“I mean, Beefur’s enough of a mom for both of us, right?” Cardinalpaw says, prodding Whisperpaw with his paw, only for the tom to stop eating, mouth still full of food as he stares back at Cardinalpaw with amber eyes. 

“Uh, did I say something wrong?” Cardinalpaw asks as Whisperpaw quickly chews before swallowing, fear making his fur prick out. He doesn’t want to ruin whatever they might have—

“Just who do you think my mother is?” Whisperpaw asks him, tilting his head and blinking with amber eyes. 

“Ah, well.” Cardinalpaw says, stumbling over his words, “I thought? You didn’t have one…anymore…?” He trails off, fur prickling with shame as Whisperpaw continues to stare before the other cat’s expression changes in an instant just for him to start laughing. 

“Oh! Oh!” Whisperpaw mrrows between laughs, trying and failing to muffle his laughter with his hands. Cardinalpaw flicks him with his tail, forgetting to respect the older apprentice for just a moment in favor of saving his already tattered pride, “You thought—oh you thought!”

“Quiet.” Cardinalpaw hisses at the normally-silent tom, pulling down his ears, “There’s no need to laugh at me so much.”

“I apologize but,” Whisperpaw starts laughing again but manages to pull it successfully this time, “Why do you think my mother’s dead?”

“Because I’ve never seen you stick around one of the female warriors for long. And it’s not like Icefeather eats lunch with only one cat or something like that.” Whisperpaw flicks his ear, a smile still on his face. Cardinalpaw chooses his words carefully, if for no other reason than to make sure that he doesn’t make a fool of himself again, “So. I thought you didn’t have one anymore.”

“Not everyone is as present as Beefur.” Whisperpaw reminds him and yeah, Cardinalpaw can agree with him on that. Beefur did remain in the nursery still even though her kits had been apprentices for two moons. She claims that it’s to give them a nice place to rest, but everyone knows that it’s because the nursery is the place with the best bedding. 

No one really bothered to complain, after all it wasn’t like Beefur was really a warrior. 

“I know that, but at least she’s present.” Cardinalpaw exists, kneading the ground for a moment before his paw touches a cold stone and he recoils, “I didn’t even know that you had a mother until right now. And you aren’t that much older than me!”

“My mother simply decided to leave the nursery once we were weaned off milk. And we’re seven moons apart, I’ll have you know! That’s plenty older!”

I wouldn’t say that so confidently if I were you. Cardinalpaw thinks at the other apprentice, who Cardinalpaw is nearly the same size despite how close Whisperpaw was to stopping growing. 

“Fine. I apologize. But then, who is your mother?” Cardinalpaw says. 

Whisperpaw opens his mouth to respond before his eyes start to glow and instead he says, “How about you guess? My mother is in camp right now—” Right before Cardinalpaw is about to refuse and save himself some embarrassment—“I promise to get you some salmon if you get it right.”

“Salmon are in MarshClan territory at this time of year.” Cardinalpaw tells him immediately, “I’m not a stupid kit anymore.”

“I promise I’ll get you a salmon if you guess right. I’ll give you three chances.”

“MarshClan isn’t even our neighbor. I won’t let you put yourself in danger for a stupid bet.”

“Then I’ll get a cat from MarshClan to do it! I can get friends there. Please?” Whisperpaw asks and Cardinalpaw stares at him. Whisperpaw was known for being quiet, in fact the first time he heard Whisperpaw speak loud enough to be overheard was barely a half-moon ago. Even then it was a single word of warning because ThinleafClan cats were coming to chase them back over the border. 

He doesn’t even know how Whisperpaw expects to convince someone to get him that salmon but to say that now would be like stealing a mossball from a kit and crushing it underpaw. 

“...Fine.” Cardinalpaw agrees finally, “But I’m not letting yourself get in trouble for this salmon when I eventually win it.”

“You have to win it first.” Whisperpaw says. He does not smirk, but Cardinalpaw can hear it in his voice so he shoots him a quick glare before getting up and looking around camp. 

He realizes quickly that Whisperpaw wasn’t giving him any leeway by choosing only the cats in camp, it was nearing noonhigh so the morning border and hunting patrols had already left camp and returned. The only cats that weren’t in camp right now were a few mentor-apprentice pairs taking advantage of the short moment of downtime for training. 

“Okay. So…first of all, definitely not Vaststar, Bloodfur, or Canopymist.” Cardinalpaw says, looking at the she-cats one by one. Vaststar is resting in the shade of the Highrock, chatting idly with Mistmoon who looks as nervous as always. Bloodfur is tearing apart a canary while Canopymist is carrying a huge dripping piece of moss to the elder’s den. 

“Why not them?”

“Well, Canopymist and Icefeather are always arguing for some reason or another, and I don’t think they’d ever be mates. I can’t imagine Icefeather choosing to mate with her.”

“Especially not considering that they’re kin.” Whisperpaw says lightly, “Though neither of them like to talk about it. Or talk about how they’re kin either—don’t ask.” Whisperpaw says, cutting Cardinalpaw off before he can do just that, “It’s a sensitive subject. Let’s just say, Canopymist is certainly not my mother.”

Oookay then. 

“Well, Bloodfur also isn’t your mother. First of all, you look nothing like her and I think I would know if we were kin.” Cardinalpaw says, gesturing to all his red fur, “I feel Foxbelly would have mentioned it if Bloodfur was your mother.” He says jokingly, while not saying what’s really on his mind: And she’s so awful that I could never believe that she’s your mother. 

“And Vaststar is. Vaststar. She seems too…too her? Too regal?” Cardinalpaw stumbles over his words to try and explain himself. He hasn’t been to a Gathering yet but he can’t help but wonder if all apprentices thought that their leader was so far away. Vaststar was calm and caring, but she was also distant. She ruled over the Clan, but not quiet within it.

“And also you look nothing like her. And Icefeather isn’t around her much, so not her.”

“All good, but you’re not actually guessing who my mother could me.” Whisperpaw points out. 

Cardinalpaw groans, “I’m getting to it, I’m getting to it. Just to make sure—not an elder?”

“Not an elder.” Whisperpaw confirms, “So, first guess?”

“Uh, well I’m crossing out Shadeswallow because you don’t have a single ounce of black on you—Leafscratch?”

Whisperpaw shakes his head, “Try again.”

“StarClan help me.” Cardinalpaw mutters under his breath, “What’s the punishment if I lose?”

“Oh. Uh.” Whisperpaw thinks it over, having clearly not considered that bets tend to have two sides, “You have to…I dunno? Make my nest for me for the next moon.”

“Next moon!” 

“Okay then,” Whisperpaw says with a flick of his ear, “You have to do my apprentice duties for the day.”

“May I remind you,” An older voice interrupts as Dovestorm raises her head to look down at the two apprentices, “Whisperpaw doesn’t really have apprentice duties anymore because he’s on his last moon of apprenticeship.”

Cardinalpaw gives Dovestorm a deep glare as Whisperpaw ohs and nods. 

“Just trying to help.” The older she-cat says before giving them a toothy grin with her heavily scarred muzzle, “Don’t mind me. I won’t say anymore if you don’t want me to.”

Good. 

“Thanks, Dovestorm!” She flicks her ear. 

“How about I get you a rabbit?” Cardinalpaw offers, giving Dovestorm a quick quiet look. The scales are still heavily skewed in his favor but now it’s not as if Cardinalpaw is getting away completely free if he manages to mess up. 

Whisperpaw nods, “That sounds good. Now you have two guesses left, you should get to it before Waspheart comes back and you have to go out for training.”

“I know, I know…” Cardinalpaw groans, scanning camp once more. His task would be much easier if Icefeather was less friendly—he’d be surprised if the tom wasn’t capable of being mates with every she-cat in the clan, “Uh, Snowbriar has your eyes.”

“And that’s it?”

“You look a lot like Icefeather, give me a break.”

“If you didn’t know, Skypaw and Wolfpaw are my littermates.”

“Oh, shut up.” Cardinalpaw hisses, “I know that.”

“I was just making sure.” Whisperpaw says with innocent eyes. Cardinalpaw swears he’s being mocked though. 

“Got it.” He mutters through gritted teeth, closing his eyes for a moment to think. 

He was looking for a she-cat, between the age of an elder and an apprentice, who was currently in camp. That was his starting point, so he had to narrow it down more. Whisperpaw was an icy-blue with some gray patches, very similar to his father except while Icefeather had stripes, he had patches and stripes. He also had bright amber eyes, while Icefeather had blue ones. 

Going farther, Wolfpaw was a gray and orange tabby with blue eyes and Skypaw already had an impressive mane not shared by either of her brothers and very light gray fur with darker gray patches. And blue eyes. 

So I’m looking at the things that didn’t come from Icefeather…if only they looked more like their mother! Cardinalpaw despairs, I need a she-cat with color patches, amber eyes, orange fur in some places, and a mane? And maybe she can have white fur too?

Cardinalpaw is still thinking when someone pounces on him, using all their—her body weight to pin him to the floor. 

“What are you thinking about?” Yellowpaw says, leaning over to speak directly into his ear as Cardinalpaw fights to throw her off, “I’m not getting off you until you tell me.”

“He’s trying to figure out who my mother is.” Whisperpaw says. Yellowpaw looks around for a moment, searching for who spoke before figuring out that it was Whisperpaw. 

And then she says, “...You have a mother? Alive?”

“She’s in camp right now.” Whisperpaw says with a mrrow, “Do you want to guess too?”

“No, I’d just guess it too easily.” Yellowpaw says, before huffing when Cardinalpaw kicks her stomach, “Fine. I’ll get off. Even though you didn’t answer me.”

“Thank you for your kindness. StarClan should welcome you. Right now.” Cardinalpaw huffs before turning away from his sister as she settles beside him, “Now be quiet and let me think.”

“Do you want help?”

“You’re going to ruin it so no I don’t want.” Yellowpaw huffs a bit but does keep quiet as Cardinalpaw looks around camp one last time, looking for a she-cat that fits the description he needed.

“Is your mother Badgershriek?” Whisperpaw shakes his head once last time and Cardinalpaw groans, sinking to the floor as Yellowpaw begins asking question after question but he ignores her, placing his paws over his ears to block her out as Whisperpaw gently answers her questions. She keeps on talking, clearly taken by the novelty of Whisperpaw’s broken silence. 

“Then who is your mother?” 

“MOM!” Whisperpaw calls out suddenly, voice ringing through the entire camp. 

Then he starts coughing, because even that was too much for him. 

“...What is it?” Says the most unlikely cat, breaking away from her meeting with the deputy to look over at Whisperpaw, her son. 

Vaststar looks over at them with an expression that clearly says I do not know what is going on here and I am not sure that I want to know. 

“Do you need to see Clawstem for your throat.” She asks, as a statement.

“No, mom.” Whisperpaw says, lowering his voice back down to normal levels, barely louder than Dovestorm’s laughter, “Thank you.”

“...You’re welcome.” Vaststar says with a flick of her ear before she turns back to Mistmoon, swallowed up by important leader-deputy things in moments. 

“Vaststar?”

“She’s your mother?” He and Yellowpaw say in turn, before turning to each other and nodding before they say together: “Her?!”

“Yes. And I’m not sure what’s so confusing about it.” Whisperpaw says, shuffling his paws, “She’s the Clan leader, of course she can’t be around Icefeather much. They’ve been like this as long as I can remember, although Vaststar was already deputy by the time she had us.” He shrugs, “And my eyes come from her mother.”

“How did none of you get green eyes?” Cardinalpaw points out with an irritated huff. 

“I asked that once. She told me that she thinks that since that eye is in one of her orange patches, that it’s been discolored. She doesn’t know how, but she told me that she thinks that eye should be amber, not green.”

Cardinalpaw lets out a loud groan and sinks down even father, thinking about how much work it was going to be to find Whisperpaw that bird. 

“I would never had guessed her, even with the eye thing.” He admits, “It’s not like she pays special attention to you guys or whatever.”

“We spend a lot of time with her.” Whisperpaw points out.

“That’s because it’s your last month of apprenticeship. You have to spend a lot of time with her or else you won’t become warriors.” Cardinalpaw points out back, with no small amount of snark in his voice, “And it’s not like she eats with you or anything like that. I think I can count the number of times I’ve seen you talk to her on one paw.”

“Well, I could count the number of times I’ve needed to see her on one paw. She’s busy often, but I know that if I have a problem that Icefeather couldn’t help me with, I could go to her.” Whisperpaw shrugs, “She knows that we can ask her for help whenever.”

Cardinalpaw swallows his next retort. 

It just seems…wrong, for all a parent to be is someone to run to when you need help. Yes, it was good that Vaststar was there for them when they needed it, but what about if they didn’t know it yet? What if Vaststar had a perspective on things that her kids didn’t. 

Well it seemed like they could go to Icefeather instead but…it just seemed. Slightly wrong. Beefur could be smothering with her affection, but at least he was only telling her to back off instead of asking politely for her attention. Foxbelly was no Icefeather, clearly because you couldn’t be as careful and have as much freetime as Icefeather while taking in a rouge as a mate, but he was still a good father.

Vaststar was just. There. She was leader but not a mother at the same time. And Cardinalpaw knew that must be possible because it was Vaststar. She was one of the youngest leaders the clan had seen in a long time, it was possible that she was even younger than Heronstar when he took over MarshClan. She ruled her clan like it was second nature, she kept her head effortlessly high. 

Yet, being a mother was something she expended no energy to even attempt?

She seemed to like her children, and even if she didn’t spend much time with Icefeather she seemed to be on good terms with him too. It was simply odd with no other way to describe it.

Cardinalpaw pushes down his misgivings as he swipes Whisperpaw’s shoulder, “I guess I owe you that rabbit.”