Warriors(the Fire Rises): Choises (English version)

Chapter 4

Rommel was surprised. I'm chosen for a battle? But I haven't had any training yet!

As if Snowstar could read his mind, she turned towards him. "Don't worry, this will probably be a small battle. Stay in the center of the patrol, so you won't have to fight a lot." she assured him. 

Rommel fidgeted nervously. "But why did you chose me for the patrol then?"

Snowstar laughed quietly. "Before you really decide wether you want to train with us or not, you need to know how it's like to be a warrior. That might start your thinking." she turned back to the clan and said: "I will lead this patrol, I leave Softfur in charge, so listen to her. And my warriors," she said to the patrol. "Don't make this a bloodshed. We only want to chase them off. If we kill them for revenge, we're no better than them. Everyone ready?"

The warriors answered with a battlecry. "YEAHHHHHH!!!" 

Rommel stood quietly in the middle.

Snowstar took one last glance over her patrol, and then led them out of the camp.

Rommel was exited. His first battle! He jumped around and accidentally crashed into Nightpaw. She turned around and snarled angrily: "Now you'll need to listen!" Rommel jumped back. "I know you came here with the dream to go from a weak kittypet to a great legendary warrior. And I know that you think being a warrior is easy and that everyone can do it. But you will never be a real warrior!"

Rommel felt threatened and lied down. 

"And one more thing. You will never, but really never, become a better warrior than me!! Even if all the warriors from Starclan would train you, a kittypet will never beat me!" she growled, before turning around and running back to the patrol.

"They're gone!" Snowstar stood on top of the hill, looking over the valley. But the Waveclan-warriors were nowhere to be seen. Snowstar turned around. "Waveclan isn't stupid.. They either have returned to their own territory, or they are hiding somewhere in here. We have to make sure the last option isn't the case before we-"

"Waveclan, attack!!!"

Snowstar was interrupted when the eight Waveclan-warriors leaped out of the bushes. Three of them attacked Snowstar, but she jumped away from them. Tigerstripe quickly ran towards Snowstar to help her, and hit a grey-spotted she-cat away. Rommel looked around, frightened. Patchtail battled with a grey tabby, Sandstripe clawed at a black and white tom, Iceclaw snarled at a silver tabby tom, and Nightpaw stood on top of a white apprentice. He suddenly heard a yowl behind him, but before he could turn around he was thrown to the ground by the dark brown tabby tom that had attacked Snowstar too. 

"Defend yourself, apprentice!! Or should I say, kit?!" the tom growled. But then, a silver flash threw the tom off Rommel. It was Snowstar, she held the warrior to the ground and snarled: "Stay off our territory!! If we find you here one more time, I will personally rip your pelts of your bodies and feed it to the fish! Now go!" Snowstar stepped back and let the last warrior go. The patrol watched all eight Waveclan-cats run back into their part of the forest, and then yowled with pride for their win.

Rommel sat down. He felt a cut in his side from the 'fight' with the brown warrior. He shook his head and cleaned the wound, until he heard Snowstar talking. She was checking if everyone was okay first, before washing her own wounds. "Warriors and apprentices of Fireclan, you have all fought well, I thank you for that. We chased Waveclan back into their own territory, now we are ready to go back to our own camp.

On the way back to the camp, Rommel trotted towards Nightpaw. "Did you see that? My first battle, and we won!"

Nightpaw froze and snarled back at him: "So?! That doesn't make us friends! And you've barely fought, Snowstar had to come and save you personally!" She trotted away, clearly irritated. 

Then the patrol arrived at the camp. Snowstar jumped on top of the Burnt Log, and called for her clanmates. "All cats old enough to catch their own prey, gather under the Burnt Log!" She looked at Rommel and nodded. "Rommel, please come forward." she said, before lifting her head to the sky, where the dawn was coming. "Starclan, I ask you to look down on this young cat and accept him in our clan. He has proven in the battle that he is ready to learn from us and become an apprentice of Fireclan."

Snowstar was thinking about what his name should be. Then the first sunrays shone over the treetops and reached Rommel. His brown fur lit up like fire in the rising sunlight, and Snowstar remembered his story about the Firecat. "Until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be known as..

FIREPAW!"