Prophecies of Stars Chapter 16

Instructions

Echopaw was glad to be training now - and it was leafsprout! - but there were a lot of bad feelings around her older siblings. Icepaw’s mentor died, then Windpaw got his warrior ceremony delayed to work on the elders. Echopaw sighed as she fell asleep, but naturally, she couldn’t just have a normal dream. She saw a mouse in a forest, stalked it, and caught it. As she was eating the warm flesh, a small cat walked out of the bush in front of her. “Hello, little sister,” Fangkit said. It was strange for a one-moon-old kit to be calling her “little sister,” but Echopaw decided to focus on the important bits. “Sorry for blowing up at you,” Echopaw muttered. “But can you please tell me who the shade is?” “You’ll know soon enough.” Fangkit looked at her. “I wish I could tell you everything. Then we could avoid it all. ShineClan's tried many times before.” “What do you mean?” “You'll know someday. After you make the choice.” “Wha-” Fangkit began fading, but Echopaw just caught him saying, “The wrong choice” quietly. She woke up to the sound of cats, running around camp. What was happening this early besides the dawn patrol? The first clue she had was noise from the nursery. Crystalstar had her kits already? Echopaw reeaaaallyyy wanted to see it though, so she could be ready if she had kits. She bounced out of the apprentices’ den and towards the medicine den, where she knew Irismoon was. “Can I help?” she asked, poking her head in. “Sure. Just don’t bring Windpaw with you. He’s useless in the nursery,” Irismoon told her. Echopaw giggled at the thought of Windpaw pacing outside as his kits were born, with Irismoon telling him to stay out. She wondered which unlucky she-cat would be his mate. Maybe Spanglekit or Frostkit, or maybe Blackpaw. “Can you grab some herbs for me?” Irismoon began to describe a few for Echopaw to grab. She ran to the nursery, Echopaw following with thyme and burnet. Crystalstar was shaking, and Echopaw saw a good stick, so she grabbed it for Crystalstar. Icepaw was standing beside Crystalstar, soothing her with a determined expression on her face. Of course, Echopaw thought. These are her former mentor’s kits. Echopaw handed Crystalstar the stick. Everleaf was patting Crystalstar’s tummy to find how many there were. “Three or four.” Crystalstar tensed, and a little white sack appeared near her back legs. Irismoon broke the thread and opened the sack, revealing a tiny white kit. “A she-kit!” Echopaw exclaimed She stumbled towards Crystalstar, but at the same moment Crystalstar moaned with pain, and then there was another whitish kit, but she looked more like Crystalstar than the other. “Another she-kit,” Irismoon said. “You’re doing well.” The silver-white kit joined the pure-white one at Crystalstar’s underbelly. Crystalstar bit even harder on her stick and a blue-gray tom popped into view. He was smaller than his sisters, but strong and already crawling toward the smell of milk. “There’s one more,” Everleaf meowed. Crystalstar convulsed one more time, and the smallest kit popped out. Everyone was silent. Icepaw’s eyes shone in the dawn light, and Echopaw knew what everyone was thinking. The little tom looked just like Redclay as if he had been reincarnated into this precious new life. Even the little black stripe on the shoulder was there. But Icepaw reported that Fangkit had seen Redclay in ShineClan. “You’re done!” Irismoon declared cheerfully. “I already know what to name them.” Crystalstar smiled wistfully. “The white one, Pearlkit, the other she-kit, Opalkit, the blue tom, Zirconkit, and the red one…” She choked on her words. She did every time she thought of Redclay. “Jasperkit.” Echopaw was relieved to have a distraction from everything. The four oldest apprentices were becoming warriors! “Let all cats old enough to fetch prey gather around the Bigrock for a clan meeting!” Wildwing called. It was weird seeing Wildwing up there instead of Crystalstar, who was in the nursery, looking pregnant (even though she had already given birth). “Streampaw, Shadepaw, Blackpaw, and Aspenpaw, come up here,” Wildwing announced. “Do you swear to ShineClan that you will fight for your clan at any cost?” “I do,” the apprentices chorused. “Then by the powers, I give you your warrior names. Streampaw, from this moment on you will be known as Streamfur. ShineClan honors your courage and loyalty.” Streamfur licked Wildwing’s shoulder after Wildwing rested his head on top of Streamfur. “Blackpaw, you will be known as Blacksleek, we honor your kindness and wit.” Echopaw felt bad for Wildwing. In the history of the 3 Clans, no deputy had to do the ceremony. Wildwing was nervous. “Aspenpaw, your warrior name is Aspenwhisper. ShineClan appreciates your readiness and confidence to be different.” Aspenwhisper bowed their head. “Shadepaw, we honor your respectfulness and consistency. You will be known as Shadewing.” Echopaw froze. She could only think, why?