Sorry for the wait, but this chapter is finally done now:) Thank you to reviewers. The title is Dark of night because Nyx is the Greek goddess of night.
Flickeringflame turned around, cursing herself for not listening to her instincts in the first place. She started to take a defensive stance, only to spot Skypaw fighting with another cat on the other side of the room. That one moment of distraction was all it took for Stonefoot to throw her against a wall. She shook her head to clear the black spots gathering at the edges of her vision and swiped his feet from underneath him. What she failed to notice was the scarred black she-cat advancing slowly behind her. She turned around at the same time as she felt a harsh blow to the back of her head, but not before she hit the she-cat right back with a front paw blow. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another cat approaching, this time a grey tom with dark green eyes.
The stranger advanced towards her so quickly that it felt like a blur, then he slammed her against the stone floor and she felt the air knocked out of her legs. She struggled to stand back up and immediately took note that she and Skypaw were seriously outnumbered and that even with warrior training skills she could not beat a pack of six full-grown cats. She also noticed that Skypaw had already been taken captive, and knew that their technique was to knock a cat off before taking them. There was no was way Flickeringflame was winning this battle. She noticed at cat creeping up on her from behind, but pretended to be focused on rolling over to rake her claws over the so-called Stonefoot's side. She knew the blow was coming, and she let her head duck with the movement and collapsed onto the cave floor, pretending to have taken a hit. Whereas some cats may say that faking was a coward's way out of battle, if Fickeringflame could choose between actually being beaten and saving up strength to escape later, she would choose the latter. Flickeringflame closed her eyes and forced herself to listen to the cats' conversation.
"You'd better bring them both back." Growled a menacing voice, clearly the one of the leader of at least this patrol.
Flickeringflame then felt herself being dragged onto a cat's shoulders and repressed a shiver, knowing that this would blow her cover, and kept on listening intently.
" We finally caught these cursed cats of... Dawnmist." The cat spat the last word with hesitance.
" Shut up! " another cat hissed, "If you wake them Jasper will be furious." Another cat hissed, which judging by the sound was the one carrying her.
Even after just this short conversation they had revealed their intentions on this specific mission, to eliminate all cats somehow related to Dawnmist. Perhaps this cat was the traitor within the clans that the ,racers were arguing about. Perhaps this cat had been the one to frame Dawnmist and turn clans against each other I the first place.
After traveling for what seemed like forever, the cats famed to a stop at what looked like a temporary camp. Flickeringflame was roughly thrown to the ground and held back an indignant yowl and waited until most of the cats left to go hunting. All but one. She nearly jumped to her feet as a cat spoke directly to her.
" Go on." A silky voice spoke, the same that had demanded silence.
What? Flickeringflame asked herself.
" I know that you are awake, leave now or never." The cat spoke.
Knowing well enough that this could be a trap to melt her disguise, Flickeringflame hesitated. She could hear voices coming from behind a bush and decided to make a run for it, as this was probably the only time she would get to escape. Although this was not a usual skill for a Windclan warrior, Flickeringflame threw herself into a juniper berry patch to disguise her scent before scrambling up a tree and standing still.
"Come back for your friend once we arrive." The scarred black she-cat with green eyes, who had been sitting impassively at the other side of the clearing said, before lying on the ground in a way similar to Flickeringflame's stratagem. This way the cats were likely to believe that Flickeringflame had knocked the she-cat out, especially with her new wounds from the previous day's battle showing as "evidence" that there had been a fight.
"Nyx!" She heard a cat growl in disbelief, but by then Flickeringflame was a long way from the clearing, thinking to herself about the way that this action would cost the she-cat. Even with Nux threatened, Flickeringflame found it hard to feel worried for the she-cat, as she know by instinct that this could not have been unrehearsed.
Thank you to anybody who has read this! I decided to add in a "QOTD", so here it is:
Who do you think Violetpaw and Twigpaw's parents are?