we will come back home, home again [open]

Once again, Griffon had ran. But this time, it was back to the place he had grown up. He made sure to steer clear of what had been the Asylum camp, unsure of what he would find there. He was going to find answers, find where he came from. He wasn't quite sure what he would do after that, but he would figure it out eventually. There were 4 clans he could be from, since Thunderclan was off the table. Besides that, he had no clue where to start looking.

The first territory he stumbled on was a vast moor, and a small urge inside of him told him to continue, further in. Soon the tom could smell the clan, and he was sure that he would find a camp here. He wasn't sure how the clan cats would react to an outsider, especially one who wore the marks of the Asylum, so his senses were heightened, ready to defend himself if need be.

He tried to remember which clan it could be. He had talked with his friends about their various assignments, back when they had been younger. It wasn't Thunderclan, and there didn't seem to be a river in sight. So, not Riverclan. It didn't seem like a Shadowclan-like area, but maybe he wasn't far in enough. The tom cautiously treaded across the rolling fields. If he was lucky, somebody would be out and about, and discover him first. It would probably be a bit awkward to walk into their camp.

How had he been the first cat to spot this intruder? The cat was so deep into their territory already. With so little trees, and all the scented breezes in the forest culminating on their noses, it seemed near-impossible that they could have snuck past every warrior on patrol. Ryepaw knew, though, that the warriors of WindClan could not be everywhere at once. They had too much open air.

He had noticed the cream shape parting the tall grasses from a vantage point upon a rock, and having no warrior to turn to for help, he dove headfirst into a tunnel to get closer to the invading cat. On his way, as his crown rubbed against dirt and roots above him, Ryepaw wondered what clan this cat was from, and how stupid they had to be to tread to nonchalantly. Did they think WindClan were cowards, passive bunnies? They must, to have this kind of gall.

Ryepaw set his jaw tight. He was not a bunny. At the entrance to the tunnel he peeked his head up cautiously. The cat was a tom, with a rounded face and a pointed pelt, a bit like Goldenfang's. Like a meerkat, Ryepaw retreated back underground. His paws began to flex beneath him as he tried to think of a plan. He tried to recall his training, though he did not have much real experience to go off of. The sound of the outsider's paws were a bit too loud now. He was too close; he could not risk the strange tom knowing from which tunnel he had come from. They were secret passages, not for the uninitiated. The apprentice scurried a little farther and emerged from behind the rogue, kicking some loose grass over the tunnel and calling out.

"You have to the count of ten to start walking the other way," growled a small voice, trembling a bit with uncertainty, though Griffon would find no hesitation in his seething yellow eyes. "There's no prey here that you're fast enough to steal."

Griffon's thought process had been interrupted quickly, and he jumped a little bit as the apprentice emerged. Where had he even came from? He didn't have much time to ponder it before the younger tom  started to threaten him. This wasn't exactly what he had wanted to happen, but at least he hadn't been attacked on sight. He had to try and figure out how to explain this. Would his story sound too far-fetched?

"Uh, hi. I'm not looking to steal any prey, or anything like that. I was taken from a clan when I was few moons old, and I'm trying to find out where I came from."

Ryepaw seemed young enough to not remember the Asylum, but he had probably heard some stories, at the very least. "I was taken by a group called the Asylum, along with some other kits across the clans." he explained. Had his family looked for him after the fall of the Asylum?

"Do you know anyone who's been looking for a missing kit?" What if the Windclanner didn't? What if he was chased off without hesitation? He could always check the other clans, but if this was where he came from, he might never even know. He had grown a lot since he had been just a few moons old, he might not even be recognized at this point. He shook the thoughts from his mind. He would figure this out. It might take a little while, but he would find his family (it still felt weird to refer to them as that).

Ryepaw's hackles flattened a little as the rogue attempted to talk him down. He abandoned his "count to ten" approach and tried to listen to him over the sound of his own ragged breathing. His limbs did not budge from their wide stance, and his extended claws scored the dirt beneath him. The loner spun a story so mind-boggling that it instantly cut the tension. The apprentice couldn't help but laugh, though it was only a breathy heh noise, and allowed his shoulders to fold in relief. This intruder wasn't here to steal prey, he was just crazy!

"Do you think I've got bees for brains?" he snickered. "The Asylum fell to pieces before I was even born. We stopped looking for the rest of the missing kits moons ago. I kinda thought the Asylum killed the rest of them. Do you expect me to just lead you right to camp when I don't even know what kind of cat I should be looking for? That's the laziest cover story I've ever heard, and I've told some pretty dumb cover stories."

Ryepaw straightened up to his full size, arching his neck as a proud warrior ought to. He surveyed the rogue with a little more confidence. Something about Griffon's expression didn't quite seem like deceit. He was skittish. The apprentice started again with a confused expression. "Wait, are you serious?"

That had really not gone as planned.

Griffon felt a twinge of annoyance. Was his response really laughable? He had poured out a big part of his life to a stranger, just to explain his actions. And it hadn't even worked! He noted that the apprentice had been born after the fall of the Asylum, which would make this harder. How could he prove it to someone who only knew of them through stories? Ryepaw had mentioned they had stopped looking for the missing kits ages ago, which stung. Maybe it was stupid, to expect them to keep searching. After all, they hadn't seen any trace of him since that night he had been stolen.

"Uh, yeah." he responded with a small nod. What was a way to show the younger cat that Griffon had truly been a missing kit? Suddenly it struck him. "See this scar on my shoulder?" He quickly swiped it with his tail. "I got that when I was a few moons old. It branded me as a Standard, which was one of the factions." he explained.

It felt weird, selling away these personal things just like that. And if he got into the camp, they probably wouldn't be thrilled to see a former Asylum member walking around again. The group had done some bad things during their reign. Maybe he wasn't ready for this after all.

Tawnyflare had been hunting nearby when she heard the voice of what sounded like Ryepaw and another cat. Although when she had approached to investigate, she had not been expecting to see Griffon. "By Theron's claws, look who actually showed up! Sorry about Ryepaw, here. He is one of Dawnhawk's kits. Apparently Dawnhawk is "reformed" now. So where did you end up going anyway?"

While she did not think very highly of Griffon, she was genuinely curious about what he had been up to. It was like he disappeared, and all of a sudden he shows up on WindClan territory? She never saw or heard of him at gatherings, so she assumed he hadn't joined a Clan either. Had he somehow ended up outside the territories? Even she had never gone that far beyond the borders!

The drumming of pawsteps behind him drew Ryepaw's attention away. He did not like being crept up upon. He felt more assured when Tawnyflare's striking pelt parted the tall grass, allowing his muscles to relax and his claws to retract. With an older cat here (though he wouldn't be so hasty to call her that much older, if the circumstances weren't so dire) the onus was no longer on him to challenge the intruder. She greeted him like an old friend, to Ryepaw's chagrin. Griffon's story, then, must be truth. He did not know much about Asylum, nor their customs, nor what the scar on his shoulder meant, but he knew that Tawnyflare was also stolen as a kit, and had found home in WindClan.

To even more chagrin, she brushed him off, addressing him as one of Dawnhawk's kits. "Sorry about Ryepaw."

He bristled, embarrassment simmering in his belly. Her dismissal felt like treason. She had walked right past him, as if he were a stone or a crumpled shrub, and ignored his line of questioning. Worst of all things, she said his father's name. Ryepaw gawked at her audacity, at her nonchalance. He didn't know what to say. Fawnstep was not here to instruct him, and his honor as a warrior's apprentice was never called into question before...

"Hey," he huffed, nudging Tawnyflare's shoulder roughly. He did not meet her gaze, instead choosing to fix his expression on Griffon, the unlucky host of his leer. His eyes glinted like hot copper. "I'm right here. I'm not a newborn. I'm your clanmate, and I'm questioning an intruder, like the Code says... Well, he's not really an intruder now, anyway."

Ryepaw rounded on Tawnyflare, moving to stand beside Griffon, a few whiskers apart. "Like he was saying, he's looking for his kin. Since you just confirmed his cover story, you wanna lead us back to camp so he can talk to Lilacstar?"

Flickering between Griffon and Tawnyflare, the large tom waited in the uncomfortable silence before uttering, "Dawnhawk isn't my father. Nightwind was."

Griffon hadn't expected to see a familiar face in this territory. But here she was, one of the missing kits he had grown up. They hadn't been very close, but all of them had a decent bond from the strange circumstances they grew up in. "Raisha? Or, uh, do you go by something else now?" He knew clans had a different way of naming their kits and he wasn't sure if the she-cat had adopted those customs. "I wandered around some territories a bit, worked some things out."

He glanced back at the apprentice at the mention of Dawnhawk. Soon he was met with a glare from Ryepaw, and broke eye contact quickly. But he could feel the sharp eyes focused on him. The tension in the air was uncomfortable, and the tom wasn't quite sure what to say. He wasn't sure what would strike a nerve in the younger tom, and he didn't want to cause any trouble before he had even met their leader. He looked at Tawnyflare, waiting for the invitation to be lead into their camp.