Remember Me | A Warrior Cat Novella

Chapter 5

"And his name was 'Ash', right?" Dappledleg asked, narrowing her eyes at the name, as if it reminded her of something.. or someone.

"Yes.. I think so, or Ash was in the name anyway," Oaksplash confirmed, nodding, "I bet Darkleaf was with that Ash person the day I visited Eaglewing. No wonder he couldn't take me to see him, he was busy meeting some dark forest cat."

"And you mentioned he looked scared when talking about it too," Dappledleg nodded her head sadly and sighed, scraping a claw against a smooth stone, "But why is he still meeting the cat?"

"And what's Darkleaf supposed to be getting out of this 'deal'? What are either of them getting out of it? I doubt Ash's only goal was to get Darkleaf to stop meeting Otterstream.. nothing's adding up," he sighed, slumping down on the ground in defeat, glaring up at the cloudy sky, wishing he knew the answers.

"Well, I guess there's nothing for it but to wait for more clues," Dappledleg shrugged, looking longingly at a plump mouse sniffing around a tree a few fox lengths away. She licked her lips as it scurried away, sensing the two cats nearby, "Meanwhile, we could hunt?"

"I guess so," he followed Dappledleg as she eagerly bounded towards a vole scent that was nearby. He attempted to hunt but his mind kept becoming distracted, and the prey in StarClan was so plentiful it rarely seemed pose a challenge for him, "I have it! I have an idea!" He yelled suddenly, accidentally scaring off the squirrel Dappledleg had been hunting.

She came over looking annoyed, "Hey! What was that for?" Her stomach grumbled and she padded forwards a few fox lengths and dug up a freshly killed vole, proudly carrying it over to him.

"We don't have time to eat! I have a solution to all this!" Oaksplash exclaimed as Dappledleg rolled her eyes and tucked into the vole, purring softly.

"Dappledleg," he whined, looking at her with annoyance, "Listen!"

"As long as we can eat first. Here, you can have half," she nudged over and Oaksplash begrudgingly choked down the vole as fast as he could, his impatience growing.

"Alright. Now what is it?" She finished up the prey and yawned, unsheathing and sheathing her claws.

"What if we visited the dark forest and tried to find Ash, they could tell us everything!" he smiled, proud of himself as Dappledleg looked agitated with the suggestion.

"No way, Ash is in the dark forest for a reason- We are not trusting what some weird evil cat says over your dad. It doesn't make sense," she reasoned, "Plus, the last thing I want is to run into someone I know in there."

Oaksplash's yellow eyes flashed in alarm, looking at Dappledleg in disbelief, "You- You know cats in the dark forest?"

"Uh.." she turned away, she clearly hadn't meant to say what she had, "..M-Maybe?"

"Who?" Oaksplash was persistent, after all, it may lead to more information about Ash.

"My.." she gulped, her icy eyes flashing with anxiety, "My mother. At least I think she's been sent here, or maybe she's just gone.. after all, AppleClan was never really considered a Clan, even after all these years."

"What? What's AppleClan?" Oaksplash's confusion and suspense was growing with every word, "Is that where you grew up?"

"Yes. We were a small Clan, just starting out. We were a group of gathered loners and kittypets that had decided against our old lives and came together, attempting to create a Clan.. like the Clans near us," she began slowly, recalling memories from her past, "We knew of ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan and ShadowClan.. but what we didn't know was the warrior code."