The Alliance
~~~Windclan territory, Night
A cold gust of wind rolled across the moor, making the stalks of grass, reflecting silver in the moonlight, bend and wave. The sky was midnight blue, and the moon was but a slim crescent in the night sky. There was no sound except for the rustling of vegetation rustling together, and the light breathing of a victim-to-be.
Onestar sat upon a stone in a valley, Ashfoot by his side. Onestar had a grim, stony expression carved into his face, but Ashfoot only looked exasperated.
"Why," Ashfoot sighed for the umpteenth time that night, "Are we here again?"
"Because," Onestar answered for the umpteenth time, "I have a bad feeling."
Ashfoot snorted out of her nose and muttered, "So I lose my sleep over a hunch."
"Yes!" Onestar hissed, angry and tired, and yet the nagging feeling of somebody watching him would not disappear. He scanned the horizon and still saw nothing. The moon shone coldly above him, and his eyes glinted with fear.
"Onestar," Ashfoot meowed.
Onestar growled without turning around, "For Starclan's sake, be quiet! I'm trying to concentrate, here!"
"Onestar!"
"What?" Onestar turned around, ready to snap at Ashfoot again. But then he saw another cat, crouching a few fox lengths away from the pile of boulders he and his deputy sat upon.
Ashfoot called out, "Who are you?"
The cat did not reply, but instead sank lower into her crouch.
Ashfoot tried again, "If you do not answer, we will attack—"
Suddenly, the cat sprang up, knocking both cats to the ground. Ashfoot spat, and tried to fight back, but the other cat kicked her out of the way. Onestar hissed, and launched himself at the silver cat, but he was knocked to the floor. Before he could get up, the silver she-cat already pinned him down. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ashfoot struggling with another tabby.
He growled at his attacker, "Who are you?"
The scent of the cat was unidentifiable, mixed with blood and the twolegplace. A rogue, this strong? He tried to push the she-cat off, but she sank her claws into his neck. Onestar coughed and tried to throw her off, but he was losing blood, too quickly.
He felt his vision growing dim, and smug blue eyes sneering above him.
~~~Twolegplace, Next morning
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" A dark tabby tom loomed above Cloudypaw, sneering.
Cloudypaw yelped, but the tom slapped his paw over his mouth, muffling his voice.
"Now, then, apprentice," the tabby growled, "Don't want you alerting your clanmates…"
"Who are you?" Cloudypaw tried to say, "What do you want?" but, his voice did not make it past his lips. He couldn't breathe through the tom's huge paws, and he became dizzy from the lack of air. Cloudypaw tried to fend off his attacker, but he was blindfolded with a bag. He was dragged out of his den, and soon he felt the smooth cement of the twolegplace under his paws.
Cloudypaw began choking on the tom's claws, and his lungs burned with lack of oxygen. Suddenly, the tom disappeared, and the moment he took in a huge breath of air, something bitter and wet was shoved down his throat. Claws smacked together his jaws, and he was forced to swallow.
Finding nobody holding him down now, he ripped off his blindfold and cried to the tabby tom, "What did you give me?"
The tom sat opposite of Cloudypaw, and was grooming his paws, "Oh, nothing."
"What, did, you, give, me?" Cloudypaw growled, sinking to a crouch, ready to attack the dark tabby.
"You'll know soon enough," he said.
Cloudypaw threw himself at the tom, but in mid-leap, he crashed to the floor in a jumbled heap.
"What in Starclan?"
"The herb poultice I gave you is only grown in the twolegplace. Very few cats have ever gotten their hands on them. Consider yourself one of the few luck cats who ate one."
"What is it?" Cloudypaw felt his paws grow numb, and he collapsed onto the floor, paralyzed.
"It's called, palsyweed. It takes away all movement from your body."
Cloudypaw breathed heavily as the tom swaggered up to him. He felt the tom's breath fan across his face, moving his whiskers. He felt claws tickle his ears, and he tried to move away, but he found that the herbs had indeed paralyzed him.
"But," the tabby whispered into his ear, "It doesn't take away feeling."
Claws sunk into his shoulder, and he screeched in pain and surprise. Cackling surrounded him, and more pain began to erupt around his body. He saw his own blood drip down the sidewalk, and into the gutter. He screamed over and over again, until his whole world was red.
Suddenly, he felt his tail tickle. He groaned, and tried to swat whatever was tickling him away, but it kept on tickling his tail.
He opened his eyes, and light flooded his senses. Morning…?
Cloudypaw leapt up, and bumped into another cat. He screamed. He's come for me again!
Winter left three long scratches across his back and hissed, "Took you long enough!"
"What?" Cloudypaw felt disorientated, "Winter?"
He was shoved into the ground and Winter sunk her teeth into his shoulder. Cloudypaw yelped in pain, and Winter finally let up. He gasped as blood flooded from his shoulder and down his paws.
His master, jaws full of blood, growled, "That'll teach you to oversleep again."
"Yes, Winter."
Gingerly, Cloudypaw stood up, and tested his weight on his injured shoulder and winced. Yes, that will teach him to oversleep again.
~~~Twolegplace, Early afternoon
The Alliance is actually a very large group. Nine are actually part of the Alliance, actual members, the rest are just subordinates and slaves and torture subjects. They live apart from the Alliance. Only a select few, like Cloudypaw live and serve The Alliance personally. Spread all over the twolegplace, small caches of cats live alone and separate, guards keeping them confined under the rule of The Alliance.
Right by The Alliance's main camp, is a smaller den, where cats hunt for The Alliance's prey. They are not subject to pain unless they slack off. Most slaves consider this the best job. The other jobs The Alliance's servants are not as painless.
During one of The Alliance's free time, they could go over to their own group of slaves and give them orders to do their dirty work, or just for laughs and bets. Many cats have wasted their lives this way.
There is also a special place, in the center of the twolegplace, where torture victims reside. They sleep in barbed wire, and only get one meal per day. There, the most guards spend their time, teasing and taunting the cats inside there. After one victim lives there for a year, they would get taken out and killed—process varies. Some were drowned, some were poisoned, and some were just left to bleed to death.
Today, there was a new addition.
"Let go of me!" Onestar screeched.
A burly, black guardcat thrust the leader into an empty pen. Onestar whipped out his paws, and scored three lines across the cat's face, and the guard, in turn, sunk his claws into Onestar's shoulder. He let go and Onestar lay in the cage, bleeding and panting.
"Where am I?"
His voice echoed into nothingness. He could hear other cats around him, out of sight and near death. He reiterated his question. Still no one answered him.
"Please! Is there anyone here who can at least tell me where I am?"
A guard outside snapped, "Shut up!" but no other answers were helpful.
"Hey…"
Onestar whipped around, and peered through the bars of the cages towards the voice. He could see the dim outline of a cat huddled in the cage next to him.
"Can you tell me where I am?" Onestar asked.
"We're in the center of the twolegplace, where The Alliance keeps torture servants."
"Why are we here then? What have we done to provoke the… uh Alliance?"
"Nothing. Someone, somewhere, wants you dead. The Alliance will torture you before killing you."
A shiver ran down Onestar's back. Someone wants him dead? Torture?
"We have to escape."
A laugh escaped the other cat's throat, "Escape? Please, don't kid yourself."
"Why not?" Onestar was genuinely confused. But the other cat became silent, and refused to say any more.
Onestar looked past the bars that shut him in and saw that he seemed to be underground, and that huge, muscular guardcats lined the passageway. Some were sleeping, but most were alert and awake. It was true; it was almost impossible to escape.
Suddenly, there was a surprised yelp. Onestar craned his neck to see what was happening.
"How dare you sleep on duty!"
"I'm sorry, master!"
A sleek, light ginger tom stepped into the tunnel that held the cats, blood dripping from his claws. Besides him was a bleeding guardcat, the one that had been sleeping. The ginger cat made his way through the thin passageway lined with other cats that leaned back to give him room.
"Where is the new captive?" The light ginger tom had a high voice, which was sprinkled with authority.
"Erm…" The black guardcat from before led the ginger tom to Onestar's cage, "Right here, Zael."
Zael, the ginger tom, peered into Onestar's cage. Onestar spat back.
"Mm… you are…Onestar, I presume?" He asked, amber eyes glinting with amusement.
"Yes."
"You are in for a treat."
The moment the latch clicked open, Onestar sprang out. A dozen pair of eyes glared back, and he was pushed to the ground. Onestar tried fighting back, but there were simply too many cats. His hind legs were bound together, but his front paws were left free.
Zael stood before him, snickering. Onestar couldn't jump at him, because his hind legs were bound, and when he tried, he fell onto the floor in a jumbled heap. His eyes shot fire at Zael, who looked at him with obvious mocking.
"Well, well, well, our great leader has been reduced to a helpless kit," he sneered, "who couldn't even walk."
Zael swished his tail in front of the leader's face, and when Onestar reached up to swat at it, Zael pulled it back.
"Now then, come along."
Zael started walking towards the entrance, but Onestar was still disabled. He struggled to get up, and had to crawl along the floor. The ginger tomcat started laughing at Onestar's position, which made Onestar crawl faster. He pranced out of his way, leading him outside.
Onestar slowly crawled along, until his hind paws became bloody from being dragged across the rough cement for so long. When he stopped, Zael would dance back, and tickle him here and there until the forest cat became angry.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Onestar cried out.
Zael look back, eyes cold, "Because it's fun."
"You do know," Zael said loftily, "I have a bet to win. If I could get you to crawl to our base by sunhigh, Bronze would have to do two weeks of chores for me."
Onestar stared at Zael, who was snickering now. What type of cats would bet on the suffering of other cats?"
"We're here!" Zael sang. He leapt into an alley, and Onestar grudgingly crawled after him.
Onestar heard a cat spit at Zael, and snarl, "Where is he?"
Two cats trotted over to him, one Zael and another huge, bronze tom. He felt himself flipped over, and a paw rubbing his leg wounds. He cried out as pads met his flesh.
"Hm, it does look like he travelled a long way, crawling."
"See? See?" Zael purred, "Now you owe me a month of chores!"
"What why?"
"Remember, the last time we had a bet on how long that pretty she-cat would take to drown, and the other time how much trash that tom could eat before he threw up."
Bronze sighed exasperatedly and meowed, "But I won at least a week back from seeing how long—"
"Who are you guys?" Onestar interrupted Bronze, "And what do you want?"
Claw sunk into his shoulders, and Bronze growled, "Don't interrupt!"
Then, he turned back to Zael and continued speaking as if nothing had happened, "How long a cat could live without food."
"No, I won that one!"
"Did not!"
"Did, too!"
"Shut up!" Another cat screeched from further down the alley, "Its time!"
"What?" Onestar asked desperately, "Time for what?"
Zael looked down rather soberly, as to have lost another week of chores from Bronze.
"It's time to kill you."
