Briar opened her eyes, sticky from sleep, and realized she was leaning on a cat. She looked up and was rather shocked to see Bone. "Bone?" she asked. The tom turned and looked at her. "Scourge wants you." He coldly meowed and stood up. Briar nearly whimpered at the loss of his large body protecting her from the cold. "Come." Bone ordered, briskly trotting. Briar quickly ran and caught up with him.
Briar followed Bone into Twoleg place. She shifted under her pelt as cats watched her. Some cat watched her with envy, others with pity, and more than a few toms stared at her with love. But they all stopped staring when Bone gave a warning growl. Briar blinked gratefully at him. Suddenly, they stopped at the entrance to an alley. "We're here." Bone growled, but, Briar noticed that the coldness was gone. She dipped her head in a thank you and walked down the alley. "Why hello there, missy." a dark brown tabby tom, just leaving from Scourge's dumpster, purred as he noticed her. A ginger tom shoved the tabby. "Get going, Tigerstar." he mocked. Tigerstar growled at the tom then continued. "Thanks, Brick." Briar murmured. The tom dipped his head and continued to follow Tigerstar out. Briar walked over to Scourge's dumpster and dipped her head. "Briar. Bone tells me that Autumn, Snowy, and Rust is dead. My grievances." he murmured. Briar took a deep breath. She had rolled her coming question in her head over and over and over again. "Can I join your guard?" she burst out. Scourge looked taken aback. "Please!" she begged, "I don't have anyone else, so you can be sure of my loyalty." Scourge looked down on the she-cat with pity. "Sure. Why not?" he smiled. "Bone. Briar has joined the guard. From this day on, she shall be known as Athena." Br-Athena smiled and followed the large black-and-white tom. He led to a large building. "This is the Guard Den. A strange twoleg lets us stay here and even tries to give us collars. I would rather take it from a kittypet." Bone grunted. Athena nodded, "Yeah. I think I would want to too." she meowed, thinking of where that smug cat who stole their food a moon ago said she lived.