"Go on, and be careful," Frostcry said, dipping his head slightly to the cream-colored tabby sitting at his side. The warrior smiled back, grim but determined; he rose and licked neat a few errant strands of his coat, then took his leave. Frostcry was left alone, a troubled look creasing his young brow. Wy had brought him a report of predator scents on their far border and while they suspected the animal was just passing by, it made Frostcry restless to think that they might be facing danger so soon after finding their new territory. Should he have sent a bigger patrol with Wy to check it out? Would that have been a waste of their sparse forces?

The deputy was distracted by his musings when a new cat marched straight up to him and said hi. Frostcry blinked once, failing to recognize her or her scent. Wy turned back curiously, met Frostcry's gaze, and shrugged; so this wasn't one of their new recruits that had joined them from the Regime. Frostcry turned his blue eyes back onto Harriet, appraising her silently.

There was no use attacking her now, she was in the center of his camp and only a fool would try to fight when surrounded by the enemy. She looked even younger than him, so he doubted she was a threat anyway, and she did not smell of one of the other clans. He would take a direct approach, he decided, and try to figure out what she was doing here. Frostcry wasn't much for trickery; if he could ask and she would answer truthfully, what was point of being evasive?

"Hello," Frostcry greeted, uncoiling his tail from around his front paws. "I'm Frostcry, deputy of SunClan. What are you doing here in our camp? Did someone bring you to see us?"

She was friendly, that was clear. Everything else took Frostcry a few more moments to process.

She knew a lot about SunClan, from their recent history to their leadership. Fernweaver must have trusted Harriet to share so much, but why? If she hadn't told the kid to come, then what was the point of sharing their story? Still, the kittypet did not seem harmful, just curious. He couldn't let her see too many of their secrets but Frostcry didn't have the heart to be stern or angry with her either. If he hadn't grown up in the clan, wouldn't he have been this carefree too?

"It's nice to meet you, Harriet," he replied, "but I need you to help me understand. Why are you here, if Fernweaver did not send you? Why aren't you at home with your siblings?"

Frostcry couldn't disguise the flicker of surprise across his face when she admitted that she disliked being a twoleg. Like any proud clanborn warrior, he would never fall into the soft life of a kittypet - even though the few tales he had heard of them suggested that kittypets were pretty happy with their lives. But he couldn't imagine having to live with lumbering twoleg monsters. He had never met one, but the tales he heard were quite terrifying.

His paws shuffled uncomfortable as he understood what she was asking. She wanted to join SunClan. It was then that Frostcry realized he hadn't quite discussed this with Oceaneyes yet. Before she was their leader, SunClan initiates went through difficult trials and had to prove their faith in the Sun God before they were let into the clan... but the Sun God was dead and disappeared, and the clan he grew up in was turned to smoke and ash. Without their god to guide them, only the stars above, did they still need to test initiates so harshly?

As a deputy, he ought to know the answer, but the youthful tomcat had simply not considered it before.

"Even if you join," he warned, dodging the question, "you may not be allowed to work with Fernweaver. She is a kind cat, but among us she is special - she's a medicine cat. She can only take one apprentice, and that cat must be very special indeed."

His paws shifted at her accusation. It was not entirely untrue. Clan cats disliked kittypets and for what he thought were good reasons: they were weak, overfed, lazy cats who never had to fight for anything in their lives. They were soft and they cared for no cat but themselves. A part of Frostcry knew that wasn't a fair assessment, but he had never met a kittypet before now, so he had nothing else to go on other than clan rumor. And his clan had never been very supportive of letting in outsiders.

"Fernweaver was a special case," he told her. "Our clan was nearly destroyed, and she stepped up to help out our Soothsayer-- the medicine cat before her. For the last few moons we have lived with the cats of Renegade Regime, and she has learned extensively from the healers there." His summary was a bit short and detached, but for good reason: Frostcry was not around for Fernweaver's promotion. He had been injured before the volcano went off and they were already settled in the Regime's tunnels by the time he returned.

"If she is to take an apprentice now, Fernweaver alone cannot make that choice. She must consult our warrior ancestors."

"Yes, they're all around us," he confirmed with a nod. "In the wind, in the speed in a hunter's step, in the warmth of the sun. Our ancestors surround us and keep us safe." He paused; a bit of doubt had crept into his voice at those last few words. StarClan would keep them safe going forward, wouldn't they? It was true that in the past StarClan had failed them, but that was many generations before Frostcry was born; things must have changed. After all, StarClan led them to this new land, right?

"To communicate with them directly, Fernweaver will have to travel to the-- to a sacred place. It's a long journey from here, and it will take her time."