Tangletuft's Mistake; (complete)

Chapter eight

"Get up Tanglepaw! It's time for the dawn patrol!" Darkwing called into the apprentices' den with a surprising cheery tone. When had the black furred she-cat ever start liking the dawn patrols?

Tanglepaw groaned in her nest. Three dawn patrols in a row? Why?

Her muscles ached as she pulled herself out of her nest. Tree climbing practice with Sagepaw and Breezepaw left her chilled. The two littermates were astounding, both racing up the tree as if they were ThunderClan. Tanglepaw only got to the fifth branch before she fell, luckily unharmed. WindClan cats shouldn't climb trees.

Battle training made her muscles ache even more. Sagepaw and Breezepaw excelled at their training, beating even Featherfall and Crowflight, the two newly named warriors were awe struck as Breezepaw beat the two easily, his massive size only slightly bigger yet his early aged muscled form strong and powerful.

Sagepaw, on the other hand, could only beat Featherfall, her fast moves delicate yet precise and hard. She easily won against the new warrior. Crowflight was another story. It was like she didn't even try to win against him. The tom pinned her down in a few moments, yet Sagepaw's eyes were sparkling as if she's won.

"Tanglepaw hurry up!" Darkwing called again, more impatiently this time. "Smokepaw and Snowpaw are coming too. We're all just waiting for you."

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Her soft voice ached in her throat, the coughing hadn't slowed down. Would it ever? She began to think.

As she exited through the first grasses of newleaf, coldness hit her pelt like a storm of leaf-bare "Shouldn't leaf-bare be over by now?" She asked, stretching lazily in front of her mentor.

"Yes. Leaf-bare should've ended a moon ago. Speaking of moons, you still haven't been to your first gathering have you?" Darkwing asked, flicking her tail to the dawn patrol behind her.

"Not yet," she admitted "I was supposed to go to the first gathering but I wasn't chosen. And then I got sick and I haven't been chosen after that. So no. Not yet."

"Well you're coming for sure tonight." Darkwing reassured, looking down and and puffy white she-cat. "Now let's get on that dawn patrol shall we?"

"Alright!" Tanglepaw mewed in a cheery tone. Finally! Her, the full moon and more cats than she could possibly imagine all in one place.

"Hurry up you two! I don't want to wait in the snow all day!" Jaggedfur, the mentor of Smokepaw meowed impatiently, pressing his paws down on the snow moorland repetitively.

"We're coming," Darkwing rolled her eyes then continued in a hushed tone "Someone fell on the wrong side of the gorse this morning."

Tanglepaw silently giggled before following her mentor out of camp and into the coldness of late leaf-bare.

Snow hurtled down from the clouds, landing in the patrol's fur and stuck like matts, the gray clouds covered the whole sky, the only light was the faint bulb of the sun behind the clouds.