Warriors - Nightfall

Chapter 1

Cinderstar yawned and padded out of her den entrance, shielded with vine curtains.

"Bluefur!" She called. Bluefur trotted over to her and acknowledged her with a brief nod.

"Can you organise a hunting patrol to Sunningrocks, and a border patrol to put down scent marks?"

Bluefur nodded, and with a wave of her tail she ran off to group the warriors.

Stripefur was already up, and he was poking his apprentice Dustpaw to get up.

"Dustpaw! You're going on a hunting patrol today, get up!" He encouraged.

At the thought of a hunting patrol, Dustpaw was soon up and the two of them went and collected a mouse to share that was from yesterday's hunting.

Longtail joined the two of them and together the three cats set off hunting to Sunningrocks. Two border patrols had also been organised and the two warriors left in the camp, Swiftpelt and Brackenfur, were dozing off. Brackenfur then remembered that last night, he'd told Leafpaw and Nightpaw that if they weren't back by sunrise, he'd send a patrol after them.

He raced straight to Cinderstar's den and let her know of his presence by meowing a hello.

Cinderstar popped her head out of the vine curtain and her eyes softened when she saw Brackenfur.

"What is it?" She purred.

"I let two apprentices out of camp last night and they're not back, I need you to send patrols after them!"

Cinderstar was shocked.

"But our patrols have already been sent, we have no search-ready warriors left. You were up all night, and so was Swiftpelt. Where are the two apprentices?"

"Sunningrocks."

"I've already sent a hunting patrol there, I expect them to bring them back. Oh, and out of curiosity, what could they be up to at Sunningrocks at midnight?"

"They said they're going to get herbs."

"That's strange, there aren't many herbs at Sunningrocks unless they want watermint, and we've got piles of that."

Brackenfur nodded.

"Brackenfur, go get Swiftpelt and an apprentice, guard camp while I go to Sunningrocks. The apprentices should have good reason for being there."

Brackenfur trotted off to the warriors' den and Cinderstar made her way out of camp.

Moments after, the small guard group consisting of Whitepaw, Brackenfur and Swiftpelt sat at the entrance.

Whitepaw lifted his nose and took a sniff.

"Fox!" He yelped.

He padded straight out of camp and tried to track which direction it went. He soon had hold of the scent well and he chased after it.

"Whitepaw! Come back!" Brackenfur yowled, but Whitepaw was already too far away to hear.

"Swiftpelt, stay here and if you scent danger, yowl!"

Swiftpelt looked up at the sound of his name then went back to grooming his fur, not paying a lot of attention to any scents. Brackenfur chased after the young apprentice who only wanted to boost his popularity by chasing off a fox.

When Brackenfur left, Mousefur padded up to Swiftpelt.

"So, where's every cat gone?"

Swiftpelt then listed each cat and where they were off to.

"You know, I don't think I want one cat alone guarding camp. I might be old but I haven't lost my claws." She meowed then sat down next to him.