Aspenleaf's Duty

Chapter 13

Aspenpaw strode towards the camp, the two newcomers following behind her.

"You know, without all that fluff, she's tiny." Xerxes sniggered.

"Shut up!" hissed Dry, giving him a shove before looking back at the apprentice. "We really appreciate what you're doing." She said softly. "You have no idea how much this means to us."

She frowned at them. "What's the deal with you two then?" she asked. "You clearly haven't come from the same place."

"We both came from the housefolk place." He hesitated. "I mean two-leg place." He glanced at Dry. "That's what you said they call them right?"

Dry nodded. "Xerxes was a kittypet but I was a loner. I lived off near the mountains."

Aspenpaw's eyes widened. "That's an awfully long way away."

"It is." Dry agreed. "My mother always told me about the clan cats who lived near the lake and I decided that was where I wanted to be..."

She glanced at Xerxes. "What about you?"

"My mother also told me about the clans." He said, puffing out his chest. "I know that I belong out here because my father is a Shadowclan cat."

She stared at him. "I'm sorry?"

"My father is Blackfang." He says puffing out his chest proudly. "You might have heard of him?"

She shook her head. "I've never heard of him." She confessed. "But, I'm only seven moons old. And..." She hesitated. "Shadowclan hasn't been here for many, many moons."

He blinked. "Uh, moons..." he said slowly. "That... that's nights, right? Because if they've only been gone a few days, I can find them."

She shook her head. "No... moons are how long it takes for the moon to be full again."

"Look, I'm new to this whole forest thing, but I don't have time for your jokes. I have to find my father!"

She stared at the tom, feeling a pang in her heart, imagining how painful it would be when she told him. "No... Shadowclan fell long ago... back when my mentor was a kit..."

"How many moons?" he demanded, his hackles beginning to rise. "How many moons exactly? Then take me to your mentor, or someone older! Someone must know who he is!" His eyes were wide, frantic with the horror that he might never find his father.

Dry laid a tail over his shoulders. "Be calm." She murmured. "We'll find him..."

His hackles began to drop and he turned his gaze back to Aspenpaw, his eyes hardening. "You know what? You're just a kit. And I don't know you, how can I trust you?" Before she could answer he turned to stride through the woods. "I can't. I'm going to find him! Just you watch."

"Look, if he was in Shadowclan, two things could have happened." Said Aspenpaw. Xerxes's head snapped back, his eyes alight with interest. "Either he joined another clan..." she hesitated. "Or he died in the sickness."

"Then he's in a clan." Xerxes decided. "Not yours maybe, but one of the others?"

She shrugged. "I can only speak for Thunderclan."

"Then let's go, Dry, we can go to one of the other clans."

She hesitated. "To tell the truth... Thunderclan was the one I was looking for..."

He looked back at her. "What?"

"You remember I told you? Lark told me that when her father left his home clan, Thunderclan took him and her mother in until they decided to return to the mountains. I want to find them."