Chapter 5: The Attack
"Are you ready?"
Ferretnose's eyes glinted in the darkness. "I can't be any more ready."
"Let's go."
The day before, Ferretnose had been a loner called Ferret. Prismlight had been sneaking off to meet him in secret. Now he was a warrior of DareClan and part of the patrol which would attack the rats living in the old Twoleg nest.
The patrol was made of Nightfrost, Ferretnose, Palestorm, Silverstreak, her apprentice Darkpaw, Molespots, his apprentice Jetpaw, Willowheart, Solfang, and himself.
The Twoleg nest loomed in front of them. The rats were active, squeaking at each other. Redstar hoped to catch them by surprise.
"We'll split into two groups. Nightfrost, you take Palestorm, Molespots, Jetpaw, and Solfang. The rest of you come with me. We'll surprise the rats first by climbing up there." He pointed his tail at a gap in the crumbing wall. "We can climb up the ivy. When you hear my signal, come in from the lower part."
Nightfrost nodded.
"Come on."
Redstar led his group around the nest. The ivy was twisted on itself, climbing up to the gap. Redstar took a deep breath and dug his claws into the first knot of ivy.
"It's not hard," he whispered down to the waiting cats. "Just watch where you're putting your paws. Come on after me."
Paw by paw, Redstar made his way up the ivy. Suddenly he heard Silverstreak's muffled gasp.
"It's too high," she whispered hysterically. "I can't do it. I've got to go down. Got to go down..."
"No, Silverstreak!" Redstar hissed. At the same time Ferretnose growled quietly, "You're treading on my paw."
"Don't worry, Silverstreak," Redstar urged. "Just keep climbing. You'll be fine."
They climbed in silence save Silverstreak's panting. Redstar clambered up onto the base of the gap and helped his Clanmates up. Ferretnose had to give Silverstreak a push from behind to get her up.
Once everyone was up, Redstar put his tail near his mouth. Be quiet.
The rest of the patrol nodded.
He padded quietly ahead. The rotten floorboards creaked at the slightest touch. He rounded a corner to a whole room of rats. Their eyes gleamed menacingly.
"Attack, patrol!" Redstar caterwauled, lunging at the nearest rat.
His Clanmates followed suit, hissing and spitting.
"Cats die," a rat hissed, though Redstar could not tell which. "Cats die."
Darkpaw gasped. "That one! It spoke!"
Redstar had a rat in his teeth as he whirled around to face the apprentice. "Which one?" he demanded, hurling the rat at the others.
"Up there!"
Redstar couldn't have been more surprised as a huge rat fell from above and sank its teeth deep into his neck.
"Redstar!"
Everything was swallowed up in darkness.
He blinked awake. Jayfeather was standing there.
"Jayfeather!" Redstar leapt to his paws.
Jayfeather blinked slowly. "You are losing a life."
"I am?"
Jayfeather snorted. "Of course you are, mouse-brain."
Redstar looked down. He saw himself, his ginger-red fur stained with blood. The huge rat was on Silverstreak now. She shrieked as it bit down on her ear. Blood stained the rat's fur scarlet.
Jayfeather tensed. He loved Silverstreak, Redstar remembered.
Suddenly a triumphant yowl made the rat look up.
Nightfrost's patrol had arrived!
The deputy caterwauled and crossed the room in three bounds. He killed the huge rat with a blow so fierce that the rat was sent flying. The other rats tittered nervously. Their leader was dead.
Nightfrost stood protectively in front of Redstar's unmoving form. "Get out of here and don't come back!" he snarled.
The rats shuffled backwards, away from the furious deputy.
"DareClan, attack!"
Jayfeather looked at Redstar. "It's time for you to go. You have an excellent deputy."
"Thank you," Redstar replied modestly. Jayfeather's form swam before his eyes, and the world went dark once more.
He opened his eyes to pain in his neck and the shrieks of rats. He raised his head to look around. Ferretnose was hurling rats out the gap in the wall. Silverstreak had her teeth in the neck of one rat and her claws in another. Darkpaw and Jetpaw were protecting each other from rats, biting and clawing. Palestorm bared his teeth at a young rat and sent it scurrying into Molespots' claws. And Nightfrost was fighting like TigerClan.
Redstar struggled to his paws. A rat at his paws squeaked in astonishment. Redstar could almost hear it saying I thought you were dead!
"You first," he growled, dealing a blow to the rat's head.
Silverstreak turned around. "Redstar!"
Redstar's legs wobbled, but he hooked his claws in a rat clinging to his sister's tail. "That's me," he hissed, hurling the rat away. His vision blurred.
"You lost a lot of blood," Silverstreak continued. "Nightfrost came and—"
"I saw it all," Redstar muttered. His stomach flipped. A rat bit down on one of his hind legs.
Nightfrost was surrounded by a ring of dead rats. He leapt over it and snatched the rat from Redstar. "Redstar! You're all right! Thank StarClan!" He studied Redstar closely. "You all right?"
Redstar's legs gave out beneath him. He felt like a kit looking up at the warriors. "No," he admitted.
"We've almost won," Nightfrost grunted, smacking a rat in the face. "I came in time to kill the leader rat. The rats are trapped; the warriors are covering all the holes." As he spoke, Palestorm sank his teeth into a rat scurrying into a crack in the wall. It died instantly.
A rat got past Nightfrost's claws and halted at Redstar's paws. Redstar bit its neck, snapping its spine.
"One less rat," he growled, hurling it away.
"Can you fight? On your paws, I mean?" Silverstreak asked.
A rat trod on Redstar's tail. Angrily, Redstar leapt to his paws and clouted it over the head.
"I'll fight all night," he spat, lunging forward to nip the neck of a rat clinging to Willowheart just out of her reach.
"Hopefully we won't need to," Palestorm panted, grabbing a rat in his teeth and shaking it furiously.
Ferretnose caterwauled and clawed at a large rat on his belly. "Take that, mange-pelt," he snarled, hurling it and another rat out of the gap in the wall.
"Three at once!" Jetpaw announced, a rat between his jaws and one beneath each forepaw. As he spoke, another rat snapped at his tail. He dropped the rat in surprise and clawed the other.
"That's what happens when you show off," Molespots told his apprentice, biting hard on a rat on Silverstreak's paw. She hadn't noticed it before.
"Thanks," Silverstreak gasped, jumping up to avoid Darkpaw's claws as he attacked two rats at once.
The moon shone suddenly into the room. The rats that were alive squealed, only to be killed by the warriors. Ferretnose's silhouette gleamed as he yowled to the sky.
"DareClan has won!"
($)
DareClan:
Leader: Redstar: reddish ginger tom with amber eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Deputy: Nightfrost: black tom with light blue paws, tail-tip, and light blue eyes. Invented by Shadus Krifetalon.
Medicine cat: Honeyleaf: light gold she-cat with green eyes. Invented by Jayfeather Luva.
Apprentice, Fernpaw
Warriors:
Willowheart: light brown tabby she-cat with green eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Silverstreak: silver she-cat with blue, dark gray, and black streaks throughout her fur and blue eyes. Invented by MyrtleFalls and Mothstar.
Apprentce, Darkpaw
Smokesplash: blue and dark gray tom. Invented by Smokeclaw of ShadowClan.
Patchclaw: black-and-white patched tom. Invented by Patchkit.
Palestorm: pale gray tom with darker gray paws, chest, and tail-tip, and green eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Rainbowheart: rainbow tabby she-cat with green eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Prismlight: white she-cat with a sheen to her fur that makes it shine in all the colors of the color spectrum and golden eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Solfang: tortoiseshell-and-white tom with long fur, a ruff of fur around his neck, a tail tuft, and amber eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Lemonpelt: yellowish-grayish-green tom with yellow eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Molespots: creamy brown tom with gold spots and green eyes
Apprentice, Jetpaw
Ferretnose: cream-and-brown tom with yellow eyes, former loner. Invented by Mothstar.
Apprentices:
Fernpaw: pale gray she-cat with green eyes, apprentice to the medicine cat. Invented by Mothstar.
Limepaw: white she-cat with lime-shaped green splotches and green eyes. Invented by Velvet Masquerade.
Jetpaw: jet black tom with very dark blue eyes
Darkpaw: smoky black tom with yellow eyes
Queens:
Shinyheart: very pale gold she-cat with yellow eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Lavenderflight: pale gray she-cat, former loner, with green eyes. Nursing Bramblekit, a dark brown tabby tom, and Spottedkit, a pretty tortoiseshell-and-white she-kit
Elders:
Stormspeckle: jet black tom with pale gray flecks and amber eyes. Invented by Mothstar.
Outside DareClan:
Owl: dark brown tabby tom with deep green eyes