Sootpaw woke with a start, and when he looked around the den, the other three apprentices were staring at him.
"Can you keep it down? You were mewing in your sleep," Molepaw hissed. "Yesterday was tiring, and we all want some sleep!" The irritated apprentice lowered his head onto his paws and closed his eyes.
"Oh, by the way, you're on the dawn patrol. Cloudtail should be in to wake you before too long," Twigpaw whispered. Sootpaw peeked out of the den and saw that the sky was grey. The dawn patrol would be leaving soon.
"Thanks. I might as well get up now." He rose to his paws and slipped out into the morning air. Cloudtail was already up and gathering everyone for the dawn patrol, so Sootpaw trotted over to him.
"Oh, Sootpaw, I thought you knew that I had replaced you with another cat in the dawn patrol so you could rest. I know yesterday was long and tiring with all the training." Cloudtail flicked his tail, motioning for him to go back to sleep.
"Well, I actually didn't know I was ever on this morning's dawn patrol until Twigpaw told me. She told me when I woke up this morning," Sootpaw mewed, not wanting to go back to his den.
"Okay. You can tag along with us if you'd like." The grey apprentice nodded and followed the patrol out into the forest.
The patrol checked the WindClan border and found nothing unusual, so they were moving on to the ShadowClan border. Sootpaw felt unnerved by something as they stopped to investigate a bush just inside our border.
"I smell ShadowClan on it. Stale, though. I'd say they were here yesterday," Brackenfur meowed, his fur bristling a little. Cloudtail sniffed at the bush to make sure Brackenfur was right.
"Yep, it's ShadowClan all right. But it doesn't smell like a patrol; just one cat. I don't think they meant harm when they were here. We'll check this daily from now on, though. If it happens again, we'll have to do something about it."
Brackenfur forced his fur to lie flat as the patrol continued along the border, sniffing for any more scents. They found none, but Sootpaw couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. When they strayed from the border, Sootpaw relaxed.
Cats mewed anxiously inside the camp, each having their own worries about the harsh leafbare that was nearly upon them, while Jayfeather hurried around the camp with herbs in his jaws.
"Hey Sootpaw!" His sister had approached him while he was busy paying attention to all the bustle in the camp. "I was wondering if you wanted to go hunting with me?"
"Sure." The grey apprentice nosed his way out of camp with Twigpaw on his tail. "Where should we hunt?"
"Maybe we should try the old beech tree," Twigpaw mewed. She flicked her tail toward the trees to her right.
"Good idea." The two cats padded along silently, alert for prey, until they came to a small clearing where giant roots were entangled in the ground and a beech tree rose in the center.
"I'll go this way," Sootpaw motioned to the left of the tree, "and you go that way," he flicked his tail to the right. Twigpaw nodded and made her way to the right side of the tree while Sootpaw went left.
He slipped into a bush and waited silently until a mouse emerged from among the roots and began to nibble on something in it's paws. Sootpaw flattened himself to the ground and slithered forward until he was within pouncing distance of his prey. He wriggled his haunches and steadied himself as he prepared to pounce.
Leaves rustled and crunched from the other side of the beech when Twigpaw pounced on her prey and made a sloppy kill. The mouse sat up, alerted to the cats' presence, and darted back into it's hole.
"Mouse-dung!" Sootpaw hissed in frustration. Twigpaw came prancing around the tree with a scrawny mouse dangling from her jaws.
"Look at what I caught!"
"Couldn't you have been quieter? I would've caught a mouse twice that size if you hadn't scared it away!" His sister flattened her ears to her head.
"Sorry. I lost my footing when the ground beneath my paws gave way. I must've jumped on a burrow or something and it collapsed." Sootpaw immediately regretted his tone with her.
"I'm sorry, Twigpaw. I didn't know-"
"I understand. I would've been frustrated, too. I'll be quiet now so you can catch something." She hid in the undergrowth behind him as he waited for another animal to come out of it's burrow.
Before long, another mouse almost the size of the one that escaped from him poked it's nose out of it's den and came out to nibble on a nut. It took Sootpaw only a few heartbeats to be ready and pounce on it, killing his prey with a swift bite to the neck.
"Great catch!" Twigpaw was admiring his catch while he cleaned the blood from the fur to make it presentable to the Clan.
"My kill was sloppy, though."
"Oh well. At least it'll feed the Clan. Let's get it back to camp while it's still warm. I'm sure the elders would like a fresh piece." Sootpaw could barely manage to carry the mouse home on his own, and he kept stumbling over the mouse's haunches as he struggled to get it into camp.
He puffed his chest out with pride when he got complements from his clanmates. Finally they were noticing him. But then when Twigpaw followed him in with her first catch, the Clan was practically fighting each other to be the first to congratulate her. Just when he thought they were equal, this happened.
He threw his mouse onto the fresh-kill pile and went to his den. He forced his eyes shut and drifted into sleep.