Chapter 6

When the sun baked her a little too much was when Pixie finally deigned to wake up for the day. It was still morning from the look of things. She stretched a deep, satisfying stretch and poked her tongue out a little as she did. The patio's red bricks blazed in the sun, and the air was brimming with a hundred different tastes.

Unlike her silly siblings, Pixie didn't abide by some paranoid schedule, fleeing from human attention. It made for a way of life both relaxed and devoid of boredom. Why go out of her way for the Hunt when she had every bit of fun she needed right here, where her favorite human lived?

She jumped down from her perch. There was a little jingle when she landed courtesy of her collar. She'd gotten too used to the thing to care about the noise.

She meowed to be let inside. As per their usual routine, the human soon arrived at his sliding glass door and pulled it open just enough for Pixie to comfortably slip through. She brushed her tail against his leg and let out a chirping mew that he recognized as a request for food. He brought her a can of tuna and went back to the computer.

She joined him after she ate, leaping up to Mateo's shoulder and narrowing her eyes at the screen. Of course no feline could ever hope to understand the complexities of human writing. That didn't mean she couldn't try, and try she did. Pixie fancied herself as something of an expert in human language. Even when she couldn't actually read the texts, she liked to think she was adept at discerning their meanings by now.

These particular words however… She hoped she was wrong about them.

#

"No one's seen Vinepaw? Nobody at all?" Darkwood's voice was incredulous.

"None of the cats we could get to talk to us, anyway," answered Mosswhisker.

"Did you find her scent at all?"

"No, but that doesn't mean much when the air's so busy. I don't think she would've let a human take her, so she's probably just laying low somewhere."

Steelclaw growled. "Some warrior! Assigned to track down a rowdy apprentice, and she can't even do that!"

"Oh, hush. I don't believe you could do any better," Bulletpounce hissed. She turned her ireful stare to Rubyheart. "What were you doing harassing my apprentice, anyway?"

"Harassing? I was disciplining the apprentice you failed to!"

"That's not the way anyone with half a brain stem heard it! You were berating someone who just lost her whole family a couple of months ago!"

Darkwood tried to break it up. "Everyone, please-"

Nose to nose, Rubyheart's throat rumbled with the words: "She's bringing no honor to them by moping around and hiding from her responsibilities! She's bringing no honor to them by running around with zero respect for her superiors! She-"

"She's not your apprentice, so none of that is your call to make!"

"Bulletpounce is too soft to be a warrior," grumbled Windfang. "That's why Vinepaw hasn't learned any respect."

"Why in the name of all that's holy would she respect the likes of you?" shrieked Carmen.

"Everyone, listen-"

"You little- you forget your place, pet!" She moved toward Carmen, only to be stopped by Stainpelt's outstretched paw.

"An apprentice's sacred duty is to learn the life of a warrior," said Steelclaw more calmly, "and a huge part of that is discipline."

"You're one to talk, aren't ya?" mumbled Tigerstripe next to Carmen's right ear. "Why, you're just the king of self-control."

Bulletpounce took a breath and drew herself up. "How I choose to teach my apprentice is nobody's business but hers, mine, and Darkwood's."

"It's the business of the whole Clan! When a cat belongs to us, they answer to us. All of us," growled Rubyheart.

"Well, what if Vinepaw's decided she doesn't "belong" to you anymore?" asked Carmen.

"That isn't her choice to make! Now shut up before I have to come over there and knock some sense into your pampered skull!"

"Calm down! Everyone calm down, please-"

"You think I'm afraid of you?" Carmen's muscles tensed in preparation for a charge.

Shadefur blocked her from one side, Tigerstripe from the other.

"Please don't," whimpered Shadefur.

"Sticks and stones, my dear." Carmen looked up at her mismatched gaze. "They all get to us in time."

And a flicker of something swirled around in the marble Tigerstripe wore. Carmen tore her eyes away and shook the image from her head. She turned instead to Shadefur, the timid feline sending her a silent plea to hold herself off from spilling blood. She couldn't help but realize it would only make things worse.

Fine. She would wait. Windfang would get what was coming to her one way or another.

"Oh StarClan, I'm tired…"

No one heard Darkwood over the noise of the bickering. No one, that was, save for the ancient Clan in the stars. For the first time in a very, very long time, someone not Clan-born had spoken of their name without mocking or confusion. Darkwood believed in them, whispered his weary complaint to the sky genuinely. Almost praying for a little bit of help. They eyed his soul hungrily. The life it held, a tiny fraction of it given up to them. They wanted more. Needed more.

And Carmen, cat whose pelt blazed like fire, was going to give it to them like a good chosen one.

#

When again night fell, Vinepaw felt no better about heading back to the Clan. Her time away seemed to have the opposite effect; the thought of returning made her feel sick while the thought of staying here made her feel like she could breathe.

So, she called out to the darkness, "um, hello?"

"Yes?" came the flat and steely voice.

"I was wondering… Could I uh… Could I stay here a few days? Just to get a break from… everything?"

"Do as you like, kit. I don't own this place any more than you do."

"I'm not a kit…"

A wispy breath and a relaxed rumble in the voice as though its owner was having a deep stretch. "All right, fine. What's your name, then, not-a-kit?"

"It's… It's Vinepaw." And her mind decided to remind her that Thunderkit should've been Thunderpaw by now.

"Vinepaw… It's got a weird ring to it, but okay." The stranger padded out into a beam of light from the low-hanging moon. "I'm Tripwire. Don't call me Trip."

"What kinda name is that?" asked Vinepaw with a sudden giggle. "Tripwire? What even is that?"

"Wh-how should I know? It's just a human word I like the sound of! What's a Vinepaw?"

The humor died in an instant and she recoiled as if someone struck her. "Oh, uh… s-sorry. I… uh, in a Clan, your mom gives you the first part of your name and it ends in "kit" until you become an apprentice. Apprentices have names that end with "paw" until they become warriors."

"Sounds complicated for the sake of it."

Vinepaw stared at her tail tip as it swished around by her paws. "I don't know. It… It means something."

Silence filled the room, save for the distant rumbling of human music and the rush of tires on pavement.

"Some cats like to have meaningful names," Tripwire finally said. "They name themselves after friends or family or something they survived. Me, I just like the sound of it. Enough to claim it as mine. That's all the meaning it has to have."

"That… That sounds kinda nice."

"Mm. Well, do you plan to stay cooped up in here all night, or do you want to come with me?" she asked on her way out.

"Where are you going?"

"Every once in a while, bunch o' cats hold a get-together. Good food and games and such. I don't see what the fuss is about, but it's nice to talk with the others here and there."

Vinepaw followed her outside, listening intently.

"It's also pretty useful. You pick up some decent info sometimes. In between all the gossip, anyway." She glanced at Vinepaw. "Don't worry. Anybody shows up that you don't want to see, we'll keep you out of sight."

"Yeah, some of us might look scary, but most of us are all right," said a sudden voice from behind.

Vinepaw's heart pounded as she tried to smooth her pelt. Tripwire snapped at "Dart" and told him to hurry up. There were a few stops they had to make before they could go to the get-together.

"Wait… are you the cat I ran into before?"

"Literally." He chuckled. "Don't worry though; I ain't no snitch. Didn't tell your friends anything when they came looking."

She didn't know who from the Clan had been after her. Right now, she didn't want to. "Thank you."