The new camp was beautiful! The tree leaves were glowing yellow when the sun bounced off of them. There were birds and insects everywhere as well. Squirrels jumped from tree to tree above us. The ground was dark but the blanket of trees provided good cover. We were in a spot where there were no trunks but we were still covered from outstretched branches. Mudheart, our leader walked through the mass of dragons and looked around.

“This shall be our new home! I want a team of hunters to track down food. Be careful as we don’t know what’s out here!” Mudheart started to check on everyone as the hunters left. Flowerheart, the healer was treating another claw that tripped on a tree root and sprained their wrist. Mudheart finally got to my family.

“Hey Thorntail, how are you feeling.” Mudheart said. “That was a nast fall you took off that cliff.” My father stood up, he was a bit bigger than him but had immense respect for Mudheart.

“I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt as much as it did initially.” My dad looked at the giant gash on his arm.

“You should get it checked out by Flowerheart, before it gets infected.” Mudheart persisted.

“It’s fine, it’ll heal.” My dad kept dismissing Mudheart’s worries. Then my younger brother Squirreling came from behind my mother and climb up to Mudheart’s head. He hatched on the way to the new territory and is just full of energy.

“Hey little guy how ya feelin?” Mudheart set him on the ground.

“I want to go hunt!” Squirrelling said running after the dragons. Mudheart caught him and turned him around towards us.

“Sorry, but you aren’t strong enough yet. One day when you become a claw you’ll be able to go on hunts.” Mudheart said smiling. It quickly faded, realization came to his face. He turned to my father.

“How is Pinespring?” He asked. Pinespring was my mother, she got ill on the way here and her energy keeps going down. She had to be helped by the healer dragon. My father looked at my mother who was laying down asleep behind him, then turned back to answer Mudheart.

“She’s fine, though I worry about her condition sometimes. I just don’t want to have to prepare for the worst.” My dad said. I could see how exhausted he really was. He had two children, one who was newly hatched and a handful, and a mate who could barely stand.

“Well best wishes to you and Pinespring.” Mudheart said getting up. When he walked by he looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and my mood lifted a little bit. The hunters came back shortly thereafter. Most of them if not all were carrying multiple deer.

“There’s so much prey out here!” Said a newly turned Defender. They all dropped the deer down and everyone had one to themselves. We all ate and had full stomachs, we made a bonfire and Mudheart had assembled a team of dragons around a piece of paper. I overheard some of their conversation and guessed they were talking about the plans for the new camp. We all later fell asleep to the sound of the fire crackling and crickets chirping. The entire forest fell silent. It was probably about a few hours when my brother was poking my face.

“Forestclaw….wake up.” My brother whispered.

“Squirrelling go back to sleep.” I slid him away towards my mother, but he just came back.

“But I heard something. It came from the bushes.” He pointed towards some bushes that were across the other dragons.

“But it’s so far away from us. And there are other dragons.” I said turning over.

“Please can you check it out?” My brother whined.

“Fine.” I said annoyed, partly to just shut him up. We walked over to the bushes. I looked through them and three rabbits hopped out and ran away.

“See Squirrelling, nothing is here, it’s just rabbits.” I looked at him annoyed, he seemed to relax a bit. Then we heard some more rustling from a farther distance and then a loud snap.