I stiffened. I had just had a particularly brutal dream with Lantana and Heatherleaf, and when I woke, there was a pool of sweat around me. I blinked several times, trying to figure out what had woken me up.

"Hi," came a voice. I glanced up.

"Hi, Hawkflight," I said softly. "So, er, what's- I mean, well, what's up?"

"Dawn patrol," he said. He angled his head sharply. "If you... Did you really want to hang out, Dappledpaw?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," I said, quickly starting to get up. "We're going on a dawn patrol?"

Hawkflight nodded. "Frozenwhisker says you can come with me, as long as you remember to train with Junipercloud later."

"Okay," I murmured, padding after him. We left the apprentice den and emerged into full sunlight. Cats looked around and up at us.

My thoughts were starting to race. I was going to make a fool of myself! It wasn't worth it! I caught Hawkflight's eyes and forced myself to calm down.

It'll be okay.

We'll just... see how this goes.

"Hi... is it Dappledpaw?" said a voice, tearing me from my thoughts.

"Oh, er, hi, Spiderfur," I said quickly. I studied the cats of the patrol. Spiderfur, Silverheart, and Duststorm were all coming. From the way he carried himself, Silverheart looked like he was the patrol's leader. I briefly scanned his mind; it was true.

"We're heading off to the ShadeClan border," Silverheart announced. "If we make good time, we might check MossClan as well."

No EmberClan? I wondered, but I would never have the courage to ask that myself. Thankfully, Duststorm spoke up. "We're not going for EmberClan?"

"Both of yesterday's patrols already checked in, and tonight's evening patrol will," Silverheart explained. "Frozenwhisker is worried that our borders along ShadeClan and MossClan will weaken if we focus all our energy on EmberClan."

Silverheart wove his way through the fallen rocks out of camp, the rest of us close behind him. I took up the rear, and Hawkflight stayed a tail-length ahead of me, glancing back every once in a while as if to confirm I was real.

"Sometimes I wish this whole war would just end," he muttered once we were out of camp, quiet enough so that no other cat besides me could hear it.

"Me too," I said softly. My thoughts returned to Lantana and the StarClan cat with the polished white mind. Destiny or not, I had to stop this war.

"We're nearing the ShadeClan border," Silverheart announced. "Duststorm, Spiderfur, go on ahead and mark it." He turned and padded over towards Hawkflight and I. "I'll go on ahead and check the MossClan border. Hawkflight, you come with me. Dappledpaw, you stay here so Duststorm and Spiderfur can watch you."

I looked over at Hawkflight, suddenly awkwardly unsure where to put my paws. Silverheart met my gaze and then Hawkflight's, a teasing glimmer in his eyes.

"On second thought, I'll stay here. Dappledpaw, you go with Hawkflight. He can watch over you fine on his own." Silverheart flicked his tail and turned eastward, where the sun was just starting to rise. "We'll regroup at the stream; that's about halfway between the two borders."

"Okay," Hawkflight said. His mind was tinged with relief. "Let's head off then. If we hurry, we can make it back to the stream before the first hunting patrols get out. Let's try to avoid EmberClan."

"Um-" I piped up, but I cut myself off before I could say something stupid.

"What did you say?" Hawkflight asked. Curiosity, not judgement, burned in his eyes.

"N-nothing," I stammered, "just that, er-r, it'd be faster to go to the EmberClan border. Don't you think? I mean, I don't want to cause trouble, but, we need to, um, I mean... If it hadn't been..."

Silverheart pricked his ears. "Are you trying to say that you shouldn't avoid the EmberClan border? Because it's faster and you'd be able to spot trouble before the evening patrol?"

Shame burned my cheeks, and my ears flattened. "Y-yes..."

Hawkflight blinked. "Well, I think it's a good idea. Meet you at the stream, Silverheart."

Poor Dappledpaw, Hawkflight thought as we started on our way. She has such great ideas sometimes. I wish she wasn't so afraid of sharing them.

As we were walking, somewhere faintly in the background, I was aware of a blend of auras. Not clear and sharp and almost demanding me to read their mind, like when I was up close with a cat, but so far away I could hardly be certain they were auras at all. I didn't have a chance to explore it further because I was trying to keep up with Hawkflight, since he had longer legs and a bigger stride than me, so I assumed it was nothing and dismissed it. But after a while they were getting clear. I was sure that if it weren't for the tall grass, I'd be able to see them. I acted like I was taking a breather and stopped to latch onto a pale green one.

I don't know what Rainstar's thinking. This is ridiculous, this whole entire war. I don't want to attack IceClan, not today, not ever. I don't want to see her stupid face again. I don't want to have to watch her suffer. Oh, poor Grayfeather...

I blinked.

This is EmberClan. I'm listening to the thoughts of an EmberClan cat.

They're on our territory.

EmberClan's invading IceClan!