On the Cusp of Coincidence

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw, a senior warrior of DarkClan, was leading a scouting patrol for DarkClan. The group had been traveling for nearly two days and had now reached their destination: The Bloodstones.
It was the full moon for the next few days - and it was day at the moment, even in the gloom and pouring down rain - and now the group would watch and wait. What for, any could wonder. Well, for the rest of DarkClan, and for any other Clan that would show up in the aftermath of the first violent act of war.

Gorseclaw held his tail up, signaling for the patrol to stop.
Silverpaw, Gorseclaw's sister and apprentice, looked up at beige tom then back to the red stones beyond the treeline.
It's strange, she thought. The trees just...give away to red. Silverpaw couldn't see the clearing properly. There were many large red rocks obscuring her view, but she was excited and frightened and calm all at once for being there.

Gorseclaw looked back at the patrol - the deputy, Hollowstripe; deputy's apprentice, Bronzepaw; warrior, Sorestare; and new warrior, Mustardstorm.
He signaled for silence, also signaling that there may be enemies they weren't aware of (OOC: I do believe there really are tail and ear signals for this stuff).

Silverpaw strained to understand her mentor's signals - she knew more about herbs and fighting then signals!
This is why I'm still an apprentice, she huffed mentally. Silverpaw knew the last one - enemies could be around. And she figured the first one meant stop since everyone else stopped.
Even Mustardstorm knows to stop, and he took forever to become a warrior. She stopped. StarClan above, I'M LIKE MUSTARDSTORM.
Quickly moving past that horrifying topic, Silverpaw settled on the thought that since enemies may be around, the second-to-last signal may have meant quiet...
Or bees were attacking, which didn't seem likely.
Silverpaw sighed silently, focusing on the red stone.

Gorseclaw looked around the group, keeping his ears pricked and occasionally opening his mouth to try for scents. Nothing. The rain made things impossible.
Regardless. We will wait for DarkClan. And if Mudblood dare show their faces, we will fight until we cannot.
In Gorseclaw's mind "fighting until we cannot" meant fighting then retreating before escape became impossible and there was no hope of victory.
I'm not my sisters.
He glanced at Silverpaw.
I'm not Sunmist or Robinsong, he corrected himself. Strange - I hardly think of her as a sister. Not Silverpaw, and not her brothers.
Pondering this, the tom lowered himself into the watcher's crouch, resting yet prepared for anything.

Silverpaw looked at her mentor and wondered if she should crouch too.

OOC: Haha. I don't always like playing Silverpaw as the majorly intelligent one of the three, since she isn't. If anything, I'd say Bronzepaw is the prodigy of the group (fighting, signals, politics - everything you could ever want, from what I've seen) while Silverpaw knows SOME politics and knows SOME signals and SOME fighting. She'll always be average, I think, except for her tracking skills. A good warrior overall.
And Goldpaw - my, my, Runny seems to be grooming another leader character. But will Goldpaw's affections for Lightingpelt get in the way?
Teehee!

[Loki]

OOC: I shall bring in Maplejay's Dewclan later, for now you will receive three cats, patrolling the area while the rest of the clan take shelter and hide withing ledges of the Bloodstone's walls.

IC:
Scarred warrior Skyblaze, the wary Wolffang and attractive young Amunet poked their heads over the clearing. Amunet waited worriedly, Wolffang crouched with irritation rolling off his body.
Would the rain ever stop? It seemed most unlikely and he nodded to Skyblaze to lead the tiny patrol out, if he thought it safe.
Wolffang had been very unhappy to leave Tigerflame, if the haughty tom was in pain he was doing a very good job of hiding it. He wondered whether his friend would survive, he certainly was not going to sit out a battle.
The survival of Tawneyclan was appearing to become a thin black line and an ugly wavy line it was, trailing off into the mist.
The tom exhaled softly; the rain distorted his vision which also meant there would be no prey. The kits were hungry back bellow and so were the warriors. The line seemed to be barely visible now as Skyblazes flickering ears told him that he could move forward into the open.

"Do you scent anything?"
Skyblaze looked around coolly, his torn lip drawing back as he took in the whispering smells that the gusts of wind brought and came up with only a shy aftertaste.
"There is something out there," his rough tone warned.
"Mudblood?" Wolffang asked, tasting the air himself.
Amunet came from behind, the rain making short work of her thin fur, she shivered like a quaking leaf.
"Those fowl cats," She mewed worriedly, "have they found us Skyblaze? Is it true?"
"Shut up!" Wolffang snapped at her, "Do you want them to find us?"
His hackles fell as he looked back around, "S'pose it wouldn't matter if they found us now anymore then later."
Skyblaze ignored them, peering off into the near distance, "I can remember the mudblood smell well. They come from the red mountains, so they wouldn't be as easy to scent." The large tom explained precariously, "seen as the redstones are also clay, we wouldn't be able to tell as much but this scent..."
He silently cursed the biting rain, "-its familiar, if only the rain and wind would end."

Amunet felt the wind well, her Egyptian bloodlines now an ailment to this cruel element of weather.
She glowered a little before tasting the air too, "I can scent something too," she told them excitedly.
"It's probably us," Wolffang grumbled contemptuously, "should we move on, Skyblaze?"

Skyblaze frowned disapprovingly at Wolffang and waited for something to happen.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw's thick fur bristled slightly. He felt as though someone was near, possibly by a faint scent or a soft voice being carried on the wet wind. But he couldn't be certain. Not in this rain.
Silverpaw noticed her mentor's reaction to something and looked where he was looking, straining to hear or smell whatever it was he was smelling.

OOC: Where's Blackpaw?

Mustardstorm, near the back of the small group, was watching the patrol's flank, making sure no one could sneak up on them.

[Loki]

OOC: I cannot remember if he decided to leave or not :/
IC:
Skyblaze led the other two out into the open, the rain pelting down against their bodies.
Wolffang was bristling by his side, they were certain someone else was near, certain.
"Show yourself!" Skyblaze snarled dangerously into the blaze, Wolffang jumped at his threatening and unexpected tone; wishing he could be so brave and bold. (OOC:Batman!!!!)

Amunet squeaked too, not expecting it.
"They're somewhere around there," Skyblaze nodded over to the left a bit, "The wind carries something, I cannot tell who but wer're close enough to know its another cat or maybe...morse?"
"How many more?" Amunet asked worriedly before the tom gave her a stiff and exasperated expression.
"We should attack," Wolffang suggested.
"No, it could be a trap. We don't know whether it is friend or foe yet ever."
"Friend or foe?" Wolffang spat scornfully, "Who are you expecting?"
He rolled his eyes as they marched forward.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw's eyes narrowed.
There's something...Shadows... "Silhouettes," Gorseclaw breathed.
Silverpaw's eyes widened then narrowed as she caught what Gorseclaw was saying.
"Mudblood?"
Gorseclaw nodded. Then shook his head. Then sighed and shrugged.

[Loki]

Skyblaze saw the rain beat down on the dark figures in front.
They appeared to have stopped and might be staring back?
He hissed dully, "Attack, we can scare them off."
Wolffang nodded and flattened his ears.
"I see them now," He whispered, "They must be Mudblood, Skyblaze, Dewclan cats are not as big as us or the Darkclan and I don't see Darkclan cats coming all so far."
Skyblaze was doubtful but minded Amunet as he said," run back to the others."
"I know how to fight," Amunet growled and crouched beside him.
Skyblaze nodded and narrowed his eyes, "Come on then, I'm soaked."
The three began forward, ears back and hackles raised.

[Meany]

Bronzepaw, standing his mentor and deputy flank, flattened his ears. "They're getting closer," he hissed. The shapes in the rain were getting bigger - whoever it was, they could mean business.
The brown apprentice unsheathed his claws, his hackles rising and his tail fur fluffing out.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw waved his tail violently. "Get ready," he snarled, getting ready. "We'll only wait for a few moments, then strike." They weren't exactly on a hill, much to Gorseclaw's dismay, but the slight slope and ground change the DarkClanners were on would have to do.

Silverpaw sighed harshly and tensed, unsheathing her own claws.

Mustardstorm's crooked tail moved awkwardly as he crouched and unsheathed his claws, growling low and quiet in his throat.

[Loki]

Skyblaze could see them a little more clearly now, though their features were distorted as the rain lashed down with a newer relentless force.
His large body rolled along as his jaws parted with a vicious hiss.
Ears back against the rain and leading the patrol towards them.

Wolffang gave a low guttural snarl which explained the reasoning for his prefix, Amunet charged silently next to the two toms. Worry outlined her face but there was an adrenaline pumping through her and before she knew it; they were on top of these foreign cats.

OOC: Not literally on top though...haha

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw's tail stilled and he held his breath. He flicked his tail. Now.
The beige warrior tom launched himself towards the nearest enemy, not recognizing the she-cat's build from any of the Clan's. Definitely MudbloodClan.

OOC: Amunet, for the sake of understanding.

IC: Silverpaw flanked the she-cat her mentor was attacking, circling and dodging to avoid the other cats.

Mustardstorm let out a "ROWR!" and attacked a large, leggy tom.

[Meany]

OOC: Taking over Hollowstripe and Sorestare briefly...

IC: Bronzepaw noted that his sister attacked with her mentor, taking cues from him and backing him up.
Hollowstripe is my age, he thought. And this is nothing new to me. Thoughts of Redstar's threats to him and being shamed flashed in the young tom's mind as he left Hollowstripe's side and attacked.

Hollowstripe's eyes followed Bronzepaw's flight but shook her head. If it needed to be dealt with, then she'd deal with it later. The deputy saw one of the cat shapes and attacked it.

Sorestare followed Bronzepaw and attacked the other cat, the smaller tom.

OOC: I'm a little confused on the TawnyClan line-up, but I DO know DarkClan's got them beat by the numbers.

[Loki]

OOC: I have only three to your six:
Skyblaze, Wolffang and Amunet.

IC:
Amunet let out a shocked hiss as a big tom, bigger than her small frame, collided with her shoulder. She turned to flash a claw at him.
Flashing around to find a smaller light grey she-cat whisking behind her. Surrounded she whipped her head with bared fangs between them.

Wolffang let out a nasty snarl, as a brown tabby and dark red cat came for him, he hissed because he'd seen them before but couldn't place it, Damn, this rain!
He dodged the attack feeling the jagged clay soften under his paws, conditions were worsening in the solid weather.

Skyblaze took to the fight standing hard on his hind legs and slapping out at the dark form of a she-cat closing in, snapping angrily, "Come back for a rematch, Mud SCUM!?"
He was a large tom for a Tawneycat but so was his mother and the scars that littered his pelt were still aching from his last battle with the Mudbloods.

OOC:
More for the fact I get confused... I think this is right:
Amunet VS Gorseclaw, Silverpaw.
Wolffang VS Bronzepaw, Sorestare.
Skyblaze VS Hollowstripe, Mustardstorm.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw plowed into Amunet, not caring if the smaller she-cat got a bite or claw in. His thick fur could take it.

Silverpaw jumped back to avoid being clawed then jumped in and nipped at the she-cat's chest. Then, of course, Gorseclaw made his move and she jumped back, surprised.

Mustardstorm noted Hollowstripe joining him, but in seeing that, didn't hear what the enemy tom was snarling.
Probably not important. The DarkClan tom reared up briefly, clapping his large paws (claws unsheathed) at the large tom's head. "Come on," he snarled.

[NKninja]

OOC: Excuse my absence.. Marching band is finally over (had an all day finals competition), so I should be more active.
Thanks Meany for holding onto my characters for this moment.

Let's see if I can butt in correctly into this fight!

IC:

Hollowstripe, like Mustardstorm, only heard small tidbits of whatever her enemy rambled about. But it was simple that they seemed aggravated. With her teeth bared, she sank into Skyblaze's leg, pulling it back quickly.

Sorestare let out an aggravated hiss, to both the strange cat, and how the rain hit his bare skinned face and horrid eyes. He could barely see now, and was starting to just panic at the slightest. Either way, he bared his unsheathed claws, and swung his paws repeatedly towards the blurry, Gray-looking tom, not sure where to designate his blows.

[Loki]

Skyblaze smacked out his long fore-leg, claws blazing at Mustardstorm before he whipped around to dig his claws into Hollowstripe, the pain she had aggravated was intense.
However his icy eyes widened as he recognised her dark pelt, further feeling suddenly very foolish.
The large tom pouted in the rain, grimacing at the feature before facing his mistake at the horns. He recognised this cat, to his greatest relief.
"Hollowstripe?"

Amunet was sent hurtling as the tom launched into her, crying out for mercy and help.
Wolffang heard her pleas and snarled indignantly, seeing Sorestare as a weaker obstacle he pushed past forcefully to get to the she-cat he considered a liability.

OOC:
Don't want my main boys too roughed up.

[NKninja]

Sorestare grunted in pain as he lost his footing after being thrown out of the way. Oh no you don't, he hissed, chasing after the young warrior, his pads feeling to be split on end from so much movement, even from the spongy earth.

Hollowstripe hissed in pain, holding her eyes shut and gripping even harder onto Skyblaze's hind leg. To some confusion, took a moment for her to realize who this tom was after her name was murmured. But after a few heartbeats, her forceful grip on his leg fell, and she let go.
She didn't recognize Skyblaze from his doused scent sprawled with wet ash and rain, and his pelt was barely recognizable from behind. Soon enough, she remembered the warrior from the clan meeting that seemed like forever ago. Sitting alongside the other cats of.. Tawnyclan!
She lifted herself quickly, her pine eyes scanning the clearing of each cat that was attacking each other, seeing if it truly was Tawnyclan they were attacking.

[Loki]

Skyblaze winced as he looked out to his two comrades and shouted after Wolffang.
Amunet was too far to even see, he could barely make out the silhouette of his grey friend.

[Longstorm]

Mustardstorm snarled in confusion as Hollowstripe gave up on her attack on Skyblaze.
"What," he said, "What is it?"

Gorseclaw, clawing at the she-cat's stomach, saw of the enemy cats coming to help the weak she-cat.
Hang on - weak?
He realized that the she-cat wasn't fighting in the strong, cocky way Mudbloods did - she didn't really seem the type, anyways - and stopped clawing her. Though he was still pinning her and threatening her with his claws, he looked, really looked at the silhouette of the approaching tom cat. Long legs and tall ears.
It couldn't be...
He slowly looked down at the she-cat. "TawnyClan?" As far as DarkClan knew, TawnyClan had been decimated by the fires. Hey, they really hadn't heard or seen otherwise in the past few days, so they really didn't know.
Gorseclaw waited for the she-cat's answer, hoping it would come before the tom reached him and started a whole new fight.

Silverpaw heard what Gorseclaw said gasped and backed away from where she had been swiping out at Amunet.
Great - we were sent to find the Clans, and we maul them!

[Loki]

Skyblaze sighed as the rain trailed down his muzzle. He looked at Mustarstorm with indifference, telling him dryly, "We're comrades, not enemies."

Amunet whimpered underneath him, "I just-j-just joined, I don't understand?"
Wolffang reached the she-cat and hissed angrily at Gorseclaw, "Back off!"

[NKninja]

Hollowstripe raised her snout into the air, "Darkclan! Break off the assault!" (It sounds cooler then saying stop attacking!) She ordered, her eyes were held softly on Skyblaze.

Sorestare skidded to a halt, "What? What is it now?!" He hissed confusingly, blinking vigorously in pain.

[Loki]

Skyblaze nodded ounce. His eyes focused on her through the haze and even the rain seemed to slow in the moment.
His nod symbolized the gratitude. He had one more wound to add to the collection.
How should he handle this? Was it his right to tell Darkclan cats how badly Tawnyclan had been dominated?
He lost eye contact in the shame of it all.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw nodded to Amunet and mewed, "Alright." He sheathed his claws and stepped back. "My apologies." He looked at Wolffang and meowed, "Sorry. The rain and clay and general paranoia made you lot a little hard to identify."

Mustardstorm sheathed his claws and watched the TawnyClan cats around. "TawnyClan made it?"

Silverpaw went to stand at Gorseclaw's side.
Gorseclaw looked at the few cats, saddened to see how times had made the other Clans as paranoid as DarkClan was. Gorseclaw chose his words carefully. "I'm impressed you all managed to survive the blaze," he mewed over the rain so all could hear. "We could see the fires from our mountains. I know it's too much to hope that no one was injured, but..." He looked around at the skinny cats and the she-cat he'd attacked, the newcomer (which explained the difference in shape). "Mudblood? The rest of TawnyClan?"

[Loki]

Amunet struggled up and leaned against Wollfang who allowed her to this but only begrudgingly. He wasn't sure how to react to Gorseclaw, so he just nodded and found interest in the haze the rain made on the ground.

Skyblaze sighed, "No, out of the many cats we have we have lost half of our clan, we now stand at 16. we came here to seek refuge as the home and areas where we slept are now gone. Ezziesong seeks her nine lives bellow us as we speak."
he wasn't sure whether he should be revealing all this but Lokistar was all about being truthful and open. The large, scarred tom-cat shrugged to himself at the thought.

[Longstorm]

Gorseclaw exhaled sharply. "...Lokistar was a good leader and will be missed. Ezziesong will be a good leader...My condolences for lost friends." Hollow pre-programmed words. He felt some sympathy, but his thoughts were Better them than us. So much like his littermate.
The tom couldn't imagine losing half of his beloved Clan, much less believe DarkClan had lost a warrior already, but here they were. Gorseclaw thought about the instructions Redstar had given him and those with him. Grudgingly, he realized he may have to talk about their mission to these TawnyClanners. But not without first deferring to Hollowstripe, since she was the deputy and all.
"Where is the rest of TawnyClan?"
He didn't see TawnyClan anywhere nearby.

[Loki]

Skyblaze featured played in wariness for a moment before he told them, "they shelter against the walls of bloodstone, bellow us. Unfortunately we have kits too, they all have colds it could be getting worse for them."
For a while he paused, then continued, "We don't have a medicine cat either, Glaciercloud died when by the flying sticks, Tigerflame is also wounded, Lokistar was going to ask Redstar if his medicine cat could possibly help, but.... Well obviously we didn't intend to be slaughtered the way we were."

"that's not true," Wolffang hissed mechanically, "ifthose dirty Mudbloods attacked us with claws instead of fire we would have won."
Skyblaze frowned at this, not completely true, "your forgetting the cats that kept Lokistar, myself, Jacklepelt and foxfire behind..."
Wolffang and Skyblaze seemed to argue about that for a moment, the darkclanners forgotten.
munet could only stand stiffly to the side looking sour and embarrassed.

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