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Dinara hardly knew what to make of the situation. Perhaps Furzetuft was a spirit, and the herbs were a test to determine whether or not they deserved being warned of such a life-threatening creature on the prowl. Perhaps the wolf itself was a test as well; Frost had warned herself and Damir that, though StarClan may have wanted LakeClan in the woods, the spirits may not, and may send trials their way so that they may 'earn' their place. A chill ran up the deputy's spine. This place was was nothing like where she grew up.
"Should I go grab the stuff from earlier?" Rita's voice pulled Dinara from her thoughts. She looked over to her apprentice, who was staring up at her expectantly. Anxiety was written into her every feature, but it was clear by the way Rita held herself that she was trying to hide it.
Dinara did her best to smile reassuringly. If there was a wolf about, it would probably be best not to be carrying around fresh kill. No point in making themselves more appealing to the beast.
"Let's wait for the others first." Dinara suggested. "There's a lot to carry after all."
Rita hummed, thankfully taking that explanation. Dinara didn't want to worry her any more than she already was. Should she have taken her back to camp? But it wouldn't be right to abandon Yantar and Flurry, would it? Stars, how she wished that she had stopped Yantar and Flurry from leaving - though, she was impressed Yantar actually took charge of things. She didn't have any doubt that he was actually going to scout out the wolf and avoided saying it, and understood that he was worried enough to do so right away - really, she probably would have if he hadn't - but as she stood alone with her apprentice, waiting for them to come back, she found herself regretting not returning to camp right away.
Something rustled in the underbrush nearby, making Rita and Dinara both snap to attention. Thankfully, the scent of their clanmates reached them before they go too concerned. The deputy welcomed them back with a wave of her tail and anxiously took Yantar's report, her mind ablaze.
~
Furzetuft mentioned a wolf, and Flurry's blood ran cold. Vertigo panged through her mind, and she did her best not to stumble in place as the forest flipped around her. She couldn't feel the ground under her paws, could hardly breathe.
She had just been hunting.
Yantar nudged her, snapping her out of her stupor. She blinked at him, eyeing him up and down. He was looking at her strangely. Had he said something? She studied him closer, trying to judge what he had said by how he looked at her - he was right in front of her, right in front of her, but he was worlds away, she couldn't focus - but eventually just nodded.
A wolf. Did they follow her? Her mother had called them beasts of the moon, and once said that they hated cats so much because cats were creatures of the sun.
It had been quiet for a moment.
Flurry blinked, once again coming back to where her body was, away from the fangs and blood that haunted her past. Dinara was looking at her strangely - Flurry didn't know what that look meant, didn't care - and Rita and Yantar were too. Did she look off to them? Could they have guessed what was going through her mind? Did they care?
She hoped they didn't.
Wordlessly, Flurry turned and stalked into the forest. Yantar followed close behind, and eventually Flurry let him overtake her to lead - she suspected it had been his idea to split up anyways.
She had just been hunting. She had wanted to surprise her brother with a hare. He had just reached his twelfth moon.
A sudden rustling in the underbrush brought Flurry back to herself. She blinked, gauging her surroundings. She was... in LakeClan's forest. She looked to her side, almost flinching away when she caught sight of another stranger beside her. No, not a stranger. Clanmate. Yantar.
He was giving her a... well, surprisingly expressive look for himself. That was something they had in common, not being terribly expressive. When Flurry could find it in herself to care, she wondered why he was that way. What had him so worried as to actually emote?
Ah, right. Wolf. Here. Again? No, the first.
Flurry turned back to the sound, creeping forward to see it better. It wasn't a wolf. Flurry would never forget the stench of such a beast. But she would have walked into its jaws if it was.
But fate would not have her, not yet. Instead, a duck sat before them. Yantar gave her another look, and this time Flurry was present enough to know what it meant. She nodded, and watched as he disappeared into the underbrush before returning her attention to the duck.
She was only hunting. Only hunting. She let out a long, slow breath.
She made eye contract with Yantar across the clearing with a nod. He lunged forward, startling the duck towards Flurry. She was quick to leap forward and pin it, burying her fangs into the grey fluff around its neck half a second later.
She had seen them in her nightmares, standing over her family like that. Funny how the mind did things like that - Flurry hadn't made it back in time to see the wolves attack her family. But she knew what happened.
Wolf scent hit her nose, strong and tinged with blood. Yantar said something, he must have, but Flurry could hardly hear him, was hardly with him any more. With only that, Flurry was back in the forest around her family's old camp. She had a hare in her jaws, freshly caught. She had only been hunting, only hunting, but in that instant she realized that she was terribly alone. Her entire body went rigid.
In the next instant, Flurry was running, running like she never had before.
(Except, she had. She was running like she had only once before.)
Blood roared in her ears. Her paws barely touched the ground as she ran. The tracks of the beasts were easy to follow, gargantuan and cruel compared to her own paws. Their stench hung in the air, a mix of rot and blood and something that could only be described as beast. A shrill yowl split the air, a sound Flurry had heard over and over and over again in her dreams and yet didn't recognize in the panic, a sound that made her heart clench and almost caused her to stumble. She pushed herself to run faster, faster, begging with the sun and the spirits to let her get there in time to do something, anything, even if it was only dying beside her family.
She burst through the underbrush into a clearing that, for a moment, was soaked in the evidence of the cruelty of beasts. Then, that nightmare of Flurry's past faded away, leaving only a pair of rather startled looking cats in their place. Flurry blinked. Her chest heaved.
Who... who were they?
She looked around, squinting at the trees around her. They weren't the same. Why weren't they the same?
Her tongue brushed against feathers, making her recoil in surprise. A duck? But... but she had gone out for a hare, for her brother, she wouldn't have forgotten, she-
"Flurry?"
Flurry snapped to attention. The bigger cat, a tortoiseshell, was looking at her again. Flurry stared back, slowly processing where she was. This... was LakeClan's territory. It had always been. She hadn't gone back.
She drew in a deep breath, letting her eyes drift close. This was LakeClan territory. There were new kits in the nursery. There was a wolf prowling the territory.
These cats weren't her family. Some of them wanted to be, but they weren't. But they were in danger. And only she knew how much danger they were in.
She opened her eyes, set the duck down, and fixed Dinara with a scowl.
"You need to get serious."
Dinara blinked. "What?"
"You need to get serious," Flurry repeated, keeping her voice pointedly calm but deadly serious. "You need to get back to camp, all of you. Take the prey so it doesn't come for the scraps, and go back to camp. Put strong smelling herbs around the nursery, as much as you have in camp, and go looking for more only if there are none. Every cat who can't climb needs to get in the nursery, and someone needs to cover the entrance with the rock Vorona picked out in case of a fox attack."
"Flurry," Dinara interrupted. "What-"
"Listen to me!" Flurry snapped. It was the first time she had raised her voice with any of them, and Dinara and Rita both flinched hard. Were it any other time, Flurry may have felt bad, but she couldn't muster empathy through the stoniness that had overtaken her. Some part of her recognized something was wrong, but it was crushed under the weight of the flood. She could swear she felt the wolf's eyes on her back.
"You need to get everyone who can't climb into the nursery." Flurry continued, more forcefully than before. "After that, everyone else needs to climb the nearest tree, as far as they're willing and then even more than that. And then you need to hide. Hide until I come back, or until the sun rises tomorrow."
"Flurry, slow down. What are you even talking about?" Dinara spoke slowly, her tone measured and even. Flurry recognized it as an attempt to calm her, which sent a flash of irritation through her. Wasn't Dinara concerned? "Why do we need to get in the trees? And why would we need to wait for you?"
"Wolves can't climb." Flurry replied in a clipped tone. "And you need to wait for me because we have no chance of killing that beast, even if all of us tried to. The only thing we can do it lure it away."
"We can send someone with you." Dinara suggested. Flurry felt just about ready to claw her fur out, claw her own fur out. She had to get back there.
"I have to do this alone."
"Why?"
She wasn't there.
"I'm the only one who can."
"Why?"
She wasn't there.
Flurry's chest tightened. "Because."
Dinara took a step towards her and Flurry moved back like she had been burned. She was too close. Looking too close. There was a pressure building inside her chest and Flurry wanted to run away from it, away from everything, right into the maw of the beast.
"Flurry," Dinara's voice was reproachful but not angry, never angry, and Flurry loathed it, "you'll get yourself killed-"
That pressure inside broke, and Flurry snapped at her deputy, "So what?"
Dinara fell silent. Flurry could feel her studying her again, but this time didn't care. Some broken part of her took great pleasure in the stunned look on the deputy's face.
That is, until, she caught sight of Rita behind her.
The poor apprentice looked horrified. Her ears were folded back, her eyes wide, and Flurry could swear she could see the beginnings of tear glistening in her eyes.
Immediately, all of that hurt and frustration and panic seeped out, leaving only guilt and regret. She stared at Rita, her eyes wide. What had she done? How could she have forgotten?
There was no time to fix it. Not now.
Flurry drew in a breath and straightened her back. When she reopened her eyes, she fixed Dinara with her usual cold stare.
"Fine. Send only the fastest cats. Everyone else needs to do as I said." Dinara started to speak again and Flurry cut her off. "I'll wait here, you all go back. I'll explain later, just-" She stopped herself short, talking in another deep breath and letting it out, "-please."
A silence fell over the group. Yantar was the first to break it, stepping forward.
"I can stay. I'm pretty fast."
Flurry turned an appraising eye to him, looking him up and down. He was puffing his chest out, subconsciously or not Flurry couldn't say, and there was a certain determined shine to his eyes. He was getting bolder, wasn't he? Good for him.
"Not fast enough." She grunted. "Send your sister instead."
She could see how he shrank at that. Almost instantly, he shrank back to his usual half-deflated posture and the spark faded from his eyes. She almost felt bad, but couldn't afford to, not now. She was keeping him safe.
"Fine." Dinara spoke before Flurry had to any more, possibly to save Yantar from further pain. "We'll send Idalia and some others. Wait for them here."
"Of course."
Flurry sat and watched the rest of her patrol grab their fresh-kill and leave. Some part of her ached to see the way her words had affected them - Rita and Yantar especially: both cats were walking with their heads low and tails almost dragging - but that part of her wasn't connected to her mind at the moment. Her mind was full of howls and images of her family's destroyed camp until her new patrol arrived, at which point her body stood and lectured them about the dangers of wolves and how to do what they were about to do before leading them off to where she and Yantar had scented the beast.
~
Damir was not exceptionally fast. But he was meant to be LakeClan's leader, and above that he knew Flurry well, so he felt he had to go. Dinara had mentioned a wolf was in the territory, that Flurry was acting strange, and that she had chosen to stay behind, and Damir had already decided he would be on the patrol.
His relationship with Flurry was... strange. She hadn't been in LakeClan for long, but he respected her like most cats in LakeClan did. However, they were something of kindred spirits in the clan, being some of the few reserved cats, and Damir didn't miss the way that Flurry spent more time with him than she did other cats - though it wouldn't be a noteworthy amount of time to more sociable cats. He didn't know much about her. He didn't know where she came from, or how she knew all she did, or even her surname, but he trusted her. He liked her. And, he had learned to read her well enough that by Dinara's description alone he could tell something was very wrong.
He set about gathering a patrol as soon as he could. He had been hunting and patrolling with nearly every cat in the clan by this point, and had a pretty good idea of who he wanted to take with him.
First was Frost.
Frost had arrived about a week after Flurry. They were a... strange cat, like Flurry could be, but not quite as distant as Damir or Flurry were. Strangely, Frost had managed to befriend both of LakeClan's resident grumps, so Damir trusted them enough with this and knew Flurry's strange behavior was something they would want to know about. Luckily, they were sunning themselves not too far from Damir's den, so he could go to them quickly and without making a scene by looking. He stopped at their side, his shadow covering their face.
"Frost."
The white cat opened one eye, then upon realizing it was Damir speaking to them, sat up. "Yes?"
"There's a wolf in the territory."
Frost froze. They looked him up and down, as if to confirm he wasn't lying. Damir shot them a tense frown.
"Flurry and Yantar scented it while hunting with Dinara and Rita. Dinara said that Flurry started acting strange after, and insisted on staying behind to lead the wolf away."
"Is she doing that alone?" Frost interjected, eyes wide.
"No," Damir soothed, "but she nearly did, according to Dinara. She was barely able to talk Flurry into waiting."
"I see..." Frost narrowed their eyes in thought. "This is.... troubling. I'm assuming you're asking me to attend?" They looked to Damir, one eyebrow raised.
He nodded. "If you're willing."
A smile flickered across Frost's features. They dipped into a stretch, their claws scraping at the light layer of snow. "This sounds like a test from the spirits," they yawned, "I should go." They sat up, fixing Damir with a meaningful look. "It sounds like Flurry needs me too. I'm assuming you're going as well?"
Damir nodded curtly.
Frost nodded back absently. "Let's go gather up the others, then."
And so they went. Dinara had been warning the rest of the camp while they spoke, and Flurry's preparations were quickly set into motion - though not without some protest. Damir was the one to move the stone over the nursery to protect Vorona and the kits - though he couldn't and wouldn't keep Feya from joining her. Vorona almost talked him into staying, with how she grasped at his fur and begged him to be careful. He could hardly meet her eyes, could barely look at Feya or the kits. Still, he made sure to touch noses with his adoptive mother and sister, letting them press their face into his fur and doing the same to them even if it wasn't very leader-like of him, and touch his nose to each of the kits' heads. They were so small.
His throat was tight and raw when he slipped out of the nursery. He met and held Vorona's eyes for a moment as he pushed the large, flat rock over the nursery entrance, though Feya was too preoccupied pressing her face into her mother's fur to look up at him. That was probably for the best. With the rock securely over the nursery, Damir let his head hang.
He was trembling.
He dug his claws into the frosted earth, drawing in long, ragged breaths. He was going to taunt a wolf, possibly fight it if it came down to it. Death or injury were a serious possibility, potentially a certainty. His breath hitched, and he dug his claws deeper into the earth. Vorona had just had kits. Feya was still so young. LakeClan was so new too - would this all fall apart if he died? Would they be safe? Should he stay?
No. In order for this to work, he needed to be a leader.
Damir drew in another deep breath, forcing his muscles to relax as he did. He retracted his claws and straightened his back, drinking in the feeling of the cold breeze against his fur and letting it ground him. He sighed before opening his eyes and turning back to Frost.
They were looking away. Damir smiled softly despite himself. "Thank you."
Frost turned over to him, one eyebrow raised. "Whatever for?"
Damir huffed a short laugh, and Frost smiled back. After a moment of silence, both turned to watch the camp. They sat like that for a moment, quietly watching Dinara and the others spread the word and prepare. Frost was the one to break the silence.
"You will come back to them. I can feel it."
Damir turned his head to eye the white cat. They weren't looking at him, instead focusing on Portobello and Lev as they gathered up strong-smelling herbs. After a moment, Damir turned his gaze there too. A whisper of warmth glowed in his chest.
"Thank you."
He could see Frost smile out of the corner of his eye. "Of course."
Idalia approached them shortly after, asking to join the patrol. Briar came a moment later, asking the same, though Damir almost didn't let her join. Truthfully, he was having second thoughts about allowing Frost to join; both Frost and Barisr were adults, and he wouldn't have consciously called either his friend, but he found himself wanting to hide them away with his family when push came to shove. He could only hope they would be safe, that they would all be safe.
Frost suggested they bring Portobello along as well. They found the tom getting ready to climb a tree already, though Frost still asked anyways. Unsurprisingly, Portoello declined, though e did claim he didn't feel familiar enough with the forest to be of much help. Damir would have accepted him simply saying no, though he supposed that was a reasonable enough reason; Portobello had been a kittypet all his life, and only entered the forest to join LakeClan a month ago. Damir let Portobello stay, and the tom wished the rest of the patrol luck as he turned away.
Dinara wanted to come as well, but Damir did end up forcing her to stay. She was the deputy. Of anything were to happen to him, she had to be alive if he wanted even a chance for Vorona, Feya, and the kits to be safe, if even he didn't love the idea of her leading. He left that last bit out when explaining to her why she should stay, and it was enough to convince her.
So, with a patrol of himself, Frost, Idalia, and Briar, Damir set off to meet Flurry, leaving Lev, Dinara, Vorona, Willow, Portobello, Feya, the kits, Rita, Yantar, and Rye at camp. The trek there was silent, broken only by the occasional birdsong and the crunch of their paws against the thin layer of snow on the ground. Tension was thick in the air. Damir led the patrol, doing his best to keep up a stoic facade. Usually, that wouldn't have even been a challenge, but even he couldn't deny how his heart raced the more he thought about what they were doing. He was surrounded by cats who, for some reason, trusted him enough to follow him to the jaws of death. He supposed that this was the first evidence of him truly becoming a leader, of LakeClan really coming to be. Tallwillow would be proud. He tried not to think about it.
Flurry was hard to spot at first, her white and pale tortoiseshell fur blending in to the wintery forest. She stood when they approached, eyes cold and distant. Damir glanced at Frost, and they returned the look with a slight frown.
"You all need to do exactly as I say," Frost began, her voice hard, "Do not engage. We'll scout it out and choose a path to lead it away from our territory. If you feel like it's too close, turn and run under it, and jump up a tree if you can. Quickly. Don't try to climb a tree otherwise unless you're certain it's far enough away for you to get a safe distance up. If you have to attack, aim for the eyes and nose. If it comes down to it, only go for the throat if there are two other cats distracting it. Only the underside, and bite as hard as you can. It's early No-leaf, so you may still be able to do something." Flurry flicked her tail dismissively. Damir struggled to take in all of the information she was offering as calmly as he could. It sounded like she knew what she was talking about, but this also sounded quite dangerous. She was making it out like they had no chance. Was he making a mistake?
"If if gets to that, try to make sure three cats are on the throat at any given time. If you can manage, you can pull yourself up and hold onto its fur with your claws for a better grip. Never go for the stomach. If it tries to run, let it. Do you understand?" Flurry all but glared at the gathered patrol.
Damir dug his claws into the earth, staring wide-eyed at Flurry. How did she know all this? What had they gotten themselves in to?
No cat moved to leave. With a dismissive huff, Flurry rose to her paws.
"Good." She flicked her ears dismissively. "Let's go."
~
The walk to where Flurry and Yantar had scented the wolf was largely silent, broken only by Flurry explaining how they would waiting in trees along a chosen path and lead the wolf away in a sort of relay race. It sounded like it might work, though neither Damir nor Frost missed how Flurry put herself at the end of the race and failed to mention where she would be leading the wolf after. They argued with her to have the spots right before her. Damir wasn't certain if he would rejoin the fray in an attempt to help her - as much as he hated what she was doing, he had others besides her to think about - but he couldn't just let her sacrifice herself.
By following the wolf's scent trail, they were able to find its tracks in the snow. They were smaller than some other wolf tracks Damir had seen in his life, indicating this wolf was fairly young and small. Perhaps a new yearling out on its own? He couldn't decide it that was a good sign or not: the wolf may be smaller and less experienced, but it could also be starving and desperate. Still, he supposed it was better than a pack at any rate.
The patrol grew quieter, more careful as the tracks grew fresher. Unfortunately, they never left LakeClan's territory. They even grew far too close to camp for Damir's comfort the fresher they got. They would have to act fast.
Just as Damir turned to relay this to the rest of the patrol, a hiss interrupted him. Damir rounded on his heels quickly, ready to chew out whoever dared to be so loud so close to such danger, only to find everyone else just as stunned.
"What are you doing?" A hushed snarl broke through the silence. Damir turned to the sound, blinking in surprise when he found himself facing a bush. He squinted, eventually picking out dark ginger fur hiding in the branches. Another cat.
"Are you crazy?" The stranger hissed, his amber eyes wide. "There's a wolf right-"
A shadow fell over the group, followed by a low growl cut that cut the stranger off. He turned towards the sound, his mouth falling open.
Damir's blood ran cold. Slowly, he turned towards the direction of the sound, his heart skipping a beat as a locked eyes with empty yellow eyes. For a moment, no one dared to move, dared to breathe. Then, the great beast growled again, bringing its terrible snout closer to the group of cats.
With a fearsome snarl, the stranger launched themselves out from under the bush and into the wolf's face, aiming a fearsome swipe at its eyes. The beast stumbled back with a yelp, thrashing its head from side to side in an attempt to throw the stranger off.
That was enough to break the clan cats' spell.
With a thunderous yowl from Damir, they charged, circling the beast and attacking as Flurry instructed them.
[ 4,500 words ]
(Wanted to include some little details about the cats here, because there's quite a lot and I didn't get to touch on any of them very much and I thought it may be fun + make things easier for the writers ^^; This isn't included in my wordcount!
Flurry: Harsh, closed-off, skilled, and intelligent. Slightly taller than average and well-muscled, used to fighting. Respected by most of the clan, lost her entire family yo wolves while she was out hunting and hasn't been the same since, having a time of it rn. Doesn't really consider herself close to anybody
Damir: Stoic, protective, family-oriented, compassionate but tried to hide it. BIG dude, tall, muscled, and fluffy. Adoptive son of Vorona, kinda forced into the leader role by StarClan but is going along with it to create a safe place for his family, slowly growing closer to his clanmates. Closest to Briar and Frost, but has started to become friends with Flurry
Frost: Eccentric, independent, moral, and wise. Average size, not very muscular or experienced with fighting. Joined recently, knows they're supposed to be here and is just kinda enjoying it. Friendly with everyone, but closest to Damir and Flurry
Briar: Easygoing, adaptable, friendly, and creative. Tall, but thin and inexperienced with fighting. Has been here the longest after Damir, thinks she's friends with everybody, besties with Idalia. Clan's bard, will definitely be telling stories about this
Idalia: Open, vibrant, energetic, and loud. Slightly smaller than Damir, has lean muscle, decently experienced with fighting. Joined with her brother Yantar and LOVING it, doesn't really realize how serious any of this is tbh. Besties with Briar, doesn't super like Flurry but respects her, neutral towards everyone else but would still be really bubbly with them
Aspen: Flighty, quick-thinking, slow to trust, and compassionate. Slightly smaller than average, very thin. Was just trying to hide, poor guy)
