In Ruins (ImagineClan Challenge #1)
Cloudflame woke up to the sound of his denmate, Tawnyleaf, a cream-furred she-cat with cold blue eyes and an attitude to match, groaning in agony.
"Tawnyleaf?" the white tom with ginger patches mewed. "Are you okay?" Tawnyleaf nodded. "Really?" Cloudflame pressed on. "It kind of sounded like you were getting eaten by foxes in your sleep."
"I'm not hurt, you mousebrain," Tawnyleaf growled. "I'm hungry. Don't you know the feeling yourself?" Tawnyleaf poked Cloudflame's stomach with her paw, feeling his ribs. Even Cloudflame's long fur couldn't hide the fact that ThunderClan was starving.
"Lucky RiverClan," Cloudflame muttered. "They've got all the food they need. For StarClan's sake, they have MORE then they need. We could take away half the lake and they'd STILL have enough."
"Too bad that's impossible," said Tawnyleaf, padding out of the warriors den. "And even if we did steal their food, they'd just come after us and take it back, and perhaps injure some warriors in the process." Cloudflame sighed and followed her outside. Tawnyleaf was right.
"Unless . . ." Cloudflame began.
"Unless what?" Tawnyleaf asked.
"Unless we take away something important to them, and demand that they give us food in return. Then we'd have enough. Then we would live."
"But what would be important enough to RiverClan for them to give us anything?" Cloudflame looked over at the sleeping kits in the nursery, how their mothers watched over them, how they would do anything for those kits.
"I think I might know."
"So," Cloverstar, the Clan leader, meowed.
"You want to take RiverClan's kits hostage, and hold them for ransom so that RiverClan will give us hunting rights."
"Pretty much," Cloudflame answered. Tawnyleaf stood beside him.
"While that is the most mousebrained plan I've heard in my, um, three lives, I still want to know just how you would pull something like this off."
"Well," Cloudflame meowed, beginning to draw a diagram in the dirt as he explained. "We would send in two waves of patrols. The first one would create a diversion, and the second, a much smaller elite, would grab the kits and flee. Once we have the kits safely in our care, we'll send a messenger to RiverClan telling them to give us hunting rights in half of the lake, and only then would we return their kits."
"As mousebrained as this might be, it could actually work."
A few nights later, Cloudflame began preparations for the RiverClan raid.
"Mouseclaw, Toadfur, and Rowanface, you stay behind to guard the camp in case RiverClan retaliates. Sagestorm and Maplestream, you'll join me, Cloverstar, and Tawnyleaf in taking the kits," he ordered. The cats nodded.
Running through the woods, the five ThunderClan warriors responsible for abducting the RiverClan kits finally came to a stop behind a large bush near the RiverClan camp. The diversion was going perfectly as planned. The nursery was open.
"Now we just wait for the signal," Cloudflame whispered. After what seemed like a moon, Molestripe, the leader of the diversion patrol, pinned down his opponent and said the words that would signal the kit-abducting patrol's arrival.
"RiverClan, huh? You may be able to swim like fish, but you can't slip through my paws!" It was a seemingly useless call, something fairly typical for a battle. But in that moment, it had more meaning than any of the RiverClan cats ever would have guessed.
Five powerful warriors leapt out of the bush, but their goal was not to fight. Their goal was to steal. And that they did. The cats raced into the RiverClan nursery, snatching up the sleeping kits. The elite patrol scattered in different directions, thus confusing any RiverClan warriors who happened to notice them.
But just as Cloudflame was about to make it, just as he was about to head into the woods where he could get home safely, a flash of blue eyes took up a corner of his vision, and a terrifying screech accompanying it.
"Tawnyleaf!" he yelled, almost dropping the kit. Running through the crowds of fighting cats, Cloudflame finally reached Tawnyleaf, who was pinned down by a RiverClan she-cat, presumably the mother of the kit Tawnyleaf had stolen. Blood was flying everywhere, wind was blowing through the trees, and cats were yowling everywhere Cloudflame looked. But the only thing that he noticed in that moment was his closest friend, about to be slain by another warrior.
"You're . . . breaking . . . the . . . warrior . . . code," Tawnyleaf gasped as the other she-cat pressed down on her throat.
"Oh, and you aren't?" the she-cat retorted. "You're STEALING KITS, for StarClan's sake. How mousebrained are you?"
Cloudflame couldn't take it anymore. He leapt on top of the she-cat, knocking her off of Tawnyleaf. "Run!" he hissed. "Find the rest of the elite patrol, find Cloverstar, and tell him to retreat. Don't wait for me. I'll get out, I promise." Tawnyleaf nodded, running off to find her comrades. But Cloudflame was left with the she-cat.
"So," she snarled. "You seem to know a lot about this. Any chance you might be the one who planned it?" Cloudflame remained silent. "It's not like we're stupid. We can take away your kits just as you can take away ours. So, let me ask you one more time. Are you the one who planned it?" Cloudflame nodded, hoping that the she-cat would let him go. "And what, exactly, were you going to do with those kits?" Cloudflame pointed to the fresh-kill pile. "Ah, so you were going to ransom them for food, huh? Typical ThunderClan. Well, if that's the case, I guess we can just keep YOU as prisoner instead."
The she-cat, along with some other RiverClan warriors, ushered Cloudflame into a small, abandoned den. A bulky tom stood in front of the den, guarding it vigilantly. Cloudflame knew that there was no way he could get out. The tom was far stronger than he was, and ThunderClan would never take him back if RiverClan planned to ransom him as he had planned to ransom the RiverClan kits. Resigned to his fate, Cloudflame plopped down in the den and stayed there throughout the next day.
That night, when Cloudflame was just about to go to sleep, something knocked over the bulky tom, who was now just a shadow in the nighttime. A pair of brilliant blue eyes blinked at him.
"Tawnyleaf?" he meowed in disbelief.
"No, you mousebrain. It's Redclaw." Cloudflame had heard stories about the rogue who wore a kittypet collar and had claws made out of Twoleg materials. Nobody understood her, and she usually avoided the Clans altogether. But here she was, trying to break him out of RiverClan. "C'mon," she whispered. "I only knocked him out for a little bit. We need to get out of here."
Cloudflame quietly crept out of the RiverClan camp while Redclaw led him along. In the moonlight, Cloudflame saw that Redclaw had fluffy dark gray fur and a single streak of red fur that partially covered her left eye. Her claws were red and shone with the gleam of Twoleg material. Three red tabby stripes crossed her back, and her dark blue kittypet collar almost looked like it was alive. Once they reached the forest, Redclaw broke into a run, and Cloudflame had to struggle to keep up.
"You born in WindClan or something?" he panted as they ran.
"I was born in a Twoleg nest. But it wasn't warm or nice. They did things to me, and cast me out when I failed them. I was forced to live on the streets. I was alone. That is, until I met my closest friend."
Cloudflame wondered where Redclaw's friend was now, until he realized that she was staring at her collar. "So, do you know how to get back to ThunderClan?" Cloudflame was about to tell her that they had just passed the turn that would lead them to the camp until he saw that she was still staring at her collar and was now talking to it. "C'mon, you know that I lose my way pretty easily. What? That was ONE TIME, you stupid furball. Anyway, we need to get this warrior back to ThunderClan, 'kay?" Redclaw continued muttering to her collar until Cloudflame, now strongly questioning the she-cat's sanity, turned her around in the direction of the ThunderClan camp.
After finally reaching Cloudflame's home, Redclaw simply dipped her head and nudged him in the direction of the camp. Tawnyleaf saw him first.
"Cloudflame!" The creamy she-cat raced up to Cloudflame, joy sparkling in her blue eyes. "I saw that you were taken prisoner. What happened? How'd you get out?" Tawnyleaf's normally cold and calm personality had been dissolved by her joy at seeing her best friend again.
"Well," he meowed. "A she-cat named Red-" Cloudflame turned to the trees where he and Redclaw had stopped, now empty. Redclaw was nowhere to be seen. "I'll tell you later." Cloudflame was about to walk back to his den before Cloverstar blocked his path."You knew that this was a mousebrained plan. As a matter of fact, I don't even regret that RiverClan took you prisoner. They had every reason to. It was against the warrior code. Do you have anything to say about this?" To everyone's surprise, Cloudflame did not retaliate in any way. Shaking, the long-furred tom began to bow in front of the leader.
"I-I'm sorry. It was a stupid plan, and you have every right to be mad at me. I never should have even brought it up." Cloudflame padded back to the warrior's den, wishing that he had never thought of that awful mousebrained plan. But he knew that it would be a stain on his conscience forever. With a sigh, the tom plopped down in his nest and began to dream of a better day, as Redclaw watched from the edge of the forest and Tawnyleaf gently nestled next to him.