the sun, it burns the night [c]

"Nightstar. We need to talk."

Leopardsun's voice was calm.

Professional, reserved, distanced.

Nothing she felt, and everything she was supposed to feel.

"About what happens now."

Nightpaw sighed heavily, some part knowing that it wouldn't be long until Leopardsun spoke to him again. "It's Nightpaw right now, Leopardsun. My name is still that for the time being." Nightpaw meowed tiredly, not much venom behind the statement. "What is there to discuss? We have a plan and we will continue to follow it, regardless of the tantrums that the clan is throwing. Even more so. Our family is dead, and it is certain that Windclan will retaliate to try to get their warrior back." Nightpaw stated, "We go for where it hurts. We take the fight to their camp, and show them that we know where to find them. I know this will be unfavorable, so I will do it myself, once Shrikestar goes down I'll go for the herbs. Take what I can for Shadowclan's storage." He didn't care if Shadowclan hated him, they hated him for moons now he was sure. He would do what needed to be done.

He'd rip the herbs he couldn't carry to shreds, Windclan could rot into early graves for all he cared.

He took a pause, and looked to Leopardsun properly, "Don't let what Echomist said get to you. We are doing what is necessary, and none of them see that. The council agreed to war, and war isn't one fight on its own. They were aware of what they were agreeing to, and to relinquish their support publicly was to show how cowardly they are. We must do what needs to be done to keep Shadowclan safe. And this is it, it will be worth it in the long run. I'm the one they wish to blame so we will let them." Sighing, Nightpaw did his best to comfort the she-cat, but he knew it'd likely backfire on him. Cats hated him so much that they'd pick out anything he said as an excuse to hate him more it seemed. Probably wouldn't be any different with Leopardsun.

Pre-emptively kicking himself mentally, Nightpaw figured she'd just yell at him too.

"We have larger concerns, Nightpaw," Leopardsun said as he corrected her. Nightstar, Nightpaw- what did it matter? "Shouldn't our course of action be revised? They're far more likely to retaliate now."

The plan that got my kits killed? she didn't say. That plan?

Nightstar- Nightpaw- said, We are doing what is necessary.

And then he said something she couldn't accept.

"You- you intend to steal their herbs? You're aware that they know their own camp better than we do- that we're sure lose more warriors in the process?"

Echomist was right, she didn't say.

Leopardsun's personal thoughts no longer mattered. Only the well-being of her Clan. But stealing WindClan's herbs, when they had already angered the moor-dwellers so thoroughly with deaths that were never intended, when there was a WindClan warrior held hostage in their camp-

She thought that was unnecessarily cruel. It wasn't leaf-bare, and ShadowClan wasn't desperate; this was simply to prove a point.

And it would only make them more furious.

ShadowClan had lost four warriors in the span of a few days. From what she knew (no more than what had happened that night), WindClan had lost two.

Still, she swallowed the rest of her objections. He wouldn't listen to her now- she had to find some other way, something else she could do.

(Was there any way left to make him see reason?)

"As you wish," she said simply, thoughts racing in her mind as she tried to figure out the best approach. "However- we have a WindClan prisoner, and WindClan blood on our paws. If nothing else, we should prepare for them to come to us."

"Revise it to what, Leopardsun? Are we to just sit on our rumps and wait for them? Return them their murderer and let him be free to kill again? I don't think you realized during the meeting that once this started, it cannot stop until Windclan admits defeat. We're stuck in this now. Windclan won't sit back and let this happen, if Shrikestar is anything other than a spineless coward." Nightpaw probed, astounded that she thought that there was any course of action asides from pushing forwards.

"I want to steal their herbs yes. It's a means to an end, you want this war done and over with don't you? I know we risk losing more cats, but Windclan is tiny and weak, we just need to keep going, and we'll outlast them. Hit them where it hurts, show no mercy, and keep up the aggression, and that is how we win this war." Nightpaw at some point in his deluded speech got up to pace the den.

"Double the Day Guards on the Windclan border, and send more patrols to visit up towards hidden outcropping. It's the best we can do until we heal some wounds and go back for another fight. Hoping that this is the last fight." They could only hope that they would crush Windclan into the dirt they loved to live in, before any of them grew a spine and retaliated.

The concept of stealing WindClan's herbs left a bitter, burning taste in her mouth; what she imagined traveling herbs might have tasted like- not that she would know, she'd never had cause to take them.

You want this war done and over with, don't you?

What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do? Was Nightstar going to keep pushing and pushing until they were as small and defenseless as their opponents?

"I'll ensure the borders are secure," Leopardsun said eventually. "Double the day guards, increase patrols near the outcropping..."

One WindClan patrol had killed two ShadowClan cats. The reverse was also true, yes, but WindClan was smaller and weaker and had still managed that.

Speak to the medicine cats, she reminded herself. Increased herb patrols, to help with handling the high risk of injury.

See if we can't find some other solution.

"I never wanted this," she said quietly as she turned away, unsure if he was listening. It didn't matter, she knew, but something still compelled her to speak. "Of course I want it to be over."

Moondancer. Batswarm. Honeylight. Tigershriek.

How many more, before this is over?