Chapter 15

BushClan/Tumbleheart

The sun was leaving the middle of the sky when Tumbleheart opened her eyes. She was hiding under a bush with sweet-smelling flowers. Close beside her was the russet-colored tom she had grown accustomed to in such a short time. He was keeping watch while she woke up. The cold air wasn't bothering her as much as she peered at the Twoleg den. Outside of it was Timmy, the black tom whose green eyes stared blankly to the stone-path. His tail tip twitched, uncertainty in his eyes as his paws flexed.

Tumbleheart stayed silent, wondering what the tom could be thinking about while they waited for Jasmine to return. The strange cream and white tom had seemed kind, but she wasn't too sure. Hunger started to growl in her belly once more. However, movement in the den kept her from moving. Big, tall creatures were moving around inside with tufts of fur on their heads. She supposed that they were Twolegs, but it was hard to make them out as they busily shuffled around while Luna hung in the tall soft-grass thing.

"What are they doing?" she murmured, pricking her ears to try and hear their meows, but even so she knew she couldn't understand a thing in those odd noises. Flicking her ears, she turned her attention to Ruby, the tom watched calmly with a look of indifference in his yellow-green eyes. Now that she paid better attention, she noticed how his eyes were yellow towards his slitted pupil like the insides of a flower. They looked like beautiful green flowers to her.

At last, Ruby answered her just as softly. "I'm not sure, but I hope they leave before Jasmine gets here. They might be surprised to see another cat come."

Tumbleheart nodded. "I wonder if Twolegs would be that dumb."

"You never know," he mewed softly. "They are loud and clumsy-looking creatures after all."

Tumbleheart purred with amusement as the Twolegs entered the garden, setting out a crater with water in it. Timmy looked unbothered, looking up at them with a flicking tail as though wanting them to leave already. She watched intently how the Twolegs gently petted Timmy who bared his fangs slightly before they headed back inside. Only then did she see him roll on the strange flat stone, rubbing his body over it as though he could rub off the Twoleg stink.

"I don't think Timmy likes them." Tumbleheart murmured softly, half to herself.

Ruby trilled softly in thought, his own curious gaze focused on the black tom who rose to his paws and stepped out into the bitter-cold snow. His green eyes trained on them bravely. Slowly, the tom picked his way to the pair, his whiskers twitching uncertainly as he finally spoke to them.

"I don't know how these clans work, but I have thought long and hard. I will accompany you with Jasmine."

Tumbleheart flicked her ears up in surprise. "You don't have to, you're better off staying here, it would be dangerous."

Timmy silenced her with a flick of his tail. "No, my mind has been made up. I've thought it over on what she would have wanted. I don't know if toms in clans are more proactive in raising kits or not, but I owe it to her to at least try."

"If you mean Leaftail, then I don't know why she would want some kittypet-wannabe-stray would want with our business." Tumbleheart growled, rising to her paws.

"I knew her." Timmy confessed, hesitating slightly; "I met her by the thunderpath where she was sniffing around and looking moondazed."

Ruby stepped forward. "You knew her, how well?"

"We mostly talked and played." Timmy went on with a solemn nod. "We became very close friends, maybe more before Leaftail and I had to split ways. She left to stay with her clan, I didn't like it. I knew it was dangerous and I was too afraid to follow her, but I would rather die trying to understand what makes clans so important that our love meant nothing to her."

Anger trembled in Timmy's mew as Tumbleheart heard him out. Her wonders and confusion finally starting to fall into answers she never knew was just this far away. What was her mother doing, wondering so far from BushClan territory? The possibility that this estranged tom could have sired her was heart wrenching. Toms didn't always look after their kits, sure they would play for a bit, but all warriors did to de-stress from their duties. Blinking slowly, she began to see pieces of herself within this tom. Pieces that gave her a small feeling of kinship.

"Why were you so afraid?" she murmured, unsure if she actually spoke aloud.

Timmy answered her just as softly. "My mother told my brothers and sisters and I to never cross paths with a warrior. No matter how grand and brave they are, they will always put their clan first. I thought it was all cloudfluff and nothing more, but to know that another clan exists..." he trailed off, looking to his paws bashfully.

"Did you even know?" Tumbleheart asked, her mew cracking in fear.

He shook his head. "No. I never knew. If I had I would have followed her, or even convinced her to stay with my Twolegs to just have healthy kits. I would have done anything for her."

"But, only if you had known." she echoed like a broken songbird. "You didn't know and took your chances to stay. You didn't even think if she was going to have kits."

"It's how most toms are." Timmy reminded her gently. "We don't do much for kit rearing, only making sure food and water is available for the mother. My mother and father were nowhere near each other. We had Twolegs to make sure our mother was fed well and we were all healthy."

Ruby touched the tip of his tail against Tumbleheart's shoulder, causing the tension in them to relax. "It's still too dangerous for you. You were a kittypet, you better stay where you belong. It would be best for everyone."

"I ran away from my housefolk moons ago because of your mother!" Timmy snapped, his tail swishing from side to side. "I didn't want to be near anything that reminded me of her because she broke all of my dreams to be with her and our kits!"

"And you chose to stay away from her, did you not?" Tumbleheart spat, her fur ruffled as she shook it out. "No matter what it was, you made a choice back then, how can you go against it now?"

"I owe it to her to at least try. Even if I die, at least it will be because I tried to help in place of where I had failed before." Timmy snarled stubbornly.

Ruby had been silently watching the exchange between father and daughter before stepping between them. "You made your choice back then and now." Timmy looked at the tabby tom with fire in his eyes, his jaws parted to retort. However, the tom looked to Tumbleheart and spoke assertively, "It would be best to take him along. He looks lean and able to run fast. If he survives whatever Jasmine has planned to deal with those foxes, then perhaps he has always been a warrior at heart and deserves a place among the clan."

"You can't be serious!" Tumbleheart exclaimed, appalled at the idea of a kittypet, with no lessons of handling foxes, taking on a pack of them. "He could be slaughtered!"

"Even if we tell him not to, he might come along anyway." Ruby told her, "Besides, what if this was all meant to happen? It isn't every day an estranged father meets his grown-up kit. Let him be the sacrifice he wants to be."

The brown and tan tabby hesitated before nodding. "Very well." she gave in begrudgingly. Ruby had a point, whether she liked it or not. With a sniff, she added, "Just don't expect me to save you if the foxes come after you."

"I won't." Timmy replied, sounding much more at ease. "Thank you for just letting me come along on your terms."

"Not that I had much choice." she growled lowly, looking away. She wasn't sure why she was determined to have Ruby help her make decisions. She was the warrior, she didn't need help from a loner or kittypet! Yet, perhaps she was like her mother in ways she didn't yet know about. "Anyway, we leave once Jasmine is here with his chosen helpers. After that, I'm not going to be responsible for you. So just listen and follow along like a good kittypet."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Timmy muttered, slipping under the sweet-smelling bush to join them.

"Agreed, we're only trying to help anyway." Ruby reminded her.

Tumbleheart felt her ears grow hot with embarrassment. "Yeah, well, I'm just making myself clear."

"You're as clear as water." Timmy assured her gruffly, seeming to be feeling as sour as she felt about it all.

It wasn't so much that she wasn't interested in him, she had a sky's stars worth of questions to ask him. However, she also knew it wasn't the time to act like it's her first day out of camp either. She was a warrior, which meant she had to be a grown-up about it all. Focusing once more on the Twoleg den, she went back to waiting. Their returning patrol had grown by one so far, even though she was unsure what Jasmine might bring back with him.

The sun crawled across the sky, bathing the garden in stretching long shadows before the clouds slowly came. Tumbleheart twitched her whiskers, parting her jaws to taste the icy air. Perhaps more snow was on the way, she wouldn't know. She had yet to figure out what exactly meant more snow was coming. Shaking out her fur, she looked to Timmy who looked at the sky warily. His pale green eyes wide as moons as the clouds slowly gathered.

"What if another storm comes again?" he breathed, his mew trembling slightly.

"Highly unlikely." Tumbleheart answered, although she was uncertain herself. "Last leaf-bare we didn't have one, so I doubt they are a normal occurence."

"What did your Clan call them?" Timmy asked, turning his gaze to her.

"Wild Storms." she answered, noting the fear he must be feeling. It was scary, but not so much that she worried about it constantly. Nonetheless, she understood what he was afraid of. If it happened again there was no telling how dangerous it might be. Especially with foxes on their tails.

Soon, the familiar cream and white tabby tom reappeared. His stride confident as he padded up to them, his frosty blue eyes trained on them with the cats he picked out. Three of them following close behind, a powerful white tom covered in scars, a dark tortoiseshell she-cat with a hairless tail, and a dark gray tom bringing up the rear. Timmy perked up, his tail twitching uneasily while Tumbleheart came out to greet them.

"Jasmine, are these the cats you have chose?" she questioned.

The tom blinked at her warmly. "Of course, we don't have many to choose from. This is Maggot, Rat, and Stone. After some talking we were able to choose which cats to bring with us. I hope you understand that we are only trying to part with as many as we can offer."

"I understand that, I suppose the rest were needed elsewhere?" she inquired.

"With all due respect, the foxes aren't the only dangers here." Jasmine informed her, "It is none of our business for now. Take us back to your group. We will do whatever it takes to chase off the foxes before they become a bigger nuisance for us all."

"Very well." Tumbleheart gave in, looking to Ruby. "We need to go back to where we met."

Ruby nodded, "Just follow me, all of you. I'll try to not go too fast, but we have to hurry."

Rat growled lowly, "I know, those things are night-stalkers. A danger to every cat. I just hope we will get there in time."

"We will." Jasmine assured them calmly. "Before the sun sets, we should be there."

Tumbleheart nodded, looking to Ruby as he began a swift trot away. Quickly, the ragtag of cats followed, streaming behind him as they raced back to the vast black-stone. The place where monsters slept and soon where they would be taking care of the menace that were the foxes. If they could, they could push them into a different place to hide and hunt to their hearts content.

As long as they didn't harm any cat, that was all Tumbleheart was concerned about. After all, the kits back home were unable to fight for themselves and with how leaf-bare was, there was no chance that they would be able to survive if the foxes attacked. Prey was scarce and growing even more so. The Twolegs were often in the way of their hunting, making her certain there had to be a better place for them to live with enough prey to not always be on the thin side.

Ruby's paws were slowly becoming a blur as they started to pelt through the Twolegpaths. Soon leaping onto the fence to follow it the last few paces. Her heart beginning to pound in her chest as her paws seemed to know they were almost to her home, her Clan. She hoped she hadn't worried anyone, especially Icepaw who had been her friend for moons. Sure they had grown apart because their duties separated them, but she knew, deep down, they were still friends.

She would just have to try harder to spend time with her and be her muscle. With a flick of her tail, she began to take the lead, jumping into a familiar garden and over another fence. Her paws landing roughly on the black-stone. At last, her Clan wasn't much farther away. Without waiting a moment longer, she pelted across the vast stone, her gaze trained on the far away bushes that were BushClan territory.

At last, she was almost home.

Author Note:

I had really bad writers block, so hitting 2,000 words is becoming difficult, but I'm doing my best. I will keep aiming higher though, I have to so I can make sure I can write these things out clearly.

Thank you for reading! - NightSky