Sixteen

The forest was deathly silent as Tigerheart led a patrol through the undergrowth. With the sun high in the sky, prey was already hunkered in their nests. Even though leaf-fall was in full swing, the warmth of greenleaf was still present during the day. Tigerheart welcomed the warmth of the sun as it basked through the patches of leaves that were starting to fall. It was a nice break compared to being stuck in a den all morning and evening.

He had plenty of reasons for staying in the den all morning though.

Barely a week passed since the kits were born. It hadn't taken long for him to fall in love with those kits. Or for him to realize what it meant to be a father. He spent as much time as he could with Dovestar, watching as the kits grew with each passing day. Eventually Dovestar had enough with his presence and demanded that he join a patrol or go hunting for a few heartbeats. Hollyleaf later joked that he spent as much time in the nursery as a nursing queen, and it was only then that Tigerheart realized what she was implying.

He tried pushing the embarrassment of that conversation aside.

Nightfire and Pepperfoot had earned their warrior names after passing their assessments a couple of days ago. Maroonpelt wasn't sure how to handle an assessment, so Tigerheart had to step in and make sure that things went smoothly. Luckily, both young cats passed with flying colors. Hollyleaf held the ceremony the following day in place of Dovestar since she couldn't leave the kits.

Now he was on patrol with Maroonpelt, Perchfang and Nightfire. Nightfire and Perchfang flanked either side of him, with Maroonpelt trailing behind. His ears pricked forward when he noticed the lack of birdsong in the air. In spite of it being warmer than usual, birds were usually active around this time of the day. He had gotten used to the sound, even though they weren't as prominent back in ShadowClan territory.

"It's a bit odd that the birds aren't singing," Perchfang voiced his concerns.

"Normally they do this when there's danger," Maroonpelt put in from behind. Tigerheart glanced over his shoulder, not missing how the dark ginger tom kept jumping every now and then when a twig snapped or the leaves rustled. Admittedly, he was unnerved by the eerie silence as well. "I don't like the lack of prey in the area."

That caught Tigerheart's attention. He realized Maroonpelt was right. He couldn't pick up any familiar scents in the air that resembled prey. He knew something was wrong the moment they stepped paw in this part of the forest. The eerie silence should have been enough of a warning, but then a familiar scent filled the air. His hackles rose with horror as realization dawned on him.

"Perchfang, wait!"

Too late, Perchfang had already wandered ahead and stumbled upon something that left his skin crawling. The stench of fox filled the air, along with something else. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach when Tigerheart recognized the mixture of fear and blood.

His heart nearly skipped a beat when he finally spotted the fox itself, along with a pool of blood surrounding the fox. He couldn't help but feel a stab of pity when he realized that the fox was just a cub. It was clearly caught in a Twoleg trap. He'd seen them enough times to know what a Twoleg trap looked like. His own father used to warn him about the traps, and eventually Tawnypelt taught them how to disengage the trap.

'It's important to know how to disengage them, even if you haven't been caught in one,' she explained one day. 'One of these days an innocent patrol might get stuck in them, and then we'd really be in trouble.'

Tigerheart was only just beginning to understand what she meant by that. The Twolegs hadn't left the forest in spite of the Dark Battle. They were just as much of a threat as Lightning's gang and the Dark Forest. And that thought alone sent a shiver of unease through him.

"That could've been us," Nightfire whispered as Perchfang took a tentative step forward.

Tigerheart barely heard as the cub hardly had the energy to fight back. It hadn't been stuck for long. He could still pick up traces of it's family in the area, though their scents were fading already. He doubted the mother would return if the cub was young enough. That thought alone left his gut wrenching with guilt when he realized this cub had no one.

"We should go before the cub decides to eat us," Maroonpelt muttered.

"We can't just leave the poor scrap here," Perchfang retorted. "It's just a cub."

"In case you haven't forgotten mousebrain, cubs grow into adults," Maroonpelt reminded him with a stern glare. "And adults have been known to kill and eat cats."

"That's enough," Tigerheart snapped as the two started bickering. He knew something needed to be done before the cub died of blood loss. As much as it irritated him to help an enemy, he couldn't let the cub die on his watch. "Perchfang, Nightfire, you two can help me free this cub from the trap. Maroonpelt, fetch Mothwing and tell her to bring herbs for treatment."

Maroonpelt looked as if he was ready to argue when he decided against it. Relief swept through Tigerheart the moment Maroonpelt disappeared into the undergrowth. He doubted the dark ginger warrior was actually looking for Mothwing. Given his hostility towards the cub, he suspected Maroonpelt was more than happy to let it die of blood loss.

Once that was settled, Nightfire went on to distract the cub as Tigerheart worked off the trap.

A shiver swept through him when he noticed just how small the cub was. It was much too small to be on its own, or to go through this kind of trauma. He and Perchfang worked together in prying apart the teeth clutched around the fox's tail. To his relief, the injury itself wasn't as terrible as he expected. The cub had already lost a good amount of blood, and the tail was sticking out at an awkward angle.

"Mom used to tell me horror stories about these things," Perchfang admitted once the cub was freed. It collapsed into a heap next to them, and pity stabbed Tigerheart in the chest. "I always thought they were just stories used to scare me out of leaving the den. Now I'm starting to see that isn't true."

"Twolegs were setting these traps out long before the Clans arrived at the lake," he meowed thoughtfully. Both Nightfire and Perchfang looked at him in surprise when he mentioned the Clans. "My mother taught me how to disengage them before a cat got stuck in them, since the traps were found mostly in ShadowClan territory."

He remembered hearing stories of how Hawkfrost used the trap to kill Firestar. It was only thanks to Brambleclaw that Firestar was freed from said trap, and that Hawkfrost was killed. Tawnypelt and Brambleclaw made a pact to never speak of that moment again. Though his mother used the traps as an important lesson of how dangerous the forest could be if they weren't careful.

"My mother always says that there's a grain of truth in every tale," Nightfire put in. "I think I get where she's getting at."

Tigerheart glanced at the cub thoughtfully.

He knew that if it had been any other creature, they would have left them. Something about the cub caught him off guard. Whether it was his own instinct as a father or something else, he wasn't sure. The only thing he did know was that it had been wrong to abandon the cub. He wouldn't do that now that it was badly injured.

"What's this I hear about a fox cub being found in our territory?" All three toms stiffened at the sound of Mothwing's voice. Tigerheart's shoulders sank with relief when he saw her approach them with a bundle of herbs in her mouth. "I hope it's worth wasting precious herbs on; this is my last supply of marigold until I go out again."

"The cub was stuck in this trap," Tigerheart explained when she reached them. "I think it's too young to be away from it's family, but it's likely that their mother left them."

She probably expected the cub to die, he thought bitterly.

It was incredibly cruel. The cub hadn't likely been paying attention or it was too young to know the difference between right and wrong. He wasn't sure what went on in a fox's head, but he doubted the cub wanted to die like this.

He suddenly thought of Olivenose and how she succumbed to her injuries.

At the time, he didn't want her to die alone. He knew Redwillow had been fighting alongside the Dark Forest. Her own brother betrayed the Clan and left her for dead. He refused to let her die alone after realizing she wouldn't survive the injuries she received. That was the main reason he stayed with her until she took her last breath.

"Poor thing," Mothwing muttered under her breath after she checked it thoroughly. The cub wasn't fighting back like Tigerheart expected. In fact, it looked almost relieved that someone bothered to look after it. "It's going to take time for a wound this deep to heal… but it should heal with time and effort."

Relief swept through him when he realized what that implied. He wasn't sure why he felt so happy knowing that a fox cub would survive. He hoped they knew what they were getting themselves into. Maroonpelt had been right about one thing: The cub would eventually grow up and turn on them. Such was the life of a fox. But he hoped for now it would know that they were helping it, and that it wouldn't pose a threat to them.

...

"I don't understand what sort of mousebrain thinks it's a good idea to let a fox cub stay in anyone's territory," Maroonpelt complained as he paced back and forth. Hollyleaf had only just finished her hunting patrol when she returned to find him like this. It was only until he explained what happened that her hackles began to stand on end with dread. She was well aware of the danger they were in if a fox cub was found in their territory. She still had strong memories of when a fox wandered into ThunderClan's territory, and that interaction ended badly for everyone involved. "It's as bad as letting a family of badgers stay in a nearby burrow!"

"Where are they?" she demanded after regaining her composure.

She wasn't going to say that she agreed with him fullheartedly. It was mousebrained to go anywhere near a fox let alone stay with it. She knew Tigerheart wasn't completely ignorant to the dangers a fox posed, even if it was just a cub. That left her wondering why he was mousebrained enough to stick around with Nightfire and Perchfang.

"Just past the grove of trees leading to the lake," Maroonpelt replied without missing a beat. "Near the abandoned Twoleg path."

Hollyleaf was quick to follow the same trail they normally took to patrol that area. It wasn't a well-used trail because Twolegs sometimes used it during greenleaf and leaf-fall. So she wasn't surprised to find thick undergrowth surrounding her as she bounded ahead. Ferns and grass tickled her nose as she made her way to where the patrol was waiting.

Mothwing had already begun treating the cub's injuries by the time she arrived. Her fur stood on end when the stench of blood and fox-scent hit her lungs. She recognized that stench anywhere from her days as an apprentice, and when she was on her own. She dealt with plenty of foxes in the past, but one in particular had always struck her hard. She couldn't let the same thing happen to this patrol.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. The medicine cat didn't stop her treatment. Instead, she acknowledged Hollyleaf's presence with a wave of her tail. Hollyleaf narrowed her eyes when she spotted Tigerheart among the trio. "Did you put her up to this? What sort of a mousebrain wastes herbs on a fox?"

"The same mousebrain that won't let anyone else die under her watch," Mothwing snapped. Hollyleaf flinched when she realized what the medicine cat was implying. "I've watched too many innocent cats die at the claws of the Dark Forest. This cub may not have been part of that, but it doesn't deserve to die."

Hollyleaf was ready to argue when she thought better of it. She saw what Mothwing experienced during the Dark Battle. They all experienced the same kind of loss that no cat should suffer from. Even so, the fox cub was still a potential threat to the Clan. The last thing she wanted was to make things worse, especially knowing that they had rogues and other threats out there.

"Why is this such a problem to you in the first place?" Nightfire asked warily.

The deputy looked between Nightfire and Perchfang, not missing the way they exchanged looks when she arrived. Only Tigerheart seemed to understand the threat this creature posed on the Clan. He was still mousebrained enough to save the cub from bleeding out. She didn't know what was worse: Two inexperienced cats that seemed to think the cub wouldn't hurt them or an experienced cat that allowed it to live.

Either way, the Clan was at risk with the cub lurking around. She had little doubt that the mother was nearby waiting to pounce on them. And mother foxes were far worse to deal with than their cubs, especially those that were protective of their cubs. A shiver swept through her at the prospect of dealing with that mess.

"Cubs grow into adults," she hissed. "And whether you like it or not, they're driven by instinct. Eventually they will turn on you the second they have that chance."

Both Nightfire and Perchfang still looked doubtful that the cub could ever hurt them. She nearly rolled her eyes in disbelief when she realized it would take more than a horror story for them to believe her.

"Even so, it's still just a cub," Mothwing pointed out. "A cub that got stuck in that trap. It won't be doing much until it's injury is healed, and even then, it won't be too much of a threat."

That didn't stop Hollyleaf from glaring at the cub. It had fallen asleep in the time they started arguing. She knew there was no point in carrying on an argument that she couldn't win. The only thing she could do was hope and pray to StarClan that these cats didn't get hurt in the process. They were making the same mistake she made while she was on her own, and something told her it was a lesson they would have to learn the hard way.