Distant Sun - Clouds

Chapter 10

"Morning, Fallenpaw! Time to get up!"
Fallenpaw jumps when One-Foot's voice sounds from the entrance to the den. The pink-ish-red she-cat frantically looks around the den before remembering the events of the day before.

"C'mon, let's go hunting," One-Foot meows.
Fallenpaw gets to her paws and shakes out her pelt. The she-cat and the kits were still sleeping, but the large grey tom was gone. Fallenpaw pads out of the den to join her sister.

"Silent and Scar are hunting too. Bark is gonna stay here to protect Orange and the kits," One-Foot explains as they walk away from the stumps.

Fallenpaw nods, acting like she understood any of the references to the cats in the group. She understood that Bark was the small brown tom. He was called that the day before. And since the only other cat left in the 'camp' was the she-cat and the kits, Fallenpaw knew that Orange was referring to the she-cat. Both the other toms were heavily scarred, so she would never be able to decipher who was Sar and who was Silent.

"Let's go this way. The hills on the other side of the border are left mostly alone because of the scentline, so I like to hunt here," One-Foot meows. "It reminds me of when we were kits."

Fallenpaw smiles. "I'd forgotten about that. We thought we were so good at hunting."
The amber she-cat purrs. "Yeah. Remember when Moonclaw caught us sneaking out that one time? She sniffed us out before we had even left camp. I was so mad."

"Yeah! We got in so much trouble!" Fallenpaw giggles at the memory. "Flamestar made Snowflower stand guard by the nursery every night after that."

"Speaking of Flamestar, how's Amberpaw?" One-Foot asks. "I never got to say good-bye to her."

Fallenpaw was a little surprised at the emotion in her sister's voice. She'd never heard One-Foot soundlike this, even when they were kits.

"She's, uh, she's actually Amberheart now," Fallenpaw meows tentatively. "She and Firestrike were made warriors just before the last Meeting. They seem to be even closer than they were when they were apprentices."

"They've always been close," One-Foot's eyes reflected jealousy.

"One-Foot," Fallenpaw grins playfully. "You don't have a crush on Amberheart, do you?"

"NO!" One-Foot yelps.

"I knew it!" Fallenpaw squeals. "I thought it was a little strange that you asked about her specifically. Why didn't you say anything to her when you were still in the Clan?"

"Cuz, medicine cats aren't allowed to have mates," One-Foot grumbles as if she would rather forget the rule.

"Rocktooth has a mate," Fallenpaw blurts out.

One-Foot physically pauses. Her eyes land back on Fallenpaw, flashing dangerously.

"Is that so?"

The pink-ish-red she-cat swallows nervously. "Uh, yeah. She and Pinefur are together. Whitestar says it's ok, because they can't have kits together."

One-Foot scoffs. "Whitestar always preferred Rocktooth over me anyways. If I'd said anything to Amberheart, she probably wouldn't have said that."

"One-Foot, everyone was devastated when you left," Fallenpaw meows somberly. "Whitestar sent so many search parties out to look for you. After two moons of you being missing, she thought you were dead."

"Huh," the amber she-cat huffs. "She didn't look hard enough."

"Everyone thought you would have stayed somewhere on the territory or were in the city," Fallenpaw explains. "Mom thought that you might have gone out looking for our father."

"I did at first," One-Foot meows softly. "And I'm pretty sure I found him. He's called Snake. He's living in the city with his brother, Apple, and a wimpy tom named Flicker. I stayed with them for a week before realizing he didn't care about me and I went to go find other cats."

Fallenpaw goes silent. One-Foot had met their father. A tom Fallenpaw had only heard stories about.

"What was he like?" Fallenpaw asks quietly.

"He was brash and rude. He acted nice for the first couple days I stayed with them, but then I think he got tired of the act and started treating me like he did Apple and Flicker. I don't think he really loved Mom."

Fallenpaw frowns. That wasn't what she was expecting. When she and One-Foot were kits, Coralsong would talk about how kind and gentle their father was. How he had wooed her with the first couple words he'd spoken. And now One-Foot was describing a whole other cat.

"I know he's not like the cat Mom always told us about, but I'm telling the truth," One-Foot urges. "He doesn't love Mom and he sure doesn't love us."

***

"So, the kits? How are our siblings?" One-Foot asks as she and Fallepaw devour the rabbit they caught.

"They're doing well. They've grown a lot since you last saw them. They're going to be apprentices soon," Fallenpaw smiles to herself.

"That's good. I hope they don't miss me too much," One-Foot smirks.

But Fallenpaw, however, frowns. "They were one moon old when you left. They actually... don't really remember you all that well. I think Fluffykit has the most memories of you if I'm being honest."

One-Foot's smile falls. "Oh, right..."

"Sorry," Fallenpaw curls her tail around herself.