Storm

"Sure about this Storm?"

I nodded.

The small black and white tom beside me sighed. "All right. Tarr, Spring, you're with me. Bark, Links, you're with Storm."

I shook my head. "No, Tornado, take Bark and Links. Go around back. I'll go in alone."

"Storm..." Only my siblings or Tornado could get away with speaking to me like that. Tornado practically was my brother, after all. His father Striker was my father's number one cat.

"Tornado. Trust me."

"All right," The little cat meowed again. He waved his tail at the four cats behind us, and they disappeared into the shadows, leaving me alone. I was sitting on top of a twoleg den, looking down into one of BloodClan's alleys, where a group of cats had taken residence. We had to get rid of them. My father had already sent patrols of cats to fight them, but the cats were vicious. No one had been able to chase them out.

So, I offered to go.

Shatter was still worried about letting me lead a fighting patrol, but he shouldn't have been. Out of my brothers, I was the one who took after him the most. I was the biggest, the bravest, and the best fighter. The cats I had chosen to bring with me were ones from the Fighting Ring, ones I knew would excel at our mission. Tornado and Spring were fast. Tarr was like tree sap, once he landed on your back, there was no way to get rid of him unless he let you go. Bark was, like me, big and strong, not the smartest cat, however. That was Links, the only she cat in my patrol. She could outsmart any cat.

Across the alley, I saw a black tail wave. Tornado's signal – he and the others were ready. I stood up, flexed my claws, and jumped down into the alley. The cats all turned to look at me, even the two who had been fighting over a scrap of twoleg kill. Stupid cats. Twoleg kill - rats, mice, or any prey that had been killed by the twolegs – was poisoness. Maybe I should have just let these cats kill themselves off.

But that wasn't nearly as much fun.

With a yowl, I threw myself at the largest tom. I vaguely heard Tornado and the others yowling as they, too, joined the battle.

(***)

My father used to tell me stories about how when he fought, he let his instincts take over. I inherited that ability. Hunter admitted to me once that he had to think about every move, and Hail... oh, Hail wasn't a fighter. Never had been.

So I let my instincts take over. No cat could beat me when I was like this. Before I knew it, all the cats who hadn't run off were subdued. Bark had two cats pinned to the ground, Spring and Links were sitting with one of the smaller cats crouched between them. Tarr had his foot pressed against the neck of a cat who was lying beside him. Tornado was holding a fifth cat by the fur of his neck. He tossed the cat to the ground at my feet. The cat angrily – but with some fear, as well – looked up at me.

"This is BloodClan territory," I hissed. "If you, or any of your friends, are seen within the territory again, you'll be killed. Do you understand?"

The cat nodded.

"Good. Leave, now," I ordered. I nodded at my patrol, and they let the other four cats go. We watched as the five cats bolted off.

"Storm," Tornado meowed once they were out of sight. "You're bleeding."
"Oh, am I?" I glanced down at my paws, but couldn't see anything. Tornado flicked my shoulder with his tail. "Oh, there." I vaguely remembered one of the cats managing to dig his claws into my shoulder. The injury wasn't bad, but still I meowed, "Let's go find Hail."

(***)

Tornado and I walked side by side down the greypath. Links, Spring, Bark and Tarr had left us after we defeated the alley cats. As we walked, I started to be able to feel the wound on my shoulder. Tornado and I had talked to a couple cats to ask where my brother was. Hail, unlike pretty much every other cat, didn't have a place where he could always be found. For most cats, you went to their den, their alley, their usual hunting grounds – Hail could be anywhere.

I was about to give up – I'll admit, I'm not the most patient cat – when I saw my brother ahead of us. There would never be any doubts to whether we were related, we looked exactly the same except that I was bigger, and his spots were lighter.

I ran down the greypath while his back was turned and playfully leapt on him. I had to be careful with Hail. I aimed my leap so that when I landed I could flip us both over harmlessly, instead of landing straight on his back and crushing him. I had aimed my leap perfectly; we tumbled off to the side, no harm done.

"Storm!" Hail protested as he got to his feet. He didn't even have to look, he knew it was me.

"Little brother," I purred. I didn't bother getting up, but I shifted the way I was lying to make myself more comfortable.

"Storm, I'm busy."

"You're always busy," I pointed out. I reached out to poke him. "I need some healing."

Hail shook his head, "Storm. Why?" Although it wasn't a serious question. He asked it almost every time I visited him with a new injury. "Let me see it."

I rolled over to he could see my shoulder. "Alley cats," I explained.

"Father didn't want you to fight them," Hail meowed. He touched my shoulder gently with his paw. "This isn't too bad. Does it hurt?"

I shook my head.

"I'll put cobweb on it, then." Hail looked around for a moment, then apparently saw some cobweb and went off to get it.

By that time, Tornado had caught up. He sat down and placed the bird he had been carrying on the ground. "You're going to hurt him, jumping on him like that."

"He's fine," I meowed.

"Tornado, why can't you keep my brother from hurting himself?" Hail walked up to us and pressed some cobweb over my wound.

Tornado purred. "I try."

"I don't need to be protected," I protested.

"No, of course not," Hail meowed. "All right, Storm. You can go. If it starts to hurt, find a poppy and bring it to me. I'll give you the right amount of seeds to eat."

I sat up. "Thanks, here," I pawed the bird over to Hail. "We caught this for you."

Hail looked down at the bird, "Storm, you know I-"

"Hey, some cat needs to take care of you, little brother." I gave him a friendly nudge, then started to head back towards the main alley where Tornado and I spent the night.

After saying goodbye to Hail, Tornado caught up with me. "Storm, I've known you my whole life, and yet I don't think I'll ever fully understand you."

"Why's that?"

"You almost seem to have two personalities. Sometimes you're the fighter, the leader, the most dangerous cat around besides Shatter. Then, sometimes, you act like a kit playing."

"Depends on which cats I'm with."

"I guess so," Tornado agreed.

(***)

Of course, I made perfect sense to myself. I was protecting things. I protected my clan from invading cats. I was gentle with Hail so that I wouldn't hurt him.

I've always been the protector.