leaves overhead, leaves underfoot [patrol]

[appleheart]

Appleheart awoke early that morning, more than ready for today’s assignments. She knew she was due to lead a patrol and was excited to get started. Finally, she thought, something to do. She took a look around the warriors’ den and found her few unlucky souls who wouldn't get to sleep in today. She picked her way around, making sure not to step on any sleepy tails, and prodded Birchflower, Jayheart, and Nettlestripe awake, telling them each to meet her out in the clearing. She bounded outside, thriving in the beautiful pre-dawn light. She wanted to get out pretty early since the sun would be rising soon. Hopefully, they would be out of the camp and well on their way through the forest once the sun was at a nice place in the sky. She wanted this patrol to be nice and simple, a chance to do her duty while catching up with a couple Clanmates. Today was going to be great.

[jayheart]

Jayheart woke from a gentle nudge. He shifted, not quite opening his eyes, thinking that perhaps another cat had bumped him on its way out to make dirt. He nestled deeper into his nest, eager to take a few extra winks of sleep before the day began. Appleheart's soft mews about meeting in the center of camp banished the hope of a little more sleep, however. Jayheart cracked a single eye open, eying the sleeping bodies in the darkness with envy. Ah, well. All of the other cats who had the morning off had been in his position at some point in their lives.

He rose slowly and carefully, stepping over the sleeping bodies to leave the den. The sun was barely rising; it was no great adjustment for his eyes to move from the dimness of the den to the shadows of a watery dawn. He and Appleheart were alone in the clearing for now; perhaps the other two on patrol were even more in denial about their wake-up call than he had been.

His whiskers twitched in amusement at Appleheart's bouncy enthusiasm, though he felt no such energy. "My, someone's day is off to a perky start." he meowed, tail flicking. His small conversation starter was punctuated by an absolutely ginormous yawn as the tom leaned forward with his front paws and got a good stretch all the way to the tip of his tail.

"Border patrol, wasn't it? Got to show those kittypets who's boss."

He was, of course, kidding - he saw the importance of refreshing scent markers and making sure that any loners and rogues stayed clear of the territory. He just wished the whole endeavor didn't have to be so early.

[birchflower]

A half-awake grumble pulled itself out of Birchflower’s throat at Appleheart’s light nudge and soft mews. Her face scrunched up in a partial attempt to deny the waking world and she curled herself into a tighter ball in her nest. Unfortunately, now that she was even partially awake, she was awake, and try as she might to pretend she hadn’t quite heard the summons, she knew she would have to get up and join her waiting clanmates. Jayheart had already given up his own attempt to avoid the patrol by the time Birchflower managed to get her paws under her and pick a careful way through the lucky late-sleepers in the den.

A yawn split her muzzle – mirroring the one Jayheart had just finished – as she padded up to the other two warriors. Sitting back on her haunches while they waited for the last member of their patrol (although it wasn’t surprising that the lazy Nettlestripe had yet to show), she set to giving her face a good morning cleaning. After giving the side of her muzzle a particularly good scrubbing (hey, it itched), Birchflower couldn’t help the light mrrow of laughter at Jayheart’s comment. “Right, we’ll just leave all the kittypets to you.”

She flicked an ear and her eyes turned toward Appleheart. “Although, the last patrol mentioned there’s been more activity around Tallpines – we should definitely keep an eye out.” Hopefully there wouldn’t be too much trouble on their patrol this morning – like Appleheart, Birchflower would love a perfectly routine patrol where all they did was chat about clan gossip and their apprentices, and reset scent markings – but you never really knew. At least there was one upside to the dawn patrol in that respect: they went out so early that they weren’t likely to run into anyone else out there. Just the scent trails the perpetrators left behind.

[nettlestripe]

Nettlestripe felt as though only moments had passed between him closing his eyes to sleep to him waking up to a prod and a disgustingly cheerful morning wake-up call. The orange tabby tom cracked open his amber eyes into slits. Was Appleheart waking him up in the middle of the night? It was still dark enough for him to barely make out the blissfully sleeping shapes of his den mates around him.

I thought dawn patrols started at dawn, Nettlestripe thought with a huff as he rolled over onto his back languidly, taking a few more rebellious moments to lie motionless and pretend he hadn’t heard anything. However, the soft murmurs of the three cats outside pounded at his eardrums and with a sloppy yawn Nettlestripe rolled onto his feet and bumbled out of the warriors den, tripping over a tail and somecat’s paw on his way out.

“Do you hate me or something, Appleheart?” the orange tabby groaned, ignoring all previous conversation that had been going on as he shook some moss off a front paw before falling into a perfect stretch, “I mean, did I do something to you that I don’t know about that warrants this kind of malicious treatment?” Eyes barely open, he swung his head in the dazed manner of the half-asleep, trying to get a clear look at which unlucky clan mates had the great joy of being awoken on this summer morn.

“Well,” Nettlestripe mouthed, another yawn stealing his breath for a syllable, “Do we get any breakfast or should we get going before I go back to sleep?"The wiry tom was already padding heavily towards the entrance however, wanting to wake up and get this whole thing over with.

[appleheart]

Appleheart was pleased to see the first member of her patrol joining her, in the form of a tired but good-natured Jayheart. “My, someone’s day is off to a perky start. Border patrol, wasn’t it? Got to show those kittypets who’s boss,” he said as he joined her, and she twitched her whiskers in amusement. Purring, she was about to respond, when the conversation was then joined by a sleepyheaded Birchflower, who settled down and began work on giving herself a morning cleaning. The tabby teased Jayheart, before turning to Appleheart and mentioning something about activity around Tallpines. Appleheart nodded thoughtfully, the area already a hot zone in her mind. She knew of a couple of rogues hanging around these days, but StarClan knew where they would turn up.

Finally, Nettlestripe roused himself out of the warriors’ den, grumpy about the early wake-up. Appleheart purred in amusement as he asked her, “Do you hate me or something, Appleheart? I mean, did I do something to you that I don’t know about that warrants this kind of malicious treatment?” He grumbled about breakfast for a bit before stomping off to the camp entrance and a quiet laugh finally escaped her muzzle.

She thought for a second, and then responded to the latter question. “No, let’s stop and catch something on the way. It’s a long trek out to the border and I don’t want you all lethargic on the way there,” she explained, following Nettlestripe to the entrance and leading the patrol towards the forest. “As for the early wake-up call, you all try being a mother. You’ll long for the days when you get to sleep uninterrupted, even if you have to get up early.” She purred and flicked her tail. Her triplets had only been out of the nursery for a mere moon, did they really expect her sleep schedule to be back to normal already? Silly bachelors.