Warriors: Second Strike: Book 4: Embers

Chapter 8

[Branchtail's POV]

I was on the dusk patrol going over to SmallClan's border. It didn't have very many of us. There was Lightningstrike, Icehowl, and Rainpaw with it. I was the oldest of the group and I was also the leader of the group. I just stayed quiet and thought about what had happened so far. Nugget was gone and so was Flamefur. I was never really close to either of them. Flamefur seemed to scare me. She was just that kind of cat. She wasn't really mean, she just seemed like she was.

It could have been the fact hat she was an amazing fighter and used to train in the Dark Forest that I was scared of her. She used to be there but I knew she wasn't there anymore. It was Metalclaw. He also scared me. I did feel bad for him at the moment. I could only imagine the pain that he was going through at the moment. I never wanted to lose Featherfall before I died. I would be heartbroken if I lost her or any of my kits.

Thinking of my kits, that brought my thoughts toward them. I was happy to them. Burninghope seemed to be warming up to Dustyleap. He might get a mate sooner or later. Flyblaze was announced as the father of Summerstripe's kits. I was still unsure about it since I had barely ever seen the two together. Then again, they could just like to keep it a secret and not publicize it like other cats.

Then I thought of Airwing. She didn't seem to get along with any of the other toms and I felt bad for her. She needed someone special in her life. I didn't want to push her either. If she didn't want a mate, I wouldn't make her have a mate. I wasn't that kind of father. I just wanted my three kits to be happy. If she was happier alone than with a mate, then I would be fine with it.

"Hey Branchtail. We are at the border." Icehowl said behind me and interrupted me from my thoughts. I looked up and saw the border which separated the two clans.

"I see that we are. Lightningstrike will go with Icehowl and go south. Rainpaw, you can come with me and we will head north. We can meet back in the middle." I said. I saw the two toms go down toward the gathering place which was part of the south border.

Rainpaw followed me as we headed toward where no clan had its border. It was just given that we stopped there. We got there quickly and started to mark the border. I slightly wanted to make sure we left before the other patrol got there. We did not need anymore attacks at the moment. DepthClan was already suffering some losses and we didn't want to suffer anymore.

"I scent cats coming. They are coming slowly. I don't think they know we are here. Let's go ahead." Rainpaw whispered and followed back toward where we were going to meet the other two toms.