By the time the patrol was ending, each cat had caught a piece of prey, two mice and a vole, leaving Dovewing to find the last catch of the patrol. Her whiskers twitched, dropping into a hunters crouch. She slowly began to approach the plump squirrel scratching at the ground. It seemed to preoccupied with itself, to notice the gray shape moving towards it. An easy catch. she thought.
She paused to move her paws underneath her only to be half stunned by a slight movement from her stomache. What! if she had not been hunting she would have lost composure. She managed to regain focus and leaped forward landing sqaurely on the grey squirrel.
She stood up, her catch now limp in her jaws, although the puzzlement had not left her eyes. Brakenfur appeared out from under a bush followed by Cloudtail and Rosepetal, "Nice catch! I think it's time we returned to camp." Dovewing nodded, deciding to brush off the experience.
As they returned on the walk towards camp, she couldn't help wondering what had just happened. It's probably just the squirrel you ate. If it happens again, I'll ask Jayfeather from some herbs. She lifted her head slightly not letting the experience burdun her thoughts.
It was close to sunset when they had returned. After placing her catch down on the freshkill pile, she searched around camp for a familliar face. She bounded over towards Bumblestripe lying down near the entrance between the nursery and the apprentice den, his shape relaxed upon seeing her, but his eyes hinted excitement.
"Hi Bumblest-" her greeting was cuttoff by kits bounding out of the nursery towards the freshkill pile. Bumblestripe let out a small purr "Aren't kits just the best part of the clan?" Dovewing curled up beside him letting their fur brush "Oh, of course!". She let out a small laugh as Brightheart tried to coax them back into the nursury "Brightheart has her work cut out for her."
As the tiny shapes disappeared, Dovewing meowed "It won't be long 'til Bramblestar makes them apprentices." Bramblestripe smiled "Maybe we'll get to be their mentors! It would be awesome to be mentors together and do all sorts of secret mentoring stuff, huh?" Dovewing laughed slightly, "You make it sound like we're forming the next 'Great Journey' or something. But yeah, it would be awesome to finally be mentors."