Talon rises from his den, the early rays of the morning sun warming his pelt as he stretches. Settling down, he swings his long, fuzzy tail over and begins grooming it. For once he's had a perfectly peaceful night despite having wondered what agitated Frost so much last day until the late hours of the night. There had been no dreams, no gathering, no cat to disturb him, only much needed rest. As he works his tongue through his thick tail fur, he observes from his peripheral vision the alley. Clover is descending from her perch as that night's sentry, heading for the food pile, as the alley increasingly awakens, cats entering it from the far street-side entrance or emerging from their local dens. As Talon finishes up and raises his head, he notices the siblings Edge, Lantern and Grail heading for him. Edge walking amid his two siblings, close enough to touch whiskers at all times, so he walks in perfect sync with his littermates despite his blindness. Talon always thought it mildly humorous to see the three walking in this formation, with Edge's imposing size, towering over Grail and making his ever-slender brother Lantern look almost like fragile a twig in comparison. As they close in, Talon dibs his head in greeting, which they repeat in turn.

„Greetings. How fare the kits?"

Lantern's whiskers twitch as he sits down

„Dawn and Dusk are quite well. Their energy remains undiminishable. Thankfully Viper is willing to look after them from time to time, though I know not how she does it with Edge's kit already to take care of"

The blind tom gently cuffs his brother upside the head with his tail, proving once more that despite his lack of sight, he knows precisely where the cat next to him is

„Lion matches them in every way. And he does need playmates at his age. Viper just lets them tire each other out, has worked well enough so far."

Talon's whiskers slightly twitch at the banter between the siblings

„Pleased to hear they are all well. What brings you here?"

Grail steps forth before sitting down, drawing Talon's attention to herself

„Silver asked if I cared to join your hunt today. I gladly will."

Talon nods at the russet she-cat. His thoughts return to Silver's smile yesterday, wondering what that was about. Though he had initially thought of a veteran warrior to accompany him, but Grail is no less suited for this task than any other warrior. She's had her dogteeth for quite a while and is a capable fighter, she will be valuable in whittling down the dog's defence with injuries.

„I'll gladly have you along then, Grail. We're leaving when the others arrive. Until then get comfortable, I presume it may still be a moment before they all get here."

Grail nods, sitting down. Up this close Talon notices that her pelt is fluffed up and impeccably groomed. Odd before something taxing like a doghunt, but Talon does not comment on it as his tail fur is thicker as well and he too prefers it decently groomed. Looking up at her two littermates, Talon winds his tail around him to settle on his paws

„Lantern, since you are here, we think Granite might be messing around at the dog fight place. Get a patrol together and move along his border. The last thing we need is a larger pack of dogs running wild"

The blue eyed tom nods sternly, his expression immediately growing more serious at Talon's words.

„Of course, Talon. Nothing will pass by us"

„It's mostly to know in time IF such a thing were to happen, Lantern. I hold no doubt you'd fight the whole pack if we'd let you, but I'd rather not lose a good warrior. Keep an eye and ear out for any traces of dogs or other trespassers. Take a few of Kestrel's cats with you too. We need to be able to work as a single clan again, the divide between them and us must slowly disappear"

„I can only agree"

Talon looks over his shoulder to find the source of the voice that just spoke, finding Kestrel padding over and sitting down beside him after dipping his head at Talon and the three siblings in greeting.

„Take Castle if you like. She craves having something to do ever since she's no longer a second-in-command. That she-cat can't bear to stand still for too long"

After a seeking look to Talon, whom nods in approval, Lantern turns to Kestrel

„Very well. I will inform her then. I'll get right to it"

With one more bow if his head, Lantern sets off into the alley to gather the cats for his patrol. Edge hums quietly, licking his paw and dragging it over one of his shredded ears

„I'll go check on Viper. She shouldn't have to deal with the kits alone all the time."

„Of course. Be with your family, Edge. Viper will be thankful for the rest no doubt"

The large scarred warrior nods and begins padding off, orienting himself quite well in familiar terrain.

„Always thought it impressive… blind, yet such a fierce warrior. Did you know several cats of my faction were expressly worried about facing him if I ever ordered an attack on you?"

Kestrel hums thoughtfully as he watches the large brown tom go. Grail's whiskers twitch in amusement

„Rightfully so. Edge would have shredded them here. As long as he is someplace he knows well, he fights better than most seeing cats ever could"

„Indeed. I remember the rogue he took apart back after you and your littermates moved here."

Talon nods slowly as the memory returns to him of Edge's battle against the intruding cat, turning the rogue from overconfident to terrified to still within mere heartbeats from each other. Kestrel huffs

„I am pleased we all fight for the same side now. Speaking of, I presume the doghunt is today?"

Talon nods

„Just waiting for the rest of the patrol to assemble now. Spider will be among them. Ferret too"

Kestrel looks out over the alley

„Good. Better if all our warriors have earned their claws. Still, with Granite and Flame on one border and Wraith on the other, we can't make any big advances. Not without it being a death sentence for whoever leads that patrol. The battle we might win, but one way or other cats will die if we do. For now, it may be wisest to only defend"

Talon sighs. Kestrel is perfectly right, as he often is. With how many cats they have, the battle would almost certainly be won, but such a battle should be led by a leader or at least second-in-command. Kestrel is not a fighter, which leaves only Talon himself. Too good an opportunity for anyone to pass up. The moment he'd move to attack, either Flame would challenge him to a duel or Wraith would lay in wait for him. Either way, he'd be crowfood.

„We'll either have to find an agreement with Wraith or rob Granite of Flame as a warrior in some way or other. Otherwise, we'll remain stuck here… but one thing at a time. Today's target is a dog. That we'll be able to manage"

Kestrel stretches himself slowly

„True. With how many warriors we have, we should be secure from any direct attacks for now. I'll try to think of some solutions to our problem meanwhile. Once that dog falls today, we'll at least be decently stocked on food until leafbare begins for real."

„Here they come"

Grail's voice causes Talon and Kestrel's eyes to follow hers, Silver leading the promised cats over to them. Spider and Ferret are speaking excitedly among themselves, visibly eager to finally earn their claws. Clover, despite already having been sentry for last night pads among them, calm in gesture but her eyes shine with anticipation just the same as the other cats. A little more timidly behind most of them walks Bee. Though she has her claws already, she seems more nervous about it than the others. Silver lowers his head in greeting as he arrives, herding the young warriors over to sit by Grail's side with his tail.

„Everyone's assembled, Talon."

Talon nods in acknowledgement, before leaning in closer to the older warrior, whispering his response as Kestrel begins trotting away

„Well done, Silver. Keep an eye on things with Kestrel until I return. With a bit of luck we'll be back before sunhigh"

„Understood. Scourge guide your claws, Talon"

Talon nods and gets up leading the way out of the alley, the rest of the patrol falling in behind the dark grey leader.

A lengthy walk later, Talon halts his patrol close to the border by the Steel Snake Place. Keeping well out of the way of the ever-bustling twolegs around here, the red eyed tom looks over the cats following him.

„We should be close now. Which means we'll have to proceed carefully from here. No unnecessary noise and remain alert. If the dog wandered from it's alley, it could be anywhere."

The cats nod, the younger ones having their ears perked, eager to hear anything the leader has to say. Seeing this, Talon elaborates further, settling down for a moment

„There are two important roles during a dog hunt, distracting and attacking. You can only safely attack a dog when it is not currently focusing on you, the further from you it's attention lies, the better. That is why most of you will distract it. Try to surround it and make mock attacks before immediately retreating again. If you see a good opportunity to attack, you may take it, but be cautious. It may take longer, but it's better to let an opportunity to strike go than to risk the dog getting a hold of you. Grail and I will attack and whittle it down. The goal is to tire the dog out between attacks, losing blood and having to constantly turnabout between the distractions, that it collapses and gives us a chance at a killing blow."

Spider and Ferret look at Talon with wide eyes, eagerly absorbing each word the tom speaks. Bee and Clover listen in as well, excitement remaining clear in their eyes. To Talon's slight surprise, he finds Grail resolutely hanging on his every word. As he finishes his explanation, the younger warriors look excitedly to each other, even Bee's eyes holding anticipation.

„Alright then. Now we first need to find it and if necessary, draw it out of it's lair. You need space to move to fight a dog, trying to fight it in narrow spaces will end poorly. Stay together. We are strongest together, always remember that"

Rising back up to his paws, Talon motions with his tail to keep low. Dropping into a stealthy crouch, the leader advances, the rest of the patrol following, trying to be as silent as they can. While he is barely able to perceive Grail's presence, which does impress the tom a bit, he finds some mild amusement in hearing the flaws of the younger warriors. Ferret's pawsteps are way too heavy, Clover is not yet fully used to her dogteeth claws, every few steps the tips ticking against the floor. With pleased surprise he notices the younger warriors of Kestrel's faction demonstrate a decent amount of talent, mistakes only very few and far between.

Focusing on the task at hand however, he clears his mind of any evaluations and tastes the air, within heartbeats finding a trace of the dog's scent to follow. Slowly he moves over the hard, paved ground of twoleg-place, swerving out of the way of any and all littered obstacles that might become a source of noise otherwise. The scent grows stronger as he approaches the corner of a small side alley, sending a pang of frustration through the tom. If it's in an alley that narrow, they will need to draw it out first. Cautiously peering in, his frustration alleviates a little. Up ahead, down the alley, sleeping soundly in a large cardboard box lies indeed their mark. The dog looks fairly large, it's short fur and pointy ears making it an intimidating sight even laying peacefully. However, right behind the fearsome beast and it's box, a wire fence cuts off the rest of the alley.

With his tail, Talon motions the patrol to back up, the cats all gaining some distance from the alley before Talon ceases his crouch and speaks up in a quiet voice

„We found it, but now we need to lure it out of it's alley."

He looks down the alley. This is by far the most dangerous part of it all, one mistake in this and one of them might not return home. An unwell feeling forms in Talon's belly. He may have killed dogs before, but that does not take away the twinge of fear he feels now, that any reasonable warrior should feel when they're about to approach a dog. It will portrait him as brave in the story his clan will tell of this. He has to be the one to do this. He takes a deep breath and raises his head to announce himself the lure, only to be cut off by Grail.

„I'll go. Be ready to keep it off me"

Before Talon can object, he watches the russet she-cat dart onward and into the alley, his red eyes wide with surprise and worry.