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Larkwing's heart was pounding. I'm trapped.
Her fur prickled and she hoped it wouldn't bristle. There was no way she wanted to show these cats that she was afraid, even though that was the truth.
They made no move to attack her. Instead, they stood at the top of the slope, their glowing eyes fixated on her.
"Burdock, Fissure, are you serious?" One of them, a grey she-cat with yellow eyes, bared her teeth and lashed out with a paw. "That's not a Clan cat! That's just a lost kit."
Larkwing's blood seemed to froze in her veins. Kit? Do I look like I'm a kit? Gasping indignantly, she wanted to rebuke these brazen rogues.
A brown and white she-cat beat her to it. "Not for long will she be lost," she sneered in a drawn-out voice, rolling her eyes and head as if she were insane. "Sooner or later the Clan cats will find her, torture her and then kill her."
"That's the punishment for careless kits sneaking away," a red tabby tom commented.
The grey she-cat took a step forward. "Eh, kit!" she called. "Better leave this forest in one piece before you have to stay here forever in several pieces."
The brown and white she-cat poked her in the flank. "Don't scare her." However, she didn't sound as if she was worried about the supposed kit.
Finally, after a few heartbeats of bewilderment, Larkwing found her voice again. "What if I tell you I'm a Clan cat?" she growled. They don't need to know that I've only just finished my training.
"Think of something better," the fourth cat, a red and white tom, mocked. "If you really are one, why are we still alive?"
Larkwing remained silent. These rogues were extremely strange. Coming into her territory just like that and trying to threaten her with tall tales.
Without any concern for her own safety, Larkwing leapt up the slope. "Say that to my face, about me being a kit!" she hissed defiantly, her soft black tail lashing violently.
Slowly, the grey she-cat let her gaze wander over Larkwing. An expression of regret appeared on her face for a brief moment before she scowled again. "True, now that you mention it..." She bared her yellowish fangs and scratched her paws in the foliage. "Well, prove to us that you're a Clan cat. Fight us."
Sorry, what? Larkwing shook her head. "I'm not out of my mind!" she snapped. "How am I supposed to fight you? There are four of you!"
With twitching whiskers, the rogues exchanged a quick glance. Then they snorted in amusement.
"Come on," the brown and white she-cat huffed. "You Clan cats are supposed to be the ultimate monsters. Taking over foreign territories, stealing prey and kidnapping the kits of others to either kill them for your own pleasure or turn them into walking nightmares as well. So why are you so cowardly?"
