Feathers

Chapter 7

In the morning the woods were still quiet and dark. Feathers looked around happily as he waited for the cats he told to meet him in the morning. He was still hung up about how lucky he was, and he probably would never get over it no matter how many years passed. *We're going to win this battle, we are going to bring peace to the street cats.* He thought to himself quietly with a small purr.

"Robin! Willow! Come on! We don't need to keep Feathers waiting forever, he's probably already annoyed about how long we've taken!" Cedar said to the two other cats behind him with a small sigh.

"I'm trying to! You sent me on one too many patrols yesterday though and now I'm tired! It's also super early in the morning, cut me some slack!" Willow exclaimed before launching herself on Cedar and biting his ears softly with a growl.

"Hey! Get off!" Cedar said before yelling more things at Willow. Then they started to argue loudly as they fought.

The brown and white cat glared at both of them before snarling over them. "Break it up! How is Feathers supposed to trust us if we're fighting each other and can't even walk outside without arguing, you two need to get it together!" Robin then pulled Willow by the tail to get her off of Cedar.

Feathers watched them, mentally taking notes of each of their personalities and their fighting tactics. "Alright Are ya done?" He asked them, trying not to get mad at them easily, but his tail flicked in irritation.

Willow and Cedar nodded guilty before looking at the ground and letting their tails go still. "Sorry." The two of them mumbled in unison.

Robin glared at the two of them once more before softening her gaze as she turned to Feathers. "They usually won't act like that, I swear. I just want you to know that if you were afraid about sending us on a mission- but in the end it's still all your decision," she told him.

"It's fine." Feathers told Robin before looking at Cedar and Willow. "Look. If you want to go on this mission you have to control yourself and not fight each other, there will be other dangers that you will need to fight that won't be your littermates, but I do believe that the three of you will act more mature once you're doing this for real." He added flatly to them before closing his eyes and yawning.

"Ok. I already knew that there would be other dangers but what should we do when we encounter those dangers?" Cedar asked, tilting his head to the side. "Like should we fight them or try to escape and run away, I mean, I could do both, but in the situation where that could happen, is there a better of the two options?"

Feathers thought for a few moments before finally speaking up again, "Always try to escape first, that way you will help to minimize all of the damage that is bound to be caused to yourself, but if you get caught or cornered, always fight back." He said before looking at the group of three cats, narrowing his eyes a bit more. "Which leads us to combat. Try to kill me. Pretend like I'm one of Lightning's cats, but aim to kill me, not to scare off. Kill me." He then bounced from paw to paw as he waited for them to attack.

Cedar, Willow and Robin looked confused, but then all of them hissed a few things quietly to each other before looking at Feathers for a few seconds and then continuing to talk more.

"On the battlefield you won't have unlimited time to talk to each other about a plan to attack a single cat. By the time you're done talking you'll be dead." The blue-gray tabby told the small group of felines, rolling his eyes as he did so.

A moment after Feathers had said that the three cats split apart and Willow leaped on his back and tried to pin him down while Robin softly bit his tail. Cedar then also leapt on him and started clawing his ears.

Feathers quickly rolled to the side and Willow lost her breath, getting crushed by his momentum and Robin let go as his fluffy tail twisted in her jaws. Cedar made sure to jump away though and then run back at him as the small tabby got back on his paws, he was nowhere near giving in.