✧ Devious Fates ✧ | COMPLETE WARRIOR CATS FANFICTION STORY |

// Chapter Nineteen

Whitestar's call echoed in her ears. Thistlethorn drowsily gaped open her eyelids, yawning and stirring from rest. What does he want now? Raccoontail, who flanked her, suddenly sharply elbowed her in the side, an alerting hiss awakening from his jaws.

"Can't you see I'm up, mouse-brain?" Thistlethorn spat, irritation laced in her voice.

"Hey," Raccoontail purred, brotherly playfulness engulfed in his tone. "There's no need to act like you have ticks in your pelt."

Thistlethorn's tail started to lash, its fur standing straight. Does he ever know when to stop? A growl suppressed inside of her throat. "Enough with the jokes," she snorted. "You still act like a kit. At least Whitestar had the sense to make me a warrior before you." Raccoontail suddenly looked hurt, giving his sister a faint nod and whisking away. Thistlethorn felt a twinge of regret pound through her; but she sent it away with a shake of her head.

She arranged onto four paws out of her nest, shaking any leftover moss bits from her coat. She peered out of the den, sun pouring into her vision. You'd think all these pine trees would block that nuisance of a sun, but no. She placed her paws onto arrangements of pine straw that were glued onto the earth, emerging further into the clearing.

Whitestar was fixed proudly on the Branching Elm. Thistlethorn noticed he was on one of the lower branches. She shuttered when she remembered when she was being remembered being appointed a warrior, when one of the limbs had snapped and gone down, down, down towards the ground. It almost crushed my sister. No. adopted sister.

Thistlethorn then noticed it must've been Shimmerkit's ceremony. The black and brown spotted kit squealed with alarm as she was nudged closer to the Branching Elm by Goldenheart. She tried to resist the prodding, crying out with alarm.

Goldenheart finally seemed to give up. "Er, Whitestar," she started awkwardly. "Do you think you could move her ceremony off of the Branching Elm? Shimmerkit's still pretty traumatized by what happened before.."

"I don't want to be squished!" Shimmerkit added. Goldenheart shot a sympathetic glance to the apprentice-sized kit.

Whitestar's gaze churned with thoughtfulness. He still had a slight grudge against what happened with Goldenheart, but he still seemed to accept Shimmerkit as a member of his Clan. "Very well," he finally sighed, lunging down and landing perfectly onto the pine straw in front of the Branching Elm. Shimmerkit still had her ears pinned back to her head, seeming to be scrunching like a beaten up ball of moss if she cast one glance at the Elm.

ShadowClanners were arranging into a large crowd, excited murmurs spewing from their jaws. Pinewhisker stood beside the Branching Elm, his water blue eyes speckled with pride. Mosspelt and Pigeonfeather sat nearby to Thistlethorn. Dusttail and Honeyleaf chatted behind. Her first litter of kits, Shadepaw and Maplepaw, had been made apprentices about two moons ago. Speaking of her two kits, they all dashed up inside of the cluster of ShadowClan cats.

Thistlethorn felt a slightly smaller head bump into her back. She cocked her head around, baring her teeth and staring angrily at the apprentice who had accidentally rammed into her; Shadepaw. "Go back!" Shadepaw mewed in a shrill voice. He stumbled back with his brother, finding another spot to sit in. Apprentices these days. They're always acting like kits who just left the nursery.

Goldenheart groomed Shimmerkit, nipping at a speck in her pelt. "Stop it!" Shimmerkit whined, turning away. "I'm fine!"

"No, you're not," Goldenheart hissed. "I want you to look splendid when you're made an apprentice." Shimmerkit grunted in response, Goldenheart's next lick going over her cheek.