Thistle blinked open his eyes, nearly panicking at the unfamiliar den. He suddenly remembered what all happened last night: meeting Darkmoss, talking to Ashstar, sitting on vigil then having a hard time falling asleep. He looked outside the den, it was about Sunhigh.
"Fox, get up." Thistle shoved Fox's shoulder after he got up. He let out a small moan then opened his eyes, also a bit shocked waking up in an unfamiliar place.
"What do we do next?" Fox asked, quickly fixing his red fur.
"I guess go and talk to Ashstar?" Thistle said between licks, he had decided to clean his ruffled fur. Thistle lead the way out of the den, Emberstream and a Tuffwhisker where still asleep, so they didn't bother them. The bright sunlight blinded them for a moment before reveling a camp filled with activity. There was three kits near a corner of the camp, older cats where sunning themselves in various places in camp, Ashstar was one of them. Thistle flocked his tail, heading to the grey cat.

"Uhm, Ashstar?" Thistle started, not wanting to scare the leader. She lifted her head, seeing who was requesting her.
"Oh, hi Thistle, Fox. Glad to see you made it through the night. What do you need?"
"We where wondering what we need to do first." Fox explained for Thistle.
"You can get something off the prey pile and share it, then find a cat that'll show you around." Ashstar flicked her tail to a small pile of prey. "If you need anything else, ask Coontail, he'll help you."
"Who's that?" Thistle quietly asked, trying not to sound rude.
"He's the white tom with the grey patches along his back, over there." She flicked her tail near where a group of cats where surrounding a cat that matched her description.
"Thanks." Ashstar laid her head back down, and closed her yellow eyes. Fox started off to the prey pile, followed by Thistle. Fox had picked out a shrew and sat down next to a young she-cat with a brown ear and grey nose. Thistle picked out a mouse, although he wanted the fresh squirrel off the top, he wanted to show that he had respect for those who had hunted already. It felt weird to him to have prey ready for him instead of having to hunt first.
"Thistle!" A cat called his name, making him jump, it wasn't aggressive, more joyful than anything. He turned around, seeing Darkmoss hunched down a bit next to a grey and white patched she-cat with one brown spot on her chest. Thistle quickly finished his mouse then went to the two chatting cats.
"What, no! Uh, of course not!" Thistle didn't hear what she was replying to, but she was struggling to get her words out.
"Thanks Darkmoss." Thistle didn't really know what to say, this cat had helped him with Birch's quest. All these cats seem so nice, this is going to be harder to deal with than I thought.
"For what?" She asked.
"For letting me join your clan." He responded.
"Oh, it's no problem," she started, "this is Silverpatch. Silverpatch this is Thistle."
"Hi Thistle." Silverpatch gave Darkmoss an odd look.
"Hi Silverpatch. Uh, Darkmoss do you mind showing me the territory." Why can't I think straight around her!
"Sure, will fox be coming?" She gestured over to Fox and the other cat.
"I doubt it, he seems to know that cat."
"Silverpatch do you want to come?" Darkmoss' friend though for a moment before replying.
"I think I will, i'll probably do some hunting too."

"How did Ashstar accept you into the clan?" Silverpatch asked once they where out of camp, DarkMoss lead them to one side. If he was correct, it would lead them to the twoleg bridge.
"She said that If me and Fox sat vigil for three nights we'd become warriors, I think that's what you call them."
"Your right, me and Silverpatch are warriors, we hunt and fight for the clan. Coontail's the deputy, he assigns hunting and boarder patrols as well as he'll become the next leader. Ashstar is the leader, what she says goes. Apprentices are cats that are over six moons old that are being trained to be warriors." Darkmoss explained. "Elders are the cats that have served their time as warriors and are now taken care of by all of the warriors. Queens are she-cats expecting or have kits, which would be Mistyheart and Sapwhisker and  Finchwing."

"Finchwing is expecting Reedtail's kits, Mistyheart has Quailkit and Snowkit, which are also Oakbranch's kits and Sapwhisker has Lillykit, her father is Shrubbery." Silverpatch explained to Thistle.
"Then Blacktip is the medicine cat, which she takes care of any sick or wounded cats." So like Milkweed, Darkmoss' comment made him think of the cream she-cat that helped him after Birch did on of her attacks.
"It seems like you have your life planned out for you, don't it?" Thistle replied playfully. A familiar sent touched his nose, he knew that he was close to the twoleg bridge. Over the thick smell of the BirchClan cats, he could smell Birch. He couldn't help but to tense up a bit, scare of what Birch might do to him or Darkmoss or Silverpatch. Darkmoss gave him a curious glance over at Thistle before giving a faint shrug.
"This is the twoleg bridge, it's the only way to get across the ravine that we know of." DarkMoss told him, Thistle just nodded, to concerned on trying to find Birch. DarkMoss lead them a bit further, about a fox-length before turning away from the ravine. The trees turned to a mix of maple and oak and a few pine trees. The undergrowth has thinned out a lot, but there was twice as many trees.

They padded further down, in the distance Thistle could barely make out a large tree. There wasn't anything thing very exciting for down this strip of territory. Across the territory seemed to be more woodland, possibly a bit more marshy but it was hard to tell. After they passed by the large oak tree, Silverpatch decided to leave to go hunting.
"I'm going to go hunting." Silverpatch declared. "Don't do anything stupid." She continued with a smirk. Darkmoss gave the grey and white she-cat a hard glare.
"Alright, bye Silverpatch." Darkmoss jokingly growled at her friend. Silverpatch trotted off with a small laugh, leaving Darkmoss and Thistle alone.
"So it's just us now?" Darkmoss nodded as they came up to the lake.
"This is the lake, up ahead is the willow tree. Is there anything else you'd like to know about Clan life?" The dusty brown she-cat asked, slightly tilting her head while looking at Thistle.
"After you show me the territory, will I be trusted enough to go hunting for a bit?" Thistle decided to ask.
"Maybe, Coontail or Ashstar might send someone with you." She replied. Thistle continued to look at her, his mind slightly drifting into thought. Thistle place a paw in front of him, but the ground wasn't there. He tumbled down a mossy slope and came close to falling into the water. He could hear Darkmoss give a slight laugh as she stood by a willow tree, a after a tail-length or so, the ground quickly slopes down to the lake, which is where Thistle had fell.
"Very funny." Thistle joked to her, he was embarrassed that he wasn't paying attention and ended up falling. He leaped up next to Darkmoss and gave her a playful shove with his shoulder, which she responded with a slightly harder shove. Darkmoss bounded ahead, weaving between the undergrowth. Thistle ran after her.

How will I be able to ruin her life to save mine? Birch's quest had slipped through his mind. For once in his life, Thistle didn't have a fear of Birch running out and attacking him for no reason. I guess I could abandon the quest, I doubt Birch would notice. The thought pleased him. Birch was to lazy to stalk him to make sure he was doing her request.
"Up here is Fallen Tree, where we where last night." Thistle heard Darkmoss from up ahead. He ran faster to catch up with her to find her up onto a large sycamore log. Thistle could faintly smell Fox's, Darkmoss' and Thistle's scent from the night before. Thistle sniffed around, he could smell squirrel.
"There's a squirrel around here." Thistle whispered to Darkmoss, she sniffed the air, looking for the scent.
"Do you want to get it?" She asked.
"I'm not good at climbing trees." Thistle admitted. He'd only climbed pine trees by jumping from branch to branch, unlike the smooth bark of a birch tree, where the squirrel was eating a nut. Darkmoss nodded her head and leapt up into the tree, quickly gaining to where the squirrel sat. She cashed it to the edge of the branch, which it leapt to another tree.
"Be careful Darkmoss." Thistle couldn't help but to call to the brown and black she-cat. Just as he finished saying it, Darkmoss leapt into the other tree. She quickly moved along the branch where the squirrel sat, not expecting Darkmoss to follow it. She grabbed the freshly killed squirrel and worked her way down the tree.
"That's not the first time I've done this." Darkmoss said with a slight chuckle. Thistle smelt the blood from the squirrel, realizing that he was hungry.
"Do you want to share the squirrel?" Thistle asked when Darkmoss was beside him.
"We can't." She told him.
"What do you mean, you caught it." Thistle protested.
"Thats not how a clan works, elders, kits and queens are to be fed before everyone else."
"Oh." Makes sense.

Darkmoss lead Thistle down the creek, still carrying the squirrel. Thistle thought he caught another whiff of Birch's scent. Surely she's not stalking me, right? The thought of it sent chills down his spine. Thankfully, Thistle caught the smell of a shrew near the waterfall. He quietly stalked away from Darkmoss, not giving the shrew any chance to escape. He stalked it to a small clearing. It was sniffing around near the edge of the bush. He quickly stalked towards it, trying to be quite.
"Thistle?" Thistle leapt, nearly missing the shrew. He quickly killed it and trotted back to Darkmoss.

"Sorry, I smelled the shrew." Thistle told her.
"I thought you ran off." Darkmoss' voice was muffed from the squirrel's fur.
"I was afraid it was going to run off if I said anything, that's why I didn't tell you."
"Oh, okay. Do you want to head back to camp then? This is basically the boarder, the only thing that's left is a strip from here to the twoleg bridge, and that's all ravine." Darkmoss explained.
"Do you mind showing me more inside the territory tomorrow?" Thistle asked.
"If I can." Darkmoss told him, heading back to camp.