Picking a Fight [open]

Back in the Twolegplace Dustfang had been born in, there had never been a moment of peace and quiet. Always, no matter whether it was night or day, you could hear the roar of monsters somewhere in the distance, always rumbling down the Thunderpath in great streams with no ends or beginnings in sight, and that wasn't even the worst of it. Twolegs were noisy, clumsy, and oblivious to the world around them, always stomping around the place in heavy feet, always shouting or laughing, and you could hear them even inside their towering nests of stone and wood. A rogue couldn't go anywhere without being accompanied by the sounds of rats scurrying somewhere in the shadows, or Twolegs bellowing their usual gibberish, blissfully ignorant of all the racket they made. The constant barrage of noise would have been maddening to anyone else, but they were sounds Dustfang had known all his life. They seemed natural. Normal. Familiar.

That was until he came to the forest.

There was noise here, but it wasn't like Twolegplace. The air itself seemed alive with sound, filled with the sweet twittering of birds in hidden nests and the whispering of leaves. He'd never noticed how much a Twolegplace stunk either, until he came here. A hundred different smells tinged the air; flowers and soil and herbs and prey and plants beyond counting. The prey most of all though. The forest was teeming with voles, birds, squirrels and mice. Mice, not rats, and after a kithood of eating crowfood out of Twoleg bins, the richness and savoriness of it all was something he could hardly describe. He'd never known what being full felt like until he joined SkyClan.

The forest was paradise on earth, and Dustfang found himself wondering how cats had ever found themselves in those mazes of hard stone, where the air stunk of monsters and rubbish, and the only prey was what you could steal from something or someone else. In Greenleaf, the flat rough rock Twolegs made their Thunderpaths out of got so hot it burned your paws, but in Leafbare, you starved and froze. Right now golden sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the shaded forest floor in warm sunshine. Stirring breezes of wind would pass through the trees now and then, rustling the branches and filling Dustfang's nose with the fresh scents of grass and moss. Home. This is what home smells like. He'd never had a real home before. It was funny now, how he'd fought so hard against SkyClan back then, how he laughed in their faces and stole their prey. Now he hunted with them, ate with them, slept with them, fought beside them.

He felt a chill down his spine despite the warmth, remembering. Every night, a Clanmate of his died. Most insisted that it must be the work of a fox of some kind, but others weren't quite so sure... But what else could it be? Dustfang pushed it out of his mind and took another bite out of his squirrel.

Well, ThunderClan's squirrel in truth, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. He was resting on a long fallen oak that marked the border, with the half-eaten freshkill between his paws. "A shame RiverClan joined us," he opined to himself between bites. "Without them, we could have kept the war going another six moons." The forest had a peacefulness to it that he'd never known, but old habits died hard. He wanted to dig his claws into something. He wanted to get his blood pumping, to experience that thrill you only got when you were surrounded by hostile faces and covered in scratches. He wanted to teach the other Clans a lesson.

But they'd smashed ThunderClan and WindClan together, deep in the heart of ThunderClan territory, and Falconstar and Dewstar hadn't tried anything since. Dustfang might have swiped his claws across a few faces from some of the looks he got at the Gathering, but high-and-mighty Silverstorm would never permit it. More importantly, Silentstar wouldn't permit it. The full moon signified a truce, and that truce could never be broken.

But right now it was Sunhigh, and the moon tonight would be a crescent. He took another bite of ThunderClan squirrel, relishing the taste. C'mon out, I know you're out there...

"Stealing prey is against the warrior code, kittypet." Grunted a rather low and raspy voice. Swiping her tongue over her muzzle she emerged from the dense bracken, her eyes narrowing at the cat. Now Specklefur wasn't one to start fights or show herself right away, but by the looks of it, he wouldn't put up a good fight so she might as well be fair and set this cat straight before he becomes even more of a nuisance.

Stepping forwards only a little bit she stopped at the border of her territory, the hair on her body not even crossing as she looked at the cat with dark menacing green eyes watching the cat with little caution.

She didn't see any leaders or deputies around to correct his behaviour, or witness a fight that might break out... for proof she might have to just sustain more wounds than this nuisance, it'll seem more likely she was the one that was attacked.

Now looking around her surroundings, it looked like she would be at a slight disadvantage, but she would be able to climb trees if needed, though not very fast, that would be trouble-some if she needed to make an immediate get away. But that would be troublesome, the trees were good distances apart and she wasn't a jumper, the brush on the ground was an issue since it was unfamiliar territory.

Her choices were clear if she was to get into a fight, fight, or die.


((Makes this dramatic for some reason))

The sudden growl interrupted his thoughts, but it was a welcome sound. Dustfang looked up from his meal as the ThunderClan warrior emerged from the bracken and purred, standing to his paws with a shuddering stretch. "What? Jealous of my catch?" he asked with an almost playful edge to his smug tone. "ThunderClan's plump enough already. Are you going to miss just this one?" Dustfang hooked up the half-eaten squirrel by the tail with his claw, letting it dangle in the air. A droplet of blood dripped down and landed with a plip on the oak.

Maplebloom had been there the whole time, stalking the Skyclan kitty-pet who didn't belong. Before she could jump out, a different Thunderclan warrior appeared from the undergrowth. Sure to stay down-wind, Maplebloom closely listened to their conversation.

Scowling at the toms actions she looked the male over, he seemed finely built despite being a Skyclan cat, and in her case it isn't a good thing." Yes, infact we will, we need prey to survive, to heal our clan members and to keep us strong in Leaf-bare, you obviously don't know the hardships." She scowled, claws unsheathing with uneasiness, her eyes narrowing even more as she looked at the tom.

Rolling her shoulders she aligned herself with the border like, her tongue slipping out to coat her whiskers with a small bit of saliva. In a attempt to mock the tom she raised her paw, licked it a few times and ran it over her ears, her head raised and muzzle in the air as her eyes tightly shut for a few moments before opening them to say; "Not like a Skyclan cat could understand that of course, you are all kittypets."

"You obviously don't know the hardships."

That struck a nerve, taking Dustfang back to lean and fierce days in the Leafbares of his kithood, but he did his best not to let his flaring angry show. "Us kittypets seemed to handle your Clan well enough," Dustfang shot back, letting his squirrel flop back down onto the oak, and not noticing the other ThunderClan warrior lying hidden somewhere downwind. He dug his claws into the bark. "If you haven't forgotten already. Are you looking for a refresher?"

Padding through the undergrowth, Spottedfeather growled lowly at the Skyclan cats threat. "I think you need a reminder of following the warrior code you mouse brained kittypet. Stealing prey, you sure are low. Why don't you go back to your broken up kittypet clan before you get hurt" She stalked next to Specklefur, backing the she-cat up.

"You have a problem against kitty-pets?" A snowy white she-cat stepped into the clearing, once very pretty and pampered, her image was slightly put off by the few scars on her pelt and hard muscles under her fur. Her green eyes scanned the faces of the ThunderClan cats, sizing them up. She wondered if she had seen either them fighting in the battle against them, but they didn't seem all to familiar to her. It was WindClan she scared off, wasn't it? If this was going to be a fight, she was glad she stumbled into the area. She could use a good fight, and ThunderClan would be new for her. "I don't care if you're forest born or not. This kitty-pet could shred your pelt in a heartbeat." Her eyes narrowed, a slightly smug smile on her face.

Now! Maplebloom jumped out of the undergrowth and landed squarely next to Speckledfur. "I doubt that. You mouse-brained fools can't take on three against two, yet one against one." She stood tall with her clan mates. "I'd like to see you try a battle move on us...or is your twoleg going to have to come and break up the fight?" She unsheathed her claws as more insults came running out of her. "Try catching something else on our territory, I'd be surprised if a kitty pet could catch something." Then, she imitated the Tom, just like Speckledfur.

"Ohhh!! A fight! Should we jump in or what?" Casey meowed from atop a tree. Her short stub of a tail wiggled from side to side cutely

"How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet when we're doing stuff?" Jake meowed back from below a branch from Casey. "Can they hear us? Should we go closer?"

"Yeah. Or maybe they'll come to us. I remember one of them from Skyclan and they've always had our backs."

"Was that an actual plan or-"

"Then we bite their tails off and claw their eyes out!" She flexed her claw on the branch.

"That's the cat I know. Let's see what happens."

Casey jumped down from the tree. "They jumped her! Come on! Let's go!"

Jake sighed and followed his friend into the fight.

firefur and swifttail were hunting near the border when they heard yowls. "you lay one claw on Specklefur and i will shred you. you crow food eating fox hearts.

It seemed like cats were suddenly appearing from all directions; he was glad to see Lilyclaw, Casey, and Jake beside him, but the ThunderClan warriors were less of a welcome sight. "Tch." Dustfang flexed his claws, looking over them all. He recognized Spottedfeather well enough from the Gatherings, but the others were less familiar. Maplesomething. Specklewhatever. Somethingtail. Flamefur? Rustfur? It doesn't matter.

"One SkyClan cat is worth ten ThunderClan warriors," Dustfang said, the hint of a smirk on his face. "So you better run back and get some more friends if you're looking for a fight."

Maplebloom growled and narrowed her eyes. "I guess we'll just have to see about that!" She let out a battle cry as she attacked. The brown tabby ran at full speed at the Skyclan kitty-pet, knocking him flying to the ground.

Maplebloom used run-and-tackle on Dustfang, using 10 stamina and dealing 17 damage

Maplebloom
Hp: 45/45
Sp: 150/150


Dustfang
Hp: 43/60?
Sp:  200/200?

"we will defend our clan with our lives if we must". growled firefur and swifttail firefur used Rear-up to Slash on casey using 15 stamina and dealing 21 damage firefur hp 60 stamina 185 casey hp 39 stamina 200 swifttail used Back kick on jake dealing 21 damage and using 15 stamina swifttail hp 60 stamina 185 jake hp 39 stamina 200

Honeyleaf was gathering herbs when she heard a commotion, carefully she made her way over to the fallen oak where she saw a couple of her clan mates fighting. She gave off a sigh and Sat on the outside area of the battle. She never liked fighting, so she wasn't particularly fond of this moment. Even if she tried to stop them she would get caught up in the battle, and that wouldn't be very good for Skyclan's medicine cat. She was going to let it play out, and then Dustfang could explain, to Silentstar, why she has to waste herbs.

Ooc: I hope it's alright for a meddie to join