I'm back! *waves awkwardly*

Smurflover: Aww, thanks!

SakuraFlutist: Thank you, SakuraFlutist! :)

RandomFalcon: It's okay. Yes, Brigit and Skipper were amusing, weren't they?

Mewlover1573: In spirit, technically. I'm still trying to figure it out myself...

Mizumaru2312: Sadly, she has to. /Sadface. But yes, Tigerpaw happens to be! *hands plushie* There you go!

Mochikins: Yus, you are starting to lag. ;_; And Chapter 20 of EBN is still bereft of a certain review from a certain person... *hint hint nudge nudge cough cough* I might bring them Skipper and Brigit back, sometime; you guys seem to like them. :)

Honeyshade: Thank you! :)

Wonder Cookie: Spiritually, yes.

Summer Shadows: Yes, yes you do. *shoves fluffy Tigerpaw plushie into Summer Shadows's arms* Enjoy. :3

Disclaimer: Tired. Of. Doing. This. Therefore, this last disclaimer shall be the last one for Phoenix and this one shall also be a disclaimer for all other chapters. I do not own Warriors.

Chapter 12: Silence

I stare up into familiar green-blue eyes. "…Tigerpaw?" is the only thing I manage to get out after fumbling for a reply for a few awkward moments.

"You've been missing for almost two days!" he roars, not bothering to reply to my question. Honestly, two days doesn't sound so bad to me.

"So have Graypaw and Cloudpaw," I point out as intelligibly as I can. It's sort of hard to talk when you have a very furious apprentice looming over you, even if he's the same size and age as you.

Tigerpaw frowns. "But you…you…" he starts, trying to get past my logic. I stare up at him as innocently as I can. In his frustration, he stomps his paws immaturely, which I would laugh at if, in the act, he hadn't bumped my injured foot. I can't stop myself from releasing a loud, "Ow!"

Tigerpaw stops shuffling his paws immediately. He moves out from above me, and I'm finally able to turn over onto my stomach just in time to face Tigerpaw as he crouches down, staring at my swollen paw. "Amberpaw, what's this?"

"I…I hurt it. Again."

"It's so swollen! Whispersong, get over here!" he shouts before turning back to me with wide eyes. Now he's able to finish his previous sentence, as I've given him something to yell about. "Amberpaw, you hurt your paw!" But strangely, instead of anger in his eyes, like there was before, there's… fear, and…concern?

"I can walk!" I protest. I stagger to my feet and take a wobbly step, nearly falling but catching myself just at the last second. "See?"

Whispersong finally arrives, looking annoyed. "Again? Come on, we're getting you into a nest." She nudges me gently inside the medicine cat den, Tigerpaw trailing behind us like a worried shadow.

I settle into the nest I slept in before; it still has my scent clinging to it. Tigerpaw sits and watches stonily as Whispersong prods my paw carefully.

"Definitely sprained," she mutters. "Broken?" She feels the injured leg slowly, and then nods. "Nearly." A look of something near to anxiety appears on Tigerpaw's face. "You'll have to stay in here for at least a quartermoon." She looks up, frowning. "Okay? No running off to rescue other apprentices, now. If you keep this up, Branchstar will have to postpone your warrior ceremony."

I gulp. Not becoming a warrior? That's horrible. "I'll stay here," I promise.

Whispersong nods, satisfied. "Alright. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find more herbs for my store." She exits the den, calling for Swallowpaw. Tigerpaw settles silently beside me in another nest, but Whispersong turns around anyway. "What are you doing? Go out and catch some prey or something!"

Tigerpaw swallows visibly, seeming to not want to get up but hesitant to disobey the medicine cat. "I…I don't know where Ravenwing is."

But as if on cue, the black she-cat appears at the entrance of the den. "Come on, apprentice. We need to get some prey for the food-pile before night completely falls." She gives me an exasperated look. "We lost enough prey for the past couple days when he was moping around because he didn't know where you'd gone."

I shoot a surprised glance at Tigerpaw, my pelt feeling like how it looks—on fire. Is Ravenwing telling the truth?

But Tigerpaw is already getting up, his back to me so that I can't see his face. For a fleeting second, I wonder if I really do want him to turn around so I can see what he's feeling, but he's already slinking toward the den entrance. Without even a backward glance, the dark brown apprentice follows Ravenwing out of the medicine cat den and out of sight.

I sigh heavily, sinking my head wearily onto the brim of the nest. Within a few quick moments, I fall asleep, tired by the whole ordeal.

But again, my sleep is disturbed by the sound of Whispersong shouting in disbelief.

I blink open sleepy eyes, only to open them wide at the sight of Tigerpaw stumbling in, looking as if he's been dragged through a rosebush. Thorns stick out every which way in his dark brown tabby-striped pelt, and dirt streaks down his back, brown against brown. His fur is ruffled and unkempt, dusted with melting snow. If Brightsky could see him, she would have been shocked.

"What. Have. You. Done?"shrills Whispersong accusatorily, her fur still ruffled from surprise.

Tigerpaw shrugs, looking to the side. "…Fell off a cliff," he mutters.

For once in the six moons I've known her, Whispersong is dead silent.

And then Ravenwing rushes in, breaking the silence. "I don't know what happened, Whispersong. I turned around for one second—and then my apprentice goes tumbling down the cliff!" She breaks her rant to look at Tigerpaw disapprovingly. "Didn't Brightsky ever tell you to stay away from the cliff edge?" Tigerpaw shrugs in answer, and Ravenwing goes on. "Thank StarClan; he fell down the least steep side, so he wasn't hurt much. But look at him! How do you just fall off a cliff?"

"There, there," Whispersong reassures the agitated mentor. She touches Ravenwing lightly on the shoulder.

"Oakpelt didn't ever have to deal with this when he was a mentor," the black she-cat says quietly under her breath. "Pounceclaw worshiped him from the start." Somehow, Ravenwing's disbelief at her apprentice falling off the cliff has turned to grief for Oakpelt. I can see that she's still not over her lost mate—and who would be, in so short a time? But this, I remind myself, is because she had a mate. That is what I will never have. And I don't mind much, anyway—seeing Birchstep skulking around camp is enough motivation.

"Here, I'll escort you to the warrior den," Whispersong says softly, gently guiding Ravenwing out of the medicine cat den. As they leave, Whispersong looks back to shoot a bemused glance at Tigerpaw. "Do yourself a favor and go lie down in that nest. I'll be back soon to help remove all those thorns out of your fur."

Tigerpaw pads softly to the nest he occupied that night two sunrises ago and sinks silently into it. Slowly, he begins to pull the thorns out of his fur with small Ouches as they come out. At first, I don't dare to look at him directly, but instead watch him out of the corner of my eye—but when he finishes getting all the thorns off of his legs, flanks, and chest, and tries to pluck out all the thorns on his back in vain, twisting his head as far as it can go like an owl, I can't help it.

I laugh.

He stops to look at me with a slightly incensed expression in his eyes. "Help?"

I lean over and carefully grasp a thorn in my teeth, pulling it off and tossing it to the side. Tigerpaw remains still as I pick out the little green spikes stuck in his fur, but when Whispersong comes back, he starts, surprised. I spit out the thorn I have just removed and pretend to be asleep in my nest, but keep my eyes open in tiny slits.

Whispersong sighs as she begins plucking out the rest of the thorns with her claws. "How do you manage to fall off a cliff, anyway?" she murmurs under her breath. It must be a rhetorical question, because the next second, she follows it with, "Got anything broken? Ravenwing says you took quite a fall."

Wordlessly, Tigerpaw shakes his head.

"Tired, are you?" Another rhetorical question. Whispersong finishes pulling out all the thorns, gathering them onto a little leaf. When Tigerpaw looks at her questioningly, she says, "In case I need to close a wound or something." She then picks them up and heads for her own nest in another hollow. "Avoid falling off a cliff next time," she suggests through her burden. "Follow Amberpaw and sprain your paw or something." With that, she disappears out of sight.

I wait a few seconds before asking, "Falling down the cliff side? Really?" Ever since we've been kits, Brightsky has always been telling us to not go near the cliff. She's practically drilled it into our heads that going near the cliff is Bad, Dangerous, and Not Good. Her reaction when she finds out that Tigerpaw tumbled down the cliff side will be interesting to watch.

Tigerpaw shrugs, not bothering to look at me. "I…slipped," he mumbles.

This idea of slipping is so outrageous that I nearly laugh again. "You can't slip if you're not near the cliff edge," I point out. "Where was Ravenwing during this? Surely she would have kept you away from the edge?"

"She wasn't there," Tigerpaw says. "I…I got lost."

I narrow my eyes, suspicious. "Really?" For all the moons I've known him, Tigerpaw doesn't seem to be the sort of cat who would get separated from his mentor and fall off a cliff. To use a CreekClan term, something's fishy about this tale.

He suddenly turns his back to me with such a sudden motion that his nest nearly tips over. "I just want to get to sleep, alright? You can interrogate me tomorrow," he snaps, swishing his black-tipped tail vehemently. "Is that fine with you?"

His sudden outburst surprises me, but nothing shocks me more than the venom in his voice. I've...he's never talked to me in this way before, short and curt and full of anger. Hurt fills my heart and trickles down to sink at the bottom of my stomach. I have to struggle to keep my voice from cracking when I answer him next. "F-fine."

Tigerpaw doesn't deign to answer; merely adjusts his position in his nest just the tiniest bit. I stare at his back blankly, knowing that he can't see me glaring at him through a haze of shaken misery. Why is he so mad at me? What did I do? He isn't asleep; I can see that by the rigidness of his shoulders and the rhythm of his breathing. So he's ignoring me on purpose, for something that I don't even know. Is it because Graypaw and I didn't include him when we went off to search for Cloudpaw? If so, he should be mad at him too—but I didn't see him snapping at Graypaw because of that. A small seed of anger sows itself in my chest. Fine. Have it your way. I don't care if you're angry.

Eventually I see that he's drifted off to sleep, his tense shoulders relaxing as he slowly breathes in and out. As he shifts, I can see a small thorn in the hollow between his back and neck. Somehow, Whispersong missed it. Carefully, I lean over and grasp it with my teeth. But this is akin to burying my face in his fur, and unavoidably, I am immersed in his scent. He smells…nice. Fresh, and pure, even though he just tumbled through bushes and dirt.

He moves slightly, murmuring something unintelligible in his sleep, and I freeze. If he wakes up, what possibly can I say? "Oh hey, I'm just removing your last thorn. Don't mind me; go back to sleep."

But he doesn't wake up. Thank StarClan. Bending over to his nest again, I grasp the last thorn firmly in my teeth and pull it out. I drop it on the ground and then close my own eyes, turning my back to Tigerpaw as a silent act of defiance. But even as I drift off to sleep, I can still smell his scent surrounding me, a clear drop of dew in the morning, a light breeze in the air. It wreathes around me as I drift off into sleep, reminding me of before he became angry at me for some reason I can't even name.

...I really need to stop writing chapters where Amberpaw's awake and Tigerpaw isn't. It's getting a little too close for comfort, isn't it? DX

Anyhoo, who can guess why Tigerpaw's acting like that? If you can, you will be the proud owner of a disgruntled-looking Tigerpaw with thorns sticking out of his pelt.

Let's see if we can break the big ole three-digits. Review? ;3

~Ponyiowa