Lightstar blinked open her eyes and saw the wood walls of her den and the vines that covered the entrance.

Lightstar breathed a sigh of relief. She had a dreamless sleep.

She stretched and yawned. Lightstar then got completely on her feet. She poked her head through the vines and saw the early morning sun just starting to peek above the horizon.

Lightstar stepped out of her den and saw that no one was awake yet. She went to the middle of the camp and sat down on the soft sand, the leaves and vines swaying slightly while a small breeze blew.

Lightstar closed her eyes and opened her mouth to drink in the scent of the tropical forest. Drops of warm water were left on the trees, meaning it must have rained during the night.

Lightstar revisited the thought she had last night about Boulderstar, RainClan and wanting to know what happened to them.

During the Gathering, HillClan and ThistleClan, the two other Clans, were of course wondering what happened to RainClan, but were not going to meddle in another Clan's business. Lightstar had a friendship with Boulderstar and wanted to know if he and his Clan were okay.

She started thinking about doing a border patrol around the RainClan border to see if she could find any clues as to why RainClan did not come to the Gathering. The dawn patrol would leave soon so that would be a perfect time to do a border patrol.

Lightstar opened her eyes and stood up. She shook some sand off one of her paws and heard pawsteps to her left. Lightstar turned to see who it was and saw Cedarfoot coming out of the warrior's den, which was made out of a small bush covered in vines.

When Cedarfoot was completely out, he looked back at the den and that's when a long-furred, golden pelted head came out of the den. It was Lionclaw.

Lightstar padded over to both of them and they both looked toward her direction when she did.

She stopped in front of them and gave a curt nod in greeting.

"Are you two going on the dawn patrol?" Lightstar asked.

"Yes, we are. We were just about to wake Smallfang and Bellpaw to go with us," Cedarfoot replied.

"I see. Would you mind if I came along?" Lightstar asked.

Lionclaw shook his head. "No, we wouldn't mind."

"You can wake up Smallfang and we can wake up Bellpaw if that's okay," Cedarfoot mewed.

"Alright." Lionclaw and Cedarfoot padded around Lightstar and headed to the apprentices' den, a den made out of a hollow log.

Lightstar padded into the warrior's den. She saw Leafheart stirring in her nest, Stormstep laying on his back at the entrance of the den and Smallfang sleeping in the back of the den.

Lightstar tried to step around the sleeping cats and Clan members, but she accidentally stepped on a dark silver tail that belonged to Silverwing. Lightstar felt her ears heat up in embarrassment.

Silverwing awoke and her head shot up. She gave an irritable look towards Lightstar.

"Can you try to be a bit more careful?" She whispered, putting her head back down and rolling over on her side, making sure that her tail was out of reach.

"Sorry," Lightstar whispered back.

Lightstar took a few more steps forward until she was in front of the sleeping Smallfang.

Lightstar gently prodded Smallfang's side with a paw. When Smallfang didn't stir, Lightstar prodded her a little harder.

Smallfang lifted her head and looked at Lightstar. "Yes?" She whispered.

"The dawn patrol," Lightstar answered.

Smallfang got up and stretched one of her back legs.

Lightstar gave a nod then turned around when Smallfang was about to start stepping carefully around the sleeping cats.

When Lightstar and Smallfang exited the warriors den, Cedarfoot, Lionclaw and Bellpaw were waiting a few fox-lengths away, Bellpaw looking rather tired.

Smallfang padded over to her new apprentice and walked next to him as Cedarfoot lead the patrol out of the camp with Lionclaw next to him and Lightstar at the rear.

When the patrol started to go through the entrance of the camp, Lightstar saw Grayleaf
guarding the entrance. Cedarfoot and Grayleaf exchanged a quick greeting and Cedarfoot continued on.

Grayleaf spotted Lightstar walking at the back of the patrol and Lightstar stopped in front of him because he looked like he had something to say.

"Going on a patrol 'eh?" Grayleaf asked, though Lightstar knew it was more of a retorical question.

"Yeah, I want to see if I can find any clues about what might have happened to RainClan, that is, if anything happened at all," Lightstar replied.

"Ah, I see. Well, good luck," Grayleaf's eyes seemed to smile at Lightstar. "Are you-"

"Lightstar, are you coming?" Lightstar turned to the voice and saw Lionclaw waiting about two tail-lengths behind the group.

"Yeah, I'm coming. Bye Grayleaf, sorry you can tell me later okay." Lightstar flicked her tail on Grayleaf's shoulder in farewell and quickly padded up to Lionclaw.

They started to walk next to each other at the back of the group.

"I know he's your deputy and all, but I've noticed that you and Grayleaf talk quite a bit," Lionclaw mewed.

"So? What does it matter?" Lightstar thought she kind of had an idea of what Lionclaw meant.

"I'm just wondering." Lightstar thought she saw an amused gleam in Lionclaw's eye.

"We're just really good friends. We've been friends ever since we were kits." Lightstar wanted to make sure that Lionclaw had the right idea and wasn't thinking anything else.

"Okay, like I said, I was just wondering," Lionclaw mewed. He went ahead and was now padding next to Cedarfoot.

Lightstar let out an exasperated sigh and followed the patrol, she needed to focus on RainClan. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that Lionclaw's thoughts were on the right track.

~§~

Once the patrol got to the border that separated the RainClan territory from the FireClan territory, Lightstar noticed that something was off. The others seemed to notice too.

"That's strange," Cedarfoot mewed, sniffing closely to the border and the ground. "The scent markers aren't fresh. In fact, they're very stale."

Lightstar noticed that everything was still, and it seemed like hardly any life was on the other side of the border. It smelled strongly of blood, death and something familiar that Lighstar only scented a few times in her life.

She closed her eyes and opened her mouth to drink in the scent that was so strangly familiar. Then she realized what it was.

"It smells like a-"

"Dog!"

Lightstar got interrupted by Smallfang finishing her sentence. Lightstar opened her eyes and saw a black and white dog on the other side of the border.

Lightstar remembered her dream almost instantly. She shivered while remembering the incidents that took place in the dream. Lightstar vowed that she would not die in real life at the paws of a dog, no matter how many lives she had.

It started to run towards the partol, but not after giving a ferocious bark. Lionclaw started to run towards the dog head on. Cedarfoot started to run with Lionclaw at the dog.

Lightstar looked at Smallfang and Bellpaw and noticed that Smallfang's tail was around Bellpaw's back, like she was protecting him. It made sense, this was Bellpaw's second day as an apprentice, he was practically still a kit and he hadn't had any battle training yet.

Lightstar could tell that Smallfang wanted to help her Clanmates by fighting. Lightstar quickly went to her, she had an idea.

"I've got him," Lightstar mewed and pushed Smallfang ahead.

Smallfang ran forward towards the dog just as Cedarfoot and Lionclaw had done.

Cedarfoot and Lionclaw were attacking the dog from the sides. When the dog turned to attack one of them, Smallfang scratched the dog on the snout. The dog whined as this happened.

The dog turned and grabbed Smallfang by the head with it's sharp teeth and threw her. Smallfang hit the ground a few fox-lengths away, blood seeping from her wound.

Bellpaw was frozen with fear, his eyes wide and breathing uneven. Lightstar moved her position so that she was in front of Bellpaw and blocking the battle. She looked into his eyes.

"Go back to camp, and get help." When Bellpaw didn't move, Lightstar pushed him along. Bellpaw shook his head then gave a shaky nod and began to run in the direction of the camp.

Lightstar turned her attention to the dog and ran towards it, veering to the side and scratching it across it's cheek.

Cedarfoot jumped on the dog's back and bit into it's ear while Lionclaw bit it's leg.

The dog yelped, kicked Lionclaw off it's leg and reared it's head back, hitting Cedarfoot and making him loose his balance while he fell off the dog.

Lightstar lunged at the dog's throat while it was temporarily distracted. She managed to bite into the top part of it's throat, but the bite only tore the fur and a little bit of the skin.

The dog scratched Lightstar's head and got her off it's throat, making Lightstar's head bleed. Red blinded one of Lightstar's eyes and she tried to shake it away.

Lightstar saw a brief glimpse of white and gray before her vision cleared and she saw Whitepaw and Grayleaf attacking the dog.

Grayleaf was making claw marks in the dog's side while Whitepaw bit into it's tail, making it yelp. Cedarfoot had got up and attacked in the same place Lightstar had done. The dog bit into Cedarfoot's leg and threw him off.

Lightstar saw Lionclaw and Smallfang getting help from Wetwhisker and Leafheart.

Lightstar got up, her wound stinging with pain. She jumped at the dog again, but this time, she jumped on the side of it's neck.

Lightstar scratched the dog's ear, making it bleed. Lightstar got on the dog's back and got to the back of it's head.

Lightstar scratched at the dog's eyes and it yelped, shaking it's head back and forth while red blood pooled on the grass and reeds. Some cat, and some dog.

It tried to run away to get Lightstar off it's back, but Whitepaw still held onto it's tail. Lightstar jumped off and the dog. Lightstar saw a stomach wound and figured that Grayleaf must have done that.

The dog turned and bit into Lightstar's tail. It pulled back, shredding most of Lightstar's tail. Lightstar hissed through gritted teeth because of the pain in her tail and head.

Lightstar turned and jumped up. She bit into the side of the dog's snout, clamping down. The dog couldn't open it's jaws.

The dog threw Lightstar off it's muzzle and Whitepaw let go of it's tail. The dog started to run back into the RainClan territory.

"We have to see if RainClan is okay," Lightstar mewed.

"We will after we make sure that everyone here is okay." Lightstar turned and saw that Grayleaf was the one who spoke.

"Alright, fine." Lightstar's Clan was her first priority, so she agreed with Grayleaf.

"Can you walk?" Whitepaw asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Lightstar replied. She started to walk forward and her tail hit the ground.

"Ouch!" Lightstar lifted her tail, it was bleeding and teeth marks were gouged into it.

Lightstar's head hurt and blood trickled from her wounds.

Lightstar went on anyway, despite her pain, and the cats started to follow her back to the FireClan camp.

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Heyllo fellow cats! I really hope you liked this chapter! Thank you all so much for over 100 views! I'm so happy! The picture above is of Grayleaf by the way. I hope you all are having a great summer! The next chapter will (hopefully) be out sooner than usual. Anyway, I will see you all in the next chapter! Bye!

Vote, comment and enjoy reading!

~SkiBunny05🐇🐰🐯