Duskpaw climbed out of the water, dripping with the lukewarm liquid that in any other circumstance would have made him sick, but today was a good day, no dark thoughts, no paralyzing fear, nothing.

He shook off and heard a shriek of disgust, he shifted his gaze to his pastel sister, she was cleaning herself of what little water he'd flung on her.

Duskpaw let out a little laugh as Ashpaw and Rainpaw followed his lead out of the small river, pawing over the small rocks that dug into their pads.

"You are all weird, no one anywhere could ever convince me otherwise" Dawnpaw scoffed at them as the other two apprentices shook their coats out.

"We may be weird but we have fun with it!" Ashpaw said as he pranced around with Rainpaw trotting beside him.

Duskpaw shook his head and sat next to his sister, she looked at him with their matching blue eyes.

"Leafbare is coming soon" She said.

Duskpaw nodded, the breeze was making it a bit difficult to focus on anything other than the cold.

"Aren't you cold?" Duskpaw called after the parading apprentices.

"We live up on the cliff! This is nothing!" Rainpaw mewed while still trotting around Ashpaw.

Dawnpaw shivered beside Duskpaw, leaning against him for extra warmth in the breeze.

"H-hey let's finish our border tour and then go back to camp yeah?" Duskpaw offered.

"Alright I guess" Ashpaw huffed.

With that they headed toward one of the major points of territory, a giant Boulder that seemed to be as tall as a tree.
This boulder was called Smothering Slope, no one was supposed to go on or under it, and nobody did.

As the apprentices passed by the giant rock, Rainpaw stopped and looked at Ashpaw, they grinned.

Duskpaw looked at the friends.

"What are you two planning?" Duskpaw asked the two, his mind already coming to the conclusion it would definitely end in someone getting hurt or somewhere along that path.

"Do you two want to come visit CliffClan?!" Rainpaw blurted out excitedly.

Duskpaw and Dawnpaw were both taken aback by the request- question?

May as well at this point, Duskpaw audibly sighed and started to pad back to camp at a reasonable pace.

"Uh is that a yes or a no?" Ashpaw called after Duskpaw.

Duskpaw continued to trot on with Dawnpaw flanking him, he nodded his head and Ashpaw and Rainpaw started sprinting toward them.

The two CliffClan apprentices slowed down to the others' paces, Rainpaw looked at the two.

"How are you two siblings?" She laughed.

Duskpaw felt his ears heating up but- thank StarClan- Dawnpaw responded.

"We- actually I don't have a clue" Dawnpaw laughed with the grace of a StarClan cat, how could he possibly be related to that?.

Duskpaw was caught off guard when Okai came sprinting up to him, sleek fur bristled unnaturally, eyes wide with unshed panic.

"We need to go. Now" Okai stated plainly.

Duskpaw felt a prickle in his pelt with an unnerving sense of foreshadowing.

"We need to go" Duskpaw parroted aloud, not questioning his invisible companion.

"What? Why?" Ashpaw questioned.

"We just do- let's go!" Duskpaw said in a hurry before running full speed towards a thick and tall tree which was losing leaves steadily.

Duskpaw looked behind him to see his friends loping at a much calmer pace as if his anxiety wasn't affecting them as well.

Something caught Duskpaw's eyes as she gazed behind his friends.

"RUN- BADGER!" He shrieked.

That was when the reality of Duskpaw's worries sank into the other apprentices.

The cats' eyes went wide and alert, ears flinching at everything they heard, raging towards the tree Duskpaw clung to like a quiet storm.

Duskpaw could perfectly see the black and white beast gaining on the other cats as they scrambled up the tree.

Ashpaw was up first, then Rainpaw, Dawnpaw was lagging behind a bit and looked to be limping slightly.

Duskpaw shoved his inner turmoil to the back of his mind and all but ran down the tree like a squirrel, grabbing his sister with a burst of energy and dragging her up the rest of the way.

The badger seemed unable to climb up the tree, this was good- thank StarClan, but they weren't out of this mess quite yet.

Dawnpaw made it to a higher branch and crouched, favoring her stronger paw as her other was held a little higher.

"Dawnpaw are you alright?" Duskpaw asked in a worried tone.

"I'm fine, I think one of my claws was yanked out when I was pulling myself up though..." Dawnpaw stated whilst observing said paw.

The other apprentices winced at that, they'd all heard stories of how much that hurt.

"S-so what do we do about the badger?" Duskpaw said, mostly to himself.

"Stay here until I can figure out a plan" Duskpaw startled as he heard Okai behind him on a large branch.

Duskpaw nodded inwardly.

Rainpaw looked toward the sky, the clouds were subtlety fading to a shadowed gray tone.

"It looks like it'll be a pretty bad storm soon, maybe if we hold it out long enough the badger will get bored and go away?" Rainpaw said hesitantly.

"Now that sounds like a plan" Okai grinned from behind once more.

"Everyone in agreement say- uh- say mouse?" Ashpaw prompted.

Three 'mouse's were heard, they all stared toward Dawnpaw.

She sighed "ugh fine... mouse" she said in false cheer.

"I guess we should just huddle for a bit of warmth then?" Rainpaw said as the spatter or raindrops were beginning to echo.

"Yeah, let's do that" Ashpaw said as he clawed his way over to the flatter branch Rainpaw was crouching on, leaning into her a bit.

Dawnpaw walked over to the pair gently and leaned into Rainpaw's other side.

Duskpaw followed in a more or less similar but clumsy matter.

Everyone huddled closer as the quiet echo became a thundering roar of water raging down on their bare backs.

Hello everyone reading :')

Hi... that's all I have to say lmao

Um I guess some questions?

Who's your favorite?

Least favorite if you've got one?

Any ships? XD