Swiftbrook nodded, touching noses with the deputy in return. "Of course, I'll meet you over there!" she promised, trotting across to join the other two cats Sandpelt had indicated as already volunteering for the patrol. "Ashstar, Eagleleap." she dipped her head to each of them in greeting, shifting from paw to paw as they waited for Sandpelt, Sunspot and the two apprentices to re-join them. "Sounded like Poppykit was getting awfully underpaw again this morning." the older warrior purred in amusement, her long whiskers twitching. "I'd place a good bet that there's not a cat in camp anymore that won't breathe a sigh of relief when that little scamp is apprenticed!"

[center]~*~[/center]

Cricketpaw jolted sharply awake as a paw prodded him in the side, pulled out of his dream of springing from treetop to treetop on the trail of a fat squirrel, he blinked open his large amber eyes to find himself met with the eyes of his mentor, Sunspot. Cricketpaw's jaws opened in a yawn and he sat up. "Dawn patrol today? Alright then." the apprentice purred eagerly, never one to complain about an instruction given to him by Sunspot or any other warrior in the Clan, Cricketpaw delicately stepped out of his nest and gave his fur a few quick licks to smooth down the sleep-ruffled fur. "Just you and me, or is Turtlepaw coming too?" he asked.

[center]~*~[/center]

Icerain's whiskers twitched and he chuckled softly at how bashful Dapplefern was after his mild scolding of her for staying up all night again. As the young she-cat shuffled her paws and explained to him exactly why it was she couldn't sleep, the medicine cat's expression softened and he stretched out to push his nose into the dappled fur on her shoulder. 
"Hey, it's okay." he reassured her. "I just worry about you getting enough sleep, Dapplefern, that's all. I won't blame you if you need to take some poppy seed in order to get a decent night's rest." Normally both medicine cats would avoid dipping into the herb supplies unless either of them felt they were coming down with something, but poppy seeds had a sedative effect and if anything would keep the nightmares away and let Dapplefern sleep a while the seeds would work. 

In the back of his mind, Icerain wondered what Dapplefern's nightmares had been about, but he dared not ask. Lately, the medicine cat's dreams had been plagued with visions of the less than pleasant variety, and in these visions he witnessed the setting and events leading up to his own death. Just thinking about it made him shiver uncomfortably. [i]Oh StarClan, why must you show me these things? If I am to join you soon I would prefer for it to just happen when it happens and for me to not know when.[/i] Since the visions had begun, Icerain lived every waking moment of his life anticipating the moment to happen, and every sleeping moment in his dreams re-living it over and over again. Dapplefern wasn't the only cat struggling to sleep, but Icerain could never tell her that. It would frighten her too much, she was so young...

Purring, the white medicine cat stretched and clambered down the tree to take stock of their inventory of herbs, noting that Dapplefern's observation of a lack of coltsfoot and comfrey was correct. "Of course you can go with the dawn patrol, in fact I might come some of the way with you. I want to go to the catmint patch before the frosts come and it starts dying off. We need to be prepared in case the greencough season comes early."