Flamewind poked his head in through the apprentice den. "Ashpaw! Thornpaw! Cypresspaw! Get up, we're going on a border run." He called. The apprentices groaned and stretched. Ashpaw was the first out of the den, bouncing beside Briarpelt in a few minutes. Thornpaw was next, walking sleepily, but happily. Then Cypresspaw dragged himself out of his nest, stretched and shook. He blinked and woke himself up more. They were ready to go just as the sunhigh patrol was leaving.

Flamewind walked shyly beside Briarpelt, sneaking glances at her when he thought she wasn't looking. Did she really like him? He thought. Was it possible that he likes her back? He was jolted out of his reverie by the apprentice's excited voices. They began to run along the border, and Flamewind forgot all of his troubles in the exhilaration in running in his clan, in his forest, with his friends. Occasionally he or Briarpelt would shout something to the apprentices, and the sun was up and shining by the time they reached the river. Flamewind sighed, contentedly. He rested with the others, on the riverbank, basking in the warm sun. He pricked his ears up and opened his eyes. The orange tom sprang to his feet and motioned for the apprentices to be quiet, Briarpelt had already sensed it. After a moment he relaxed. "Riverpelt!" He called to his deputy. His expression turned to worry at the look on the tom's face. "What?" Briarpelt, Cypresspaw, Thornpaw, and ashpaw stood behind him, apprehensive.

"Icepaw is missing. No ones seen him since yesterday morning." There were several gasps from the cats. The grey tom looked at the other apprentices. "Unless you saw him last night?" They each shook their head. Riverpelt looked disappointed but nodded. "Right, we need to find him, any trace of him." Riverpelt turned but Briarpelt stopped him.

"Riverpelt! How do we know he's not just hiding somewhere? Why are we sending patrols out?"

The tom looked at them with pained grey eyes. "Because the sunhigh patrol scented rouges on our territory." He disappeared through the underbrush, and after a moment of shock, they divided and spread out, searching as well.

Flamewind followed the rest of the border with Ashpaw while Briarpelt, Cypresspaw , and Thornpaw searched inside their territory to see if they could pick up a scent. They all looked but Flamewind realized with a pang that it had rained the day before last. There was no way they could find a scent now. Flamewind stood near the border of StormClan sniffing around for the nonexistent scent of Icepaw.

He tensed and howled a second before two cats sprang at him, knocking him over. Flamewind jumped readily to his feet and scratched at a cat, but the other one hit him from behind, he rolled over with it, trying to scratch the soft underbelly and threw his attacker off, but not without earning a bite to the leg. He heard a high pitched yowl. Ashpaw! "Ashpaw! Run!" He yelled. The orange tom knew that the young apprentice was no match for a full grown rouge. He opened him mouth to yell again, but the black rouge jumped on him. Flamewind rolled, crushing the cat against a rock and racked his claws down its back. The cat, however, didn't relent. It lashed out, claws raking his face and Flamewind cried out in pain. He struggled to see through blood dripping into his eye, he swiped blindly and caught a shoulder, sending the cats sprawling. He rushed at it and bit into its tail, and it finally ran off yowling in pain. He staggered, but knew he had to help Ashpaw. Flamewind raced to the apprentice, ignoring screams of protest from his battered body, and tackled the rouge. The black cat was fresh, though, and Flamewind's strength was waning. He cried out as the rouge raked it's claws down his back and threw it off in a burst of adrenaline. The cat stood, winded, but prepared to spring. It was caught in midair by a flash of white. Flamewind stared for a moment as Cloudstream battled with rouge cat. Black and white and red mixed together painting a deadly picture. Cloudstream yowled furiously and bit the cat on the shoulder, sending bits of fur and blood flying. The rouge ran squealing like a kit.

"Flamewind. Flamewind!" She said running to him. Pain lanced through his body and his face felt like it was on fire.

"Ashpaw." He managed through the pain. She hesitated for a moment then licked his cheek and ran out of his field of vision. The trees began to spin when he tried to stand. He took a step and blackness creeped into his vision as he put weight on his back foot. The tom collapsed and closed his eyes. How easy would it be to just sleep. Sleep and forget the pain. Sleep and forget the worry. But no. He had Ashpaw, Cloudstream to think of. He had Briarpelt. Briarpelt. He heard faint voices around him before everything dissolved into oblivion.

A/N it s a shorter chapter but I think that was a good place to end it:) sooo what did you think? Good? Bad? Constructive criticsism is always welcome!