Warriors AU: Skyclan's Destiny

Chapter 8

A paw prodding him in the side woke Haze. "Wha...? Get off!" he growled.

He had spent the night hunting and prowling the streets of Twolegplace; it felt as though he had only just closed his eyes. His muscles still ached with tiredness.

The paw prodded Haze again, harder this time. Opening his eyes a crack, he saw Stumpy curled up close to him, and Winter's white tail poking out from behind a nearby garbage can.

Cory was standing over him, his amber eyes worried. "It's happening again," he meowed.

Haze scrambled out of his shallow nest among the tree roots and shook scraps of dead leaf from his pelt. "Where?"

Cory angled his ears toward the far side of the patch of rough ground behind the Twoleg nests. "Follow me." He led the way to the far corner near a gate in the Twoleg fence. "It's Swift, Shelly, and Bear," he added, glancing over his shoulder at Haze.

Haze felt his neck fur bristle. "They shouldn't be here."

Drawing closer, he soon spotted Swift. The huge brown tabby she-cat stood stiff-legged, his back arched and all his fur fluffed out. A low growl came from her throat. Just behind her stood Shelly and Bear, their eyes gleaming and their lips drawn back in a snarl.

Pinned up in the angle of the fence were Cinder and Tracy. Haze's heart thumped as he realized they were alone. "Where's Harper?" he muttered to himself.

A few scraps of food lay at his friends' paws: a couple of scrawny mice and a bone dragged out of a Twoleg garbage can.

"But it took us all night to get this!" Cinder was protesting as Haze and Cory bounded up.

"Are you too idle to hunt now, Swift?" Haze snarled.

The brown tabby she-cat spun around; her eyes glittered with hostility. "We have an agreement, remember? Sunrise belongs to us."

Haze turned to look at the horizon where the sun would come up. A jumble of Twoleg rooftops was outlined against a sky that was barely turning pale with the first light of dawn.

"You're splitting whiskers," he hissed. "It's still dark."

Ignoring him, Swift took a menacing step forward. "If you can't keep to the rules, I'll force you to."

Haze curled his lip. "I've had enough of your threats. We were here first!"

Swift nodded to Bear. The cream-colored tom padded forward. Then without warning he sprang forward. Tracy let out a shriek as his claws scored down the side of her face, slashing at her eye.

Yowling with fury, Haze hurled himself at Swift and knocked her onto the ground. The brown tabby she-cat let out a screech and battered at him with all four paws. Haze could hear hisses and thuds behind him as the other cats clashed, and a thin wail from Tracy, who was trying to stagger away with blood streaming from her face.

There was a crash as a Twoleg door was flung open. Twoleg yowling split the air, along with the barking of dogs. Scrabbling on the ground under Swift's weight, Haze saw the nearby gate swing open and two dogs ran out. Their tongues lolled and they let out a flurry of high-pitched barking as they bounded toward the cats.

Swift and her two followers scrambled to their paws and streaked away, their belly fur brushing the ground. The dogs hurtled after them.

Haze limped over to the fence where Tracy had come to a stop, blinded and dazed. Beckoning Cory with his tail, Haze gripped Tracy's scruff and the two toms half dragged, half carried her into hiding behind a stack of wood.

"Hurry!" Cinder urged. "The dogs are coming back."

Haze crouched in the shadow of the wood. He could hear the padding of the dogs' paws, their panting breath and their snuffling as they nosed around the wood stack. But they were too big to squeeze their way behind it and get at the cats.

"Help me! Please help me!" Tracy wailed, her uninjured eye wide with terror. "I'm going to die!"

"No, you're not," Haze told her bluntly. "You've lost an eye, that's all."

Tracy let out another wail.

"Don't make such a racket," Stumpy meowed; the brown tabby she-cat was wriggling her way along the back of the stack to crouch close to Tracy. "Here, let me clean you up."

She began to lick away the blood from her rumpled gray pelt, and her agonized wails sank to faint whimpering.

Haze could no longer hear the dogs. Peering around the edge of the stack, he saw the Twoleg holding the gate open and the dogs trotting back inside. Swift and the other cats had vanished. Gazing across the rough ground, Haze couldn't see any other cats except for Winter, who had fled up a tree when the fight started. Now he clung to a branch, staring down with frightened blue eyes.

Haze looked over his shoulder at the cats crouched behind to wood. "Where's Harper?"

"I have no idea," Cinder replied. "She started hunting with us, but then she went off on her own."

"How could you let her out of your sight?" Haze snapped, digging his claws into the ground. "I told you, no cat should be alone just now."

Cinder shrugged. "You can't stop Harper that easily."

"I'm going to look for her."

But before Haze could move, Stumpy looked up and flicked out her stumpy tail to rest it on his shoulder. "Harper's full grown now," she pointed out. "She can take care of herself."

Haze shook off Stumpy's tail. "It's my fault," he growled. "If she had been raised by her mother..."

"It's not your fault Harper's mother isn't here," Stumpy snapped. "Look, with any luck Swift will feel she's won enough battles for today. If Harper's not back by sunhigh, we'll go and look for her."

Leaving the others with Tracy, Haze slid out from behind the wood stack and raced across the rough ground to leap onto the roof of a shed. From there he looked out over the place he had always called home. The milky light of dawn uncovered thin grass and scrubby trees, surrounded by Twoleg fences and dens.

I know every hiding place, every puddle, every corner where mice make nests.

But now everything has changed. The familiar alleys and rooftops hid an enemy: Swift and the cats he had brought with him to steal this place from those who had lived here forever. Cats who would rather fight than hunt, who enjoyed inflicting fear and pain. Cats who prowled around looking for trouble.

And Harper is out there...