see Tigerclaw talking to Shadowpaw. He looks scared. I start running over to him. "Hey Tigerclaw!" He jumps as I think I startled him "Oh, hi Moonpaw." He says not as excited and cheery as usual. Maybe when I get back I'll talk to him I think to myself. "Welll me and Shadowpaw are going to go hunting! Byee!" Me and Shadowpaw run out of the Clan.

(Tigerclaw's pov)

I see that light in her eyes when she's with him. The one she used to have with me. That pesky little ShadowClan cat better watch out.
I look at how happy she is with him and Firepaw. I need to get her back. To get her back on my side. She's mine.

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Word count (not counting this)~1069

Wow I wrote alot. Im so proud of myself!

>•<Kat