Thornheart's Acceptance

Chapter 19

     The next seven sunrises for Thornpaw, to say the least, sucked.
     When Doestep returned the next sunrise after the battle, Thornpaw had been one of the first to meet her along with Echosong, Berrystripe, Bluetail, and Speckledfur. The sun was just barley in the sky when Doestep walked in with Dawnstripe a few steps back. They both looked exhausted, like they had been moving all night and never stopped.
     "Are you two okay?" Speckledfur asked first, looking the two she-cats over for any kind of injuries.
     "Where is Frostfur?" Doestep asked, moving past the frazzled tom.
     "Uh, she went to make sure that the fox did not return to the territory." Specklefur said, watching the medicine cat walk by.
     "When did she leave?" Doestep stopped and asked the temporary deputy.
     "The patrol left before sunrise." Berrystripe answered.
     "Did she say when she should be back?"
     "After that they were going to mark the WindClan border." Berrystripe said standing next to Doestep. "Did something happen on the way to the moonstone? Or on your way back?" he asked looking over his litter-mate.
     "Shrewtail in the medicine cat's den?" she asked, avoiding the question again.
     "Yes, he has mainly stayed in there since you left." Specklefur said looking at the medicine cat, "Doestep, did something happen?"
     "Nothing happened" Doestep answered shortly back before she moved to keep walking to the medicine cat's den, "Nothing eventful."
     Thornpaw's eyes widened at the word 'eventful'. Anxiety prickled in her stomach at the thought of a WindClan patrol attacking the two cats. Apparently, she was not the only one.
     "But something did happen?" Bluetail asked, looking to Dawnstripe to explain along with every other cat.
     "I'll tell you later." Dawnstripe answered to the blue tom. Thornpaw watched as the two warriors stared at each other before Dawnstripe pushed her cheek against his and quietly said, "I promise."
     "Did you learn anything about Brackenstar?" Echosong asked Doestep bring Thornpaw's attention back to the white and cream medicine cat.
     For a moment Doestep hesitated and looked to the elder. A mix of exhaustion, anger, and confusion shown in her abnormally cold hard amber eyes. Her eyes softened for a moment as she looked around at the small gathering of cats before they hardened again, "I need to talk to Frostfur." she said as she kept walking to the medicine cat's den.
     Once she disappeared into the medicine cat's den Speckledfur spoke up, "Dawnstripe, what happened?"
     The red and orange calico let out a sigh, "WindClan tried to stop us from getting to the moonstone."
     "What?" Bluetail bit out with an eerie calm voice.
     "Nothing bad happened!" She answered quickly before letting anger sweep into her voice, "I made sure of that."
     "What did you do?" Thornpaw asked, making everyone look at her. For a split second she thought they were going to make her leave, but instead everyone just turned back to Dawnstripe.
     "We tried to escape into RiverClan territory." she answered, "but they kept following us."
     "What?" Specklefur asked, mindly panicked.
     "Then we ran into a RiverClan patrol."
     There was nothing but a stunned silence at what the she-cat just announced. From what Thornpaw could remember from her first time out as an apprentice, ThunderClan had an understanding with RiverClan about their border. However Thornpaw also remembered her first gathering where she met Cedarpaw and he told her about the issue with WindClan pushing the border. She hadn't had the chance to talk to him more about it during or since then but that was also the same gathering that Stormstar said if any cat crossed the border without permission it would be driven out. So there was no way to predict how RiverClan would react to not just ThunderClan in their territory but WindClan as well. Hopefully, RiverClan would not want a battle because of it.
     "And Rowanfang was leading it."
     Great. There couldn't have been a worse cat to run into. She was the one warrior that takes border crossing more seriously than any other warrior, maybe even in the whole forest. From moons ago, Thornpaw could still see those fierce burning amber eyes as squared up to meet Iceleaf in a fight. She felt shiver climb up her spine as she remembered Hawkfeathet telling the story of how Brokenear got her name. Yet, there was no way she would attack a medicine cat. Would she?
     "She was angry, but once she saw Doestep and was WindClan. She and her patrol ran off the WindClan patrol."
     Of course she wouldn't. Hawkfeather had said she was a lot like Frostfur. Why would she attack a medicine cat?
     "RiverClan's, mostly Rowanfang's, dislike for WindClan outweighed us crossing the border. Once WindClan was gone they led us the long way, that I never knew existed, to the opening to the Highstone. It was a little past nightfall by the time we got there but we made it." she finished and let go of the anger.
     "Do you have any idea what StarClan might have said to Doestep?" Speckledfur asked, looking to the medicine cat's den.
     "I do not. Once she woke up, she ran out of there. I thought she may have seen that WindClan was attacking so I raced after her. We didn't slow down until we were half way in WindClan territory."
     "Something must have spooked her to make her do that." Bluetail said.
     "I tried to ask her what was wrong but she just kept saying we need to get back to ThunderClan. We didn't stop once."
     "So you two have been traveling all night?" Echosong stated rather than asked.
     "We had to get back." the orange and red warriors answered.
     "So you should probably get some rest." Speckledfur said to the she-cat.
     Dawnstripe looked at the speckled black, orange, and white tom with a sly smile, "Well look at this, been deputy for less then a day and already tell senior warriors what to do. My how fast you've changed."
     Speckledfur's green eyes widened as his pelt prickled with embarrassment, "I didn't.. I didn't mean disrespect. I just thought you might..."
     Dawnstripe along with Bluetail and Berrystripe let out a laugh at the flustered tom, "Speckledfur, calm down. It's a joke."
     Speckledfur still looked flustered with his eyes widened as his pelt prickled, "I..I hmm..I"
     "Everything is fine. You are the new deputy." she said as she put her paw on his shoulder with a toothy grin, "It's your job now."
     "It is only temporary." Speckledfur said, trying to hide a smile.
     "Still you deserve it." she said, giving him a slight push off his shoulder, "And congratulations."
     When Frostfur came back with her patrol, Speckledfur told her that Doestep was back and she went straight to Doestep. By the time she came back out there was a crowd of cats waiting to hear about their leader.
     Frostfur looked around meeting each cat as best she could, "As many of you may know Doestep has returned from the Moonstone and you are now waiting for some good news." Thornpaw felt her stomach drop as she talked, "Sadly that news will not be coming today." a shushed whisper fell over the crowd, "StarClan has told Doestep that he has already returned."
     "Then why hasn't he woken up yet?" Someone called from the other side of the crowd from Thronpaw.
     "We do not know." Frostfur admitted, "Doestep says that if he has already returned to his body he needs rest and for us the best course of action is to wait for him to wake up."
     "What are we going to do until then?"
     "Simple, we continue as planned."