In Mourning

Cloudypaw sighed as she entered the apprentices' den and looked at her nest. It was moved a bit, and was no longer connected to another one. Her best friend was gone, and she felt alone for the first time in a long time. He'd trusted her with his biggest secret, had been a great friend, like a brother. And now...
She sat and stared at the place. She was sleeping alone for the first time.

When Cloudypaw entered the den, Fennelpaw looked up with a big yawn. She hadn't meant to fall asleep. She wanted to sit and think a while about what she was going to do next, but ultimately, she began napping. Now that she realized she had fallen asleep, she was a little aggravated with herself until she saw the she-cat walking in. "Hey Cloudypaw," she mewed.

Cloudypaw gave a smile, even if it was a bit weak. "Hi, Fennelpaw. How are you?" She'd try to keep up the happiness- if not for her, then for her friends, including Badgerfang. Oh, how she missed him.

"Just woke up from a nap. You won't believe of what I dreamed about last night!" she meowed, rather excited for just have woken up. "How are you? You okay?" she asked, seeing the long face of the apprentice.

"I-I'm okay," she replied. Cloudypaw gave a small laugh. "But what did you dream about? Sounds like it was pretty interesting!"

The apprentice's ears flattened down on her head for a just a second as if to say that she didn't exactly believe Cloudypaw, but her mind quickly switched gears again when the she-cat asked about her dream. "Oh you'll never believe it! Okay, okay. So we were in Shadowclan territory.. It was me, you, Coalpaw, Scorchclaw, Squirrelnose... and... and..." she paused, sitting down to tell her story and think of one last cat that had been there. It was hard to remember but she wanted to make sure she had everyone there. "Oh I can't remember right now, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. Anyway, we were all on this huge patrol just going through the territory chasing rats away and catching a ton of prey! But when we got to the Thunderpath, we saw Thunderclan trespassing on our territory trying to steal our food!" she grumbled at the idea but was too excited to stop telling the story. "So all of us yowled and let out this awesome battle cry before attacking the cats. Scorchclaw easily beat this one warrior and me and Coalpaw were trying to fight another one... And you were there too trying to help. You were helping Badgerfang," she paused, suddenly remembering the last name. "Yeah! It was Badgerfang! And you two scared the last one away! It was so cool! I wish you could have been there!" Fennelpaw finished, with a huge smile across her face, but she quickly stopped when she realized she had talked about the deceased warrior. It was still upsetting to her that two warriors had died so close to each other recently.. She liked playing that game with them before they became warriors.

Cloudypaw gave a sad smile. "That sure is interesting. Especially the part where I scared off other cats. It's hard to believe I could do that." Stop thinking about the last part so hard, she told herself. Badgerfang was a great Warrior.

Walking closer to the other apprentice, Fennelpaw gave her a small smile. "I'm sure you could do it! I bet we'll both be great warriors some day. Maybe we can be the leaders of Shadowclan?" she asked. Yeah, maybe one day in the distant future, Shadowclan would be big enough that they needed two leaders. To think that Cloudystar and Fennelstar could be a thing. That would be amazing. But as Fennelpaw looked at Cloudypaw, she could see the sadness in the apprentice's face. "Are you sure you're okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine. But it'd be hard to have two leaders, right? Besides, I'd make a terrible leader." Cloudypaw gave a small laugh. "You'd be much better than me, I'm sure!" Good, change the subject!

Fennelpaw rolled her eyes. "You don't give yourself enough credit. You could be an amazing leader! But maybe you're right. Two leaders would be a lot... Maybe it could be Cloudystar and Fennel... Fennel-something! I can be your deputy," she mewed.

Cloudypaw chuckled. "That'd be interesting. If only I could bring our peace to all the Clans. Then we'd never have fights. Never...never lose our friends in battle." She smiled, though. "Perhaps it would be nice to be leader, but I just hope I could manage being even a Deputy."

The apprentice simply rolled her eyes. "You can totally make deputy. I'm sure that when Cormorantpelt becomes leader, you'll be her first choice," Fennelpaw replied, batting at Cloudypaw's ear softly.

She smiled and batted her ear back. "And maybe if I'm leader, you can be my deputy." Cloudypaw giggled. "Let's hope!"