Whisper...
Her body seemed to fly across the empty moor, her paws were only just brushing the ground. She narrowed her eyes and slowed her pace as she came back to a familiar setting. Trees formed a forest which she raced through gracefully, darting past bushes and ferns until she came to a clearing. The weak sun sent dull rays of light through the branches and lit up the ground, as well as the large, black cat that was waiting there.
He was anticipating her arrival, but she could also sense his irritation as his tail twitched ever so slightly. She pretended not to notice, and sat down with a haughty look on her face. The black tom seemed to relax a bit after sensing her arrogant attitude.
"Ahh, Whisper. You're the first back," he purred, looking quite pleased.
"Ahh, but Coal, I always am. How does this still surprise you?" she replied mockingly.
His paw flashed out of nowhere, cuffing the side of her face with sheathed claws. Despite the fact that he did not hurt her as much as he could have, her face throbbed and her head spun. She let out a surprised yelp and then began hissing quietly. His massive paws were powerful and heavy; even a 'light' blow for him could be a very painful smack for it's recipient.
She tried to push the pain away and forced herself to look back up at Coal, who was sneering at her and waiting to see if she would say anything.
"I'm assuming that you completed your task," he stated calmly, giving her a look that told her, 'If my assumption is wrong I'm not going to be very happy'.
Whisper nodded. Her previously proud and rather stuck-up mood had now vanished.
Both cats turned their heads as a dark gray tom and a calico she-cat trotted noisily toward them, fresh-kill dangling from their jaws. Whisper dipped her head in greeting and then moved forward to grab some food and see how her companions had done on their own tasks.
The gray cat dropped his prey and looked at Whisper, grinning. "And as usual, the amazing Whisper is first to arrive back from her seemingly impossible task. Well, impossible for anyone but her!" The tom winked as Whisper started to growl.
"Shut it, Mallow," she teased, and playfully swiped a paw at him. "How'd you do, Ember?" she asked the small calico that had padded over to join her and Mallow after dropping off her own prey.
"I did fine," she murmured, not meeting Whisper's eyes. Uh-oh, thought Whisper, She got caught. Ember always had a tendency to make a lot of noise, attracting more cats, then having to kill them all. Whisper gazed back at her with sympathy. If Coal found out, he wouldn't be happy.
Glancing toward's the fresh-kill, Whisper saw that Coal had already grabbed his food and was devouring a rabbit as if he had been starving. "Let's eat," she mewed, and the three younger cats grabbed their prey and sat down beside Coal.
"Oh," said Whisper suddenly, with her mouth full of chewed up mouse, "By the way, Coal, there's a whole bunch of cats where you sent me, who live together. At least, I think there's more than one group of them, more than us, who are marking borders, and staying in the same areas."
"That's gross," Mallow grumbled about her full mouth, but everyone ignored him.
Coal's yellow eyes focused on Whisper with intense interest. She blinked slowly. This was important information, and she wondered what Coal would do with it.
"Tomorrow I want all three of you to go back and see if you can find out more about these strange cats. I know you won't get caught."
--
Fury shot through Birchfall's body, propelling him through the undergrowth and out onto the flat moorland. His green eyes blazed and he hissed threateningly at the wiry WindClan cats that were glaring angrily at him from their side of the border, where they hadn't been only moments before.
He could hear Cloudtail and Sandstorm hissing and spitting beside him, and dug his claws into the soft earth, imagining it was those WindClanner's pelts. Sandstorm paced slowly closer to their border, then leaped gracefully over the stream. Birchfall and Cloudtail followed.
They were only a tail-length away from the cats, two of whom Birchfall recognized. There was Tornear and Breezepaw, and a white she-cat who Birchfall assumed was Breezepaw's mentor. The fur on the back of their neck's stood up and they narrowed their eyes menacingly.
"Stay off of our territory!" hissed Sandstorm, lashing her tail.
"We were chasing WindClan prey!," retorted Tornear.
"And we're supposed to believe you!? Everyone knows that half the things that come from a WindClan cat's mouth is a big, fat li-" Cloudtail's comment was cut off with a screech as Tornear threw himself at the white tom. The white she-cat leaped at Sandstorm, and Birchfall saw Breezepaw rush toward him.
The apprentice was much smaller than him, but he was quick. Birchfall was able to land a few quick blows to the tom's head and chest, but soon he was darting about too fast for Birchfall to keep up. The small gray tom bounded straight for Birchfall, knocking him onto his side. Birchfall kicked his back legs with perfect aim, so that they smacked Breezepaw square in the chest, sending the smaller cat flying through the air. Birchfall jumped to his paws just in time to see the WindClan cats fleeing into their own territory.
"Birchfall, are you hurt?" asked Sandstorm, her own side scratched and bleeding a little. Cloudtail looked fine except for a small scratch on his nose.
"I'm good. I only had an apprentice to deal with," he said condescendingly, giving a final scowl toward their disappearing enemies.
"Good. Let's get back to camp and report this to Firestar."
Little did they know, three shadowy figures turned and began heading away from the battle scene and away from the Clans, with only a whisper of sound.