Looming Darkness

Chapter 11

"I'll ask the medicine cats, too, then." Whispersong flicked her tail in annoyance. "And don't you need to have two warriors accompany you anyway?"

Echoheart blinked. "Yes, but I was planning on going with Sparrowtail, Eaglefeather, and their apprentices."

Whispersong blinked. "Oh."

"But they went on the dawn patrol!" Cherrypaw piped up.

"Oh yeah. They went on the NightClan border dawn patrol," Echoheart murmured to herself.

"The NightClan border what?" Bumblefrost asked.

"If you were at the meeting yesterday you would know," Cherrypaw meowed with an air of superiority. Bumblefrost blinked, trying to contain his anger.

"Cherrypaw, cut it out," Echoheart snapped. "And don't be rude to a warrior; they deserve respect."

"But he's a DayClan warrior!"

Whispersong stepped forward. "He was a DayClan warrior; he's not anymore. He'd never do anything to help Rainstar again."

Bumblefrost shifted his paws.

"Yeah right," Cherrypaw muttered.

"Bumblefrost wasn't even here when Rainstar kidnapped you and Lilacpaw," Echoheart meowed quietly. "He wants to get rid of Rainstar as much as we do. He'd never help her, I promise."

"Okay," Cherrypaw sighed, still eyeing Bumblefrost warily.

"Anyway," Echoheart meowed, turning to Bumblefrost. "We have two dawn patrols and two evening patrols now. A NightClan dawn and evening patrol, which checks the NightClan border and the border by the Twolegplace, and a DayClan dawn and evening patrol, which checks the DayClan border and the border that we don't share with any Clan."

"Oh," Bumblefrost murmured, looking lost in his own thoughts.

"Well," Echoheart sighed. "Cherrypaw and I have to go training. I think I'd be best if you two stayed here, because you'd be breaking your punishment, Whispersong. You know Eveningstar would make you stay at camp."

"Alright, alright," Whispersong grunted with a lash of her tail. "Just another day sitting in the camp doing nothing."

"I'll see you later," Echoheart meowed, padding across the camp with Cherrypaw following. They found Sunfur and Lilacpaw, then Eveningstar and Star. And soon the six of them were leaving the camp together to go training. Whispersong sighed, then dragged herself back across the camp and into the nursery. She flopped down on her nest and listened to the cats bustling around the camp without her.

* * *

The last sun rays disappeared from the darkening sky, and the stars twinkled into view by the heartbeat. Whispersong sat beside Bumblefrost outside the nursery, sharing a small sparrow. Cats were slowly dispersing and settling into their dens for the night. Eveningstar took the first guard, and Echoheart, Cherrypaw, Sunfur, Lilacpaw, and Star said their good nights and headed to their dens after returning late from their training session. Whispersong watched her sister praising Cherrypaw and Lilacpaw, and jealousy squirmed in her stomach. Whispersong should have been the one training Lilacpaw, not Sunfur. Whispersong could be sitting there, telling Lilacpaw what a good job she had done today, planning out the next day of training, spending the day out in the forest with her sister and both of their apprentices, together, as they had always planned.

Whispersong shook her head. No; I'm having kits! I couldn't train an apprentice with kits!

She was scared about having kits, especially since they would be half-Clan. But she wouldn't change it for the world. She couldn't wait to be a mother, couldn't wait to watch her very own kits grow, open their eyes, take their first steps, play with each other, become apprentices, train, mature, become warriors one day, and serve their Clan. Whispersong felt her heart warm at the thought, and she realized with a smile that having kits was maybe better than training an apprentice.