Chapter 2
Claws flashing, blood spilling, fangs bared, it was the perfect image of a battle. With one slash of a claw, a life could be taken, leaving the cats behind to grieve. It was a site of horror for any defending and watching person or cat.
Hopedawn thought back to earlier that day as she fought in the screeching piles of cats around her. How was it that Branchlight seemed to find the rogues? Wasn't she conversing with one of them when her patrol found the she-cat warrior? A swipe of a claw woke Hopedawn from her thoughts and she bitterly fought back against the cat that attacked her. Now, wasn't she glad for the moves that her brother taught her for the past several moons?
Hopedawn crouched on the edge of the clearing with her teeth bared, daring anyone to come near. She had just chased off one cat, but she could easily see that BirchClan was losing the battle against the rogues. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain at her ears, and blood began to pour down over her eyes. She wiped the blood away and looked at her attacker, the one who slashed her. Hopedawn noticed the way he stood wary, ready for her attack. "In a way, he looks handsome," she mused to herself. The tom was a dark mottled brown tabby with bright, amber eyes that stood strong, despite the many wounds on him. Slowly, Hopedawn made a decision; she would not fight this tom. The lithe, cream she-cat then nodded to the tom and disappeared back into the battle.
Hopedawn twisted and turned through the crowd, trying to get away from the handsome tom. However, she was stopped in her tracks as she was rammed into by a bright ginger she-cat with glassy eyes that glowed with fury.
"I will kill you," hissed the she-cat.
"You don't even know who I am, you mange-pelt!" Hopedawn lashed out a claw, swiping the ginger cat on her brow. But the ginger cat did not stop; she just leaped and caught Hopedawn's foot in her mouth.
"Yes I do. You are Hopedawn, daughter of Swiftclaw!" she hissed as Hopedawn battered her flank with heavy blows.
"Well, you may know who I am but I have no idea who you are rogue. You don't belong here!"
"I will soon enough," the ginger cat said before leaving the battle.
Suddenly, Hopedawn heard BirchClan's leader, Flamestar, sound the retreat. Hopedawn quickly looked over the battlefield and seeing Hollypaw struggling to carry Poppypaw, she rushed over to carry Poppypaw and to help the two apprentices escape safely. Hopedawn picked up Poppypaw's limp body and went to the underbrush, where the medicine cat, Leafsong, worked on treating the warriors.
Setting Poppypaw's small body down, Hopedawn mewled to Leafsong, "Leafsong…" Looking up, Leafsong gasped and ran over to the apprentice.
"Take care of her Leafsong. There are more injured cats out there that I am going to get," she whispered to the she-cat.
"Go Hopedawn, but be careful. You know what Swiftclaw will be like when you get back." Then Leafsong nodded to the warrior and started working on the apprentice.
Swiftly, Hopedawn went back into the clearing of which the battle took place and froze. Before her were the rogues and the rest of her clanmates, including Rockshade and the deputy. They had been gathered and encircled by the rogues and it was obvious that is was done quickly. Hopedawn's clanmates were bloody and looked exhausted. Talking before them all was the handsome brown tabby, the one that Hopedawn refused to fight. Hopedawn kicked herself, she almost fought the leader! She could've ended the battle then and there!
Hopedawn gathered her thoughts and strode purposefully into the clearing. She set her eyes on her brother and walked, what seemed to be calm, towards him. Gasps of shock and surprise resounded through the watching cats, from both the rogues and the clan cats.
"Hopedawn, no!" cried Rockshade, quickly gesturing for her to run away.
Ignoring her brother, Hopedawn walked towards the leader. When she was 4 fox-tails away, she gracefully sat down and glared at the leader. She then spoke, "Tom, I do not know your name, or who you are. However, I know these cats that you have taken and they are very dear to me. I request that you release them."
"Then let me get a few things set straight Hopedawn. That is your name right?" the leader scoffed. As Hopedawn nodded, he continued speaking. "My name is Spar. I'm the leader as you can probably see. As to our prisoners, we won them fair and square. I request that you leave and forget they exist."
"How dare you? My kin is in that group and yet you are proposing for me to just, forget?"
"To put it simply, yes."
"Yet, you stand up there and look supreme. I could've fought and killed you, but you looked like the noble sort, so I refused. And is this the way you repay me? I'm disgusted." she growled.
Spar gazed at Hopedawn as he made his final decision. "Fine," he nodded, with defeat in his shoulders, "we will return our prisoners to you. However…"
"However, what?" Hopedawn asked, masking the panic in her voice.
Quickly, Spar bent his tail at an odd angle and one of his cats, the bright ginger she-cat that Hopedawn had fought earlier, leaped upon the deputy, Lightningstrike. With one snap of her jaws, the deputy fell down dead. As it happened, Hopedawn and the rest of her clanmates looked in horror to where the ginger she-cat wiped her mouth with a small paw and backed away.
"Now, you may have your prisoners, as we took your deputy's life. Sit vigil for him if you wish, but be wary. Always be wary of the unknown." With another flick of his tail, Spar brought together his cats and then led the way out of the hollow.
Quickly, Hopedawn took over and said to the group, "Out of all of you here, who is fastest and least uninjured?"
"That would be me, Hopedawn," a young apprentice said out of the middle of the group.
"Very well Larkpaw, run to camp and alert everyone you know that their clanmates are on the way back to camp. And that we will need as much help carrying and leading them as many is wounded. Can you do this for me?"
"Yes Hopedawn!" Larkpaw squeaked, and the apprentice rushed into the undergrowth with determination on her face.
"Alright, we are going to rest here until cats come to help bring you back to camp."
"They can come back though!" whimpered another apprentice, Mintpaw.
"No they won't Mintpaw, Spar gave his word." Hopedawn replied.
"And you believe that mange-pelt of a rogue?" hissed Thistlefoot. "I, for one, vote to continue on. I don't trust a single hair on that fox-heart's pelt."
"Fine Thistlefoot, would you like to carry all the injured?" hissed Hopedawn. Then her voice grew calmer, "There are too many for us to carry. We have to wait for help."
"Fine." replied the tom as he sat down.
Soon, all of the BirchClan cats settled down, ready to wait for their other clanmates. It was twilight and was descending into nighttime faster and faster. Hopedawn sat on the outskirts and watched them, thinking about the battle and what would have been if she had fought Spar. She glanced to the side as her brother shuffled up to her and spoke.
"Thanks for coming back for us. No other cat did."
"Rockshade, you don't need to thank me. I mean, I was the one who could've stopped the battle. I just couldn't bring myself to fight the tom, Spar. It was like StarClan was whispering in my ear to just back away. Also, our clanmates were concentrating on all of the injured that we had. Poppypaw was near death, I carried her out of the battle myself. No one realized that you were missing as they simply thought your "group" just went back to camp already, to prepare the way for the injured."
"But still, you were the one who came back. And you got Spar to release us, even if we lost Lightningstrike during the… negotiations."
"That's true. I wonder how the clan will take Lightningstrike's death. He served the clan for a very long time and he was very fatherly. Everyone liked him."
"Yes," replied Rockshade. The two cats then sat in quiet, soaking in the darkness of the night and reveling in each other's comfort and scent. As the two cats sat, the wind drifted over their nostrils, informing them of many prey-scents from that direction, yet unaware of the cats pounding the earth as they raced towards the BirchClan cats.
A/N: Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thanks for the reviews that you guys gave me. I really did try to make Hopedawn have some faults. Even so, I had a hard time as she had to be a Mary-sue. Once again, thanks for the reviews, it meant a lot.
I decided to make an actual story out of this, as I think I set up the plot line for myself and the writing just started to flow. The beginning of this chapter was kind of rushed, I admit, but I wanted to get right to the battle as I didn't know how to fill the gap otherwise.