Stormnose nudged his sister awake sadly. When she woke, he mewed "Cheetahpaw..." She jumped up. "No!" She heaved her sleepy body outside, and stopped and stared at her brothers daughter, ragged and broken, lying on her side. She looked so frail and small in death, sad too.
She stared. The body was something from her nightmares. Her former apprentice, torn and broken. Like a toy that some cat had gotten done playing with. "Not again!" She hissed, and she flicked her dawn colored tail.
She leaped gracefully into the gorge, and landed as if she were walking normally. When she reached the center of the gorge, she called to the clan. "All cats old enough to land on their feet, gather in the gorge for a clan meeting!" She said, and looked sorrowfully around as cats looked out of their dens, the morning mist clinging too their noses.
"No!" A sharp cry rang out from the warriors den. Starkfern pelted out of the den toward her daughters body. She poked her paw into her side, all the while crying out. "No, my daughter, Cheetahpaw, wake up!" She said desperately, shaking her shoulder.
But the body just shook pitifully under her mothers shaking, and then she collapsed on the ground, sobbing into her paws. Stormnose padded slowly up to his mate, sitting next to her an putting his tail around her shoulder. He began to murmur comfort into her ear.
She called out again. "I know that she was not a warrior apprentice, but Petalshine, do you believe that she was ready to receive her full name?" She asked the medicine cat. The she cat looked stricken, and she remembered that same expression when Lostheart had died.
Then she looked up, and answered. "Yes." She said, and padded up to the body. Her parents slowly backed away. "By the powers of Starclan, I give you your clan name. Cheetahpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Cheetahsong. Starclan honors your enthusiasm and compassion." She said.
The rest of the clan bowed their heads in sorrow, and she looked down, blinking hard. I will not be weak in front of my clan! I must be strong! She told herself. She leaped up to the highest part of the camp, and looked down upon her once again mourning clan.
This will be the last. She said. Not again.
~~~~~~~~
OK, so I actually cried writing this.
-Whisper ✌
