CHAPTER 11

"Blackfrost, wake up."

With a slight groan, the black-furred warrior opened his eyes, and despite the fact that it was still pitch-dark in the den, he could just make out the figure of the pale orange tabby tom Flamepelt by both sight and scent. The older warrior lifted a forepaw and, hesitating just a moment, prodded him sharply in the side.

"Ah, hey!"

Blackfrost jolted out of his nest, and Flamepelt rolled his eyes.

"You're on the dawn patrol with me and Acornpaw, remember?"

Feeling somewhat embarrassed as the vague recollection of his previously agreed-upon duties came back to him, Blackfrost allowed his bristling fur to lie down flat again, his ears pressed against his head as his gaze flickered from side to side to make sure he hadn't waken any of his other Clanmates that were still fast asleep. Only Robinsong stirred in the nest beside him, but she quickly turned to lay on her other side without opening her eyes.

"Sorry," he muttered.

Flamepelt stifled an amused snort and softly mewed back, "It's all right. Just be ready at the gorse tunnel in a few, I've got to go wake Acornpaw as well."

He stalked off, muttering under his breath about particularly lazy Clanmates, and with a deep breath, Blackfrost stretched out his legs and then sleepily followed the orange tom out of the den.

The early morning air was crisp and cold, and sent a wave of shock down his spine despite the faintest rays of sunlight that filtered into the clearing, quickly pushing out any remnants of sleep from his mind. The grass poking out from beneath his paws held trace amounts of frosted dew that hadn't yet begun to melt properly, simply adding to the sharp chill he felt. Leaf-bare was truly well on its way, and coming quickly now.

Pausing for a few heartbeats to watch Flamepelt make his way toward the clump of ferns that made up the apprentices' den, Blackfrost then turned to take one of the smallest pieces of prey – a tiny vole – from the fresh-kill pile, and wondered briefly whether he should take anything to Rosethorn and Luna, too. Just a force of habit, he supposed, after the whole quarter-moon of taking care of them every sunrise and sunset. They were most likely perfectly fine on their own.

But he decided to stop by the medicine cat's den anyway, and see if they were even awake. Perhaps Rosethorn might be running low on herbs that she could trust him to easily find on his way back from the patrol. It surely didn't hurt to check.

Checking up on them didn't mean he was going soft, he told himself. It was just the right thing to do, and would only take but a moment... It wasn't like he specifically wanted to see Luna, anyway.

If only he could truly believe that deep down.

"Blackfrost? Is that you?"

The dark warrior padded through the familiar tunnel of thick branching ferns that arched overhead, and was immediately met by a small flurry of movement and a soft, questioning mew as the kittypet in question sat upright in her mossy nest just beside the entrance, her pale grey ears pricked warily as she turned toward her early morning visitor.

"Yes, yes, it's me," he muttered hastily, the drowsiness that still blurred his mind making him particularly irritable. Blinking, he glanced around the dark clearing, searching for the familiar mottled pelt of the ThunderClan medicine cat. "Where's Rosethorn?"

"Oh, you startled me a bit there," Luna mewed, sighing in relief. "I thought you might have been one of those... other cats. And Rosethorn... she left just a little while ago. Said it was some sort of 'medicine cat business'. But she should be back soon!"

"Oh..." Blackfrost flicked his tail awkwardly. "Well, I was just wondering... Oh, never mind. I've got to go."

He quickly turned and rushed back through the fern tunnel, praying to StarClan that the dim light in the shaded clearing meant the kittypet hadn't caught on to how his fur was prickling so uncomfortably in her presence.

"Wait!"

He paused, and the pale she-cat stumbled clumsily out of the ferns after him, nearly bumping into his side. "You just got here! Where are you off to now?"

"But-" Blackfrost fought to keep his tail from lashing about, "I'm on the dawn patrol..."

"Please don't leave!" Luna begged, her voice rising into a high-pitched mew, much to the warrior's surprise. Blackfrost couldn't help but roll his eyes at her dramatic antics, and out of the corner of his line of vision, he saw Flamepelt leaving the apprentices' den with his small brown-striped apprentice sleepily trailing after him.

"Why, exactly, don't you want me to leave?" he asked patronizingly.

"I-I'm frightened," the she-cat admitted quietly with an air of reluctance, but that didn't stop her from glaring at him. "That storm last night was so scary... And now Rosethorn's left me all alone, so I don't want you to just leave me here, too!"

Her gaze dropped to her pale grey paws as she added in a barely-discernible whisper, her words faltering slightly, "Last night... I just, ugh, I felt... much safer with you there."

"I told you, I've got border patrol now," Blackfrost mewed quickly, feigning ignorance over what she had just admitted to him. He didn't have to respond if he hadn't heard it in the first place, right? Instead, he put on his usual annoyed front as he turned to see Flamepelt watching him expectantly from the gorse tunnel entrance, "But I'll be back by sunhigh at the latest. You'll be perfectly fine here in camp."

"I'll stay with her," a sudden feminine mew interjected, and he and Luna turned toward the voice simultaneously to see the pale tortoiseshell she-cat Robinsong padding up to them from the vicinity of the warriors' den.

"I heard the entire conversation," she added, nodding somewhat apologetically toward the kittypet in particular, as she blinked her soft amber eyes sleepily. "I won't have a patrol to be on until after Blackfrost gets back, so I wouldn't mind keeping you company around camp for the time being, Luna."

"Oh - thank you for offering, Robinsong," Luna mewed gratefully, her nervousness fading as she met eyes with the familiar face of the kind-hearted warrior she-cat, one of the few that she actually recognized.

Robinsong purred in a friendly manner and placed a gentle tail-tip at the kittypet's back. "Perhaps Maplefur will let you come see her kits at the nursery. They're still quite small yet, it's really cute."

"Thanks, Robinsong," Blackfrost muttered. "You'll be fine," he added toward Luna, and he nodded in farewell to the pair of she-cats before backing up and rushing off toward Flamepelt and Acornpaw at the gorse tunnel, not bothering to look behind him.

"I see you've been getting along rather well with our little guest?" Flamepelt meowed to him as he approached, a teasing edge to his tone. Blackfrost narrowed his eyes at the pale orange tom.

"Oh, please," he huffed. "That she-cat has been a pain in my tail ever since I brought her here."

Flamepelt shrugged lightly as if to say, You know that's not entirely true.

Or perhaps that was just the voice in the back of his mind saying it, but no matter. Blackfrost flicked his tail at his two Clanmates irritably and stomped off through the tunnel without a glance back at them, either, leaving the mentor and apprentice to exchange a bemused glance. "Come on. We've got a border to patrol."

"Oh, hello Blackfrost," Rosethorn's voice welcomed the black-furred warrior immediately as, for the second time that day, he stepped into the medicine cat's den. The patrol with Flamepelt and Acornpaw had gone smoothly, for the most part, and he had even caught a rather plump little rabbit on the way back to camp, which he had decided to offer to the medicine cat as the elders had already had their fill of fresh-kill.

The ThunderClan medicine cat was back and busy in her clearing, sitting with her back facing him as she sifted through what looked like an assortment of roots with her paws. She must have recognized him by scent alone.

"What brings you here into the medicine den again?" She paused, and turned her head over one shoulder to look at him quizzically. "You're not feeling sick, are you? I mean, I practically had the entire elders' den in here already, complaining about joint aches after that rainstorm we had last night stiffened them up, but you're still much too young for that sort of pain..."

Blackfrost purred in amusement. "I'm still a new warrior - don't expect joint aches from me anytime soon." He shrugged, and nudged the rabbit toward her. "I was just... checking up on you. I brought you something to eat."

"Old habits die hard, eh? You know, I'm fully capable of fetching my own prey," the tortoiseshell she-cat mewed pleasantly with a teasing flick of her tail, echoing the young warrior's own thoughts, but she pulled the fresh-kill toward her all the same. "It's appreciated, Blackfrost, but not necessary. I'm nowhere near an old cat yet, either!"

Her copper eyes flickered toward the only occupied nest in the den beside them, and Blackfrost couldn't help but glance at the all too familiar pile of fluffy white fur that took up the moss. "Though I highly doubt you stopped by just to see me... I may be more than capable, yes, but Luna, on the other paw... It'll still take some getting used to Clan life for her, to say the least."

The young tom's pelt twitched in discomfort.

"Only thought it should be mentioned," Rosethorn added with a shrug, and she turned back toward her piles of roots to be sorted. "It's a big change for a kittypet."

"Talking about me again, are you?" Luna mumbled, lifting her head and casting the pair of Clan cats an icy stare. "I hope some of that rabbit is for me!"

Blackfrost narrowed his eyes at her, then at the leftover remains of a meal nearby. "What are you doing asleep again? And didn't you already eat? Where's Robinsong?"

The pale kittypet lazily rolled over in her nest, looking content and much more comfortable than she had just earlier that morning. "I'm not asleep any more. And Robinsong went off hunting with one of the other cats, I think her name was Mistydawn, after Rosethorn came back. She did show me Maplefur's kittens, though."

Blackfrost, however, after a furtive glance at the medicine cat who was currently occupied with her herbs, continued to glare right back at the fluffy she-cat. "How much did you eat?"

"Hey, I was really hungry!" Luna defended herself, brushing the last scraps of fresh-kill behind her with one paw. "And yes, then I took a nap, but it's no big deal!"

He felt a surge of inexplicable anger course through him. "Why don't you ever leave the camp? Or at least make yourself useful?" he asked scathingly, his pent up frustrations finally spilling over as he struggled to keep his storm of conflicting emotions at bay. "Ever since you got here, you've just been sitting around camp all day, eating and whining after other cats to kit-sit you. You've been about as much use as a dead fox around here."

Luna shrunk back at his harsh tone, though she didn't avert her now fiercely challenging gaze; a confident, prepared to fight look that was common in warriors he had battled, but it always startled Blackfrost when he saw it in a kittypet's eyes, even when he knew for a fact that he could beat her in any battle as easily as he would bat away a shrew with one paw.

It didn't make any sense… Luna was probably the most pathetic, helpless kittypet he had seen, when it came to ability to hunt and fight and simply endure the wild on her own, and yet she must have some spark deep down inside her, the same spark he had seen the night she had stalked off after her outburst when the ThunderClan cats were discussing what to do with her.

Blackfrost shook the rambling train of thought out of his mind as he realized that Luna had been looking at him oddly, most likely wondering why he had just been blankly staring at her without saying a word for more than a few heartbeats.

"Listen…" he growled at a much quieter tone, reverting back to his former self, "You say it's no big deal, but you really don't understand a thing. Leaf-bare is coming quickly, and you need to learn to pull your own weight here, or you're going to make a lot of enemies here in ThunderClan, which is the last thing you need if you're going to survive. And we don't need an extra cat sitting around eating our precious few scraps of prey when the weather gets harsh, fresh-kill that should instead go to our own kits and nursing queens and elders first."

Luna looked him in the eye seriously, and he could sense something change within her. "I… I understand." She paused, then added carefully, as though she wasn't completely sure of what she was saying, "You… you can feed them first, from now on. Give them my share of the food…"

Blackfrost watched her, and an idea popped into his mind. It was a crazy thought, really, but an idea nonetheless.

"Luna… Perhaps you should come out into the forest with me. There's… something that I need to explain to you. Something important."

He met her gaze directly, forest green with icy blue, and finally Luna nodded. Together, they stepped through the fern tunnel, leaving Rosethorn watching after them in purposeful silence with a curious look in her eye, one paw positioned thoughtfully over a stray comfrey root. She sat still for a moment, then shrugged and took a bite out of her rabbit.

Their walk into the forest was quiet, as neither cat dared open their mouth to speak first and break the heavy silence between them. Blackfrost hadn't planned ahead as to where they would go once they left the ThunderClan camp; he only knew that he wanted to get away somewhere, hopefully where his Clanmates wouldn't eavesdrop on them. He stole a glance at Luna as they stepped over the high ridge of the ravine, then sighed and swatted at a stray leaf with one paw. Planning out his words carefully before saying them out loud.

"Look, Luna…" he began slowly, eyeing her face for any reaction, "This is something really important that I have to tell you. All the cats in the Clans – and not just ThunderClan, mind you – follow this one set of rules, our own code for living out here in the forest."

She nodded, not looking at him, and he continued. "It's called the warrior code, and every warrior knows it by heart; first taught to them in the earliest moons of kithood, ever since the realization that they were part of a Clan came to them. The code is built upon in their apprenticeship, and strictly obeyed by all warriors until their final dying breath."

He turned to her, his gaze vaguely condescending as he added, "Even our smallest kit here in ThunderClan knows more about the warrior code than you."

Luna flinched back slightly. "Then… Could you teach me? About this 'code'?"

Blackfrost paused, then nodded hesitantly. "I'm going to have to if you'll be living here for any serious length of time. I won't force you to live by it, but perhaps then… you'll better understand us, and why we do what we do."

He looked away again as they walked on, staring up at the thin, bare tree limbs that branched over their heads like sets of unsheathed claws, as their pawsteps crunched over the dry blanket of fallen leaves that covered the ground underfoot.

"Some of the rules are basic, like 'no trespassing or hunting on another Clan's territory.'" He flicked his tail and continued before Luna could protest, "I know you don't know the boundary lines yet, but we'll show you if we ever venture out that far. We have to check and mark them daily, like I did on that border patrol earlier, and challenge all trespassers…"

Luna nodded, understanding. "That's why you threatened me when you first met me, even though I meant no harm," she mewed softly, half to herself. "You were only following the rules…"

Blackfrost tried not to meet her eyes again. "And like I might have mentioned earlier, kits, queens, and elders are always fed before any other cat, especially in leaf-bare. Apprentices, in particular, don't eat unless they have offered prey to the elders first."

"...However, some parts of the code are less straightforward." He prodded at another leaf on the ground before him, now deep in thought. "For instance, the word of the Clan leader is the warrior code… But what happens if your leader tells you to do something that goes against the warrior code? Like hunt on another Clan's territory, or dive headfirst into an unjust battle?"

"...The code also says that no warrior may neglect a kit in pain or danger, regardless of where it came from," he went on after a long sigh. "And an honorable warrior does not need to kill any cat to win his battles, unless it is necessary for self-defense… or if they live outside the warrior code."

Speaking of living outside the warrior code… Should he tell her?

"And... a warrior outright rejects the soft life of a kittypet. It's practically the opposite of everything we stand for."

There. He said it.

He turned to look the kittypet straight in the eye before she could respond, his tone serious. "But most importantly… A warrior must defend his Clan, even with his life if it comes right down to it. Which doesn't mean you can't be friendly toward cats from other Clans, but in the end, if you meet them in battle, your loyalty must be to your own Clan first and foremost. That's what makes us strong as warriors."

Luna stared at him for a long time in silence, and Blackfrost couldn't tell whether the kittypet had even heard what he said. At least, not until she finally spoke up, her voice shaking slightly as she carefully chose her next words. "No wonder… you Clan cats hate me so much. I-I'm a kittypet, as you say. I'm soft, and weak, and I must… I must seem so selfish to you. All of you. You're not just a bunch of wild ruffians, you're… generous, and brave… and you have rules that you follow…"

"I-I don't hate you," Blackfrost blurted out before he could stop himself, but didn't bother to correct it. "And I can teach you… how to hunt, and how to defend yourself…"

Luna abruptly shook her head, and this time, she had a very different albeit distinct look of worry on her face. "No… No, you can't."

"What do you mean?" he asked, genuinely confused now. "I'm sure even a kittypet like yourself could do it if you really set your mind to it, once you've been properly taught how it's done. Here, listen-"

He paused and turned around, beckoning Luna to stay still and quiet with a flick of his dark tail, and pricked his ears toward the faint shuffling sound coming from a pile of leaves gathered among the wide roots of an old oak tree. "There's a mouse here, right now," he whispered. "Why don't you go after it? Just give it a try? So I can see how much we'll have to tea-"

"I said, I can't do it!" Luna insisted adamantly, shaking her head. Her meow must have been just a bit too loud, as the shuffling stopped and the tiny brown rodent poked its head out from among the leaves, sniffing the air, before scurrying off on its quick little feet.

"Fine." Blackfrost rolled his eyes, growing increasingly annoyed, and shot off after the fleeing mouse, just missing the creature by a whisker as it escaped among the roots of the oak tree.

He growled in frustration. "Ugh, stupid mouse..." The warrior swatted at the hole in the roots where the mouse had disappeared into and then looked up, sniffing the air for the scent of any other possible prey, "Perhaps we could try again, further up the-"

"I told you already, no. I can't!"

"But why not?" They glared at each other.

Luna glanced down at her feet, lifting a delicate paw and turning it over to inspect it, before abruptly shoving it directly into Blackfrost's face. "Just, look!"

"What?" He eyed her paw warily, uncomprehending, and she sighed.

"I… I don't have... claws."

Huh? Blackfrost stared at her paw, then at her, and then back again, his tone disbelieving as he spoke, almost skeptical. In fact, he was too surprised to even adopt the mockingly condescending attitude he usually used with the kittypet.

"What do you mean, you don't have claws? Every cat has claws; how could you not?"

Luna looked distressed at this remark, as if she too really had no clue as to why she was lacking the one thing that every cat needed to survive. "I-I don't know… I know I used to have them, I must have, but they... they disappeared when I was very young… Before I even remember meeting my housefolk." She shivered, staring down at her feet, her stammered words so faint now. "I-I don't remember…I don't know what happened to them. My claws, they were just, gone. And my mother, I-I think... But no, I really can't remember..."

He looked at her paws again, closer this time. What she was saying... seemed to be entirely true.

Blackfrost's gaze softened as he watched the snow white kittypet shake in a distressed state of confusion as she fought to recall her past. She seemed to be in actual pain, but not the physical kind. He couldn't help but feel sorry for her – he couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to wake up one day and find that his beloved front claws were completely gone. How would he be able to hunt? How would he fight? Climb trees, or even balance properly?

And although Luna was a mere kittypet who never had to hunt or fight in her life, she still needed claws, like any other cat. She was lucky he was there to save her from the dog; otherwise, how could she have possibly defended herself?

"But why...? How does something like that just... disappear?"

He watched, lost for words, as Luna stared at her paws intently, her eyes narrowing as she struggled with the vague memories that nagged at the back of her mind. What had happened to her? Blackfrost was now certain, more than ever, that the life of a kittypet was the absolute last thing he'd ever want. A life without harsh leaf-bares and sickness, no threat of hunger or unknown dangers lurking, yes, but a life without the companionship of his close Clanmates, the adrenaline rush of racing into battle or biting into a juicy, freshly caught mouse, as well.

The dark warrior's insides bubbled with guilt as he recalled how cruelly he had treated the kittypet as of late. She was even more helpless than he had ever imagined, but it hadn't been a result of her own doing.

"That's why… you couldn't defend yourself from that dog," he breathed aloud.

Despite himself, Blackfrost brushed Luna's shoulder with the tip of his tail, and she looked up sadly. He tilted his head at her. "You really did need me there to protect you."

For once, Luna didn't argue.

A/N: Yes, Luna is a declawed cat, only on her front paws. I don't know of many declawed cats, as it's really not something you should do, but I still added this characteristic to her because I thought it would be an interesting aspect for the warrior cats to deal with, seeing as how it's uncommon practice and would definitely greatly inhibit a warrior's ability.

Also, I'm sorry about this late update - I've had a lot of exams, a seemingly never-ending stream of them haha, and I had a bit of trouble writing this particular chapter. It's my longest one yet, and I had actually finished the next chapter before I had written this one, so my next update should come much quicker than this one had. I know Luna probably sounded especially whiny and helpless in this chapter, but then again, this is from Blackfrost's point of view. This last scene was particularly important for the storyline, so please let me know what you think!

-CCM