"Duskstripe, we must hurry!" Wailed a silver she-cat. " Come quick!"
"No Emberwisker." He mewed firmly. " I must help the others in the river. I need to help my Clan!"
"But what about the kits?" Emberwisker protested
"They will be fine. Leafbranch is smart. She will make sure that Icekit and Frostkit make it out of the fire safely" The deputy mewed
The fire blazed around them as cats ran in all directions, trying to get away from the camp, and towards the river, which lay between ThistleClan and MarshClan and was in the direction of a lake.
"Well, whatever you think, I'm going to get the kits and their mother out of there, now!"
The silver she-cat knew that Leafbranch, one of the queens, wouldn't be able to get her kits out before the fire burned the nursery. Emberwisker ran into the flaming camp. She could hear mewling coming from the nursery. It was almost impossible to breathe or see through all the smoke, so she ducked down and squinted the best as possible. She needed to save the kits. They were the future of ThistleClan!
Duskstripe leaped over a fallen tree and dogged a burning bush. He eventually made it to the river, where a few cats were already trying to swim towards the lake, but most of them stood trembling on the riverbank, afraid to cross. Duskstripe thought they had a good point. ThistleClan were not swimmers. A MarshClan patrol was coming by. They must have smelt the smoke, Duskstripe thought. Duskstripe tried to help the cats, but half of them would not budge. When he finally got Milkyleaf into the water and she flailed around, trying to swim, as did half of the others. The Clan cats could have run along the riverbank, but the ground was too hot and a lot of it was on fire.
Emberwisker leaped over a patch of flames and ducked into the smokey nursery. "Leafbranch! Come on! Grab Frostkit! I'll take Icekit! Hurry up!"
"Coming!"
The two she-cats raced through the burning forest, leaping over patches or flaming gorse and twigs. They ran until they were well clear of the burning forest. Leafbranch stumbled, almost falling into the flames, but leaping over at the last moment. The two she-cats got the kits out of the camp and over to the river, where everyone else was getting into the river. An apprentice, Skypaw, was helping get the elders and injured cats into the water. She refused to get into the water and swim away until she was absolutely sure that everyone was in the water and safe from the fire. Skypaw turned to Leafbranch, "You were just in the camp." she mewed "Is everyone out?"
"Yes," Leafbranch nodded
Then one cat came running up.
"Sootrain!" Duskstripe exclaimed, "Hurry up! In the water!"
The gray tom leaped into the river.
Soon, they were all on the other side of a lake, where they set up a temporary camp. As they were swimming, Skypaw had stayed at the back, pushing forwards the cats that fell behind the group. Once at the makeshift camp, the leader, Fawnstar, who was badly burned, lept onto a rock.
"All cats old enough to catch there own prey, gather beneath the HighRock for a clan meeting." The cats assembled beneath the boulder.
"Skypaw, please step forwards,"
The apprentice suddenly understood what was happening.
"I, Fawnstar, leader of ThistleClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as a warrior in their turn. Skypaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"
Skypaw was beaming with pride "I do."
"Then by the powers of , I give you your warrior name. Skypaw, from this moment you will be known as Skyfire, for the fire you helped save us all from. StarClan honors your determination and spirit, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThistleClan."
"Skyfire! Skyfire! Skyfire!" The Clan chanted.
Skyfire was beaming, surrounded by the cats from her Clan, but she didn't care that much about the attention. The Clan was safe, and that was all that mattered now.
