Warriors: Starlight

Chapter 16

Fireheart backed up, his legs shaking.
"What's going on?" He hissed. The tabby tom turned to the she cat with a numerous glint.
"Look Bruno, it's scared. Maybe we should talk to it" he meowed." He mewed.
"Mac be careful. Look at his shoulders He's small, but I bet my next meal he's stronger than he's letting on. This is so awkward because now that he's seen us we can't let him go, or else he'll tell the others, and we can't have that. This makes me sad. I would much rather talk to him and pick at his brain than squish it. Honestly though he doesn't look very talkative anyway, are you?" She meowed, turning her head to him with a saddened expression.
For a second, Fireheart didn't budge, but he quickly realized that he'd be putting himself in serious danger if he didn't stall, at least until he could figure something out.
"Umm. Of course I'd like to talk. Talkative mouse. That's me. Heh." He didn't think he sounded convincing at all, but it seemed to do the trick, because the insane, quirky, possibly not-all-there in the head looking she-cat's expressions brightened.
"Great! This is so great! Isn't that great? Fang doesn't usually let us talk to our prey before we kill." She looked at Fireheart with a sad face, and his blood turned to ice. Their prey? What kind of sick cat is this?
But he couldn't worry about that right now. He needed to stall for time to figure out what to do next.
"So... what you want to talk about?" Fireheart pondered nervously. She sat in silence for a moment.
But after a few agonizing seconds, opened her mouth,
"Sorry. Not very good at this. Don't usually get this far... hmmmmm..mmmm...hmm. Okay here's a question. What do you like do for fun around here? I'm bored! Ever since we got here it's been nothing but patrolling." she whined, stretching in emphasis of her inclination to just sleep.
"Umm, well I like to hunt, lay on the Sunningrocks, talk to my cl-" he cut off at a jolt, realizing that if this cat didn't know anything about his clan, then he should probably keep it that way. If he could anyway.
"Sunningrocks? That sound amazing right now. If it has anything to do with sun and laying on a rock, I'd be totally down. I could use a nap." The cat named Bruno meowed, stretching again.
Her friend quickly interjected though. He seemed to be the sane of the two.
"Um Bruno. This probably isn't the best time to get sidetracked. Fang would literally kill us if he found that we went and fell asleep on the job" the cat that he assumed was Mac hissed.
Bruno thought for a second.
"Yeah he's right. well I'm sorry orange cat, but I'm gonna have to kill you now. Not that I want to or anything, it's just like, you telling anyone would be bad for us and stuff, and we don't want more work or complications. You understand right?" She meowed, approaching him with claws unsheathed. He felt his hope shatter there and then. Fireheart backed up, panic setting in once more. How do you reason with someone you don't see as more than prey? He needed to think of something to diverge her attention. He needed to get her attention off of him and onto herself. After panicked ideas raced through his mind at a million a second, he decided on one as the She-cat came to within a whiskerlength of his face.
"What about family? Or friends? Do you have any? I'd love to meet them!" He yelled out, letting his panic slip for a second before he composed himself and gave her the most interested face he could muster. Even this foxheart must have family. She looked back at Mac for a second and opened her mouth, her eyes suddenly shining, Fireheart guessed from the opportunity to run her mouth.
"Oh yeah! You don't know anything about me. I make a friend and the first thing I think of is killing him. I'm really bad at this sorry, yeah I have a Brother and a father, but my mother ran away. Didn't like Fang one bit, nope. Not even a little." She meowed. Fang. He kept hearing her say that name.
"So who's Fang?" He asked, fearing he already knew the answer but stalling is stalling, and he needed the time.
"Oh he's our leader. he's also reeaally scary and dangerous. One time he took a cat's head and.." her voice faded from his mind and he looked around for an escape. He could just run, but he didn't know how fast they were. For all he knew they could be far faster and stronger than they looked, and judging by her sick humor and casualty over death, willing to do far worse to him than he was to them. He was sure they were dangerous, and while he could probably take one of them, he didn't think he'd be able to beat two dirty fighters at the same time..
"-And that's why no ones ever challenged Fang for leadership. We never wanna a spine bend the way it did ever again." She seemed to finish her thought.
Fireheart never heard what she said, but he needed to say something in response. He didn't want her losing interest in him so quickly so out of desperation he let on some about his personal life. And he knew she would have to find the story of two tom mates and adopted kits at least somewhat interesting. Unless that was normal where she was from, in which case that would be the biggest "eat foxdung" from StarClan.
"I have a mate!" She didn't look impressed, so he pressed "He's the absolute nicest cat you'll ever meet." at this she took a step back and stared in amazement.
"Wait? Huh? He? Wow that's amazing I didn't know that cats could do that!" She yelled, her excitement rising. She was a weird one. Terrifying, but weird.
"Yeah and we have two kits." He finished, and like he expected, he didn't get an emotional reaction, but she seemed twice as excited and ten times as interested.
"Wow that's crazy. I didn't know two toms could... y'know." She trailed off the implication.
"Well, no, their mother died and we adopted them. But still." Fireheart clarified.
Her next words, however, threw Fireheart off balance. "I've never heard of two toms being together and raising kits. Does Starclan approve?" She meowed.
He was taken aback. Not because of the question, as he knew that his ancestors could care less who he fell in love with.
But.. Starclan? This cat cares for the warrior ancestors approval? A massive rock just dropped into Fireheart's stomach and seemed to try to drag him to the ground.
"Hello? Anyone home?" She waved her paw in front of him.
He didn't react. He couldn't. It was all he could do not to fall over as he stared in shock. These cats...
These rogue, murderous monsters believed in Starclan?
"H-how do you...?"
Who were they really? Suddenly everything just got a whole lot more complicated.