Keeping Guard[C]

The days had started to blur together.

Dawn came, and ShadowClan slept. The sun set, and the cats awoke. It was such a bizarre, backwards thing to watch. Owlshade liked the night, liked the peace of it on the open moor, the sky stretching above for further than the eye could see. But this, dark, cramped, stinking night was not that. And after spending the majority of the day sleeping, as dusk greeted them by chasing the final rays of sun into shadows, Owlshade found himself awake. Wiiiiiiide awake.

He didn't know how long he'd been here. But the Gathering had come and gone already, and still he remained a captive. No one told him anything, and the den he was trapped inside was too far from their meeting place to hear all but the loudest of voices. Had Nightstar told WindClan he still lived? Or did his clan think he had abandoned them... or worse, turned on them? The not knowing was driving him mad, and hee spent every waking moment thinking about one thing: escape.

ShadowClan was thorough with their prisoner, though. He never knew who was going to be his guard, or if there was only one, or two of them. That made it hard to predict a schedule, hard to plot an avenue. But he was getting desperate. It was about the time for another guard swap, and another few heartbeats proved him to be correct: the pretty tortoiseshell she-cat relieved the prior guard, throwing a mouse at his paws and barking an order to eat. Owlshade slicked back his ears, pale blue eyes burning with indignation. He stared at the back of her head, claws sliding into the soft ground... imagining the sensation of his teeth closing on the back of her neck-

The image of a willowy gray she-cat, neck opened to the bone, interrupted his daydreaming, and Owlshade gasped audibly, suddenly filled with a mixture of disgust and horror. He closed his eyes and pressed himself back against the wall of his makeshift cell, chest heaving, any thought about eating now gone in favor of the nausea that replaced his hunger. A few long, shaky breaths, and the pale tom opened his eyes again. He was alone, with the ShadowClan she-cat. Tawnysomething, he thought. She was young... much younger than him. And dutiful, he could tell.

"How much longer am I expected to be here?" Owlshade snapped, his voice icy and laced with sarcasm. "At this rate it may be easier on you lot if I start hunting my own prey."

He hadn't spoken to anyone until now, and the sound of his own voice almost surprised him. But sulking in a corner wasn't going to get him any closer to what he wanted.

"Since when did ShadowClan care about the code?" Owlshade spat angrily, but there wasn't as much vitriol behind the words as he'd been intending... because the latter half of Tawnyshadow's sentence had only just registered.

Rest assured, WindClan knows where you are.

That was more information than he'd had before, but the comfort he'd been expecting to feel never came. Instead, there was a sudden hollowness in his chest, and a pang of... what was that? Sorrow? Betrayal? He couldn't quite decide. WindClan knew where he was... they knew where he was and yet they hadn't come for him? Hadn't sent a messenger? Owlshade fell silent. He was going to be a prisoner here until Nightstar and Shrikestar stopped acting like kits?

I'll choke and die on this ShadowClan stench long before that happens, he thought bitterly. But Bracken... Brackenwing wouldn't leave me here. She wouldn't. If his sister was able, she'd have clawed down ShadowClan's walls to get to him. He knew that. But she wasn't able, and that meant he was on his own.

He flicked his gaze to the mouse they'd given him, and then back to the ShadowClan cat. His expression hardened. Quietly, the pale tom got to his feet. There was not a lot of room in this makeshift den, and that made it tricky to move without making any noise... somehow, he managed. Tawnyshadow was facing outward, her back to him.

Owlshade hesitated, pinning his ears, shifting his weight... This was it. Now or never, right? Before he could talk himself out of it, he surged forward. His claws slung around to slash at her cheek, and his teeth set in her ear as he slammed into her from behind, throwing them both out into ShadowClan's camp.

Owlshade used Snap and Swift Strike for a total of 17 damage at the cost of 17 stamina.

60/60 HP
123/140 SP (-17)

33/50 (-17)
120/120

The member 'Copperbeans' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2

As the two of them spat and snarled at the edge of camp, he slashed, blood welling up under his claws, to join the wounds she wore around the ear he'd shredded. But she was fast, and certain, and he'd hardly eaten in half a moon. She rolled, shaking him off, and before he had a chance to steady his feet on the ground, Tawnyshadow whipped around and leaped on top of him. His legs buckled and he went down, the ShadowClan warrior looming over top of him and demanding an explanation.

He wouldn't give her one. They were past words. Owlshade was no stranger to the gravity of what he'd committed himself to here... and he knew it wouldn't come without consequence. There was no way he was fighting his way out of a camp by himself. There was no way he was escaping through leagues of swampland with all of ShadowClan on his heels. No, he just had to convince them that he was more of an inconvenience to keep than set free, because he was only leaving one of two ways: at ShadowClan's behest, or... dead.

Dead. That word lingered perpetually at the back of his mind. They could very well choose to kill him rather than release him, and he had accepted that, after some reflection. He figured the odds were at the very least 50/50, and he was willing to risk it. Nightstar had saved Brackenwing's life, after all... there had to be some reasoning in there somewhere. It was a thin hope, but it was all he had at the moment... he wouldn't stay here peacefully for another day. Not as long as he had any fight left in him.

Owlshade twisted beneath Tawnyshadow's claws, hardly feeling them drag his skin, and hissed, screeching angrily and lashing out, but she had the leverage and his blows fell short.

Owlshade is pinned for this turn. 1/1

Owlshadow
52/60 HP
123/140 SP

Tawnyshadow
33/50
105/120

She slashed at his face, again and again, the two of them rolling and screeching and no doubt attracting the attention of anyone in earshot by this point. Hot, wet blood gushed down his face, and his right eye was half-blinded by the gore, his sight on that side now only shapes and shadows. Owlshade spat, lashing out at her eyes with a clawed paw, and using the move as a feint to shove her away and shove back to his paws. He didn't attempt to break contact with her, instead, he surged forward, ramming into her with his chest and rolling her to the side, where he dug in with his claws and sank his fangs into her shoulder.

Owlshade used Leap and Hold, dealing 10 damage at the cost of 15 stamina. Tawnyshadow is pinned for 1 turn.

Owlshade
37/60 HP
18/140 SP (-15)

Tawnyshadow [pinned for one turn]
23/50 (-10)
91/120

The member 'JJ' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2

The member 'Copperbeans' has done the following action : Dice roll

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'Effect Dice' : 2