Diverging Paths (Warrior Cats Fanfiction)

Chapter 1

"Highwings! Archpounce! Hollowfortune! Highwings! Archpounce! Hollowfortune!"

Her name and the names of her brother and sister were lifted up in chorus around her, filling her with endless joy and excitement. She was a warrior now. Six long moons of apprenticeship, and she was finally a warrior.

She looked around in joy as her Clanmates' happy faces and smiling mouths filled her vision. Sickbreath, her father, was among them, but he seemed to only be reciting their names out of duty, doing it quietly. Unlike the boisterous expressions of her Clanmates, Sickbreath just quietly murmured their names with a small grin and tears in his eyes. When he caught her eyes staring at him, she had to look away, in real danger of crying like him. She could not cry at her own warriors ceremony. That would not be appropriate.

The cheering began dying down, and she took note of the time. Past sunhigh, but not nightfall yet. Hopefully this would finish up soon so she could chat with her father and have a word with her former mentor. She couldn't do it tonight, because tonight was her vigil, where she'd have to sit wordless beside her brother and sister.

Her brother and sister. She gazed to her sister first, on her left. Archpounce, a dark gray she-cat with brown spots and a lighter gray belly, was eyeing the crowd with an accomplished smile and twinkling red eyes, clearly enjoying the praise and the spotlight. Not like that was a bad thing; Highwings was guilty of this too. Archpounce wasn't the type of cat, though, to be good at keeping silent for a long time, especially while missing sleep. Unlike her brother.

She turned her head to Hollowfortune on her right and almost cried out when she realized he was already looking at her. Well, with only one eye; his left eye had been lazy since he was a tiny kit, always rolled off to the side, usually in the bottom outer corner of his eye. His pelt was black with white accents on places like his paws, belly, muzzle, and tail-tip. When Highwings met his pinkish eye, he nervously locked it back on the ShadeRock, quite obviously trying to pretend he had not been looking at her, though Highwings didn't really see a crime in it if he was. Whatever. The tom was one of the more socially anxious types, so she understood.

She gazed back up towards their leader, Scatterstar, a pure black she-cat with yellow eyes that seemed to pop out from her dark pelt. The shouts around them were dying down bit by bit, and Highwings knew her leader would resume the rest of the ceremony any moment now.

She let her eyes wander one final time to the side of the ShadeRock, where Murmuringsoil, the deputy, sat. He was a dark gray tom, dotted with darker spots, and clear amber eyes, appearing like some less-polished knockoff of Scatterstar. While Scatterstar had a comforting yet firm gaze, he just seemed judgmental of everyone and everything. Even now, as Highwings' pinkish and purplish irises locked themselves on him, he returned her stare with a wrinkled muzzle and raised eyebrow, almost like he was challenging the new warrior to her reason as to why she had dared gaze in his direction.

Words from Scatterstar snapped her attention back towards the leader, and she could feel the wooshes of air around her and the brushing fur and whiskers as her siblings did the same. "You will hold a vigil tonight in honor of your...ancestors, and your newly given names. We welcome you all as full warriors of ShadowClan."

The brief pause between "your" and "ancestors" was yet another indication to Highwings of what had been happening throughout her entire life: ShadowClan becoming less attached to StarClan. Scatterstar had deliberately left out "StarClan" and replaced it with "ancestors" in the speech; it was not unintentional.

For Highwings this was normalcy. It had been happening since before she was born, and she had gone her whole life with the lack of star-cats in every waking moment. However, for older cats that had lived through the event that caused it, such as her father Sickbreath, the story was vastly different. She could see his eyes droop in disappointment as Scatterstar once again omitted StarClan from her words of announcement.