Good morning, dawn patrol!

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Falconkit woke up in his soft nest in the nursery, seeing the gray dawn light outside. His mother was still sleeping beside him, her brown tabby flank rising and falling. He padded quietly to the den entrance, and sat and listened to the faint noises of birdsong and a soft breeze nearby. He wondered if he would have to get up this early when he was an apprentice. His fur tingled with excitement of the thought of becoming an apprentice. He was so close! It was only about another quarter moon before the ceremony. He wondered who would be his mentor. He was trying to remember the names of some of the FogClan warriors when he heard a rustling behind him. Was somecat waking up? He began to shift himself to look.

OOC: Kelly, if you want to have Cinderkit jump on him, go for it. x3

[Kelly]

Her pale eyes shot open suddenly. In her half-asleep state Cinderkit had noticed movement in the den, barely illuminated by the dim gray light of dawn. It took the she-cat a moment to notice that it was her brother creating the movement; the tom had just woken up and was padded toward the entrance of the den. She watched him for a moment; eyes adjusting to the faint light as she slowly blinked them. Without thought she stood (rather noisily) and followed after him.

A soft grin on her face, the gray she-cat launched into the air to bowl into her brother, purring in amusement when her paws touched down in his brow flank. “Mornin’ Falconkit!” She squealed softly, staring down at him with eager eyes.

[/size]

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Falconkit whirled around in a split second's confusion as the styreak of gray fur collided with him before realizing it was only Cinderkit. He stifled a half groan, half purr coming up his throat. His little sister was always annoying him but it had to be admitted she did think of fun stuff sometimes. However, he wasn't about to let her know that. He cleared his throat and said, "Yes, well, if you wouldn't mind getting off of me perhaps we can meet the dawn patrol before they depart." He walked normally, but inside he was sparking with excitement. He'd never seen the dawn patrol before! Maybe they'd have some apprentices with them, like Sootpaw or Bramblepaw. He padded out into the camp, yawning in the warm greenleaf air.

[Kelly]

Fur puffing up in excitement at mention of the dawn patrol, Cinderkit quickly slid off of her brother. Going to meet the dawn patrol sounded like a lot of fun! Cinderkit had never watched them depart before, though occasionally she had listened to the cats outside scuttle to get going before the sun rose. Maybe, if they were lucky, they’d bump into a really great cat. Like Mistpelt! Or even Owlstar!

She let out a loud purr before exiting the den, waving her tail as a signal for her brother to follow. “Come on then! We don’t wanna miss them go!” Wouldn’t it be great if they were allowed to join the patrol? After all, they were pretty much apprentices.

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Falconkit nodded in agreement and dashed out of the den with speed unproportional to his greater size. He was thinking of the she-cat Reedfoot. She seemed a bit pushy, but a dedicated warrior, he thought. However, he forgot about Reedfoot when he saw a group of cats at a cluster of bushes near the entrance, looking like the dawn patrol. He excitedly raced towards them, not bothering to see if Cinderkit was following.

[Kelly]

Cinderkit hurried after her brother, ears pricked in excitement when she too caught site of a group of cats. Her thin tail curled up tightly as she rushed ahead of Falconkit. Oh how she hoped someone amazing was on the patrol. Or maybe someone really nice because she would really like to join them, no matter if she was still just a kit. Embarrassingly enough, the young she-cat tripped over her paws as she approached the patrol, but managed to pull herself off the ground quickly.

------

At sight of the two kits, Sootpaw couldn’t help but scoot away from them, his gray ears flattening against his head in annoyance. What in StarClan’s name were two kits doing, running up to a dawn patrol like they were actually going to come along. It was preposterous… and rather silly. A low hiss poured out of the young tom cat and he looked up at his mentor to see how he reacted. Hailstorm surely couldn’t be pleased by the kits either.

And, speaking of the patrol, where were the other cats who were supposed to be joining them?

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[prowler.]

| Hailstorm looked up from beneath his brow in the direction of a scuffling sound, seeing the pair of kits charging out. Glancing down a little at his Sootpaw his expression was similar to his apprentice's, though he did not hiss as such, he supposed they were eager, which was a good thing. He looked away toward the warriors den suddenly - they awaited Reedfoot from there and Birchtail from the nursery still, he hoped they'd be swift, they were going to patrol the PineClan border and it always made Hailstorm feel a little nervous - it was in PineClan's section of the territory that his own brother, Slatepaw, had been killed.

| He couldn't help but raise his chin a little though as he thought of the responsibility he'd been given by leading the patrol and the pride he had for his clan. His massive physique towered slightly above any others present, his large build and thick fur adding to the effect. His watery blueish eyes glowed a little brighter as he thought of his other responsibility - his new apprentice. They'd had a few training sessions but Hailstorm still felt somewhat protective of his charge, as if he wanted to make sure no harm came to this new responsibility of his.

| Trying to blot out the kits running toward them and any worries he had, Hailstorm quickly devised the way they'd get to the tip of the line they'd patrol, it would be a useful time to point out a few things to Sootpaw about PineClan as they went, strengthen his apprentice's recognition of the scent. Noticing Sootpaw still looking slightly at him, he met his apprentice's eyes and lowered his head a little, the way he did when he was always speaking to any cat shorter than him - that was, most of the time. 'They'll be along shortly.' He rumbled, scanning the area again hopefully.

[/blockquote]

[Cloud of Diamonds]

Birchtail woke suddenly in her den in the nursery. She instantly remembered she was supposed to be on the dawn patrol. Pausing only to groom herself quickly, she frantically noticed her kits were missing! She cursed herself for not waking up in time. What if things went all out of order because she was late, or even worse, because Falconkit or Cinderkit knocked something out of order or annoyed a senior warrior? She rushed out of the den, and immediately spotted Hailstorm and Sootpaw, as well as her kits. Padding swiftly towards them, she sat down next to Hailstorm. "Please forgive my kits. They think they're apprentices already. I'm terribly sorry I woke up late." She dipped her head politely.

[prowler.]

| Hailstorm grunted lightly and shook his head dismissing Birchtail's apologies lightly. 'Your kits haven't been a nuisance, so long as they don't intend to come with us anyway, at least they're eager.' He said, his voice light in good humour, before giving a wink to the kits with a slight smile. Returning to Birchtail again he shrugged his shoulders, 'well, supposedly we're waiting on Reedfoot, but...' He paused, giving another hasty glance around the clearing to make sure, 'he can catch up, I'm certain.'

| Taking a few steps forward he looked back to his apprentice and Birchtail, jerking his head in the direction of the camp entrance. 'Come on, he'll follow our scents.' Hailstorm resisted commenting about how everyone thought it was fine to be late on his patrol, but decided not to comment with Birchtail being present, out of politeness, of course. He'd be having a word with Reedfoot when the slacking tom decided to make his arrival. Without looking back again, Hailstorm began padding off, throwing back a words to his fellow patrol companions, 'we'll be doing the PineClan border.'

[/blockquote]

[Kelly]

Cinderkit
--
How rude! The apprentice at least could have asked if she was ok. Weren’t toms supposed to be kind to she-cats? That’s what she heard. Hailstorm had his excuse. He was a warrior; there was no need to bother with kits. Or maybe he had even been waiting for his apprentice to say something! But no, Sootpaw had kept quiet. Annoyed, Cinderkit gave her most mature response to the snarky apprentice.

She stuck her tongue at him.

So maybe it wasn’t mature. But hey, she was still a kit! There was no need for her to grow up and act like an apprentice who constantly had something up their tail hole. Withdrawing her small, pink tongue the she-kit turned to face Hailstorm, giving the warrior a peppy smile as he greeted her mother. “Can we come?” she asked with pure kithood innocence, gray eyes sparkling in hope.

After all, they would be apprentices soon. It should be any day now! Really this would just be like practice, to make sure they were deserving of becoming apprentices. At least that’s how Cinderkit saw it. Oh how she would love to prove herself right now… She’d try extremely hard, prove herself the best apprentice in FogClan, and maybe even get mentored by Mistpelt.

That would be great.

------

Sootpaw
--
Ignoring the kits, Sootpaw gave his mentor a loyal nod, understanding that they would wait a little longer for the other patrol members. His ambers eyes locked firmly on the exit of camp, almost missing the mocking gesture Cinderkit gave him. With a snarl he turned back to face the she-cat, ready to lash at the foolish kit with harsh words, before he was stopped by the arrival of not only another patrol member, but the kits’ mother.

“Good morning, Birchtail,” he said respectfully. He rather liked the queen. She kept everything in order and, dare him to admit it out loud, raised to fine FogClan kits. Albeit one was much better than the other. Now all they had to wait for was the final member of their patrol, Reedfoot, and they could get moving. If only the she-cat would hurry up with whatever she was doing… surely she wasn’t sleeping.

So maybe they wouldn’t have to wait, he thought, taking off after his mentor and feeling a bit of a thrill that they would be patrolling the PineClan border. It was always his favorite to patrol, simply because of the rush he felt being so close to their enemies. It was no secret how the two clans felt about each other. And his thrill was only chilled by the small she-kit’s question, which made Sootpaw stop in his tracks.