[Fate Admin]

It was nearly dusk. Few cats were awake yet. Suddenly the wind shifted.

“TREECLAN!”

A warrior on watch duty managed to yowl before screeching enemies poured into the NightClan camp, smelling distinctly of TreeClan. Stripestar emerged from his den, hackles raised and lips pulled back in a snarl as he spotted the TreeClan deputy, Brackentooth, leading the patrol of invading cats. The NightClan leader leapt for the other tom, “How dare you step paw into NightClan territory again, prey-stealing piece of foxdung!”

Ravenfeather was all but trampled as her fellow warriors charged over her much smaller form and out of the warriors’ den to reach their enemies. Hissing frustration, she was stopped at the den entrance by her father. She looked up at him with annoyance, “What are we waiting for!?”

The deputy kept his tail in front of her and kept his eyes on the camp entrance, “The second wave.”

“The second…?” She edged up beside him, looking over her fighting Clanmates, who seemed to be winning. The TreeClan warriors were outnumbered.

Blackbird glanced back at her, “There are too few of them to mount an attack on the camp. They have another patrol waiting out there, ready to come in after they’ve already tired us out, fresh and ready to finish the battle.”

Ravenfeather looked up at him, wide-eyed. How had he discerned such a thing so quickly after just waking?

He almost laughed, “Don’t look so impressed. It’s a very common tactic, especially for attacking OUR camp. We only have one entrance. Enemies need to get their cats in quickly before we can block it off and hold them back. And in case things go wrong, they need cats on the outside who can break them out.”

Ravenfeather shook her head and looked out at the fighting cats, remembering Sharp-paw. She searched him out, she just KNEW he would be fighting. There was no way that hard-headed tom could wait patiently for a second wave of enemies, even if he knew they were coming. She spotted him fighting beside his sister against a TreeClan warrior. The two made a decent team. They were more than holding their own. TreeClan weaklings.

Her tail lashed, “Why are they even attacking us? We only attacked them to teach them not to steal our prey. They have no right!”

Blackbird shook his head, “Some cats cannot let things be.” His ears flew forward as Brackentooth let out a loud yowl. A few moments later the second patrol Blackbird had spoken of raced into camp. The deputy’s hackles raised, “Yarrowtail!” The black tom wasted no more time holding his daughter back and burst from the warriors’ den with a battle cry to launch himself at the leader of the second patrol, who Ravenfeather had to guess was this ‘Yarrowtail’. She remembered seeing him at Gatherings before but she never paid too much attention to the names of cats from other Clans.

She was fast on her father’s heels, veering away from him to find Sharp-paw. He would be tired out from fighting, and so would his sister. She didn’t want to leave them to fight alone against fresh warriors.

Sharp-paw hissed, mocking, “It’s about time you showed up Ravenkit!”

“Save it for after the battle!” she snarled back, swiping her paw, claws sheathed, over his ear. She looked around, “Where’s your sister?”

His ears flicked, “That piece of mousedung hurt her pretty bad, but we sent him running in the end. She went to the medicine den to get treated.”

“And how are you?” she looked him over briefly.

He hissed again, “Don’t we have a battle to win?” and with that he leapt toward a large reddish brown tabby tom charging their way. Ravenfeather’s tail lashed once and she was about to leap after him when another enemy blocked her path. She hissed in frustration as the she-cat before her sent an unsheathed paw at her face and she was forced to leap backward to avoid her claws. “Get out of my way, you foxhearted prey-stealer!”

“And what’s a kit like you going to do to make me?” the other she-cat snarled, taunting.

Ravenfeather screeched and flew at the she-cat’s face, blind with rage. How dare this piece of foxdung insult her like that!!! She was apparently much faster than the enemy she-cat had anticipated for she landed quite a few blows around her eyes and ears and sent the other female screeching off in the general direction of the camp entrance with blood dripping into her eyes.

As Ravenfeather came back to herself as her victory soothed her rage, her pale amber gaze came to rest upon a pinned Sharp-paw, bleeding heavily as he snarled and lashed at the reddish-brown tom standing over him, holding him down, battering her apprentice’s tender belly with sharp hind claws.

With another furious screech, she flung herself at the enemy tom, clinging to his shoulder, “GET OFF HIM!” Just then a yowl sounded from one of the enemy patrol leaders, sounding the retreat, and the tom beneath her flung himself onto his back, crushing her beneath his weight and leaving her gasping for breath as he tore away, yowling triumph with his Clanmates. Ravenfeather slowly pushed to her paws, panting to regain her breath as she watched the TreeClanners race away, tails held high and proud over their victory. Looking around, she saw many of her Clanmates wounded, some rather seriously.

Turning back to Sharp-paw her heart skipped a beat. He turned his head weakly to look at her, the fire of battle still burning deep within his eyes, and then it was gone, a furious snarl still etched upon his face. “Sharp-paw!” She couldn’t remember moving the few short steps to his side, but suddenly she was there. His blood was everywhere, pooling from the massive wound in his belly. Panic fluttered in her chest like a trapped bird, “Sharp-paw!” She placed small paws upon his shoulder and shook him, “Wake up! Wake up!”

Boneshadow was beside her then, grabbing her scruff and pulling her away. “NO! SHARP-PAW!” She snarled and spit at her friend, twisting in his grasp, “Let me go or I’ll shred you! He needs my help! Sharp-paw! Someone help him!”

Boneshadow held her down so he could speak to her, “He’s gone, Ravenfeather.” Her head whipped around to glare at him, but his own gaze was soft and sad, “He hunts with StarClan now. He died bravely. You should be proud.”

She yowled her pain and her fury and struggled vainly against her much stronger friend until she was panting and exhausted from the effort. “Sharp-paw….” Only then did Boneshadow release her. She stumbled to her apprentice’s side and curled against him, “I’m sorry….”