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Insistent paws prodded at Grasspaw's side, voices whispering above him. The gray tom mumbled something unintelligible and curled further into himself, one ear flicking in annoyance.
Whoever was trying to wake him however, had no intention to stop as they leaned down and blew air direcly into said ear. Grasspaw shot up out of his nest, moss sticking to his fur, mint green eyes narrowing at the culprit, the brown tom sitting next to him clearly trying to stifle his laughter.
"What do you want, Stagpaw?" Grasspaw hissed at his best friend -and greatest nuisance-, noticing that it was still dark outside the apprentices den as barely any light filtered through the opening. "I was trying to sleep."
"Well, now you're not," Stagpaw meowed in an unusually quiet tone, yellow eyes briefly flickering to the den's entrance. "And don't be so loud, we don't want to wake anyone else up."
Grasspaw blinked slowly, if you had told him yesterday that Stagpaw, who's vocabulary didn't seem to include the word 'quiet', would ever tell another cat not to be so loud, he would have laughed in your face.
"What?" Grasspaw asked, confusion causing him to tilt his head to the side.
"We're sneaking out of camp to go stargazing, Birchpaw and Rainpaw are already outside, waiting for us." Stagpaw whispered as he moved to stand up, brushing some of the moss off of Grasspaw's pelt with his tail.
"Okay? Could've told me that a bit earlier..." Grasspaw mumbled in complaint but he still heaved himself out of his nest and went to follow Stagpaw outside. "Is there a reason we're doing this now? You know our warrior assessments are coming up."
Something unreadable flashed across his best friend's eyes and he didn't answer the question, though that may have been for the best, they didn't want any of the warriors to hear them.
Birchpaw and Rainpaw met up with them right behind the den, the two she-cats hidden among the foliage of the large bushes that surrounded camp. Impressive, considering Birchpaw had a completely white pelt and Rainpaw was a calico. It was difficult for the siblings to hide with such bright fur.
They didn't speak a word, just beckoned Grasspaw and Stagpaw over with their tails.
The four of them had to crawl under the low-growing branches of the aformentioned bushes, careful to avoid making any kind of noise that would alert Leopardfang, the golden spotted warrior who had taken up guard duty tonight. He was pretty stern and they would be in big trouble if he noticed them trying to leave camp.
Even after getting past the bushes, they kept sneaking around until they were far enough into the dense forest where they were sure no one would hear them. Breaking into a sprint, the four raced around the tall trees and through the undergrowth, passing under the strange stone structure that ran straight through the territory. Several times a day, a long monster patrolled the very top of the structure, never straying from its path, letting out the occasional high-pitched screech.
Finally, after having to slow down some to leap over a calm stream, using the rocks nestled deep in the water, the four arrived at an open spot in the woods. There wasn't much in the clearing, just a grassy hill and some shrubbery.
But the view of the night sky was breathtaking. Thousands of shining stars greeted them as the moon bathed the area in a soft light. If they concentrated, they could see shapes begin to form, the stars connecting to each other. One even looked a bit like a cat!
The apprentices settled down in loaf position at the very top of the hill, clustered close together.
As they pointed out shapes they found interesting, Birchpaw and Rainpaw arguing over whether one looked more like a mouse or a squirrel, Grasspaw noticed that Stagpaw was being kind of quiet. Sure, he understood needing to be silent so as not to get caught, but his usually talkative friend was just looking up at the sky, not making a sound.
"Stagpaw?" He murmured, "are you alright?"
The tom gave a harsh blink, snapping out of whatever trance he'd been in and whispered back, "not really."
Despite his soft tone of voice, Rainpaw and Birchpaw still heard his response and immediately stopped their argument, heads swiveling to face their friend.
They and Grasspaw shared a quick glance with each other before Rainpaw gently asked, "is there another reason you wanted us to go stargazing tonight?" The calico's tail twitched, "besides 'because it would be funny to sneak past Leopardfang'?" She added.
Stagpaw sighed deeply, not taking his eyes off the stars, "we're doing our warrior assessments soon, aren't we? Our mentors were talking about it with Elmstar."
Birchpaw's amber eyes practically glowed with excitement, "Yeah! I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, we're going to be warriors! All four of us together!"
Rainpaw lightly prodded her sister's shoulder, likely noticing that Stagpaw didn't seem to share the she-cat's enthusiasm.
Grasspaw sat up a little straighter, concern evident in his gaze. "Do you not want to be a warrior?"
Stagpaw shook his head, "that's not it, I do want to become a warrior, I just..." He trailed off, seemingly unsure of how to continue.
His friends stayed silent, allowing the brown tom a chance to get his thoughts in order.
"We won't be able to do stuff like this anymore, sneaking out, staying up way too late, playing pranks on our Clanmates! What is the camp is attacked in the middle of the night and we're off looking at the stars of all things! Not anything useful like hunting prey or keeping an eye on our borders!"
His outburst temporarily startled the other three but they quickly shook it off, Rainpaw getting up and plopping herself down right next to Stagpaw.
"Is this new or have you been feeling like this for a while now?" The calico asked, blue eyes trained on the brown tom. Grasspaw and Birchpaw pricking up their ears to show they were listening intently.
Stagpaw pulled his forelegs out from under him and put his head down on top of them, "i've had these thoughts for a while but never this strong, they keep whirling around in my head when I usually just brushed them away with no problem."
Grasspaw pressed himself closer against his best friend, resting his tail on the tom's back. "Has something happened recently? Like, something that reminded you of these feelings?"
Stagpaw tilted his head in thought for a moment, "Well, Leopardfang did scold me for something I did, can't even remember what but he was pretty angry. He said I should start being more responsible if I wanted to actually be a useful warrior..."
Birchpaw sat up when she heard that, tail lashing in agitation. "He said something just like that to me too! I just ignored him, if he was really so concerned he should have taken it up with my mentor." She huffed.
"But he's right though? We do need to be responsible if we're going to be warriors." Stagpaw seemed confused.
"Responsible, yes, but who cares about being useful? You are a part of MistClan no matter how much you can do for the Clan!" Rainpaw seemed genuinely offended.
It made sense though, her mother Cloudshine got very tired very easily and could only do a few small tasks -or one big one- in a day before needing to rest. She couldn't do the same things most other warriors could but to the apprentices' knowledge, no cat had ever said anything rude to her about it.
"I think we should tell our mentors that Leopardfang has been saying stuff like this, it seems like something they'd want to know." Grasspaw wondered, Rainpaw and Birchpaw nodding their heads in unision.
Stagpaw seemed a bit nervous but after another moment of silence, he agreed to go tell them tomorrow.
"Can we stay here for a bit longer though? I think I'd like to find some star shapes myself," the tom asked tentatively.
His friends giggled softly, "yeah we'll stay a little longer," Birchpaw meowed, launching back into her argument with Rainpaw about the mouse and the squirrel.
"For the record, I think we'll still be able to do fun stuff like this as warriors, maybe we won't have as much time but the four of us? We'll make it work." Grasspaw whispered into Stagpaw's ear, easing a little bit of the tom's fears.
All four apprentices watched the night sky and its' shining stars until the moon began to slide down from her peak, silently making their way back to camp and curling up in a pile of fur and limbs to spend the rest of the night in their dreams.