Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

24 🌙

"Crescentpaw and Cheetah! It's time for the dawn patrol." Lagoonstripe mewed from the den entrance as her eyes cracked open a smidge.

The weak gray light pouring in was laced with fog. Her joints cracked as she stretched them and turned right-side up, lifting to her paws and shaking each one in turn.

Freezing, Crescentpaw threw a fearful glance over at her new acting mentor. But the she-cat had already retreated. Good thing, too. She might've seen that my claws didn't retract during that stretch.

Cheetah left her behind as she exited the den. She hardly even paused to groom her fur. Tinypaw was still trying to sleep, stretched out in one corner with her tail flopped over her legs. As Crescentpaw gave herself a few licks and moved towards the entrance she scented damp, moist air flowing in from outside.

It was a cool dawn morning. The woven wooden stems of the apprentice's den were flecked with dew as she passed. The camp still had a few mud-laden puddles around the less grassy areas of camp. Each one reflected a cluster of cloudy, uncertain skies above. The fog was so thick that they could hardly distinguish sky from mist. It lay across Riverclan in a blanket of white-washed cotton swathes. The tabby apprentice could barely see the empty leader's den from across camp.

"This is perfect weather!" Cheetah exclaimed with her huge round ears perked. "It's not even hot today."

"It probably will be after the sun rises and burns off the mist," Lagoonstripe educated. Cheetah nodded, then bounced on excited paws when she saw another cat exiting the dirtplace tunnel.

"I'm ready to go," Emberfawn said after a huge yawn, pausing beside them.

"Weren't you on watch last night, though?" Crescentpaw looked him up and down. His fur was unkept and messy, with one of his ears still turned inside out.

Lagoonstripe flicked it with a paw, fixing it.

"He was, but Houndspots relieved him partway through. Unfortunately with so few warriors we have been subjected to cutting our sleeping times in half." The older warrior shuffled her paws, as if concerned that she couldn't properly manage the shortage of cats left.

"I understand," Crescentpaw said quickly. "I bet it would help if we could stand guard, though." She let a bit of suggestiveness creep into her voice. But Lagoonstripe was already shaking her head, scarred cheeks set in a firm half-smile.

"Nice try, but it wouldn't be worth it. If we don't keep our apprentices alive then we'll have even less of a future for Riverclan."

Crescentpaw dejectedly turned her head away. She loftily glanced into the sea-foam blue grey sky above. Guess I'll just have to give it up. Even though we're of warrior age nothing's going to change.

"Alright, what border are we checking today?"

"Windclan's. And as you can see, Emberfawn will be coming with us." The red-brown tom licked a paw and drew it over his ear. He glanced at Cheetah with mild interest when the she-cat began chattering on again.

"I heard all about Windclan from Crescentpaw and Tinypaw. They live on the moorland and prefer to sleep under the stars, in tall grasses or in gorse patches. When there isn't bad weather, that is," she specified with an animated toss of her head.

"Ooh! And Crescentpaw- my best friend," she mewed delightfully, startling the apprentice as she gazed over at her spotted companion. "-said there was a rumor about them using tunnels."

"Wow. It's kind of cool how you remembered all of that," the young tom said smoothly.

"If anybody else is willing to wait until we get back to eat, then I'm ready to go. You can all chat along the way." Lagoonstripe's pale green gaze was watchful as she led the way out of camp.