i'll make it eventually [o]

The SkyClan tom had been absolutely no use. Refusing to show him where the camp was? Asking a bunch of questions? Pfft. Wolf's heavy paws slapped the ground with a newfound determination, the prior tiredness having dissolved in his frustration around Snowpaw's weirdness. What was that tom's problem, anyway? Wolf was trustworthy - he was a SkyClanner, too! How hard would it have been to just lead him back to camp so he could be there waiting when his dad showed up? Not hard at all!

He didn't know if Snowpaw had followed him, and frankly, he didn't care. He would get there first.

Legs churning beneath him, Wolf kept on, wandering and wandering until, finally! A fresh scent trail. Wolf froze, putting his nose to the ground, identifying the scent as, definitely, SkyClan!

...

It was a surprisingly short trip from where he'd found the trail, to his destination. Ahead of him loomed a walled camp, brambles and vines wound around the barrier, preventing anyone from jumping or climbing or breaking through. A few cats milled about near what he assumed was the entrance, so that's where he beelined, calling out a, "Hello!"

Wolfstar had only just returned to camp with her hunting patrol, birds and squirrels dropped onto the fresh kill pile triumphantly by the small patrol. The rain had eased up, and prey had been more willing to venture out of their hiding holes now that the insufferable heat had given way to something a bit nicer.

The patrol had been dismissed and the leader had found a spot near the edge of camp to talk with one of her clanmates, when a loud voice split the quiet air. An unfamiliar voice.

"You made it quite far into the territory without being spotted." Wolfstar had turned toward the camp entrance immediately, striding forward with sure steps to find a blue-gray tabby. There was a hint of mild disapproval in Wolfstar's voice as she gazed down at the young tom who had so boldly intruded. She was impressed that he'd gotten so far... And would be talking to the sky patrol that had failed to spot the intruder in their territory whenever they too returned to camp.

"Who are you, and why have you trespassed?" He didn't smell of the clans, but most outsiders would not just stumble their way into the territory that had very clearly defined borders without a purpose.

Wasppaw had hardly trailed off from her patrol with Wolfstar when a voice called out a greeting. Freezing, the apprentice spun to find a trespasser. Hair instantly raised and claws immediately out, Wasppaw trotted to Wolfstar's side and eyed the young thing standing in front of them. She sniffed the tom, making a show of it before scrunching her nose in smug distaste.

"Some rogue trash." She muttered, her eyes turning hard as she leaned back on her strong back legs just waiting for Wolfstar to give the order.

The first to greet him was a gray and white she-cat. Her words were chastising, but her tone only held the barest hint of disapproval. Wolf looked up at her, bright yellow eyes wide and smug. "I made it here all by myself," he declared, his tail twitching. And it was true, too, even though he'd met Snowpaw along the way, he'd gotten no assistance. "M'name's Wolf! I came to join SkyClan! Can you take me to Wolfstar? I need to speak with her!"

A smaller cat - probably an apprentice - had joined them now, and Wolf started to open his mouth in greeting when she cut him off with an unkind remark. The mottled tabby's ears slicked back, his eyes darkening in sudden anger. The smaller she-cat shifted back, and Wolf instinctively took a defensive stance, half-crouching and dropping his head below his shoulders. The tom's long, striped tail swept the ground back and forth. Was this some sort of test? Well - test or not, he wasn't going to be unprepared for an attack should it come.

Wasppaw was on her tail as well, and evidently spoiling for a fight. Not that Wolfstar could blame her with the stranger who had so brazenly approached their camp. Lightly she rested her tail across her apprentice's back. They would hear him out, but that didn't mean they would let their guard down either. Though Wolfstar would have preferred there be no bloodshed in her camp that would very much depend on what the young tom did when confronted with the Skyclanners.

The only reaction Wolfstar gave at first to his answer was a slow blink as she regarded the young tom. He was proud of himself for getting so far, evidently. Clearly, Skyclan's defenses were starting to slip. That thought was filed away for later however as he continued. "For a rogue, you seem rather familiar with us... Not familiar enough to recognize the cat you're speaking of. That Wolfstar would be me, Wolf." Her whiskers twitched in amusement. "Not many outsiders come through here asking to join us... How do you know of Skyclan?"

Wasppaw had nearly lunged at the cat as he took a battle stance in response to hers, but Wolfstar's tail draped across her back, Wasppaw grumbled but relaxed her stance. She was still ready to strike as she eyed up the rogue, but she would wait.

Before the younger she-cat could pounce, the older of the two put a stop to it. Wolf remained crouched, his eyes flicking from Wasppaw to Wolfstar and then back again. What was her problem, anyway? He hadn't even done anything and she already wanted to fight - why? Because she thought he was some rogue?

"I'm not a rogue," he snapped. "I'm a SkyClan cat just like you are!"

Brow furrowed, he licked an errant patch of fur on his shoulder while the older she-cat spoke again, quickly affirming that not only did she know Wolfstar - she was her. His gaze slid back to look at her, the apprentice forgotten in the moment. "You're Wolfstar?" Abandoning his defensive stance, the young tom sprang to his full height and bounced over to stand directly in front of the leader. "Hi, Gramma!"

Without missing a beat, he continued. "I can't believe I finally get to meet you my dad always said you were super strong and a really good leader and he named me after you even that's why my name's Wolf and yours is Wolfstar but anyway I'm so happy I made it here finally my dad's told me so much about you and about SkyClan and now I can become an apprentice do you have an apprentice Wolfstar?" He wheezed out the last word as the remainder of the oxygen left his lungs, and then sucked in a mouthful of air as he remembered to breathe again.

"Anyway, Dad's gonna be so happy I made it here! He told me to wait at the border but I figured I could make it here by myself, and I did, even though Snowpaw was no help," he scowled at that, but it lasted only briefly before he turned his beaming gaze back to Wolfstar.

Wolfstar had been about to refute the young tom for insisting he was Skyclan. He was clearly rogue, even if he knew of their clan-

"Hi, Gramma!"

What? This was no kit of Graywind or Falconmoon's, that much she knew without needing to ask. And Sunfire would never have... Wolfstar shook her head. He was calling her gramma though, and the excitement in his voice was too real. Too unfiltered. It made her chest ache.

She felt faint as she listened, her ears ringing. Wolfstar was hardly aware of it as she sat heavily, pain tearing through her chest with each word the tom - barely more than a kit - spoke. His father had named him Wolf... Told him she was a strong leader... There was no possible way he could mean Sunfire. Sunfire was dead. "...Well you can't be Falconmoon's... Sunfire..." She mumbled to herself, hardly even seeming to notice what she'd said.

They hadn't found a body, she could almost hear Graywind's desperate voice in her head. They hadn't, no. Unlike Graywind's body laying bloodstained in the center of camp that horrible night the dogs had attacked.

"Woah there, slow down. Take a breath." She managed finally, slowly absorbing the information that had just been thrown at her like a tree branch smacking her in the face. The leader took a moment to collect herself, studying the tom before her.

"Where is your father, then? He told you to wait at the border but didn't come himself?" That Sunfire could be alive... It almost sounded too good to be true, after all the loss that Skyclan had experienced. But Wolf's excitement was not something she thought was feigned.

I am going to throttle you, Sunfire. The thought came unbidden, though she didn't voice it. Instead, "I do have an apprentice... Wasppaw here, actually." Wasppaw was close to finding the end of what Wolfstar could teach her, and she was proud of her for that. But the young tom was getting ahead of himself, as was she with that answer.

Wolfstar took a deep breath, seeming to shake off the turmoil his words had thrown her mind into, at least outwardly. "You have Skyclan blood, and that means you have a right to be here and be a part of this clan." Wolfstar spoke, fluffy tail twitching, "But if you are to stay, I expect loyalty and obedience. You've already encountered my grandson out in the territory it looks like, and if he wasn't eager to bring you to camp I can only guess you were less forthcoming than you were with me just now. There are plenty in our ranks who would attack a perceived outsider without question for coming onto this territory, much less for making it all the way to our camp. There are plenty in our ranks who will not be pleased at another outsider joining us, even one who is of Skyclan blood. Their respect and comradery will have to be earned." She glanced at Wasppaw before her gaze found Wolf's. "You will take on a clan name, as well, if you are to stay. You would become an apprentice first, and earn a warrior name when it is deemed you've learned our ways and can act like one."

Wasppaw nearly recoiled out of confusion when he said he was actually a SkyClanner. Tentatively, she glanced at Wolfstar as she pulled her tail away and mumbled to herself. She was close enough to pick up the name 'Sunfire'. She hadn't really heard of this warrior... Wolfstar continued on to practically scold the kit and she smirked smugly when Wolfstar glanced at her after saying most warrior would tear him up for coming on the territory. Starclan right she would. But discomfort settled into her as it seemed Wolfstar was going to accept him, just like that.

"He'd need a new name. We can't have two Wolf's... it'd be unconventional." She tossed out, desperately trying to at least one up the so-called SkyClanner. "Maybe Dirtpaw would do? Funguspaw? Bugpaw? I can keep going..."

It was quiet, and under her breath, but Wolf was so close to Wolfstar that when she mumbled Sunfire's name, the dappled tom's ears pricked immediately, and he gave a quick, excited nod. But for some reason, Wolfstar didn't seem happy to hear that his dad had sent him... or maybe, that his dad was coming back at all? One ear fell back against his fuzzy head, but he was swiftly distracted by her question. "He said he had t'go meet my brother," Wolf told her. "But he didn't wanna take me with him." He didn't take it personally - this was the first time Sunfire had trusted him to do something like this unsupervised, and he had been excited to do it.

He looked at Wasppaw when Wolfstar named her, tilting his head. She seemed a little ill mannered to be the leader's apprentice, but he guessed everyone had their flaws. Maybe Wasppaw wouldn't be so bad once he got to know her. He blinked and then returned his attentions to the older she-cat as she continued, warning him that he shouldn't have trespassed on SkyClan's territory, and that he'd been lucky to escape notice unharmed.

"Well how should I know he was trustworthy?" Wolf protested. "I can't just go telling everybody who asks all my secrets." His tail flicked against the ground. "And I would never betray SkyClan! I'll be the best warrior! I'm already a good hunter, Dad taught me! And I can fight! I fought some rogue once - he gave me a cool scar, wanna see?" It was then that Wasppaw said something about his name, and then rattled off a few she saw fitting. Wolf frowned at her suggestions, irritation coloring his gaze again. Why did she have such a problem with him?

Turning his shoulder to her so she was only barely in his periphery, Wolf drew his tongue across his chest a few times. "I'm ready to become an apprentice now! But probably we should wait for my dad, huh?" He looked over his shoulder, as if expecting to see Sunfire trotting up the trail behind him, but it was empty. "I'm sure he won't be too long."

"Oh, Wasppaw, thank you. I'll have to keep those suggestions in mind for your warrior ceremony. Unless you'd prefer cleaning out the elder's den of those things." Wolfstar's gaze turned on her apprentice. Behave. Wolf seemed to think that blood alone made him Skyclan... Wolfstar was willing to offer him the chance to prove himself. Still, she had little tolerance for such blatant disrespect. And Wolf had best learn that now, too. It would go both ways.

Blue eyes turned back to Wolf as he spoke.

"He was a cat patrolling his territory. You were not. But you've made it this far. Heritage alone doesn't make a Skyclanner, but I will not turn away someone who wants to prove they belong here. You will prove your loyalty is where you say it is." Or he wouldn't.

"I will talk with my deputy and we'll decide on what to do. Sunfire is well aware of where his home is... If he's smart he won't be long in returning." And stars, if the golden tom caused trouble on the way she'd have his hide lining her nest. He couldn't possibly know of how much Skyclan had lost recently... The leader ignored the ache in her chest, a smile flickering across her face.

"For now... Come. I'm almost looking forward to Falconmoon's face when you explain all of this to him."