Repairing what is Broken

[Yoko]

Rabbitheart and Rainstorm entered camp side by side for the second time. They had made one trip to drop off the freshkill and this one to bring the brambles. Rainstorm was bravely attempting to tell his son a battle story, despite the mouthfuls of twig and bramble in his mouth. The older warrior was carrying a little more than his golden pelted son.

It was amazing that either could see where they were going but somehow they managed to reach the nursery without running into anyone. As they set the brambles to the side, Rabbitheart noticed that Frostwind had yet to return.

"I suppose we'll have to start without him," the golden warrior mewed.

"Brother! Brother!" a squeak sounded.

Rabbitheart turned to catch a glimpse of black with a spot of
white fur. It was Ravenkit.

"Are we going to fix the wall together?" the kit looked up with blue eyes. Then Rabbitheart watched the joy vanish as the reflection of Rainstorm appeared in their edge.

Rabbitheart turned to glimpse at Rainstorm who was looking oldly down at his own kit. As if they were strangers. Then the father's eyes clouded over in pain.

"Son," he mewed, not specifying which one he was speaking to. "I'm sorry, I've just remembered. I must go."

The greyish-black warrior turned and rushed away without waitng for response. His sons watched sadly as he departed.

[Amber]

After attempting to get his sister to actually relax, for once, the white tom had made his way toward the nursery, branches and twigs in his mouth. He had arrived only to see Rainstorm leaving. He nodded to the other tom and padded toward Rabbitheart and Ravenkit.

"Sorry about taking so long. I ran into Ashstar." Frostwind said, dropping his load. His eyes glanced to Ravenkit and saw how eager he looked to help.

"I'm glad we have a big strong kit to help us today, we need someone who isn't as big as a warrior to help us with those really hard to reach cracks, that kits slip into easily." the tom smiled slightly to the kit.

Turning to Rabbitheart he looked at the pile of branches, brambles, and whatever else and sighed. "I'm hoping this will be enough, we won't have enough time to fix this before the sun decides to go down. And I'd rather not look for branches and brambles in the dark."

[Yoko]

Ravenkit looked past Frostwind a moment more. His sadness turning into a mild fury. How dare his father come to the nursery like that?! And then he pretended like he didn't know that Ravenkit was even there! But another pained look flickered across the kit's expression. Maybe his father wasn't preteneding...Maybe he really had just forgotten....

Head spinning, Ravenkit just caught Frostwind's words. He smiled again suddenly. "You bet you need my help! I'm the only one living here!"

He'd always taken pride in having a den of his own. While apprentices and warriors were crammed together, Ravenkit had the warmest, safest, and largest den, beside Ashstar's of course.


Rabbitheart nodded solemnly. He could tell that Ravenkit was hurt, but at least the kit was resiliant. Then looked up with his trademark grin. "Well then, we should get a move on, right? Hey Ravenkit where's the really big hole you were talking about yesterday?"

"This way," Ravenkit squeaked. "I mean, this way."

Rabbitheart laughed as his little brother attempted to deepen his voice. The golden warrior grabbed a small bundle and followed Ravenkit to the left of the den. There was a hole the size of a large paw in the center.

"How'd that happen?"

Ravenkit shrugged.

[Amber]

Frostwind couldn't help but chuckle at the kit. Ravenkit was just so cute an innocent. Then again, weren't all kits? A flashback of his own kithood was soon remembered, and then it turned into the nightmare of seeing his mother being killed. Shuddering the thought away, the warrior's attention was back to Ravenkit and Rabbitheart.

Grabbing a pile of his own, he followed after the two and looked at the hole. It wasn't as bad as his original thought, but it still needed to be fixed. He dropped what he had brought and tried to think of ways that it could have been broken.

"Last time I saw something like this, a badger had broke into the nursery." he murmered.

[Yoko]

Rabbitheart gave a light murrow of amusement. "Yes, well I hardly think that a badger has been secretly living amongst us lately. More likely the apprentices have been playing to close to here lately."

Ravenkit nodded. Rabbitheart smiled, "Here."

He seperated a bundle of the smallest twigs he could find in his pile and set them before his little brother. "Take these inside. Once Frostwind and I fnish the big parts of the hole. You can stick these in the cracks.

Ravenkit nodded and gripped two or three (it was all he could carry), before padding inside.

Rabbitheart padded forward with a long flexible bramble. "Let's start then shall we? Press this end against the wall, I'll start weaving it."

Rabbitheart lifted the bramble so it was level with the hole. He wanted to chat a little as he worked.

"So how's Ashstar doing?"

[Amber]

Frostwind was about to spit out a retort, but thought against it. Of course badger's weren't behind it. No badger would be stupid enough to show their face in the nursery again. Not after what happened last time. He would make sure of that. His eyes burned with rage for a moment before settling back down.
"Yes, apprentices most likely were the cause." he said calmly.

Grabbing part of the bramble he pressed it against the wall. It was better that Rabbitheart was weaving rather than himself, he was a little too impatient to weave right now. At the mentioning of his sister he shrugged a bit.
"I think she is just stressed. I'm hoping she is relaxing somewhere, having all of this on her plate and her being so young is taking a toll on her. She used to know exactly what to do and how to do it. But now she is the one giving the orders." he murmered.

[Yoko]

Rabbitheart nodded absentmindedly. His paw forcing one end of the bramble into the hole, and the other through the intact wall. He could tell from Frostwind's tone that he was not in a cheerful mood.

"Kin trouble?" Rabbitheart guessed, doing his best not to sound joking. His muzzle took a more solemn expression. "I know the feeling."

He paused. Rabbitheart wasn't a usually secretive cat, but it was hard for him to talk about his own troubles. Tentively he went on.

"Rainstorm's been acting oddly lately...He does a lot of sitting around and staring lately. And...He won't speak to Ravenkit. In fact, I don't ever remember him speaking to my brother at all..."

Rabbitheart gripped another bramble and carried it over. "Could you hold this one too?" he mumbled.

[Amber]

Frostwind just nodded. Kin trouble was always on his mind. He knew he wouldn't want it any other way, he had enjoyed having Ashstar as a sister, and always would, nothing could change that.

"You have very good guessing skills. Either that or my rambling was too obvious, and everyone could guess." he said with a sigh.

He listened carefully to the other tom. This sounded like something Ashstar should hear, but she needed a break and the deputy was out of camp. He sure was being a magnet to listen to problems today. Did he have something on his pelt to have everyone tell him today?

"Hmm..Have you talked to Rainstorm about it? Maybe he doesn't realize he is doing it. Or if he does, maybe he just needs to hear it from you. He is talking to you, so maybe if you talk to him about it he would listen." Frostwind suggested.

"Yeah, sure." he added grabbing the other bramble.

[Yoko]

"I've tried," Rabbitheart sighed, beginning to weave the bramble above the first one. "Anytime I mention Ravenkit's name Rainstorm gets this look..."

Rabbitheart paused in his spaking as he recalled the hollow, no, dead look that his father gave him when he first mentioned Ravenkit. Out of desire to make that expression change, Rabbitheart had quickly changed the subject to th last war with Riverclan over Sunning Rocks. Then Rainstorm was smiling again but not nearly as cheerfully as before.

Finishng up the second branch, Rabbitheart laughed, "But what are we complaining about? The Clans are at peace. WE have Sunning Rocks, prey is abundant, what more can we ask for? If life were any more perfect, we'd think we were dreaming."

Rabbitheart bent over for yet another bramble. This was going faster than he had thought it would.