A Warrior in Need

Heathertail's POV

I hadn't seen Lionblaze in three moons. I missed him terribly. Every single golden cat I saw, it reminded me of him and I had to run to the bushes to hide my tears. But we could never be together. We had broken up as apprentices, and then we started seeing each other again when we became warriors. Eventually Hollyleaf found out and forced us to stop, since she would tell all the Clans. I held back a lake of tears. I wanted to see him again. I wanted to see his soft, golden fur again. To get one more glance of his amber eyes…

"Heathertail!" I snapped out of my fantasies. Breezepelt was glaring at me. "Are you going to daydream all day or are you going to hunt?"
"Sorry, Breezepelt." I quickly trotted past him and sniffed the air. Rabbit.

I could see its fluffy white tail. I stalked forward five paw steps than pounced. "Good job." Owlpelt congratulated me. My chest puffed out and I flicked my tail affectionately at the brown tabby tom. All thoughts about Lionblaze were gone. Maybe Owlpelt and I could work out…?

"Yeah, good job Heathertail!" Breezepelt meowed with a challenging look at Owlpelt. Owlpelt shrugged and flicked his tail for us to continue our hunt. I held the rabbit in my jaws and my head drooped as we padded on. We had stopped at the top of a hill and we had a nice view of our territory. "Here, let me help you." Owlpelt took the rabbit from my jaws, and our noses brushed. I immediately blushed, and he blinked his bright blue eyes. "S-sorry…" he apologized. "Hey, look down there!" Breezepelt meowed loudly. I looked and saw the ThunderClan border. "So?"
"We can watch and make sure ThunderClan doesn't cross our borders."
"That's quite thoughtful of you," Owlpelt meowed.

"But wouldn't that be kind of weird?" I mewed. "It's like we're spying on them… ThunderClan knows better than to cross our borders." I added quickly. Everybody was giving me awkward looks.

"She's right," Whitewhisker meowed. "We should at least wait for one of them to 'accidently' cross our border before spying on them."

I nodded briskly. We continued our hunt, and Breezepelt caught a rabbit, and Owlpelt caught a water vole. "Nice catch," I called. Owlpelt smiled at me, and my fur felt all warm and itchy.

"I'm going to go hunt near the ThunderClan border," I meowed. I needed to get away from everybody.

"I'll go with you." Breezepelt meowed quickly before Owlpelt could say anything.

"No, it's fine." I raced off before anybody could say anything else.

When I reached the border, the long grass near the border tickled my belly. I stared longingly at the border. I wanted to cross it. I wanted to see him. I wanted to stare into his amber eyes.

I picked up a paw to step over the border, but something stopped me. Instead I sat down and looked intensely across the border.

The bushes rustled, and hope pounded in my ears. I picked my tail up and it began to flick back and forth.

My body went limp as I saw a dark brown tom emerge from the brush. He began rolling in the grass, and I saw an intent look on his face.

I watched him curiously as he rolled around, wiggling his back against the soft grass. Eventually he paused as he saw me. I saw his face turn berry-red as he looked at me. He got to his paws and shook his fur.

"W-what are you doing here?" he called out hesitantly.

"Watching you act like a dog," I replied scornfully.

"Shut up!" he yelled, embarrassed.

"Well, what were you doing?"
"The grass felt good between my paws, a-and I wanted to roll around…"

I giggled. "That's a pretty good reason if you ask me."

His face brightened. "What's your name?"
"I'm Heathertail."
"My names Mudsplash," he said.

"Your name says it all."
He laughed. "You're funny!"
I could tell he was one moon older than me, but he acted like a kit.

"Heathertail, what are you doing?" I spun around to see Breezepelt, his fur bristling all over and his golden eyes wide with anger and disbelief.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded. "You were taking a long time, and I went to look for you and found you speaking with a ThunderClan warrior!" he spat.

"Well, I'm old enough to take care of myself. You don't have to treat me like a kit!" I signaled with my tail for Mudsplash to escape. I heard him scamper away into the bushes, and Breezepelt spitting angrily.

"You know better than to talk with an enemy warrior! You could've said some information that would have made us an open target for attacking. I'm defiantly telling this unbelievable story to Onestar when we get back to camp! You're going to be in soooo much trouble! I bet you'll be cleaning out the dirt tunnel and the elders den for 5 moons!" he scolded.

I rolled my heather blue eyes. "Whatever! The worst thing he can do is tell me I can't go to the Gathering."
Breezepelt grinned, and then frowned. "Let's go back to camp before oh-so-mighty Owlpelt comes looking for yo-I mean us."

I rolled my eyes again and followed him. "I've already taken your catch back to camp," he said proudly as we approached the brush. "But too bad I didn't say it was mine… The elders will be full for weeks! I bet they're still eating the rabbit."

I trotted ahead of him. "I'm going to sleep."

I walked to my nest, tired and confused. Why was that Mudsplash so nice to me? Why was Breezepelt so annoying and defensive over me? Will I ever get over Lionblaze?