"Your father?" Slashpaw asked dumbly.
"Yes," said Doom. Slashpaw stared. It had been bad enough that he had loner blood in him, but now this? He had kittypet kin! Slashpaw decided never to tell anyone in the Clan about his part of his heritage – that is, if he ever went back there....
The fat kittypet slid down the fence and hobbled over to the threesome. He sniffed Slashpaw – almost cautiously – and then backed away.
"You smell strange," said Whiskers. Not as strange as you smell, thought Slashpaw with a stab of annoyance. The youngest cat studied the kittypet. He was black, with four white paws and a white-tipped tail. He had dark amber eyes that, when they caught the sun the right way, seemed to have a red gleam.
"Well," said the kittypet, "you are all much too thin. Come." Slashpaw and Ice exchanged glances. Any cat would be "much too thin" to this huge cat.
Doom, Slashpaw, and Ice waited while Whiskers climbed clumsily and slowly up the fence and flopped down on the other side. Then the three of them leaped up easily and descended gracefully. Whiskers lead them across the garden, tramping noisily through the grass. As they approached the Twoleg nest, Slashpaw began to feel nervous.
"Where are we going?" he asked Doom quietly.
"I imagine," said his father, "that we are going inside the house – er, the Twoleg nest."
Slashpaw stopped in his tracks, nearly causing Ice to crash into him from behind. "Inside?" he asked incredulously.
Whiskers stopped plowing through the snow when he noticed that the other three were no longer following him. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I can't go in a Twoleg nest!" Slashpaw said, feeling slightly disgusted.
"Why not?" asked Whiskers, looking surprised.
"It's dishonorable!" Slashpaw exclaimed. "The Warrior Code says that a warrior rejects the life of a kittypet!"
"Warrior?" asked Doom's father. "Kittypet? Warrior Code? What are you talking about?"
The others ignored him. "Come on, Slashpaw," Doom said softly. "You're not a warrior-in-training anymore. The Code doesn't apply to you any longer. Plus, it will be warm inside."
Slashpaw had to admit that the cold from the frigid snow was seeping into his paws and making them numb.
"Come on, Slashpaw!" Ice said impatiently. She pushed him toward the Twoleg nest with a shove from her shoulder. Slashpaw followed her, but he felt a strange sense of dread as they approached the unnatural, square-cornered, hard-walled Twoleg nest.
Whiskers lead them through a flap at the front of the den, Ice following close behind. Slashpaw hesitated at the opening.
"It's okay, Slashpaw," said Doom quietly. "I'm right behind you." The gray cat glanced over his shoulder at his father, then nodded and leaped through the flap.
A gust of warm, dry air greeted him. He slid a bit on the slick tile flooring, then regained his balance, glancing up embarrassedly. Whiskers and Ice were standing nearby, waiting. Doom stepped inside after Slashpaw.
"This way," Whiskers said. Slashpaw and the others followed him across the tile to another room, this time with plush carpeting. Slashpaw looked around at all the strange objects that the Twolegs kept in their nest, and he suddenly felt very small and afraid. A dread of being trapped almost overcame him, but then Doom's fur lightly brushed his own as the loner moved forward to walk next to his son. Doom would let no harm come to him. He was safe as long as he was with his father.
Whiskers lead them on, turning around a corner and leading them into another tiled room.
"Thirsty?" asked the kittypet. "My water dish is right over here." The fat black cat waved his tail at one of a pair of metal bowls lying on the linoleum.
"Thanks," said Ice as she stepped forward. She quickly lapped up a few mouthfuls of water and backed away. Doom nudged Slashpaw forward and the both drank out of the bowl. Slashpaw wrinkled his nose in disgust. The water was lukewarm and tasted metallic.
"Come on," said Whiskers. "Let's get you some food." He trotted off again, saying over his shoulder, "You can't all eat out of my food dish, or else my Twolegs will think I've eaten it all, and then I won't get any supper!"
"Where are your Twolegs?" asked Ice.
"They're not back yet," said Whiskers casually. "They all leave during the day."
Slashpaw, looking around the strange Twoleg nest, decided to also never let any cat in PineClan know he had been inside a Twoleg nest. He could picture Cedarheart's self-righteous sneer and Otterpelt's snort of disgust. He could hear Hawkscar's scornful voice calling him a kittypet. No one will ever know, he tried to convince himself. Doom's right. I'll probably never go back there anyway.
"Here we go," said the kittypet as they turned into another room. A giant bag stood in the corner of the room. Whiskers trotted confidently over to it and nudged it until it fell over, spilling small brown pellets all over the floor.
"Eat up!" Whiskers said, purring and looking proud of himself.
Slashpaw looked at the pellets in confusion. They were supposed to eat these? They looked like rabbit droppings and they smelled of Twolegs. But Ice started eating them off of the floor, and Doom did too.
"Just eat some," Doom muttered when Slashpaw hesitated. "It's polite."
Reluctantly, Slashpaw bent down and licked up a few pellets. They weren't nearly as good as a freshly caught mouse or squirrel, but they were bearable. Another thing to add to my list of what not to tell the Clan, Slashpaw thought. I'm eating kittypet food!
Suddenly, a great slamming noise sounded from outside of the Twoleg nest, and Slashpaw jerked his head up. Ice and Doom were looking around in alarm.
"A car door!" Whiskers cried. "The female Twoleg is home! Hurry, this way!" The kittypet raced off, and Slashpaw bolted after him, terror surging through him at the thought of being captured by the Twoleg. Whiskers lead them across tile and carpet to the flap they had entered through earlier.
"Go!" Whiskers said, standing to the side of the flap. Slashpaw leaped through headfirst. When his paws landed on the cement path outside, he darted onto the snow-covered grass and shot up the fence, fear lending speed to his paws.
Doom and Ice soon joined him.
"Well," said Ice with a smirk, "you sure were in a hurry to get out of there."
Slashpaw shot her a dirty look and turned to Doom. "What now?" he panted. "We didn't come all this way just to pay a little visit to your father, did we?"
"Actually, we did," said Doom. Ice and Slashpaw both looked at him.
"Explain," said Ice, her head tilted to one side quizzically.
"I do need to talk to him," Doom said. "It's very important. But, of course, that Twoleg coming messed everything up," he spat, throwing an angry look at the car that was parked outside of the house.
"Then we'll just wait until she leaves again and then talk to Whiskers," Ice suggested.
"That's exactly what we'll do," Doom said, nodding.
"Why do you need to talk to him so badly?" asked Slashpaw, curiosity welling up inside of him again. Doom didn't answer, he just stared at the Twoleg nest with an unreadable expression on his face.
They waited and waited, and still the Twoleg didn't leave. Slashpaw and Ice explored the neighboring gardens together, but Doom didn't move from his post on the fence. Finally, with a vroom, a car pulled out of the driveway, the Twoleg inside.
"Come on," said Doom with a swish of his tail, and the two followed him to the Twoleg den. Just as they approached the flap at the front, Whiskers stepped out.
"Ah, there you are," he said. "Come on in. She's gone now." Doom went in first this time, and Slashpaw, not wanting to show any sign of fear in front of Ice, followed without hesitation.
When they were all inside, Doom turned to his father. "Whiskers? I need to ask you something. Something important." His deep, steady voice sounded very serious and grave as it reverberated throughout the empty hallway.
"Fire away," Whiskers said with a bored-looking yawn. Clearly Doom's sober nature had no effect on him.
"Have you seen Bl –" Doom stopped in mid-word and shook his head. "I mean, have you seen Chester lately?" Slashpaw felt a bit disappointed. Whatever he had been expecting this important question of Doom's to be, it was not this.
"No, I haven't," the kittypet drawled. "But I did hear from Max that one of you two was in the area a while ago. That wasn't you, was it?"
"No, I haven't been here in a while. It must have been Chester," Doom added to himself. "How long ago was this?"
"Hmm..." Whiskers touched his tail tip to his chin thoughtfully. "About five months ago? A little longer?"
Doom nodded. "Thank you for your help, Whiskers." He turned to Slashpaw and Ice. "Come on, you two. We have to go."
"You're leaving already?" asked the kittypet, looking surprised.
"We have important things to do," Doom said softly. "You've been a great help, Whiskers. Thank you. But we should leave before your Twolegs come back."
"All right then." Whiskers shrugged. "It's your own loss if you want to go back out into the cold."
But the trio of cats slid out the flap. The two younger ones followed Doom quietly across the snowy garden and over the fence.
"What was that all about?" asked Slashpaw.
Doom turned slowly to face him. "It's time you've heard my story."