AN: I swear, Shimmertail, this is almost starting to get creepy. It's like you were reading my mind when I was thinking about who to do for this chapter right after I finished Flash. I'm scared. D:

Finally made it 1/10 of the way through, though. That only took like, what, a year? I'm making good time.

10. Puzzling Words

What is sought after by many, found by a few, and satisfies none?

She smiled to herself; that was one of her favorite riddles, by far. Not for just one reason, of course; there were too many delicious riddles out there to have one be her favorite for just a single reason. The most obvious reason would be that the riddle was a parting gift from her mother, on her deathnest; a love of riddling was genetic, it would seem. She sometimes wondered if her father had liked them too; him, she had never met.

The other reason for her liking of the riddle was how true the answer was; it always brought a smile to her face, for as delicious as riddles were, they often were not…well, continuing that thought would give away the answer, now wouldn't it?

She yawned, resting her head on her dark gray paws, listening to the babbling of the nearby waterfall; the Twolegs that had originally owned his nest had moved, but the waterfall remained behind, and for that she was glad. It gave the Twoleg nest an almost peaceful air, despite the sounds of monsters and the barking of dogs. It was pleasant to think that although this was by no means a safe Twolegplace, there were still some safe parts.

She rubbed one paw over the grass, then rolled onto her back rather suddenly; she wasn't quite sure why she did so. She was hardly a kitten anymore, no; by any reckoning, she was an old cat, and that was becoming increasingly obvious to her; her movements were becoming slower, more stiff, and she wasn't as fast as she used to be. She wasn't to the point where she had to gum her prey to death, but surely that wasn't too far away. She had what, a year left? Perhaps two if she was cautious, and indeed caution was the only reason she had survived long enough to travel so far.

And yet that traveling had stopped, for some reason. She was still here, in this Twolegplace, and she no longer had the urge to roam. But why? There was little holding her here. Buttercup was pleasant enough, but by no means bright company, she rarely saw Shaw, and the host of other cats in this Twolegplace that she had come to know were mostly boring and dull. The power struggle that had developed after Ruin's death was slightly interesting – if a little dangerous – but even that wasn't a reason to tie her here.

It was possible that her age was what was holding her back, but even then she had never let it stop her before; she had wandered over this earth for years and years without thinking to stop for more than a moon or so….

It was indeed puzzling, perhaps a greater riddle than she had ever known. But, like all riddles, surely there was some sort of solution to it. She frowned to herself, trying to think, stretching her mind back over all that she had experienced in this Twolegplace, this city.

And then she remembered.

"Are…are you the one that tells riddles?"

She had blinked down at the little white kit, mystified. This kit smelled like a kittypet…so why on Earth was she here on the streets?

"I am," she had said cautiously. The kit had looked nervous.

"Buttercup says they're really interesting…and Hedge says they're really hard," she mewed. "I need to hear them."

She had been even more confused than before. "What for?" She had looked around nervously, her tail twitching. "You should be back with your Twolegs, not here. It's dangerous. Come on." She had reached down to nudge the kit, but the white kit flinched away from her touch.

"Please," she whimpered, "I need help. Please."

Her gaze gentled, and she felt a stirring of pity for the helpless scrap of fur. "I'll help you, I promise, but I would be much more comfortable if we were somewhere safer. Where do you live?"

The kit flicked her tail, towards the district where Buttercup, Hedge, and many other kittypets lived.

"Well, come on then, let's go there. We can talk in your yard, alright?"

The kit eyed her with caution. "You aren't just going to take me there and leave, are you?"

"Of course not."

That had been her first meeting with little Angel…it seemed like such a long time ago now. And, perhaps, it really was a long time ago; her sense of time was beginning to slip, it would seem. Even then, the white kit's violet-blue gaze had seemed oddly…puzzling.

They had made it back to Angel's home quickly; all that she had learned of the kit was her name, not the reason for her strange desire for her riddles, or anything else of the sort.

"Now, this is your nest, correct?"

Angel nodded. "It is…please don't leave! I'll follow you if you do!"

"I told you, kit, I'm not going to desert you," she said gently. "You followed me for a reason; it's only right that I find it out. Now, let's have a proper meeting, won't we? My name is Wander, and as you said I am the one that tells the riddles; it's a fairly common practice with rogues, but I suppose I have a fascination with them that is a little abnormal."

Angel nodded slowly. "That's why I need your help. Please, tell me a riddle."

She was puzzled, then shrugged; what harm could it do?

"I soar above all others," she meowed, "even above the birds. The wind is my ally; I carry life in my belly. What am I?"

Angel was quiet for a long moment; Wander thought she might have given up, when she finally glanced up at the sky, and smiled. "A cloud."

She let out a low purr. "Yes, good! Buttercup didn't understand that one. She's a bit slow…good-hearted, but slow. Hedge managed that one, though. Let's see how you handle another, shall we?"

And so it had gone, riddle after riddle; at first little Angel answered them with ease, but gradually Wander made them more difficult, over periods of time. They struck up a pattern of visitation; every few days Wander would stop by to see if Angel had the answer to her latest riddle; if she did, then they would continue until Angel was stumped once more and Wander departed.

And then, finally, Wander offered Angel her favorite riddle of all.

"What is sought after by many, found by a few, and satisfies none?"

And Angel had not known. It took three visits from Wander before the kit finally admitted that she did not know. Wander had let out a low, rumbling purr.

"I can't tell you the answer to that, of course," she meowed. "You'll have to figure it out for yourself…but I think I've taught you most of what I know. Is that enough for you?"

To her surprise, Angel's face crumpled with sadness. She sniffled loudly. Taken aback, Wander had blinked anxiously, not knowing what to do.

"If I can't solve that riddle, then how can I solve my own?" she had whimpered. Wander had touched her flank.

"What riddle of your own?" she had asked. "Perhaps I can help you."

Angel looked down at her paws. "I don't think anyone can."

She yawned slowly, then stretched, glancing up at the sky; the sun was already beginning to set. How could she waste so much time lying around? If she indeed only had a few years left, lounging about wasn't quite the way to spend them. She sighed softly, and then rolled back onto her side, letting the sound of the waterfall soothe her old, tired ears.

It had taken Wander many more visits before Angel had finally confessed her plight, and even Wander had been surprised by the truth of it. The poor kit was haunted by visions of death, forced to experience it whenever certain cats died. She could never remember the deaths later, but the pain and fear haunted her even while she was awake.

Quite a riddle indeed.

Unfortunately, it was not one that Wander had known the answer to, which was a first for her. It was a puzzle, a conundrum, a very strange riddle. Perhaps it was even unsolvable; she did not know. But one thing was for certain. The life of a kittypet was not for Angel. She had a bigger destiny in store for her.

And that destiny had come on the paws of a young, deaf tom.

Wander smiled as she remembered him, proud little Snowpaw; his blue eyes had blazed with starlight when they had first met. StarClan whispered in his ear, she had known that, it had been obvious. She had encountered Clan cats before in her time as a wandering rogue.

And she knew that Angel belonged with them. And so she had convinced Angel – as well as another kit, who was oddly named Kit, to go with her, so that she would not feel so alone – to join young Snowpaw and his friends. And she had thought that would be the end of their friendship.

But it had not been so. There had been a great battle, one that she had been enlisted in by a clever young tom named Lune. A grisly battle, to be certain, but it had given her and Angel the time to meet again. And then there had been another meeting, one that even Wander had not suspected, this time with little Angel in the company of Lune, bent on some mission concerning the Pride.

Wander had sheltered them, of course, given them a place to stay where they would be safe from the power vacuum created by Ruin's death. And she had bade them farewell again, when their path led them out of the city.

"I know the answer now," Angel had said with a smile; she was still young, and looked tiny compared to Lune, but there was a new sparkle of confidence and power in her eyes.

"The answer?" Wander had asked, then blinked, remembering both her favorite riddle and Angel's unfortunate one. "The answer to which riddle?"

Angel had smiled. "Both of them." And she had whispered the answers in Wander's ear, and Wander had purred with delight, for surely little Angel, her protégé, had surpassed her tutor.

Perhaps that was the real reason, then; perhaps that was the real reason that Wander had stopped wandering. She rested her head on her paws once more, thinking.

Perhaps the reason she no longer wandered was that she knew no matter how far she went, there would always be a cat that would walk farther, and know more than she ever could. Perhaps the reason she stopped wandering was that she had trained her own little successor, one that had inherited her own fierce love of riddles. For that was what Angel was now, a new Wander, and with Lune at her sight and her mission at paw she would go farther than Wander ever had, and hear of riddles that Wander could never hope to solve.

It wasn't such a bad thing, really; it was almost a weight off of her shoulders now, she could see that. It was like an endless circle; she had surpassed her mother, and Angel had surpassed her. It was simply how life went, and she was glad to be a part of it, glad to have helped set little Angel's paws on her new path.

Slowly, Wander rose to her paws, then shivered; the breeze was chilling against her short gray fur. She glanced towards the Twoleg nest, wondering what sorts of new Twolegs lived there; they had kept their waterfall, so they couldn't be all bad. And she smiled to herself, thinking that perhaps it was time for an old cat to accept her status. Perhaps it was time that she retired, so to speak. Perhaps it was time that she selected her new status, and perhaps it was time that these new Twolegs became her Twolegs.

Slowly, she began padding towards the back door; it was clear, and she could peer into it; she knew these new Twolegs had a young kit, not very old at all. She had never seen the father Twoleg, but the Twoleg queen herself was a pretty thing. She could fit in nicely with them.

Gently, she put her paw on the glass, then hesitated; riddles and wandering had always gone paw-in-paw for her. She could never have one without the other. And she smiled a sad smile, and whispered to the wind,

"What is sought after by many, found by a few, and satisfies none?"

"The answer to a riddle."

AN: The new Twolegs are the same ones that adopted Snowhawk and Lightningstar from the Shelter. The Twoleg kit is a little older now, perhaps a bit better suited for a cat…and the mom won't mind an elderly cat that is laid-back and not at all messy.

It's about time I wrote about an elder. I don't do it very often.