❂► T H E   U N T O L D ◄❂

V I T R I F I C A T I O N

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F I V E

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THE NEXT DAY was one of the most influential of my life, and also one of my favorites. It was the first time I spent almost an entire day alone with Firestar, and I really enjoyed myself. I think I fully fell for him that day while we were out and about, "hunting", but more playing like little kits.

I sat patiently by the entrance to camp, pretending to wait for Whitestorm to take me out hunting. The plan was that I was going to act like nothing was different as to not raise any suspicion and to make it less awkward for myself. Then Whitestorm was going to ask Fireheart to take me hunting in his place because he had "incredibly important business" with Bluestar.

I shook my fur and fluffed out my pelt as much as I could. Leafbare had brought with it cold and dry weather, and although it was getting warmer than it was earlier in the season, I was ready to be rid of the snow and have more prey to hunt.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw Whitestorm approach Fireheart as he exited the warrior's den. Finally, I'd be able to get moving and warm up. And get this over with.

I tensed up as I saw them look in my direction, quickly glancing away and pretending not to notice their stares.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Whitestorm head towards Bluestar's den and Fireheart begin to make his way towards me. I began to groom my fur like I had no idea what was going on, licking my paw and drawing it over my ears.

"Hey Sandpaw, uhh..." He began, awkwardly.

"What," I spat in fake annoyance. Inside I was just as awkward as he was and also incredibly nervous.

Fireheart scuffed his paw against the ground, continuing, "Whitestorm said that I need to take you to check the Riverclan border. Do some hunting along the way. He's busy doing something with Bluestar, so it's just you and me."

That's not what we agreed on, I thought, Great. This'll be a lot more talking.

"Okay. Are we leaving right now?" I asked, much less annoyed than before.

"I don't see any reason why not", he concluded, moving past me and brushing through the bramble entrance to the camp. I hastily trotted after him, quickly catching up and trodding next to him as we made our way towards the Riverclan border.

For the first few minutes, the outside world was quiet, but internally I was destroying myself over how to start a conversation.

"Hey Fireheart, sorry for being a jerk to you and making your life horrible"- No, that's dumb. And too blunt.

"Hey Fireheart, can we be friends now"- No, worse. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, which unfortunately, Fireheart noticed.

"You okay?" He mumbled.

I pretended to cough and fluffed out my pelt. "Yeah, the cold is just getting to me a little bit."

Fireheart nodded. "This Leafbare is lasting a little bit longer than usual. Even the prey is starting to come back, like they're also expecting the air to warm."

I nodded in response, and we dove back into the agonizingly awkward silence.

Eventually, it got to the point where I was thinking to myself again.

This is so awful, I should have never done this.

I'm never like this when I'm out with Dustpaw, why is this so hard? I just have to say sorry. Or show him or whatever Whitestorm was saying.

Maybe I just act like I would with Dustpaw? I turned to look at Fireheart, who was a stride ahead of me and not paying attention to what I was doing, probably in his own thoughts.

Screw it, it's the best idea I have, I decided, pausing and digging my paws into the snow, bundling the white powder into a small ball.

I threw it at Fireheart, and giggled as he turned around in offense, wide-eyed. "Hey! What was that for?"

I laughed, louder now, and raced away, calling over my shoulder, "Catch me if you can!"

I smiled as I ran, and smiled even wider as I realized that this smile was genuine, like the ones I would share with Redtail and Brindleface back when I was a kit.

As I leapt over a fallen tree, I tucked myself into a small ditch adjacent to the tree, hiding away. I heard Fireheart land over the tree, and look around, confused. "Sandpaw?" He called, "Where are you?"

I waited for him to walk right past me, and then leapt out of my hiding spot and on top of him, tumbling over each other as we rolled down a small hill.

I laughed again as we rolled, and we traded paw swipes, and best as we could since we were essentially flailing down the hill.

Once we reached the bottom, we sprang apart, Fireheart getting into a defensive crouch while I just sat down and started licking my paw.

"What are you doing?" He snarled, surprisingly angry as he crouched further.

I stopped licking my paw and focused on him. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Now he stood up, and looked incredibly confused. "We were just fighting?"

"We were? I thought we were playing", I responded, now mirroring his confusion.

"Playing?" He spat, almost exasperatedly. "Why would you play with me?"

Seeing my still confused look, he continued, "You've spent the last Starclan-knows-how-many moons terrorizing me at every chance you get!"

That's pretty true...

"Even that one time you asked me to go into the forest with you, you just did it to get back at Dustpaw!"

"That was only part of it! There were other reasons-"

He scoffed in response, "I have a hard time believing that! It's like ever since that happened, my life has just gone downhill! First my apprentice gets hit by a Monster, then Greystripe and I fight, and now here you are, probably pretending to have fun with me so that Dustpaw will be jealous again!"

But I am having fun!

Now Fireheart was pacing back and forth in front of me, continuing to ramble on, "I work so hard just to try to prove that I'm not a liability in this clan, but even when that works, cats like you are still filled with hate for me!"

Those words echoed in the empty leafbare forest, Fireheart once again in a defensive crouch, now staring me down like he would a Shadowclan warrior.

"I don't... hate you."

Suddenly Fireheart stood up quickly, tilting his head, confused.

Crap, did I say that out loud?

"What did you say?" He asked.

A long silence filled the air as I refused to repeat what I had just said, thoughts whirling around in my head. 

Fox-dung, he definitely heard that!

He was mad before, is he going to be more mad now?

That doesn't count as an apology!

Way to screw it up Sandpaw, now he'll never forgive you!

I could feel Fireheart's gaze piercing me as the silence dragged on, and I scuffed my paw against the ground. 

Eventually, Fireheart's gaze broke, and he said, "We should probably get back to our patrol."

I nodded my head rapidly in agreement, thankful for the escape out of the awkward situation. However, I was still incredibly stressed out about how he was going to receive what I said. 

The rest of our patrol went by without a hitch, although it was definitely easier to go without hitches when neither of us spoke a single word. Fireheart was focused on the patrol, which I was thankful for, because my mind was racing a million miles per hour.

Whitestorm gives me a perfect opportunity and I can't do anything with it!

Forget apologizing, now I have to figure out how to make him not hate me!

I was saved from having to walk next to him when my nose picked up the scent of a rabbit nearby, which was pretty crazy considering that it was still leafbare. 

Rabbit is also my favorite meal, so I was happy when Fireheart also perked up, looked at me, and whispered, "All yours."

I got down into a hunter's crouch and turned myself in the direction of the rabbit's scent, beginning to slowly pace my way forward. Once the rabbit was in sight, I slowed down my movements even more, making sure each paw was placed softly, as I didn't want the rabbit to hear me coming.

As soon as I was within leaping range of the rabbit, I sprang forward, paws outstretched and claws unsheathed. I could see the rabbit's muscles tensing up, as it got ready to spring away from me. Oh no you don't, I thought as I reached my right paw further out to one side, latching onto it's tail as it tried to get away.

I hastily pulled the rabbit back to me and gave it a killing bite, making sure to thank Starclan for the meal. Then I turned around and trotted back to where Fireheart was waiting for me, rabbit dangling from my jaws.

"Nice catch", he said, still almost as quiet as a whisper. Seems like he was feeling just as awkward as I was.

We kind of just stood there for a second, not looking at each other but also not moving a muscle. The thing that finally made me look up was a low rumble that I heard coming from Fireheart.

When our eyes made contact, he gave an embarrassed chuckle, and explained, "Guess I'm kind of hungry."

I let the rabbit drop from my jaws and pushed it towards him. "We can share this, if you'd like."

Fireheart tilted his head quizzically. "Isn't that against the warrior code?"

I shrugged in response, "Maybe, but at this point it's well past midday. I'm sure that we're the only ones in the clan left who haven't eat anything today. Worst case, we can do some more hunting before we get back."

"Good point", he mumbled. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt." With that he crouched down and began to dig into the rabbit. I followed suit, placing myself directly across from him.

We ate like that for awhile, crouched on the cold forest floor with nothing and no one around us except for the trees of the forest and the rare call of a bird. 

Which was the perfect environment to finally apologize, I just had to start talking.

Come on,  Sandpaw, just start talking and the rest will come out naturally.

"Hey Fireheart..." I began. 

Fireheart picked his head up, still chewing on a piece of rabbit meat. "Hmm?" He asked through his mouthful of food.

"Thanks for taking me out in Whitestorm's place today." I finished, barely getting the last few words out over my jitters.

"Just doing my warrior duty", he explained, finally swallowing that piece of rabbit meat. Then he continued on, much quieter this time, "Plus, I'm enjoying it, no matter how awkward it may be."

We both chuckled in response to that.

"You're not that bad when you're not being mean, Sandpaw."

I froze.

Where did that come from?

My heart filled with something that felt so incredibly warm and fuzzy that I wanted to wrap in on myself and hold my heart to heat myself against the cold weather. That warmth and fuzziness spread to the rest of my body, making my paws tingle and breathing quicken.

This warmth made it incredibly hard to make coherent sentences, unfortunately, so the next words out of my mouth were a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. "I- Wha- I'm- no, I'm not-"

Fireheart laughed, much louder than our previous chuckles, and tried to calm me, saying, "Calm down, take your time!"

After some much needed deep breaths, I finally got out what I was trying to say. "I'm sorry", was all I managed.

"For what?" Fireheart questioned.

"For everything!" I snapped, suddenly very much able to make sentences, my words now blending together with how fast I rambled. "For being mean! For calling you a kittypet! For hating you, for using you, for making you confused, hurting you, pretending to like you, pretending to hate you, and... and... and everything else!"

Fireheart smiled. "So... you really don't hate me, huh?" I shook my head no, and now he beamed. "Great, then let's stop pretending to not be friends."

All these negative thoughts that I had were wildly radical, as after some conversation and reminiscing later in life with Firestar, I found out that he was actually very appreciative that I didn't hate him. In fact, he was never mad in the first place. The reason that he was so distant was because he thought that I didn't want to be around him at all.

Our friendship bloomed so rapidly that if felt like we could out-race a monster. It took awhile for Greystripe to fully accept - and probably process - me as their friend, but afterwards it was mostly smooth sailing.

The first big milestone was after Shadowclan had invaded our camp one night, and we fought them off. The next morning, Bluestar called a clan meeting. I presumed that this would just be an announcement regarding the battle the previous night, and while I was partially right, there was more to it than just that.

"Sandpaw, Dustpaw, please step forward", Bluestar said.

What? My eyes darted around the clearing, finding that every cat was staring at Dustpaw and myself expectantly. Eventually, I locked onto Fireheart, who was brightly smiling. Is this why he went into Bluestar's den last night?

"Darkstripe, Whitestorm, are these two ready to become warriors?"

I took a deep breath in apprehension as I heard Whitestorm say, "I would say they are." Darkstripe nodded in agreement.

Bluestar smiled. "In that case, I, Bluestar, leader of Thunderclan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these apprentice. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to them as warriors in their turn.

"Sandpaw, Dustpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do", Dustpaw and I said in unison.

"Then by the powers of , I give you both your warrior names. Dustpaw, from this moment on you will be known as Dustpelt. StarClan honors your bravery and strength, and we welcome you as a full warrior of Thunderclan."

Dustpelt stepped up to Bluestar and respectfully licked her shoulder. I saw Bluestar mumble something in his ear, and then he stepped down.

"Dustpelt! Dustpelt! Dustpelt!" The clan cheered. Even Fireheart was making his voice heard.

"Sandpaw", I took a step forward. "From this moment on, you will be known as Sandstorm. Starclan honors your determination and quickness, ad we welcome you as a full warrior of Thunderclan."

I repeated what I saw Dustpelt do, and licked Bluestar's shoulder as she rested her head on top of mine.

"Redtail is smiling upon you from Starclan", she began, "He would be so proud. You've come so far, Sandstorm."

I nodded in thanks and turned to face the clan. "Sandstorm! Sandstorm! Sandstorm!" They all cheered.

My eyes first found Brindleface, who was surprisingly flanked by both Fireheart and Dustpelt.

As I entered the crowd, the first two to greet me were my mother and Dustpelt. "Sandstorm! What a lovely name", Brindleface spoke as she wrapped around me, licking in between my ears just as she used to do when I was younger. 

Dustpelt nodded in agreement, and his movement drew my gaze. "We're finally warriors now!" He exclaimed, excited like a kit trying solid food for the first time.

"That we are", I replied, and nudged him with my shoulder.

They moved past me and went their separate ways, Dustpelt going to talk with others and Brindleface doing what it is she went to do. The next one to greet me was the one and only.

"Took you long enough", he said, grassy eyes glistening with happiness.

"Shut up", I replied jokingly. "Why didn't you come with Brindleface and Dustpelt?"

"You grew up with them. I didn't want to get in the way. Plus, I'm still not entirely sure how Dustpelt sees me these days. Don't want to ruin the mood. I'll congratulate him later."

"You wouldn't get in the way!" I protested. "I mean, I can't help with Dustpelt, but whether we've known each other for three moons or thirty, you're still close. Don't feel like you're in a completely separate category!" My face began to heat up as I realized what I had just said.

"Aww, really?" Fireheart teased, "You really think we're close now?"

"Shut up! You knew what I meant!" I objected, weakly.

Fireheart let out one of his famous hearty laughs, and that night continued with more of the same, more cats congratulating me, with jokes being thrown around left and right. Eventually, that fun came to an end and I say my vigil with Dustpelt.

Dustpelt started off that night incredibly tense, which sank my spirits. Ever since Fireheart and I had gotten closer, I'd spent less and less time with my denmate, and he still seemed rather hostile about it.

Thankfully, by the end of the night, he was much more relaxed than before, and by the time we were allowed to break our vigil, he was even able to chat with me before we took naps.

I'm glad we got to spend that last night together alone. Even if we weren't able to talk to each other, I felt that we were able to repair a chasm that appeared in our relationship due to Fireheart entering the equation.

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Word count - 2880

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Author's Note

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Hey, this one didn't take too long, did it?

DO NOT EXPECT ANY CHAPTERS TO COME OUT THIS QUICK! I would love to be able to write that quickly and get more chapters out faster, but I, like all other writers, am human and have other things going on, whether it be school or lacrosse or just not having any motivation.

That being said, I do have the plot for the next chapter set, and I really don't have to write a lot for it, since it will be parallel with a Lunar-Serenity chapter. So if you want a sneak peek at the next chapter, you'll have to go and read their book.

Until the next one!

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- Maple -

- 3 ▫ 24 ▫ 2025 -