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It's times like these when Petalstone wishes he'd never received an apprentice, Goldenpaw's constant chatter making his head hurt. The pale gray tom watched as the young cat dove into another snowpile, light yellow fur a stark contrast to the blinding white that surrounded the border patrol. One of these days, the apprentice was going to smash his head straight into a rock, no matter how many times he ignored Petalstone's warning to be careful. The warrior groaned as another batch of snow was sprayed right at him, sticking to his white underbelly and legs.
He remembered doing the dumbest things as an apprentice, the scar going diagonally from one side of his face to the other a clear mark, which he'd gotten from doing the same thing that Goldenpaw was doing now, except instead of a rock it had been a hidden pile of pretty large sticks, the stubs along the bark surprisingly sharp. He was lucky to still have both of his eyes intact.
He'd hoped his fellow warriors, Amberstripe and Smokepelt, would be able to focus on something other than each other long enough to help him with a rambunctious apprentice. But alas, their relationship was new and still in that phase where the other cat was more important than literally anything else.
At least that's what it looked like to Petalstone, he'd never been with any cat nor had he felt any interest in his Clanmates, not in that way. He shouldn't begrudge them really, while he wasn't very close with Smokepelt, the black tom occasionally clashing with him, Amberstripe was his friend. The ginger feline had been so happy when Smokepelt had shyly asked him to visit the waterfall together.
It didn't seem so special to an outsider, but legends said that IceClan's founder had confessed their love to their partner at that very same waterfall. Asking a Clanmate to meet at the cascading flood of water was a secret way of telling them that you liked them, romantically.
And Petalstone was happy for them too, though he'd prefer it if they helped to make sure his apprentice didn't accidentally send himself to StarClan.
"Goldenpaw!" He growled, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice, "stop jumping into the snow, we're on a border patrol, not a 'let's smash our faces into rocks' patrol."
He heard a laugh from behind him, Amberstripe instantly looking the other way when Petalstone turned his head. He sighed, walking over to grab Goldenpaw by the scruff and putting him back on his feet, the apprentice giving him a sheepish smile.
Just as Petalstone opened his mouth to say something, the bushes further up ahead rustled and Silverstride came racing out, panting around the prey in his mouth. He looked panicked, eyes lighting up once he saw the patrol. Mouse and bird dumped unceremoniously onto the snow, he began speaking at a rapid pace.
"Petalstone! I'm so glad I found you! Quick, we need to go back to camp, I- I found something horrible right here in our territory, Froststar has to be alerted of this immediately!"
The poor tom was shaking, and not from the cold. Smokepelt's one blue eye sizing the older cat up, yellow one flicking between the other members of his patrol.
"It's alright, Silverstride, calm yourself." Amberstripe stepped closer, wrapping his fluffy tail around the other for comfort. "What did you see?"
"Claw marks. Much too big to belong to a cat, and a dead deer with broken antlers. It was half eaten." Petalstone heard Smokepelt suck in a breath at that, no doubt remembering the time a bear had taken up a den in IceClan's territory. It had killed a lot of warriors before being driven out, including Smokepelt's mother.
Silverstride was right, they needed to return to camp. And on the way home, Petalstone send a silent prayer up to the stars, wishing that the bear had not returned.