Odds And Ends (random book)

SCRIPTORIAL | Round Gamma - twolegplace during wartime

2017
WattyWarriors
Watty Warriors Fan Magazine SCRIPTORIAL

Single elimination one-on-one short story writing tournament for Warriors.

Result - advanced

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"Panzer, why does the territory always look like this?"

Three cats walked down the dark, barren thunderpath, the rough stones that once made up the path stacked neatly at each side.

"Because you can't keep your mouth shut, Fleetpaw," Panzer said. "You scare away all the twolegs with your mewing."

"I'm not mewing," the small black and white cat responded. "That's what kits do. I'm just talking a lot."

Panzer snorted, pausing to shake out her blue-tinted fur. "Yeah well to them it just sounds like mews, loud purrs, and cries. You know they don't know what we say."

"But what about the territory?" the third cat asked, even smaller than the others.

"That's because they want to make it easier for their war-monsters to move through," Panzer said. "Especially the tigers. They roll over the paths made of small stones and crush them! Then the twolegs have to clean it up while the ones inside that monster just start shouting at each other. It's weird."

Panzer continued scratching at her fur. The two apprentices at her side kept eagerly glancing around.

"Where are the twolegs?" one of them asked.

"Sleeping, Littlepaw," Panzer said. "Sleeping real nice. That's why we steal their stuff at night. Only their warriors are still awake now, and never more than half of them. But I brought you here for a different reason."

She pointed her dull-colored paw at one of the large structures in front of them. The other cats' eyes were wide when they noticed the giant stone twoleg standing before them. He was covered in twoleg fake-fur, donning the same colors that their warriors wore. Behind it was a massive light aimed to the sky, panning back and forth on its own.

They darted around the stone twoleg to find a structure lavishly decorated in foreign patterns in an evenly toned grey. The structure was surrounded by trees, and attached to the front were two large pieces of wood, crossing at the middle.

"This is where they pray," Panzer started. "We call it the twoleg prayer nest. They have these everywhere, even in the far-off lands. They gather here in troves one morning a week and worship their StarClan."

She looked up at the stone twoleg's face, its gaze baring down on the three.

"I don't even know his name in twoleg-speak, but he's very important to them. They worship to him, wear smaller statues of him, even sometimes have him carved into the wood of their own nests. It's something I've-"

"Can we go inside?!" Fleetpaw asked eagerly.

The old cat sighed, following them to the other side of the stone twoleg. "No. They'll catch us and throw us out at best. There's always some of their warriors inside there."

Panzer led the apprentices even closer to the massive glowing light. The apprentices seemed mesmerized by the rhythmic hum and squeak that it made as it panned the sky.

"You know why they need these?" Panzer asked.

"Longstar said it's because of the sky-monsters," Littlepaw said. "They dive down and attack, or drop stuff from above. The damage is hard to describe... they're so powerful it's scary."

"And you have a good reason to be scared." Panzer sat, scratching her white muzzle on her shoulder. "You've never seen twolegs at war."

Fleetpaw bounced in front of Panzer. "But what about the time those really loud wines went off across the whole twolegplace? The ground shook, the twolegs were shouting, and entire structures were destroyed- just like that one!"

Fleetpaw pointed to a structure right across from the prayer-nest. The twolegs were clearly in the process of cleaning it away, but at least half of it still lay pulverized where it once stood.

"That was just a scratch to what they can really do," Panzer said. "And look around the structure. Look at the others. Look at this clearing."

The apprentices looked around and noticed everything else about the clearing they were in. The stones beneath them seemed rougher than those once on the thunderpaths. The structures next to the pulverized one were torn-up, collapsing into themselves.

"Is that why there are no twolegs in this area?" Littlepaw asked.

"That's one reason," Panzer said. "Places like this are dangerous for twolegs... for anyone. Remember this. When twolegs fight, it is out of anyone's control. Even StarClan's. You think the wars between clan cats are bad? As bloody as the one between our clan and LeafClan was, it will never compare to what two enemy twolegs can do to each other when they fight."

The two younger cats glanced at each other and then back at Panzer. 

"So," Littlepaw asked, "are they ever going to fix everything?"

"It isn't that simple, scatter-brain," Panzer snapped, quickly taking a deep breath to calm herself. "Coming back from a twoleg war is something that I never saw a twolegplace do while in the final days of my travels. Not once. It's horrible. I'd hate to see a place as large as this end up like the others, but with how the war is going, it just might."

Panzer scratched at the stones below. "If sky-monsters ever do attack in mass, do not come here. It might look untouched by their war, but it's the first place their enemies will hit."

She looked around amid the dark structures, donning their grey and brown hues. Their height was mostly even, and all were covered in clear cut-outs evenly sized and spaced from each other.

"That looks like a good spot," Panzer said, stretching her back. "Lets go you sad excuses for apprentices. Go find me some medicine to use."

"One more question, though," Fleetpaw said, again bouncing in front of the medicine cat.

Panzer sighed. "What?"

"What's a tiger-monster?"

"They're big, loud, grey, and have a massive thunderstick on the top of them. Ask Longstar. He saw one flatten a member of his patrol when he was Bonbon's apprentice."

Fleetpaw shrieked back at her words. Panzer just walked closer to the structures, motioning the other two to follow.

"I mean really flattened," Panzer snickered to herself, proud for scaring her apprentice. "All the way, too. Into the little stones below..."