"Smokestone?" Breezestar asked tentatively.

"Yes?" Smokestone glanced up from their kits. "What is it?"

"How . . . how are the kits doing?" He padded over to them, glancing over the three.

Smokestone purred. "They're doing just fine, Breezestar."

"Really?" They looked so . . . small. They always had.

Smokestone sighed and put her tail on her mate's shoulder. "Really. You're always so nervous, they're doing fine, growing like normal kits. You should relax."

Breezestar looked at her skeptically, but nodded. "Okay." He turned and headed out of the nursery. He thought over his mate's words. Relax? He'd love too, but he was leader of BlossomClan, and there were enemies at every turn. He needed to be on his paws at all times.

The morning sky was a mixture of blues and oranges, and clouds dappled the skies, adding greys to their underside. Breezestar breathed in the fresh air. He felt an urge for hunting today. He could nearly taste the fresh mouse.

"Ashenspots?" The gray deputy looked up from the dry earth at her paws. "I would like to go hunting today. Are there any warriors that can go with me?"

"Uh . . ." Ashenspots looked up at the sky. "Ivybrook could go with you."

Breezestar looked around the camp. "Where is she?"

"Eating her thrush, over there." She pointed with a flick of her tail and sauntered off.

Breezestar turned his gaze towards his sister. She looked so peaceful, just eating her thrush quietly under the ferns. He sighed, and padded over to her.

"Ivybrook?" She raised an eyebrow at Breezestar.

"What is it now?"

"Can . . . can you go hunting with me?" Please say yes, he thought. Please say yes.

"Sure." Breezestar nearly fell over from relief.

"Okay." He could hardly contain his excitement, he hadn't been out of the camp much, besides . . . Gatherings. Breezestar gestured over to the exit to camp and bounced out.

Ivybrook gave her paw a couple of licks and followed him out of camp.

Breezestar looked nervously into the treetops. Surely . . . surely, there was nothing up there, right? Why would there? He tried to comfort himself with this fact, but even still, he found himself checking up there every couple heartbeats, Breezestar's mind frantically zooming over all sorts of possibilities. All of them, he reassured himself, were stupid. That didn't stop him, though.

Oh, how he longed for camp. Now Breezestar remembered why he didn't go out of camp much.

"Breezestar?" Ivybrook flashed a gray paw in front of his nose. "You've been zoned out for a while now."

"Oh, I'm fine, Ivybrook." She stared at him skeptically. "No, really."

Ivybrook sighed. "If you're sure . . ." Breezestar's mind finished the sentence for her, 'even if I'm not.'

Suddenly, something leaped between the two cats. Breezestar jumped back, tripping over his own paws.

"Hi!" An apprentice-ish sounding voice said. Ivybrook purred.

"Oh, Breezestar, it's just Blossompaw." Breezestar glared. He wouldn't let his sister make fun of him.

"Really? Something jumps right in front of you and you don't have the instinct to back off? I suppose you're just so special then." Breezestar narrowed his eyes, struggling to get to his paws.

"Breezestar?" He looked upon the young apprentice. Maybe it was his mind, but he swore that Blossompaw was just as big as his kits back in the nursery.

"Yes?" Breezestar snapped. He had no time for this.

"You looked so silly!" Blossompaw purred. Breezestar flared. Were all apprentices impudent little things?

"Show some respect for your leader! Now, go off and do whatever you were doing before you decided to come and . . . jump a-about!"

"Blossompaw?" A brown apprentice poked her head out. "What are you doing that's taking you so long?" Breezestar blinked. Who was she, again?

"Oh, Rainpaw!" Blossompaw bounced over to the other apprentice-no wait, sister. "I was just talking to Breezestar."

"Well, great." Rainpaw mumbled. "Now, let's get back to work." She turned around and started walking back through the bushes.

"Can't I talk to them a little bit longer?" Blossompaw smiled.

"Them?" Rainpaw looked up. "Oh, sorry, Ivybrook, didn't see you there. Now, Blossompaw, come on-"

Blossompaw turned her head. "Let me talk for just a moment-hey!"

Rainpaw grabbed Blossompaw by the scruff of her neck and started dragging her along. "Come on," Rainpaw mumbled through her sister's fur. "No time to wast."

"I can walk by myself." Blossompaw tugged out of Rainpaw's grasp.

"Then act like it!" Rainpaw stormed out of sight in a huff, lashing her tail back and forth from side to side.

Blossompaw smiled apologetically to Breezestar and Ivybrook. "She can be like that sometimes. See you at camp!" She bounced into the undergrowth, trailing after her larger sister.

Ivybrook smiled. "They seem nice, don't they, Breezestar?" She turned her head to look at him.

But Breezestar was already distanced. "Yeah." He murmured. "Nice."