"Dawn Patrol? Of course!"

Soundpaw sneezed, some of the morning dew from the Medicine Den entrance flying off his nose. He noticed an the eager Jaggedpaw trotting after his mentor, Eaglefeather. The large brown tomcat seemed to take no notice of his apprentice's energetic romping just below his nose. Eaglefeather noticed Soundpaw's half-blind gaze hot on his pelt. He stopped dead about a fox-length away. "What's wrong with you? Are your eyes stuck or something?" Soundpaw flicked his ear. "No, just observing life around camp. Going on the dawn patrol I'm guessing?" Eaglefeather nodded, his aggressive demeanor not changing in the slightest. "Yes, I am. I'd ask Cranefeather to have you come with us, but I'm afraid you aren't a warrior apprentice." Soundpaw lashed his tail. "What crawled into his fur and bit him?"

After Eaglefeather left with Jaggedpaw bouncing around behind him, Soundpaw could feel the entrance to the medicine den rustle. Lazy yellow eyes dimly shone out from the straggly entrance. "Good morning Springheart." Soundpaw mewed. His mentor blinked slowly, nodding her response. Soundpaw lifted his head away from her and across the clearing where Eaglefeather's patrol was gathered. "Looks like Lightningpaw and Darkpaw managed to get into the patrol like they said they would a few days ago." He sighed. "Here I go."

"I'm going to go gather some herbs. Be back soon." Not waiting for a response from Springheart, he carried himself over to where the patrol was gathered. He carefully made his way to the nearest, reasonable senior warrior, Swiftfoot. "Would any of you mind if I came with you to gather some herbs on the WindClan border?" Swiftfoot shrugged. "I'll ask Eaglefeather for you. He's leading the patrol so you'd have to see what he says."

Lightningpaw came up from behind his mentor and stood before Soundpaw, Darkpaw close behind him. "We've been waiting three days for you to tell us what you have. This finally the time for it?" Soundpaw nodded. "Alright then." Darkpaw cut in. "Now all you need is permission from Eaglefeather."

---

The forest was alive with activity. Soundpaw noticed how soft the grass felt under his paws in the mist of the early morning, so unlike the hot, prickly feel it had when sunhigh was at it's peak of heat. The trees were so dense that only the smallest flickers of sunlight penetrated the canopy, the light would catch him off-guard as he stared upward. He flinched as his vision became clouded with an intense beam of light. He sneezed again at the shock. Soundpaw's observations were cut short as he felt Lightningpaw give him a rough nudge in the shoulder. To Soundpaw, his friend's expression read 'I'm very impatient.'

"Let's get away from the patrol and sneak back later, you're telling us what's wrong with you." The three cats slowed down, making sure the other warriors took no notice, then proceeded to find their way through the forest. At first they had trouble finding someplace good to sit down, but also to stay downwind and out of view. After a few moments wandering, they soon found their way to the hollowed out shelter underneath an old oak tree's roots. The three each settled into separate crevices, surprised at how comfortable it felt. Soundpaw didn't wait for them to get set.

"Okay, this might take some explaining." Soundpaw began. "But about a moon before we became apprentices, I had a strange dream…or rather, it was some other cat's dream." Soundpaw took notice of his friends confused expressions. "Any questions so far?" He mewed mockingly. Darkpaw bristled a little. "…Yes actually. You mean you had a dream about…StarClan?" Soundpaw nodded, "I saw my mentors dream about StarClan to correct you."

Not waiting for Darkpaw to reply, he continued.

"I saw Springheart talking to a strange gray tabby…I think he was an old ThunderClan medicine cat, but he was blind, and sort of looked like me. He said something really weird to her, and it frightened me a little bit. He said 'Water will sound for seasons, Wind will wash away blood, and darkness will encase it all in hope…" and also something like "The underground secrets will come alive." He paused to check on his friends faces. "It was really, really weird."

Soundpaw braced himself for the numerous questioning statements and accusations he believed he might have received, but before Darkpaw or Lightningpaw could say so much as a mew, a rustling in the bushes caught them off-guard. A dark gray head popped out of the bush and stared at the three apprentices with big blue eyes. He grinned a silly grin, then yowled for the whole forest to hear; "Hey, Eaglefeather, I found them!"

There was a moments pause. Soundpaw heard Darkpaw hiss silently in annoyance as Eaglefeather and the rest of the patrol appeared from out of the bush next to the apprentice Jaggedpaw. Soundpaw looked straight into the big, menacing amber eyes of Eaglefeather that glared only at him. "Third day apprenticing and already sneaking off to do StarClan knows what." The big tom snarled. "You'd better have a good reason to be back here, you three."

Soundpaw looked up at the towering tomcat. "Yes, actually. I thought I scented some chervil underneath this tree here…" But before Soundpaw could go on with his split-second lie, Eaglefeather interrupted him; "Well it doesn't look like you found anything. Now come on, we're behind." Lightningpaw grumbled as he rose to his feet, padding alongside Darkpaw out from the comforting shelter of the moss-covered roots. The blazing sun blasted hot light in their faces, but even that was dwarfed by the fiery glares that Eaglefeather gave them. Soundpaw knew that is wasn't the last he'd have to speak of this strange new dream he'd had, seeing the aggravation he felt whenever he was interrupted by other cats, especially Eaglefeather. His last thought before walking away from the Mossy Tree was "Really, what's that cat's problem with me?"

The three young cats slowly joined back up with the patrol, Darkpaw and Lightningpaw obviously having trouble relieving the though of Soundpaw's dream from their minds. Running all the way to the WindClan border seemed to help a little bit, but Soundpaw still noticed Lightningpaw shoot him some expectant looks every once in a while, Darkpaw covered up the fact that it was bothering her immensely by pretending to keep watch over WindClan territory while the others left scent markers at the border.

Soundpaw had picked up some marigold he found on the way, and while joining back into the patrol noticed Swiftfoot talk some 'sense' into Lightningpaw. This senior warrior obviously didn't forget about things too easily. "You shouldn't sneak off like that Lightningpaw. What if there was an adder hiding in the tall grass? It could have killed you!" Lightningpaw sighed and looked at Soundpaw pleadingly. Soundpaw's eyes lit up in amusement. He and Lightningpaw were good enough friends to where they would always help each other out in times like these, when the other is being pressed by a peer, but as he noticed Darkpaw slide in between them, his enlightened mood dropped as he could feel the anxious, yet paranoid feelings that pulsed off of her in waves. "Hey, Lightningpaw, Soundpaw, I think Rustfur scented something strange by the creek." Then, once confirming their attention, more loudly she added. "Hey everyone, come with me! Rustfur needs you all to investigate something."

Her thick tail flicked at Lightningpaw, who quite readily left his mentor's lecture to follow her up the small river to where the familiar rocky outlet lay. Soundpaw's big paws pounded the sodden grass, the icy moisture seeping through his thick fur. He cringed a little at the uncomfortable feeling, but as his head briefly turned to WindClan territory, the feeling of water fell from his attention. A small black shape lay hidden in the tall grass, but for some reason, he was able to see it. His eyes flicked wide open as he noticed it, but right when the thing knew it had been spotted, the grass shook violently, and it retreated over the hill above WindClan camp in less than the flick of a cat's tail. He could have sworn that he had just saw this thing fly up the hill. "What could that be for it to run so quickly…?" Soundpaw thought. However, disturbed as he was, he couldn't shake off the feeling of eyes on him. That that thing was stalking the patrol.

The cats soon all came to a small, bubbling creek, so close to WindClan territory that Soundpaw could smell the scent of the wide-open moorland. Farther down, they noticed the reddish figure of Rustfur sniffing at something in between some rocks. Soundpaw rushed forward at the others, who were ahead of him. His thoughts of the figure had diluted his vision briefly, and he had fallen behind. He managed to make it to where Rustfur was in time to hear him speak. "There's something weird in between these rocks." Rustfur began. "It smells unfamiliar, and I can only prod it with one paw." With that, he stuck a little paw into a stony crevice, and quickly pulled it out again. His eyes were terrified slits, and his voice now shook with more vigor. "Wh-whatever it is, it has fur, a-and it moved when I t-touched it…"

Eaglefeather looked to his apprentice, Jaggedpaw. He gave an almost illegible sigh as he noticed the brightness in Jaggedpaw's pale blue eyes. "You're small enough, why don't you go get it out so we can investigate more?" Jaggedpaw was only too eager to oblige. "Of course! Don't worry furry whatsit, I'll save you!" Soundpaw heard Lightningpaw sigh. "What a weird cat…"

Jaggedpaw found his way into the crevice easily, his skinny tail flailing around out of the hole like an excited twoleg dog. Soundpaw couldn't help but feel laughter bubbling up in his chest, but he shook it off as Jaggedpaw began to emerge from the crevice with some stalled effort. Moments later, something furry in his jaws, he finally reappeared from the rocks. He placed whatever it was on top of the flat rock surface, tiny chest heaving rapidly. Though he was older than Soundpaw and his other siblings, Jaggedpaw was very small, and whatever he had pulled out from the crag was much bigger than him. The patrol began gathering around the strange thing.

The thing suddenly jerked upright.

"It's a cat!" Jaggedpaw squealed in his kit-like tone. The deranged looking cat turned it's head wildly, resulting in jumpy reactions from the patrol. Even though the movements of the cat were quick as lightning, it couldn't move it's wet and tired legs enough to stand up. With a pitiful sigh of defeat, it flopped down on the rock, staring up at the cats with large, expectant yellow eyes. "Well…I had no idea it was a cat. I couldn't smell it because of the water washing away his scent." Before he could go on, Eaglefeather stopped him with a sharp glance. "Wait." Eaglefeather pressed his nose into the cat's throat and listened. He then raised his large head slightly to observe the cat's legs and head. Soundpaw observed him searching the strange cat until he stood up abruptly, his amber eyes lit up in fear. "Jaggedpaw, run back to camp and alert Badgerstar and Springheart." He rumbled. "This cat has been attacked by something, and that something is probably still nearby."