A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own warriors, but I own my characters. Sorry this took so long!
Tearpath didn't know what woke her up. Maybe it was the quiet sobs of Sunstripe, lying still next to her. Maybe it was the dreams of Leapwing and Fireprint, so vivid in her mind. Or maybe it was the lack of warmth next to her belly that signified the presence of her kits. Whatever it was, she put the pieces together.
Longstar was back.
Snarltooth POV
Snarltooth got up early. He'd had dreams of screaming. He shook his head and started his morning with a fat water vole.
Looking to the entrance, he watched as the dawn patrol left and felt a flash of guilt. An uncomfortable feeling passed through him. He'd only been a warrior for a moon, but he knew good and well that he shouldn't have eaten before hunting. He should make it up. Running to join the patrol, he tried to shake off the feelings he'd gotten, but they didn't go away. Was something wrong?
"OOf!" he yelled feebly as his friend bumped into him.
"What's wrong? You're… distracted," Whitetiger whispered in his ear. Snarltooth shook his head to clear it.
"I'm fine," he whispered back to the white, black striped tom. Whitetiger's deep brown eyes were filled with concern, but he let it drop when he saw the look on Snarltooth's face. They approached the WindClan border. A patrol was awaiting them, and it carried a familiar face.
"Honorpaw! Preypaw! Timepaw!" Snarltooth greeted them. He ran to the three and licked their ears lovingly. They all pawed at Snarltooth playfully. Then he straightened up.
"Actually, now we're Honorheart, Preyfur, and Timecloud," Timecloud mewed proudly. Snarltooth nodded enthusiastically, congratulating his friends. For a moment his mind was taken off his bad morning.
As Snarltooth continued to chat with them he noticed the patrol shooting him looks. "I've gotta go. I'll see you at the next gathering," Snarltooth mewed. They agreed and the patrols separated.
Snarltooth's patrol, made up of Rainfall, Mudpaw, Whitetiger, Dapplewhisker, and he, was rather quiet. Rainfall remarked the borders while the others checked for any foreign scent. Snarltooth had been so busy talking to Whitetiger he hadn't noticed how stony the others were acting towards him.
"Why are they ignoring me?" he whispered to Whitetiger. His friend looked down uncomfortably.
"It's because I talked to my friends, isn't it?" he mewed sadly. Whitetiger nodded. Somewhat mad, yet disappointed he still hadn't earned his Clanmates trust, he stalked ahead of the group without finishing the patrol.
Arriving back at camp, he went to the nursery with two pieces of fresh-kill – a fat vole for his sister, and a large squirrel for his mate. He hoped she'd have her kits soon. Sunstripe hated being locked up in the nursery.
Snarltooth padded down the small tunnel that led to a cozy nursery. Tearpath looked slightly dazed, as though waking up from a long sleep. Her perfect face was streaked with what looked like tears, and her eyes were unfocused. She was whimpering, not seeing or hearing him as he entered.
"Tearpath?" he questioned uncomfortably.
She seemed to notice him standing in front of her for the first time.
"Snarltooth, she's back," he heard her whisper under her breath.
Pictures of Honorheart stuck under an ugly she-cat as her master carved a bloody scrape down her belly for not training hard enough appeared in his mind. Images of Preyfur as she was thrown carelessly across an unfamiliar camp, of Tornflower as she was told she was ugly by the most cruel cat alive.
Snarltooth dropped the vole he was carrying and shot out of the nursery and through the forest, careening through the bushes without care, hating Longstar with all his heart.