Dawnstar's Trouble {COMPLETE}

Chapter 31

 "Dawnfire!"

Dawnfire jolted awake, alarm shooting through her for a split second. The first thing she saw was Snakewhisker staring sternly at her. She scrambled to her paws, dawn was peeking into the warriors den. She had overslept!

"You do realize you're still deputy, right?" Snakewhisker questioned. "You need to get better about organizing patrols. We have to remain on time."

Dawnfire nodded. "Sorry, Snakewhisker." Her belt burned and she hurried out the warrior den, stretching her legs as she did so. Snakewhisker followed her out. It was only her third day of being SunClan's deputy and she was struggling to adjust. Thankfully, she had Snakewhisker to help her out. Snakewhisker had been deputy for a short time, and stood in for deputy for a day after Blazeheart's death. He had been helping her figure out which cats to put where and how often to send out border patrols. Her new role was stressful and sometimes chaotic, more often than not she had cats coming to her asking to be on patrol or to go hunting, and she didn't like saying now, but for now she just had to do the dawn patrol.

"Okay, Snakewhisker since you're up you can lead it and take...." Dawnfire thought for a moment. "Take Snowtail, Rustpelt, Crowfur and Cloudspots." Snakewhisker nodded and returned to the warrior den to wake the sleeping warriors, with the exception of Cloudspots who was still alone in the apprentice den due to lack of space. Dawnfire looked around camp, the sun was starting to rise already. She felt bad that she had woken up late, she had to get used to waking up at dawn, she hadn't done that since she was a kit. She began running through her head what needed to be done, the nursery and elders den could use some tending and now they had no apprentices. Since Cloudspots would be on patrol, Dawnfire decided to send Flamepetal, Heatherflight and Brackenpelt to attend to them.

Greenleaf would be over before they knew it, so the fresh-kill pile needed to be stocked as much as possible. Dawnfire decided to have Yarrowtail lead a hunting patrol near the MoonClan border and Goldenleaf lead one near the AshClan border. Dawnfire approached the two cats when they and sent Yarrowtail with Turtleblaze, Sandfoot and Rainears and Goldenleaf with Lionclaw, Icepetal, Adderstrike and Redclaw. Dawnfire ran through all the patrols, there would have to be a sunhigh patrol. Who would lead that?

Dawnfire decided since she was the deputy now, she should lead some patrols. She would to see who was all back when the time came to see who she wanted to join her. Dawnfire sat patiently by the Drinking Pool waiting for the dawn patrol returned, while she waited she watched the nursery, it wasn't long before Applespot's three kits spilled out, tripping over each other. Applespots sat just outside the nursery, watching her kits closely. Her green eyes displayed a wide variety of emotions, love for her kits and a gentle focus, but there was also a sense of distance to them. She still was adjusting to Thornpelt's exile, and she was the one who had to explain to her children where their father went.

They were young, but they would certainly have some memories of him. Thornpelt spent a lot of time when his kits in the three moons that they were alive, and when Applespots told them they didn't quite understand. Dawnfire had overheard the conversation.

"Your father had to leave, he did very bad things but that doesn't mean he doesn't love you, okay?" Applespots had told them.

"What did he do?" Cherrykit had questioned. "Did he lie?"

"No, stupid. They wouldn't throw him out for lying." Thurshkit was very harsh already towards his sisters, namely Briarkit. He made Dawnfire uncomfortable, but she fought the unease down. He's just a kit. Dawnfire had to tell herself over and over, he's just a kit.

Dawnfire's attention was snapped away from the nursery when the dawn patrol returned, Dawnfire quickly padded up to Snakewhisker for his report. He claimed that there were no odd or enemy scents, the odd scents being Thornpelt. He hadn't been spotted since he left SunClan and Dawnfire hoped that she would never see him again; but there was a clawing feeling in her chest that she would before too long. And you, Dawnfire. No matter what happens, I will make sure that you die by my claws. Thornpelt's threat rang in her ears every day, she knew he would be seeing him again and now he had nothing to lose.