Disclaimer: I had help with the names. Names were donated by GimmerIcewood, xFallenskyx, Wolfgrowl, xXSilvershadeXx, XxSmallstepxX, Halliova, and Coalstorm of WindClan. Also, the story takes place in the real world and would be as if they were humans. The gangs are what the Outsiders (People outside the clans) call the two Clans. The clan names are normal until you get to the kits and apprentices. The apprentices have -path instead of -paw, and the kits have -tot instead of -kit.
Please, review and enjoy!
Chapter 2
Twirling her knife, Rafaela pressed her back against the wall. Her left hand clung onto the hard, rough, bricks behind her. Her chest heaved from the long sprint from the Ivanov's apartment. The brick building was still in her view, across the street and down the road about ten blocks or so. Rain flooded down as sighed. The light in the Ivanov's window could be seen illuminating in the darkest of night.
The light extinguished in front of her very eyes. The girl tossed her head to the side and peered around the corner. Nothing was in sight, except for the large metal dumpster. She crept ever so slightly to the dark rectangular dumpster. She brought to an abrupt halt. She cupped her single free hand over her mouth and nose. She turned away and rushed to her right. Garbage sacks were piled underneath a fire escape. She felt her stomach churning. Liquid rushed up her esophagus. Her cheeks bulged. She held her ground, along with her left hand clutching onto the lowest rung of the fire escape as support.
She craned her neck back and forced a harsh gulp. The vomit slid back down her throat as she gasped for a breath. Rafaela plodded back to the corner that she had come from. Her lungs expanded as she breathed a sigh. She glanced back at the dumpster. She placed her free hand over her mouth and nose and began to slink over to the dumpster once more. The pungent smell slipped through the cracks of her fingers, but the stench only stung her nose. It wasn't as bad as before.
She flipped her knife around and used the hard leather handle to cut through the crack and yank the lid up, sort of like a crowbar. She popped her elbow inside when the gap was wide enough. She had caught the lid just in time before it slammed back shut. Rafaela nudged her elbow farther in and the lid slid up her arm and onto her shoulder. Pain surged as the weight had begun to take its toll on her.
While inside the dumpster, Rafaela flipped her knife around once more and began to dig through the heaps of garbage. She stabbed something soft and jerked back into the light. Ugh, someone's leftover meatloaf. She took a whiff of it. Yep, definitely inedible, she thought. She tossed it back into the heap and continued her search.
About five minutes had passed. The only thing she could scrap up, were half eaten chicken drumsticks, half way decent nachos, and a slice of anchovy pizza that looked as if it had been there for weeks on end. She sighed as she bit into the chicken.
Thunder rumbled. The raucous sound shook the tin cans and forced Rafaela to pause. The rain came at a downpour. Lightning flashed. The streetlights flickered off. There was nothing but still silence as the sounds of rain splashing onto the ground. The girl dropped the half eaten food. She grasped the first rung of the fire escape. Forcing her limp arms to withstand her weight, she struggled to climb the ladder. Even with all her might, she slipped and had scraped her hands a few times from the rough surface of the walls or whatever she found herself grasping onto.
Long shadows lingered over her as she had finally pulled herself up and off of the ladder and onto the fire escape itself. A blaze of light flashed and moments later a loud crack and a boom exploded from above. She shook the vapors from her head and continued ascending the stairs.
A bolt of lightning jetted out from a cloud as she clambered onto the roof. It struck a building about a mile away to her right. The black, shaggy-haired girl sprinted on the roof, staggering to a halt as a large gap split the two buildings. She eye-balled a clothesline below and leaped off the tall building. She grasped the wire and was yanked downward from the remaining gravity that had finally held a grip on her.
Slowly she scooted her hands along the long wire and reached over any hanging clothes on the line. Rafaela finally reached the other end where the ending was tied to the fire escape exit stairs. She climbed some more and reached the roof once more. Her head tilted back as she felt something strange. It wasn't the usual: it's stormy and will be stormy all night sort of weather. The rumble of thunder echoed out of earshot and the roar began to cease to a halt. Her vivid green eyes stared at the uncanny sight. To think that it would just be another blanket of black clouds is one thing, but it's a another thing when in reality the clouds unveil a black sky, dotted by infinite stars gleaming from the heavans. The moon shown, not quite at its fullest, but it was almost there. Just a sliver more to go.
The rain died away into the distance and there was silence. A warm silence welcomed the plants and animals below. The night sky fasted its magical powers on Rafaela. Her face began to droop as she waited a split second before fixsating her eyes over the ledge. The buildings stretched for miles on end and vanished in the black horizon. She shuffled where way to the edge of the roof. She climbed more rooftops as she made her way in an uncertain direction.
Streets below blew by as she had quickened her pace. She spotted a railing that led to another emergency exit ladder. She hastily made her way down. Shadows began to separate as she came closer to ground level. A dumpster stood at the end of another alley way. She tested the air before going any closer. The smell was tainted, but durable. It wasn't as delightful as a new car would smell like, it was more of along the lines of stale chocolate sofa half of a wet dog.
Arrays of bright orange light the sky above her. The purple clouds drifted over the morning air. The black, shaggy-haired girl strained her eyes from collecting too much of the sun's blinding beams. She glanced at the ground as she made her way forth to the dumpster. Rafaela's hands clutched the edge as she hurtled her lean body into the empty unit.
She was welcomed by an array of lightly pungent smells of what seemed to be dead fish. The floor was wet from the rain. She closed one side of the double, plastic-lidded dumpster lid. Laying down, she fought the uncomfortable pain of laying in a small puddle inside a metal bin. Tiny scratches clawed the metal sides. The walls of the bin made them echo into a squeal like finger nails running down a chalkboard in short, quick periods.
She tossed and turned before her squirrel-like mind finally settled to rest. Sleep took over her body as she had lain still for what only seemed like mere seconds. Energy flowed throughout her body. She breathed the calm, stale air and was renowned.
Cold air washed over Rafaela's sheltered home. A brusque thump raddled the large, metal container. Goggles of a mellow voice echoed though the walls of the dumpster.
"Hoey, Ruffaeyla. Har oo awayke en dere?"
The black-haired body groaned as her eyes fluttered open.
Shadows elongated over her as the street light outlined the figure overhead. The figure's eyes glistened.
"Hey, Rafaela," the voice repeated. "You're awake! It's about time."
"Ace," the girl griped. "Ow—" She reached her arm to her thigh and began to rub the soreness away. Her hand slid farther back. A shoe lay on it's side, next to her. She snatched it up and flung her arm up letting the shoe dangle by it's shoelaces, above her head. "—I found your shoe."
The figure reached in and grabbed the tennis shoes from her grasp. Rafaela's hand collapsed back to her side. The raven-haired girl sat up torpidly as the shadows eluded enough to unveil the figure's apparel like a cloth being pulled off a masterpiece. Ace smiled and reached down and scooped his hands underneath the girl's armpits. With his apparent muscular arms he slowly lifted her out of the bin. Her face shown a mixture of surprise and gratitude as if he had actually done something right for once. He set her on the ground lightly.
"Thanks," she grumbled under her breath.
"No problem."
"I thought that you didn't want to have anything to do with this side of town." Rafaela said. "What are you doing here?"
"I — uh — got an offer and thought that you would be interested," he replied.
Rafaela flipped her hand up. "Not interested." She turned towards the Alley's exit. She was about to leave when a group of thug-like figures appeared.
"Heh," the teen grunted."It wasn't a choice."
Rafaela whirled around to the so-called Ace figure like a figure skater, but not on ice. She faced the young man. "Who are you?" she demanded.
"Feisty one aren't you?" the young man laughed. "Boys—" a. thug stalked forward. Two kids, both were about 9 or 10 -years-old of age, were fidgeting as if they were on fire. The one thug glanced back at the the two kids.
"Oi, Swiftpath," the female thug barked. "Why don't you try out those new moves we learned yesterday?"
The male kid's eyes widened as he heard his mentor called him over. The Ace look-a-like called out to the young female. Rafaela fumbled for her knife. The blade switched open as she had backed herself into a corner.
"Hey!" Another voice yelled; it was low and gravely, unlike all the others that she heard. "What you guys doing on RedClan's territory, Emberfall?"
"RedClan's territory? Pfft! This is BlueClan's territory!" The boy bellowed.
"Come on, get away from the girl!" an older female voice sounded from the opposite side from where the male RedClan voice had came from. "Or do you want us to have a battle, right here, right now."
"Two scrawny RedClan warriors won't be enough to scare us away!" Emberfall sneered, a silver chain glinted in the street light as he leaned in farther.
"Get away from me, you creep!" Rafaela growled. She jammed her foot into the man's solar plexus. The young man fell backward.
"Get her!" he called. The other thugs obeyed his order and prowled towards the girl like multiple panthers stalking their prey, waiting for the right moment.
A dark figure leaped from the shadows of the walls. He landed in front of her with a long dagger at an angle. The luminary light reflected off the metal surface. Both Emberfall and the figure lunged at one another without hesitation like two alpha lions in a duel for territory.
The three other thugs found themselves at in a tassel against some more shaded figures. Rafaela relaxed a bit as the shaded figures drove the three thugs out of the alley. Warm air pressed down her neck like hot smoke.
"Hey, little rascal." A voice hissed her shoulder and into her ear. "What's up?"
The figure kicked Emberfall way and faced the owner of the voice behind the black, shaggy-haired girl. A slight glint caught her attention. The chain connected to a tag swung as the man shot up like a sling-shot. There were multiple clanks and the accessory fell to the girl's lap. With the little light that she had, her eyes could barely make out the smoothly engraved symbols on the piece of metal (黒い牙).
The man appeared in front of the girl. "Are you ok?" he asked as he sheathed his weapon.
"I'm fine," the girl mumbled.
"I'm Blackfang, by the way. What's yours?"
"What's...my...name?" Her whisper was short and spread out.
"Yes," the man replied. "You do know what those are, don't you?"
"I know what a name is, but it's not that. It's just that— Oh, never mind. You wouldn't understand."
"You want to bet?" the man grunted.
The girl didn't respond. Her eyes were fixed upon the dog tags that was pressed beneath her fingers. Thoughts swam through her mind as she sat there like a statue.
"You fought great," the man broke the silence. "It was just like a true RedClan warrior." He paused as his gaze slid down to her hands. "You caught my identification tags."
"Identification tags?" the black-haired girl questioned.
"It states my name, rank and affiliation," Blackfang responded. "I'm a warrior from RedClan."
"RedClan? Don't you mean the Red Dragons?"
The man sighed. "I've been watching you for many days, now. You look suitable for the way of the warrior. Perhaps you might be worth something."
"What do you mean?"
He didn't respond. "That is what you wanted, wasn't it?"
"Well—" the girl began to argue, but quickly changed her mind in mid-thought. "Yeah."
"Well, then it's an answered prayer," he insisted. "Come, on. Join us."