What's he doing here? I wondered, but Aspen spoke before I could get out a word. "I know I said you were welcome to come with, but you should really be more careful." He paused, looking towards the tom's bleeding leg, "Can you still walk on that?"
Tiger gently touched his paw to the ground, wincing. "I'll be fine."
"You need a medicine cat." I blurted out and hesitated. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet the other clans just yet, but this was all I could think of. Aspen took it into stride.
"There's a clan near hear, or so I've heard." He paused, and a look of fear crossed his features before he continued, "Unless anyone here has any other ideas?" He seemed hesitant now as well.
I looked at all of us. Tiger seemed to be hurting the worst, testing the ground a little and pulling away again. Aspen was bleeding from where the fox had bitten him, and though he seemed to be dealing, I could tell that it was hurting terribly. As for me, I only had half of an ear on one side, and besides my aching ribcage, I noticed that the fox had bitten me at some point. We couldn't travel like this.
Aspen and Tiger seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion, so, trying to tone down the defeated sound of my voice, I said, "Lead the way, Aspen."
Tiger gave a nod, and so, Aspen lifted his nose to the night air, taking in the scents. "I'd suggest we wait until morning, but our wounds could get infected." He paused, turning, "I'm pretty sure it's this way."
We followed him, Tiger walking awkwardly on three legs and Aspen's gait a little off as he tried to not move in ways that would irritate his injuries.

The trees grew thick around us, the grass soft and the night breeze cool as we came to the bottom of a gradual slope. "Just beyond this hill." Aspen said, and I looked to the moon it reached the peak and began descending. I could smell the scent of many cats nearing, and it made me uneasy. However, we all hobbled up the hill, and there stretched out a large territory. The land dipped down into a lake and was surrounded by oak trees. Many strange scents drifted towards us, but most of all, food, cats, and herbs. The camp must be near.
We made it only a few foxlengths past the scent barrier before a patrol challenged us… Or rather, ambushed us.
Aspen went down first, a sleek silver she-cat pinning him. I had barely a second to react before a golden tabby slammed into my side, sending me careening into Tiger. I stood back up, helping Tiger stand and watching Aspen roll the she-cat off of himself and rush to our group.
"Loners," The golden tabby sneered as three other cats joined the first two.
The silver one took an authoritative step towards us. "You haven't hightailed it out of here, so I'm assuming you want something. Well you won't find it here, so get out."
"Fine!" I hissed quickly, "Come on, Aspen, let's get out of here. We don't need to deal with these clan cats." Let's just admit this was a bad idea and figure out how to heal our wounds ourselves. I thought to myself, feeling spot where the fox had bit me sting a little.
"Cool it mouse-brain," Aspen snapped, turning back to the silver she-cat. "We were attacked by a fox while near your territory. We felt the least we could do was warn you about the beast."
Tiger tested the ground again, trying to look as if his bleeding leg wasn't such of a problem. I watched him hide a grimace as he gave up on it and said, "That fox gave us a decent amount of trouble."
The silver one paused to eye Tiger's injured leg, and I twitched to step in front of him, at first believing her to be seeking out his weaknesses. However, I realized that she was somewhat sympathetic. Looking back to Aspen, she stated, "You're all in need of a medicine cat."
I was only able to make out the first part of 'yeah' before Aspen interrupted me. "We'll manage." I gave him a glare but he didn't return my gaze. I may have wanted to get out of there, but at this point, I knew we all needed a little medicine.
"Your off-white friend would beg to differ." The silver she-cat said, indicating to Tiger's leg. "That's going to get infected if it isn't treated right away."
I watched the faces of the others in the group, noting that some, while they seemed to disapprove, would not speak up. Perhaps this was the leader we were speaking to. I wanted to ask, but the others had the conversation part covered.
"Only if your medicine stores could support it. We're not going to take a clan's supplies if they need it."
There was a pause when the silver she cat was about to nod, but the golden tabby, which seemed to be the most opposed to the idea, spoke up. "You can't be serious. Taking in a couple of loners? That's unheard of!"
"It's not unheard of, Bronzetail. They're in need, and our medicine stores can handle what they need for their injuries." She nodded, "Follow us." The rest of the patrol eyed us, but soon we were all walking in a large group. The silver one led us through some brambles and into a small tunnel, and then out into a clearing surrounded by heavy thicket. There were dens dug out in the side of the hill, and two in trees. I could also hear the mewling of kits coming from an old log.
The silver she-cat led us to the medicine cat den, which was located under a large tree, with holes poked in the roof to let the moonlight in. The medicine cat, as far as I could tell, was an old black tom, though he might've been dark brown. He greeted us with a suspicious eye, but only said, "More injured strangers, Silvermoon?" I noted the lack of 'star' and the end of her name. So she wasn't the leader. Perhaps she was the deputy.
"A fox attacked them near our borders. They came here to warn us. It only seems fair to repay them for their effort."
"A gesture we are very grateful for." Aspen said, dipping his head in respect to both of the cats. Tiger followed in suit, and while I knew I should be grateful as well, I didn't feel it. Though I made the faintest of efforts, I still dipped my head.
Silvermoon left us alone with the old medicine tom, who treated our wounds silently until his apprentice, a red and white patched she-cat returned, a bundle of herbs in her mouth.
She didn't seem too off-put about the three of us loners in the den, which raised the question as to how many loners passed through their territory. I was itching to ask, but Aspen soon struck up a hearty conversation with the medicine cats, and knowing I wasn't really a help with the social relations part of this journey, I decided to back off, resisting the urge to poke at the herbs used on my wounds.
Somnolent, I curled up in the mossy nest and soon, whatever will I had to stay awake faded, and I drifted off to sleep.
Fear shot through my body as I ran, muscles working harder than I ever thought they could, shooting me across Sorrelclan territory. My breathing was labored, coming in in short bursts. A cat I didn't recognize was running beside me, looking equally as terrified. There was a strange yowl-like sound, and I looked into the sky just in time to see something flying at us. The stranger yowled, "Stealthbreeze, get down!"
I didn't have time to lower myself. The other cat's weight pushed me down, and I collapsed, rolled a bit, and then stood, shakily looking around. The strange object had come to a grinding halt a few trees away, but the stranger was nowhere in sight. Her weight had been taken off of me moments after it had been applied. My eyes searched franticly through the trees, knowing I had little time to dawdle. "Foxfoot?" I called out, but no reply came.
"Foxfoot!" I jolted awake to the sound of my own voice, hissing through my teeth as I turned at an odd angle and irritated my wounds.
"If you keep talking in your sleep, you're gonna have to expect me to ask you who it is you are getting so worked up about. And in any case, there are still cats trying to catch some shut eye you know…" Aspen's voice called over to me, and I adjusted my position in order to give him a glare.
I was about to make a sarcastic comment when I realized my patched companion was seated next to Silvermoon, and had obviously been in a conversation with her before I had woken. Not wanting to deal with either of them at the moment, I only rolled my eyes and grumbled, "Oh, how rude of me." I curled myself into a circle in such a fashion that I faced away from them. I still wasn't exactly sure how to interpret my dream. I'd never met or heard of a cat named Foxfoot back in Sorrelclan. At the thought of the clan, homesickness struck me like a tree. How long had it been since I'd last set foot on Sorrelclan soil? How long had it been since I'd hunted the Sorrelclan squirrels? How long had it been since I'd left my life behind?
Releasing a troubled sigh, I tried to keep my mind off of that. Since my few other options were to either concentrate on how my body ached from the fox attack yesterday or eavesdrop on Silvermoon and Aspen's conversation, I went with the one that wouldn't cause me as more pain.
"From the desert, you say? We don't get many loners traveling from over the mountain."
"Yes, well, two of us are from the desert. Stealthbreeze – the spotted she-cat – is from further away than even that."
"Across the desert? What in Starclan's name would make her travel that far?"
"Only Starclan knows. We have an agreement. We don't talk about our old clans to each other."
"So you were in clans?"
"Yes. Tiger wasn't though. His mother and his father were, but he and his late brothers were born into a twoleg family. The clan fell just before he was born. I showed him everything he knows about being a true warrior and following the code."
"For future reference, you might want to refrain from traveling with she-cats that refuse to talk about where they're from. You never know what they could've done to be running so far from home."
I scowled. If she found out what I had, she would've run as far as I had.
"Stealthbreeze's fine once you get used to her. I doubt whatever happened in her clan was her fault. And anyway, everyone has their secrets. We all want a second chance, and if that means some secrets are conveniently forgotten, then so be it."
"So you have your own secrets, too, huh?"
I rolled my eyes again. Wasn't that the definition of 'everyone' having secrets?
"Well, don't you?"
"I suppose I might. Not that I can think of right now though."
Growing disinterested in their conversation, I checked my injuries, wishing I knew enough about medicine to be able to judge whether or not I was healing. I remembered once in Sorrelclan, I was gravely injured and had to spend a little under a moon in the medicine den. In all that time, I had befriended Cherrypaw, but other than that, I hadn't learned anything about medicine. I taught the blind medicine cat apprentice a defense move though, one that Dapplestar had taught me on one of the few days she wasn't busy governing the clan. If I had stayed, surely we would've stayed good friends.
But that was not my place, and it was too late now to go back. I'd left that life.
"Our medicine cat isn't incompetent." I looked up, realizing that Silvermoon had been addressing me.
"Huh?"
"You don't need to check over your bandaging. Our medicine cat knows what he's doing."
"Well forgive me for being skeptical." I snapped, easing to a sitting position and beginning to clean between my back toes before I heard Silvermoon speak, obviously not meant for me to hear.
"You put up with that across the desert?"
"Like I said," Aspen replied, matching her whisper. "She's fine once you get used to her."
Silvermoon looked him over, "Well, I have many duties to attend to, so I ought to be off. However, if you're feeling up to it any time soon, I'd be glad to hunt with you. I'm interested to see if our hunting tactics differ." She rose and they both acknowledged each other before the she-cat exited the den, leaving me, sleeping Tiger, and Aspen in the den. The medicine cat was nowhere in sight, which was strange for me. After all, through all my warrior life, I hardly ever saw a medicine den without at least one medically trained cat in it.
However, I had more important things on my mind. I adjusted my position so that I now faced my black and white companion as I asked, "Is it really in our best interest to get friendly with the locals?"
"Get friendly? What do you mean by that?"
"She invited you out to a hunt. She seems pretty warmed up to you. I just want to make sure we aren't staying here longer than it takes for our injuries to heal."
"Well, isn't staying the point? We wanted to see the other clans, find a place where no one knew who we were or what we did before we came. We were both running from something. I know this is only the first clan we've seen, but look at them. They seem friendly. Why shouldn't we ask them if we could stay?"
"They seem friendly?" I asked in disbelief, "You mean Silvermoon seems friendly to you. I can tell she has certain distaste for me."
"Well what do you expect, Stealthbreeze? You've got an attitude that could scare away a badger." Aspen retorted, his voice becoming annoyed. "Be glad I stopped you from saying anything when we were trying to get them to let us into the territory. They'd have chased us all the way back to the desert." I scowled at him, but I couldn't deny that I wasn't the friendliest cat I knew. Rolling back over so as to face away from him once more, I let my head drop between my paws as I gave an exasperated sigh. Unfortunately for me, this one something I was just going to have to ride out.