What's good my viewers, today, I've got another chapter. But first, responding to my review(Yes it's singular, you guys should comment a lot more!)

To WildxPaws: I guess my speedy writing comes from having a sense of what I'm going to write in the future, so I'm not just making this up as I go. But I could always use more OCs! Your help with the initial two was very nice!

Without further ado...


"Hey Redwhisker? You've kinda been standing there a while, do you still need me?" Lilyfoot's tired voice pushed the dark red tom out of his thoughts, and his head snapped up, looking around.

"Ah yes, the blackberry bush. I guess I just had a bad memory come up about this. But let's get to work," Redwhisker said, shaking away the memories of that day.

They set to work nipping and crushing vines, trying to get long pieces. Lilyfoot said, "You know, I was in the nursery while you were an apprentice. There were a few bad nursery tales about you and Sleetfang, and I gotta ask, were they true?"

"Probably," Redwhisker said in return, tearing a vine away through his teeth. It pricked his mouth and cheeks, but he didn't quite feel it like other cats would. "Sleetfang wasn't a very forgiving mentor."

The two continued working in silence after that, until they had snagged enough brambles. Lilyfoot asked, "How do we bring all these back to camp?"

Redwhisker thought for a moment, then said, "Grassfur said to get a smooth furred warrior to help me with this. I imagine that's because if you brushed by a bush, the thorns wouldn't halt your progress. But in my case, the thorns just stick to my scruffy pelt. Put the brambles on me."

Lilyfoot, with a facial expression of the midground between confusion and understanding, relocated the vines onto Redwhisker's pelt. They stuck to his tangled fur. And on that note, the two cats trotted back to camp, fulfilling Redwhisker's task for the nursery.


Redwhisker's task was finished. After getting caught in the bramble barrier to camp, he'd gotten through and wrapped the brambles around the nursery. He knew Grassfur hadn't been out of the nursery so far that day, and it was unlikely anyone else had thought of bringing her prey.

The dark red tom wandered over to the fresh-kill pile, searching for sufficient food for the queen he was taking care of. A few hunting patrols still hadn't returned yet, but prey on the pile wasn't too scarce. He picked up two mice by their tails, and went back into the nursery. Grassfur was sleeping, her three kits cuddled up to her. Redwhisker softly set the mice down by Grassfur's head, then stepped back and sat down.

Laying down seemed to be a nice idea, especially with being out in the heat all day. But his tired intentions were pushed aside when he noticed Grassfur's nose twitch. Her eyes snapped open, and she groggily asked, "Is that a mouse I smell?"

"Two," Redwhisker said. "Two mice."

"Thank Starclan," she groaned, stealthily rolling away from her kits as to not wake them. "And you," Grassfur continued, picking up a mouse in her mouth and crunching down on it. She finished the first one in a short time, then with a satisfied look on her face, she picked up the second one, sitting closer to Redwhisker. "You're a considerate tom, Redwhisker. I'm gonna miss having you around to take care of me once these kits move out."

Redwhisker smiled sheepishly at the praise, and replied, "Well, I remember hearing Flowerpelt's belly grumble is hunger even after she had eaten. It's understandable, she was eating for three kits like you are. So I just thought some extra prey would be nice, since it's still greenleaf and there's no constraints for prey."

Grassfur narrowed her eyes. "If that's the case," she said accusingly, "Then what's up with this?" To that, she lifted a paw up and gently pressed it against Redwhisker's side. His scruffy fur sunk downward at her touch, then Grassfur's paw hit his ribs. "Redwhisker… have you not been eating well? On purpose?"

Redwhisker sunk back in shame, his eyes focusing on a blank patch of the dirt floor. He answered quietly, "No…"

Grassfur took on a look of anger, seeing through his lie. "Redwhisker! Don't you know how important it is to stay strong for the colder seasons? Don't tell me you're having a repeat of those few moons after you and your siblings became warriors."

Looking up in surprise, Redwhisker asked, "You noticed that? How?"

Grassfur sighed, shaking her head. She answered, "I can't believe you're doing this to yourself again. Did you forget I was made deputy less than a moon after you were made a warrior? It was my job to watch over camp, and how things ran. Anyone else with my duty would've noticed eventually that you didn't do much to satisfy your stomach."

"Oh," was all Redwhisker could say in response. He sighed, and dropped to his belly, burying his face in his bushy front legs. He didn't want any cat to notice he had been skipping meals. But again, Grassfur was keen. His chest suddenly felt tight, and he whispered, "I'm sorry."

Feeling the sadness in Redwhisker's voice, Grassfur's queen instinct overcame her, and she padded around to his side, laying by his side. She leaned towards him, and licked his lowered ears comfortingly. "It's okay. I'm sorry I upset you," she murmured.

Redwhisker sniffed, then looked up at Grassfur with a pathetic face. His eyes were moist, as if he was going to tear up. "I don't… I don't know how to talk about it," he said shakily.

"There, there," Grassfur cooed. She knew Redwhisker didn't have the mind of a hardened warrior, and was more prone to heavy emotions taking ahold of him. "If you want to talk about it, focus on when it all began. If not, we can sit here like this," she said, licking his forehead. Her soft chest fur covered his face, and he sighed, gaining control over his fragile state.

"I think I'm going to be okay in a moment," he said, shaking off his sadness. Grassfur's presence was comforting to him. In truth, he missed having someone to curl up around. Flowerpelt had been there for him in the days of his kithood, and she was a gentle and supportive queen. Then when they had moved into the apprentice den, his sister, Shortpaw at the time, was always right next to him.

But Shortfur had requested to be a part of Mooreclan. Redwhisker could only guess that the reasoning was because of the shunning and negativity she experienced due to her size. Greenclan's pride was large warriors, but she looked like a foreign cat in the clan. Redwhisker did too, but Lionstar's closeness to him kept most of the clan at bay. But Shortpaw only had her brother to support her in her trying times. And in the end, she surrendered herself to her emotions, and left Greenclan.

Despite it being only a short time since Shortfur had left, Redwhisker missed her constantly. No one else had gone through the same torment that they had gone through. When the whole clan seemed against them, they could turn to each other, eyes unbound by the judgements of size and stay close. Stonewind was lucky enough to be born with a large frame like their father Greyface, and he played a large part in the belittling of his sister. Redwhisker could only hope that his sister was happier in Mooreclan. It looked like she had a lot of friends at the gathering, he thought to himself.

Redwhisker sat up, and nodded his head in thanks to Grassfur. He was glad he would be the one to see her kits developing into clan life, and he would do his best to guide them down the right paths as they grew.

Grassfur asked, "Would you do something for me, Redwhisker? A personal favor?"

Turning to the queen, Redwhisker looked her in the eye, his heart a bit clearer. "Sure thing, Grassfur," he responded.

The queen turned, and picked up one of the mice, bringing it over to Redwhisker. She sat down, and took a small bite from it, then looked up at the younger cat expectantly. "Share this mouse with me," she insisted, and nudged it to Redwhisker's paws. "You're a cat taking care of a queen and her kits, I want you to be the best you can be."

Redwhisker's eyes landed on the mouse. He leaned down and paused, hesitation keeping his neck from advancing on the mouse. He looked up at Grassfur and said, "I'm not the cleanest of eaters. I take my prey out into the forest to eat."

"Well, there's an easy solution." Grassfur gazed at Redwhisker with interest. "Small bites. Don't try tearing into the mouse. Bite off a chunk of it instead," she finished.

Redwhisker nodded obediently, and opened his mouth a little, then pressed his sharp teeth into the mouse, biting off a small piece of it. He drew his head back up, chewing, and looked back at the prey. There was less of a mess than how he'd usually eat. He beamed at the sight, ever since his times of training with Sleetfang he'd always had trouble keeping his meal solely in his mouth. But the queen had given him a simple fix.

Grassfur's voice came again, "Not so bad, hmm?" She padded over to the nursery entrance with the other mouse, and dropping it, said, "I'm going to go out for a bit again. Can you watch my kits and keep them out of trouble if they wake up? You can take them out into camp if you like."

"My answer is the same as last time, Grassfur," Redwhisker mumbled around a bite of the mouse. "I'm honored that you trust me with your kits. Now go run wild." The tortoiseshell queen snickered at his words, and hopped out of the nursery with the mouse. Redwhisker continued to eat the mouse, it felt good to fill his bare stomach.

An unexpected noise brought Redwhisker out of the joy of eating with peace of mind. "Is she gone yet?" Redwhisker recognized the high voice belonging to one of Grassfur's kits. He looked toward the sleeping pile of kit fluff, and saw two heads poke up from the mass of fur. The heads belonged to Poppykit and Gingerkit. Leafkit was awake too, but Gingerkit had been standing on his head.

"Grassfur is gone," Redwhisker replied to the kits, then added, "Gingerkit, you're standing on Leafkit's head."

"Oh," the orange kit responded, looking down. Leafkit wriggled under her weight, and Gingerkit finally got off. From there, Redwhisker could see each of the kits next to each other, all looking at him with their curious array of green eyes.

Gingerkit was the largest of the bunch. She had the clear resemblance of a Greenclan cat, large and stocky. Leafkit was the smallest of the bunch, he was clearly the runt of the litter. Redwhisker felt a twinge of resemblance between himself and the young tom-kit. Poppykit was about halfway between her two siblings' frames, but still had the look of an appropriately sized Greenclan kit.

Poppykit stepped forward, her white and orange splashed pelt separating from the black of her brother and the orange of her sister. She asked, "Are you going to play with us now?"

Redwhisker chuckled at the kit's forwardness, and responded, "Sure, why not?" No sooner had the words left his mouth then Gingerkit surged forward, bouncing around in front of Redwhisker. He shoved the mouse remains to his side, and laid himself down, watching Leafkit and Poppykit come up beside their energetic sister. "Okay kits, climb on my back."

Gingerkit scrambled up his shoulder and sat between his shoulder blades, while Poppykit and Leafkit climbed up behind her. The small black kit almost disappeared into his shaggy fur. Poppykit asked, "Now what?"

"Hook your claws into my fur. Don't worry, I won't get hurt. My old mentor helped me develop my pelt to snag cats' claws so they wouldn't hurt me," Redwhisker explained, looking back at his passengers.

Gingerkit looked at him with wide eyes, and exclaimed, "Really? That's so cool! So it doesn't hurt when I do this?" The orange kit sunk her claws into Redwhisker's shoulders. However, she only succeeded in getting her claws stuck into his scruffy fur, not touching his skin. The other kits, intrigued, hitched their claws into Redwhisker's back, only finding his ragged fur meeting their claws.

"Yes. However, you must not do this to any of your other clanmates. It could hurt them. And probably me too, once you get bigger and your claws grow," Redwhisker responded. "Now kits, we're going for a ride. Out into camp! Hang on!" With that, the dark red tom got to his feet, adjusting to the weight of the kits, then burst out into the camp with the three kits squealing in delight as they got a ride from the dark red cat.


I've been doing a lot of hinting and revealing Redwhisker's past... perhaps I'll pause on that, and get to the goodies!

As always, leave a review or favorite! It helps my story get noticed by others, and in turn motivates me to write even faster!