"I guess we won't be doing any training this afternoon," Duskpaw said, disappointed.
Dapplepaw turned to look at his brother in shock. "That's all you can think about? Don't you care that something is going to happen tonight?"
"Well yeah, I guess so," Duskpaw said, turning away and stalking off towards the apprentices den.
"You guess?" Dapplepaw meowed after him, unable to move his paws. "You guess?!"
"Dapplepaw!"
The black and white cat managed to drag his eyes away from Duskpaw, and saw a cat bounding towards him. "What is it, Robinpaw?"
Robinpaw was Duskpaw and Dapplepaw's brother. Instead of training as a warrior, Robinpaw decided to train as a medicine cat. He was actually pretty good at it.
"Sorry we didn't talk sooner, Silvermoon wouldn't let me leave! I had to take care of Hawkmask all on my own. Do you know what happened to him? He's torn up pretty bad."
Dapplepaw shook his head. "No, I didn't even know he was hurt. Is it fighting wounds?" The apprentices wandered to the side of the camp as they talked, trying to stay out of the way of other cats.
"It is fighting wounds, but whenever I ask Hawkmask about it he won't tell me anything! I can't get a word out of that stubborn tom." Robinpaw flicked his tail, narrowing his eyes as he looked across the clearing at the medicine den.
"At least he's loyal," Dapplepaw said, before changing the subject. "I wonder what's going to happen tonight. Do you have any clue? All I know is that Skystar had to send a warrior to tell Tanglestar about the message."
"What?" Robinpaw looked at his brother in shock. "Tanglestar didn't get a message from Starclan?"
"Uh…" Dapplepaw trailed off. Should he have said that? He didn't want the rumor to spread around camp, because who knew what grief that could cause Tanglestar. But the leader never told the border patrol to not tell anyone. Still… "Yeah. But you can't tell anyone. I probably shouldn't have said anything…"
"Ok." Robinpaw nudged his brother. "Your secret is safe with me."
"Thank you," Dapplepaw purred. "At least I can trust you."
"No problem. You should go get some rest, you look tired."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," the tom said, getting to his paws and yawning. "Talk to you later?"
"Of course. I should go now, Silvermoon probably needs me." With that, the tortoiseshell tom dashed off towards the medicine den.
Dapplepaw watched, then turned away and padded towards the apprentices den. He figured he would find Duskpaw inside sleeping, but when he stepped inside, his brother was nowhere to be seen. Dapplepaw figured he was somewhere else in camp, but as he curled up on his bed of moss, he noticed the hole in the brambles was slightly bigger than it had been last night. That could only mean one thing. Dapplepaw wasn't about to let his brother get hurt, even if both of them ended up getting in trouble.
Thank you for reading chapter 8 in Cheating the Stars! I'll try to update at least once a week, most likely on the weekend. Please review, I would appreciate advice or suggestions or even just plain comments! Once again, thank you for reading!