Dawnberry's Escape

Chapter 12

(A/N: sorry for not updating for so long! School! >.<)   

  "Dawnpaw!" A familiar voice mewed in her ear. Dawnpaw forced her eyes open to find green eyes boring into hers. She started, and Leafshade started rolling in the apprentice den, mrrowing in laughter. 

  "If you're too tired after the Gathering I can tell Ivywater and you could stay in camp." Leafshade mewed after he finished laughing. The patrol! Dawnpaw jumped up on her paws. Why is she always so sleepy? 

  "Meet you outside. Ivywater and Swiftfall are already up. Come on, sleepy. All your denmates are out." Leafshade padded out. 

  Yawning, Dawnpaw gave herself a quick groom and headed outside. Ivywater gave her a concerned look. 

  "Are you sure you're not too tired to go on the patrol? If you are you can stay here and I'll come back for battle training." Ivywater meowed, but Dawnpaw shook her head. She felt fine! 

  Leafshade led the way out of the camp, and towards the ShadowClan border. 

  “If, StarClan forbid, we see a ShadowClan patrol on our side of the border, you do not fight with us. You run straight to camp and tell Splashfoot or Brightstar about the intruders. Understand?” Ivywater looked at Dawnpaw sternly. 

  “Yes! Could we hunt when we’re coming back?” Dawnpaw asked hopefully. 

  “Well after the patrol, we’ll be going to the training hollow for battle training. We’ll stop at camp first so you could drop off any prey you might find along the way.” Ivywater told her. “So if you find a mouse or a squirrel just quickly hunt it down and catch up. Don’t stop for fish, okay?” 

  “Yep!” Dawnpaw trotted over to Leafshade’s side. “You still have a huge clump of fur sticking out.” She commented. 

  “What? Really?” Leafshade turned his head back to look at his fur. 

  “It’s just there.” Dawnpaw touched her tail to a spot at the back of his neck. 

  “Oh StarClan. Could you help me please?” Leafshade asked, almost pleading

  Dawnpaw purred. “I’m just pulling your leg. You’re so aware of how you look! Self aborbed mousebrain.” 

  “I hate you!” Leafshade growled playfully, lunging for Dawnpaw. 

  “Are you done playing around? It’s not a hunting patrol, but you’ve probably just scared away all the prey in the territory. Stop fooling around.” Swiftfall scolded. She was a strict warrior. No wonder Maplefang looked so afraid when she did something wrong as an apprentice. 

  “Sorry.” Dawnpaw murmured. Leafshade muttered the same a heartbeat later. 

  “Good. Let’s get this patrol done and over with.” Swiftfall pushed her way to the front and they reached the border in silence. 

  "No more playing near the border, okay? I know you're friends but we're close to enemy territory." Ivywater mewed more gently. 

  Dawnpaw and Leafshade nodded, and started marking the border, occasionally batting each other when the older warriors weren’t looking. 

  Heading back to camp, Dawnpaw spotted a quivering leaf, and stopped, motioning for the other cats to stop as well with her tail, pointing at the mouse tail sticking out. 

  Remember what Ivywater and Leafshade had taught her, she crouched down and creeped up on the prey. She pounced, and landed squarely on the plump creature, deftly ending it’s life.