Body low, muscles tensed, tail still, Nightpaw thought to himself, positioning his body. The mouse before him continued to nibble on a seed, unaware of his presence.

Swiping his tongue over his jaws, the black tom prepared to pounce. His claws slid out of their sheathes in anticipation as he counted down. Three, two, one...

The mouse suddenly raised its head, ears swivelling, and scurried off before Nightpaw could blink. Staring at the blank space where his prey had been moments before, the tom cursed under his breath.

"You waited too long." Lionmask padded up to the truth-teller's apprentice, cream tabby coat fluffed up against the cold. "The longer you wait, the longer you risk your prey hearing you - or someone else."

"But if I can't wait too long then how do I get my form right?" Nightpaw asked, scoring the ground with his claws in frustration.

"You're thinking about it too much," the guardian explained. "Get back into the hunting crouch."

Nightpaw sank to the ground. Body low, muscles tensed, tail still.

"You're thinking about it," Lionmask said, flicking his tail over the apprentice's back. "Get back up. I want you to circle around the oak once before coming back and trying again."

Growling in frustration, Nightpaw did as he was told. Padding away from the Tall Oak, he let his paws guide him into the forest. Once he was five foxlengths away from the giant tree, he turned and began to circle it.

The earth felt cold beneath his paws, leaves crackling under him as he walked. His breath rose in clouds before him as he breathed, disappearing into the nearly bare branches of the trees above. He watched it float up and away into the stormy grey of the sky. He wondered if it would rain today.

When he returned to the hollow beneath the Tall Oak, Lionmask sat waiting for him. With a gesture of his cream tail, the guardian signalled Nightpaw to try his hunting crouch again. Obediently, the apprentice moved into the stance, focusing on a leaf before him rather than his positioning.

Paws wider apart, tail still...

"You're still thinking about it, Nightpaw. Off you go."

Hissing, the tom took off for another lap around the oak.

//

The dim outline of the sun had reached its highest point in the sky by the time Nightpaw naturally sank into a proper hunting crouch. It was even later still by the time he actually caught something, snagging the mouse's tail a heartbeat before it bolted.

"That's a good catch," Lionmask said as they padded over the stepping stones and back to camp. "It's rather plump for leaffall prey."

Nightpaw felt the pride in his chest but took the guardian's compliment modestly, bowing his head in thanks. As the first drops of rain fell from the sky, the apprentice wondered how Minkpaw and Snailpaw had faired in their assessment for the last three sunsets, and whether the Clan would be welcoming full warriors tonight.

High Rocks bustled with activity, the entire Clan preparing for the return of the apprentices. Nightpaw quickly dropped his catch on the freshkill pile before joining the remaining apprentices by the den.

"Do you think they'll make it?" Cherrypaw was whispering.

"If they don't, I'm sure Dawnstar will make a good show of it," Flamepaw replied, flexing his claws.

"Don't be so harsh," Cinderpaw scolded him, her hazel eyes flicking to Nightpaw for a moment before she returned her gaze to the Speaking Rock.

Flamepaw opened his mouth to retort but a heavy silence fell upon the Clan. Turning, Nightpaw saw Hailwatcher sitting atop the Speaking Rock, sharp gaze silencing the crowd. Below the rock sat two brown tabbies, eyes locked on the truth-teller. Snailpaw and Minkpaw had returned.

"How much is a warrior worth?" Hailwatcher began. His eyes travelled over his rapt audience before coming to rest on the two apprentices before him.

"Is it their strength, the ability to fight tooth and claw in defence of the Clan?" Hailwatcher nodded to Rowanstorm and Lionmask as he spoke and the two toms received the compliment with a bow of their own.

"Is it speed, a quick pounce or lunge that earns them their next meal?" This time, Mousetail and Skunknose received the honours.

"Is it ambition, that fire that burns in all of us, pushing us to newer heights?" The truth-teller singled out Sleetfur, the deputy, and Spiderthorn with a flick of his tail.

"Or is it intelligence, the ability to see two different choices and always make the right one?" The tom's eyes made contact with Birchfrost's mismatched ones before sliding to rest on Dawnstar.

"I will tell you what a true warrior is worth. They are worth every piece of freshly caught prey; every enemy they kill; every prisoner they take; every fear they refuse to show. But, above all, a warrior's worth is determined by every decision they make. Every decision leads them down the path Heatherstar laid down for us so many seasons ago; every wrong decision leads them astray. And a warrior who cannot honour their history or heritage is of no true use to us."

Nightpaw shivered, but knew it was not because of the cold breeze blowing through High Rocks. Hailwatcher's words held such immense power they made chills run down the apprentice's spine, making him push his claws into the earth as if he needed to keep himself grounded, or risk being taken away by their force.

"I now turn to you, Minkpaw and Snailpaw." Hailwatcher's voice rang out over the camp. "Are you worthy enough to become warriors of DarkClan?"

Minkpaw rose to her paws first and turned to address the Clan. Nightpaw's eyes widened as he saw how ragged and weary she looked after three days with no food and little rest. Nevertheless, her voice was strong when she spoke.

"DarkClan, I present to you proof of my worthiness," she said. "A prisoner, found wandering near the moors. An alley cat, or so he says." She flicked her tabby tail at a dark brown tom, who writhed and struggled under the heavy paws of Flintmask and Oakshade. The tom's face and sides were covered with fresh scars, no doubt a result of his encounter with Minkpaw.

Snailpaw stepped forward next, whiskers twitching just as they were at the beginning of his assessment. "DarkClan, I bring you the proof of my worth as well, but in the form of freshly caught prey," he said, his voice less certain than that of his littermate. "I hope it is enough to prove I am a true warrior of DarkClan."

He gestured to a neat pile of freshkill - eight pieces total. Even Nightpaw, who had very little hunting experience, knew Snailpaw's offering was substantial. A large rabbit rested on the bottom and, with it, three mice, two shrews, a robin and a sparrow. The last three days of his hunting would feed DarkClan well tonight.

A faint murmur - or perhaps just another pass of the wind - moved through the assembled cats as Dawnstar rose. She walked slowly, as if she had all the time in the world, and kept her amber eyes locked on the two apprentices. Snailpaw looked away, but Minkpaw stared right back.

"Snailpaw," the DarkClan leader began. "You were once a fearful, small kit who hid away from the darkness, afraid of the night with no moon. A sign of weakness." Her words ended with a hiss and Snailpaw flinched before her, keeping his head bowed.

"But now you are unafraid of the dark. Whitenose tells me you slept out in the open and Blackstrike says you hunted even by night. An impressive feat, and one yielding a large haul."

Now, Dawnstar turned to Minkpaw, who kept her head raised and met the leader's eyes with her copper ones. "Minkpaw, you were an energetic young kit, always bouncing about the camp. Nothing seemed to slow you down and nothing stood in your way.

"Even now, these qualities are evident. Pigeonfang kept an eye on you while you tracked, using your boundless energy to your advantage, and Skunknose watched as you took this prisoner, ready to fight to the death if it came to it."

With a lithe twist of her body, Dawnstar turned to address the Clan.  "I present to you two worthy apprentices! They have proven themselves to us and I now give them their warrior names."

Unsheathing her claws, the she-cat dragged them over Snailpaw's shoulder, leaving four shallow marks. "Snailpaw, you will now be known as Snailwhisker. Use your newfound courage to contribute to DarkClan as a full warrior."

She marked Minkpaw in the same fashion, proclaiming, "Minkpaw, you will now be known as Minkfur. May your energy keep you moving forward at all times as you continue to serve as a full warrior of DarkClan."

The entire Clan fell into an uproar then, shouting the names of the new warriors. Nightpaw cheered along with the rest, though Flamepaw's voice boomed over all of the other apprentices'. Cinderpaw, Dapplepaw and Cherrypaw pushed past them, moving to congratulate the two new warriors where they stood tall and proud, receiving the accolades.

"I can't wait until I'm a warrior," Flamepaw said from Nightpaw's side, eyes shining hungrily as he drank in the cheering crowd.

"It's only a matter of time," Nightpaw replied before moving away from his littermate to join Hailwatcher as he congratulated the new warriors. Something about the lust in Flamepaw's eyes made him afraid.

//

The tom opened his eyes to see the tall grasses of the moor for the first time in three nights. Purring, he glanced up at the impossibly blue sky, enjoying the feeling of freedom. Here, he was always on his own; in reality, the guardians always kept a watchful eye.

"Strange how customs can change so drastically over time." Nightpaw shifted his gaze from the sky to the grey tom before him.

"Haven't ceremonies always been the same?" he asked, wrapping his black tail over his equally black paws.

Sootstar shook his head sadly. "No. Though every Clan in the Old Life had their own customs and, as you know, SeaClan's were most harsh, their ceremonies celebrated the positive aspects of their members."

Nightpaw felt his fur bristle as the tom insulted DarkClan. "We celebrate the best qualities our Clanmates have to offer."

The StarClan tom tilted his head, choosing his words carefully. "In the Old Life, warriors lived by something called the warrior code. It was a set of rules, abided by all three Clans, that set out how one should live Clan life in the most moral and just ways possible."

"We have a warrior code too," Nightpaw defended. "Hailwatcher's been teaching me it. One of our rules is that attachment is forbidden; another is that we should never get in the way of the natural course of things; and yet another tells us that strength, intelligence and ambition should be valued above everything else." He paused to catch his breath, expecting some sort of praise from Sootstar.

Instead, the tom looked at him with pity in his eyes. "Yes, these are the ways of life DarkClan teaches you. But tell me, Nightpaw, have you never considered how truly despicable these rules are? Where are DarkClan's morals? Their compassion and love for others?"

"We don't have any," Nightpaw replied, fur bristling. "Love is for the weak."

Again, Sootstar paused. "Love is for those who are strong and choose to use that strength to help the weak. The warrior code told us to always feed kits and elders first, as they were the past and future of the Clan. It told us to never neglect a kit in pain or danger, regardless of its origins."

"We do feed the kits first," Nightpaw cut in, growing frustrated with Sootstar's lecturing. "Elders don't exist for DarkClan - you die fighting, or else are seen as an untrue warrior. And there's only one Clan now, so I don't know how origins are relevant."

"Above all," Sootstar continued, as if the apprentice had not said anything, "the code taught us that it is not necessary to kill in order to win one's battles."

This gave Nightpaw pause. How many cats had Dawnstar killed in her life? How many had his mentor? How many prisoners of DarkClan had been killed over the seasons in deputy races and just for sport?

"Mercy is not weakness. Mercy is the strength to overcome one's hate and put trust in another that they will not return to harm you after you've shown them kindness."

Nightpaw looked away from the old tom, the imploring look in his eyes making him uneasy. Looking out over the moors, he could just see the outlines of the High Rocks in the distance.

"But what does the warrior code have to do with DarkClan? With me?"

Sootstar sighed, following Nightpaw's gaze. "DarkClan celebrates certain qualities in their warriors - but are they the most noble ones your Clanmates have to offer? I want you to look at your Clanmates and see what I see."

"And what's that?" Nightpaw asked, fur slowly beginning to lie flat.

Sootstar's form slowly disappeared as he said, "Their true selves."

// This has been a really great week in terms of writing! An update for Unmasked, Hauntedpaw's Worst Nightmare AND The Coming Storm. Not too shabby. I also managed to finish chapter 10 of this novel today, and I'm halfway through chapter 11. CRAZY!!! I haven't written this much in a LONG time.

But now, a question for you, my fans: How is my writing? Any favourite scenes or characters so far? I love hearing what my readers think! Thanks for all the votes and comments so far, keep them coming (: