Midnight

Chapter 17

Squirrelpaw jerked awake as a cold wind ruffled her fur. Looking around, she realized that Swiftpaw and Crowpaw were nowhere to be found. It was very unlike Swiftpaw to leave her alone for any reason, let alone in unknown territory so Squirrelpaw immediately thought the worst. Looking around, she saw Tawnypelt rising to her paws, stretching hard as she did. Squirrelpaw quickly bounded around the corner, hoping to see them getting a drink, but the water was unmoving and there were no droplets on the grass aside from the morning dew.

Squirrelpaw rushed over to Brambletuft, knowing her Clanmate would understand her urgency more than the others. "Wake up, Brambletuft! Swiftpaw and Crowpaw—are gone!"

She prodded him in the side roughly, forcing him out of his sleep. The warrior sat up slower than she wanted and Squirrelpaw turned anxiously to look around once more. Stormfur leaped up from the nest he'd made himself under a clump of ferns, his amber eyes wide with worry.

"Feathertail's gone, too!" he announced.

Squirrelpaw nearly staggered off her paws. The sun was already climbing above the horizon in a bright blue sky littered with fluffy white clouds. A stiff breeze was blowing, rippling the grass in the field, but it brought no scent of the missing cats. For a heartbeat Squirrelpaw wondered if they had gone home. They hadn't received the salt water sign, and her brother had grown slightly close with the WindClan apprentice so maybe he'd gone with to watch over them.

Then she realized she was being a mouse-brain. Crowpaw might be stubborn enough to do that, but Feathertail never would, and especially not Swiftpaw. Wherever they were, they must be together. And it was unlikely that a predator had taken them; there were no scents of danger here, and in any case the noise would have woken the rest of them.

Squirrelpaw turned back to Brambletuft who was now more awake and already looking at her. "See if they've gone for a drink at the pool," he suggested.

"I already have," she mewed. "I'm not mouse-brained."

"No, okay, then. . ." Brambletuft glanced around wildly, looking desperate, before his head snapped back around in a double-take. Squirrelpaw followed his gaze to see three small figures, pale gray, black, and black-and-white, approaching across the field. The wind, blowing toward the broken-down wall, had carried their scent away. "There they are!" Brambletuft exclaimed.

The three cats trotted briskly up to the stones. Their mouths were full of fresh-kill, and their eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

"Where have you been?" Brambletuft demanded. "We were worried about you."

"You shouldn't wonder off like that," Stormfur added to his sister.

Squirrelpaw padded up to Swiftpaw, brushing against him. "I thought you left," she murmured. Swiftpaw pressed back, his jaws still crammed with prey.

"What does it look like?" Crowpaw snapped, dropping the two mice he was carrying. "You were all snoring like hedgehogs in leaf-bare, so we thought we'd go and hunt."

"There's lots of prey over there." Feathertail gestured with her tail toward a thicket in the next field. "We caught a whole pile, but we'll have to go back and fetch the rest."

"Let these lazy lumps do it themselves," Crowpaw muttered.

"Of course we'll help," meowed Brambletuft. "You've done brilliantly. You stay and eat, and we'll fetch the rest of the prey."

Crowpaw had already crouched down, ready to take a bite from one of the mice. "Don't talk to us as if you're our mentor," he growled.

Swiftpaw set his vole and squirrel down, motioning for Squirrelpaw to take one. The larger apprentice waited for her to settle as the other three padded away to gather the rest of the prey, not speaking as he grabbed the vole and dug in beside her. The littermates didn't need to speak, already comforted in just the brush of fur they got every time they shifted.