The sound of frantic pawsteps could be heard first, Amberpaw growing alert and rising from her spot near Cliffstripe where they’d been chatting. Part of his hearing damaged by his loss of an ear, it seemed the ginger warrior was unaware something was approaching before his companions demeanor changed, looking up at her quizzically with his remaining yellow eye.
“Someone’s coming.” She meows simply, fixated on the camp's entrance. Cliffstripe pulls himself into a sitting position, trying to prepare himself for anything.
Dashpaw is a blur when he breaks through the clearing; had it not been for the unfamiliar scent he carried with him, the ginger warrior might not have been able to tell that he even had a kit held firmly in his jaws. The half-white tom locks his eyes on Amberpaw, making a b-line to her and promptly placing the kitten a tail-length in front of her paws.
“I need you to look after him.” Without waiting for a response, he turns his head towards Cliffstripe. “Cliffstripe, I need you to follow me. There are two more kits still. Flippaw is running a diversion, but I don’t know how much time she’ll have.”
Cliffstripe nods firmly. “Got it.” In an instant, he’s on his paws, muscles tensing and preparing for a run.
“A diversion!?” Amberpaw shouts, looking desperately at Dashpaw for more details. “Dashpaw what-”
“There’s no time to explain right now! I’ll tell you everything in a bit!” In typical Dashpaw fashion, he’s gone before she could finish her questioning. Cliffstripe shoots her an apologetic glance before taking off after the other tom.
Giving a sigh, Amberpaw slumps back onto her haunches and looks down at the young kit that was placed at her paws. “Well, guess it’s just you and me, kit. I’m Amberpaw.” She offers the tan tabby a kind smile, thinking back to the time when Flippaw was still this small and hoping to StarClan the molly was going to be alright.
--
“Explain to me what’s going on.” Cliffstripe says firmly between the pounding of his paws. “What do I need to know?”
Dashpaw was a few paces ahead of him, leading the way. He doesn’t spare a glance back at the warrior, and hopes that his voice can be heard well enough from his position. “Flippaw and I were in the outer fields -- she smelled blood, I smelled a wolf. I tried to leave, but she found these kits instead-” He stops for a second to catch his breath before continuing. “-she said she was going to lead the wolf away so we could get the kits! She didn’t even give me a choice about it!”
Were it not for the severity of the situation, Cliffstripe would almost find it humorous; perhaps Dashpaw had rubbed off more on the younger molly than he had thought. “Did you find their mother?”
“I’m guessing that’s the source of the blood-smell.” Dashpaw shouts back grimly.
Try as he did, Dashpaw couldn’t catch a single trace of Flippaw’s current whereabouts; maybe that was for the best? Hopefully that meant she was successful in leading the beast away.
When they reached the remaining two kits, one of them had started crying out for its mother, the sound of her tiny voice causing Cliffstripe’s heart to ache. To lose one's family so young… He approaches the kit slowly, lowering himself to appear less threatening.
“Hey, it’s okay.” The other kit, the blue one, hisses and lashes a tiny paw out defensively. Her sister waddles forward on unsteady paws and sniffs at Cliffstripe curiously.
“This is sweet and all, Cliff’, but we gotta be going.” Dashpaw warned, tail twitching nervously behind him.
Drawing himself back up, Ciffstripe licks at his chest, feeling slightly embarrassed. “Ah- no, you’re right.” He turns back to the pair of kittens and picks up the remaining brown and white she-kit, Dashpaw following suit and grabbing the cranky blue one before making themselves scarce.
--
By the time they return, Amberpaw has put a nest together for the kits; lined with downy feathers from an earlier catch, it seemed the mottled tabby kit Dashpaw had brought in before had already taken up residency within. With the other two kits placed into the nest, they greet each other excitedly, the blue kit pouncing sloppily onto her brother.
“Is that all of them?” Amberpaw asks, looking at the toms.
“These are all the ones Flippaw and I found.” Dashpaw confirms.
An uneasy silence fills the clearing at the mention of the spotted apprentice’s name. Her plan was so hurried that they didn’t take the time to discuss where they’d meet up after, where she planned to goad the wolf into chasing her, really anything.
“She’ll be okay.” Cliffstripe meows, causing the others to look at him.
“How can you be so sure? She’s only been an apprentice for two moons!” Amberpaw’s voice is harsher than she intended it to be, and she flinches back from her own voice. “I’m sorry for yelling, I just-”
Cliffstripe shakes his head. “It’s okay, I understand. Just believe in her, okay? Dashpaw did, I’m going to choose to do so as well. If Flippaw thought she could manage this, then I trust her.”
Amberpaw looks uncertain still, but remains silent and simply nods. As confident as she was in herself, she struggled to find the kind of trust that Cliffstripe seemed to have in everyone.
Seeming uncomfortable with just sitting around, the molly turns her attention back to the trio of kits and tries to usher them off of the nest. “Come on, I’ll bring you inside so you can sleep.”
Dashpaw fights the urge to argue their nest placements; now wasn’t the time. He looks back to Cliffstripe, worry knitted in his brow. “When should we go out to look for her?”
“When the moon is high. I want to make sure we give her enough time and don’t meet the wrong end of a wolf.” Again.
He nods back silently, light-blue gaze fixated on the stars beginning to fill the sky. ‘StarClan, if you really exist… you better keep her safe.’
Strange dreams and nightmares were nothing new to Amberpaw, but that didn't mean he enjoyed them. He didn't remember half of them, but often what did remember was something like the ocean he saw when he died, prey with black seeping from their eyes, and death and destruction. Nothing he would call prophetic. More like... Just dreams of their circumstances.
Tonight it was the ocean again, swimming through whales and limp forms of cats, of seeing someone that he thought was Flintfur or was maybe just a random cat, and then... Well, that was just it. It was a nightmare, something he couldn't escape, watching whales and fish swim as cats floated limply around him, and then he woke up.
That was normal too, but his paws were damp with sweat and his limbs were kicked out of his nest, moss knocked out, and he sucked a deep breath. Amberpaw blew it out a moment later and relaxed into his nest, shaking his head.
"Nice of you to wake up." a voice said dryly after Amberpaw had calmed his breathing a little.
Amberpaw sat up and found Tulippaw glaring at him from her nest, mussed with sleep. He often woke his denmates when the nightmares came, but Yellowpaw and Quailpaw were still asleep, and Fogpaw looked mostly so.
"Sorry." he muttered, beginning to pick moss from his pelt.
Tulippaw snorted and Amberpaw got up once he had gotten rid of the moss, shaking himself as well.
"Tulip, be nice." Fogpaw mumbled.
"He ruins everyone's sleep. I'm glad he's out of the den today." Tulippaw snapped, grumbling as Yellowpaw began to twitch and toss in her sleep.
Amberpaw left the den and sat in the clearing, where dawn had yet to break, Buzzardglide serving as rainwatcher at the moment, her dark form barely visible in the gray morning. Sighing heavily, Amberpaw began to properly groom, though he likely be covered in protection sooner rather than later, ceremony or no ceremony.
Today was his warrior ceremony. A little under a moon since Flintfur had died, and now... Everything felt strange. Wrong.
Goldstar and Jackdawnudge had recovered from their grief, or mostly, Yellowpaw and Quailpaw seemed steadier, Skypelt was doing wonderfully in her role as deputy... But the clan felt different, felt off, and Amberpaw knew it was because Flintfur was gone. The structure of the clan he had grown up with his whole life had changed drastically and suddenly.
He couldn't remember Firkit and Shrewkit dying. He couldn't remember when Ashtalon had died. So in ways, death was new to him, and he did not like the way it rattled the clan. Yes, there had been dead loners and kittypets and so forth, but they hadn't been cats he had known all his life.
He groomed, watching as the sun came above the horizon, and Skypelt emerged from the warriors' den, Quietback soon following after her. Amberpaw watched them and Skypelt headed straight for him, settling down beside him.
"Today is a big day for you, Amberpaw." she purred, drawing her tongue over his ears.
Thorns pricked Amberpaw's skin beneath his pelt and his stomach churned, especially as she began to groom him, his chest seizing up a little. He shied away from her quickly, knowing it hurt her, but Skypelt just didn't seem to understand what touch could do to him.
"I can groom myself, I'm grown." he mumbled as a poor excuse.
"You'll always be my kit." Skypelt said, but she made no move to try to touch him again.
Amberpaw made a noise that meant really nothing, just kept grooming, and Skypelt looked at him.
"I am so proud of you. You've done so well at your training; you will be a great warrior from the start. I've known it since you were little." she said and Amberpaw resisted the urge to lay back his ears.
He hated when she talked like this, like he was the best and strongest warrior there was, that he was going to be, and it wasn't because his father was Ashtalon or anything like that. No, she was just convinced of it, and he still hated it. Even on the day of his ceremony, she wasn't going to shut up about it.
Luckily, the rest of the clan was waking up, Buzzardglide was swapping with Furledseed, and the dawn patrol would soon be done.
Yellowlily led the dawn patrol, taking Stoneleaf, Almondfern, Pumaspot, Gillfeather, and Quailpaw with her, the group coating themselves in protection, and the day went from there.
Rainwatcher ready, Wasp and Lester going out to get herbs, Plumsong checking on Goldstar and Jackdawnudge, and Lester's litter bursting from the nursery, galloping over to Amberpaw before he could walk over to Skypelt to be assigned to hunting.
"It's your ceremony! Right? Right?" Whimsykit all but screamed at him, sitting down in front of him.
Amberpaw didn't mind the kits; they had learned from the start that he didn't like to be touched and had never, not once, touched a hair on his pelt.
Three moons old, the ginger-furred trio looked up at him with huge eyes and sat in a neat line (or as neat as they could manage) in front of him, and Amberpaw nodded.
"I want a ceremony!" Leafkit proclaimed, and just like that, the little kits began playing with each other.
Amberpaw was forgotten and he purred a little, moving off.
The ceremony would be happening before sunhigh and he wasn't assigned any patrol, feeling a flash of envy as Tulippaw and Fogpaw went out to hunt with their mentors. He supposed no one wanted him to get dirty for his ceremony, which irked him just a little. He didn't care.
He checked the camp instead, Quietback helping him make sure the dens were as solid as usual, and before he knew it, patrols were back, prey was brought, and everyone had eaten. Then it was time for the ceremony and Goldstar climbed into the branches of her den, Amberpaw noting that her grief seemed to have aged her this past moon.
She seemed a little stiffer, a little slower, but Amberpaw said nothing. Skypelt sat beside him, Civetbeak on the other side, and Quietback was near him, too, Goldstar's gaze sweeping over the clan.
"My clan, it has been hard these past nine moons, especially this last moon, but despite it, we are all enduring. And today, we are welcoming Amberpaw as a fully fledged warrior. Amberpaw, step forward." Goldstar said, her eyes landing on him.
They were full of fondness and Amberpaw hated that all eyes were on him (yet again), but he stepped forward. He really realized how much he had grown as he stood up next to Skypelt and Civetbeak; he was not as tall as some cats, but he was large and muscular, and he was big.
He stepped forward and took his place in front of the bare tree, dipping his head to Goldstar respectfully.
"Amberpaw, Civetbeak has confided in me that you have done well in your training, and I have seen it for myself. Today, you will be a warrior. Do you promise to protect and defend your clan, and uphold the code of the clans, for as long as you serve as a warrior?" Goldstar asked, looking down at him.
"I do." Amberpaw said without hesitation.
In ways, it didn't feel like that big of a deal. He would just be serving his clan like he had been before, with a new name and more duties. Skypelt had pounded it into his head since he was a kit that he would be a warrior some day, a great one, and while he wasn't sure of that greatness, he was a warrior.
What else would he be, really? He didn't like touching cats and had no interest in herbs. He certainly couldn't be a queen, and mediating as not his strong suit (Wiggity Whacks had given him a few lessons and they had not gone well).
He was pretty sure that most cats didn't feel this sort of indifference toward their warrior ceremonies, but he did.
"Then I, Goldstar, leader of Hyacinthclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this cat, and recognize him as a full warrior of our clan. From this moment forward, for his spirit, he will be known as Amberleaf. Welcome, Amberleaf, as a full warrior of Hyacinthclan." Goldstar said, leaping down to rest her muzzle on top of his head.
"Amberleaf! Amberleaf! Amberleaf!" the clan chanted, Skypelt's voice the loudest of all.
Amberpaw- Amberleaf dipped his head, pulling away from Goldstar as quickly as he could. Yellowpaw had helped him practice for days so he wouldn't flinch away from Goldstar as he had during his apprentice ceremony.
As he sat there, his clan chanting his name, Amberleaf felt that old flash of pain, like he had when he had been apprentice. Why couldn't Copsespots and Ashtalon be here with him? Why couldn't he be getting his name alongside Firkit and Shrewkit? He knew why, but it all still left a bitterness and sadness in him. And could they even see him? With Starclan mostly gone?
It wasn't exactly fair to feel this way and it was different than when he had been a little kit, but Amberleaf still felt that anger, bitterness, and sadness. He tried to shake it off as the ceremony concluded and his clanmates' voiced faded, and turned to the cats who were coming to personally congratulate him.
Skypelt was, of course, the first.
"I'm so proud of you, Amberleaf. You are going to be a great warrior, I know it." she said, rubbing against him affectionatey.
Amberleaf flinched away and recoiled, flattening his ears, and Skypelt looked startled for a moment, Quietback murmuring something to her, and she shook herself. Didn't apologize, didn't say anything to him, and Amberpaw gritted his teeth against this.
"Thank you." he said instead, though he didn't want to hear about how she thought he was going to be great any more.
"Here. I want you to have this." Skypelt said, taking something from Quietback.
Amberleaf looked curiously at the leaf bundle and used his claw to peel back the edge of it, revealing nettles carefully assembled into something to wear, similar to Jackdawnudge's lavender.
"Thank you." he said again, blinking.
"Let me help you put it on." Skypelt said, picking it up.
Amberleaf let her and she fixed it behind his ear, the long strands tickling his fur, and it felt strange, but he smiled. Maybe Skypelt wasn't perfect, but she tried, and she was his mother.
"You look so handsome." Skypelt said, smiling at him, and Amberleaf smiled back.
Then she moved on, as more of the clan (not the whole clan, thankfully) wanted to talk to him. Civetbeak was next and he purred at Amberleaf.
"I'm proud of you, too. I'm sorry I wasn't able to train you for so much of your apprenticeship, but you deserve this." Civetbeak said, a pang of regret in his voice.
"You trained me well." Amberleaf assured him, because Civetbeak had.
It hadn't been his fault that his wound had been so bad. And Amberleaf appreciated what Civetbeak had taught him, even though the tom had been so strict with him.
Civetbeak said nothing else, just gave him a nod, and moved on. Stoneleaf, back from her turn as a Firekeeper, smiled at him, looking as proud as if he were own; she had nursed him briefly, and Amberleaf couldn't forget that even if he couldn't actually remember it. Amberleaf permitted a light touching of their noses and shuddered internally, but he had nursed from her and he could stand.
Finally, after a few more clanmates, including Goldstar herself, Quietback was the only one left.
Amberleaf, after all this time, honestly wasn't sure what to think of Quietback most of the time. He knew Quietback had been his father's best friend, that they had been the last kits of one of the clans that had formed Hyacinthclan, taken care of by Goldstar and Flintfur.
But the cat had always almost avoided him outside patrols, and Amberleaf often caught him observing him from a distance, like he was afraid of him, almost. Cats told Amberleaf he looked a lot like his father, and that he acted similar, too. He thought maybe the perceived resemblance was painful for the cat.
No one had been closer to Ashtalon than Quietback, after all, except for Copsespots.
"Hey, kit. I know you probably don't want to hear it, but... Well, I know your parents would be proud of you. Not like Skypelt is, not how she is... But... They're looking at you know, and they know. Just... Well, I just want you to know that, all right?" Quietback said awkwardly and Amberleaf nodded.
"But you're also your own cat. Remember that." Quietback added and that made Amberleaf prick his ears.
No one had ever really said that to him. His clanmates had fussed and fawned over him for most of his life, because of the tragedies he didn't even remember, and he knew why, he understood. But being told that he wasn't just a legacy or a great warrior, well...
Amberleaf reached tentatively and placed his paw on top of Quietback's tentatively, his pads prickling like thorns were sticking in them, but he managed it. To his surprise, Quietback jerked his paw back before he did, the hairs on his pelt rising for a second, and then he shook his head.
"Well, I shouldn't keep you from patrols." he said quickly and hurried off, leaving Amberleaf staring after him.
Amberleaf sat his vigil that night, taking the role of rainwatcher, and he had to blow the conch, but the rainfall was brief. No cat was injured, nothing damaged or lost.
In the morning, it was nice and clear and Amberpaw was able to sleep until almost sunhigh, and then he joined patrols. Goldstar was having a rough time today, still not entirely recovered from the loss of Flintfur, and Civetbeak's leg was acting up, so he volunteered to take Yellowpaw for her training.
No one protested, and he had been training with her for her entire apprenticeship, after all.
Amberleaf took her to the little clearing where all Hyacinthclan apprentices learned their battle moves and as they walked, he began to notice that Yellowpaw seemed.. Off.
He stopped the patrol as soon as he did.
"Yellowpaw, is something wrong?" he asked, though he suspected it might have been related to Flintfur.
She and Quailpaw had been putting on brave faces, but he knew they both missed their father terribly.
"I..." Yellowpaw said, sitting down, hunching her shoulders.
"You can talk to me, Yellowpaw. I'll listen. I might not be the best at talking, but I can listen." Amberleaf offered, coming to sit down beside her.
Yellowpaw studied the ground.
"Is it Flintfur?" Amberleaf asked.
"...No."
Amberleaf didn't press and they sat in there in silence for a little bit, Yellowleaf finally speaking.
"It's... I've been having nightmares lately." she said, scuffing her paws on the ground.
The blue feathers Flintfur had given her stood out in her tail fur, catching Amberleaf's eye as she flicked her tail, and he pricked his ears when she mentioned nightmares.
"What sort of nightmares?" he asked, wondering if it was actually about Flintfur.
It could have been, after all, because Amberleaf himself certainly had had nightmares about what had happened afterward.
"I... They're... I can't really describe them. But they're always the same. They're filled with shadows and rainfall and... And things." Yellowpaw said, whispering the last part.
"What sort of things?" Amberleaf asked carefully.
"They look like cats. Prey. Twolegs. But they aren't. They're black, like smoke or fog, just floating in the shapes. Things trail off them and they're just there. Then some of them are solid and these black waves come, swallowing up everything. The clan and the camp and..." Yellowpaw said, shuddering.
"I think they're Unseen. Because they eat a cat and then there is a Silencing, and... Oh, Amberleaf, it's terrible! I tried to tell Jackdawnudge but I didn't know what to do and why would Starcaln give me a prophecy or a vision... And there is this thing in the ocean. I don't know what it is." she continued and this made Amberleaf paused.
"Can you see it? This thing in the ocean?" he asked carefully.
"I... It's dark and it has tentacles, like an octopus. They reach out and they grab at cats, it pulls itself with them... And the black swallows it up again. Black in the ocean." Yellowpaw answered and Amberleaf's heart thumped.
That was the thing he had seen the first time he had died, swimming in the ocean toward him. And the nightmares sounded like some he had had before. So it wasn't just him...
"I don't like it! I'm afraid to sleep and I don't want to, and I'm so scared... What if they are real? What if all that stuff happens? I hate this, Amberleaf!" Yellowpaw said, beginning to cry.
Amberleaf took a breath and pressed against her, wrapping his tail around her, and Yellowpaw stiffened against him at this.
"I have nightmares like that, too. I don't know if they're a prophecy or something for Starclan or just dreams, but I have them, too." he said, his skin prickling, but... Touching Yellowpaw was all right.
"You do?"
"Uh-huh."
"Have you told anyone about them? Like the medicine cats?" Yellowpaw asked.
"No." Amberleaf admitted, shaking his head.
"Why not?"
"I was scared. I wasn't sure how. And then it just... Nothing has actually come true. I think they're just dreams." Amberleaf answered, having no better explanation.
Maybe other cats would have told the medicines cats, their mentors, someone, but with everything that was going on and everything that was already strange about him, he just hadn't been able to do it.
He really wasn't sure why, other than he was pretty sure he wasn't normal.
"Do you think I should?" Yellowpaw asked and Amberleaf considered it.
"Maybe talk to Goldstar. She is the leader, and your mother." he suggested after a moment.
"Did you tell Skypelt?" Yellowpaw asked, looking up at him.
"...No."
"But she's your mother." Yellowpaw pointed out and Amberleaf shook his head.
"It's... Look, it's complicated, Yellowpaw. But we're different cats and if you think you should talk to one of the medicine cats or Goldstar, then you should. Just because I haven't doesn't mean that you have to do the same." he said and Yellowpaw nodded.
"You... You have nightmares a lot. Is that what you dream about?" she asked after a long moment.
"Yes." Amberleaf said, as there was no point in lying.
"You could have told me." Yellowpaw said softly.
"Well, I've told you now." Amberleaf said gruffly and Yellowpaw laughed softly.
"Look, whatever you decide to do, whether you tell anyone else or not, you can talk to me, Yellowpaw. I might not have answers, but I can listen." Amberleaf added and she leaned against him more.
"Thank you." she murmured and Amberleaf nodded, keeping her tail around her until she was ready to go back on patrol.
Nettle's meaning across various languages of flowers: Cruelty, deep pain, cause of great pain, slander, spitefullness, protection, danger
Falling star is getting really old and doesn't understand how to show there kits they care about them. Chasing brook feels forgotten by there parent.
i don't know exactly why Lilac fawn would want to retire to the elders den early, but I guess Hawk stripe wasn't the most supportive as a mentor seeing as Lilac doesn't like her.
on a brighter note Chef has made some of the prettiest cats in the clan. i.e. Grouse and Silk. In my opinion the prettiest cats I've drawn. and there not super annoying to draw. win win. :)
