Lagoonstripe

"Crescentpaw and Cheetah! It's time for the dawn patrol." Lagoonstripe mewed from the den entrance as her eyes cracked open a smidge.

The weak gray light pouring in was laced with fog. Her joints cracked as she stretched them and turned right-side up, lifting to her paws and shaking each one in turn.

Freezing, Crescentpaw threw a fearful glance over at her new acting mentor. But the she-cat had already retreated. Good thing, too. She might've seen that my claws didn't retract during that stretch.

Cheetah left her behind as she exited the den. She hardly even paused to groom her fur. Tinypaw was still trying to sleep, stretched out in one corner with her tail flopped over her legs. As Crescentpaw gave herself a few licks and moved towards the entrance she scented damp, moist air flowing in from outside.

It was a cool dawn morning. The woven wooden stems of the apprentice's den were flecked with dew as she passed. The camp still had a few mud-laden puddles around the less grassy areas of camp. Each one reflected a cluster of cloudy, uncertain skies above. The fog was so thick that they could hardly distinguish sky from mist. It lay across Riverclan in a blanket of white-washed cotton swathes. The tabby apprentice could barely see the empty leader's den from across camp.

"This is perfect weather!" Cheetah exclaimed with her huge round ears perked. "It's not even hot today."

"It probably will be after the sun rises and burns off the mist," Lagoonstripe educated. Cheetah nodded, then bounced on excited paws when she saw another cat exiting the dirtplace tunnel.

"I'm ready to go," Emberfawn said after a huge yawn, pausing beside them.

"Weren't you on watch last night, though?" Crescentpaw looked him up and down. His fur was unkept and messy, with one of his ears still turned inside out.

Lagoonstripe flicked it with a paw, fixing it.

"He was, but Houndspots relieved him partway through. Unfortunately with so few warriors we have been subjected to cutting our sleeping times in half." The older warrior shuffled her paws, as if concerned that she couldn't properly manage the shortage of cats left.

"I understand," Crescentpaw said quickly. "I bet it would help if we could stand guard, though." She let a bit of suggestiveness creep into her voice. But Lagoonstripe was already shaking her head, scarred cheeks set in a firm half-smile.

"Nice try, but it wouldn't be worth it. If we don't keep our apprentices alive then we'll have even less of a future for Riverclan."

Crescentpaw dejectedly turned her head away. She loftily glanced into the sea-foam blue grey sky above. Guess I'll just have to give it up. Even though we're of warrior age nothing's going to change.

"Alright, what border are we checking today?"

"Windclan's. And as you can see, Emberfawn will be coming with us." The red-brown tom licked a paw and drew it over his ear. He glanced at Cheetah with mild interest when the she-cat began chattering on again.

"I heard all about Windclan from Crescentpaw and Tinypaw. They live on the moorland and prefer to sleep under the stars, in tall grasses or in gorse patches. When there isn't bad weather, that is," she specified with an animated toss of her head.

"Ooh! And Crescentpaw- my best friend," she mewed delightfully, startling the apprentice as she gazed over at her spotted companion. "-said there was a rumor about them using tunnels."

"Wow. It's kind of cool how you remembered all of that," the young tom said smoothly.

"If anybody else is willing to wait until we get back to eat, then I'm ready to go. You can all chat along the way." Lagoonstripe's pale green gaze was watchful as she led the way out of camp.

Cheetah talked a lot as they walked on, and it didn't help her keep her surroundings in check. She stumbled in shallow dunes along the streambed and knocked her paws against hillocks of grass when she wasn't looking. Which was despicably most of the time.

"Look towards your paws before you take a step," Lagoonstripe tried to patiently instruct, but Cheetah was finding no success. "You'll improve eventually but great Starclan, I hope it's soon. If a wolf decided to stay out hunting early into dawn- which, by the way, has happened before," She told her patiently. "Then I'm afraid they would've heard us far before catching our scent."

She has a long way to go, Crescentpaw pondered as she slunk around the far-spaced foliage of Riverclan's saturated forest. Lagoonstripe scolded her spotted friend as she saw fit, but kept any overbearing comments to herself. This only seemed to fuel Cheetah's enthusiasm, and so they hadn't seen any land prey by the time they reached Windclan's border.

"The fog is lifting," Lagoonstripe stated as she gazed across the stream separating Windclan's territory from Horseplace. The bottom half of their territory was primarily swathed with overgrown sedgegrass and clusters of lavender-hued heather. A golden-orange sun peeked just over the very edge of the horizon, turning the sky citrus with streaks of vermillion.

"This place is so beautiful," Cheetah whispered as a gust of wind tugged on her whiskers. The air was much easier to feel out here. Crescentpaw saw a horse run to the edge of its enclosure from the corner of her eye. She thought it was brown-and-white in color, but it was hard to tell from this far off. The animal threw its head back and reared. It was probably whinnying but the cats couldn't hear it over the whipping of the dawn wind.

"It is," Crescentpaw agreed. "This is what you were missing." She wanted to say something about Cheetah's grand-cat Caracal, then figured it wasn't the right time. I should wait until we're alone. The other Riverclan cats don't even know that Caracal exists yet.

Cheetah was shown how to mark the borders and then they moved on. Emberfawn seemed receptive to her constant idle chat. He nodded and gave a laugh when prompted to, showing a flat-lined enthusiasm at times. Crescentpaw smiled when he did, wondering if the tom was realizing that Cheetah wasn't that bad.

The tabby-and-white apprentice didn't offer to hunt on the way back to camp. She didn't want to deal with showing off her lackluster skills right now. I'd still be hunting just fine if I weren't forepaw-clawless. I'm going to have to adjust my hunting techniques.

She still had no idea what she would do about fishing. But being a 'worry about it later' kind of cat, she shook out her pelt and carried on.

The patrol crossed over a river and padded up the short stretch of hillock that led to camp. All traces of fog had been lifted. The sun was peeking out behind clouds intermittently, warming the cat's backs and then whisking away again. The breeze was lofty and tugged at their whiskers every few seconds, as it swirled its way between the wide-spaced trees.

"I'm glad we don't have all that undergrowth like Thunderclan," Emberfawn meowed in good nature. "It gives us more room to grow." He rolled his shoulders and glanced over at Cheetah.

"They could say the same about Windclan cats but look at them." Crescentpaw joked.

"Yes, it's the river that really gives us our strength. Both inside and outside. Over the moons I have never seen a Clan attack on our camp."

"But then, we haven't really had the chance to argue very much. With the wolves and all," Emberfawn commented. He looked at his paws as he walked, a bit less enthusiastic now. The four cats passed beneath a tree and were temporarily swathed in shadow.

"How long have the wolves been attacking Riverclan, Lagoonstripe?" Cheetah asked. Crescentpaw was impressed. It was a good question. She had asked her father once, and all he'd said was; "It hasn't always been like this."

Lagoonstripe thought for a moment. Her silver tabby pelt slid across well-toned muscles as she slowed. They were approaching Riverclan's camp entrance, where Raccoonstripe was posted on guard. The striped grey warrior sat beside overgrown shrubbery, his expression bored.

"I was a new warrior when it started happening," Lagoonstripe began thoughtfully. "And over the past year it's gotten progressively worse. The gatherings I can remember during those times were tense and frightened." She flattened her ears. "Eventually the medicine cats who'd made it to the Moonpool reported news from Starclan. They said that Starclan told them not to worry, and they would soon send a sign."

"What was the sign?" Cheetah asked eagerly, beating Crescentpaw to it. Lagoonstripe nodded politely at Racoonstripe, then slipped past him into camp.

They all followed her in. The thickest part of the den wall was the entrance, because the wolves hardly used it. They preferred to leap over the stick boundary, often breaking the wood into splinters. The feeble attempt at creating a barrier had been in vain. The predators could clear the camp wall with a light bound.

"We don't know," the mature young warrior sighed raspily. "We never got the sign. Or at least not soon enough for any cat to share it before the Gatherings came to a halt." She began heading over to the portion of stream that veered into a U-shape right near the edge of camp. It was behind the apprentices den and close to the elders, which was still torn apart and broken.

"If any cat knew, they probably aren't alive by now. We can assume that they're in somewhat of the same situation; else they'd have sent word to us." Emberfawn frowned and plopped his rump against the ground, leaning over the flowing water. He peered down as if looking for fish but there was only minnows in this area of water.

"Unfortunately I'd have to agree with that," Lagoonstripe murmured and bent over the edge of the drop to take a sip. When she sat up she licked her lips. "The clans used to visit one another in dire times by traveling across the lakeshore. Of course, that route is too dangerous now. We've been cut off from one another like stars flung far apart."

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Lagoonstripe