Chapter Five
Nightfall woke one morning with her legs feeling down and her head couldn't stop spinning. Her body was too weak to get up now and train so she lay there, feeling like the hopeless kit she used to be. Although she didn't really mind resting for a few days before the second battle, her limbs were getting sore enough just by battling dogs and training with Halfnight and Nightmare. Nightfall looked at her collar almost filled with dog teeth and started to count them all. Right now she has seven dog teeth that were torn into her collar. Halfnight has six and Nightmare has four because he doesn't like battling too much. Halfnight keeps telling him that he should pick up the pace so he doesn't end up a loser. And still, her mind keeps going back to the calico tom. As badly as she wanted to know who he was, she had to focus more on the second battle. Though it was hard. The next day she felt a little better and finally decided to start pushing herself on her training. "Damn, I haven't trained in a while…" Nightfall breathed in the air as she took a small break in the middle of the opening outside of their territory. "You need to catch up though." Halfnight urged her. "You've been weakening for a long time so it makes sense that you're a weakling." She laughed. Nightfall rolled her eyes. "You're right… but not right enough!" She pounced on top of her and pinned her to the ground and face to face she hissed. "Don't underestimate me next time, ok?" "At least I'm the one paying attention!" Halfnight retorted. "What do you mean?" Nightfall questioned. Suddenly Halfnight swept her hind legs making her fall to the ground and all at once she was pinned, breathing heavily. "Told you." Halfnight hissed. Nightfall sighed and rested her sore limbs. "Come on Halfnight, this isn't fair!" "Well I told you to always pay attention but here we are. Wanna go fight another dog or steal a dog tooth as usual?" Halfnight meowed, jumping off of her. "Sure, I guess." As Nightfall picked herself up she noticed Halfnight was already on the move and ran to catch up to her until something knocked her over. Nightfall was pinned by the neck as a patrol surrounded them. One of the cats was the familiar calico who was trying to pin Halfnight. The one on top of Nightfall was the same tom with a mud colored pelt that was sighted with the other cats near the huge clearing where the battle was laid. "Why are you on our territory?" The muddy warrior yowled. "We were just training that's all what's wrong with that?" Nightfall wheezed as the muddy warrior was still pinning her by the neck, nearly choking her. "How about you guys mind your own business!" Halfnight retorted. "Mind our own business? Do you have any idea what you're doing?" The calico spat. "Shut up Sootpaw, we are only going to see why they are here." One of the cats meowed calmly. "I am Onewhisker, and sorry about Sootpaw. He gets into trouble most of the time. May I ask why you are here on our territory?" Onewhisker questioned Halfnight. "None of your business you stupid furball." She retorted. Onewhisker stayed calm and as he was about to speak Halfnight rolled into the muddy warrior who pinned Nightfall off of her and started running away and back to camp. "Well, at least we now know the calico's stupid ass name!" Halfnight growled between breaths. "Yeah! Focus on getting your tail home!" Nightfall meowed. Halfnight rolled her eyes but listened. Whenever they were finally home they went straight to bed. "I'm… so… tired…" Nightfall meowed as she breathed heavily because of the run. The moss bed was softer than usual and her eyes started closing almost instantly.
The next evening when Nightfall woke up, she felt way better than she had the day before. Although her limbs were still a little sore from all that running she felt as if she were ready for some action. So she and Halfnight went out to train some more. However, they did want to focus more on collecting more dog teeth than just training so they went over to find more dogs for some dog teeth to collect and maybe steal. Halfnight was murmuring the entire way there and back. Nightfall nudged her In comfort and concern. "What's bothering you?" "Nothing! It's just I hate it when that idiot has to keep staring at me every time I enter the flippin camp just to eat or train!" Halfnight growled. "Hm… maybe you should just tell him to stop?" Nightfall suggested. "It'll be no use though, he's always trying to come up with some explanation that he's not and I know he'll keep doing it. That annoying little brat." She scoffed and kept silent the rest of the way. But something told Nightfall she wasn't telling her the whole story. But she moved on without another question. Once they got back to camp they filled another box with the dog teeth that they had just collected and as usual stole one for themselves. As Halfnight moved away Nightfall stole another one for Nightmare until something pinned her tail and a shadow filled the small clearing. A heavy voice sounded and she looked upwards to see Scourge snarling at her. She gulped and shrunk away, getting her tail loose from his paw. "What do you think you're doing?" He growled. Nightfall hesitated, her breath shallow. "I-I…… I was- umm…." "Well?!" He yowled, urging her as she shook even harder. Halfnight came in front of the shocked Nightfall and she unsheathed her claws. "Put… one… paw on her… and you're DEAD!!" Halfnight growled. Nightfall, still frozen in shock and dismay, she settled down a bit. "You can't do anything to me! If anything you should be obeying me!" Scourge yowled and pushed her away furiously and slashed his claw at Nightfall's face. Nightfall shrieked as blood poured down her face and she lay still to the ground. Midnight came rushing in and picked Nightfall up and set her down behind her. "What did you do to your own daughter?!" Midnight sounded worried and stern with her face fuming as Nightfall still lay on the ground, her eyes barely closing and blood covering half of her face. Halfnight got up and dragged Nightfall to the side as an argument developed between Scourge and Midnight. Their parents. "I did what I had to do! She was cheating and every warrior knows they must suffer in order to win!" Scourge hissed. "Apparently not every warrior knows that! Remember! Nightfall is still young!" Midnight growled back at him. Scourge sighed looking as if he already gave in. "How about this? Midnight! You are therefore banished from this Clan which you take no pride in!" Scourge yowled as he jumped onto the box not even using the words for a meeting. Gasps and murmurs spread across the entire clearing and Midnight hissed. "Fine! I'd rather be on my own with my kits to be here for me!" She yowled. "Your kits… aren't coming with you. Nightfall however will be banished whenever the second battle is done and we have taken the entire territories! Her siblings will stay where they are but just to let you know, her siblings are on the verge of leaving, so I hope they enjoy becoming our servants for the rest of their lives." Halfnight yowled in disagreement and Nightmare shrunk back as Scourge jumped off the box. "Guards! Please escort Midnight out of this territory… she is no longer welcome here." Midnight gave a big sigh and went past Nightfall and her siblings which were surrounding her and making sure she was ok and padded out of the camp with guards at her sides. Holly and Tooth came back from guarding the territory and dropped their prey whenever they saw Nightfall on the ground, her face still bleeding out and her voice choking. "Oh my- god what the hell happened?!" Holly gasped. "Scourge hurt her… and Midnight's banished." Halfnight explained but growled as Tooth got a little closer to her. "Oh that's horrible!" Holly mewed and went to get a few herbs she learned on the journey here from the medicine cat. "That's not all… Nightfall is banished after being forced to battle in the second fight." Nightmare explained as Holly came back with a messy bundle of herbs. As Holly started chewing a few of them up, Nightfall wheezed and tried to stand up properly. Though she fell immediately and let out a yelp of pain. "Hey… don't even try to move or I'll end you myself." Halfnight growled softly and sat beside her while Holly started applying some of the chewed up herbs on her wounds. "Ouch! It hurts! Get the damn plant away I think there's something wrong with it!" Nightfall winced painfully. "It's supposed to sting ok?" Holly mewed trying to sound confident. Nightfall eyed her but listened as she applied a bit more. "Dude, just deal with it." Halfnight growled softly then started grooming her fur soaked in blood. Nightfall winced, groaning but listened to Halfnight. Nightfall looked over at the entrance where Midnight had left with the guards surrounding her a moment later and noticed the guards came back in with blood on their claws. She stood in shock as they wiped their claws clean off with their fur. Nightfall sighed whenever her treatment was finished after eating some berries that apparently help with some anxiety. "It's scary isn't it?" Nightmare interrupted the silence. "You're just acting like the scaredy-cat idiot you are again haha!" Halfnight teased harshly. Nightmare growled but ignored her. In the morning Nightfall woke with her face stinging again and she tried as hard as she could to not pick at her face. While eating she couldn't resist picking at it and her upper head started to bleed again and Nightfall's eyes got a little blurry as Holly prepared her herbs again. As soon as her face was treated, Nightfall went back to bed and slept until Scourge came around to take her by the neck and force her out of bed as she winced in pain. Halfnight hurried around to help her up and get out of camp so they could train. Though a guard had to come with them so Scourge would be able to hear if they were planning to run away or not. "Keep up weaklings." The guard growled as Halfnight helped Nightfall walk slowly up a hill and towards the barn. Luckily the herbs Holly used kept in place so Nightfall could somewhat fight a little. The guard kept pushing them till they were unable to fight anymore. Whenever they were done the guard started counting points so they could earn a dog tooth. "Halfnight, you've lost against a weakling as if you were prey, are you sure you didn't cheat and let Nightfall win?" He strictly growled in suspicion. "Of course not! I said I was too tired to fight right? So mind your own business!" She hissed. The guard scoffed. "Just because you're Scourge's child doesn't mean you are the one who gets everything your way." "Well if you weren't so stubborn you wouldn't be following him! And we wouldn't be in this mess! I've seen many apprentices do what Nightfall did, including you Bone! So why is Scourge targeting her not everyone else?! I don't know nor do I care! You're such an idiotic fool!" Halfnight growled. He sighed. "Well if you weren't so dumb you would notice why he's targeting her." "What do you mean! I'm not dumb!" "More like smart. You're not smart." Nightmare growled as they came back inside the clearing. "Ugh YOU again." Halfnight groaned. "'Ugh you again' yes me what do you expect? I'm always here so don't get your hopes up that I tried leaving." Nightmare rolled his eyes. Nightfall ignored their quarrel and went straight to bed, stumbling most of the way. Hopefully her mind would settle and take a break.