Today was my Warrior's Assessment.

No one's actually told me yet, but I can tell because of all the supportive looks I've been getting from cats in the clan. Honeyheart had also been giving me subtle hints, such as talking about my future when I'm a warrior.

And good Starclan, was I scared out of my mind.

If my Warrior's Assessment was today, that means that most of the other reborn's assessments are today. Which means that the truce we made when we had just turned apprentices was officially over, and death was no longer prohibited.

Well, frowned upon, but we can't call one of our deaths 'unfair'.

While I was thinking, Honeyheart had walked over to me, and was now standing in front of me. "Are you ready?" I gave the she-cat a nod. "Good. The other's are already waiting for you. They'll meet us at the training hollow. Follow me."

We started heading to the training hollow, keeping a quick pace. "Are you nervous?" Honeyheart asked.

I decided to be truthful. "Yep."

"Don't be. I know you'll do just fine. Just remember what I taught you and you'll be the star apprentice today." I gave Honeyheart a feeble smile at these words. I know she was trying to help, but she didn't understand the deeper meaning behind becoming warriors. Which was fine, I wasn't going to blame her for it.

We finally reached the training hollow, where all of the other apprentices, minus Finchpaw, of course, were waiting for us.

"Someone took their time." Crowear complained.

"Sorry, Crowear. I guess we were a bit slow." Honeyheart responded

Now that was a lie. We had kept a fast pace the entire time. The others were just early. I assume that Honeyheart just didn't want to start any squabbles.

"Shall we get started?" Foxflame inquired.

Cinderface nodded. "Yeah." She turned to the apprentices, "We'll be testing you not only on your strength in fighting, but also in your hunting skill and cunning. Since there are so many of you, we'll be splitting into groups. Swiftpaw and Doepaw, you'll start in the training hollow with Crowear and Foxflame. Dahliapaw and Stagpaw, you'll be with myself and Honeyheart."

Stagpaw raised his tail. "Why aren't we taking our assessments with our mentors?"

"Your mentor already knows all of your skills, and could possibly show bias when we report to Gorsestar," Foxflame responded, "So none of you will have your mentor in your group."

We split up into our respective groups, and the Dahliapaw's group headed out into the forest.

Crowear turned to face us. "We'll start you two with sparring while they hunt. Doepaw, Swiftpaw, head to opposite sides of the hollow, and we'll begin."

I slowly moved over to the south side of the hollow, breathing heavily. I don't know why I was so nervous, I had done this before and had done fine.

"On the drop of my tail, you may begin." Foxflame said, "Are you two ready?" We both nodded. "Three, two, one..."

Foxflame extended the pause to way longer than it should've been. Doepaw looked over to him in confusion.

Big mistake.

Foxflame finally dropped his tail, and I sprang towards Doepaw, my tail streaming out behind me, lips pulled back in a menacing manner.

I slammed into the she-cat, tumbling over with her towards the edge of the hollow. When I was finally able to maintain some stability, I stood, pinning her. Doepaw churned her hind legs against my stomach, trying to execute a move we've been taught so many times.

Some of Honeyheart's advice came back to me. Winning a battle isn't all physical. You need to beat your opponent mentally as well. When you have them pinned, scare them.

Remembering this, I growled in Doepaw's face, attempting to play a mind game with her.  Suddenly, her churning rate increased drastically.

I must have messed something up with my stance, as Doepaw quickly pushed me backwards and off balance. Doepaw quickly pinned me, but I overpowered her and sprang away.

"Okay, you two can stop." Crowear said. I was visibly disappointed, and the black tom noticed.  "You both did very well. Swiftpaw, that was an amazing start, and Doepaw, great job getting out of Swiftpaw's pin. I have many good things to tell Gorsestar."

"However", Foxflame stepped in, "There were some mistakes you both made, that if fixed could help you in the future. Doepaw, at the beginning of the match, you let the delayed start distract you, which is why Swiftpaw was able to knock you down in the beginning.

"And Swiftpaw, your reaction time was very quick when I dropped my tail, and that's a good trait to have. However, I saw that you were trying to scare Doepaw. I understand that you were trying to put forth what Honeyheart has taught you, but I think she may have worded what she was trying to say wrong. She said that you should try to scare your opponent, right?"

I nodded in response.

"That's not necessarily a good idea. Not to bore you, but scaring someone raises their levels of adrenaline, and that heightens their senses and reaction time. I believe that Honeyheart meant that you should play mind games. You should try to get into your opponent's head. Mess with them, touch into their personal thoughts. Doing that distracts them from whats staring them right in the face."

I nodded once again in understanding.

Crowear returned to speaking. "Don't take this as an insult. You both did very well, and although it was a very short fight, we both saw all we needed to make half of the decision.

"Next we'll move onto hunting. You'll both be sent on your own into the territory. It is..." With this Crowear looked up into the sky. "It's a bit after sunhigh. We'll give you two three hours to catch as much prey as possible. Remember to not slack off, we'll always be watching you."

Both myself and Doepaw responding with a quick "Okay!" and went on our way. I noticed that Doepaw went out towards Thunderclan territory, so I headed in the almost opposite direction, towards Windclan.

I padded through our grassland-like territory, keeping my eyes trained on the land surrounding me for any prey. As I did this, I delved into my thoughts.

I wonder how Dahliapaw is doing. Has she finished hunting yet? Will she pass? It is Leaf-bare. Hunting will be hard! If Dahliapaw or one of the others doesn't pass their assessment, does that extend the truce, or is just that cat safe for the time?

As I finished up my last thought, I noticed a small hare prancing around in the snow. I scanned the surrounding, looking for possible trees or objects to blend in with. Finding none, I crouched low to the ground and started stalking towards the unsuspecting hare.

I wanted to get as close to the hare as possible before I leapt after it. I moved very slowly, trying my best to not make noises on the snow.

After another painfully slow pawstep, I froze, deciding that I was closed enough to make the final leap.

I bunched my hind legs, and leapt.

No!

My front leg slipped out from under me, and I face-planted into the cold ground. By the time I looked up, the hare was long gone. I had just messed up in my warrior's assessment! This could end up being like last time, where I become a warrior way after my siblings and friends!

But then I remembered something: I have new powers! I could use them to catch the hare.

I looked around my surroundings, checking if Crowear or Foxflame were near by. After seeing nothing, I looked back in the direction that the hare had traveled in. While hares zig-zag to avoid, they will normally stay heading in the same direction. I closed my eyes, focused in on that particular direction, guesstimated the distance that the hare had traveled, and started moving my paw forwards.

I opened my eyes just as my paw hit the ground. I had teleported quite a distance away from my original location. I turned, saw the hare, and wasted no time in running after it.

It took me only a short burst of speed to catch up to the hare, and I swiftly slammed my paws down on its neck. I bit the vein on the hare's neck just to make sure that it was dead, picked the hare up, and buried it near a dead tree.

'~******~'

I finally finished my last trip to the training hollow, dragging a surprisingly large squirrel with me. I plopped it down with my other caught prey, and lifted my head back up towards Crowear and Foxflame, panting heavily.

"Great Job you two. You both managed to find a good amount of prey, despite the weather and the amount of time given", Foxflame praised.

We had both managed to catch around four or five prey, which was a large amount, definitely the most I've caught.

"Foxflame and myself have some things to talk about, you two take as much prey as you can back to camp. We'll take the rest back when we finish", Crowear said.

There was a look in Crowear's eyes that unsettled me, but I ignored it.

We nodded our thanks, picked up as much prey as we could, and took it back to camp.

"Wow! You guys caught a lot!" Stagpaw greeted us at the camp entrance, "Let me carry some of that for you."

Doepaw dropped a small vole, and I dropped a young squirrel. "This isn't even all of it." Doepaw explained to her brother, "We had to leave some back with Crowear and Foxflame because there was so much!"

Stagpaw smiled. "Great job! Dahliapaw and I really didn't catch much, but I did manage to catch a thrush!"

Doepaw continued the conversation with Stagpaw as I moved ahead to lead the March back to camp. We had almost arrived, and I was grateful for that. My paws were sore from walking around the territory and battling. Sleep sounded amazing right now.

Only problem was that I had to become a warrior first. Which was an exciting concept yes, but I don't know if I had the energy to deal with the praise. Or to smile large enough.

By this time we had arrived back at camp. I threw my head up to the sky to see that it was almost dusk, so I decided to not take a nap. Instead I curled up next to Leafpaw as she was eating.

She looked like she wanted to talk to me, but almost immediately after I sat down, Gorsestar called, "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the Rockpile for a clan meeting!"

The cats of the clan came out of their dens, weariness clearly present in their eyes. "It's about time we made some of our favorite apprentices into Warriors."

The clan bubbled with laughter as some of my fellow apprentices rolled their eyes. "Anyways, let's get started. Doepaw, please step forward." I watch Doepaw step froward, her eyes determined and focused. "Cinderface, is Doepaw ready to become a warrior?"

Cinderface was absolutely beaming. "Absolutely!"

"In that case, I, Gorsestar, leader of Windclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Doepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and protect the clan even at the cost of your life?"

Doepaw took a deep breath. "I do."

"Then by the powers of Starclan, I give you your warrior name. Doepaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Doefern. Starclan honors your strength and compassion, and we welcome you as a full member of Windclan."

Doefern bent as Gorsestar put her head on Doefern's shoulder, and she licked her shoulder respectfully.

"Doefern! Doefern! Doefern!" The clan shouted around me.

Gorsestar repeated the process for both Stagpaw and Dahliapaw, naming them Staghorn and Dahliaspot. Both fitting names.

"Swiftpaw."

Here we go.

"Honeyheart, is she ready to become a warrior?"

"Mhm."

"Alrighty then. I, Gorsestar, leader of Windclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Swiftpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and protect the clan even at the cost of your life?"

"I do." My mind was everywhere, trying to comprehend everything that was going on.

"Then by the powers of Starclan, I give you your warrior name. Swiftpaw, from this moment on, you will be known as Swiftstorm. Starclan honors your speed and wits, and we welcome you as a full member of Windclan."

"Swiftstorm! Swiftstorm! Swiftstorm!"

I grinned as I respectfully licked Gorsestar's shoulder, and I moved back into the group of cats. Clanmates swarmed me and congratulated me.

I moved past them and let them disperse. I let a breath that I didn't realize I was holding, and opened my eyes to see a face right in front of mine.

"AIEEEEEEE!"

The face smiled and let out a small chuckle. "Did I scare ya?"

"I-HARETUFT! YES!"

"Hehe. sorry, didn't mean to. Anyways, I wanted to congratulate you on becoming a warrior! Now we can go on patrols together!"

I just stared at him.

"Uhhhh, Swift-?"

"Great Starclan I love you."

"..."

"..."

"Um, what did you say?"

My mind cleared of fog as I realized what I had said. "Oh, uh, nothing!" I shook my head to clear it up more. "Anyways, I'm tired from all the stuff today. I'm gonna head to my nest."

"Okay, goodnight!"

As he walked away, I thought to myself, Too early. I love him to death, and I only hope that he feels the same, but we're both still young. We have plenty of time. And I need to figure out his stance on the whole, ya know, ordeal. I started walking back to the apprentice's den, and then realized that I was a warrior now. Definitely putting my nest next to Haretuft's. 

UGGGGHHHHHHHH That was hard to finish. I wrote the last 1800 words in 5 days. Most of it on the way to and from school. I wanted it to end but I always need to add something else.

BUT 2300 WORDS! NEW RECORD!

And this is for the only character that wasn't originally going to be in the story (I was always gonna have a follower's cat in the story)!

I'm not gonna ignore the obvious. I haven't updated in what, 3-4 months? But I have been seeing how many of you actually read this.

Very, very little. I was the only one who had read the last chapter (from what I know) before early yesterday.

I have absolutely no idea when I'll update next, but I do know that I 100% ship Swiftstorm and Haretuft!

Oh, and sorry for not doing Haretuft's warrior ceremony, I just completely forgot about it until I was writing that last scene. 

And @SpiritLeAssassin, I hope you like the names for Doefern and Staghorn! Finchkit will come later.

Anyways, 'til the next,

-Maple