Miles Apart - a Warrior Cats fanfiction (Leafpool/Crag)

Chapter 2

Leafpaw's heart soared. Her skin buzzed where Crag had brushed against her. His strange, yet pleasant, accent echoed in her ears.

For a long while she simply stood rooted in place until a new voice found her ears, Cinderpelt. Her mentor had emerged from their den and was stretching and yawning, still half asleep by the looks of her.

"Morning, Leafpaw. Sleep well?"

"Yes thank you, Cinderpelt. What about you?"

She shrugged.

"About as well as I expected to, I suppose."

"And I'm guessing that means not too great?"

Her mentor simply shrugged again.

"First ones up are we?" She asked.

"Crag was here a moment ago. He left for patrol with Night and some others." She responded.

Cinderpelt gave her a sidelong glance and Leafpaw tactfully avoided her piercing gaze.

"Cinderpelt?" A new voice asked.

"Yes Firestar?" Cinderpelt meowed.

"Coming for a walk?" Firestar asked. It was then that he noticed Leafpaw. He gave her a small nod which she returned.

Cinderpelt took a moment to look mildly surprised at the offer before responding.

"Yes of course, Firestar. Goodbye Leafpaw."

"I'll speak to you later, Cinderpelt."

Her mentor dipped her head and turned towards the cave entrence with Firestar at her heels.

Leafpaw sat where she was for a good while sinply listening to the sound of the waterfall and watching the cave liven up as cats slunk out of the shadows to begin their morning routene.

                             X X X

"Crag! How was the hunt?"

A good while had passed since Crag left with his patrol. The hunt appeared relatively successful, Crag, Night, and a well-muscled jet black tom carried large eagles in their jaws, a brown and gray she-cat carried three mice dangling by their tails while a young solid black tom trailed behind them with an empty mouth looking sheepish.

Crag's eyes lit up when they met hers.

"Here, little one, take it to the prey-pile and go find your friends," he said quietly. "The rest of you are dismissed."

The group nodded and headed to the prey-pile. The young tom scampering ahead dragging the eagle by the wing.

"Pretty well I'd say," Crag responded. "Poor To-be didn't catch anything though."

"Well, he's a To-be for a reason, he's bound to make a mistake or two."

Crag smiled down at her.

"You're right, he almost caught a mouse though!"

Leafpaw smiled back.

"Well that's a positive!"

"Certainly is."

She and Crag shared tongues beside the cave entrence for a while before Squirrelpaw came dashing from the den she and some warriors had been sharing.

"Leafpaw! Crag! Morning!"

Her sister skidded to a halt beside the two, almost stepping on her own tail in her excitement.

"I think you missed morning a bit, Squirrelpaw." Leafpaw laughed.

Crag gave her a slight nudge in the shoulder, still beaming.

"Good morning to you too, Squirrelpaw," Crag meowed. "Are you hungry? There's a fresh mouse on the prey-pile if you fancy one?"

"That sounds great! Thanks Crag!" She turned to Leafpaw and mewed a hasty  'we'll speak later' before speeding off in the direction of the prey-pile, almost knocking the poor, prey-less To-be off his paws.

Crag chuckled.

"She's quite excitable isn't she?"

"Always has been," Leafpaw mewed. "She would always be pulling mean little tricks on me when we were kits."

"Really?" Crag asked, a slight chuckle in his voice. "Can you remember any of them?"

"Have I told you about the time she put a fire ant in my nest but ended up having to sleep in my nest instead?"

"No! You're joking, right?"