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     The tom returned to his mate with moss in his jaws and under his chin. He padded into the nursery and set up the nests for he and his mate to rest in. Giving a nod of satisfaction, he turned to his own makeshift nest.

     The ginger tom seemed delicate in his actions, fluffing up the moss with his paws to get the maximum comfort. He pulled Juniperleap inside and motioned her to lay down as he worked on the other.

     The tom circled his new nest a few times and then settled down. He looked at Juniperleap with amber eyes and purred loudly before reaching over and nudging her. "Our kits will probably be a lot like you. In fact, I hope so." he mewed to her.

     He was about to say something else when he heard someone pad by the entrance of the den. He looked confused and turned around to see what was going on. No one was there, but he had a peculiar feeling and stood up. "Hold on." Cardinalwing told his mate.

     Stepping into the leaffall sun, the tom spotted Crowpaw carrying what looked like a kit. He opened his jaws to confirm his suspicions and sighed with aggravation. "Great, another outsider." he mumbled before turning back into the nursery. "We have more company. Crowpaw may have found a kit." he told Juniperleap with a very annoyed look on his face.

     Applefrost giggled. Luka was an interesting cat. She had entertained the idea that he knew about them long enough. The she-cat yawned and looked at the loner closely. "You honestly can't believe that, hun. How about we get some sleep? I suspect Blizzardstar will want to talk to you more when she comes back from her training session." the she-cat meowed.

     She stood and stretched her limbs before settling down once more. "Mudfur, do you want to take turns watching him? I can go first if you'd like to take a little nap." Applefrost offered sweetly. She wrapped her tail around her side, hoping Mudfur would deny her offer. After all, the she-cat was quite tired and she was starting to feel a bit ill. However, orders were orders. Applefrost didn't want to upset her niece and leader after all.

     Brambleheart nodded. "I don't see the others, so we should have enough space." he mewed. The ginger tom turned to Amberstone. "What would you like to do, exactly? Should we just let them hunt or do we switch apprentices for this exercise?" Brambleheart asked. He sat on his haunches and looked at the ground, lightly digging his claws into the dirt.

     "I mean, we could switch. You can possibly find some flaws in Badgerpaw while I can maybe find some flaws in Boulderpaw." the ginger tom quickly meowed. He didn't sound enthusiastic, instead wanting to hunt with Badgerpaw in the trees. He trusted his apprentice to simply hunt and cause no trouble. The tom looked at Badgerpaw, then at Boulderpaw. He certainly didn't want to take over Amberstone's training of him for a day, he seemed too much like his own apprentice.

     The tom merely wished that he could be at camp, sharing tongues with Dandelionstem. Heck, he'd prefer to do regular duties right now instead of this exercise. If only Badgerpaw knew that he felt mutually on this training session. Battle training sounded so interesting, especially with how he'd put his apprentice against the others. While he was a decent hunter, he didn't like the patrol he was in so far. Of course, maybe he should judge so soon. After all, he had an apprentice at a young age due to a shortage of warriors. He wondered what made Amberstone mentor a cat at her age. "I wonder what Blizzardstar was thinking.." Then again, Amberstone was getting the same experience as Brambleheart.

     Badgerpaw was arrogant, but he was also brave. "Maybe Amberstone and I are similar. I shouldn't be so irritable. Though Badgerpaw and Boulderpaw do need to tone it down. I don't want either of us looking bad in front of the other." he thought with a furrowed brow. His ears quickly swiveled around as he heard rustling in the brush behind him. He turned his head and opened his mouth to taste the air. It was a shrew, but it was probably alerted to them by how they were upwind. "It's probably making its escape."

     The she-cat pulled the tom to her side, trying to act as a shelter from the wind. She searched around, noting only warriors and no former queens. Stormtrail wasn't even in sight. It deeply concerned her, as she figured the young kit was hungry.

     She reflected on the code, which prohibited the Clan from turning on a kit in need. Surely someone would notice her and the tom, right? When the kit was taken cared of, she'd venture back out to find the mother. "If she's still in the territory, I'll bring her here. Surely she'd have more than one kit, right? Blizzardstar would be soft for them. She always is kind to mothers and their kits."