Chapter 6: A Patrol Battle

"Honeypaw."

Honeypaw shifted to her side

"Honeypaw! We're called for the dawn patrol!" Honeypaw sprang to her paws and snarled

"Be quiet! I'm trying to sleep here!" her eyes widened and she pulled herself back and flattened her ears

"I'm sorry, Rainpaw. I'm just really tired." she said. Rainpaw shook his head

"It's ok. Let's go. Hurry up! Their waiting."

Honeypaw followed Rainpaw into the clearing and she saw three other cats at the entrance of the camp: Sunwhisker, Briarheart and Heatherfur. When they approached them, Honeypaw dipped her head to Sunwhisker

"Sorry for being late." she apologized. Sunwhisker gave her a tiny nod and turned around to lead the patrol.

The breeze of the wind made Honeypaw's fur bristle as they went towards their destination: Sunningrocks. Honeypaw made sure to lick her chest fur once in a while to keep it down from fluffing up. She walked alongside Rainpaw and he was looking straight ahead. Sunwhisker signaled with her tail for everyone to stop behind a bush that was at the corner of edge of Sunningrocks and she sniffed the air. When she made sure that no enemies were around, she flicked her tail again and stepped into the clearing. Honeypaw's eyes widened at the sight of a very smooth flowing river that ran across the edge of the border between RiverClan and ThunderClan. The patrol followed Sunwhisker along the edge and Honeypaw and Rainpaw both put a paw inside the water and purred. Briarheart stopped beside Sunwhisker and looked at her

"Can you smell that Sunwhisker?" she said. Sunwhisker breathed in the cool air and nodded

"RiverClan cats. A patrol of them. Quick, everyone. Follow me!" she said and ended her sentence in a whisper. Everyone quickly dashed back into the bushes and hid behind it and made sure they hid their scent. Everyone looked through the gaps in the bush and saw a group of three RiverClan cats: Bushfeather, Rushflight and Gorsepaw. Rushflight stopped at the edge of the river on the RiverClan border and tilted his head up and narrowed his eyes

"I smell ThunderClan cats on the other side of the river." he said. Bushfeather nodded in agreement after scenting it

"It's fresh. It's like they were here a minute ago. Maybe we should check it out. But be careful, they might still be around. Follow me and keep an eye out for them." ordered Bushfeather. Rushflight and Gorsepaw nodded and started following Bushfeather across the rocks. Briarheart unsheathed her claws and snarled, "If they dare set a paw in our territory. I'm going to jump out there and rip them into shreds!-" Sunwhisker slapped her tail across Briarheart's mouth to tell her to be quiet

"Be patient, Briarheart. We need to wait for them to come closer towards us then two of us will spring up toward them and attack them from behind while the rest of us attacks them from the other side." she snapped quietly. Sunwhisker turned her head behind her shoulder and looked at everyone

"Rainpaw and Heatherfur, you both attack from behind. The rest of you will fight the RiverClan cats while they are distracted by them." she ordered. Everyone nodded and Sunwhisker turned her head back to where the RiverClan cats were now on their side of the territory and following their scent

"On my signal..." said Sunwhisker. Honeypaw narrowed her eyes in determination and unsheathed her claws. When the RiverClan cats were just about to reach the bush they were hiding behind, Sunwhisker nodded and at the same time pointed her tail tip the other way and Rainpaw and Heatherfur sprang up and quickly landed behind the RiverClan cats and the three cats gasped in surprise and started attack them

"The rest of you, go!" yowled Sunwhisker. Honeypaw pushed off of her hind paws and landed behind the Riverclan cats and aimed for the apprentice who was struggling to take a blow on Heatherfur. She bit down hard on his tail and he jumped around and faced Honeypaw and he growled

"Take this fox-breath!" she yowled and she lifted her paw up and made a deep scratch across his face. He growled and swung his paw towards her but she ducked and charged into him and knocked the breath out of him. Honeypaw quickly grabbed him by the scruff and flung him further out in the clearing. He landed with a gasp for breath as he then tried to scramble up to his paws but Honeypaw was too fast for him and she pinned him down and raked her claws across his belly. Once Gorsepaw yowled loudly enough for the whole forest to hear, she stopped and jumped off him

"Leave now! Before I come after you and this time I won't let you go!" she spat. Gorsepaw ran away and Honeypaw chased after him until he was back at his territory. She spun around and saw Rainpaw being pinned down by Rushflight and dashed across the clearing to help Rainpaw. She charged straight into Rushflight and forced him off Rainpaw. Rushflight snarled at her and ran away. Rainpaw got up and smiled at Honeypaw

"Thank you." he said. Honeypaw nodded at him and saw the last warrior: Bushfeather, leave their territory. Sunwhisker had a few scratches on her front paw and her face but she walked confidently to meet up with the rest of the patrol

"Well done, all of you. You all fought well. Now let's get back to camp, it's nearly sunrise and we need to get all of our wounds looked at."

Back at the camp, Honeypaw's pads were feeling sore after running and fighting Gorsepaw and so she had to go to the medicine cat's den and was given some dock to put on her pads. She lay down on her side beside Sunwhisker who was being treated with some dock and cobwebs on her wounds. Once the medicine cat apprentice: Rabbitpaw. Was finished putting on the dock on Sunwhisker's wounds, she turned her head towards Honeypaw and smiled

"Feeling better now, Honeypaw?" she asked. Honeypaw nodded

"Yes, it feels much more better now thanks to you." she replied. Rabbitpaw dipped her head and moved on to help Rainpaw. Sunwhisker watched as the white apprentice padded towards Rainpaw with the leftover dock

"Very nice and helpful apprentice don't you think?" she said. Honeypaw wondered who she was talking to at first but then realized it was her and she nodded quickly

"Yeah." she replied. Sunwhisker looked at Honeypaw and wrapped her tail around her paws

"It's good to see you've been healing a bit and talking to cats more for the past few days." she said. Honeypaw looked away and just ignored what Sunwhisker had just said.

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