"Hey, get up. It's sunrise and Jadestar wants all cats in the clearing." It was Quietdew, poking her muzzle into the den.

Crescentpaw strolled out and into a pale-grey dawn. The sky still streamed with thin rainfall, so all of the others were gathered beneath a thick-leaved rowan tree. There was a bushy line of sedgegrass growing behind the sitting warriors.

She plodded through puddles on her way over, yawning massively with her jaws extended. Crescentpaw sat down beside Lagoonstripe, expecting to go out on patrol. But then she realized that Lagoonstripe was adamately arguing, not performing her stand-in deputy duties.

"Whether you like it or not I have to send out at least one hunting patrol. Now that we're all awake, we're going to be hungry soon. There's nothing left on the freshkill pile." Lagoonstripe squared up to Jadestar with defiance, her silvery pelt ruffled.

Alpinefog nodded, his cool gaze a lot more mediating as he took a nonchalant step between them. "We can put off the dawn patrol, but not the early hunting patrol. The hunting cats will just have to get the news from the other warriors when they return." He tilted his head in an appeasing manner.

"Fine," Jadestar eventually sniffed. "Don't blame me if information gets confused because not every cat got to hear about it."

"He just said that they will," Racoonstripe muttered.

"From the source," Jadestar hissed.

How long have they been arguing?

Crescentpaw searched the mass of sitting and standing cats for the other apprentices. Tinypaw, Cheetah, Rowanpaw, and Rainpaw were all there. They too watched Lagoonstripe, waiting for her instructions while she lashed her tail impatiently.

"Raccoonstripe, Alpinefog, Quietdew, and Rowanpaw. Take a hunting patrol to the south-flowing stream. Stay in the more exposed areas, where you can't be ambushed. If Crescentpaw and the others were attacked at sunfall then there's a chance that wolves could attack your patrol as well." She shook her head somberly.

"No time of day is safe, but we have to hunt at some point."

"I want to go." Trufflefur meowed and took a step forward. His coat looked glossy and healthy beside his rounded, oval face.

"Good. The more cats the better. If you split up to hunt ground prey, make sure you're staying close together. I want cats fishing within sight of each other." Lagoonstripe's meow was emphasized.

Trufflefur nodded.

A fat raindrop made its way through the tree cover and onto Crescentpaw's eartip. She shook it off and shivered, spine twitching. Her thick fur was still clumpy and under-groomed.

"On another note, why are you still marking the borders?" Jadestar asked after the cats meowed farewell.

"We respect and uphold the warrior code, that's why." Lagoonstripe said in a sour-sweet tone again.

"Yet you dismiss other Warrior Code rules. You don't even have your own clan leader to follow. You haven't appointed a deputy after your previous one died. Smallsmarrow, wasn't it?"

Emberfawn's face contorted into an insufferable expression. Crescentpaw almost laughed.

"There's more important things to discuss," Tinypaw snapped from farther back in the crowd.

"Good point. Thank you, Tinypaw."

"Riverclan apprentices need taught to keep quiet," Sootface muttered under his breath. The strengthening dawn light was turning his back fur to wheaten yellow.

Why, so we can never say a single word like your daughter? Crescentpaw thought.

"Good point. Thank you, Sootface. My deputy," Jadestar meowed pointedly.

"We aren't anything less because we don't have a deputy!" Emberfawn meowed loudly. "And in fact most of our 'outspoken apprentices' are of warrior age!"

Sootface rolled his eyes. "So we've heard."

It was cool and moist beneath the tree, with well-drained peaty earth beneath their pads. Somehow the cats that didn't usually argue were becoming triggered by a tail-flick.

"Our apprentices don't advise us, they just add on their opinions." Houndspots grunted.

The heated discussion paused after that. Tinypaw's eyes were huge, as if she couldn't believe Jadestar's audacity towards scolding them already.

And I agree. It's not a good look, when she just got here.

Cheetah had one ear flattened. Crescentpaw thought she looked confused about why every cat was so combative.

Crescentpaw decided to speak up. "What do you think our next course of action should be, Jadestar?" After she asked, she leaned down to begin grooming her matted fur. It's gotten to be in horrid condition over the last few days. Always wet or matted!

"We have to send some cats to the Moonpool, obviously. We must appoint a new medicine cat and flee the territories." Rain dripped off of Jadestar's whiskers.

"If Starclan gives us a sign then we'll know which direction to go." Beside her, Sootface nodded. His blocky black muzzle was crisscrossed with scars.

"For that, I agree." Houndspots said. The warrior's short brown-and-white pelt was spiky from the drizzled rain.

He sat awkwardly to avoid stretching out his wound. Crescentpaw paused in her grooming to try and catch a glimpse of it, but Houndspots was facing away.

"But two of the clans- technically three if we include Thunderclan, are lost now." Cheetah spoke up. "Will Starclan have a solution for that?"

Jadestar twitched droplets from her whiskers. Her stormy grey pelt was flat against her sharp green eyes.

"They'll have to, if they want the other clans restored. So I'll send-"

"I'll go by myself again." Crescentpaw interrupted her, opening her jaws quickly enough to blurt the words out.

The silence was fleeting after that. I sound insane.

Tinypaw came closer and hissed "No! Not again, Crescentpaw! You didn't even tell me before you went last time. YOU HAVE TO TELL YOUR LITTERMATE FIRST."

Sootface said "See what I mean?" The tom swiveled his head around as if expecting some cat to agree with him.

"Okay, that's definitely not happening." Lagoonstripe turned a disapproving gaze on her. "My apprentice, acting or not, still hasn't been punished for doing that the first time!"

"So you are going to punish her?" Sootface interjected.

"I don't know yet." The lanky warrior's shrug was full of impatience, as if Lagoonstripe were holding onto her last nerve.

"I'm certainly not discussing it with Skyclan's deputy, but one might think that seeing multiple cats die is punishment enough."

Crescentpaw's tail swished across the grassy earth. She tried to hide her resentment by licking a white forepaw and drawing it over her ear.

They don't understand. And she could tell that causing a scene and trying to argue wouldn't help.

I have to go. If I don't go two or three cats, however many they send could die!

But how was she supposed to convince them? Crescentpaw had to supress a sigh. She sat through the rest of the discussion until it was decided that Jadestar, Emberfawn and Alpinefog would travel to the Moonpool.

"Quietdew is going to be upset that we're sending her kin," Houndspots advised calmly. His rumbling mew resounded with the pattering rain.

"We can't do anything about that." Sootface mewed.

"Let him stay behind with his mother and send another warrior," Pepperpelt croaked.

Crescentpaw couldn't help but notice the Skyclan cats once again rebelling against every single decision that Riverclan made. Lagoonstripe was frowning when Crescentpaw looked over at her.

"He's a young Riverclan tom. If he wants to go, let him." Sootface argued against his clanmate Pepperpelt this time. His tufty ears held clinging dewdrops.

Emberfawn shrugged uncertainly. Then he puffed out his chest, trying to save his own ego.

"I mean, if I wasn't chosen I'd have been okay with that. But now that I am, I'll protect Jadestar and Alpinefog with my life." There was no fear in his voice.

"Good. Those are a warriors words, young tom."

"He has a name, you know." Crescentpaw commented airily, to which Tinypaw chortled.

"Just ask him his name."

Sootface fumed, his large black ears flattening like a fox in a fit.

"Right, then it's settled." Jadestar said quickly. "We'll send those cats tomorrow morning. If the skies are clear by then, there'll be no reason to wait."

"Shouldn't they have a day to rest? Since they don't have energy-herbs?" Cheetah cut in. Her whiskers were drooping with the weight of water-droplets. Crescentpaw stopped cleaning her tail and looked over at the spotted she-cat.

"Traveling-herbs," the apprentice whispered toward her friend.

Cheetah was standing beside Emberfawn. The ruddy-red tomcat glanced at her with an agreeable expression.

"Traveling herbs, I mean."

"Yes. Thanks for mentioning that, Cheetah. Those three warriors are off duty for the remainder of the day. Gather your strength."

Cheetah's expression was collective. Her gaze grew proud as she stood beside the Riverclan warriors.

"I'll tell Alpinefog when he gets back," Emberfawn meowed.

The fur on Crescentpaw's shoulders and forehead was soaked. She shook her pelt. The forest'll be even worse. But I'm ready to go.

"Wait- Cheetah? Why is her name like that?" Jadestar asked.

Crescentpaw's eyes widened. She looked over at Skyclan's leader with dread.

Starclan, no! Nothing could've prepared her for the world of impatience she experienced next.

🐈‍⬛

After the Riverclan warriors and Cheetah herself explained, Jadestar argued on and on about their 'reckless decision' of 'letting a kittypet join the clan' during a 'moon of carnage.' Or something like that.

Crescentpaw impatiently waited for her assignment. When her acting mentor finally led her out of camp, she was raring to go. And she hadn't even eaten.

The dripping Riverclan forest smelled muggy and dank. A heavy humidity settled upon the two cat's backs as they padded across the verdant woody wetlands. Silvery willow branches stretched  toward them, dispersing dewdrops onto the reeds and riverbanks.

I'll sneak away from Lagoonstripe as fast as possible. As soon as she looks the other away, the Riverclan apprentice thought.
 

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Crescentpaw