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ShadowClan cats flew from the left and the right. The miniscule ThunderClan patrol was surrounded by cats with a gleam of animus in their diabolical eyes, and even for a patrol with both deputy and leader, the four cats were afraid. It appeared as though the whole of ShadowClan came to battle for the territory long disputed over ShadowClan and ThunderClan, even in the days of Nightstar and Firestar some eighty seasons ago.
A sleek silver tabby, the deputy of ThunderClan, stepped forward, bristling. She hissed at the attacking ShadowClan cats, “Get off of our territory!”
“Your territory?” An ominous shape padded out of the shadows. Black as night, the cat took a step forward. “This is ShadowClan’s territory now. Run on home, Featherfur.”
Featherfur bared her teeth at the raven black cat. “I’ll give you one last chance, Ravenstar. Get off our territory before we tear you to pieces.”
Another ThunderClan cat, the leader, Brackenstar, whispered to a white-and-ginger apprentice, too quietly for Featherfur to hear. The apprentice raced off, Featherfur guessed, to get help. The other apprentice, a dark gray tabby, snarled at Ravenstar and lunged. Brackenstar gasped. “Coonpaw, wait!”
It was too late. Claws unsheathed, Ravenstar batted the apprentice off to the side. “Your apprentice has chosen for you. I see now that this is war,” he growled. The ShadowClan leader nimbly raced toward Featherfur, claws unsheathed. He leapt into the air, and to Featherfur’s eye, seemed to hang there for a whole moon before finally coming down on her back. Featherfur let out a painful yowl as Ravenstar’s teeth scored a lump of fur off of the scruff of her neck. With a flip of her haunches, Ravenstar went flying off her back, with Featherfur pouncing on top of him. The tom was ready for her; his claws out, he reached for her face, but he missed- and she landed right on top of him and sent them rolling in a flurry of silver and black fur. She tried to score his face or even give him a bite to the throat and finish him quickly, but she couldn’t get more than a few scratches to the chest before Ravenstar flipped her over with a paw on her throat. His eyes were staring at her with a certain animus- hating the fact that she was even alive. Featherfur couldn’t deny it- she was afraid of this beast, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Her ears back, she swiped at his head, but it was greeted by a bone-crushing blow to her face. Ravenstar glanced over somewhere to his left and uttered only one word, “go.”
As Featherfur glanced at the place he was looking at, her eyes grew wide with fear. There was Brackenstar, with a blue-gray cat on top of him, his teeth sunk into the leader’s throat. No… thought Featherfur. The cat pulled. A deafening yowl of pain, terror, and fury ripped through the forest, sending rabbits to their burrows, and birds to take flight. Featherfur smirked. “Mousebrain. He still has two lives left.”
But Ravenstar wasn’t afraid. He just closed his eyes and chuckled, which soon gave way to full-blown laughter.
No…not even StarClan themselves could heal this… Featherfur feared for not only her life, but the lives of her clanmates. What would she do if Brackenstar died?
Brackenstar continued to scream in pain… until the screaming died to a faint gurgling sound. His throat had been torn out of his body. A river of blood stained the ground where Brackenstar had been impaled.
“No!” Featherfur screamed. “Brackenstar!!” Suddenly, the thunder of paws brought Featherfur out of her spiraling grief. Icepaw was back with more warriors- enough to stand up to the whole of ShadowClan.
Even Ravenstar knew he was outmatched. “Retreat!” he yowled. The cats ran back to the shadows of the pines. “This isn’t over yet! Now you know what we can really do!”
Coonpaw limped up to the broken body of her grandfather. “Grandpa?” she nudged Brackenstar in his muzzle which hung open like a freshly killed rabbit. Icepaw ran up to her sister. “Wha…What happened?” She turned to Featherfur.
Featherfur couldn’t believe her leader, friend, and mentor’s life was taken from her so easily. Why? What did he do to deserve such a horrible fate? She looked down at Brackenstar’s despondent granddaughters. “Your grandfather… was an incredible cat. He- he was…” her voice started to tremble. “It’s time to make you two warriors in his honor.” She and Brackenstar had already been talking about the two’s warrior ceremony. Featherfur- no, Featherstar- will carry on Brackenstar’s incredible leadership- starting with these two apprentices. It was time for these three to start a brand new legacy in ThunderClan.
