Fern blinked open her eyes and gazed around. Dusk was curled up beside her, and Willow was on her other side. Night sat, nodding off, at an opening in the bracken patch they took shelter in for the night. Dawn light was creeping into the sky as birdsong began twittering in the trees above. The tabby she-cat stood quietly, as not to disturb her friends, and slipped out of the bracken into the crisp morning air.
She stretched and turned to pad into the trees to hunt. Parting her jaws, she drank in the air and spotted a mouse before she even scented it. Dropping into a crouch she taught herself, she pulled forward effortlessly. Leaping, she pinned the mouse down and finished it with a bite to the neck. Picking it up, Fern padded back to the bracken and dropped it beside Night. Her stomache grumbled at the scent of the mouse, and Fern had to admit the fish she caught in a twoleg pond seemed a very long time ago.
"Thanks," Night muttered absently when he smelled the fresh-kill.
Fern flicked her tail at him in acknowledgement and slipped back into the bushes for more food. Soon enough she had caught a plump rabbit and a vole, and was stepping up behind a sparrow when the bushes rustled behind her. Twitching her tail tip irritably she turned with her ears pricked. She relaxed as she recognized the gray pelt pushing itself through the plants. The bird was long gone, but Fern shrugged off the disappointment and trotted up to meet Dusk.
His tail was drooping but when he noticed Fern it rose. Purring, he touched noses with her and brushed his muzzle against her flank. Fern tilted her head at the confusion in his eyes and sat down beside him.
"What's wrong?" she meowed quietly.
Dusk looked up and shrugged. "It's just that -" he hesitated for a moment before looking her in the eyes. "When we get there, and the Clan accepts us, what happens if there's another tom?"
Fern blinked. She understood what he was getting at. He loved her and didn't want to lose her to another tom. "You never know, Dusk," she said. "You could find a she-cat that's meant for you. We don't have to be together."
Dusk twitched his whiskers but said nothing. Instead he rose to his paws and licked her between the ears. "We'll see, then." With that he padded back through the bushes.
Fern sighed. She loved him. She really did. But she didn't know what she would do if there was another tom in the Clans she felt about the same way as Dusk. Licking down her chest fur, she got to her paws and continued stalking through the undergrowth.