A warm orange sun rose up in the sky, lighting up even the darkest parts of DarkClan.

Blackheart stretched her legs as she exited the warrior's den, which was a cave in a hill underneath a tree stump. She could hear Crowscar, grumbling about his itchy nest of maple leaves, near Eagletalon, the medicine cat.

Whenever Crowscar complained about things in the camp, it was hard not to let out a mrrow of laughter. Blackheart strode across the sandy ground, covered with many orange leaves of two seasons ago in leaf-fall. It's a good thing it's newleaf or else my tail would freeze off! Blackheart thought.

She switched her gaze to the apprentice's den as soon as she heard the meowing of Cinderpaw and Timberpaw. They were Smokewing and Sootface's kits, only just getting out of the nursery last sunrise.

Cinderpaw's gray fur looked very neat and clean, while Timberpaw's dark brown pelt was messy and dirty with mud.

Sootface appeared from the warrior's den, bounding after the two toms. Once she was with them, she grabbed Timberpaw by the scruff and started cleaning his dirty pelt. Cinderpaw's eyes glittered with humor as he saw his sibling getting cleaned for the second time that sunrise. It must be nice to have someone clean you whenever you got dirty, Blackheart thought to herself.

"Badgerpelt, remember Blackfoot? I look just like him now, but the other way around!" Whitepaw purred. Blackheart remembered her sister's words when they were apprentices.

Their mother, Badgerpelt, had seen them grow to become apprentices, but never warriors. She had died of greencough four seasons ago in leaf-bare, when Blackheart and Whitefoot were almost warriors.

Eagletalon tried to save her, but Smokewing and Ashtail were also sick with greencough. Why had they survived? Why not save my mother instead of them? Blackheart thought angrily. She liked Eagletalon, but she couldn't forgive the dark brown tom for not saving her mother.

"Blackheart, are they ready to go on the dawn patrol?" Whitefoot's voice broke Blackheart's thoughts. Blackheart glanced at Whitefoot, then at Cinderpaw and Timberpaw.

The two toms were playfighting with their claws sheathed. She called out, "Cinderpaw! Timberpaw! Time to go on the dawn patrol!" Cinderpaw stopped playing immediately, then got knocked over by Timberpaw as he swatted him over.

The gray tom gave his sibling a mean look, then got to his paws. Timberpaw looked proud to have caught Cinderpaw off-guard, but then Cinderpaw tackled him. "Come on, stop playing." Whitefoot ordered. Both toms rose to their paws and trotted after the two sisters.