Sunhigh came and went, and Fireheart had not scented even a whiff of his apprentice. Her anger from the events of this morning didn't give her the right to go haring off into the forest without a second thought! Especially when Tigerclaw is still out there…

Fireheart would always see how he handled the former deputy's actions as his greatest failure. More than anything, Tigerclaw's betrayal and the events that stemmed from it were some of the darkest times in ThunderClan.

And now it's happening all over again! Fireheart wanted to wail. Nevermind that, there are bigger things than Tigerclaw in the forest! I have to find Fernpaw!

"You look like a pack of dogs is at your heels."

The exact cat that he needed to see announced their presence and Fireheart ducked his head.

"Darkstripe, thank StarClan. I, uh… I think I lost Fernpaw." He admitted guiltily.

"She probably got sick of waiting for you to finish up with Bluestar and went off on her own, stubborn brat." Darkstripe snorted. Upon seeing the ginger tom's face, he backtracked.

"It is not your fault that she ran off. I love my daughter, but she likes to take her fate into her own paws." The silver-black tom sighed.

"Want to get a few more cats and split up to look?"

"I… yes. That's a good idea. Maybe Brightstorm and Thornclaw. They're young, so she might be more willing to listen to them." Fireheart admitted.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Fireheart. It's not easy being deputy." Darkstripe offered before heading for the warriors den.

Yeah, but I've done this before. I should have a better handle on it!

Darkstripe returned with Brightstorm and Thornclaw, both with worried looks on their faces.

"Darkstripe said you want help finding Fernpaw?" Thornclaw murmured when he reached the deputy. "Why would any cat be on their own in the forest, much less an apprentice?"

"I was going to take her to the Sandy Hollow to practice battle moves when I was done in camp, but I didn't get to tell her that because she interrupted my hunt and stormed off when I tried actually teaching her. I thought she went back to camp but I haven't seen her since." Fireheart explained quickly.

"She did come back to came at some point. She and Splashpaw chatted for a bit while taking care of the elders, but she must have gone back out again." Brightstorm offered. Runningwind joined them seconds later.

"Have any of you seen Lightpaw lately? I was going to take him hunting but he seems to have gone out on his own."

"StarClan's kits!" Fireheart groaned.

"Hopefully he's with Fernpaw." Darkstripe sighed. "We should-."

"ThunderClan, we gather!" Bluestar called. Fireheart exhaled roughly as cats came crawling out of their dens.

"Fireheart! Where do you think you're going?!" Bluestar snapped from atop Highrock.

"Lightpaw and Fernpaw have gone missing." Runningwind reported. "Fireheart was organizing a patrol to go look for them."

"Fireheart neglected to mention that Splashpaw and Cloudpaw would need new mentors."

"What? Why would they-?"

"Clan custom allows for mates to stay together when they raise kits." Thornclaw offered quietly.

"Thank you, Thornclaw, for telling the deputy of the Clan what he should already know!" Bluestar sneered.

"You can't expect everyone to know things that you haven't told them!" Halftail snapped from where the elders sat. "You know what you were like as a youngster, you have to know that pressuring your apprentice gets you nowhere! And if you don't then I call foxdung because Stonepelt and I have shared plenty of stories about mouse-brained apprentices who think they have to be the best at everything."

"This is not the time to lecture me about being leader, Sparrowpelt! I want to know why Fireheart didn't do his job."

"Because you gave him an apprentice, Bluestar, and Fernpaw was out hunting with him. He was going to come back and patrol with you but he wanted to practice with her first." Brindleface insisted.

"Alright." Bluestar growled irritably. "Splashpaw, until Whitestorm and Willowpelt's kits are six moons old, your mentor will be Darkstripe. Cloudpaw, until Whitestorm and Willowpelt's kits are six moons old, your mentor will be Frostfur. Good luck with apprenticeship."

"Why would she do that?" Darkstripe wondered. "I already have trouble with my own kits, I can't mentor someone else's!"

"You're doing just fine with Ashpaw and Fernpaw. Besides, Splashpaw might be interested in where her fellow apprentices keep wandering off to. It'll be good to keep her close." Thornclaw offered as Splashpaw approached the group.

"What's happening?" The tortoiseshell wondered.

"Lightpaw and Fernpaw aren't in camp so we're going to to find them. I need you to stick with Darkstripe and at least one of these other cats. It's not safe to be out in the forest alone. Are we understood, Splashpaw?"

"Yes, Fireheart. Just tell me where to start sniffing." Splashpaw meowed, obviously on edge.

The group headed into the forest, noses to the ground and determined to find their missing kin.


"Remind me again why you thought walking the outskirts of Twolegplace was a good idea?"

Fernpaw had met Lightpaw deep into her search for the Sandy Hollow, and somehow he talked her into helping him find his father. Everyone knew that Nutleaf had her kits before she became the medicine cat, and many of the older cats didn't really interact with their parents. Fernpaw had no clue why Lightpaw was so interested in some cat who couldn't be bothered to be there for him when there was a whole group of cats who who would willingly go into battle for them! But Lightpaw was determined to find his father.

"You don't know what it's like." Lightpaw spat when she asked. "You at least have Darkstripe."

"And you have Fireheart." She countered.

"It's not the same!" Lightpaw scowled. "Fireheart has Stormkit and Featherkit to raise. He tells them about their parents every chance he gets. I want to know where I came from."

"You know where you came from, Lightpaw. We grew up in the exact same nursery and your mother raised you well. Why isn't that enough?"

"I just need to know for sure! He could be anyone and I hate the uncertainty of it all."

"So why do you think about it so much?! Any tom in the Clan would stop and play with you or tell you stories or give you badger rides if you asked. That doesn't stop just because you became an apprentice."

"I'm telling you that you just don't get it." Lightpaw groused. "But you don't have to. Are you going to help me or keep acting like you know what I'm going through?" He sneered.

"You're lucky I don't want to be lost in Twolegplace or I'd have left you to fend for yourself, you ungrateful piece of foxdung!" Fernpaw snapped.

The pair padded along, with Lightpaw stopping to ask random cats if they knew who his mother had mated with. It turned out that Princess and Rusty, as Nutleaf and Fireheart had once been called, had quite a few friends who remembered them and were more than happy to find that the siblings were alright where they ended up. Lightpaw heard dozens of stories of Rusty climbing alley walls in his youth and Princess sniffing at flowers and bringing them home for her owners. Unfortunately, none of them could tell him who his father was, and all of them urged him to talk to his mother.

The sun set on a couple of tired cats who trudged along the outskirts of the forest, scenting the air for anything familiar, just a whiff of what reminded them of home.

"I'm never following you again." Fernpaw panted.

"Fine by me." Lightpaw sighed. The light brown tom was no less determined to find his sire, but perhaps a bit of rest would be nice.

"Lightpaw! Fernpaw!" A familiar voice called out. "Can anyone hear me?!"

"Splashpaw!" Fernpaw yelped, scrambling towards the direction of her friend's voice. Lightpaw wasn't far behind, and eventually they crashed headfirst into the tortoiseshell.

"Thank StarClan! We thought we'd never find you." A familiar voice sighed, relieved.

"Darkstripe…" Fernpaw groaned, scuffing her paws on the ground. "Great. Now I'll never get to see the light of day again."

"Quit being so dramatic." Lightpaw scoffed. "At this rate, I thought we would have to spend the night in a tree!"

"You don't know how to climb." Fernpaw sneered. "And this is your fault! If you hadn't gone on about your mousebrained father-!"

"Hey!" Darkstripe began, lifting a paw to split the pair.

"You didn't have to come with me!" Lightpaw snarled. "I didn't ask for your help and you've been nothing but a fox-heart the entire time! It's no wonder Fireheart hates training you! You're not good enough for him!"

"Hey!" Darkstripe and Splashpaw snapped at the exact same time, and Splashpaw tackled her brother to the ground.

"Fireheart loves mentoring Fernpaw, so you take that back right now!"

Lightpaw deflated.

"I know she's your friend and all-."

"I'm saying that because it's true. It doesn't matter that she's my friend, you're being a load of mousedirt and you know it!"

"Well-!"

"That's enough out of you all!" Darkstripe snarled. "Look, we are going to to find the rest of the patrol, we are going back to camp, and you three will go straight to bed. If you need food, I'll bring it to you. Are we clear?!"

"Yes, Darkstripe." The apprentices droned.

"It's been a long day, guys. I'm sure things will look better after you've gotten some sleep."

"Right, like I'll ever find my father." Lightpaw grumbled.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow too." Darkstripe assured the light brown tabby.


Brindleface had been worried out of her fur, pacing the length of the camp as the night waned on. Nutleaf lay absolutely still, save for the slightest twitch of her tail.

"... I just know she's been giving Fireheart a hard time. On top of everything else that poor tom has to deal with, a foolish girl with no regard for anyone's safety should not be the load on his paws! I'm of half a mind to ask Bluestar what in the world she was thinking, piling all this on top of him-!" Brindleface raged.

"Bluestar hasn't been in the best state." Nutleaf admitted quietly.

The grey and white tabby ceased her pacing and dropped to the ground.

"I know." She sighed heavily. "And it's not her fault. It's not your fault, or mine, or Fireheart's, or even our kits… they just wanted to know." Brindleface grumbled.

"I've been sheltering them." Nutleaf murmured bitterly.

"We all have, dear. It's what we do as parents."

Goldenflower slipped out of the nursery in the cover of night. She thanked all the stars in the sky that her four were as comfortable with Speckletail as they were with her. Nutleaf needed her more, it seemed.

"I wonder if I should tell them." The brown and white she-cat went on. "It's not like he was a bad cat, he just… it wasn't supposed to be permanent. We had an understanding. He moved on and so did I. How am I supposed to tell them that their father didn't expect to be in their lives?"

"You tell them that he's glad for them, but that he couldn't help you as much as he wanted to. Say that the Twolegs wouldn't allow it."

"They didn't." Princess snorted. "He asked to see them more than a few times, and he did. He knows they exist. But he was a roamer. We both knew he wouldn't stay. I was okay with that."

"They're children, dear. All they see is that some cats have two parents and wonder why they don't." Goldenflower's tone turned sharp and Nutleaf eased out a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry… this can't be easy for you." She offered awkwardly.

"It's not anyone's fault but Tigerclaw's." The yellow she-cat snorted. "And I have time to think of what I want to say."