MISS MITTENS

Dead leaves skated across the wet cobblestones, pulled along by an ice-sharp wind that cut straight through her pelt. They waited in the shadow of an alley, between two houses, with just an angular square-cut view of the overcast sky above. Mittenheart, that was the pretty nickname Sunfire had given her after the battle, and she'd rouse up her inner wildcat again if that's what was needed.

"Fang, you're sure he comes this way?" Mittens asked the white long-haired tom beside her. Fang's fur was all knots and tangles, thin as a stick, and trembling like a leaf.

"All too sure," Fang whispered back, as if he were afraid someone might hear.

"And where's the other one?" Mittens hissed. "Are you sure she's up for this?"

Fang swiveled his head both ways before bobbing his head out of the alley. "Psst! Snare!"

"Yes, Snare!" Mittens shouted, making Fang flinch with her volume.

"Here, here!" Snare hissed, new bell on her collar tinkling with every stride as she raced around the corner and ducking into cover with the both of them.

"Snare, if you take Old Goosebelly face on, I'll come at him from behind," Fang mewed.

Snare flattened her ears, crouching low to the ground. "Some of us may lose our lives, because he will fight!"

"Alas, take heed of him," Mittens warned with a lash of her tail. "He pierced me in my own lodge before, and it was most beastly. He doesn't care what mischief he does; if his claws come out, he will not spare any tom, queen, or kit."

A visible shiver rippled through Fang. "If I can get close to him, then I care not for his claws."

"No, or me either," Mittens said. "I'll be closer than your whiskers."

"I-If I can just get at him once, if he'd come into my sight…" Fang was murmuring to himself, casting fearful glances out of the alleyway where their prey would be crossing. It was a narrow, empty lane of dirty thatch-roofed buildings, with no upwalkers shambling around at this time.

She was undone by his wildcat wars. Ever since he had spun some pretty tale about being chosen to lead his warriors against a Clan of lions on the other side of the mountains, he'd been a ghost from the lodge. All around the time she'd started confronting him about the rats dissipating from the fresh-kill pile. How many had gone down his great gullet, unaccounted for?

Such a burden was a long one for a poor loner to bear, and she had borne, and borne, and borne; and been fobbed off, and fobbed off, and fobbed off from day to day.

Miss Mittens parted her mouth to taste the air, and sure enough, she caught his scent beneath the stench of the town. With another sharp inhale, she could detect traces of Sneezy too, that shrew-nosed carrion-eater.

"Look, he comes," she hissed to both of them. "Do this for me, and forget your debt to the lodge."

Goosebelly walked brazenly in the daylight, Sneezy at his flank, and Acornpaw, a kit-sized young cat at his heels. A sweet young thing that Sunfire had given over to Goosebelly to order around, and it was all too bad. The little scrap would still be welcome in the lodge after they chased off his mentor.

Miss Mittens gave a silent tail signal, and when Fang didn't start forward, she batted him over the ears with a sheathed paw.

Fang and Snare ripped out from the alley now, yowling a rehearsed battle cry as Snare dove for the wildcat's legs and Fangsnare pounced onto his hefty rump, grappling him from behind with claws outstretched.

"How now!" Goosebelly yelped in surprise, toppling like an old, rotten tree as the lodge cats tackled him to the cobblestone. "Whose prey was stolen? What's the matter?!"

"Goosebelly, I a-arrest you at the suit of Miss Mittens!" Fang grunted, struggling to keep a hold of the larger wildcat as he squirmed and wriggled on the ground.

"Off, dungfaces!" Goosebelly growled, rolling helplessly on the ground now. "Sneezy, show your claws! Cut this rogue to strips! Throw the loner in the gutter!"

"Throw me in the gutter? I'll throw you in the gutter! You will, will you, you blighter?!" Mittens was on Goosebelly now too, raising and bringing down her claws. "Kill him! Kill him!"

"Keep them off, Sneezy!" The wildcat strained with a wild, unaimed kick that still managed to catch Snare under the chin, making her screw up her face as a clawed foot pressed up against her cheek.

Goosebelly rolled now, flattening Fang underneath his weight as Snare fell back on her haunches. Miss Mittens hit the footpath too, scrabbling to quickly find her paws. He went running, slow and breathless down the footpath.

"An escape, an escape!" Fang cried.

His followers stood by, mere spectators. Sneezy tensed, but made no move to fight, while Acornpaw looked more likely to simply pad away than fight or chase his mentor. But Miss Mittens wouldn't give up so easily.

The sound of claws and falling pawsteps rang through the narrow lane as they closed in behind their target. Her blood was up.

"You were going to cut us into strips now?! Throw me in the ditch?! Well, do it then, you hempseed, try it! Do it, won't you?!"

"Away, you pigeon-brain, you mat-fur, you dog-head!" Goosebelly spat over his shoulder. "I'll tickle your catastrophe!"

Despite the bluster, he still yelped as he stripped over an uneven stone, spilling to the ground as Fang and Snare leaped on him again. Sneezy and Acornpaw approached, every pawstep weighed down with reluctance. Sneezy, wide-eyed with fear, and Acornpaw seeming utterly bemused.

A piercing yowl split the air and made every cat freeze in place, the shadow of a broad-shouldered warrior stretching out toward them as a powerfully-built wildcat turned the corner. One she'd seen before, the same Hawkwing who had barged so impatiently into her lodge the previous newleaf. And she heard tell, the same one who had given Sneezy a good smack over the head and knocked the last of his nerve out of him.

"What is the matter?" Hawkwing demanded, bushing up his fur to seem twice his normal size. "Keep the peace here, stop!"

Rogues and wildcats alike all gaped in silent surprise at the forest cat so deep in what they called Twolegplace.

Now, a real warrior, like from the stories. One who followed the warrior code, whatever that meant, but she could only assume it was noble and righteous. "Oh, Hawkwing! Thank goodness you're here! Please, help me!"

It was the warrior's turn to look bemused now, squinting as his eyes fell to Goosebelly on the floor, Fang still holding a mouthful of scruff and Snare sprawled over top of him.

"What have you gotten yourself into, Goosebelly? What, are you brawling here?" Hawkwing said as he approached, incredulous. "Does this suit a LeafClan warrior? You should be in camp, with the rest of the war party."

The muscular tabby tom shot an icy glare to the two rogues over top of his clanmate. "Get off, will you? Why are you hanging onto him like that?"

Neither Fang or Snare didn't require a second warning. Fang shrank back against a wall, and Snare went wailing as she turned and raced the opposite direction down the lane, tail dragging behind her as she ran. After a heartbeat's hesitation, head swiveling on his shoulders, Fang turned and followed after her, fleeing full speed down the footpath.

Behind them, Sneezy and Acornpaw still stood, with Sneezy doing his best to hide behind the much smaller apprentice as soon as Hawkwing came into view. The black tom was looking down at his paws, the buildings, anywhere but the warrior, as if he might go unrecognized as long as he stood still as a sculpture.

"Oh, brave, noble, honorable warrior, I beg your pardon," Miss Mittens mewed, eyes wide. "I am a poor, struggling LodgeClan queen, and Goosebelly is being imprisoned for his great debt."

Hawkwing wrinkled back his lip, his eyes uncomprehending. "He's what?" Another golden-furred wildcat appeared behind him, quiet as a spider, orange eyes drinking in the scene but saying nothing. Mittens struggled to put a name to a face. Tansywhatsit. Tansyspots. Or perhaps it was Daisysomething?

"Debt?" Hawkwing repeated. "For what sum?"

"It's more than for some, it's for all! All that I have! He's eaten me out of nest and home, and put all my fresh-kill in that fat belly of his!" As Mittens said it, she gave Goosebelly a sharp prod in the stomach for emphasis. "And I will have some of it back out again, or you belong to me."

"How comes this, Goosebelly?" Hawkwing questioned sharply. "What kind of warrior would endure this storm of abuse, if she lies? Are you not ashamed?"

"What is the debt I owe you?" Goosebelly asked between grit teeth.

"Yes, if you were an honest warrior—yourself, and the fresh-kill too." Goosebelly's face recoiled as Mittens spat it out, but the words were forged blazing hot now. And she could never be angry without crying, no matter what it was about. "You did swear to me, over a fresh-caught chicken in the lodge, on a rainy day, during the last claw-moon of greenleaf, before the swallows started to fly south…"

Goosebelly squirmed uncomfortably. "Ah—"

"...when Sunfire broke your head for likening his father to a stoat…"

"Well—"

"...you did swear to me then, as I was cleaning your wound, to be my mate, and make me a LeafClan queen…"

Goosebelly scooted backward one mouse-length at a time, as Hawkwing and Pansyslip's hackles rose.

"Can you deny it?" Mittens challenged.

"I—"

"Did you not brush my cheek and bid me to fetch you another rat? I put you up to your wildcat's code. Deny it, if you can!"

"Listen, Hawkwing…" Goosebelly started with a low murmur. "This is a poor mad soul, and she says up and down Twolegplace that her eldest son looks like you. The truth is, harsh living out here's quite filled her brain with bees. As for this other rogue though, we ought to show him why no one provokes a LeafClan warrior—"

"Goosebelly," Hawkwing sighed, shaking his head. "Goosebelly, I'm well acquainted with your manner of wrenching truth the false way. You have, as it appears to me, abused the easy-yielding spirit of this loner, and made her serve your uses. In all ways."

"Yes, in truth!" Mittens piled on.

"Please, quiet," Hawkwing said with a flick of his tail, eyes only for his clanmate. His words were a blunt instrument. "Repay the debt you owe her, and unpay the wrong you have done her. The first you can do with fresh-kill, and the other you can do by begging her forgiveness."

"What, spend valuable time hunting for a rogue before feeding my Clan? I wouldn't dream of it. But I do say, it really is past time we left this wretched place—I'm needed back in camp."

"Indeed, you are," Hawkwing growled. "I wasted valuable daylight tracking your scent here. But first, act according to your rank, and satisfy this poor loner."

Goosebelly's eyes flicked from Hawkwing, to Tansysleet, to Sneezy and Acornpaw, and finally back to Miss Mittens with an exasperated groan. "Come here, Miss Mittens. Come here." He gestured back toward the alley with a flick of his tail, leading her just around the bend.

"As I am a warrior…" Goosebelly started as they ducked out of sight.

Tears flowed freely now, her voice breaking. "Oh, you said so before…!"

"As I am a warrior," he repeated. "Come, no more words about it."

"By this very stone I walk on, I'll go hungry this leaf-bare," Mittens despaired, shoulders quaking.

Goosebelly pressed himself reassuringly against her flank. "If the prey stops running in Twolegplace, then it's stopped everywhere beneath the sky. You've made it through every leaf-bare and always will." He brushed at her tears with the tip of his tail. "Go, dry your eyes, forget the debt, and we'll have another rat together at the lodge. Come, you can't be all moody with me, don't you know me? Come, come, I know you were set on to this…"

Socks said she shouldn't let him loaf around eating all their prey like a captive house cat. "Please, Goosebelly, let's just call it three rats from you."

"Ah, let it alone. I'll find another way around it, and you'll be a mouse-brain still."

"Well, I'll let you add another rat to your debt," Miss Mittens said as he began to turn, blinking her eyes. "I hope you'll come to the lodge before you have to leave? And you'll pay me back then?"

Goosebelly flashed her an unflappable grin, as he walked back into the narrow lane. "Will I live?" he mewed, before turning his head to call out to the other cats. "Sneezy, go with her. And be hitched on her like a tick; don't let her out of your sight."

"Will it be all right if Dolly is there?" Miss Mittens called after him, as Sneezy rounded the corner into the alley, face dripping as always.

"No more talking," Goosebelly sang back. "Let's have her."

Goosebelly trotted off with Acornpaw rushing to follow, but Miss Mittens made no move to return to the lodge. She hovered behind the corner with Sneezy, straining her ears to listen to the wildcats' conversation.

"I've heard better news," Hawkwing said gravely, in response to some unintelligible murmuring from Teaselskip.

"What news, Hawkwing?" Goosebelly sounded from around the corner, cheerful as anything.

"Has Rowanstar left his nest?" Hawkwing urged Tawnylip on.

"Hardly, and not to join any patrols," Tanglespeck responded.

"I hope all is well," Goosebelly cut in again. "What is the news?"

"Are all our warriors returned?" Hawkwing asked.

"No; there's still a border patrol out near HillClan territory. Minkpaw and Shadepaw were sent to alert them. But Owlswoop and Sorreltail are making preparations as we speak."

"Trouble from HillClan again?" Goosebelly questioned. "Or one of the other ones?"

"I trust you'll figure out whenever you think to visit your own camp," Hawkwing snapped. "Come, go along with me, Tansyslip."

"Wait…!" she heard Goosebelly say again, as a pair of pawsteps began to recede.

"What's the matter?"

"Tansyslip, would you fancy sharing some fresh-kill at the old Twoleg nest with me, before you go?"

Miss Mittens pressed herself close against the alley wall, ears perked with keen interest. Any glimpse into the world of these forest cats, that she only experienced through stories and play-acting in the lodge. She'd had her one taste out in the poppies, and now the dreams of dark prey-filled woods and meadows of flowers swirled around her head, unable to escape.

"What, carrion-heap rats?" Tansyslip scoffed. "We're needed back at camp now. Another time."

Hawkwing's voice bit like leaf-bare frost. "Goosebelly, you loiter here too long, since you of all cats were chosen for the war party."

"But a rat first, Tansyslip?"

"What mentor taught you this foolishness, Goosebelly?" Hawkwing barked.

"If my behavior doesn't suit, then they were a fool that mentored me," Goosebelly said with a lazy mew.

"Now StarClan lighten you," she heard Hawkwing growl, voice fading as she pressed up against the alley wall. "You are a great fool."