The sun rose the next morning, illuminating the still rather destroyed camp. Although they had done a lot yesterday after the attack, there was still much more to be done. Many of the less injured cats, including me, ended up spending the better half of the morning repairing the dens.
By evening, I was starving, but what remained of the fresh kill pile was being spent feeding the severely injured and the elderly. Even as she felt the grumble in her stomach, she watched as the first warrior to eat took the last piece of fresh kill.
"The fresh kill pile is empty." Greystorm observed in astonishment. "I've never seen us run out of food before."
"The foxes stole a lot of our prey while they were here." Spottednose commented. "We would still have plenty if they hadn't attacked."
I surprised myself when I spoke up. "I could go out hunting, bring more fresh kill to feed the rest of the clan."
"You won't be able to feed the rest of us on your own. I'm up for going with you though."
"Me too." Spottednose added with a smile.
"Well, if we're forming a hunting patrol, won't we need Silvermoon's permission to head out?"
"Silvermoon!?" Greystorm called out, summoning the she-cat within a few seconds.
"Yes?" She looked to the three of us. "Is something wrong?"
"We were hoping to head out for a hunting patrol. The fresh kill pile is empty."
Silvermoon glanced to the empty space where their food had been and nodded. "Good idea. You three can hunt on the right side of the territory. I'll get another group to hunt the left."

We left immediately, and were greeted by a forest full of prey noises, a good sign for a clan needing food. It was strange to be providing food for a whole clan again. You start to think of the larger game. You think about fat magpies and juicy voles, instead of something that can get just you through the day.
I looked back to the siblings, noticing that same look in their eye, and finally I got curious. "Why do you keep staring at me like that?" I asked, keeping my voice low in case I scented something nearby that would be a good hunt.
"Like what?" Spottednose asked, although I was mildly positive.
"Like I'm a newborn kit." I responded with a slight snap.
There was a pause from them before Greystorm said, "It's only… You remind us of our little sister, Jaykit… at least, your coloration does."
"Maybe a little lighter than her, but still. We both see it." I paused to look at them, but shook the thought.
I wanted to ask them about this Jaykit, what had happened to her, and so much more, but I only replied, "Oh."
The awkward silence broke as I suddenly dropped into a hunting crouch. A very delicious smelling magpie was near.

When we got back to camp, we had all hunted well, bringing back a significant amount of prey, which the clan was very happy to see. Before everyone could take it all, Greystorm snatched up a plump rabbit and invited me and Spottednose over to share it.
Greystorm took the first bite, then passed it to me. I took my first bite, then passed it to Spottednose, who followed in kind. As we continued on this cycle, Greystorm said, "You're a good hunter, Stealthbreeze. I take it your mentor was a great cat."
I nodded, "Both of them were, although I got better battle training from one of them."
Spottednose tilted her head curiously. "Two mentors? You got two mentors in your clan?"
I shook my head. "I wasn't supposed to, but my mentor…" I choked on her name, instead deciding to use a pronoun. "She was the clan's leader, so sometimes she wouldn't have time to train me. So, every now and then, her brother would train me. It was nice having two cats teaching me. Their technique in hunting and fighting was so different; I got to blend the two." This would be the first time, I realized, that I had talked about life in my previous clan without getting choked up. Maybe Aspen was rubbing off on me.
"That must've been fun. Creating an entirely unique fighting style for yourself. I'll bet your opponents never knew what was coming." She punctuated it by swatting the rabbit in such a fashion that it hit Greystorm right in the muzzle.
I chuckled a little, watching in amusement as the rabbit fell to reveal Greystorm's stunned face. At the sight of his surprise, Spottednose burst out laughing, only to receive a rabbit in her face as well. I shook my head with a smile, rolling my eyes playfully. The siblings were so… I didn't know the word to describe it. They just were.

When we got back to work, Aspen joined me in redoing the cover over the nursery log, which I noted was empty. It occurred to me that on our journey during the fox incident, I had not seen any queens present, but I was sure when we had first arrived – I had heard kits mewling from inside. I winced at the possibilities of what had happened to the Oakclan queens and their kits, but tried to not let it deter me as we packed the log back into its foundation and began sticking wads of hanging moss into the top of the log so that it shaded the inside of the den.
"It was nice to see you laughing with those cats earlier." Aspen commented. "Are they nice?"
I hesitated, but then nodded, "Yeah. They're nice." I knew what he was getting at. He wanted to know if I was going to leave still.
As we began to clear the inside of the log of smaller pieces that had broken off of it, and began sticking soft grasses at the bottom, he said, "I know you aren't all cold inside as you try to be sometimes. I know you like being happy too."
I let a silence pass before I said, "I don't know, Aspen. It's been so long since the clan…"
He gave me a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry. I get it." Another silence passed as I tugged a piece of jutting up wood out of the side of the log and walked around to the outside to cover the hole in leaves and moss. "You know, you never got to tell me your story." I looked at him, positive that I had no idea what he was talking about. "In the tree roots, just before the fox attacked, I told you about Eaglefur, but you never got to tell me something about you."
I paused again. Eaglefur was such a personal memory to Aspen, it seemed only fitting that I tell him one back. "Well… when I was young, I didn't have a brother or a sister, but I had a friend, Hawkkit. He always used to say he was going to become the leader one day. He was a great fighter and a better friend, and he stuck with me through every stupid thing I did. We became apprentices together, Hawkpaw and Stealthpaw, sure that we were destined to rule the world… at one point I even began to crush on him, think maybe we'd grow up to be mates… but that was not the case. A little over two moons after we became apprentices, a badger attacked camp. Hawkpaw was still young, so he had little training, but the heart of a warrior… When the badger was finally chased out, I found him, barely breathing, gashed across his face… Violetsnow, the medicine cat, tried, but… there was nothing she could do for him. He died from his injuries a few nights later."
A long silence passed, but neither of us dared say a word to break it. So instead, as we finished the nursery, we moved on to the apprentice den, and began fixing it up without another sound.