CotS #2: A Brighter Future (currently being rewritten)

Chapter Fourteen

Raindrop woke at dawn the next day to take her apprentice out. She first checked on her mate, but he was still out cold. However, Teardrop wasn't worried about him, and just said he'd be a bit dizzy when he woke. If Teardrop wasn't worried, Raindrop knew she shouldn't worry either, but she couldn't help it. She loved that tom too much to not worry about him when he was unconscious.

She poked her head into the apprentices' den, and Blossompaw was still sleeping soundly. Should she wake her apprentice? It had been a normal night yesterday, but Blossompaw would be fatigued from the battle, and she had been chatting animatedly with her sisters so they had probably talked way into the night. Raindrop sighed and decided to be sympathetic for her bouncy apprentice, and promised herself to call her apprentice at sunrise.

Since she was conveniently awake, Mallowclaw put her on the dawn patrol. Raindrop heaved a sigh and went to follow. She hadn't led a patrol since becoming a warrior, but she was still barely eleven moons and a week, so technically, she should still be an apprentice. It wasn't like Raindrop cared, but Mallowclaw was probably reluctant to put her as patrol leader. Raindrop resented him slightly for that, but she could understand his logic. Should he put an underaged warrior as leader as a patrol? A warrior who should still be an apprentice? Raindrop was upset about that, since she already did have an apprentice, but she guessed Blossompaw couldn't cover up for everything. She was already not much older than Blossompaw herself.

The dawn patrol consisted of Raindrop, Skarmark, Treeshade and Skyshine. Raindrop wasn't exactly pleased to be on this patrol of grieving cats. It was quite worrying, to see them fretting about their mates and brothers. Treeshade had no connections whatsoever, but Skarmark was worried about his lost brother, Stoneshade, and his other brother, Fireflame, had died just the previous day. Skarmark had been up all night for the vigil and yet he was still stoic and unfatigued. Probably because grief was preventing him from thinking straight. Half the cats on the patrol kept looking at him sympathetically, but Skarmark didn't want their sympathy. Some cats dealt better with grief when left alone.

Skyshine was extremely worried about Duskfire, who was fatally wounded and might not make it. Raindrop knew they hadn't been mates for long, though longer than her and Riverflame. At least a moon or two, but Raindrop had only been mates with Riverflame for two sunrises now, and he was already unconscious. Nowhere near as life-threatening as Duskfire's wounds, but it still worried Raindrop to death. What if he never woke, and went into a coma? It wasn't exactly common, but not impossible either. Some cats went into a coma after being knocked out, because they simply never recovered from it. Raindrop knew that probably wouldn't happen to Riverflame – he was too strong-willled – but it might still happen. It was a faint possibility, but...

"Raindrop, focus!" Treeshade snapped. "We're nearing the SeasonClan border. This will mean trouble."

Raindrop followed the patrol meekly to the SeasonClan patrol. She noticed they had two cats mark the border that day. Their scent became a lot stronger. Suddenly, a SeasonClan patrol came. Their cats were fresh, all not the cats from the battle that day. Raindrop's heart wrenched to see her mother's best friend, Twilightgleam, her eyes narrowed dangerously as if expecting battle. Raindrop wanted to appeal to Twilightgleam. Her mother had trusted that she-cat, and she had loved her. Twilightgleam had even followed her to the river, when she hadn't appreciated it yet. Raindrop should have a connection with Twilightgleam, and yet she didn't. They hadn't spent much time together recently, well, obviously, since they'd lived in separate Clans for the past moon or so.

Behind Twilightgleam, Raindrop saw the last of that particular litter, Silkypelt. Silkpelt was also there. Silkpelt was expressionless. She had been in the attack, but she looked mostly unscathed. She had probably fought warriors far lower than her level of skill, perhaps the newbies or the extremely old folk. She had a malicious gleam in her eyes, something Raindrop had never seen out of the kindly warrior.