Tanglepaw's Warrior Ceremony

It was a shame that Shadestrike was gone...He should have noticed, they should have noticed what she was doing to herself. He couldn't describe why - he couldn't imagine why she had started to forgo food but... She should have been here. To see her apprentice, her...Daughter become a warrior. But there was nothing to be done but look forward, Shadestrike had passed but Tanglepaw's training had been completed. With the loss of one warrior, a new one took her place. He...Knew it would never be the same, he could not imagine how Tanglepaw felt but... Hm. There was no time to dwell, there was a ceremony to do. "Let all of ShadowClan gather in the shadow of the Jaggedrock!"

Tanglepaw approached the Jaggedrock, eyes low, silently slinking forward until she reached a spot towards the front of the crowd. A few sunrises had passed since her mother was buries, and, as she suspected, Eveningpaw did not return. She did not feel any sympathy for her, nor Mothglow for losing her apprentice. It was foolish to hand a little cat safety, comfort, and pity for all of her days and not expect her to crack under pressure. Her sister meant nothing to her, as far as anyone needed to know. The rogue she met the day Eveningpaw disappeared had tried to comfort her. Tanglepaw didn't need comfort. She wasn't a weakling. She didn't need a mother.

Flintstar's eyes gleamed down from the shadows, directed at her. She met them with her own intense yellow stare, not one emotion daring to seep through and stain her expression. No positive, no negative. She was a blank slate, she was a floating stormcloud. She'd smile if he offered politeness, and frown if he offered her venom. But for now, Tanglepaw lay in wait.

Flintstar coolly met Tanglepaw's gaze, simply giving her a nod of acknowledgement. He could offer her some sympathy, he knew the pain of a dead mother and a run-away sibling, but he also knew he did not feel the pain as sharply as some. Thornstar's death had hurt, but Frostpaw and Nightpaw... It had been their choice, and if they were dead...So was the way the world worked - it was their price for leaving the safety of the Clan, of their family. Perhaps on some level he missed them but he had never known them well as Sparkfire had been the one of the three to actually try to reach out towards him. The hole they had left in his heart was, by all accounts, small enough to be barely noticeable in the day to day life he lived as a leader.

He wasn't even sure if the Clan themselves mourned their loses. But the impact that both Shadestrike and Eveningpaw would leave was much more noticeable - both had weaved their ways into structure of the Clan and so he couldn't begin to guess how Tanglepaw was taking it. Perhaps gaining her warrior name would soften the blow, help her start to move forward. Flintstar couldn't begin to guess - he was after all terrible at emotions and knowing the paths that one would take with them. But it was the least he could do, hope that Shadestrike was proud from the stars above. "...I've called you all here to witness a new warrior be named," he finally spoke, raising his head as he projected his voice across the clearing. "Tanglepaw, please step forward.

"I, Flintstar, leader of ShadowClan, 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. Tanglepaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

The words that came from Flintstar's mouth felt muffled in her ears. Tanglepaw looked away from the Jaggedrock, eyes settling around someone's paws to her left. The rehearsed speech was one she had heard a thousand times before. They had lost their meaning, dull on the edge of her grief. Grief? Was she grieving? The sorrow in her heart, unchecked, stirred up great sandstorms inside her slender chest. If Shadestrike were here, would she still feel so pitiful and small?

"... at the cost of your life?"

Yellow eyes snapped up to Flintstar, burning with the expression of a cat who had been thrown into a thorn bush. The inevitability of her life contract to ShadowClan could no longer be ignored. He was asking for her oath, to swear herself allegiant to the cats around her, of which she shared no blood, no common thought, and no kinship. Her breath quickened with the sudden feeling of being gagged by rope. Coming of age came with a cost. Tanglepaw reasoned with herself, trying to free her mind from the tangles of doubt and terror. With twolegs, she is a prisoner. A rogue, she is a vagrant, starving, beaten around in a world not built for her. Iniko's lands did not exist, they couldn't. The system was not built for cats like her, and her best chance for comfort and livelihood was in ShadowClan.

Tanglepaw wanted to survive. "I do!" she gasped, after several long and uncomfortable moments of silence.

Flintstar took notice of the long silence, giving Tanglepaw a curious look as he waited. He wasn't completely surprised - it was a big thing he was asking but normally there was little or none hesitation, even he accepted that it was a formality more than anything - it could easily be a lie, after all. Lynxscar had made that clear enough when he had betrayed Thornstar and ShadowClan and refused to accept the cost it would take. But finally, Tanglepaw said the two words that were needed and he accepted them without hesitation, springing into the next part of the ceremony. "Then by the powers granted to me, I give you your warrior name. Tanglepaw, from this moment you will be known as Tanglerose. We honor your perception and ferocity in battle, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ShadowClan."

With that, he hopped down to rest his head on her forehead per tradition. Holding it there for a couple heartbeats, he soon pulled away and was getting ready to head off when he paused. "...Your mother would be proud of you, Tanglerose. ...No, I am sure she is proud of you from StarClan. I am...Sorry that she couldn't be here to witness it," he offered up, somewhat awkwardly as he gave her a soft nod before he turned and padded away.