the quiet warrior

[brownspot]

A strange, sharp bite had started to enter the air. Brownspot tilted his ears backwards, disliking the feeling of his nose tingling. Leaf-fall had begun. The large warrior didn't like the thought that Leafbare would be upon them soon, almost as much as he disliked the thought of his kits cold in their den. He shook those thoughts away, knowing there was no way the nursery would ever get cold. Not only would Gryffinwing's body heat keep away any chilly draft, Brownspot himself would sometimes sleep in there, his back against the entrance.

Frowning to himself, the rich-furred tom padded his way from RavineClan's camp. His tail flicked back and forth easily, as if dancing to a silent tune. A bird swooped above his head, and Brownspot resisted the urge to leap after it playfully. Nope, today he had a job to fulfill. RavineClan was short on warriors. One by one, their numbers had begun to drop again. It was time some of the apprentices saw their warrior ceremonies. One ear twitched again as he considered how even their number of apprentices had dropped. First Cinderpaw's brother Talonpaw, then Waterpaw, too. Brownspot didn't like the fact that it would still be another six moons before the clan had any new apprentices, even if it would be five at once. Rootpaw was due to become a warrior any day; Bearpaw, Cinderpaw, and Cometpaw had only a few more moons. The ceremony that made his kits apprentices could very well be the same that made Dreampaw a warrior...

In the last moon, RavineClan's days had become lazy. Sure, the apprentices went out and trained, but that was most of the day's actions. If the apprentices spent the day hunting, a single hunting party could help the apprentices feed the entire clan. There were the usual daily patrols, but the often consisted of only two or three cats. Even on days when the apprentices were battle training, two hunting patrols fed the entire camp.

Brownspot sighed to himself. He was constantly pondering the clan's predicament. They had only a single queen. How could they possibly expect Gryffinwing alone to fix RavineClan's size problem? He sort of hoped Northwind might have a second litter, but he somehow didn't think she and Tallstone were on good enough terms to have another litter. That left Goldenwing, who had no mate, Phantomsun, who was busy being deputy, and Cometpaw who would soon enough see her warrior ceremony. But Cometpaw was pretty much the farthest thing from a nursing queen. Brownspot could not see her satisfied to sit in the nursery all hours of the day, watching kits. She would want to be out patrolling or hunting. And Brownspot strongly disliked the idea of another queen raising her kits.

He shook his head once more, glad that he'd have something to do that would keep him mind off such ponderings. He came to a slow halt, finding himself in the little clearing where the apprentices trained with their mentors. Today, Brownspot would be evaluating their hunting skills. Rainstar wanted a pretty close estimate of how much longer each apprentice would need to train. Brownspot's biggest worry was that Rootpaw wasn't entirely ready and he'd have to be held back until the middle three apprentices were ready. But, on top of that, he worried Bearpaw's training would be visibly behind Cometpaw and Cinderpaw's... Sure, Bearpaw was down an eye, but he was still an intelligent apprentice. It would pain Brownspot to see his apprentice fall behind his sister.

Glancing upward, the large warrior sent a silent prayer to StarClan that all of his worries would be sorted out in the coming moon... How was he to know they'd only grow?