Warriors: Shadows Incoming ~Series 2 Book 5~

Chapter 21

Flamefur's POV

Flamefur snapped awake from her nap to the sounds of wild screeches and snarls. Her gaze darted to her kits, letting out a sigh of relief when she saw them still sleeping in the curl of her belly. Flowerstream was awake as well, eyes wide. "What's going on?" The queen breathed in fear.

Flamefur sniffed the air, the familiar scent of Magiclan rushing into her nose. "It's Magiclan, they're here."

"Magiclan?!" Flowerstream gasped. "But I thought they were in the old territory!"

"Huh, funny story.." Flamefur murmured as she rose from her nest. "Turns out they've been hiding outside our territory for a while." She didn't wait for Flowerstream to ask another time-wasting question and growled. "Watch the kits, I'm going to help guard this cave."

The flame coloured she cat stalked across the mossy floor and strided up the short tunnel, emerging into the late evening sunlight. She was greeted by a writhing mass of Magiclan cats and Lightclan cats, locked in tight combat. She saw Stormstar fighting Rabbitstar and a sleek sand-coloured rogue. Flames danced around the Lightclan leader as he kept trying to burn Rabbitstar, barely reacting as the rogue sliced at his haunches. His full attention was on killing Rabbitstar.

"Well if it isn't Flamepaw!" A Magiclan she cat sneered, drawing steadily closer.

"Flamefur now. Come for another beating, Viperpaw?" Flamefur smirked faintly at the dark furred she cat. It had been moons since they had seen eachother, but Flamefur clearly remembered the wails of pain Viperpaw had made as Flamefur tore through her.

"It's Vipersnare now!" The she cat hissed and launched herself at Flamefur. "And I've come to give you a taste of what you gave me the last time we fought!" Her thorn-sharp claws aimed to score across Flamefur's muzzle but she ducked and held back a hiss as the Magiclan she cat's claws hooked into the tip of her left ear and tore painfully through it.

Vipersnare's next blow came with as much fluid grace as the first one and Flamefur had trouble dodging it. She took a few steps away from Vipersnare and darted to the side, slashing her claws over the dark she cat's shoulder. As Vipersnare whirled to face her, Flamefur crouched down and surged upwards. Her forepaws slammed into the Magiclan warrior's muzzle and neck and knocked her clean off her paws. Flamefur landed on the winded she cat and dug her claws deep into her skin, feeling the warrior's warm red blood well up around her paws.

The dark furred she snarled and lashed out with precise aim, her claws coming into contact with Flamefur's chest. The golden she cat hissed and reeled backwards, blood dripping from the fresh slices on her chest. Vipersnare was on her paws in an instant, lashing and biting wildly. Flamefur was forced into a defensive stance, fending off the Magiclan cat's blows as best as she could.

It had been moons since they had fought eachother, and it was obvious that Vipersnare had trained excessively since then, as if she had planned to meet Flamefur in battle once again. Her moves were almost too perfect, honed by moons of training. Flamefur forced down the envy building up inside of her- she had had training too. Metalclaw had taught her how to be a skilled fighter. All she needed was the right moment to strike...

There. Vipersnare had grown so focused on trying to land a hard blow on Flamefur's legs to knock her down that she had left her whole right side exposed. Flamefur tried to hold back the grin on her lips as she feinted left, Vipersnare leaning that way as well to meet her. Then Flamefur slid to the other side and swiped, her claws hooking deep into Vipersnare's right shoulder.

The Magiclan warrior hissed and twisted around to slash Flamefur but she had already positioned herself so that when Vipersnare turned, her jaws would be waiting. As the dark she cat lunged, Flamefur reached out with lightning speed and sank her teeth into her foreleg, biting down until her fangs brushed bone.

Vipersnare howled with pain and tried to tear her foreleg away but Flamefur held on and swiped with her hind leg, sweeping the she cat's other forepaw from under her. Vipersnare crashed to the ground, her head slamming into the ground with a dull thud.

Flamefur freed Vipersnare's foreleg from her grip and placed her paws on the dark she cat's body to hold her down. "I win, again." Flamefur snarled softly down at her. Vipersnare hissed but didn't struggle; she knew she was beaten.

Grinning triumphantly, Flamefur let the Magiclan she cat flee and turned to find her next opponent.

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Silvershy's POV

Silvershy had already knocked out at least three of the rogues that tried to attack the elder's den and accidentally killed two of them. No one else had challenged her, especially after seeing her knock out fully grown cats with a simple touch of her paw.

She was just about to leave her place as Elder's Den Guard when a cat suddenly appeared right before her eyes. She barely registered what the tom actually looked like before she lashed out to attack him with her powers. He ducked with a hiss of surprise but her paw still caught the left side of his face. The lightning in her paw sizzled and crackled as she made contact with his face and he let out a loud cry, stumbling backwards.

Silvershy lowered her paw and stared at the white tom crouched before her. He didn't smell of Magiclan- or Lightclan for that matter. He didn't smell of the rogues with Magiclan either.

Over the string of curses he was currently throwing at her, Silvershy asked. "Who are you?"

The white tom lifted his head slighlty, a paw covering the left side of his face. Beneath his paw, the skin looked raw, burnt and bleeding. "Idiot." Was all he hissed at her, eyes narrowed in pain. "I wasn't going to attack you!" His voice was rose to a fierce hiss and he lowered his head again, crouching down with small mutters of pain.

"Zeye!" Flamefur's yowl sounded behind them and Silvershy heard the tom let out a slight sigh before he angled his head to face the flame coloured she cat.

"Flamefur." He greeted, tail lashing.

"What are you doing here?" Flamefur growled and glanced at his burnt face, then at Silvershy.

"Trying to help you without BEING BURNT IN THE FACE." He shot a glare in Silvershy's direction before wincing and turning back to Flamefur.

Flamefur hissed. "You can't be here, they'll see that you're a traitor."

"You think they don't already know that?" Zeye scoffed at her, and Silvershy tilted her head in confusion. What are they talking about?

"Don't give NoName more reasons to kill you." Was all Flamefur growled before turning around and stalking back to the nursery where she stood guard.

"A little help would be nice!" Zeye called after her before turning to glare at Silvershy. "Keep your mouth shut or you'll end up getting yourself killed." The tone of his voice angered her. It was as if he were speaking to a kit.

Silvershy growled. "You can't order me around!" But he was already gone, a shallow pool of blood was the only sign of him being there seconds ago.

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