where we belong [Honeypaw]

A cold, sharp breeze cut through Tigersong's pelt as he stepped into the camp. He'd been on a solo hunting patrol, and the Nighstriker that had trailed after him the entire time broke off the moment they entered, presumably to seek somewhere to warm up. Tigerpaw had deliberately stayed out longer than necessary, knowing that his thick fur was better suited for the cold, and the "bodyguard," with their shorter coat, was suffering far more than he. He couldn't help but smirk a little, but didn't linger long to watch them. A skinny squirrel in his jaws, the ginger tom moved across the clearing, to where his sister, Honeypaw, was sitting alone. He purred a greeting, lowering his head to gently butt her shoulder. The squirrel dropped between them, and Tigersong canted his head. "Want to split this with me?"

Honeypaw grumbled slightly, shifting her weight from one paw to another. The light ginger she-cat was incredibly bored and didn't want anything to do with those fur-wearing Asylum cats. Her ears shot up as she turned towards her younger brother, Tigersong. Allowing a small smile on her face and a glare full of hate at the Asylum cat, Honeypaw padded closer towards her brother. "About time you came to visit your sister. That squirrel looks terribly skinny, but I'll take it." Unsheathing her claws and messily tearing apart the fresh-kill, she dropped one half beneath her brother's paws and started to eat the other. Finishing up and slowly licking her chops, Honeypaw gazed at her brother's mismatched eyes. "How's warrior hood? Seems ironic that your elder sister is still stuck as an apprentice, eh?" Her thoughts went straight to her other siblings, including the presumably dead Daffodilkit and the missing Maplekit. Her eyes softened a little as her thoughts went back to her younger littermates.

"No, not weird at all," Tigersong assured her, sinking down on to his belly to pick at the squirrel much less voraciously than his sister had. His appetite had been lighter than usual lately... be it the lack of food and his reluctance to take from the rest of the clan, or the now-constant nauseating feeling settled in his gut since the appearance of the Nightstrikers. "Bloodstrike was a very thorough mentor. He worked me to the bone some nights." There was no hint of complaint in his tone.

Tigersong flicked his tail out to lay across his sister's flank. "Besides, I'm sure you're not too far behind... we need all the warriors we can get, now..." he fell silent, glancing around to see if they were being overheard. "You know what I mean?"

Honeypaw snorted in amusement. "Yeah I get what you mean, brother. It's just now I don't get to tease you as much." Batting a paw at Tigersong's ears, Honeypaw allowed a light laugh to escape her. Then, the apprentice asked her brother something rather surprising. "Do you...do you think that we'll ever be able to find Daffodil and Maple?" Even though Honeypaw had better matters to worry about, these were her littermates. As cold as she was to some cats around her, her littermates had been through the hard transition of rogue life to Clan life along with her. They were the ones that remembered Sienna and Twolegplace.