Fallingstar led the patrol into the forest. Hawkpaw followed close behind, and Echopaw trailed behind her own mentor.
"Don't fall too far. You still don't know the territory well." Jayflight warned. Echopaw picked up the pace, but Hawkpaw fell back to walk with her. He signaled he wanted to talk and they slowed down even more, so that they were out of earshot of Fallingstar and Jayflight. He looked at her.
"So, does this have something to do with why you have been ignoring me all day?" Echopaw mewed.
"Yes. It is just that last night I had this dream…" He broke off. Echopaw nodded knowingly.
"About cats with weird scents?" When he nodded she continued. "A voice said 'Fog will part, and a lake will be revealed. There, storm, water, wind, and darkness will be waiting echo's arrival. Four will join four, and lives will change forever.'" He nodded again, surprised.
"How did you know?" He asked.
"I had the same dream." She replied.
"I have been wondering all day what it might mean." He admitted. "Maybe we should tell Fallingstar or one of the medicine cats." He added.
"No. If it was meant for them, it would have been sent to them. It has something to do with us and only us, that I know of." Echopaw replied, pausing for a moment.
"I was just thinking they might be able to tell us something, maybe help us figure it out, but I guess not." He meowed. Echopaw moved again and fell in step with him.
"We will figure it out, I know it." She mewed. Hawkpaw opened his mouth to reply, but Echopaw silenced him with a flick of her tail. She instinctively dropped into a hunters crouch and stalked into the brambles at her side. She pounced, landing on her target, a mouse nibbling on a seed. She buried it on the trail so that she could find it again. Jayflight peered out of the bracken ahead of them.
"There you are. Nice catch." she meowed. A mew from the other side signaled Fallingstar agreed. Hawkpaw nodded and they rejoined their leader and deputy.
Fallingstar led the way back to camp. The leader's brown tabby pelt rippled as she jumped over a fallen tree, and Echopaw remembered when the leader was deputy. The leader at the time, Brightstar, had chosen Fallingstar, then Fallingcloud, for this exact reason; she could jump better then any other warrior in the Clan, so her small size meant nothing in battle. At the time, the only small cat in the Clan was the medicine cat, so others thought the small cats could not be skilled warriors. Not long after Fallingstar had become deputy, Brightstar lost her last life to greencough, because the catnip had not grown that Leaf-bare. Fallingstar had been forced to take over, and Echopaw had little memory of the previous leader. Now, she could tell the previous leader had made a great choice with Fallingstar.
Lost in her thoughts, Echopaw didn't realize she dropped a mouse. She paused, noticing it for the first time. She set her rabbit down and mewed to get the others attention.
"I dropped my mouse somewhere. I'll get it and meet you back at camp." She meowed. Fallingstar and Jayflight nodded, while Hawkpaw picked up her rabbit. She turned around and bounded back the way she had come, the scents of the previously upcoming camp drowned out.
Short chapter, but the next part needs to be a whole chapter. Get ready for a bit of action, and soon the story will begin completely. Think of these first four chapters as a bit of gradual rising. By the way, when most of my other chapters will be a day or so afterwards, occasionally( like now) I will continue what is happening in one chapter into the next.