[❆//bearclan and rabbitclan]

One

Sun peeked through the woven stems of Hawkstar's den. The large tom blinked open his eyes, he laid there for a while before slowly standing up. He climbed out of his den letting the little bit of sunlight beat on his thick tabby pelt as it came through the roof of the forest. He let out a large yawn before stretching hearing bones pop. After stretching he sat down and looked around camp, it was beginning to bustle and the soft squeals of kits echoed out of the nursery.

"Good morning Hawkstar."  A voice greeted.

Hawkstar turned his head to see Buzzardflight, the deputy, padding over to him.  He dipped his head in greeting. "Greetings Buzzardflight, its a fine morning isn't it?"

Buzzardflight looked up. "By the looks of it yes." He looked back at Hawkstar. "Do you want me to start organizing patrols?"

Hawkstar looked back around camp seeing that a vast majority of the clan had awoken. "Yes, and I think I'm going to go on a border patrol near the river."

Buzzardflight nodded his head. "Okay, well then you can take..." He looked around camp. "Mintspot, Pinepool, and Hickorypaw."

"Thank you Buzzardflight." Hawkstar said before standing up to gather his patrol. Buzzardflight dipped his head in goodbye as Hawkstar left him.

Hawkstar had luckily found the cats in his patrol quickly and they were on their way to the river. He tried but failed at ignoring Hickorypaw's constant pestering, he felt bad for Pinepool as he had to train Hickorypaw. 

Hawkstar opened his jaws and caught the scent of the river, they were close now. He began to quicken the pace, he always found the gentle rush of the river to be soothing. The sound of water crashing on rocks was coming closer. 

"Oh wow! The river seems pretty high!" Hickorypaw exclaimed.

Hawkstar narrowed his eyes at the river. Leaf-bare had just ended, the ice would be melting. "It's just the ice melting." He said to Hickorypaw.

Hickorypaw didn't say anything she rushed to the bank of the water and dipped her paw in the cool water. "Can we go for a swim?"

Pinepool, a brown tabby purred as he walked up to her. "Its far to chilly for a swim."

She frowned. "Its not that cold."

Hawkstar's whiskers twitched in amusement before something caught his eye on the other side of the border. A patrol of Rabbitclan cats. They seemed to be heading towards the river as well.

"Rabbitclan?" Hawkstar heard Mintspots say behind him. 

"Just ignore them." Hawkstar stated.

"Rabbitclan cats! If they try to cross that border I'll claw their fur off!" Hickorypaw yelled. 

The patrol of Rabbitclan cats paused and looked in the direction of the Bearclan cats. This gave Hawkstar enough time to recognize one of the cats to be Driftstar, the leader. Hawkstar's fur bristled when they approached the bank on other side of the river. 

"Your apprentice seems pretty full of herself, thinking she can take on a patrol of Rabbitclan cats by herself." A warrior teased.

"Look at her Antfern, she couldn't take on a single Rabbitclan warrior." Another cat laughed.

Hickorypaw flattened her ears and Hawkstar saw her unsheath her claws.  He flashed a look at the apprentice that made her calm down.  He looked back at the snickering warriors across the river, then at Driftstar who was.... staring at him?

"You should control your warriors." Hawkstar grumbled. "Before they hurt themselves."

Driftstar stopped staring at Hawkstar and turned to her warriors. "Be quiet! We're not looking to fight today." She snapped, instantly making her warriors go back to the way they were. She turned back to Hawkstar. "I'm sorry about them." 

Hawkstar's whiskers twitched. He didn't say anything as he saw how tense both patrols were getting at each other. "We'd best be off then."

Driftstar dipped her head keeping her amber eyes on him. "See you around." She said watching as the Bearclan border patrol left.

"She was quite strange. Wasn't she?" Mintspots asked.

"Yeah, why was she staring at you like that Hawkstar?" Pinepool added.

Hawkstar flicked his tail. "Driftstar is a strange cat, pay no attention to her." 

"We should've taught those Rabbitclan fleabags some manners." Hickorypaw snapped.

"Calm down Hickorypaw." Pinepool said trying to comfort his apprentice. "We all know you can beat a Rabbitclan cat.  Besides bears eat rabbits."

Hickorypaw let out a laugh. "Those bee brained Rabbitclan cats think they're so tough don't they."

"Indeed they do." Pinepool replied.

Hawkstar twitched his whiskers in amusement, though something was nagging at him in the back of his head. Why was Driftstar staring at him?