Chapter19: Beetlepaw

"Hurry up, Nightpaw! You're starting to fall behind!" Beetlepaw called joyfully as he raced between the trees towards the WindClan border.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Slow down!" Nightpaw wheezed from behind him.

Grasspelt and Pebblefoot had agreed to take the three apprentices, Nightpaw, Beetlepaw, and Foxpaw, training while Foxpaw's mentor recovered from a meeting with a fox. The fox won't be returning any time soon.

Beetlepaw skidded to a halt at the lake. Nightpaw dashed out after him. They were closely followed by Grasspelt and Pebblefoot, along with Foxpaw in a halfhearted trot.

Foxpaw had been quiet the last couple of days. He wouldn't even his or snarl at Beetlepaw. Despite the way Foxpaw had treated him, Beetlepaw felt sorry for the younger apprentice.

"Hah! I win, Nightpaw!" Beetlepaw gloated.

"Oh yea?" Nightpaw sneered before he leaped on Beetlepaw and the two started to tussle playfully. Beetlepaw had grown significantly in the past moon, and now he was almost Nightpaw's size.

"Alright, remember, we still need to patrol the WindClan border." Pebblefoot reminded the brothers when they separated.

"Yes! And then we can go scout for those rogues," Nightpaw said gleefully. This caused Beetlepaw to sigh slightly.

Grasspelt purred. "Okay, so we better get moving."

The patrol remarked the border without incident. Although, Nightpaw was boasting about fighting the rogues the entire time.

"… And then, I'd take on their leader! By that time every other rogue would be–" Nightpaw was saying.

"Okay we get it!" Beetlepaw snapped. "You need to be quiet; otherwise you'll let the rogues know that we're here." Beetlepaw lowered his voice.

Nightpaw didn't speak a single word after that.

They soon arrived at the border with the horseplace, the patrol swiftly, and silently, crossed it and followed the fence to where they could smell a great number of cats. The five of them continued until Grasspelt signaled for them to stop. The hid in some tall grasses that also masked their scent, and they were within earshot of a big gray tom with gray eyes.

"… Alright, Ice, Frost, you two said that you could fish? Then go get some fish! Smokey still isn't back yet from her squirrel hunting across the lake, and we still need prey." Two white tabby she-cats, one with pale stripes and light blue eyes, the other with black stripe and dark blue eyes, nodded and ran off in the direction of the lake.

"Now they're stealing out fish!" Nightpaw whispered.

"Shh!" Pebblefoot commanded before turning back to the rogues.

Suddenly, a tall white she-cat with a darkening tail leaped down from the barn. Beetlepaw and the patrol didn't even notice she was there. The cat went over to the gray tom.

"Smokey! Finally! What took you so long?" The gray some hissed. Smokey! I knew I recognized her

"Apologies, Stone, but those ThunderClan cats make a lot of racket, and it is truly hard to find anything. They don't even know how to hunt in their own territory. I also took the time to scout it out. Their camp is in a large stone hollow in the center of the woods. It's so open there." Smokey replied.

"Well, at least you brought something back," Stone growled.

Smokey went over and dropped the three squirrels she'd been carrying over to fairly large prey pile. It contained fresh kill from all of the Clan territories around the lake; fish from RiverClan, rabbits from WindClan, squirrels from ThunderClan, and even some frogs from ShadowClan. These rogues planned on staying for a while. After setting down her prey, Smokey went over to two white toms; one dark brown with lighter patches and white paws, who looked like Eaglepaw from WindClan, and the other being light brown with white stripes.

"It appears that he missed me," Smokey growled to the brown and white striped tom.

"What? How was I supposed to cover for you when you spent all day and night over there? And right after the battle, too! It was plenty obvious that you went looking for Sparrow. How'd it go?" The tom replied.

"It was horrible, Tree," Smokey snorted. "Apparently Lion's Roar got his wish! He is in ThunderClan." This caused the other tom to bristle.

"What?! How is that fair! He's forgotten and he still got his wish to join them?" He snarled.

Tree laid his tail on who Beetlepaw assumed was his brother. "Eagle, you don't know that he's forgotten. There could be some that remember like us." Nightpaw and Beetlepaw glanced at each other.

"Oh no, he's forgotten. He didn't even know his own name! The Clans call him Li –" Smokey narrowed her eyes at the grass where the patrol was hiding, but Tree and Eagle didn't seem to notice. "Uh, I'll tell you later. We should probably go practice… I'll meet you at training in a minute."

The two brothers looked at each other, then they padded out of sight. Smokey had disappeared, too.

Grasspelt signaled for the patrol to leave, and they crept slowly out of the grass and through the underbrush. They were sure that the rogues couldn't see them, if they were even looking. Suddenly, a strong force landed on Nightpaw. Beetlepaw and the rest of the patrol whirled around and hissed at the attacker.

Smokey sat back on her haunches on top of Nightpaw. "I could always call to my group members."

Beetlepaw kept his claws out and fur bushed. Grasspelt gave no signal to attack.

Smokey rolled her eyes at them. She was still pinning Nightpaw, even though the tall she-cat couldn't be much older than him.

Beetlepaw sighed and slid his claws in. "Relax. She's not going to attack us." Pebblefoot gave him a strange look. Beetlepaw shook his head. "If she was, she wouldn't have sent Tree and Eagle away, and pursued us herself. She isn't stupid, she knew we were there." Smokey snorted, and eyed Beetlepaw curiously.

"Alright...so what do you want?" Grasspelt asked carefully.

"You don't remember." Smokey hissed.

"Yea, what are you talking about?" Pebblefoot questioned. "You were talking to Tree and Eagle about remembering, and some cat named Lion's Roar. What was that about?" Pebblefoot's questions might have been a mistake, as she snarled at him and slid he claws into Nightpaw's pelt.

"You have forgotten. That is why we are here, to get revenge on the one who forgot!" She growled. "You should leave."

"Get off of Nightpaw." Pebblefoot hissed.

Smokey looked like she had just thought of something. Beetlepaw didn't like the look in her eyes. "Alright. How about a trade? My friends had been captured by two of your Clans. Hawk is in WindClan and Sparrow is in ThunderClan. Bring them to your next gathering and you can have Nightpaw back."

Pebblefoot looked like he wanted to tear Smokey into crowfood, but Grasspelt shook his head. "This is not a battle we can win," he looked at Smokey, "yet."

The patrol left without another word back to their territory. Beetlepaw stole one last look at Nightpaw and the rogue. Smokey had a determined and angry look on her face.