Chapter12: Harepaw

A/N: Calico means with white/ginger/black patches (like Tawnypelt)

Harepaw and Nightpaw, along with the rest of the two patrols, rushed over to where the yowling was coming from.

They rounded some trees and skidded to a halt in front of the horseplace. Surrounding Foxpaw and Fernpaw was a patrol of nine unfamiliar cats. The patrol was led by three cats that appeared to be littermates. The biggest was a white based calico tom with amber eyes, then a ginger based calico tom with amber eyes, and the smallest (although he was not very small) was a black based calico tom with amber eyes. The other cats all appeared to be about apprentice aged. There was as swift looking black tom with lighter tabby stripes and dark blue eyes; a dark brown tom with lighter patches, white paws, and yellow eyes; another tom who appeared to be his brother was brown with white stripes and green eyes; a white she-cat with black tabby stripes and dark blue eyes; another white she-cat but with pale tabby stripes and light blue eyes; and a long legged white she-cat with a darkening tail and greenish blue eyes.

Harepaw gasped. These are the cats! They are the ones who want revenge. He thought.

Nightpaw's mentor, Pebblefoot, yowled a battle cry before charging the rogues.

The WindClan cats waited to see if the RiverClan warrior could handle the rogues, but they were badly outnumbered, and the rogues were well trained. Soon Boulderfur was leading his patrol against the rogues, as well.

Harepaw found himself up against the swift black tom. The tom snarled at Harepaw.

"You're here to get revenge on the Clans for a broken promise, aren't you?" Harepaw snarled back.

They rogue looked shocked, and Harepaw used this to pin him.

"Who are you?" Harepaw hissed.

The rogue growled. "My name is Hawk; we call ourselves The Black Hearted Rogues. The Clans brought this on themselves. They promised! The broke their promise and forgot. They forgot, and now the forgotten will get revenge."

Hawk shoved Harepaw off, and was soon on top of him. Hawk snarled and was just about to give the killing bite, but the pause for a brief moment and glanced around. Hawk loosened his grip some and Harepaw shoved him off.

Harepaw snarled. He was just about to charge the rogue again, but Hawk dashed off to help one of his companions, the brown and white tabby, from under Rushheart. Harepaw looked around. He saw that Nightpaw needed help from the white she-cat with the darkening tail. He ran over and shoved her off of Nightpaw.

The rogue spun around and snarled at the two apprentices. She widened her eyes and ran over to where the white she-cat with black tabby stripes was fighting Fernpaw, and was just about to kill her. The rogue who was just on Nightpaw knocked Fernpaw to the ground. She clawed at Fernpaw's exposed belly and face, and made Fernpaw run back to her camp. The white and black tabby spun around to face her companion. Harepaw couldn't hear what they were saying, but the other she-cat said something that made them both turn around and continue to fight the Clan cats.

Suddenly, the ginger calico tom leapt on the fence of the horse place and yowled, "Black Hearted Rogues! I think we've left our mark here, let's go." All of the rogues ran over to him and jump over the fence. The last two over was the black tom, Hawk, and the tall she-cat with the darkening tail. They glanced back at the spitting Clan cats. Hawks eyes revealed something close to pity, and hope, while the she-cat's held anger, of a sort. They both followed their companions over the fence without looking back a second time.

"That was a fancy way of say retreat." Eaglepaw gloated.

"He's right, though. They did leave their mark." Emberfoot murmured.

Foxpaw trotted around, his head and tail high. "RiverClan is stronger than these so-called Black Hearted Rogues. They weren't very strong at all."

"Then how come WindClan had to step in and save you?" Eaglepaw snarled.

"We could have handled them by ourselves." Foxpaw hissed.

"Really? Then what about the one that almost killed Fernpaw?" Harepaw stated.

Foxpaw's eyes widened. "Fernpaw? Where's Fernpaw?! She was killed!" He wailed.

"Relax mousebrain. Another white she-cat attacked her and she fled back to camp." Nightpaw panted.

"We should probably go now." Leaftail said.

"So should we, all of us obtained major wounds." Mintfur commented. It was true, all of them were bleeding heavily, and needed to go and see their medicine cats.

The two patrol left to go to their camps. Once they were back at camp, Harepaw and his patrol were showered with questions.

"Did RiverClan do this? I'll shred them!" A young warrior growled.

"That's enough, everyone." Onestar commanded. "Boulderfur, what happened?" He asked as Kestrelflight began to treat the patrol's wounds.

"We were attack by a group of rogues." Boulderfur reported.

Onestar's eyes widened. "Some rogues did this?"

"Lots of big well trained rogues." Emberfoot muttered.

"We must be wary; they sounded as if they were getting revenge for something." Leaftail stated.

Onestar nodded. "I shall announce this at the gathering in a couple of days. I assume that RiverClan fought these rogues, as well?"

Eaglepaw was the one who responded. "We had to rescue them. They almost killed Fernpaw!"

The Clan gasped. "So these cats are willing to kill." Onestar's eyes clouded. "Very well, we shall send out bigger patrols."

When Kestrelflight had treated the wounds of all those on the patrol and the Clan dispersed to do what they had to do, Harepaw and Eaglepaw padded over to their mentors.

"That battle has taken a lot out of all of us." Leaftail stated.

"You two should get some rest." Emberfoot agreed. "No training until you two are fully healed."

Eaglepaw and Harepaw gaped. "What?!" They yowled. No way were they falling behind in their training just because of some stupid battle.

Leaftail gave them a stern look. "You need to rest; otherwise you risked prolonging your training even more."

The brothers made no other attempt to protest and went to their nests.

"That was weird." Harepaw murmured.

Eaglepaw glanced at him. "What?"

"You know how that patrol was led by three cats who appeared to be "warriors", and the others were like "apprentices"?" Harepaw asked.

"Yea, so?"

"So, I think that in order for them to become "warriors" they have to kill a cat." Harepaw sighed.

Eaglepaw growled. "They won't kill any of just to become warriors!"

"That's just it; they didn't kill any of us." Harepaw stated.

"They almost killed Fernpaw." Eaglepaw pointed out.

"That's just it, again. They almost killed her." Harepaw pressured. "If it weren't for that tall she-cat, Fernpaw would be crowfood."

Eaglepaw gave him a strange look. "Wasn't that the she-cat that turned Fernpaw into crowfood, though?"

Harepaw sighed, Eaglepaw didn't understand. "Never mind, go to sleep, we should rest as much we can in order to get back to training."

Eaglepaw curled up to leave Harepaw to his thoughts. Wait a minute… that black tom! He let me go! But why? And the look he shot back at us… Harepaw realized. He decided the next change he got, he would have to talk with this tom.