For Random Banana, who submitted Khan. A warning: Khan is a kit-eater, and it's mentioned (NOT shown) in this story, so if you no likey that very much, then no read-y this one.

Khan:

A Pleasant Conversation

He hated the marshlands.

He hated MarshClan.

It was all so...squishy. And filthy and smelly and uncultured in every single way in every single aspect.

Why was he doing this again? He didn't know really, and settled for calling himself an idiot for going on this "leisurely stroll".

Crossing through MarshClan territory though had always been a bit easy. Sure, he was pretty positive the warriors would track him down, but he hoped to be back in his perfectly fine Twoleg home before they could even realize who he was.

DarkClan - at least above ground - would be pretty easy as well, he imagined. Owlstar never much patrolled the upper lands, just the tunnels. Understandable, he supposed, but foolish.

Of course, Owlstar had been old. Maybe they were under new leadership? It was certainly possible, and with new leadership often meant a new patrolling schedule.

That was hazardous.

This whole expedition was hazardous, actually.

He was at the Dark-Marsh border now though. Turning back would probably mean his capture by the uncultured crows of the marshes. Sighing, he walked on, stopping at Membrance, the tree those DarkClan cats seemed to worship so much. It was a beautiful tree, no doubt, but how were a few scratches enough to remember the dead? He had no idea.

"Well, yours is a familiar pelt."

Taken by surprise, he spun around with claws unsheathed, ready to spring...until he noted how beautiful this intruder of his thoughts was. Tiny thing with long cream fur and the most striking green eyes he had ever seen…

What was her name again?

Oh. Right.

"Sagetongue," he greeted as cordially as he could. She was a fine she-cat, he always thought she was. He had a thing for her way back when, still might've had a thing for her even. Unfortunately for him, she was a clan cat, and all clan cats were fools.

Honor the code? Bah.

"Actually, it's Sagestar now." The beauty glared her pretty little eyes at him, and if looks could kill, he'd be down and dead.

Yep. Still not forgiven. Shame.

"What are you doing here, Shadowpelt? You know you'll die on this territory if anyone else catches you."

'Shadowpelt' bared his teeth at her. How he hated that name. "I go by Khan now actually, beautiful. Not that...disgusting name."

"A disgusting name for a disgusting cat."

Silence seized the moment. Khan hated silence, so eventually he broke it. "You said if anyone else finds me, I'm dead. Why don't you kill me, leader?"

Sagestar's eyes twinkled in the light of the setting sun, and oh, how beautiful they were. "I don't have any deathberries on me." Her response was pretty blank, and caused Khan to mrrow in amusement.

"A medicine cat to be leader? Such a sad idea." Shaking his head, Khan returned his gaze to Membrance, examining the scratches, some of which fresh. "So tell me, gorgeous, how did you come to be leader?"

"Chance," Sagestar came and sat beside him, and Khan forced himself not to smell that luscious fur of hers. "Owlstar and Redfern died leafbare from greencough, and StarClan chose me as leader."

"Really?" Khan drolled, not at all interested. Sagestar rolled her eyes with a huff of undignified annoyance before she fixed her gaze above on the branches.

"What are you doing here anyways? Thought you were smart enough to avoid this territory."

"I thought I was, too." The sleek black tom shrugged. At least it was Sagestar he came across. She was too good to kill a cat with her own claws. A deceiving little heap of fox-dung, but good. If it were someone else, there wouldn't be this conversation. "I wanted to re-visit the home territory."

"Then head back to the Twolegplace."

Khan purred in amusement, pressing his muzzle to her ear. "Feisty, aren't we?"

Suddenly, her paw flung out quick as a bird, and her claws caught his neck before he could even process what was happening. Stumbling back, he stared at Sagestar in shock, in a daze at the aggression.

Maybe she learned something after all?

"Look here, kit-eater," the DarkClan leader snarled, her voice so low Khan considered it seductively sultry. "I'm giving you grace because in a real fight I wouldn't beat you, but I swear to StarClan, swear to anything you consider important, that if I see you on this territory again, you will suffer a slow…"

She took one step forward.

"Painful…"

A second step.

"Death."

One final step, and her paw - claws unsheathed - found the back of his neck, digging into the skin. "Every one of your innards will be pulled one at a time and fed to the vultures if you're seen here again, do you understand?"

She was so deliciously violent nowadays. Still, Khan nodded, and she released him. After nodding a brisk farewell, he headed back to his housefolk's home.

It was a harsh winter, he would've liked to tell her, I needed to feed myself something, and that kit wasn't going to be missed any time soon.

Review Replies:

snowwolf12132 - ...Here goes your happiness again. xD And Sagestar is the epitome of "lying is sometimes better than truth", only she doesn't know when it's truly necessary to lie.