The Hour of Justice [RC + WC BATTLE TOPIC]

The sound of the fighting stopped. Mottlekit blinked from where he was cowering in the back of the nursery with the rest of the kits. His mouth half open to taste the air, finding the unfamiliar scent of the intruders still there. He took a deep breath as he summoned his courage and took a step forward, then another one as he pulled himself toward the entrance of the den only to freeze when he could get a proper look outside. The ground was stained red - bodies of his Clanmates littering the ground as he attempted to make sense of it all. Some of the victors still stood in the camp as his Clanmates slowly started to awaken from their defeat.

Things had been just fine moments before, why did the evil cats attack the camp? Finally, his eyes landed on the closest cat to the nursery - Twistedpaw. "Twistedpaw?" he whispered softly as he scurried over to the awakening apprentice. "Wh-What happened? Wh-Why were we attacked?" he whispered, his voice catching in his fear and terror. He didn't understand, h-he couldn't understand! Things had been just fine moments before...Before the yowling and hissing had started. Mottlekit's eyes scanned the camp as his breath came in terrified gasps as his eyes landed on few RiverClan cats remaining, his heart racing. What...What had they done wrong?

Deerkit followed Mottlekit quickly, straying by his side as he questioned Twistedpaw in a shaking voice.

Her wide blue eyes were rounded, fearful. Why was there blood that smelled? Why…why were her clanmates littered like fresh kill on the ground?
The fluffy kit huddled next to the tom, not only because he was the only cat not covered in blood, but also because she knew him. Those few cats that littered her camp, long-furred and yowling in glory, she didn't know.
She felt a shudder ripple through her spine as she tucked her head back to glance towards the nursery, remembering the warmth and innocence she'd shared only a few moments ago. It hurt, it hurt to know that this had happened.

Finally, the small, fluffy calico stepped up, her bright eyes darkened with thought.
"I…My…Lionfur…" she struggled to remember. "Ashstar said he hurt an ap…apprentice." Deerkit was shaking, trembling too badly to speak fully. She remembered the day her father had been brought before the clan, even though she'd barely been a moon old then. But wasn't that what this was about?

She looked towards Twistedpaw, paws shifting. The kit lowered her head, staring at the ground. It was stained with a dark brown, and almost immediately Deerkit flinched, looking back up towards the apprentice.
"Am…is that true?"

Twistedpaw winced as she got up, a fresh gash on her side and the few claw marks across her muzzle yowling at her as she faced the kits. "I-I am pretty sure it was because two R-Riverclan cats got attacked. Shellwater- the cat who attacked me, and Frogpaw. They we-ere demanding that Smokepelt be exiled for breaking Frogpaw's jaw and..." She frowned, " I think I forgot the rest. My mind was mostly o-on the fight." She looked at the cats around her. Her hope failed. "We didn't win, d-did we?" Her voice shuddered from the shock of the battle and her determination, which was failing every moment.

Greypaw could feel someone grab her scruff, she hated being carried, but she no strength to struggle. She open her heavy eyelids and saw Morningfog carrying her towards camp. The sight of her clanmate caring for her made her happy. She went limp and hope nothing bad would happen as her thoughts drifted away.

Twistedpaw, agony spreading across her side with every step, looked for someone to tell her what was happening. Limping away from the nursery, she looked for the Windclan deputy- Ashstar was probably busy, and Smokepelt must know what is happening through all the chaos. Weakly stepping over the bodies of cats who still ought to get up, she looked around, wondering where the deputy was. Panicked when she can't find him, she yowled, "Smokepelt...? Smokepelt!"

Either not hearing the leader over the splitting pain in his head or maybe she didn't say anything at all, Cedarfur let out a pained meow. At this point the elder was starting hyperventilate from the horrid defeat and not seeing any sign of movement from Ashstar made him panic even more. "Ashstar!" the tall tom yowled again, huffing in between breathes, his legs shaking from exhaustion.

After the last WindClan warrior toppled over out of exhaustion, Fishstar turned back to Ashstar and made her way back over to where she was lying. Her gaze was hard and cold. "So this is how you present yourself after all of this? You moan and yowl as if I've ruined your way of life? None of this would have even happened if you weren't so sympathetic to blood-lusting code-breakers. It could have been so simple, but you wanted this to be difficult." She turned her head to look in the direction of the camp's exit, through which Thistleblaze had dragged Smokepelt, and then back at Ashstar. "And I would certainly hope that this changed something, because all of your warriors have collapsed with exhaustion. You're not exactly fit to keep resisting. The fact that you still can't see the disgusting nature of your son's actions continued to puzzle me, but I won't bother reiterating on deaf ears." This would never cease to be infuriating. Even though RiverClan had won the battle, Fishstar felt no joy. Frogpaw and Shellwater were still injured - this would not change that. "I'm giving you another choice today. Smokepelt and Lionfur are guilty cats, and they must be punished accordingly. You must either exile them, or we will take them as prisoners."

Ashstar, hurting though she was, drew herself up proudly. She would not disgrace her Clan or its former leaders in StarClan. "No, this wouldn't have happened if you and your Clan hadn't been so blood-thirsty as to not listen to reason and be so unwilling to negotiate," she snapped. She was completely fed up with the RiverClanners at this point. They barely defeated her Clan, by teaming up on all the remaining brave fighters, and now strutted around camp like they owned the place. They still continued to make the same outrageous demands as if the horrible battle they'd instigated hadn't even happened, and as if their warriors were all in perfect shape. And, worst of all, Fishstar was still under the impression that she could make Ashstar, the leader of WindClan, exile her deputy and son. They couldn't just be satisfied that every warrior in her Clan was now wounded? Like her mother Graybriar used to say, "vengeance never was happiness." And as much as she would love to set the leader straight, yowl her stupidity into those deafened ears, she knew she had to speak in the best interest of her Clan, and her son.

"I have told you already," Ashstar meowed slowly and clearly, "why I cannot exile my son. I swear that I will punish him accordingly, however. Maybe you can afford to exile warriors left and right in RiverClan, but this is WindClan. As my Clanmate, and my son, his judgement is up to me as his leader. I will give him a fair punishment, and whether that ends up being demotion from deputy or being resumed to apprentice status for two moons, it is up to me to decide. I understand your concerns, and I promise that I will not let them go unanswered."

The she-cat took a deep breath. "As for Lionfur, he has a mate and kits. His behavior was inexcusable, and I have decided that I will exile him, but not until his kits are apprenticed. They need a father, Fishstar, at least until they become 'paws. They are only a few sunrises away from their ceremony, anyways. I cannot in good conscience exile him when he has kits who need his support, but I assure you that he will be exiled when their ceremony has been completed." Her green eyes stared into Fishstar's, calm and cool, unlike the sorrow, uncertainty, fury and bitterness that raged inside. "I cannot think of a reason why this proposition would seem unreasonable, but I assure you that it is the best way for me to deal with these two cats. If you, for any reason, decide to go against all precepts of common sense and try to keep our Clanmates as prisoners, then we will of course have to get them back, no matter how much I want to avoid bloodshed. For all of our sakes, please see common sense and let me deal with Smokepelt and Lionfur in a fitting way." Ashstar waited with bated breath. Would Fishstar finally see sense, or was her lust for blood and vengeance too great?

Lionfur lay, unbelieving, on the bloody ground. Ashstar would dare exile him? How did she think that would work- that he would just meekly comply and leave? Well, that mouse-brain had another thing coming. He almost hoped he would be "taken prisoner" along with Smokepelt. It would be a great way to arrange an accident for the deputy, then escape after wreaking havoc in RiverClan. But instead, Lionfur's terrified eyes met Nightheart's, begging for help.

"You would toss out Lionfur but not your son?" Otterleap meowed incredulously before a sharp glance from Ivyfall had him shut up. The brown tabby didn't know what to say, that was disturbing and wrong in so many ways. Though he was risking his deputy and leader's wrath, he couldn't help tack on. "I guess we all now know how a kit-beater ended up deputy. You just have to be related to Ashstar."

"Otterleap." Ivyfall gritted out between clenched teeth. She gave him another sharp glance that continued to sweep all of RiverClan. The warning was clear, speak up and you'd be in charge of collecting mouse bile for Cloudstone. And though Ashstar's constant refusal to exile her deputy did grate on her, a part of her understood the desire to keep family close. She didn't know if she'd actually be able to exile any of her own children, she had such few left. But then again, after Frostfall, Ivyfall had been much more cautious about their upbringing, instilling strong beliefs in StarClan and the code. It was complicated, and she didn't envy Fishstar, who had to deal with all this.

And though she didn't know what Fishstar would ultimately do, Ivyfall was prepared to drag Lionfur and Smokepelt back to their camp if necessary. They had many warriors, strong fights who could crush WindClan if they tried to invade. She had no fear. RiverClan camp was also their home territory, she knew those waters like the back of her paw, WindClan were no swimmers, they wouldn't stand a chance.

"This has nothing to do with blood-thirst," Fishstar stated icily, raising her tail as a signal to RiverClan to cease speaking out of turn - despite her partial agreement with what had been said. "I find it ironic that you say that, considering the fact that bloodthirst on your Clan's behalf is the reason we're even here in the first place."

This constant, kit-like melodrama and blind stubbornness was growing very tiring to listen to, and she could see that Ashstar was too smothered by fact that Smokepelt was her son to see what a terrible cat he was. Fishstar understood motherly love as well as any other she-cat - that was what had driven her to march all the way here, after all - but like all things, a line had to be draw somewhere, and she drew it at senseless violence. "We didn't need your help for what Smokepelt and Lionfur did. We have two capable medicine cats. I didn't want your help, either. I want no friendship with a Clan who has a history of attacking SkyClan for no good reason and supporting ThunderClan. I wanted justice, and you refused to give it to me, and instead repeatedly failed to see how serious the result of Lionfur and Smokepelt's actions were." She swiveled her head around to look in the direction Thistleblaze has taken the WindClan deputy, thinking. Ashstar would not punish him accordingly if RiverClan just left him as he was. Any cat could see that. Fishstar didn't exactly fancy the idea of holding Smokepelt prisoner. That, even for what Smokepelt has done, was somewhat extreme, and would only serve as a last resort.  The most appropriate punishment would be exile, or.. Suddenly, another idea came to her. "I accept your proposal for Lionfur, but I will not walk away from this without seeing that Smokepelt receives his due. Upon further thinking, I've come up with something more fitting than exile." She leered back down at Ashstar, brimming with disdain. "Ivyfall, go fetch Thistleblaze and Smokepelt."

Nightheart couldn’t even stand after the hits from the two RiverClan cats that teamed up against her, taking her off-guard as she tried to take down the warrior she had stunned only some time ago. For several seconds all she could heard was a strong buzzing sound in her ears, like if a swarm of bees had decided to surround her head, her vision blurry and muscles aching, too tired to move.

She wasn’t sure how long it took her to regain her senses, it could’ve been a couple seconds, it could’ve been hours, on her current state she wasn’t really sure. Blinking repeatedly and forcing her tired muscles to react even if each movement caused them to scream in pain as the fatigue tried to take over the WindClan warrior. Shaking her head, the blurry spinning silhouettes around her took a more stable shape and the buzzing assaulted her ears faded until she could hear the voices of the cats around her.

Her first reaction was to look around the battleground until she found those she loved, Cedarfur, her kits and Lionfur…letting out a deep sigh she didn’t know she had holding until then when she noticed they all were alive. Dragging her tired paws over the dry and hard floor of the camp, she got closer to Lionfur, dried blood staining her fur on not few spots, both from her and the cats she had fought.

Now, she knew that what she had achieved would be more than enough for some cats to gloat about, defeating three full warriors of RiverClan and having to be triple-teamed to be taken down…but she was far from proud from it. This battle was unnecessary, and blood had been spilled without reason. Now, she didn’t support Fishstar’s decision to attack the whole clan because they refused to exile their deputy, but she couldn’t help but agree that he deserved punishment. That was something that should’ve been discussed between the involved parties, and not fought over like it was. She wasn’t sure how RiverClan was doing, but if they couldn’t see how weakened WindClan was at the time they were either blind or stupid, and with Leafbare around the corner this kind of fights were something they simply could not afford. Now many warriors were doomed to stay only StarClan knows so long recovering inside the medicine den instead of hunting, and to make things worse their injuries meant wasting herbs that were just way too precious at this time, as finding them during these chilly moons would be near to impossible and if they ran out it could mean unnecessary deaths during Leafbare through sickness that could be easily healed otherwise.

However, all and any thought that could be going through her head came to a sudden halt when she heard Ashstar’s words. Her eyes immediately going from the leaders to her mate. She…she couldn’t be hearing right…she was so sure that Lionfur had been incriminated, that he wasn’t the one that broke the code is such an awful way…this had to be a mistake, it just had to be. Their gazes met for some seconds before Nightheart managed to formulate any word “Lionfur…is it…true??? Did you…did you…” Her words were absent, and the nervousness and fear in them was clear as a cloudless sky. She was just wishing to hear that this was all a huge misunderstanding, that Ashstar was wrong…but part of her started to feel doubtful…

Ivyfall listened impassively until Fishstar gave the order. Ducking her head in acknowledgement, the deputy sprinted away from the camp to reach where her daughter was waiting with Smokepelt by the gorge. "Bring him, Fishstar wants to punish him." Ivyfall said, her gaze cold as it landed on the battered form of the WindClan deputy. To think Ashstar was willing to lower herself this much for him. She wondered if Smokepelt felt any guilt, or just basked in the warmth of his mother's love, not seeing the damage his foolishness had wrought on WindClan.

He was so young yet older than her by moons. Although, she had been raised in a far more complicated situation than the tom. It probably made sense that she grew up so quickly while he lingered still by his mother's side. Even if Mistfeather had offered her love, Ivyfall would have never taken it.

"Do you need help carrying him?" She asked Thistleblaze.

Thistleblaze shook her head. "No, he is just a small windclan cat after all." She said. "I don't know why we are taking him back, he doesn't deserve to go back to a clan that will forgive everything he does.. but I won't question Fishstar." She said knowing leader's word was law. She grabbed the scruff of the code breaker and started dragging him back to camp, not caring if he would get scratch or damaged on the way back. He deserved everything that was coming to him. To her he shouldn't be let into Starclan that others always seemed to believe in.

Smokeface purred in justice as the deputy ot WindClan was brought before them. He let out a deep mrrow, watching Smokepelt devilishly, his jaws parted slightly to take in the scent of sadness coming from Ashstar. That's what she deserves. he thought, wondering what Fishstar would do next.

"Break his jaw! Make him suffer!" cheered, glancing meanly at the enemy clan's leader, his fanhs showing as he tried to look more vicious than ever.

Opening his eyes, Smokepelt awoke to find himself back at camp. He noticed his side was covered with dirt and a gew twigs we tangled in his pelt. For a couple moments, he couldn't figure out what had happened and wondered how long he'd been out. Lying on his side, the tom trying to get up but let out a hiss as pain shot through his side and struggled no more. Was this a dream? No, he... he had been taken by RiverClan, that's right. Looking around, memories from the recent battle overwhelmed the deputy and his breathing sped up as he tried to rap his head around it all. They'd lost against those... those fish eating scum!

Unfortunately for him, his wounds weren't something he just got up and walked away from and turning his head to see Fishstar not very far away from him, the tom winced from a headache that made his head throb. He would've attacked the leader, but staying on the ground, it felt as if his legs were mush. Ears flat on his head and claws unsheathed, Smokepelt let out a low growl. It seemed like his mother was alright for now at least and although he was scared for what was to come, he didn't let his gaze leave the RiverClan leader. What ever she had planned for him, he would take it, even if it costed him his life. For WindClan.