THUNDERCLAN CAMP: ONE DAY LATER…

Bravepaw looked around at the Thunderclan camp. Every cat that was well enough to work started working right after the Dewdrop's vigil had ended. It was hard to believe that it had only been a few days since the camp was destroyed by the great wind. Today, the sun was shining again without the faintest trace of breeze, and the clouds had all disappeared as the sun beat down on the warrior cats as they labored.

"I think we've got most of the big branches cleared away," Grayleaf meowed encouragingly to her apprentice as she walked up and stood beside Bravepaw. "Now all that left are the little branches, twigs, rocks, and then we have to start repairing the old dens!"

Bravepaw panted as he pushed a regular sized rock out of the clearing and surveyed the landscape before him. They had come a long way from when they had started.

Bladestar added another branch to the ever-growing pile. "Good job everyone! We're really starting to make a dent in all this."

The cats all stopped and nodded their heads tiredly as they all glanced around at their achievements so far. It was satisfying to know that their hard work was at least showing signs of paying off.

"I think we all deserve a nice juicy meal!" Bladestar signaled to the deputy. "Velvetfoot, I would like you to take as many warriors as you need to go on a hunting patrol. We're going to be plenty hungry when we're done all this! And we can't have any warriors going hungry on the job now can we?" He added humorously.

Velvetfoot nodded her head then left to choose some warriors and headed out of the camp, happy for the change of work.

Bravepaw looked down at his growling stomach. The last two days he had barely eaten anything. Of course, he hadn't had much appetite, and besides that, prey had been very scarce because of the weather conditions. Looking around at his Clanmates, he noted they were all looking a little thinner too. But now with the sun shining, Bravepaw hoped the warriors would be able to bring back loads of prey.

"Ashnose and Grayleaf," Bladestar called, summoned them over with his tail." Will you help me try to clear out what's left of the medicine den? Elmfur has been desperate to see if any of her herbs survived the storm."

The two warriors padded over.

"Sure, Bladestar," Ashnose meowed.

Bravepaw continued on with his menial task of moving all of the small sticks to the big pile. He dragged another small branch over to it and plopped it down with a tired sigh.

He didn't see Willowpaw until she suddenly walked by him and dropped another stick to the pile as well.

"Whew! Redpaw and sure doesn't know what he's missing!" She puffed heavily.

"Yeah, he sure picked a great time to sprain his paw!" Bravepaw chuckled, licked down his fur. "He tried sneaking along to come with us today you know?"

Willowpaw tilted her head with surprise. "He did? Why would he want to do that?"

"Because he's Redpaw of course," he replied, another grin sneaking its way across his mouth. "Ashnose caught him though and told him he had to take care of the elders."

Willowpaw giggled. "Oh poor Redpaw! No wonder he wanted to come! I'm glad Sunblaze let me come today."

Bravepaw reached down to pick up another twig when he heard Bladestar call from the direction of the medicine den.

"Willowpaw! Can you come here?"

Bravepaw and Willowpaw exchanged confused looks. Shrugging, she trotted over to see what he wanted.

Moments later she returned, her eyes bright and her head held high, she heading over to the camp's exit. As she passed by, Bravepaw asked, "Where are you going?"

Willowpaw stopped abruptly, contemplating if it was alright for her to stop from her important task. "Bladestar said almost all of Elmfur's herbs were destroyed. He wants me to catch up with the hunting patrol and have them keep an eye out for any herbs that they might come across."

"Oh… Okay …Well I hope that you help find them. That's great you're getting sent on your own mission" Bravepaw finished.

Willowpaw's eyes sparkled. "I know! I need to get going though. See you soon! Bye!"

"Bye!"

He quickly turned back to his work as she ran out of the camp. Bravepaw was rather disappointed that he had not been chosen to go instead. She is older than me though, Bravepaw grumbled to himself. So it does make sense that Bladestar would want her to go. Though that would be nice if I got chosen every once in a while…

The time passed quickly as the all of the cats worked until dusk.

"That's enough for today. We've done a lot." Bladestar meowed, "Let's go back to Sunning-rocks and see what the hunting patrol brought back."

Exhausted from a full day's work they padded back slowly to Sunning-rocks.

00000000000000

SUNNING-ROCKS

The patrol had been more successful than anyone had first expected, but not enough for everyone to stuff themselves full.

Bravepaw looked at the juicy prey. "Would you like to split something to eat?" He asked Willowpaw.

"Sure," Willowpaw agitatedly flicked her tail back and forth as she responded distractedly.

"Which piece would you like?" He asked, pointing to the Fresh-Kill pile.

"It doesn't matter, you can pick."

I wonder what's wrong with her? Bravepaw wondered as he picked a large mouse from the Fresh-kill pile and dropped it down with a plop where he and Willowpaw were sitting.

Bravepaw took the first bite out of the fat mouse. "I can't wait till we can go back home!"

Willowpaw turned her head distractedly. "Hmm… Oh! I'm sorry, what was that?"

Bravepaw followed from the direction of her gaze. She was staring at Velvetfoot, the clan deputy who was discussing something with Elmfur.

"Is everything alright? You seem a little distracted." Bravepaw pushed the prey over so that it was closer to her paws.

Willowpaw shook her head. "No, nothing's wrong." She pushed they prey back towards him. "I'm not hungry."

Bravepaw looked her straight in the eyes. "Okay, now I'm sure there is something wrong. What is it?"

Willowpaw glanced quickly at Velvetfoot. Lowered her meow, she leaning closer towards him and whispered, "When I went out to tell the patrol to keep an eye out for herbs like Bladestar had told me, I scented Velvetfoot so I followed her trail…" She hesitated before continuing, "She wasn't with her patrol."

Bravepaw looked mildly surprise. "Is that all? She's the deputy! A lot of the time, cats split up to hunt for prey, it makes it easier to catch more."

She flicked her tail quickly, "Of course I know that! Any kit knows that! That's why I followed her to give her the message. But before I reached her I saw her with a loner!"

Bravepaw's head shot up. "What!"

"Shh!" Willowpaw ordered, "They were talking to each other, purring loudly with their tail's entwined as they sat next to each other." She paused then added softly, "They seemed very happy to be together. I could barely hear them, but Velvetfoot said something about how she wished they could always be together."

Bravepaw couldn't believe his ears. The clan deputy liked a loner! "Did you hear anything else?"

Willowpaw let out a relieved sigh. It was obvious that she was glad that she wasn't the only one who knew about it anymore. "Yes. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. I wouldn't risk being spotted."

"Too bad you didn't hear more." Bravepaw meowed.

Willowpaw shook her head, "It wouldn't matter if I did. I'd heard enough! What should we do?"

We? Bravepaw thought. "I don't think there's much we can do…It would be your word against hers. Besides, she's the deputy! Are you sure that it wasn't just two loners?"

Willowpaw rolled her eyes, "Yeah like I'm that blind! I guess we'll just have to wait till we can think of a better solution. From now on it will just be our secret though, right?"

Bravepaw looked down at his paws. "I've never had a secret from Redpaw though…Can I just tell him?"

Willowpaw breathed a quiet sigh. "I suppose. We just don't want to get in trouble! The fewer that know about this the better."

Bravepaw smiled, pleased. "Alright, I'll tell him later. Then we can all think of what we should do."

The sun was slowly sinking behind the horizon, displaying a deep orange until it disappeared behind a hill. All of the cats started to settle down beside rocks – or whatever sort of makeshift dens that they had made from scratch – for a refreshing night's sleep.

Bravepaw was just lying down when he spotted Sharp-eye pad up to Elmfur, a worried expression in his eyes.

"Briarnut thinks the kits are coming!"

In a flash, Elmfur dashed over to where Briarnut was laying in between some large rocks, her face grimaced as she moaned in pain. Elmfur turned toward Sharp-eye. "Run and have Velvetfoot get me some poppy-seeds! The kits are definitely coming and she'll need something to relieve her pain. Now!"

Author notes/ As always, I love to hear from you guys so please leave a review if u have time.