Hello everyone~ This is just where I'll have my written challenges for the Children of the Shadows forum. Even if you're not from there, feel free to keep an eye on this and read any that catch your interest. As always, if you have any concrit I'm happy to hear it.

Clan that challenge was issued in(not the clan that the story takes place in): Nightclan

Challenge: My Life Was Half as Good as Yours

Prompt: Two elders are chatting at a Gathering, and they end up telling their life stories to one another and get into an argument about who had a better life. Soon the argument grows into a fight, and the two elders are trying to kill each other, insisting their life was worse. It is broken up when the warriors drag them apart.

"And then, there was me of course, who swooped in-" The elderly gray tabby she-cat paused for effect and watched the eyes of the young warriors and apprentices follow her animated movements, before leaning back in and continuing "-to kill the deadly hawk!"

She sat up straight and waved her tail as the cats around her oo'd and awe'd. "That was amazing, Birdsong!"

"Yeah," another apprentice pipped up. "You sure were a great warrior in your youth." She puffed her chest out and bared the fluffy cream-colored chest of soft fur that proved that she was just barely over kithood. "Someday I'll be that great too!"

The first apprentice who had spoken up to Birdsong rolled his eyes and nudged the she-apprentice with his nose dramatically. "You're just barely out of the nursery Milkpaw! You're just lucky you're Hollowstar's daughter!"

"Am not!"

"So there is favoritism in Shadowclan?" inquired a young warrior, from scent alone Birdsong could tell that he was Windclan, but all scents were mixing here at the full-moon gathering.

"'Course not!" shouted Milkpaw. "Shut up Blackpaw, you're only spouting lies."

Birdsong lashed her tail. Flighty youths. "Calm down all of you, want to hear another story?" she offered, but none of the other cats quieted down or payed any more attention to her, causing her to turn away in disdain. "So easily distracted. They won't get anywhere in life."

"Or maybe, you just don't need to be at the center of. Every. Single. Thing. Birdsong." Birdsong's amber eyes widened as she swung her head around at the black-pelted tom who slipped out of the shadows. "You're just a glutton for being the center of attention."

Birdsong knew this tomcat, he was an elder in Shadowclan himself. Birdsong could even remember meeting him on patrols from across the Thunderpath and speaking to him at gatherings moons earlier when they were both still young cats, her memory wasn't that bad for an old cat! "That's not true!"

The tom gave her a look, and sat down to groom himself. "What? It is! I've done many, many things in my youth. It isn't my fault that I have my experience."

"I never said it was," the tom mewed venomously. His tail began flicking back and forth. "However, there's a difference between sharing experience and always trying to snatch all the attention over to yourself." His whiskers twitched at her. "Admit it, you're an attention-fox."

"I'm just not a coward who's too scared to face any attention, Whisperwind," Birdsong snorted.

"Oh? Is that how you want to play it!" The yellow teeth that were bared at Birdsong didn't faze her in the slightest, this wasn't their first quarrel. Whisperwind's snarled as he crouched towards her. "There's more important things in life to me than having everyone focus on me and my achievement."

"Mhmm, sure, that's what it is, Whisperwind." Birdsong let out a rusty purr. "It's known amongst all four clans, Whisperwind. You're too scared to have any cat's attention on you, despite having been the kit of an old Shadowclan hero." Her lip curled contemptuously. "Not that the piece of fox-dung was considered all that much of a hero in Thunderclan."

"He… He truly was a hero." There was a brief glimmer of admiration in the old tomcat's eyes. But it quickly vanish and was replaced with bitterness. "But when everyone expects you to follow in his footsteps…" He paused and waited a few moments, his diminutive frame swayed as some kind of conflict raged in his mind.

When he began again, his voice quickly picked up in pitch and volume. "When everyone always watches you in anticipation for some sort of special feat that didn't typically come. When you do the tiniest thing only to have everyone congratulating you while your best friends that did something even more impressive hardly gets any attention in return. When everything ends up being about you, whether you deserve it or want it or now…"

"-Is called actually being seen."

"-is torture!" He charged at her, knocking the old she-cat over with surprising strength. "How anyone could call that cowardice, is mouse-dung!"

"Oh, you think that actually being noticed is a bad thing?" Birdsong drummed her paws along Wisperwind's stomach, shoving him off her and throwing him back onto the ground a few mouse-tails away from her. "At least you were noticed," she spat, stalking towards him. Lost in her belligerence; Birdsong didn't notice her claws unsheathing themselves. "I never got noticed as a kit… Not even by my own parents!"

Her fur bristled as he got up and assumed a similar crouch. The two locked their gazes with each other and bared their teeth.

"Nobody. Nobody noticed me. Every single accomplishment I achieved—was overlooked."

Whisperwind's eyes flickered. "I would have much rather gone unnoticed… That way, I couldn't fail or embarrass myself or anyone around me."

That only made Birdsong's blood burn with the fire that her clan was supposed to represent. "Do you have any idea—how much I tried to get noticed?" She slid forward, pressing her nose against Whisperwind's challengingly. "I did everything I could to get noticed. I worked as hard as I possibly could! But because of my stupid sibling… The only one who ever got any attention was her." Her ears flattened against her head and she lashed her bristling tail.

"And that is my fault, because?" dryly asking the question, Whisperwind pushed forward, propelling Birdsong back.

But Birdsong wouldn't stop so easily. Responding to the challenge, she fell back onto her four paws and growled, "You wouldn't understand… you never had to hear all the cries of praise that went into a little sibling rather than you.

"Dawnpaw managed to catch a mouse! Dawnpaw survived her fifth fight. Dawnpaw managed to cover the territory on her first day as an apprentice… With a limp." Birdsong's gaze was started to become edged with crimson as she recalled the whole large quail she had dragged into camp alongside her sister's mouse, the nick across her shoulder as her only battle wound in the same fight as her sister had survived with a few gashes in her side. "Everything… Is Dawnpaw. And then she died!"

Birdsong barely noticed as Whisperwind's eyes widened. "D-did you?"

"No," She snapped. "I would never hurt my little sister. She was born sickly, and it was sickly that she died..." Her throat clenched with the emotion trying to come out, and that was reflected in the quiet tones that her voice lowered to as she bowed her head.

"I loved her… She was still my sister. My entire family did. I thought that I could mourn with my parents… But after Dawnpaw died—it was as if I'd never existed to them." Her head whipped back up to meet his gaze. "I did everything I could, but they only saw some other cat. Your life, would have been way better than mine."

"You, you don't understand, Birdsong." He stared at her. "I am sorry for your experiences, but even that sounds better than being a failure." He emphasized the last word sourly. "I still would have rather had your life."

"For Starclan's sake, Whisperwind. It was just one failure. Get over yourself." Birdsong knew the tale, it had been the gossip of the gathering many moons ago, how there was a fierce fight against badgers, and the previous Shadowclan leader Fangstar died because Whisperwind couldn't defeat the badger fighting him in time. Fangstar had been a beloved leader, but his death was considered an unnecessary one by many cats, more than just Shadowclan. "I'm not quite sure you understand anything!"

Whisperwind appeared to have had enough, he launched himself at Birdsong, crashing into the she-chat with a caterwaul loud enough to hurt the ears of a deaf elder. Birdsong felt her shoulder sting, and afterwards liquid trickle down her shoulder.

With a hiss, Birdsong battered at the tom above her with her unsheathed claws in retaliation until he let go. But the elderly she-cat didn't stop. With a screech she leapt forward and clung onto Whisperwind, sinking her teeth into his shoulder.

Blood hit her tongue. It was bitter but she didn't care. Birds cried as they left their trees surrounding the two and escaped the location of the conflict. She also heard a solid thump as a paw banged against her head, and she stumbled back in a daze.

Only to watch as Whisperwind flung himself at her. Unbalanced, Birdsong let her weight carry with him and she rolled across the ground. She heard him grunt as she landed on top of him and pleasure warmed her chest. She prepared to pin him down.

Before her attempt was foiled by her opponent attempting the same maneuver, and the two wrapped and wrung themselves around each other as they wrestled.

Birdsong's body was stinging all over as a loud yowl made the two break apart. When the call came, Birdsong looked around for the source of the interruption, and winced when she spotted other cats. Particularly the leaders of their clans.

"Were you two fighting? At the gathering." Birdsong's ears flattened against her bowing head as Finchstar of Thunderclan trotted up to her. "Birdsong, what is the meaning of this?"

"Yes… I'm rather curious about that as well," stated another leader, a brown tabby. "Might I ask the same from you Whisperwind?"

Whisperwind was wheezing as he responded. "I… was talking with… Birdsong… And… It broke out into a… fight..."

"Mhmm, this mouse-brain started it!" Birdsong snapped, flicking her tail in Whisperwind's direction. A low hiss from Finchstar silenced her though.

"That doesn't excuse either of your actions. You have fought during a gathering. What do you think the warriors of Starclan would say if they were here to speak with us." A small, white she-cat with wide blue eyes trotted over to them. The meager size of her body was matched only by the number of seasons held to it. She was the oldest of the medicine cats, perhaps out of all cats even at the gathering. "I know that the brief hover of clouds over the moon—was already a sign from Starclan for you two to stop… Did you two not see it?"

"No, we did not, Moonstream," Birdsong meowed, respect etched into every inflection of her voice. "I am sorry for the disturbance."

"As… Am… I..."

Both Moonstream's and Birdsong's gaze flashed over to Whisperwind, who hadn't stopped wheezing yet. "Do you need herbs, Whisperwind?"

The tom gave a slight nod, and Moonstrean sighed. She signaled with her tail, and another medicine cat bounded up to the ancient healer. "Could you please search for some Juniper berries around here, Duskstem?" The short-tailed medicine cat nodded and bounded away in search for berries.

"Henceforth, I want both of you to refrain from coming to the gathering." Moonstream gave both of them a harsh glare, before softening. "It's not because of the violence performed here on this night, but you two have lived many moons, and your health should require you two to start staying behind."

Birdsong was about to protest, before she felt a liquid trickling down from her pelt in numerous places. Had she really sustained that much damage?

"I agree… We need to watch over your health as leaders of the clan," Hollowstar started, moving over to Whisperwind and letting the battered tom lean on him. "It's time for you to retire from gatherings, Whisperwind. I'm sure that Duskstem will say the same upon her return."

"You should do the same, Birdsong," Finchstar sternly told her. She nodded, too tired by the night's events to do anything else. "Now, I think we should all return to the gathering."

The gathered cats all started to turn and stalk back to the clearing. Birdsong passed by an unmoving Moonstream as she moved. Birdsong stopped. The fishy stench of Riverclan wafted into her scent glands as she did so. "Starclan only sent a slight warning, so they weren't too badly offended. I hope you received the attention that you wanted," she meowed, in that archaic way of hers.

Birdsong only nodded, and started moving again.