Running through the 90's (Closed)

Nightstar was looking over his shoulder the whole walk into twolegplace, and he was growing tired, as he had carried Tigerkit when they had run and had been draining, and by the time they had ducked into the shadows he had dropped the kit. Nightstar was ever vigilant, his ears flicking for any approaching twolegs as they walked, and ducked around corners and hid behind large cold objects that smelled like the carrionplace. Despite the scarcity in which they traveled, Nightstar had never been to this place and found it disorientating, he could hardly tell what was up and what was down. "Stay close, kit, I do not know this place." Nightstar warned, his voice low and rumbling as they walked.

Everything had been so fast, getting dropped through the window. He hadn't even known what to do until Nightstar had jumped down and swiftly gotten him to climb on. Then it had just been him riding on the older tom's back, silently watching for twolegs. He knew that they were probably heading for the clans, he supposed that since it was where Nightstar lived, that's where he was going too. He had nobody left, and, as much as he hated to admit it, he was far too unskilled and small to fend for himself. Then, when they were safe, he had been dropped off onto the ground.

They seemed deep in twoleg territory, the strange hard stone beneath his claws betrayed that. When they heard a twoleg, they would quickly hide back in the shadows, though Nightstar was much more adept at it than the kit, paws scrambling to hide fast enough. Finally, Nightstar spoke, only to stay close. "Okay." Was all he mewed back, the tom still cautiously padding along. He didn't know this place either.

With cats being taken seemingly left and right, even the forest wasn't a safe place. Beechfang had reluctantly left fourtrees behind for the moment, both to check on her own meager nest (undisturbed, for the moment, even the dried herbs she'd made a point to keep around) and in the vain hopes of maybe seeing Briarstar or Bloodstrike within the maze of twolegplace alleyways. Briarstar had been taken, and she hadn't seen Bloodstrike since they had run from the twolegs, but... There was a chance, wasn't there?

She'd found neither, and had turned her own pawsteps back toward the forest, however foolish that might have been. Foolish, but she needed to know her own kits were safe. Not that they were kits any longer, but... They still were, to her. Even if three of them were now leading the very clan she'd been banished from.

Despite her familiarity and knowledge of twolegplace, wariness kept the scarred she-cat glancing over her shoulder as she walked, sticking to the shadows where she could. Not that she was any good at truly blending in with them, both by her pale silvery pelt and by the fact that she simply had never needed to, but anything to avoid being recaptured by twolegs was worth a try.

So her fur bristled when she caught the familiar scents of the cutter, mingled with the scents of two different cats near. In the shadows, she found them, a dark tom with a few sporadic splashes of white and amber eyes, and a tabby kit. The older of the two looked vaguely familiar... And very lost. With the familiar scents of the cutter still clinging to them, Beechfang could guess as to why.

"This way, if you want to avoid the twolegs." She called out quietly, motioning toward the alleyway she had taken. Her gaze never left the pair of toms. The kit wasn't going to be a threat, the scarred tom, though... "Wait... Nightstalker, wasn't it? Aren't you Basilbloom's brother?" She'd seen him at a distance before, at gatherings, she was fairly certain. The scent of Shadowclan was rather faded now, though Basilbloom had always spoken fondly of her family.

Nightstars fur bristled at the appearance of another cat, before settling briefly as he realized that the heavily scarred she-cat before him wasn't going to fight them, but instead give them aid. Relief was brief, however, as recognition blossomed, Nightstar knew this she-cat. This was the she-cat that confessed to the slaughter of a medicine cat and then helping Skyclans leader, Briarstar, deliver a litter in the middle of the gathering. Hostility was quick to rise but was stalled quickly as the she-cat before him mentioned his elder, deceased, sister. Just as quick as it came, the tom felt forced to stomp it down, he had a kit to get to safety, and getting into a fight with twolegs hot on their paws had no place right now.

Curling his tail protectively around Tigerkit, he dove down the alley that the she-cat, Beechfang, had directed them to go down, letting silence settle briefly before the tom pulled himself taller instead of the wary hunched pose he had taken. "It's Nightstar now." he corrected, "I was. Basilbloom passed away shortly into Green-leaf." He held his tongue, suspicion obvious despite his efforts, and as such, did not ask her her name in turn. He knew enough.

The kit, unsure of everything that had happened, chose to remain silent, though his fur betrayed his emotions by poofing out to extreme proportions. The extremely scarred she-cat was at least... a friend? Something of Nightstar's, but his name had been Nightstalker? The clans seemed confusing. At the very least, he found a measure of security in Nightstar's tail as he was ushered along into the alleyway behind the she-cat. Golden eyes watched carefully from his "hiding place" as he kept an eye on their surroundings. None of this would mean anything if they just got caught again after all.

Nightstar... "Ah... My condolences, on that. No position of leadership is an easy path, it seems, no matter the clan." She hadn't even known he'd been deputy at all, the last leader she had a clear memory of was Flintstar, and perhaps Murkystar, if mostly from Basilbloom's obvious love for the latter.

And Basilbloom had died. Beechfang had hoped that she had made it through all of the turmoil she'd seen from a distance over the early greenleaf and everything else. "I'm sorry. She was a good cat." She responded quietly. She lead the two cats into the alleyways, taking careful, deliberate turns that would lead them toward the fenceline. She noted the suspicion on Nightstar's face, so clear even through transparent attempts to hide it. Probably knows me, I have no intentions of bloodsheed. She'd confessed in a rather public manner, of course, but if he wasn't going to bring it up, than neither would she. The kit with him was simply scared, she reckoned. So much change and turmoil at such a young age... Poor thing.

"I was held at the cutters for a short while before being taken to some twoleg's nest. I escaped when the ground trembled. I've heard of more cats being taken-" And there was no need to mention Briarstar to another clan's leader, and Nightstar certainly didn't need to know how close Beechfang still was to Skyclan, "-it's troubling, if they've managed to capture even clan leaders. Some kittypets I've encountered seem to think that captivity is for our own good, not that I believe that for a heartbeat." She scoffed. Kittypets had to be insane to believe such, or they were simply just too sheltered to know any better. Either was close enough to insanity for Beechfang.

"I don't understand what they're doing, but there's traps hidden in places you wouldn't expect. Silvery brambles meant to ensnare things. I've seen more of them in the past moon than I have in my life, even here." She'd seen several on her way back to twolegplace from the forest, and the two cats deserved to know of their presence, if nothing else.

"You speak the truth." Nightstar conceded, falling silent as Beechfang caught him up on the goings-on since he was trapped away at the cutters, the same place Beechfang had been funnily enough. Though his eyes narrowed at her mention of clan leaders, not leader, but more than one. Concern bit at his paws, hoping that it was not Windclans leader that had been captured and if he had, Nightstar had not seen him. "My capture was my own fault for denying my clans medicine in favour of preserving them for clanmates. An infection had been chewing at me up until I was captured." The tom huffed as if annoyed at himself for not being wiser and accepting the help of his medicine cats and allowing himself to be captured by the twolegs.

How was his clan fairing without their leadership? He wouldn't know and was afraid to find out. He just hoped that Leopardsun was truly up to the task of leadership, she had been nothing but exceptional but that didn't always mean that any cat was truly fit to be the figurehead. Deputy and Leadership were both quite different, he himself had agonized over that since he had learned of Froststars passing and was made to take the position as a warrior only a season and a half old.

"I'll be aware of those from here on out. But I am intimately acquainted with those traps." Nightstar didn't ever want to be shoved into one of those again, every vigilant as he watched their guide, the kit close to him, and their surroundings all the same.