Post by Deleted on Feb 17, 2020 0:51:33 GMT -5
Darkstar
I don't got time to look over my shoulder
Some poor leaf-bare weather had delayed Darkstar’s retaliation a few days, but she refused to let it drag out any longer. Besides that, she’d had planning to do. An assault on another Clan’s camp was no small matter. It would be no border fight. All of TreeClan would be there. While attacking at night would give NightClan a bit of an advantage in certain ways, it would mean most, if not all, of TreeClan would be home in their nests. The most recent camp assault that Darkstar knew of had been when LightningClan and RainClan chased StoneClan from their home, but she hadn’t yet been alive when it happened. It was a rare thing, clearly, but she was determined to send TreeClan a message. This attack was not meant to drive them from their camp, only to show them just what they were up against, and how far NightClan was willing to go in this war TreeClan foolishly wanted to fight with them. This was about undoing Foxstar’s mistakes so NightClan would never be so easily stolen from again. After tonight, NightClan would not be underestimated. After tonight, NightClan would once more be feared in the valley.
Rainfur waited at the camp exit, where the two battle patrols were gathered, waiting to leave. Darkstar stopped beside her deputy. She wasn’t certain if Rainfur entirely agreed with her plan of action, but she knew the older she-cat was upset over TreeClan’s actions several days previous. Even Rainfur wanted retaliation, though perhaps she hadn’t wanted it to go quite this far. It mattered little, for Darkstar’s mind was made up, and Rainfur had not protested because she knew there would be no swaying her. One had to pick their battles. “Good luck,” Rainfur mewed quietly, her gaze shifting over the cats readying to leave now that Darkstar had arrived, “May you all come home safe.”
“May we come home victorious!” Darkstar retorted, and a few of the nearest warriors mewed agreement. With that she nodded to the silver tabby and headed up and out of camp, her warriors following, her sister at her side. She had chosen Cobrastrike to lead the first party into TreeClan’s camp. Her sister had been passed over so much before her rise to leadership, she was determined to give her her due. Darkstar’s own group would wait until the camp had roused, until the first patrol had gotten them to leave the tighter and more defensible position of their dens, until they charged in to reinforce Cobrastrike’s patrol. The goal was only to inflict as much damage as possible where TreeClan would have nowhere to run. She knew also that defending their home would likely inspire many TreeClan cats to fight harder than they might normally otherwise, because she knew it would be the same in NightClan, but it was the aftermath that mattered. When NightClan inevitably returned to their own camp and left TreeClan’s in shambles, they would not be quick to forget it. Their safest haven will have been invaded, their home become a war zone, their enemy closing on them while they slept soundly on.
Darkstar hoped their dreams turned to nightmares for the next moon as the attack haunted them and chased them into their very sleep. She hoped they woke in the dead of night in a panic, wondering if or when it would happen again, knowing there was nowhere they were safe.
They had a long journey to TreeClan’s camp, avoiding the border they shared and instead entering TreeClan’s territory from the mountain border, in case Lionstar had sent a night patrol out due to the rising tensions. There wasn’t a NightClan cat alive that had ever been into TreeClan’s territory from this position, but it didn’t take long to find a well worn path reeking of TreeClan stench to follow back to their camp. With a nod to Cobrastrike and a whisk of her tail, her own patrol fanned out silently as her sister led hers onward to initiate the attack. Darkstar paced on silent paws around the perimeter of TreeClan’s camp, burning gaze taking in every detail she could in case it could later be used to her advantage not only in this battle, but in this war. She had never been to TreeClan’s camp before. And it was in her pacing that she found the camp guards.
The sky was dark, the moon covered by clouds, a night perfect for stealth. But stealth only lasted so long before the first screech of battle pierced the air. The rest of her patrol was meant to wait, though it would not be long before the entire camp was roused. But Darkstar could not wait, not when Blackwolf’s murderer was right before her. She did not even register the second guard, she could not let Brackenstride escape into the chaos that was beginning to unfold in the heart of the camp, she could not lose him among the writhing bodies of fur and claws and teeth. And so she charged forward, leaping for the tom with a burning hatred in her fiery orange eyes before he could slip from her claws yet again.
Leave 'em all behind I'm about to take over
Remember, everyone can make their own battle threads so it’s less chaotic. No one other than Fawn should be posting in THIS thread.
First Strike Patrol (This patrol was the first into the camp and started the fighting)
Leader: Cobrastrike
Blackstag
Gracklestrike
Crowflame
Jaystep (NPC)
Lilyfrost (NPC)
Sablefoot (NPC)
Ashfang (NPC)
Moondance (NPC)
Hornetstripe (NPC)
Second Wave Patrol (This patrol hung back because it would be fricken impossible for all of them to start fighting in the dens, where all the TreeClan cats are initially, so the first patrol’s job is to draw them out into the open first and then the second patrol can join the fight properly. If your character is part of this patrol you can still post immediately, just make sure you don’t reference them being in the camp before the fighting has started.)
Leader: Darkstar
Frostjaw
Starlingcry
Hollystorm
Wrenstep (NPC)
Snakeflower (NPC)
Thistleheart (NPC)
Thornscar (NPC)
Deerleap (NPC)
Swiftstrike (NPC)
Leaf-bare 11 - The sun peeks out over the horizon, promising a rare day of beauty and sunshine, the freshly fallen snow from the night before glittering in the light, but clouds cover the sky by nightfall.