MORNINGSKY
They streamed in from every corner of the prairie, from every camp, from the farmhouses and riverbanks and the edge of Twolegplace. Lilystar had called them all. The moon was cloaked in thick rainclouds, StarClan's wrath churning above them and corporealizing in thick curtains of fog.
She didn't enjoy killing, but when done righteously, it was just a chore like any other.
Morningsky knew she could nap easy. The LeafClan cats had nowhere to run. MeadowClan had encircled them on the isle of hawthorns, and they wouldn't even let a mouse scamper through undetected.
And for herself, she'd sleep with her head dry, and a belly full of fresh-kill. She knew the same could not be said for the ragged marauding band that Raggedweed had spied sloshing through the streams.
Rain pattered on the corrugated shed roof, warriors gathered in every corner. Just a few of those who would fight at the next sunup. They could fall on them now, lunge from the mists before they could even make their nests… but no. Let LeafClan stew in their fear.
They were at their mercy and could be dispatched at leisure.
"It is too long since I've tested my claws in battle," Morningsky said, eagerly raking them along the wood planks. "I wish it was day!"
"Not too long, I hope," Bristlefur said good-humoredly. Beside him, Snowtuft gave a long, silent yawn.
"I haven't forgotten how to use them, if that's what you mean," Morningsky purred. "Wait until the squirrel-chasers try facing us in the water."
Bristlefur twitched his whiskers before bending his head back to sigh, "Will it never be morning?"
"Bristlefur, Morningsky, you talk of claws and techniques?" Pikestripe cut in, raising his head, green eyes glowing.
"You are as well-trained as any warrior in the Clan," Morningsky mewed evenly, tail twitching. Here we go again…
"What a long night this is!" Pikestripe laughed. "Only as well-trained? I'm gifted. I'm LeopardClan born again. Tomorrow I'll shred a forest's worth of leaves myself."
Bristlefur slid Morningsky a silent, unknowing glance, twitching his whiskers in amusement again. "Why, I should be glad to see that," he said.
"My belly rake's the most deadly in the Clan," Pikestripe went on. "And in water, I'm like a hawk in the air. I'll catch them with an underwater push-off, and then rear-up to slash…" He sliced his claws through the air in demonstration.
"I'm sure that will be most effective," Morningsky said flatly, hoping that would end it.
But no such hope. The young silver tabby crouched now, squaring into a fighting stance. "Drop the shoulder, and lock them to the ground…"
"No more, Pikestripe," Bristlefur sighed now, interrupting. But still, Pikestripe went on.
"Then shake their scruffs like badger pups, ha!" He slashed and pounded at the imaginary LeafClan warrior in front of him, flashing teeth. "They'll squeal for a break, and think I'm a wonder of nature—"
She couldn't help herself now. "Are you seeking to fight them, or woo them?"
Bristlefur gave a quiet chortle.
"Both in a stroke," Pikestripe grinned. "Why not?"
"One quick, shallow stroke."
"Well, we shall see who counts more pelts to their name on the morrow, shall we not?" the silver tabby sneered. "I don't expect you'll collect as many as back in your heyday… You're getting a bit past sunhigh, Morningsky."
The deputy suppressed a growl, even as a few other cats snickered. This was one arrogant fish-brain, and yet one of Lilystar's pampered kits, and popular with some of the younger warriors who admired his fierceness. Warriors lucky enough to not know the dangers of a true battle. With MeadowClan so long at peace, they seemed to resent that their lives were so easy, and longed for their own war stories.
But now she did feel old when she had those types of thoughts. In any case, there was no doubt in her mind that Pikestripe coveted her position. And by the way he pricked and nettled at her day in and day out, he was obviously not trying to curry her favor.
He thought he could outlast her, outfight her… But she'd show him. Her claws had not lost their sharpness, and she still had all her teeth.
Applestem raised his head now. "Why not fall upon them now?"
The ginger warrior had already had his close brush with LeafClan, dunked in the river with Sheephead. The forward patrol who had pursued the LeafClan cats to the border had to haul him out of the near-freezing water and lap him in tongues to restore his body heat.
Still, even with Raggedweed's protestations, he insisted on staying in the war party. Another cat eager to repay LeafClan in a fair fight, and that made Morningsky all the more glad to have him.
"Many small advantages build," Morningsky reasoned. "We'll wake tomorrow, well-fed, well-rested, dry. Not them. Crush them now, crush them tomorrow, crush them three leaf-bares from now… They can't escape. We might as well save our labor and minimize our risk, Applestem."
"Our deputy, always doing what she can to avoid all risk," Pikestripe drawled, eliciting a few more low sniggers.
She shot him a sharp look. "And thank StarClan we have a leader that puts thought in such things, hm? I'm not ashamed of valuing my clanmates' lives and safety."
Pikestripe rolled his eyes, sighing. "Will it never be day?" he said. "Tomorrow, I'll trot a river-length, and my way will be paved with LeafClan faces."
"I will not say so, for fear of being faced out of my way," Morningsky said. I wish it were morning.
"Who will wager with me that I'll take out more LeafClan warriors than any of you?" Applestem said with a fierce purr.
"You first have to stake your life to that wager," she replied.
Pikestripe gave a long stretch, raking his claws against the wooden planks. "It's moonhigh. I'll go do my exercises." Her eyes tracked the silver tabby as he slipped out the shed door, into the cool, wet night.
"Pikestripe longs for morning," Bristlefur said, cocking his brow.
"He longs to eat the forest cats," Applestem concurred.
Morningsky sniffed, tail twitching. "I think he will eat all he kills."
"He never did harm that I heard of," Bristlefur mewed.
"Nor will do none tomorrow," she sighed brusquely, digging her claws into the planks. "He will keep that good name still."
He smirked. "Well, I know him to be valiant."
"I was told that by one who knows him better than yourself."
"Who's that?" Bristlefur asked.
"He told me so himself, and said he didn't care who knew it." It was a hidden valor, spoken of but never showing. Applestem just laughed at that.
"Ill will never said well," Bristlefur chided lightly. "He's young and foolhardy, but earnest."
"I will cap that proverb with, 'There is flattery in friendship.'"
"And have you never heard, 'Give the rogue their due?'"
"Well said," Morningsky acknowledged. "Well, there stands your friend for the rogue. And I'll say, 'He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a fox, a loner's love, or a rogue's oath.'"
"You are better at proverbs," Bristlefur conceded. "But don't rush to judge him too harshly, Morningsky."
Another shape appeared at the shed entrance, casting their shadow across the planks. This time it was Dappleleaf, returning with her report.
"Morningsky," the warrior greeted with a dip of her head. "Leechnose only counts some fifteen LeafClan cats, most of them warriors."
"If only it was day," Morningsky mewed with a satisfied grin, scoring her claws into the wood. "Alas, poor LeafClan. They don't long for the morning as we do."
"What a wretched and peevish leader of LeafClan, to mope with his fat-brained warriors so far out of his knowledge," Bristlefur chuckled.
"If they had any apprehension, they would run away," Morningsky said.
"That they lack."
"That forest of LeafClan breeds very valiant creatures," Applestem added quietly.
"You might as well say, that's a valiant flea that dares eat his meal on the lip of a cat," Bristlefur quipped.
"Shall we rest?" Morningsky said, glancing at the other warriors in the shed. She knew she'd dream of blood tonight. "We'll fight at the singing of the lark."
"It's now moonhigh," Bristlefur yawned. "By sunhigh, we'll each have LeafClan pelts to line the nursery with."
If only it was day.
AN: I was having a lot of trouble uploading to this site, friends. :( I'm sure I wasn't the only one, but I kept encountering strange errors and my most recently uploaded chapters weren't appearing. Fingers crossed this one goes through! Just a reminder I'm always on AO3 if things here go kaput.