Flames At Night: Book 1: A Shattered Path

Chapter Thirty-Two

Dolphinshine

The sleek gray tom paused and flicked a sand fly off his ear. He had been given elder duty as a result of going into other Clans' territory without permission. Tucking the last strand of reed into the nest he was working on, he stood and padded out of the den.

"Are those nests fixed up, Dolphinpaw?" Fawnleg called from where the elders were basking in the sun.

"Yes," he meowed, dipping his head to them. "Also, it's Dolphinshine."

"I know your name," the dusty brown she-cat scoffed.

"Okay." He left her with her denmates, although he was secretly sure that she would never remember his warrior name.

Dolphinshine spotted Raggedpaw and Needlepaw sharing a fish next to the warriors' den. Needlepaw looked up and saw him as he came over.

"You," she said, thrusting her muzzle into his face, "are a fish-brained, tuna-faced sea slug with an urchin for a nose." She turned and stomped away.

Dolphinshine stared after her. "What was that about?" he asked Raggedpaw.

The dark gray tom shrugged. "She's mad at you. Again. I don't know why." He glanced at the apprentices' den, where his sister was sitting in the entrance. "She also yelled at Cinnamonpaw earlier, so I think she's in a pretty bad mood."

"Oh well," sighed Dolphinshine. "I guess I'll try to talk to her and find out why."

Raggedpaw groaned. "Don't. Unless you have some kind of death wish. She's really mad."

"Fine. See you later." The sleek gray tom went over to the nursery, hoping to see Shylily's kits.

One tumbled into his paws the second he stepped into the den. The others leaped onto his back, squealing with delight. Pretending to stagger under their feather-soft paws, Dolphinshine dumped them into their nest.

The silver tabby tom leaped to his feet and bounced up and down. "Do it again! That was fun!"

"Maybe for you!" His sister shoved him. "You landed right on my head!" He tackled her back, and soon they were wrestling on the ground, with the third littermate gleefully joining in.

"Have you chosen names for all of them yet?" Dolphinshine asked Shylily. The silver she-cat purred.

"Oh, yes. The black and white tom is Patchkit, the silver tabby is Moonlightkit, and the pale gray she-kit is Seakit." She watched them play-fight, violet eyes shining. "Aren't they darling?"

"And mischievous, it seems," he mewed. Shylily murmured something under her breath. "What was that?"

"Oh, nothing," she said quickly. "Er, I think Frondnose is organizing patrols. You'd better go if you want to be on one."

"All right," Dolphinshine said, rising to leave the den. That was kind of weird. He stepped out into the camp.

Frondnose noticed him. "You can go too," she called, waving her tail in the direction of the patrol he was supposed to be on. Nodding, he went over to where Squirreldash, Mistystream, and, unfortunately, Needlepaw were waiting for him.

"We were going to do some sand hunting today," Squirreldash meowed. Dolphinshine followed the orange warrior out of the camp, where he was subject to more bad decisions.

"Why don't we split off into pairs?" Mistystream suggested. "I'll go with Squirreldash, and Dolphinshine can go with Needlepaw."

"Isn't it better if I go with my mentor?" said Needlepaw, shooting a glare at Dolphinshine.

"You should practice with other warriors," Squirreldash said dismissively. "And I wanted Mistystream's advice on training an apprentice. Go off, you two." She walked away, chatting with Mistystream.

Dolphinshine cautiously padded next to Needlepaw, who seemed set on ignoring him. Finally, when they were near the DustClan border, she turned and spoke to him.

"I cannot believe," she hissed, "that you bribed me specifically so that you could get in trouble. And it didn't even work, which means I made myself look like a complete turtle-brain in front of the SparkClan cats for nothing." The gray and white she-cat stormed off, tail lashing.

Dolphinshine ran after her. "What do you mean, it didn't work?" he demanded, heartbeat spiking.

"Acornfall saw you talking with the apprentice," meowed Needlepaw. "She was staring at you kind of like this." She narrowed her eyes and pinned her ears back against her head.

The sleek gray tom abruptly changed direction, heading towards the river. Needlepaw quickened her pace to follow him. "Where are you going?"

"To SparkClan." Dolphinshine stared ahead as far as he could, glimpsing the treetops of SparkClan territory. "I have a feeling something very bad has happened."

"What if he's a spy?" argued a black and white tom. Dolphinshine suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Does this patrol even know what to do?

"Why did you want to be here again?" asked another warrior.

"I need to see my friend," he repeated, wishing he could just walk past them rather than deal with these cats. "Patterpaw."

"Oh," said the blue-gray and white tom. He exchanged a glance with his Clanmate. "She can't come to the border right now."

Dolphinshine closed his eyes. "I know she's injured." He added, "It's partly my fault," under his breath.

The black and white cat bristled. "How do you know? Were you the one who attacked her?" He started forward, but the other tom put out his tail to stop him.

"You know that was Acornfall," he said. Dolphinshine's eyes widened. I was right! "If you're coming to camp, you have to tell us what you know about the... incident. What's your name?"

"Dolphinshine," the sleek gray tom meowed.

"My over-aggressive Clanmate over there is Wadingfoot," said the blue-gray and white warrior. "And I'm Blizzardripple." He gave Dolphinshine a small smile. "Patterpaw's father."

"Is she still..." Dolphinshine couldn't bring himself to say the word in case the answer was no.

"She should be okay, according to Rowanfoot," Blizzardripple said. Dolphinshine's hopes plummeted again as he added, "But then, Rowanfoot is the most optimistic cat in the Clan."

Wadingfoot interrupted their conversation. "You should go now." He glared at the WaveClan warrior, tail twitching.

"Thank you for telling me." Dolphinshine dipped his head to Blizzardripple, pointedly ignoring Wadingfoot. "I really hope she gets better soon."

He left them to finish their patrol and swam through the river to WaveClan territory. As he was pulling himself onto the bank, a shadow fell over him.

"Oh, finally someone's here," a voice said. Dolphinshine looked up to see a dappled brown she-cat, staring at him inquisitively with sharp green eyes. "I've been waiting for hours. Which Clan are you from?"

The sleek gray tom cautiously climbed out of the river, keeping his gaze on the she-cat. "WaveClan. I'm Dolphinshine, son of Blossomwhisker and Slatecloud."

"Slatecloud?" The she-cat laughed. "I'm Lilacbloom. Great StarClan, it's been a while."