Chapter Seven: The Border Patrol


It was dusk. The sky was bleeding pink in the sunset. The feathery clouds were changing to purple with approaching night. The stars of Silverpelt began to glow with sparkling light.

The flame-colored leader sat at the base of the Highrock, watching as her deputy organized patrols. "Dustrose, Swiftstep, take your apprentices to patrol the RiverClan border." The light ginger meowed at the ThunderClan warriors. "Hazelclaw, Cedarfall, take Sunnypaw and Snowpaw to Tallpines and watch for kittypets. I think they might be getting a little too cozy across their fence."

Firestar watched her Clan move about proudly. It seemed like a hundred lifetimes ago they were all slaves. She remembered how Sunstar had put all of the queens under his paw. It was horrible, but all over now.

"Narrowtail," She mewed to her deputy. "I would like to lead a patrol by the ShadowClan border."

The sandy ginger turned around and nodded. "Okay. You three! Come over here! Firestar's leading a ShadowClan border patrol." Narrowtail beckoned two warriors and an apprentice who were sharing tongues by the nursery.

"Be careful. That storm was so sudden today. We don't know what might have gotten disturbed in the forest." Narrowtail said, nodding to her leader.

"Will do, deputy." Firestar purred flicking her tail across the ginger's nose.

The four warriors padded through the bracken tunnel and into the forest. Their lush territory was wet from the rain. Round fat orbs were resting on fern fronds and dripping off tender leaves. Puddles gathered under trees; the stream by the ravine was swollen with stormwater.

They padded through the moist undergrowth. The moss squished under their paws, seeping into their toe fur. The ThunderClan leader ducked under a wet leafy branch.

"Eeek!" The apprentice squealed.

Firestar turned around. Blackpaw was shaking her pelt out.

"You know how to battle, hunt, and track, but you can't duck under a branch?" Her mentor asked with a throaty voice.

Firestar mrrowed with laughter. Her Clan was slowing getting used to their new leadership. They talked more, played more, and laughed more. This was an example of their blooming confidence. A joke. Yes, more jokes, even lames ones, meant the Clan was becoming less automatic and more... loose. Clan life was returning to normal as it had been many seasons ago.

"Come on," The red she-cat meowed as Blackpaw flung droplets on them.

They padded towards the Thunderpath. They had to be vigiliant around the ShadowClan border. There was an underground tunnel that went under the Thunderpath connecting ShadowClan and ThunderClan together. And a very long time ago, a story passed down by generations of elders, a monster swerved off the Thunderpath and crashed into the forest. The smallest scent of the tragedy was still lingering where the monster had crashed.

"Hey, hey, is that a ShadowClan patrol?" The small apprentice meowed. She pointed her tail towards the shadowy forest.

Firestar squinted her eyes and looked across the path into the rival Clan's territory. She could see a lone ShadowClan cat chasing a frog. "No, that's just a queen hunting. It smells like a patrol passed by not long ago."

Blackpaw and the two warriors nodded and padded along, making sure there was no suspicious activity by the Thunderpath. Firestar stood on the edge of the pavement and let the patrol move on. A monster roared by leaving her sneezing and blinking grit out of her eyes.

The ShadowClan queen was staring at her when the dust cleared. The black she-cat's gaze was glowing in the dusk light. Firestar couldn't look away. Their eyes were locked.

"Come on, Firestar!"

The ThunderClan leader watched the ShadowClanner from the corner of her eyes as she padded back to the patrol. Something was pinching her stomach. It was the feeling you get when you see something bad about to happen.


The night sky was bright with stars. The gray storm clouds had broken up and became small wispy breaths of white. The swampland and pine forest were still wet from the storm. Scents of mud and fresh pine needles were hanging heavily in the air.

In the bramble nursery of the ShadowClan camp, a queen and her four kits were snuggled up in a soft mossy nest.

"I love you all." The queen meowed, licking each of her kits in turn.

"We love you, too, Mother." One of the she-kits mewed.

"I love you more." One of the toms said with whack over his sister's head.

"I love you more than he does." His brother meowed loudly, pushing his two littermates out of the nest.

"I've loved you longer than them." The eldest said cleverly.

The queen purred. Her kits were lovely, beautiful, and were very rambunctious. She swept them all back up into the soft nest. "I love you all most."

She looked down at her litter. Each kit was the most adorable bundle of fur she had ever seen.

Blackkit was just like her. He had long feathery black fur with green eyes.

Pinekit reminded her of their father. She had dark gray fur, though it was longer than the tom that had once been her mate, and her eyes were blue like his.

Softkit was a fuzzy furball. He had a dark gray pelt and it was so long he tripped over his own paws. He'd grow into it, and his too-big green eyes as well.

Juniperkit was the eldest of the litter, and the prettiest. She had feathery silver fur with light leafy eyes. She was named in honor of her mother's mother, Juniperstar. Juniperstar had been a great leader long long ago. She had reigned over ShadowClan before Scarletstar and even before Mudstar and was the best the forest had ever seen.

They all snuggled together like a mass of long, feathery dark fur in the moss nest. They all laid there, silence broken by the ribbits of frogs and songs of crickets and the snoring of the other cats in camp.

"Marshfoot?" One of her kits were still awake.

"Yes, Juniperkit?" The queen mewed, eyes closed.

"Can we go hunting with you tomorrow?"

"No, but I promise I'll take you all hunting when you're apprentices."

"Okay. Good night, Mother."

"Good night, daughter."

Juniperkit fell back asleep. Marshfoot stayed awake, though. When she saw Firestar, the ThunderClan leader, from across the thunderpath earlier, something churned inside of her. It made her compelled to talk to the red-and-cream she-cat.

...

Marshfoot sprang up, knocking her kits out of the nest. She whipped around frantically, lashing her tail and breathing hard. She flicked her eyes around the nursery. It wasn't flooding with mud. No, this wasn't the nightmare. She was awake. The floor was soft underpaw with moss and dried grass. The only other cat was Daisypool, a queen getting bigger and bigger as her kitting day approached. What a dream... She instantly forgot it but it was about mud.

"Marshfoot?" Juniperkit and her littermates blinked sleepily, laying on the floor instead of the nest. "Are you okay, Mother?"

"Yeah, just a bad dream. Get back in the nest, it's not yet dawn." The black queen told her kits.

They all dragged themselves back in, snoring. Marshfoot sighed. There was plenty of other queens in Clan. Well, there was one she-cat starting to round, though she hadn't moved to the nursery yet. There was also plenty of she-cats who've had kits before. They all could have gotten a prophecy! But nope! It had to be her. The one queen with four kits and no mate had to get the Star-stinkin'-Clan's prophecy.

Marshfoot needed to clear her head. She slipped out of the nursery into the cool pre-dawn air. The milky light of dawn was soft on the horizon.

The long-furred queen padded across camp, giving a brisk nod to Grayclaw who was on sentry duty. She barely noticed the longing in his eyes. The gray warrior let the queen pass, but the other cat, Cloudbreeze blocked her path with a white tail.

"Where are you going, Marshfoot?" The she-cat asked quietly.

"I need to go for a walk to clear my head." The queen replied tiredly.

"Mm-hmm..."

Grayclaw shook his head. "Cloudbreeze, she has four wild kits. Let her go out."

"Grayclaw," Cloudbreeze whined, flicking her ears. "I mean, remember what happened last time?"

"Yes," Grayclaw admitted, remembering the last time they were naive to that excuse. "Spottedwing tried to go back to WindClan."

Marshfoot sighed miserably. The tom gave her a sympathetic glance.

"Fine." The black she-cat mewed. She turned on her paws to go back to the nursery.

"Wait," Grayclaw said, making Cloudbreeze's smug look turn bitter. "Cloudbreeze doesn't trust you but I do. How about I supervise you until we get back."

Marshfoot purred happily. "Thanks, Grayclaw."

The two ShadowClanners went through the entrance, leaving a lone sentry looking gloomy.

Grayclaw and Marshfoot padded through the pines as the stars slowly began to fade from the night-dawn sky. She breathed in the heavy, moist pine scent. The storm had left the forest dripping with rain. Small shiny orbs drippied from overhead, pooling in small dips of the needle-covered ground.

Grayclaw watched her from the corner of his eyes. He loved her, though she would never guess. He could meet WindClan in battle, he could raid the rats at the carrionplace, but he couldn't tell the queen how he felt about her. Grayclaw knew that she thought of him as his friend. Every cat in ShadowClan thinks he's in love with Cloudbreeze, but only he and Cloudbreeze herself knew that he wasn't.

Marshfoot padded beisde him, breathing in the fresh scents to clear away her worries. "Grayclaw, I can tell you anything right?"

His heart skipped a beat. "Yes, of course, Marshfoot."

"Well, I..." She weighed whether or not to tell him about the prophecy. "I need to be alone right now."

Grayclaw's tail drooped. "I understand, Marshfoot..."

The queen watched her friend trudge back to camp. She felt horrible keeping a secret from him. She wanted to someone. Anyone! Her ex-mate would understand completely. He knew everything about her. Though Grayclaw was a wonderful tom and she would love to have him father her kits in that fox-hearts place, Grayclaw was in love with Cloudbreeze.

Marshfoot waved her tail at him though he didn't see. She took a deep breath and continued to walk through the forest territory. The needles under her paws were crisp, and the orbs of rainwater were cool against her skin as it seeped into her thick leg fur.

The roaring of a monster alerted her that she was near the thunderpath. She watched the white, shiny monster vroom past, eyes glowing like moons. A spray of water splashed her from where she stood.

Marshfoot shook the water from her pelt. She looked back up. Across the thunderpath was a cat. A she-cat with a red pelt and a cream streak running from her forehead to her tail. It was Firestar.

The ThunderClan leader ran across the acrid path witout even looking for a monster.

"Firestar," the black queen choked out.

"I've been anxious." The leader meowed, flicking her tail. "I saw your green eyes and knew you were the same cat from the border patrol. I've been wanting to talk to you since."

"Um, yes, that's exactly how I feel." Marshfoot nodded, stepping close to the she-cat.

Usually, being near a ThunderClan cat would make her feel alarmed unless it was at a Gathering. But strangely, she felt a connection to Firestar.

"You're a queen aren't you?" Firestar asked softly.

"Yes, four kits." She nodded proudly to the leader. "Weren't you a queen before becoming a leader?"

"Yes... I suppose you could say that we're givers of life."

Marshfoot realized that Firestar was testing her. "Yes, you could say that. One from each Clan."

Firestar sighed in relief, her yellow eyes glittering in the night. "Will brighten and lead."

"Out of the darkness." She responded.

"And to the stars." Both she-cats said in unison.

"I know a place where we can go." Marshfoot said, looking around to see if any of her Clanmates were near.

Scenting the air, there was only them and the acrid stench of the thunderpath. Marshfoot led her through ShadowClan territory along the thunderpath where a tunnel connected both Clans. They had a lot to talk about.


A/N: Yay! Finally, there are two pairs now. So, do you ship GrayclawxMarshfoot or GrayclawxCloudbreeze? Tell me in a comment. And you can totally figure out who her ex-mate was. He looks like Pinekit and appeared in an earlier chapter...