Chapter Five
Dawnpaw woke with alarm and rushed out of the apprentices' den. Sunlight scorched the ground through the treetops, and even the shade was warmer than usual. She looked around for Moonshadow and found him speaking to Halfstar outside the leader's den, trying to keep out of the heat.
"I'm sorry I woke up late!" Dawnpaw mewed to Moonshadow, expecting to be scolded.
However, the deputy only stretched and uttered a short farewell to Halfstar before heading for the camp entrance. "You aren't late. The sun is shining more than usual, but it's still morning. There is always one day in greenleaf that is longer than the others. But, since you're up, we might as well go see if we can join the hunting patrol and catch something before the heat drives all the prey to their dens."
"Sure!" Dawnpaw wouldn't have minded going back to her nest to wait out the day, but hunting was preferable to battle training in the heat. She fell in line behind Moonshadow and followed him through the forest, her paws automatically guiding her along the path that she knew led toward the LightClan border. There was likely to be plenty of easy prey near the river, and it would be cooler for them as well.
The two of them moved in silence to avoid disturbing the prey in the woods and any of their Clanmates who might be hunting nearby. Dawnpaw was pretty sure she could pick up the scents of Flamefoot and Reedsplash.
In fact, she was certain, and they crashed through the underbrush moments after she noticed.
"Moonshadow, thank StarClan!" Reedsplash mewed with relief, though his eyes were wide and his pelt was ruffled from running through the bushes.
"Lightpaw has gone missing," Flamefoot explained once he recovered his breath. "We were patrolling the border when Reedsplash and I scented a rabbit. We decided to make a quick catch of it, so we had Lightpaw stay behind and continue marking the border. When we came back to where we'd left him, he was gone. We haven't been able to pick up his scent anywhere in the woods nearby."
Dawnpaw's hackles raised in alarm. "Do you think he fell into the river?"
"It's possible, but not likely. I think he crossed the border into LightClan. We were coming back to camp to tell Halfstar and get a larger patrol to go retrieve him."
"There's no need for that now. I can lead the patrol, and any more than the four of us would provoke LightClan," Moonshadow said. "If we move quickly we might find Lightpaw before he gets caught by a Lpatrol, or worse."
Reedsplash and Flamefoot nodded and took their positions behind Moonshadow as he took off toward the border. Dawnpaw's heart pounded in her ears as she ran. She couldn't believe that Lightpaw, of all cats, would do something so reckless! There had to be some kind of foul play at work. Had a LightClan patrol spotted the apprentice by himself on the riverbank and attacked him? What if they'd taken him prisoner? On a hot day like this, she imagined that the LightClan warriors would be desperate to take some of NightClan's shade and expand their territory just into the forest.
That's silly, she told herself, but she couldn't imagine why else Lightpaw wouldn't have stayed where his mentor had left him. Lightpaw almost never went anywhere without one of his littermates or Flamefoot; running off by himself wasn't like him at all. She couldn't imagine what had possessed him to cross the border.
They burst out of the tree line and onto the sun-dried riverbank near the stepping stones. Moonshadow stayed in the lead and began leaping from one stone to the next. Flamefoot went next, and Dawnpaw was just behind him.
Cold water splattered against her flank as Reedsplash dove into the river and began paddling across beside them. She bit back an alarmed question when Flamefoot commented, "He wasn't named '-splash' for nothing."
Dawnpaw's fur prickled with anticipation when they landed on the other side of the river. This wasn't like crossing to go to the Gathering; they were on hostile, enemy territory. And, somewhere, so was her brother.
I'm coming, Lightpaw!
"See if you can pick up his scent," Moonshadow ordered, already lowering his head to the ground. "We need to figure out which way he went, or if he was apprehended by LightClan warriors."
"I've got it!" Flamefoot replied almost immediately. He was living up to his reputation as one of the best trackers in the Clan, and for a moment Dawnpaw let herself be distracted by the possibility of training with him. Tracking was similar to hunting, but it wasn't the exact same, and Moonshadow hadn't given her any lessons on that yet. "Here—he crossed beside the stepping stones, not over them, to disguise his scent. What in StarClan's name was he thinking?"
"Clearly he didn't want you catching him."
"Why would he do that?" Dawnpaw's voice was full of confusion. "He must have been carried over by LightClan warriors. That's the only explanation. Lightpaw would never go off on his own, and he'd never break the warrior code by crossing onto another Clan's territory! And definitely not without telling me about it!"
"I'm not picking up any LightClan scents," Reedsplash replied, though his tone was sympathetic and he licked a few drops of water off of Dawnpaw's flank. "He can explain what happened when we find him."
"Lightpaw's trail leads up the slope. Let's get going."
Flamefoot took Moonshadow's place as the leader of the patrol. Once they got further away from the river, Dawnpaw was able to track Lightpaw's scent as well, but she left that to Flamefoot and instead scanned the hillside with her eyes. Lightpaw should be visible, shouldn't he? Then again, his pale yellow pelt would blend in with the dry grass. He might be in plain sight and she wouldn't know it.
"Great StarClan, it's hot! How do LightClan manage?" Reedsplash groaned.
Dawnpaw was about to mew in agreement when Flamefoot's head whipped up and he called, "Lightpaw!"
The missing apprentice was hanging over the side of a gully several foxlengths away, his claws slipping against the gritty soil. A gray LightClan cat stood over him, sneering down at the struggling apprentice.
He pushed Lightpaw in! Anger quickened Dawnpaw's pace and she was soon running at Flamefoot's heels. The LightClan warrior turned to face them, hackles rising and teeth bared.
"Invasion!" he shouted, and the echo carried his voice up the slope. Dawnpaw didn't know if there were other LightClan cats close enough to hear him, but she knew that the sound of their fighting would likely draw reinforcements anyway. They had to finish this quickly or they'd be outnumbered.
The gray warrior raced toward them and barreled into Flamefoot, who couldn't change course fast enough to pull off a counter-attack. The toms tumbled over each other and the gray warrior ended up on top, but before he could sink his claws or teeth in to Flamefoot's exposed belly and neck, Moonshadow shoved him off.
Dawnpaw kept running until she was next to Lightpaw, who let out an anxious mew as his feet dangled over the drop. The gully was deep; if he slid down, he could break his leg—or worse.
"Hang on," Dawnpaw said. She made sure her paws were firmly planted on the ground and then sank her teeth into his scruff to pull him up.
Before Lightpaw could climb all the way out of the trench, a blur of black, white, and ginger knocked Dawnpaw off her feet. She kicked out with her hind paws, but the calico she-cat pinned her down and dug her claws into Dawnpaw's chest with a hiss. "What are you doing here?"
LIghtpaw let out a frightened yowl as the slipped further back down the gully, the side destabilized by the abruptness of the she-cats' movements. "Dawnpaw, help me!"
The calico she-cat turned to look at him, letting up the pressure on her captive just enough for Dawnpaw to shove her off with a strong kick from both hind legs, claws unsheathed. She twisted and got back to her feet, striking the she-cat across the face before rushing to help Lightpaw. He had slid further down, but he'd managed to dig his claws into the side of the gully before falling. If he could just get his feet onto something solid, he could push his way back up with her help.
How can I reach him? Dawnpaw glanced back at her enemy, who was trying to wipe the blood out of one of her eyes and glaring at Dawnpaw with the other. Before she could attack again, a yowl on her other side alerted Dawnpaw that there were more LightClan cats coming. She turned away from the gully and batted at a silver tom, both of them rearing up onto their hind paws and locking their forelegs together as they struggled to overtake the other's balance.
The silver tom let out a yowl as a flash of brown tabby fur appeared at Dawnpaw's side and bit into his back leg. He stumbled back and landed hard near the edge of the gully. He screeched and tried to launch himself at Reedsplash, only for the ground beneath his paws to shift. Dawnpaw barely caught his startled gasp as he flailed, trying to find firm ground, before he plummeted down into the gully. The loud THUD of him hitting the ground far below could have been heard in NightClan's territory.
"Silverpaw!" the calico she-cat exclaimed, approaching the side of the gully carefully and lowering herself down to him as fast as she could, the NightClan cats forgotten.
Reedsplash looked up the slope. "There's more on the way. Let's get Lightpaw and go!"
Together, Dawnpaw and Reedsplash reached down and helped drag Lightpaw up with their claws, until he was close enough for Reedsplash to grab his scruff and haul him the rest of the way. Dawnpaw deliberately avoided looking at where the silver tom had fallen.
As soon as Lightpaw was on solid ground again he bolted toward the border. Flamefoot and Moonshadow were still grappling with the gray tom, all of them bleeding from several wounds, but when they saw Lightpaw coming their way Flamefoot delivered one last blow to the tom's ears and ran away with his apprentice.
The LightClan warriors were right on Dawnpaw and Reedsplash's heels, and the gray tom wasn't backing down. He lunged at Dawnpaw as she passed, but Moonshadow leapt onto him and tackled him to the ground before he could lay a claw on her.
"Keep running!" Moonshadow demanded, clawing at the LightClan warrior even though his own flank was bleeding heavily from a long scratch and he was missing a few patches of fur.
"But—"
Reedsplash pushed her forward. "He knows what he's doing. Go!"
Biting back her protest, Dawnpaw ran for the NightClan border with Reedsplash at her side. She caught a glimpse of Flamefoot's ginger fur just inside the ferns and brambles of the forest, waiting for them. She stopped, panting, in the bushes beside him.
"I sent Lightpaw on to camp," Flamefoot said. "If they follow us across the border, we'll have reinforcements soon."
"Moonshadow stayed behind," Dawnpaw mewed, poking her head out of the holly bush to see if she could spot him. "He was fighting that gray warrior."
"Graystorm," Flamefoot mewed. "He's a vicious fighter, but I managed to land a few good blows. He shouldn't give Moonshadow too much trouble in his condition."
"But the rest of the LightClan warriors might," Reedsplash said worriedly. "And you're in no condition to keep fighting, Flamefoot. Go see Rosefall and get treated; Dawnpaw and I will hold the line until reinforcements come."
Flamefoot twitched his whiskers. "Will that be enough?"
"It'll have to be."
Dawnpaw's hackles rose as a gray tabby approached the border at a run. She dug her claws into the ground and prepared to attack, ignoring the pain in her chest and left ear, when she saw white patches beneath the smears of blood.
"Moonshadow!"
She ran to the border to meet her mentor, who barely managed to make it over the stepping stones. He collapsed onto NightClan territory, his forelegs splayed out and bleeding from several scratches. She hastily began grooming the blood from his pelt, seeing the deep cuts he was covered in up-close. "Moonshadow, hang on! Lightpaw and Flamefoot are getting help." She looked up, across the river, but didn't see any LightClan cats pursuing him. A few vaguely cat-shaped figures were disappearing back up the slopes.
"I'm alright," Moonshadow said. "Just need to rest for a moment…"
Dawnpaw settled at his side and kept licking until she thought the taste of blood would make her sick. Only now did she start to feel the pain of her own wounds.
The bushes rustled. Halfstar, Thornfang, Lightningstrike, Echoheart, and Shadowpaw emerged from the underbrush.
"Is everyone alright?" Halfstar asked, looking over Dawnpaw and Reedsplash for serious injuries before his eyes rested on his deputy. Echoheart was already beside him.
"He's wounded, but it's not too late," Echoheart answered. "It probably looks worse than it is, but we need to treat it for infection now, before it can get worse."
"Thornfang, help me get him back to camp," Halfstar said, getting on one side of Moonshadow and letting the gray tabby lean against him. Thornfang walked on his other side.
"Thank goodness Shadowpaw was safe at camp," she said. The black apprentice bristled at the comment but said nothing. Dawnpaw felt sorry for her sister—she was still not much bigger than she had been when they received their apprentice names, and Thornfang still treated her like a kit.
"Lightpaw's alright," Dawnpaw reported to Thornfang, but she didn't seem to hear her. Of course, Lightpaw had gone to camp for help, so she would already know that he wasn't too badly hurt. Instead Dawnpaw followed behind Moonshadow's escort, next to Reedsplash and Shadowpaw.
She'd had her first taste of battle. It had been frightening, and for a moment she had doubted if she'd make it back to NightClan. But she couldn't deny the absolute thrill of proving her skill as a warrior, or the satisfaction of kicking that calico she-cat away and raking her claws across her face. She won't soon forget about that! Dawnpaw thought with triumph. It was regrettable that they'd had to run away, but they'd never stand a chance against the whole of LightClan.
The camp was buzzing with excitement. Halfstar and Thornfang guided Moonshadow to the medicine den, where Rosefall was applying cobwebs to Flamefoot's wounds. He came out for a moment to look over the others.
"I'll want to see all of you before the sun goes down," he mewed. "Especially you, Dawnpaw."
"Me?" Dawnpaw stared. She hadn't gotten that badly hurt, just a few scratches on her chest. Despite the sting, she didn't feel like she needed treatment. Certainly not as badly as Flamefoot and Moonshadow did.
"Yes, you, and I won't hear any argument about it," Rosefall snapped, then turned back to treating Flamefoot while Echoheart prepared a nest for Moonshadow. No doubt he'd have to stay the night in the medicine den to make sure that his cuts healed properly.
Lightpaw was sitting hunched over with his head down in the middle of camp. Halfstar didn't need to call the meeting; the moment he swarmed up the fallen tree, everyone was at attention.
"What," he meowed tensely, "were you thinking?"
"I just wanted to see the new kits," Lightpaw answered, lowering his head even further. "Skypaw said that one of them is named Crowkit, and I wanted to… I don't know… I felt like I should see them. Like I had to see them."
"Did you get anywhere near LightClan's camp?"
"No—I lost my footing and fell into a gully."
Dawnpaw's fur was hot with embarrassment on Lightpaw's behalf. He had to confess to breaking the warrior code, and not only had he gotten his mentor and deputy seriously hurt, but he also hadn't even gotten close to achieving his goal. Poor Lightpaw!
"You were lucky that Flamefoot noticed and led a patrol to rescue you. If LightClan had caught you snooping around, especially near their nursery, they would have clawed you so badly that you'd have a paw in StarClan. I hope that you appreciate what they risked in crossing the border to rescue you, and that you understand what your actions may have caused. We have been at peace with LightClan for moons now, and because of this they may try to invade to avenge your wrongdoing."
"I'm sorry," Lightpaw squeaked.
"I think it goes without saying that you will not attend the next Gathering. You will spend the next moon helping Rosefall and Echoheart with anything they need, to pay them back for their hard work in helping heal cats who were injured because of your actions. You will also make sure to clean those cats' nests out and make sure that they are fed before you. Including Dawnpaw."
The brown and white tabby apprentice froze up at the mention of her name. That would be awkward, but it wasn't her place to tell Halfstar what Lightpaw's punishment should be. He had caused a lot of trouble just to see a few kits, especially since he'd see them in a few seasons when they were apprenticed.
"Yes, Halfstar."
"I hope that this experience will help you reflect on the responsibilities of being a warrior. You cannot forsake the safety of your Clan for your own curiosity." Halfstar jumped down from the tree and disappeared into his den with an irritated twitch of his tail.
"But what about LightClan?" Dawnpaw asked. Lightpaw might have done something foolish, but that didn't excuse Graystorm's actions. "They were going to let Lightpaw fall! He could have gotten seriously hurt, and they weren't going to do anything about it! Isn't that against the code?"
Halfstar considered her words before replying, "The warrior code only protects kits. Lightpaw was old enough to know better. While I'm sure that a NightClan cat would have offered assistance if they saw a LightClan cat struggling, we cannot force LightClan to look after our apprentices, especially when they're trespassing."
"Dawnpaw, we're ready for you," Echoheart mewed before she could say anything back to Halfstar or comfort her brother. Lightpaw looked so lost, sitting there by himself. She would talk to him later when they were in their nests. There had to be more to this; she couldn't imagine her cautious brother sneaking into enemy territory, risking capture and injury and StarClan knew what else, just to see a few kits that didn't matter to him. And she wasn't ready to forgive Graystorm or any of the other LightClan cats who would have stood by and not raised a claw to help when her brother could have died.
Echoheart placed a paw on the nest next to Moonshadow and Dawnpaw laid down to wait for one of the medicine cats to treat her scratches. She only intended to close her eyes for a moment, but quickly fell asleep.