Dark Skies- Book #2 in Sunrise

                                                                                                   Chapter 7
Ravenstar's eyes seemed to bore into her soul. "What were you thinking?" He growled, his voice deep. "I...I got...I got lost..and it turned dark, and I couldn't see..." She trailed off, and she watched Ravenstar's eyes darken. "What is your problem?" He hissed. Jadepaw sunk into her pelt. "Until now, I didn't think I had a problem." She paused. "What is my problem?" His eyes hardened. "You'd think that you have already found out." Ravenstar left her standing next to the fresh-kill pile, her fur pricking. I don't have a problem...do I? Self-doubt is the worst kind of doubt, and it crept into her mind, making her feel cold to the bone.

Sparkpaw padded over to her, perhaps yearning for company, the same way Jadepaw didn't. Sparkpaw fluffed out her moss-covered pelt. She had probably just woken up. "Jadepaw, did you hear about those strange cats? I've heard that the tom has a chest infection." Jadepaw didn't know how serious this was, so she didn't really feel very concerned. Amber was talking to Fernsong earnestly. "I'm telling you, people-or twolegs-they're here...I've saw them." Jadepaw rolled her eyes and turned tail, hoping to get assigned to a border patrol or something.

"Hey, Jadepaw, do you want to play moss-ball?" Jadepaw glared at Drizzlepaw, who had padded over with a clump of moss. "We're apprentices, not kits. We can't go playing moss-ball and train to be warriors!" Drizzlepaw drew back, his eyes hurt. "Oh, okay." He turned, and a few moments later, he was playing with Clearkit. Jadepaw rolled her eyes and looked at Ravenstar on top of Highrock. "Todays border patrols will include Frostfang, Twitchheart, Hawkpaw, Drizzlepaw, and myself." Jadepaw stiffly padded towards the entrance, following Ravenstar as he clambered down from Highrock. The thing Jadepaw wanted to do least was go on a patrol with a cat like Ravenstar.

She padded towards the camp entrance, and fell down when Hawkpaw landed on top of her. "Hawk-" she broke off and stared in disbelief. Twolegs were right outside of camp. The camp fell silent-they smelled them. Oh my StarClan! The twolegs were wandering around in the woods, twenty tail-lengths from the camp entrance. Jadepaw scrambled out from under Hawkpaw and cowered next to the warriors den. Scatfur had his muzzle next to her ear. "We can't let them see our camp!" The twolegs murmured amongst each other, and Adderjaw's eyes were wild with fear. For a second, Jadepaw got distracted and wondered if their camp had ever been discovered by twolegs.

Goldenpaw was inside the apprentice den, her yellow eyes sparking against the darkness. Coward. Jadepaw felt her heart racing. "I told you! They're coming for you!" Amber was next to the entrance, peering through the hole. She is the bravest cat I've ever met in my entire lifetime. The whole camp was silent, the warriors were gathered in the center of camp whispering. All Jadepaw could do was stay hunkered down, her heart trying to fly out of her chest. She whimpered, wishing that she was still a kit, if she was born just a few moons later!

The twolegs advanced towards the entrance, observing the walls of camp. Warriors streamed through the dirtplace, the apprentices reluctantly following. Jadepaw wrinkled her nose at the smell, before remembering that she was about to die. She saw the twolegs, their baggy pelts hanging from their clumsy limbs. Jadepaw hadn't ever smelled anything like them before, and there were about four of them. She let out a regretful sigh. I'm going to die! StarClan, wish me luck out there...The warriors advanced, and it was a moment before one of the twolegs let out a surprised screech and began swinging a piece of wood around.

Ravenstar hissed and lunged into the face of one of the more loud twolegs. "Attack!" He screeched, and the warriors of ThunderClan began swarming around the twolegs. The twolegs began to swing around their clumsy limbs, maybe thinking that they could catch one of the warriors. Ha! Not a chance. Jadepaw hissed and joined Cloudpaw and Clearpaw with a struggling twoleg. With their ugly face. I'll help them with that. She planted both paws onto their eyes, and the twoleg began thrashing their legs and hissing unrecognizable words before she dug her claws in. Blood squirted, and she looked at her bloody paws, disgusted. The twoleg went crazy and sat up, yowling to the others. Flipnose yowled and dug his claws into its pelt.