River Of Fire

The easy catch made Twigpaw feel even more confident. Gazing around her at the sunlit forest, glowing with the reds and golds of leaf-fall, she felt energy filling her like rain filling up a dip in the ground.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” she mewed aloud.

Sunhigh was approaching, and as Twigpaw waited for her mentor to return, she felt satisfied with her hunt. She had caught several more pieces of prey, scratching earth over them until she was ready to carry them back to camp.

Now Twigpaw spotted a blackbird that had alighted on an ivy-covered tree stump in a clearing just ahead of her. Making sure that her tail was low and still, she stalked carefully toward it.

At the last moment, the blackbird took off. Twigpaw leaped, remembering the trick Sparkpelt had shown her for hunting birds, and aimed her body above where she could see the blackbird. She intercepted it easily, and landed with the bird in her jaws.

Just as Twigpaw turned, carrying the blackbird, she heard the rustling sound of something racing through the undergrowth. Dropping her prey, she picked up the scent of rabbit, and not just that.

There’s something else. Twigpaw drew in a deep breath to taste the air. Finpaw’s scent, too!

A heartbeat later, the rabbit shot out of a bank of ferns and raced across the clearing toward Twigpaw. Finpaw was hard on its paws. The rabbit let out a squeal of terror as it spotted Twigpaw right in front of it, and it veered aside, but Twigpaw was too fast for it. With a massive leap, she slammed a paw down on its hind legs, while Finpaw pounced on its shoulders and bit its throat to kill it.

“Great catch!” A voice came from behind Twigpaw.

She turned to see Larksong emerging from the undergrowth with Sparkpelt just behind him.

“You’ve both hunted very well,” Larksong continued.

Sparkpelt nodded. “We’re especially impressed by your teamwork, catching that rabbit,” she meowed. “And, Larksong, did you see the way Twigpaw caught that bird? I couldn’t have done better myself.”

Twigpaw felt almost embarrassed at the gleam of approval in her mentor’s eyes. Pride warmed her from ears to tail-tip, particularly when she remembered how she and Sparkpelt had gotten off on the wrong paw.

Sparkpelt thinks much better of me now. I must really be doing well!

As Twigpaw and her Clanmates returned to the camp, laden with the prey the two apprentices had caught, Lilyheart and Ivypool came bounding up to them.

“We were watching for you,” Lilyheart meowed. “It looks as if you had a good hunt.”

“We knew you’d do well,” Ivypool added.

Twigpaw was purring so hard she had to let her prey drop. It meant a lot to her, to be praised by the cat who had mothered her and her first mentor in ThunderClan. She left her kits in camp, just so she could wait to congratulate me!

“Let me take that.” Ivypool collected her catch and carried it off to the fresh-kill pile. Lilyheart laid her tail over Twigpaw’s shoulders and guided her toward the medicine cats’ den.

Alderheart was waiting there, and Twigpaw’s eyes widened in disbelief as she saw the two cats who were with him.

“Hawkwing! Violetshine!” she exclaimed. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Alderheart arranged it,” Hawkwing meowed.

“Yes, I talked Bramblestar into letting them come,” Alderheart added, obviously pleased with himself. “I didn’t want them to miss your warrior ceremony.”

“It’s really going to happen, after so long!” Violetshine purred, pressing her muzzle into Twigpaw’s shoulder.

“Thank you, Alderheart,” Twigpaw mewed, blinking at him gratefully. “This means so much to me.”

A scurry of paw steps announced Finpaw’s arrival; he threw himself on Hawkwing, butting him in the side with his head.

“Take it easy,” Hawkwing protested with a mrrow of amusement. “Show a bit of respect.”

Twigpaw remembered Finpaw telling her that Hawkwing had helped take care of him when he was a kit and his father, Sandynose, was missing. It was good to see that they were still close.

“I’m so glad you’re here to see me become a warrior,” Finpaw declared. “It’s almost as good as having my own family here. Are they all okay?” he added, suddenly sounding a little nervous.

“They’re fine,” Hawkwing assured him.

“And they don’t mind that I came to ThunderClan?”

“Oh, they mind,” Hawkwing replied. “They didn’t want to lose you, and they think you should have stayed with SkyClan. But I think they’ll come around after some time has passed. You can always talk to them at Gatherings.”

“Thanks, Hawkwing,” Finpaw mewed fervently.

“It’s all my fault,” Twigpaw murmured, her pelt prickling with guilt at the thought that she had dragged Finpaw away from his family and his Clan.

“No, it’s not, you daft furball,” Finpaw whispered back. “I’d rather be here with you anyway.”