Quote:
Originally Posted by Midgefur
Stiltpaw had been lost in his own world, imagining what the gathering could possibly be like, when the group of ShadowClan cats had come to a halt. It wasn't until the scent of ThunderClan was so strong that they were barely on top of each other when the young tom realized what was going on and he came back to reality. With everything happening so fast, when Goldenstar yowled for the attack Stiltpaw froze in place with the fur on his tail stiff enough to rival a porcupine's. Cats from both factions collided, creating a writhing mass of claws and teeth that he couldn't help but stare at with a mixture of fear and amazement. His first battle, and with ThunderClan!
Confident but undertrained, Stiltpaw took up a battle ready stance and looked for someone to pounce on, but he was a bit too late. Not having checked around him, he missed a grey-striped cat who'd flung herself right at him from the shadows, who slammed into his side with a weight that pushed him back onto two paws, and then onto his side. He let out a startled yap and pulled his hind legs up near his chest. His heart beating hard, the black and white tom tried to kick off his attacker, planning to scramble back to his feet once the pressure was off his side. |
Fear wasn't exactly something that Raccoonpaw felt, or perhaps it had been a very long time since she's actually been scared by something. When it came to battle, she wasn't scared. She wasn't fearing for her life. She was actually rather headstrong and liked to attack her enemies with brute force, she didn't have time to plan it out like her pranks. Of course short-term plans might be thought up, like a one-two strike then duck, but nothing that exceeded two steps. As rebellious and wily as she was, she wasn't an absolute idiot, she held more common sense than by-the-book intelligence and knew that her time needed to be spend focusing on the fight as opposed to what might happen. So when she went lunging for Stiltpaw, her mind was strangely clear, her attention focused on analyzing what was currently going on and nothing more than that. It seemed the confusion of the battle had aided in her attack, allowing her to surprise him, crashing into his side and sending him toppling over. She sunk her claws in, going tumbling with him.
She should have expected it, the kicking, but it did manage to catch her off guard and she let go immediately, making sure to yank her claws out as opposed to sheathing them. She wanted to do damage, this wasn't practice with Thrushflight. This was a real fight. If she could do damage and injure him to the point where he couldn't fight anymore, then she won. It would be another small victory for Thunderclan right?
Retreating a few steps, she fluffed up her fur with a hiss, but really her appearance wasn't frightening, it was even almost comical. She was an average sized cat in both height and weight and bore markings similar to a raccoon, thus her name. Her tail was particularly bushy, and even more so when she was fluffed up like this. "You don't stand a chance you mud-wallowing mouse!" She sneered with a wild look in aquamarine eyes, perhaps even trying to anger the other cat. She knew that when she got Thrushflight angry, he fought more recklessly, just trying to hit her without thinking it through. Perhaps the same would happen with this other apprentice. He seemed young. He likely didn't have as many moons of training under his belt as she did.