The tale of two friends: Twistedheart and Mooncloud.

Chapter 4: Total war.

[Twistedpaw's POV]

||• Twistedpaw was coming back from training with Darktail, together with another warrior. Since the rogues began attacking RainClan's patrols, Brackenstar had ordered that every mentor with their apprentice will be joined by another warrior, for more protection. Of course that meant that the camp would be less defended, but that was a risk the RainClan cats had to take. •|| "Alright Twistedpaw. I think we're done with training for today, but your fighting skills have really improved!" ||• Darktail praised his apprentice, and the brown tom stood straight and looked proud at his mentor. •|| "You can go grab yourself some fresh-kill." ||• Darktail said. •|| "Thanks! Bye Darktail!" ||• Twistedpaw flicked his tail in goodbye, and headed for the fresh-kill pile, where Moonpaw was waiting for him. •|| "Took you long enough." ||• Moonpaw said in a playful tone. •|| "How was training?" ||• He asked. •|| "It was awesome! I learned some new fighting skills!" ||• Twistedpaw meowed excitedly, clawing at the air. •|| "Me too! Those rogues better fear us!" ||• Moonpaw joked, and grabbed a rabbit from the fresh-kill pile. Twistedpaw picked out a plump mouse and followed his friend next to the apprentices den. After they finished eating, Moonpaw went inside the apprentices den, while Twistedpaw was staying a little bit more outside. It was pretty quiet in the camp, since most cats had gone to sleep. The brown tabby looked at the stars and whispered a prayer to the Fallen Watchers, as the cold wind ruffled his pelt. Just as he was about to go to sleep as well, he spotted a dark figure near the camp's entrance. As Twistedpaw got closer, he could make out the gray and white pelt and those deep blue eyes. Flameclaw. There he was again, leaving the camp at night, just like a moon ago, when Twistedpaw spotted him the first time. This time he decided to not ask him anything, since he knew what his response would be, but now, he would definitely keep a closer look at the warrior. He walked back to the apprentices den and laid down next to Moonpaw, slowly falling asleep. The next morning, after he woke up, he ate a quick meal before going out to train with Darktail again. Moonpaw was already out with Daisyivy, so unfortunately, he didn't get to keep the brown tabby tom some company. As he took another bite out of his vole, he saw some of his clanmates run back to the camp, their pelts full of blood and scars. Twistedpaw almost choked on his food, as he saw in what state his clanmates were. He got up and started approaching them, but just then, a massive group of cats entered the camp, with an orange tom in lead. He had one perple and one blue eye, something unusual for a cat. Besides that, blood dripped down his mouth and his claws were also full of blood. Twistedpaw stood frozen and gulped hard. He didn't expect the rogues to be this many and so... powerful. The leader of the rogues walked deeper in the camp and Brackenstar approached him. •|| "Greetings... whatever your name is. I am Curse, leader of The Free." ||• The orange introduced himself, grinning. •|| "Well then, Curse... I don't understand what you want from RainClan. We've never done anything wrong to you or attacked your camp or patrols. So do you want from us?" ||• Brackenstar asked, hissing. •|| "Precisely. You're too weak to attack my camp. Are those what you call soldiers? Pathetic. And what I want from you? Well, I just want to destroy all the clans. They don't have a place in the forest." ||• Curse explained, unsheating and sheating his claws repeatedly. •|| "IDIOT! If you attack just one warrior from my clan, we'll flay your skins and drive you back to your camp!" ||• Brackenstar growled, getting ready to leap onto The Free's leader. •|| "We shall see then." ||• Were Curse's last words, before leaping onto Brackenstar and digging his teeth into his throat. Twistedpaw just sat there, not knowing what to do. RainClan's warriors and The Free's soldiers also started attacking, but RainClan was heavily outnumbered, due to its leader's new rule of having another warrior at training sessions. Curse must've found out about this and used it to his advantage... but how did he find out? Just as Brackenstar started struggling with Curse, Twistedpaw leaped onto Curse's back and threw a few blows at him, before Curse grabbed him by his scruff and flung him away. Twistedpaw laid in pain on the ground, but afterwards slowly got up and started walking back to the battling cats. But before he could do something, he felt more pain stab him in the back and collapsed yet again on the ground. A soldier, which looked about 8-9 moons, pinned Twistedpaw down, and dug their claws into his shoulders. Twistedpaw was too tired though, and couldn't continue fighting. He guessed this was the end for him and that he had failed keeping his promise of saving RainClan. As the soldier raised his unsheated paw for the killing blow, Twistedpaw saw a black pelt at the back of the soldier, struggling to stay up there. Moonpaw! He kept clawing the soldier desperately, in order to save his friend, but just like Twistedpaw with Curse, he failed, and got thrown away. Now it was one and one yet again. The brown tabby turned his head to the side, only to see Flameclaw stare at him and the soldier fighting. Finally some help! •|| "Flameclaw!" ||• Twistedpaw struggled to yell. •|| "Help me!... please!" ||• He begged, hoping his deputy would so something. But he was so wrong. Flameclaw didn't do anything and simply smiled at Twistedpaw, before walking away. Was he mad?! Why wouldn't he help his own clanmate? How could his own deputy do that? There was no time to think about that though. He had to escape this rogue first. He tried pushing them with his hind legs, but didn't have enough strength to push them all the way off him. As he tried again and again, the rogue suddenly got off Twistedpaw, and the tom stood there confused.
When he got up to see what happened, the rogue was running away and in front of him stood a she-cat. •|| "Next time, don't mess with my son again." ||• Of course it had to be his mother who saved him! Twistedpaw quickly rushed up to her and pressed his fur to hers. By that time, the rogues had already gone, after almost destroying his beloved clan. Cats were laying dead on the ground, and Brackenstar, who was also laying on the ground, looked like he was losing another life. Everything went wrong. Moonpaw was not with Twistedpaw yet, since he went to find his mother, Brightflower. What really bothered Twistedpaw, was Flameclaw. Why didn't he help him when he was so close to dying? And what was he possibly doing everytime out of camp at night? What if... Flameclaw had contributed to the war in a different way? What if... he actually helped both sides... or rather only one? •||

|| Sorry for the delay, got busy with school stuff and yeah. But holy hell, this chapter is so long. They say this was the first time Twistedpaw was so close to death. And yes, this was the beginning of Curse terrorizing other clans. ||