Kestrelfur came back into camp with the rabbit in her jaws, glad that she wasn't coming back empty pawed. She made sure to give Badgermask—who was scowling—a look as she trotted past.
She set the rabbit down in the fresh-kill pile and wondered what she was supposed to do next. She wasn't sure what you were supposed to do after a hunt in GladeClan.
"Did you catch that rabbit?" asked Harestar, coming up beside her. Kestrelfur jumped; she hadn't seen the GladeClan leader pad over to her. "I didn't mean to scare you." He shot her an apologetic look as though he had given her rotten fresh-kill.
Kestrelfur looked over her shoulder to make sure Badgermask wasn't listening, then turned back to Harestar. "No. I just found it under my paw, already killed, so I brought it back to camp."
Harestar bit his lip. "I hope you don't mind... but I was the one who caught the rabbit. I saw you heading in that direction so I placed it there, hoping you would find it. I didn't want you to feel bad—or look bad."
Kestrelfur's gaze flickered to Badgermask for a second. "But why were you hunting? You're the leader."
"I prefer helping my clanmates in patrols," said Harestar, licking his paw. "It doesn't feel right to watch them do it while I sit at camp doing nothing."
Kestrelfur nodded, though she didn't understand why he would do work when he didn't have to. If Kestrelfur were leader, she would sleep in and then go run around in the trees. The only work a clan leader has to do is promote clanmates at ceremonies, punish someone if they messed up, and speak at Gatherings.
--
Kestrelfur had to wake up early the next day to assign patrols, which turned out to be a disaster.
"Um... you're Fawnbreeze, right? Could you go on the dawn patrol?" said Kestrelfur.
"But you already assigned me on a hunting patrol," said Fawnbreeze. "Though I'd rather do the dawn patrol because I was on the hunting patrol yesterday."
"Alright, you're on the dawn patrol," said Kestrelfur. "And... Darkrunner. Go on the hunting patrol; take your apprentice with you."
Darkrunner mrrowed with laughter and amusement. "I don't have an apprentice, featherbrain."
"Oh. Then who has an apprentice?"
Someone raised her tail, with a cat nearly her size standing next to her.
"Alright, you go on the dawn patrol instead of Darkrunner," said Kestrelfur, wondering if that was enough for the patrol.
"Me?" asked the she-cat.
"Yes," said Kestrelfur, exasperated.
"But you just told me I was supposed to go on the hunting patrol," said Darkrunner.
"Yes, and I changed my mind," said Kestrelfur, starting to feel stressed.
"But you told Flowertail to go on the dawn patrol in my place," said Darkrunner. "So which is she going on, the dawn patrol or the hunting patrol?" He spat the last words out harshly, as though it were meant as an insult. He tilted his head to the side, waiting to see how she would handle this.
"The hunting patrol," said Kestrelfur. "Now can you lead it and get started so I can see who's left?" She directed her attention to the one she assigned to it earlier.
"Me? Lead it?" asked the she-cat, supposedly the one named Flowertail.
"Yes," said Kestrelfur, almost hissing.
"But it's only me and Birchpaw," she said. "We're the only ones you assigned to the patrol."
Kestrelfur nearly cursed under her breath. This was going nowhere.
Harestar came out of the leader's den, looking surprised to see the racket."What happened?" he asked, padding up beside her.
"She's miserably failing at assigning patrols," announced Badgermask, shooting her a smug look. Kestrelfur stuck her tongue out at him.
"Oh," said Harestar, resting his tail on her shoulders—from which she had learned is a comforting sign in GladeClan. "I bet it's hard to assign patrols to cats you've never seen before. That's alright; I'll take care of the patrols. You can sleep in if you like."
Kestrelfur gladly obliged, thrilled at the thought of sleeping in.
--
"Today we will do running drills," said their trainer, Echoshine. He turned to Kestrelfur. "Do you do these in CloudClan?"
Kestrelfur shook her head. She didn't like the word running in what he said. "No. We do climbing drills, as in tree climbing, but not running drills. And usually it's an apprentice thing," she added. She looked around at the other cats. Everyone was a warrior; no apprentices.
"Well," said Echoshine, "here in GladeClan we must make sure we're always able to run at top speed in order to hunt, so we must practice running. I bet it's like your climbing drills in CloudClan, but running instead of tree climbing."
Kestrelfur sighed. She was going to fail. She had already made a fool of herself at hunting and assigning patrols, and now she had something else to look dumb at.
As if reading her mind, Badgermask shouted, "Does Kestrelfur really need to practice this? I mean, we all know she's going to fail, just like she's done with everything else."
Kestrelfur gave Badgermask a death glare, to which he returned blankly. She couldn't tell if he was hiding his emotions for some reason or if he was actually spooked by her glare.
Echoshine ignored Bagermask's comment, though he had clearly heard it. "For this exercise we will just do a simple run. Go as fast as you can from these red flowers to those blue flowers." He gestured over to a field of blue flowers. From where Kestrelfur was standing it looked far.
"Let's send off two at a time," he said. "Let's do Tallfire and Moorfoot."
The two warriors lined up side by side in the field of red flowers, keeping their eyes at the end where the blue flowers were.
"Get ready. Go!" Echoshine announced.
The two warriors took off so fast they looked like a blur against the green grass. The flowers waved as they went by and whatever prey was in their path scampered away. Kestrelfur was amazed by their speed; they were even faster than Waspstar.
I'm slow in CloudClan, and these cats are much faster than any cat in CloudClan, thought Kestrelfur. I'm going to look as though I've never ran in my life.
The warrior named Tallfire pulled slightly ahead of Moorfoot, heading straight for the blue flowers, which were getting closer by the second. It seemed inevitable that he was going to win when Moorfoot started pumping his legs even faster, shooting past Tallfire and running through the blue flowers.
Kestrelfur half-expected Echoshine to go over to them and give them a huge congratulations, but all he said was, "You two went very fast."
He looked around the group of cats as though picking the next pair. "Next will be Kestrelfur and Badgermask."
Kestrelfur curled her lip with displeasure. "Can I go with someone else?"
Echoshine gave her a surprisingly harsh stare. "No. You will race with him."
Badgermask grinned at her; Kestrelfur went over and cuffed him on the ear before lining up next to him in the red flowers.
"Don't bother trying," he whispered. "I've seen you chase after prey."
"Well, if you ever do a climbing drill, make sure I'm there to watch and tease you," said Kestrelfur, batting him with her tail.
Badgermask searched her face. "The last cat who talked like this to me liked me."
Kestrelfur blinked in surprise at him, the air draining from her lungs.
"Get ready. Go!" said Echoshine.
Kestrelfur hesitated for a moment before taking off. Badgermask immediately took the lead, speeding past her. With every moment he got farther and farther ahead. Kestrelfur tried to spread her legs out to cover more distance like most of the GladeClan cats did, but it still wasn't enough to catch up to him. She still felt clumsy on her paws, and it wasn't long before she felt like she couldn't take in as much air as she needed to.
Badgermask was nearing the blue flowers when Kestrelfur was still a fox-length away. He had almost set his paw down in them when he fell and collapsed in the red flowers. Kestrelfur used that moment to take the lead, passing him and setting paw in the blue flowers first.
Kestrelfur smugly looked at him as he came over to where she was standing. "We both know that if I hadn't tripped I would've won," he said.
"Maybe. But I still won," she said, relishing the moment where she actually won a race, against a GladeClan cat no less.
--
Kestrelfur was in a good mood as she trekked across the GladeClan border next to the other CloudClan cats, Grapesplash and Redpaw. She was happy because that night would be the Gathering, when she'd finally go back to CloudClan and be able to tell Waspstar the news about her being pregnant.
She and the other CloudClan cats were on a dawn patrol, led by Furzeclaw. She was leading them to the CloudClan border.
Kestrelfur gazed across, sparks lighting inside her. She would be able to go there tonight. She looked at the trees and bushes, casting a shadow on the territory. She could see a squirrel chewing on a nut, and Kestrelfur yearned to go over there and catch it. Hunting in CloudClan would be much easier than hunting in GladeClan, where she wouldn't have to chase after the prey.
Furzeclaw looked across the border to make sure everything was good, then started walking towards the BrookClan border.
"What about the scent markers?" asked Kestrelfur.
"I'm surprised you didn't know," he said. "We don't do them with our borders anymore because we are now one clan. There is no use to dividing territories."
"Oh yeah, I knew that," said Kestrelfur awkwardly.
A splash in the river turned the patrol's attention towards the border. Lightwatcher was wading through the river as though she hadn't seen the stepping stones.
"What is it?" asked Grapesplash, immediately recognizing his littermate.
"I have some news for Harestar," she said, her golden pelt drenched from wading through the water.
The patrol led her back to camp and showed her to Harestar.
"What is it?" asked Harestar, a mix of curiosity and fear.
"It's F-Firepelt," Lightwatcher stammered. "He attempted to murder Waspstar while he was sleeping. He would n-not stop attacking, and Waspstar had no choice but to... k-kill him."
The little warrior was shivering now, as though haunted images were crossing her vision. Grapesplash put his tail on her shoulders like a GladeClan cat.
Kestrelfur felt chilled. She remembered Deerpots, Speckleface, Thistleleap, Briarwing, and Beetlestar. What really happened? I need to talk to Waspstar!
A/N::
Oh dear, what is happening! Also, I'm sorry for the long chapter.
//Edited