Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

1 🌙

🌒4 Moons Old🌒

Lain in a nest against the nursery wall, a kit raised her head, black ears twitching. A curdling wail was echoing from beyond the shelter's tightly-woven entrance.

Her sisters and mother-cat rose immediately. It wasn't long before Crescentkit, too, was pushed from the den. Usually her fur would've been on end. And yet she was growing accustomed to the ritual, which occurred within the Clan at least twice a week since before she had been born.

The wolves came to hunt during the still shadowed blanket of the night, or the reddening dying-sun of twilight just before. They never left without at least one cat injured or culled.

The predators feasted on their remains, and the Clans senior warriors or elders would do the duty of burying what was left.

Clan abandonment had been a serious discussion, but no cat wanted to admit defeat and flee without the agreement of the other clans. Alone and without Starclan's guidance, the loyalest of Riverclan cats had stayed through the butchery. But it felt like an island lined with despair and loss rather than reeds and streams. Their camp no longer felt protected.

Without knowing it Crescentkit had been sheilded from most of that. Just like now, her mother was covering her eyes from Riverclan's reeded clearing with a bi-colored calico haunch. The fluffy she-kit kept moving forward, following Vixeneye until their small family was backed by the other cats preceding them.

Quietdew, a middle-aged Riverclan warrior, was ahead of them and on Goldenheart's heels. Both she-cats were fighting to be the first in the cleft in the rock, a narrow safe-haven facing the dirtplace tunnel's bramble walls; where a wolf could scarcely reach the area to snatch or bite at a cat.

Vixeneye swiveled around and mewed urgently to her kits "Nevermind. Into the trees!"

Rowankit, Tinykit, and Crescentkit all pricked their ears and hurried after her. Rowankit ran ahead, hardly glancing back while Crescentkit waited on their smaller sister. Tinykit loped into a stubby-legged run alongside her shoulder. The kitten's thin black tail was spiked up like holly leaves.

Bright green duckweed grew in clumps at the foot of a river birch beside the leader's den. The kits padded through it, taking turns as first Rowankit and then Crescentkit leaped onto the birch's vertical trunk, tiny kitten claws sinking in.

Crescentkit's thick tabby tail lashed as she fought to hold onto the chipping-off bark. They could hear snarls from just beyond the dark foilage of the camp walls where the posted guards were being attacked. The night air was thick with tension as the sounds subsided.

Rowankit glanced down at her and Tinykit, then stuck out a russet hindpaw in an attempt to dislodge them.

"Hey!" Tinykit protested, aiming her shrill cry down at their mother. Vixeneye had no consequence to give, however. Her ears were flattened and her eyes wide as she swarmed up the tree, halting just beneath them with a huff.

"Hurry up!" The Riverclan queen snapped with fear. Her yellow gaze flashed in the trees black swathe of shadow. Oblivious crickets sang amongst the riverbed reed grasses below them. The moon was only a claw-scratch tonight, providing almost no light against the bark of the tree they were climbing.

Impatiently, Vixeneye clawed upward and nipped Tinykit by the scruff before passing her other two kits. She climbed higher paw-step by paw-step, reaching a cleft in the trunk above them.

Crescentkit began to hear the sound of heavy thumping paw-steps as wolves swept into camp underneath her. Their panting mouths showed glinting white teeth and lolling pink tongues. Their canines flashed like pearl daggers in the moonlight. The wolves eyes were cunning and pinpointed, set deep into the grooves of their long tapered faces.

She kept climbing behind Rowankit. The tabby-and-white she-kit felt safe up on the tree, and huffed with determination as she almost overtook her chestnut-furred sister.

Rowankit turned her head and glared over at Crescentkit with baleful yellow eyes. There was a sardonic frown on her face, which made her kin scrunch her nose with confusion. She watched her cinnamon-brown sister unhook a paw.

Rowankit flicked one of her forepaws underneath her own front two, fully dislodging the sunk-in claws with a forceful swipe. Instantly Crescentkit fell backwards and somersaulted towards the ground. The tree scraped her forehead on the way down, as wind hit her stomach and backside, and the world span in circles until she righted herself. The tabby kit rose again soon after landing on her paws, turning as she heard guttural snarling in her ears.

"Get back up the tree!" Eveningstar yowled from somewhere in the camp, but she was already bushing her tail out, unsheathing her claws, and craning her neck around the other warriors. They were swarming over the wolf's grey-furred back and neck.

The animal had broad shoulders and a long body. Its back was slightly darker than its pale underbelly. Its eyes flicked to and fro from each attacking cat as it nipped and bared its fangs in reaction. Crescentkit saw its dark red gums and wet white teeth gleam beneath the sliver of moonlight. The animal towered over the frozen grasses swathing the cat's shoulders, twisting and snarling just a few strides from the nursery entrance. Its head alone was as large as their largest warriors.

A ragged-furred cat burst from the elders den and hurled across the clearing. She attempted to climb the closest tree. But another wolf, stark and grey against the heaps of snow, stopped fighting the warriors and turned to reach for Drenchedleaf. Its breath billowed in clouds as it breathed, barreling forward with warriors falling off behind it.

Drenchedleaf wailed as she was pulled back by the wolf, but Crescentkit was already hurtling forward. The sub-freezing wind tugged her ears back as she moved, stepping around one cat and then another, dashing up to the frozen tree roots where Drenchedleaf feebly struggled.

The wolf's head was larger than her entire body. Hissing, the black tabby-and-white kitten drew back a tiny unfurled paw and scratched at its eye socket. When the wolf flinched but didn't stop its snapping down on Drenchedleaf's head Crescentkit braced her back paws and leaped onto its face.

She used her tiny kit-claws to pummel. But she soon realized she was doing no real damage to the skin beneath a wolf's brazen fur. As the huge animal began flicking its head back, it released Drenchedleaf to try and tear Crescentkit off.