Warriors: A Dawn Rising

Chapter Fourteen

            Dawnflight awoke the next morning, she watched Mousepaw and Snowpaw listen to their mentors giving them orders, Pigeonpaw, Hawkpaw, and Jaypaw hadn't woken up yet so Dawnflight decided to sneak a visit to Lightblaze.

            She padded across the frost-covered clearing and slid through the brambles into Leafshine's den. "Is Lightblaze okay?" She asked, her brown tabby sister turned and nodded to Dawnflight.

             "She will be fine. How are Bramblekit and Thunderkit dealing with Flamekit's death?" Leafshine asked, sorrow filling her gaze. Dawnflight guessed that the she-cat hadn't had much time to tell Tigerheart about what happened.

             "Not good, Amber is with them right now." Dawnflight sighed, her tail drooping. She watched as Whitepaw applied wounds to Lightblaze's fur, her paws working delicately. The white she-cat dipped her head towards Dawnflight. "She's learning fast."

            "Faster than Mousepaw and Snowpaw, I hope." Whitepaw murmured as she moved on to the next cat. Dawnflight purred with amusement, she flicked her tail goodbye to Leafshine then turned and slid out of the den. The morning sun rose high above the treetops, waking up every sleeping cat. She watched as Spiderclaw set up patrols, wondering if one day she'll ever be in that same position.

             "Sunfrost, lead a hunting patrol." Spiderclaw meowed, searching the crowd of warriors that was slowly forming. "Icemask, you lead a border patrol." Dawnflight yawned, curling her tail around her paws. Her wounds from training with Crowfang at night were already beginning to heal. Sunfrost's bright golden fur approached Dawnflight. "Why don't you bring Jaypaw on the hunting patrol? It'd be good practice." The golden-brown warrior sighed, glancing at the medicine cat den. As if he had read her thoughts, he touched his tail tip to her shoulder. "Lightblaze will be okay, but you need to focus on training Jaypaw too."

           "I know, I'm sorry." She let out a breath, nodding to Sunfrost and going to retrieve Jaypaw from the apprentice den. "Jaypaw, wake up. We're going on a hunting patrol." She meowed gently, the silver tom slid out of the den, stretching. "Come on, Hawkpaw and Pigeonpaw were even awake quicker than you." Dawnflight snapped.

            "It was easier to sleep in the tunnels besides the twoleg noise. I'm not used to waking up this early." Jaypaw sighed, following Dawnflight by the heels as she turned to meet Sunfrost by the tunnel entrance. "Do you think we'll go back to the tunnels?"

            "I'm not sure." Dawnflight answered, she flicked her tail to quickly silence Jaypaw as they neared Sunfrost. Lionflame was sitting next to his brother, yawning. The golden-brown she-cat avoided Lionflame's gaze, not wanting to speak to the tom.

           "Are we all ready?" Sunfrost asked as Riverpelt quickly padded over. The tom led the patrol out into the forest, they headed down the trail towards the abandoned twoleg den. Jaypaw stayed by Dawnflight's side, leaf-bare frost was beginning to show on the leaves and bushes. "Riverpelt, Lionflame, go on and begin hunting inside of the den." Sunfrost meowed, Dawnflight guided Jaypaw over to a patch of wide grass. The trees were thin and there was nearly no cover of bushes or undergrowth.

            "Do you smell anything?" Dawnflight asked the silver tom, he scented the air, tail twitching.

           "I can smell a squirrel." He meowed back, flexing his claws. He dropped into a hunter's crouch, padding slowly on the forest floor. His pawsteps were careful, Dawnflight crept around a tree, padding towards the scent of the squirrel. She could see it nibbling on an acorn, unaware of the cats watching it. Jaypaw was creeping slowly down the hill, he was fox-lengths away when he wiggled his haunches. He leapt and pounced, nearly missing the squirrel as he pinned down it's tail, snapping it's neck. "I caught it!" He yowled with delight, turning to look at Dawnflight.