A/n: Make sure you've read chapter 13 because the plan is told more detailed in that chapter. :D
Crowfeather was walking through the moors with his apprentice, son, and son's mentor. He was on dawn patrol. The morning was cool and clear. Whitetail led and he brought up the rear in the small group. They were to patrol by the lake and, mostly by request of Heatherpaw, the Thunderclan border. Crowfeather had no objections though. He hoped to maybe see Leafpool.
They walked along the edge of the territory near the lake and turned when they reached the little bit of woodland that was on their territory.
"We should reset the border scent markings." Whitetail commented.
"Great!" Heatherpaw exclaimed happily. She quickly noticed her mistake. "I-uh mean, the probably were starting to smell weak. It's a good idea," she explained. While the other two believed her, Crowfeather didn't for two reasons. Firstly, because he knew she had been trying to find a way to see the Thunderclan apprentice, Lionpaw. Secondly, he was the only cat in the group who knew that the scents had been renewed only the day before.
They padded into the shadowy trees and set the scent markings along the border.
"Can we hunt? I'm starving!" Breezepaw complained when they had finished.
"I suppose so. This is the dawn patrol not a hunting patrol." Crowfeather stated but Breezepaw left before he could finfish the second sentence. Heatherpaw left almost immediately after. "We should meet back here when we're done" Whitetail agreed then headed off on her own also.
Crowfeather got closer to the border. He kept his ears pricked for any sign of approaching cats. He smelled the air but only a stale scent of the Thunderclan medicine cat remained as he neared their usual meeting spot.
Crowfeather cleared his head of any thoughts of the brown tabby queen when he spotted a mouse. He dropped into a hunter's crouch and stalked it very carefully, making sure he was watching where each paw fell. He was just about to pounce when-
"Psst! Crowfeather!" a ginger warrior hissed from Thunderclan's side of the border.
The mouse darted away and Crowfeather stood up from the hunting position. He looked to where the voice came from and saw Squirrelflight.
"What do you want Squirrelflight?" he asked annoyed. "I almost had a perfect catch right there!" Squirrelflight rolled her eyes.
"You'll get another chance don't worry. Besides, don't you want to know what's going to happen to your kits?"
"Will you keep it down!? There are three other cats on this patrol and," he paused, "wait! What do you mean what's going to happen to them? Are they going to be alright?" he questioned.
"I'm sure they'll be fine." She answered. "Leafpool wanted me to tell you the plan so that no one will know their kits and the story to back it up. Especially since one or two will be going to Windclan depending on how many kits she has."
"Why couldn't she tell me herself?" he asked quietly, wondering if somehow he said something to offend her.
Squirrelflight noticed he sounded sad. "She's not angry with you, Crowfeather. She just needs to save her energy so when the kits come, she can get out of camp fast." she explained.
"Oh." Crowfeather breathed, relieved Leafpool wasn't mad. "How has she been collecting herbs or doing things like that?"
"She lets Jaypaw do it"
"Isn't he blind?"
"Just because he's blind doesn't mean he can't do it!" she snapped, defending her son. "He has been acting strange though. Every time he's told to do something for Leafpool, she says he mutters under his breath."
Crowfeather had stopped listening and lost interest. 'What's the plan going to be?" he asked demandingly.
"Well, bossy furball, like I said before, Leafpool is going to rush out of camp when she feels the kits coming. She'll have the kits close to the border and the lake so cats can't question why some went to Thunderclan and others went to Windclan." She began to explain.
"Kit's don't come out of no where, you know."
"Of course they don't. You can tell you clan you think they're Floss's Kits" Crowfeather had a confused looked on his face. "Floss is the cat from the horseplace, remember?" Crowfeather nodded after a few moments. "Her pelt was gray and white according to Brambleclaw. Whatever brown they get from my sister, tell your clan that you think it might have been a rouge."
"What are kits from the horseplace going to be doing all the way over here?" Crowfeather asked.
"Floss's real kits were taken away from her before. She could have thought they'd be safer here."
"Couldn't 'Floss' have taken her kits straight to a camp?"
"Great Starclan!" Squirrelflight nearly shouted. "It feels like I'm telling Leafpool all over again!" You keep asking the same questions she did!"
"I wouldn't have to ask any questions at all if you would just explain properly!" the gray warrior retorted.
"Well if you gave me a chance to finish-"she let out a sigh and stopped her shouting. "You'll say you think maybe she was scared to meet us. Or you can say you think she could have been afraid to get lost any further inland. Got it?" Crowfeather nodded again.
"I've got to go now. I should be hunting." Crowfeather turned around and started to walk away
"Don't you know how to say 'bye'?" she called after him. He rolled his eyes and continued on. He prowled silently through the woodland. It only took him a few heart beats to find another mouse. This time there were no distractions when he prepared to leap. He pounced on the mouse and swiftly gave it a bite to the neck. Crowfeather sat down and devoured it quickly. He licked his lips when he finished and started to walk back to where the dawn patrol had split. Whitetail and Breezepaw were there waiting already.
"Did you see Heatherpaw?" Whitetail asked.
"No, I-"
"I'm here!" Heatherpaw mewed as she bounded towards them. "I had a bit of trouble catching something. There was a lot of twigs that kept snapping." She told them, breathlessly.
"Okay. Let's get back to camp and report to Onestar." Whitetail said. She led the way back to camp.
Crowfeather thought of Leafpool the whole way back. She's about to have my kits. He thought. But he still felt something nagging him. What if Nightcloud were to find out? He asked himself. What if Leafpool doesn't even survive the kitting? Crowfeather shook his head as if he had water in his ears. No! Neither of those will happen. Starclan won't let it. Will they?
A/n: I think there will only be two more chapters to this story.