Chapter One of TFC, Loners.
Midnightsong yawned and got up from her bramble nest. The sun of newleaf greeted her. She tried to step over her sleeping clan mates carefully. Midnightsong winces as her paw cuffed Sunfeather over the ear.
Sunfeather jolted up. "What is it? Are we under attack?" she blurted out, waking up Mudscar in the process, who woke up Spottedfoot, and then woke up Blackfoot. "Midnightsong, are you hurt?" Sunfeather asked, looking over the young she-cat.
Mudscar rolled his eyes and laid back down. "Sunfeather, mouse-brain." he yawned out. The brown tom snuggled back into his nest. "I swear sometimes I want to-" his voice was cut off by soft snores. Everyone else laid back into their nests also are fell back to sleep. Except Sunfeather.
Midnightsong winced. "I'm sorry for waking you, Sunfeather!" she meowed with worry of getting on the she-cat's bad side. "I was just getting out of the den when my paw accidently-" Midnightsong stopped as amusement glinted in Sunfeather's eyes.
"It's fine, OK? Just watch out next time. Thought we were under a badger attack. I might as well stay up." The two she-cats padded out side by side. They looked around camp. Deserted. Everyone else was asleep, except for Snowstorm, who was chewing up some marigold into a poultice.
Midnightsong yawned one more time and left the side of her friend. The fresh-kill pile was well stocked with plump mice, sparrows, and an...adder? She winced. "Redpaw." she sighed at her apprentice's doings. Midnightsong reached down and got a mouse in her jaws and padded over to Snowstrom's den. "Hey!" she meowed to her. "Hungry?" She dropped the mouse at her gray paws and smiled.
Snowstorm look up, surprised. "You scared me, Midnightsong!" she mewed. Not the first time today... Midnightsong thought to herself. "Thank you, I've been restocking all morning. The loners scare me around here, you know?" she meowed with a worried look. The white she-cat picked up the mouse and ate it down fast. Midnightsong smiled.
"Maybe your overdoing yourself." she said, nudging the medicine cat. "Flowerkit would make a great medicine cat apprentice, you know?" Midnightsong hinted. Snowstorm only shrugged and continued with her work.
Her paws made their way out of the tangy smelling den and into the camp. Other cats were waking. The sunhigh was approaching. Sunhigh patrols would have to be organized, but Midnightsong thought against waking Mousetail. A movement outside camp made her flick her gaze back. Midnightsong prowled forward to the barrier. The shape disappeared in a hushed blur of gray. "Loners?" she mewed to herself. The black cat shrugged. "Better report it to Loststar." she meowed.
The shuffling of the ivy curtain at the Leader's den made Midnightsong lift her head. She saw Loststar padding out, with Mousetail rousing also. Midnightsong padded over to them quickly; she dipped her head. "I think I spotted a loner outside the bramble barrier, Loststar." she mewed.
Loststar looked alarmed. The tom looked up at her with wide eyes. "What?" he blurted out. "A loner this close to camp?" his eyes were worried for his clan. Mousetail shuddered beside him.
Mousetail lifted her gray and black head. "I have seen this loner,too." she meowed.
