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The big shaggy tom prowled through the camp, his young paws taking him to the rock where he often sunned himself. Laying next to his side, her little bobbed tail curled in as far as it usually went, her mismatched eyes shut, was his daughter Turtlekit. Her leg was healed, but it hadn't healed right. It was a bit crooked and it pained her to put too much weight on it. But her voice was still missing. The big tom's single gold eye was focusing around the clearing, a bit of a low warning growl coming from his throat should anyone get too close. He was still very protective of the little she-kit and he was NOT about to have anyone hurt her.

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"Riddlehawk?" The medicine cat padded up to the two slowly, approaching from Riddlehawk's good side so he could see him coming and he still kept his distance. Though they were real friends, close to being family as it could be, but lately it was more tense and uneasy. They disagreed more than agreed recently. But he was still worried about little Turtlekit.

"How is she doing?" He asked, looking to Turtlekit. His eyes strayed to her leg and he frowned, memories of his own similiar injury flashing back in his mind. He had worked so hard to get her leg back how it naturally was, but nothing had worked so far. He kinda felt like he had let her down. Her and Riddlehawk.

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Riddlehawk saw Rainwing coming, glad he had approached on his good side...so that he could atleast see him. Lately, all of the cats that had approached him on his bad side had gotten a good whack to the muzzle because he was startled. His eye settled in on him, both ears flickering as he showed he acknowledged his existence. "Rainwing." He said, his voice still gruff. His single gold eye narrowed a bit as a shudder rippled across his pelt. But his ears picked up what Rainwing asked next. His gaze turned down to his little daughter, running his tongue across the top of her head. "Wait here, sweetheart." He said, lifting his hulking mass off the rock. Her mismatched gaze clearly displayed that she knew what he was going to speak with the medicine cat about but she was still silent.

"Rainwing...follow me." He said, flicking his fluffy tail as he walked. When they were out of Turtlekit's earshot, he turned and looked at him. "She's not in any pain, that I know of. But she's never going to be a warrior is she, Rainwing?" He asked, speaking to the medicine cat with a tone that was filled with pain. "I feel like...like I failed her...like I failed you....every young cat that I'm near...they end up maimed...." He said softly, his eyes downcast and a single tear trickling out from his eye.

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Icepaw had been out near the center of the camp grounds before Riddlehawk had come across. The young RiverClan tom had appeared out of the medicine cat's den in order to fetch himself a small mouse, as hunger had been beginning to claw at his belly. His hind leg, injured by Riddlehawk's deathly jaws a couple moons previously, had just about healed. The tom was confident that he would be able to return to the RiverClan camp before long at this positive rate. But as the pale tabby lay there on his belly, the grey-brown body pinned firmly between his two forepaws in order to hold it in place, the sound of heavy pawsteps alerted his ear. It flicked around in a split second, already knowing who the familiar pattern belonged too, but he feeling a lingering flash of alarm all the same.

The apprentice knew it was Riddlehawk before his blue eyes found the dark tabby's pelt. As if my instinct, his claws immediately slipped out from his paws, and dug themselves into the cold earth. The tom's appearance could mean nothing but trouble. Icepaw had learned that already. And being at such a proximity heightened his nerves. True, the deputy stood on the opposite side of the fresh-kill pile, but any distance was too close in his mind. But the apprentice kept quiet, and instead curled his tail warily about him, and listened.

At first, Icepaw had hardly any idea as to what the two toms were discussing. But that, unfortunately, didn't stop another instinctive action from leaping out from his jaws the moment Riddlehawk stopped speaking. "Yeah, I think any cat can see that clearly enough." The young tom's voice was lowered somewhat, but still retained as much bitterness as it could at any amplitude. But then, as he looked around, the RiverClan tom noticed a smaller she-kit nearby. There was an almost haunting resemblance in his eyes. Meaning, it wasn't hard to tell who her father was. The white fur on the back of his neck prickled. Spawns of Riddlehawk. Strange, but he felt no anger toward them. It was more as if they were removed from the matter completely. Then the tom blinked in slight surprise as his eyes glanced to her leg. It was twisted in a way that almost made him grimace. Something was more than obviously wrong.

This must have been what Riddlehawk was going on about, he realized. The cat who couldn't be a warrior. A sensation close to guilt, or maybe just pity, seemed to reach the tom, and he couldn't help but glance down to his own leg. Unlike hers, it would be fine in a few days. His own was straight and working, if not a little strained. The kit's was in no such condition. Possibly, it never would be.

But maybe this is just karma. This could be Riddlehawk's punishment for doing this to me in the first place. The thought was an attempt at comfort, but it did next to no good. Icepaw felt real sympathy for the she-kit. It wasn't her fault her father was a cold, fox-hearted murderer. She shouldn't be the one suffering.

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Riddlehawk bristled, a violent snarl ripping from his chest as he heard Icepaw's words. He leapt over the fresh-kill pile in a single bound, his single gold eye dark with rage. "Shut your mouth you worthless little pup! All you've done is lay around and eat. You don't know what your talking about." He growled, his maw in a terrible grimace that displayed all his daggerlike teeth. "You try having kits! YOU try training an apprentice and sharing a bond with that apprentice. YOU try having to watch have all of that ripped away from you in one instant because of a fox-hearted scrap of fur. YOU antagonized me with words and YOU are going to be. YOU get to go home to your clan and lead a normal life! THEY did absolutely nothing. They were innocent...." Riddlehawk had been practically halfway down the young tom's throat the entire time. But by the time He had gotten to the part about having kits he had gotten quiet. Silent tears had started trickling down his face when he got to the part about having it all ripped away. Riddlehawk was strong. He was a vicious killer and a fair leader and warrior. But he was also soft. He was sensitive and caring. He was compassionate. And he loved the apprentices and kits of his clan like they were his own. He would do anything to protect them....and he had failed. And that killed him more than anything...He took a few steps back, his single gold eye looking the young tom over. "I'm sorry." He said quietly, his gravely voice hard but barely able to suppress the sobs that threatened to tear from his chest. The tom walked away from the young apprentice, his eye focused ahead. Not even pausing near Rainwing. Just into the forest.

But the young she-kit rose from the rock where she had been with her father. It took her a few moments to get to her feet, to situate the twisted and deformed leg that had never grown correctly and never would. She limped heavily, much much more pronounced than her father's did. She came and sat down near Icepaw, a move she knew would irritate her father but she didn't care. Her green and gold eyes looked over the young tom before her.

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When Riddlehawk’s face was suddenly thrust into his own, Icepaw recoiled back faster than lightning. The horrible fury could be felt pulsing from the tabby’s pelt and spitting from his words. It terrified the apprentice. His blue eyes were wide with fear, and the boarder skirmish flashed back into his mind, causing his injured leg to twitch. At first, all he could do was shrink back and stare fearfully into Riddlehawk’s remaining eye as he listened to the tom’s horrible rant. No, he didn’t know what any of that was like. And maybe Riddlehawk was right about those last things.

No! He couldn’t believe that. That could never be true! Instinct told the apprentice to just snarl right back at the much larger tom, already forming ideas on what to say. But when the deputy’s tone quieted, his thoughts stopped there. And something close to shock replaced them when he saw water appear in his eye. Riddlehawk was… What? How was that even possible? This murdering tom was… The pieces didn’t connect. But the small droplets were still there for any cat to see. Then as the deputy took a few steps back and murmured two unbelievable words, Icepaw's heart almost stopped. His brain didn't even register Riddlehawk turning and padding off into the copse. It was still focused on those words. Sorry? How, after all he'd done, could Riddlehawk say he was sorry? It was beyond unbelievable! It was impossible! A cold shiver ran along the apprentice's spine. The world seemed to have gone topsy-turvy. He shook his head in an attempt to see sense again, but to no avail. It had really happened...

But that was when Icepaw instead noticed that the she-kit with the twisted leg he'd seen just a few moments before was now sitting beside him. She was watching his in such an oddly quiet, intense kind of way that it made the bigger tom a slight bit uncomfortable. Those eyes were like Riddlehawk's. So way she. But at the same time, not. Unsure of what to do or say at that point, the pale tabby tom gave an unsure smile and flicked an ear as a cautious greeting. "Uh, hey," he mewed, finding it hard to look away from the strange gaze that the she-kit had. "I guess that was your father, right? Sorry. Ah, we don't get along very well." He twitched his whiskers in a way that almost said, 'What can you do about it?'

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Turtlekit's gaze continued to search him over, the silence that exuded from her scary and twisted as her leg. It was strange. No kit should be that quiet, all the time. No kit should have no voice, no way to voice how she was. To voice how her leg felt. But she didn't. Her ears flickered after he spoke, her own strange way of greeting. She shifted her weight, her badly damaged front leg moving in a perverted way, the way it moved should never have happened. It sent shudders down cat's spines to see it. Every fiber of ones being rejected the way it was twisted. Her gaze showed that she understood what he said, that she understood that they didn't get along and accepted that it was ok.

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Rainwing studied his friend's face...his mentor's face. He felt terrible for him, and he tried to think of the right words to comfort him. "Riddlehawk...listen to me. I will do everything I can for her leg, I really will. Because I...I know what she's going through." He replied softly, trying to ease the pain Riddlehawk was going through. And if worse came to worse...he would try to take her in as his apprentice if she would accept that.

His ears swiveled at another voice. Oh no, Icepaw...He should't have spoken up. He was about to say something, but Riddlehawk beat him to it. He frowned, not saying word as the deputy went off on the tom. Not saying he didn't deserve it, but Rainwing knew this was a hard time for his mentor and his words were sharper now. He watched him go without stopping him, looking back to Turtlekit and Icepaw. "Icepaw...that really wasn't necessary. Whatever hard feelings are between you two, you shouldn't be so low as to bring his daughter into this." He said softly with a sigh, before looking to Turtlekit. "Turtlekit..can I get you any poppy seeds..?"

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When he was only greeted with a continued eerie silence, Icepaw discomfort heightened a bit. She didn’t look angry or anything, so the tom couldn’t imagine a reason why she wasn’t making a single sound. She could have at least said something in response. But instead the she-kit just made little gestures with her ears. The tom looked from the smaller cat to the ground, then back again. ‘Awkward silence’ seemed to have a new meaning at that point. But as he watched her leg jerk, the hair on the back of his neck rose up. It shouldn’t have been able to move that way. There was something just so wrong about it. It took a lot of willpower for the pale tabby to look away from the abnormal twist and back to her face. Unlike her limb, that part of her looked calm. Serene, almost. Quite the paradox.

But the silence was soon filled by Rainwing’s mew. At first, Icepaw was almost glad that the tom had said something. The quite was just too strange. But once the apprentice actually heard what the medicine cat had said, his blue eyes narrowed stubbornly. ”Hey, it wasn’t like I knew about that before. What I said didn’t have anything to do with her.” His nose wrinkled in agitation. For no particular reason, Rainwing’s presence always bothered him, like a prod in the side. Nothing like how he felt around Riddlehawk, but still enough to annoy him. But when the medicine cat mentioned a name, Icepaw blinked and glanced over at the she-kit beside him. So Turtlekit was her name, he assumed. But he didn’t say anything about it. The tom wanted to just wait and see if she would actually say anything to the tom. Maybe it was just him that she didn’t want to talk to. The puzzle was so strange, he just wanted to know for sure what her situation was.

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A sound that might have almost been a breathy laugh came from her, but it vanished as soon as it came. Did it even really happen? She shook her head infintesimally when Rainwing asked if she wanted anything, the bit of fidgeting she did causing that strange twist in her leg to move into an even more unnatural position. But it didn't pain her? Perhaps there was some kind of intense nerve damage done to the leg when she was injured. No one would ever really know for certain. She just knew that her mismatched gaze unsettled most, but she wasn't trying to. Her gaze turned back to Icepaw, past Rainwing but it was more curious than anything. The creepy jerk and twist in her leg sent it back almost to a normal position but then it was gone again, more twisted than before. How in Starclan's name did she even walk on the thing!"

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Rainwing had grown used to the she-cats silence and he nodded in response. The sight of her leg didn't really bother him, it was too familiar to be digusting or strange in his eyes. If anything, it was a memory and a vision at the same time. What had been for him...and what could have been. Both were not pleasant. He looked away from the she-cat back to Icepaw. "I know, but it was not your place to speak up either. Now, I am not looking for a fight, just asking if you would watch you tongue when it comes to Turtle-kit." He replied softly, sounding more tired than ready for a fight. Life as a medicine cat took a toll on you after a while. He saw the tom's look at the sight of her leg. "Icepaw...do you know why Riddlehawk was speaking about that? How much did you hear?"

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Cunning amber eyes looked onto the occurrences happening in camp. It amused him to lay about and watch the goings on, especially considering the new cat that Tanglestar so happily let in. His patience for Tanglestar's views were running out. Of course it made complete sense for an apprentice of Riverclan to live among Thunderclan this long, even though his clan wanted him back. Icepaw was harmful to this clan because of Riddlehawk, and vice-versa. To him, it would have made more sense to inform Riverclan of the disturbance and let their medicine cat take care of Icepaw, not Rainwing. Only Starclan knew how much work Rainwing had to do with all the Thunderclan cats.

Foxflight yawned as he just lay there in the clearing, waiting to hear anything new pass among the group that he couldn't see. What else could he do?

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At the sight of the young kit’s leg twitching again, the pale tabby tom forced himself to look away. Seeing that thing spasm is such a way made his stomach too queasy for him to watch. But unfortunately, there wasn’t much else for him to look at besides the medicine cat in front of him, and that wasn’t all that great, either. But at the pondering question from the tabby, Icepaw shrugged. “Not really. At least, nothing apart from the obvious.” His light blue eyes narrowed, showing his slight glow of resentment. But even that was mingling with confusion. What was Rainwing getting at? “I just heard the last part of whatever he was saying. Why?”