"I'm a guy dammit! You hear me? A guy!" Fern screamed hysterically as Frost was beaten to a bloody pulp. The said ice type repeatedly attempted to explain himself but was foiled by Fern's paws which were doing a good job hammering his muzzle shut. He was eventually saved by Grey who decided to show some mercy and talk his senior healer out of doing the opposite of what his job is suppose to be.

"Fern, I know you're angry and all but, I think you're being a tad immature here. So what if he called you a girl? Practically everyone had," The Umbreon smirked at Ren, who immediately looked away with an indignant sulk and rubbed his muzzle tenderly at the memory of the pain the grass type brought upon it.

"That's exactly why I have to make my point!" Fern growled heatedly. "You kits never learn unless the lesson comes with a beating!" At those words, Frost nervously squirmed from under the Leafeon.

"Erm, I'm sorry?" The ice fox managed to choke out meekly while trying to keep the grass type's paw from crushing his throat. Fern frowned and crouched down, glaring at Frost with narrowed eyes, their faces only inches away. The ice type gulped apprehensively as this captor's eyes bore into him like needles.

Quite suddenly, Fern let out a good-natured laugh and hopped off of the battered body under him. "Cute kid," He commented in a way that made him sound like he just handed a child sweets. The others stared at the healer incredulously as if he had three heads.

"This guy has problems…" Ren muttered under his breath. Fern heard him and roughly shoved a pawfull of herbs down his throat. The apprentice's gag reflex immediately kicked into action and he dropped to the ground while trying franticly to swallow the medicine before he suffocated. There was always that risk with Fern where the herbs that were supposed to save you ended up choking you to death instead.

The healer ignored the Luxio's sputtering and turned to Grey. "I got all the poppy seeds you said we needed for the painkillers," The healer reached for a basket woven out of dry grass sitting off to the side. "I just needed to do some double checking cuz there were some foxglove plants around and I didn't want to end up poisoning anybody."

"Yeah whatever. Just make sure to hurry up next time," Grey snapped. Fern laughed.

"Great. Now you make it sound like I'm the apprentice," The healer giggled. The Umbreon rolled his sightless eyes before jerking his head toward Pine, Ren, and Frost.

"Noru told me to heal these three, but there wasn't any poppy seeds and I didn't want to hear them whining about the pain," He muttered with annoyance. His mentor grinned and placed a paw on his shoulder playfully.

"Aw, you do have a heart," The Leafeon ignored his irritated growling and turned toward the other three. "Pine, you follow Grey back to the camp with the poppy seeds. Ren, you take the cutie and show him around our territory. "

"I thought you were supposed to heal us!" Ren said in surprise. Fern rolled his eyes.

"What do you think those herbs I fed you were? And I already patched up the little cutie, if you haven't noticed."

"W-wah? Cutie?" Frost stuttered and blushed deeply, giving the healer another good excuse to laugh at him. Ignoring the exchange, Grey's ears twitched slightly as he listened in on the ice fox's heartbeat. It was true. Most of his injuries were already sealed up and judging by his pulse, the scarring would probably fade after another couple of days.

"You used Synthesis on him while you were beating him up, didn't you?" The blind apprentice muttered under his breath with raised eyebrows. "You're the only person I know who would do something as crazy as that."

Fern winked before prancing through the field and into the forest path leading back to the camp. He turned back and shouted, "You're always such a big grump, Grey! Oh, and Ren, take care of the cutie! I don't wanna hear about you two killing each other again!"

Grey grunted his displeasure before reluctantly following him with Pine by his side. The Linoone watched Fern bound cheerfully out of sight before scratching his chin, apparently deep in thought.

"How come Fern's always so immature?" Pine wondered obliviously. Grey rolled his sightless eyes.

"You really shouldn't be talking."

(…)

Frost flushed a feverish shade of red as the retreating back of Fern faded into the woods. Ren smirked at his companion's embarrassment, clearly amused by the healer's flirty attitude. The Luxio bonked the ice type on the head with his tail before turning to leave.

"Wait! Where are you going?" The younger canine yelped and rubbed the back of his head gently before bounded after him.

"Didn't you hear? I've been given the chore of showing you around Carina territory. I'm only gonna explain things once, so you better listen, got it?" Frost nodded coolly, although his eyes wandered more or less as if lost in thought. Ren's smirk widened at the sight of the ice fox's reddening face. "Oh, and brace yourself. Once Fern gives you a nickname, it sticks. So get ready for a world of embarrassment when you get back."

The Glaceon opened his muzzle to say something, but realized that Ren had already walked a good twenty yards ahead of him in the grassy field. He shook the thought out of his head and frantically paced to follow him.

"Ok, the first thing you need to know is the structure of our clan's ranking system," Ren spoke loudly while trying his best to sound like Noru when he gave lessons. "The lowest ranking members of the Carina are the newborn kits and those in exile, although technically the exiled members aren't part of the clan anymore. The kits and pups usually stay in the nursery for the first few months before moving in with their mothers. Above them are the apprentices, who are usually in their teens. Pine, Grey, you, and me are all apprentices. And of course, I'm the strongest one." The Luxio puffed out his mane proudly.

Frost rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Yeah yeah, keep telling yourself that."

Ren's eyes narrowed dangerously, but decided to put off the insult. "The apprentices usually stay in designated dens that are sorted out by Dusk, our Alpha. She made it so that the apprentices of the same den would live together, have the same mentor, and do a bunch of patrolling and missions together. This would give them a chance to 'bond' or whatever." The Luxio rolled his eyes dismissively. "If you want my opinion, I think it's a load of useless junk. Oh, and you're in my den by the way. We're rooming with Grey, Pine, and unfortunately, Fern. Even though he's not an apprentice and he usually sleeps in the medicine den, he stays with us sometimes."

"Hey," Frost spoke up suddenly, his voice cold with the newly formed grudge for the other apprentice. "How come you always say that you're the strongest apprentice?"

Ren gave him an arrogant grin, showing off his fangs. "Well occasionally, when the apprentices get a day off, we hold little contests to see who's best. Of course, I won every time. That's probably why Noru made me the leader of our den. That means all three of you, besides Fern of course, are my responsibility. Therefore you have to show me some respect!"

No wonder why Grey seems to hate him so much, Frost thought as he watched the conceited Luxio beamed proudly.

"I'll show you some respect when you earn it," He growled. "So far, you're doing a pretty bad job."

"What was that?" Ren's fangs flashed threateningly as he crouched down, glaring at the smaller male with their faces only inches apart. "You mind saying that again?"

The ice fox scoffed dismissively, glaring back coolly. "I thought you just said that you only explain things once. I plan on doing the same. And by the way, attempting to kill people doesn't necessarily earn their respect."

Ren snarled and lunged, roughly pinning the Glaceon down with his claws digging painfully into his shoulders. Frost let out a startled squeak as his captor lowered his head next to his own, feeling the Luxio's heated breath against ear. The mere sound of his breathing sent cold shivers down his spine.

"Now listen here, scum. I'm not going to put up with the crap you're giving me. So you either stop acting like a spoiled kit or I'm going to rip your throat out."

Frost sucked in a breath of air and smirked a little. "Do you ever do anything besides threatening people to like you? If you haven't already noticed, it's not working."

That sent Ren over the edge. He roared with complete rage and launched himself at the smaller male, his teeth bared, cackling with a Thunderfang, and his eyes burning with absolute fury.

(…)

Fern bounded out of the thickets and into the camp swiftly with his leafy tail swaying cheerfully behind him. Grey and Pine had already made it back to the medicine den before he did, mostly because he was busy frolicking and goofing off back in the forest trail, pouncing on leaves and chasing moths like a playful kit.

The grass type let his eyes wonder about the den site and caught sight of Noru and Kara conversing in a corning, exchanging whispers and glancing around secretively. Fern grinned mischievously before prancing toward them. Kara nearly had a heart attack when the eeveelution pounced onto his head and clamped his paws firmly over his eyes.

"Guess who?" He laughed humorously as the older Ninetails swung his head back and forth in effort to detach the smaller male.

"Fern, get off! You're acting like a newborn kit!" Kara growled, clearly annoyed. The said healer giggled and hopped back onto the soiled ground.

"Ha ha, how did you know it was me?" Fern giggled. Kara let out a huff.

"You and Pine are the only two in the entire camp that's immature enough to do something like that. And seeing as Pine is in the medicine den and-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." Noru interrupted. His older brother glared at him for the disruption but he took no notice. "Have you seen Frost?"

Fern's ears instantly perked up and his mouth stretched out into a wide, giddy smile. "Of course I did! That little kit's practically a mini version of Cloud! He's soooo adorable! I wanna just hug him to death!"

The two Ninetails sweatdropped awkwardly at the comment. Kara looked mentally scarred while Noru tried to hide a small smile behind one of his tails.

"Um, Fern, you do know that Frost is like four years younger than you, right? It'll be kinda weird if you start hitting on him." Kara muttered under his breath.

"Aw…it's hard though…" Fern's lips curled up into a cute pout. "I mean, he's adorable!"

"Fern," Noru said uncertainly. "I thought you were dating Cloud-"

"Who's Cloud?"

All three of them jumped at the sudden voice. Though he was blind, Grey's eyes narrowed suspiciously. He had somehow managed to sneak right next to Kara without being noticed, which nearly gave the older Ninetails sibling another heart attack and caused him to almost jump out of his fur in surprise. Fern, on the other paw, blushed deeply. Did his apprentice just hear him call Frost adorable? If word gets out, he'll never hear the end of it! Noru gave the Leafeon a look that clearly said 'you should have seen that coming!'

"Erh, Grey! You're supposed to be patching up Pine, aren't you?" Fern spluttered hysterically and trying desperately to sound calm and composed and not like someone who got caught doing something embarrassing.

"That doesn't answer my question," Grey raised his eyebrow in questioningly. Although he couldn't actually see his mentor's blush, he could tell that he was clearly in the state of embarrassment from the sound of his rapidly beating heart. "Now who's this Cloud person and what does he have to do with Frost? Are they related?"

"Grey," Noru said while placing a comforting paw on Fern's head. "This is a secret that Dusk personally ordered to be kept secret, so we can't tell you. And please don't ask Frost about it. It'll only bring him pain."

The Umbreon was taken aback by the sudden serious tone. He sighed. "Fine. But speaking of Frost, don't you think you guys should be rescuing him right now?" Taking one look at his mentors' dumbfounded expression, he continued. "You mean you guys didn't hear that explosion just now?"

"Not all of us have super hearing like you do, Grey." Kara muttered indignantly under his breath.

"Well it sounded like Frost and Ren are trying to kill each other again, but that's obviously not important at the moment." Grey shot back, his voice dripping with sarcasm. The blind Umbreon jerked his head toward the sky. In the distance, a huge pillar of rising smoke was billowing from a part of the forest and into red evening sky. Fern's nosed twitched with humorously.

"Hey, that's where I sent Ren to show Frost around our territory," He remarked as if it was only a minor detail.

"WHAT? You moron! Why the heck did you send the two of them off together unsupervised!" Noru screeched hysterically all of a sudden. Grey covered his sensitive ears, wincing from the sheer volume. To the Umbreon, Noru was sometimes even more immature than Fern and Pine put together.

Before the others could do anything, the younger Ninetails was already disappearing into the cover of the forest. Fern and Kara got one good look at Noru's back before dashing off after him. Grey decided to stay behind. He never liked running very much, especially since he couldn't see where he was going. It will be best if he left that to the warriors and the apprentices who could actually become warriors. He paused before silently trotting back to the medicine den.

Meanwhile, the other two mentors were having no problem finding out where Noru was headed. That overprotective Ninetails was practically charging through the forest like a rampaging Mamoswine. The broken tree branches and flattened bushes were a clear indication of that. It didn't take long before they reached the place where the smoke was coming from.

Noru was currently dragging the unconscious bodies of Ren and Frost out of a rather large crater. The edges of the depression were sizzling as if it had been recently struck by something explosive, most likely the Luxio's electricity.

Ren was out cold, but luckily, with a quick check up by Fern, his body only showed signs of small burns and slight surface wounds. He would be up and running after he wakes up. Frost too, had nothing more severe than the thin scratch down his left shoulder. Nonetheless, this didn't stop Noru from fussing over them like a mother over her kits.

"Calm down, will you? This is nothing." Kara muttered irritatedly at his brother's ranting. "These kits are fine! You got hurt like this all the time where you were younger."

"But big br-"

"Don't call me that!" The older sibling snapped, causing Noru to pout defiantly. Fern ignored the fire types' bickering and crouched down at Ren's body, inspecting his fangs closely. The healer grinned before rising up again.

"Well, it looks like the herbs I give Ren worked well," Fern laughed cheerfully in contrast to the burnt environment. The other two canines stared at him disbelievingly.

"What do you mean?" Noru asked slowly, not sure if he even wanted to know.

"Before I sent them off, I gave Ren a few herbs," The healer began. "They actually make the receiver incapable of performing any attacks. And since Ren probably tried to fight again, the electricity went out of control and knocked out everyone in the area. Neat trick right?"

"Why didn't you just separate the two of them?" Kara asked suspiciously. Fern grinned before pouncing on top of Frost and pinched his cheeks playfully with his paws.

"Cuz if I did it this way, they'd get hurt. How can I resist such a cute patient?" He giggled innocently. For once, the older Ninetails gave Frost a look of pity.

It didn't take long before the said Glaceon and Luxio woke up. After some heavy scolding by Noru, the two of them were sent to Grey in the medicine den. Fern wanted to be the one to treat Frost's wounds, but of course, the other two warriors didn't let him do so, much to the ice type's relief. Grey wasn't too happy about having to take care of two patients at once, but he got his share of fun when he 'forgot' to put poppy seeds into Ren's poultice and made his injuries sting like heck. Frost on the other paw, who the other apprentice seemed to like, felt completely comfortable with the treatment. There was also a small incident where Pine came to visit them and accidentally treaded on Ren's tail, much to the electric type's displeasure.

By the time the blind healer was done, the day had already slipped away without their notice. Dusk was quick to call the day off and everyone except the night patrol returned to his or her dens, utterly spent. Fern took the liberty of showing Frost around the den they shared with Ren and the others. On the outside, the den looked like a rather small tent made with sturdy tree branches and leaves but on the inside it was much more spacious, probably because the den's floor was dug several inches deeper than the surrounding land.

Ren and Pine were already sleeping in their individual nests of woven grass and leaves when they entered. The Luxio's snoring was almost deafening, but no one seemed too bothered by it. Fern all too eagerly offered to share nests with Frost since he didn't have one yet, in which the ice type reluctantly accepted, though a bit uncomfortably. It wasn't long before the grass type was asleep along with everyone else.

The Glaceon sighed quietly and looked up toward the silvery moonlight that shone through the den's roof. A lot had happened today. This life in the wild doesn't seem that bad, even if dealing with Ren was going to be a pain in the neck. He relaxed a bit when he felt a sleeping Fern's paw drape over his shoulder warmly. Frost smiled and snuggled closer.

Just as he closed his eyes, Fern opened his own. The Leafeon's usual cheerful grin was absent, replaced with a bittersweet smile. His forest green eyes grew watery as he felt the younger Eeveelutions rhythmic breaths.


He looks exactly like you, Cloud, right down to those blue eyes. A single tear trickled slowly down his cheek. If only you were still alive to see him now…