The Rogue Traitor #2 - Chosen Outcast

The rest of Dawn's day passed without much happening, in fact, this was pretty much the whole one and a half-moons that she spent at the barn. Every day she woke up and did the same routine, but it somehow didn't bore here, which was actually surprising. When she had been living with her Clan, if she did the same activity for about two days, she got really sick of it.

But here, she was like a different cat, one who just got up in the morning and just ate and sometimes left the barn to go on patrols. It was almost leaf-bare so she was less active than normal, her fur was growing longer and she was losing her kitten fluff. Since she left the Clan a moon and a half ago, it meant she was probably around 7 and a half-moons old, but she felt much older, which she wasn't sure was a good thing. She was certainly doing tasks that older cats would do, like fighting rogues and predators, but at the same times, these things didn't happen often. Though when they did, Dawn felt like a fully grown warrior (even though technically she didn't know what this felt like). She was sure that Dewpaw and possibly even Whiskerstar would be proud of her.

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"Can I please come?" begged Inky for about the billionth time as the patrol began to move out of the barn. The little black kitten was looking up at her father with a pleading expression, but Bandit's answer remained the same, no.

"It is too dangerous out there for you Inky," he replied, causing the little kitten to pout, "when you are bigger and stronger, it might be different. We have been through this before."

"But I never get to go out!" she wailed before being herded off by Willow. Bandit smiled at Dawn and with a flick of his tail, the patrol moved off and out of the barn, with Inky still arguing with her mother.

It was nice for the former apprentice to get out of the barn, to be amongst nature once again. She could feel the grass under her paws, the wind blowing through her fur, smell the scents that were so similar to the forest.

"Here I go again," thought the she-cat "missing my Clan and the forest." She rolled her eyes at herself and vowed to try and not think about it again, she was a loner, not some Clan cat.

"Hey Dawn!" called a voice and she looked up to see Cheddar (who was also on the patrol) beckoning to her with his ginger and white tail. She smiled at him and ran to catch up to him and Bandit. "Do you want to race?"

"You bet!" she replied, sprinting off before he could process what she had said. It felt so great to run again, it was basically energy for her, to dodge around trees and feel wind whipping through her, it was like her version of StarClan. She found an extra burst of speed and jumped over a ditch in the ground, hearing the thudding paw steps of Cheddar behind her.

"You cheat!" the tom called out from behind her, the wind wiping away some of his yell, "You don't even know where we are meant to go!"

"I can guess!" she yelled back, "Or make a new course! Or you could just tell me!"

"We are to check the far fences," he replied, somehow drawing up next to her and scaring the living daylights out of her.

"Fine," she replied, before sprinting away from him, the far fences just visible in the distance. This was what training with Whiskerstar was like, or times that she and Dewpaw were put on the same patrol.

"OH STARCLAN!" she screamed internally, "HOW HARD IT IS TO NOT THINK OF SOMETHING FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR?!" The moment of no concertation cost Dawn and she tripped, her paw landing painfully underneath her.

"Oww," she groaned as Cheddar skidded to a halt next to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked as she pushed herself to her paws, trying to move around her sore paw.

"Yeah," she mewed, "I will live. I think it is just sprained. Let's keep going."

"Okay," the young tom replied, slightly hesitant, but he continued on with her, watching her every move. Dawn's paw did hurt more than she was showing, but compared to other injuries she had suffered from, this was nothing. Like the time when that she had fractured her shoulder when Maplestar had first become her mentor, that was definitely painful. Or the time the ginger tom had chased her through the forest and almost crushed her lungs with one of his huge paws...

"I give up," the former apprentice huffed in her head, "this is too difficult not to think about my Clan. But what if this is a sign... a sign that maybe I should go back to my Clan?" She stopped and look up at the clear blue sky above her as a flock of doves flew, their wings flapping loudly. "I have been listening to StarClan to much, now I am talking about signs..." She shook her head and continued walking/limping to the far fences of the farm, cursing StarClan and their signs.

"Um Dawn?" came Cheddar'svoice and the she-cat looked up to see the tom looking at the ground veryintently, "I think you should come see this."