Chapter 51: Hanging 'Round

"Hey, Ash," Dust whispered.
Ash turned to Dust. The prisoner den was quite large, so they had plenty of room.
"What?" Ash whispered back.
"We think that, er, you know that wolf? Treebranch?" Rusty tilted his head.
"Course I do," Ash nodded.
"From how she acts, we think she might, er," Rusty tried to say.
"Like you," Dust said quickly.
"What?" Ash raised an eyebrow. "She's a Tribe wolf, I can't live here."
"Exactly," Dust shrugged.
"Which is why," Rusty began.
"She ought to figure it out," Dust continued.
"By herself," Rusty finished.
Ash couldn't hold back a small laugh at how the two littermates finished each others' scentences.
"What's the plan gonna be?" Ash turned to Fan.
"We're gonna stay here for a day, and then we'll continue for the Water Tribe," Fan explained.
"Okay," Rusty nodded.
The patrol stayed silent for a while, with nothing to really do. Ash studied his paws, bored. He glanced up and saw Airia talking to Stone in a low voice.
"So," Charlotte muttered, "what happens next?"
As if on queue, two wolves came in. One was very small; she looked like an apprentice. The other looked like an apprentice, too.
"Here you go," squeaked the very small one. She slid two shrews towards the patrol.
"Here's a few prey in addition to Mousetail's-" the other began.
"Whoa," Ash grew wide-eyed, "she's a warrior?"
Rusty and Dust laughed. As soon as the scentence escaped Ash's mouth, he wished he could put the words back in.
"Thanks," Mousetail said coldly, "I knew you wouldn't make fun of my size."
"I'm sorry, but-"
"Doesn't matter now," Mousetail snapped, "it's out of your mouth already."

Author's Note:
We got a small warrior in the Tribe, eh? XD