Dawning Woods

[Naila]

Ratflame
She/her, 22 moons, Warrior


The sound of pounded paw steps hit her ears, followed closely by the odor of those rodents. Her nose wrinkled as the rats and snakes tore into each other, the plan was working. Her watching from the sidelines was cut short when Dawnstar's call hit her ears. Her eyes widened briefly in surprise but she didn't question it. Not wasting another second, Ratflame shot out of the foliage and into the heap of battle. Extended claws hooked into the fur of a rat and pulled it toward her waiting jaws. As her teeth sank into the rat, she couldn't help but grimace. Even the blood of these little beasts tasted terrible on her tongue.


She threw the limp body aside only to have a rat climbing onto her back. She hissed angrily and twisted around, her jaws snapping around the wretched creature's tail. She felt fangs sink into her leg but ignored it, yanking the rat off of her back and slamming it down on the ground. Instead of getting more foul blood in her mouth she finished it off with her claws, now she turned her attention to the snake that had snagged her leg. She swatted at the thing's head in an attempt to loosen it from her limb.

While she focused on the snake, another rat managed to climb onto her back, it's teeth sinking into her shoulder. To say her patience was wearing thin would be an understatement as her teeth snapped shut around the spine of the snake and flinging the long body aside. She didn't even get a chance to gawk about how much blood was coming from the bite before she had to deal with the rat on her shoulder.

[otter]

FOGGYMASK
HE/HIM | PURRKS: MIND READER, SHADOW FIEND, KITTY SOFTPAWS T1 | DEMIROMANTIC | 35 MOONS

Foggymask launched himself out of the shadows, furiously snarling and swiping at rats. He noticed in shock as a snake flung its scaly, disgusting body at his son. Throwing himself in front of Silentpaw, he felt tiny fangs sink into his shoulder. He turned and looked at his son before leaping back into battle.

[ @Starphobia ]

[Mica]

Birdpaw
ShadowClan Apprentice
she/her | 10 moons | 104/100
[Grey tabby with a dark overcoat, white underside and amber eyes]
Purrks: Lyrebird's Lullaby [PERMANENTLY ACTIVE], Don't Mind if I Do!
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ The Fool ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
· · ────────────── · ·
[Sleepysunrise - @Estelle ]
· · ────────────── · ·
It felt like the moment Birdpaw had scaled the tree, Dawnstar called for an attack. The apprentice gasped for breath, watching the rats and snakes--considerably more of them than she thought--tear into each other. The addition of cats to the mix created a chaos unlike anything Birdpaw had seen. She could feel her heart pound in every whisker, her toes, her ears. Sleepysunrise's gaze burned a hole into her pelt, but she didn't react. Only glance sidelong at her sister as she leapt down. Soon enough Birdpaw could take a deep breath without choking on it, and she threw herself into the fray.

Birdpaw had never been in a real battle before. The sounds, the scents, the visuals overwhelmed her as she dodged this way and that, crushing bodies threatening to throw her around. Her small size provided her agility, however, and she managed to slip around, under, even over the warriors locked in brutal combat. A rat doing the same came face to face with her, a juvenile, from what she could tell. The both froze, fear flaring in both of their eyes as they wondered who would attack first. But Birdpaw had gotten good at shutting herself down, recently. The apprentice lunged forward, sinking her claws into the diseased creature and gouging its stomach open, warm blood and flesh oozing over her white paws, staining them red.

The last time Birdpaw had done battle training, she had imagined her claws sinking into the pelt of her mother, tearing the fight from her limbs and life from her chest. The intrusive thought had haunted Birdpaw for moons, seeding a deep-rooted fear of battle. The blood soaking into her paws should have sent her spiraling, the grey-brown of the rat's fur turning into a sleek silver coat that always smelled like herbs and home. But Birdpaw did not falter, this time. Instead she threw herself headlong into the battle, clawing anything that came close, tearing tails and faces as she scrapped with rat after snake after rat, some getting away only to fall into the waiting claws of her clanmates. A snake reared at her, but instinct took hold and she dropped to her stomach, rolling to the side before slamming her paw down on the snake's head, feeling its coiled muscles thrash in desperation. It died with a bite to the neck, falling limp onto the soil.

But she wasn't without her injuries. With every fight, she gained scratch after scratch, bite after bite. Some stung badly, others hardly registered. A particularly large rat, almost her size (though still small to a normal warrior), bared its fangs at her. The apprentice did the same, icy blue eyes slits of fury. It lunged, and Birdpaw dodged to the left. At least, she tried to. She hadn't been paying attention to her paws, and tripped over herself onto the dirt. The rat took advantage of this, leaping onto her side and sinking it's teeth onto her foreleg. Birdpaw shrieked--a shrill, harsh sound--and rolled over so the rat was under her. Her back legs came in, clawing at the rat's underbelly while her fangs sank into the rat's scruff to hold it. The rat let go of her forearm, trying to skitter away, but the bleeding feline was not going to let it. She stumbled forward, swatting at the hateful creature and knocking its hind legs out from under it. Weak already from the fight, the rat squeaked pitifully and struggled to scramble to its little feet to run. Birdpaw gasped, her chest hurting more and more with each fight, foreleg pounding with each beat of her heart. But she pushed through the pain. She had never experienced the pain of a severe bite before. It was so different from the dull, ever-present ache in her chest that she was used to. Would it scar? It would be her first ever scar. The thought didn't spark any emotion in the apprentice, her face blank as she scanned the battlefield for her next target.

[Mica]

Mistlewhisker
ShadowClan Deputy
she/her | 45 moons
[Large black cat with a half white muzzle and a pale green eye]
Purrks: Killer Aptitude T3 [ACTIVE], Shadow Fiend, Mind Reader
⋆˖⁺‧₊☽ The Chariot ☾₊‧⁺˖⋆
· · ────────────── · ·
[Dawnstar - @Undertaker ] [Ratflame - @Nalia ]
· · ────────────── · ·
Briarsplash and her patrol returned not long after the group had hidden away, reeking of blood and rats. All four of them made it up the trees safely, and then the ground exploded.

Snakes shot forward from under bushes, from burrows, from under leaves as the rats thundered over them. Blood and fur flew, squeals and shrieks filling the air. Dawnstar's call to action came as a surprise, but Mistlewhisker wasted no time before leaping up herself, swarming with her patrol to box in the creatures so they couldn't escape.

She snarled as a rat swiped at her, her sheer size making throwing it to the side a trivial matter. Its spine cracked against a stone, and it lay limp. Another rat latched onto her leg from behind, and she whirled around to slam her paws into its head, its squeak muffled by dirt as it was shoved into the ground. She killed it and tossed it to the side, wincing as she put weight on her leg. Ugh, disgusting creatures. Who knew what had been in their mouths! Shaking it off, the Deputy returned to battle.

Leaping over a squabbling group of rats and snakes, Mistlewhisker swiped them apart and took them out one by one, her claws sinking into stomachs and tearing while teeth crunched around scales and spines. It was like a dance, and one Mistlewhisker had practiced for a long time. At some point during the battle, Mistlewhisker had ended up near Dawnstar, the Leader taking on veritable hoards of rats herself. Mistlewhisker wasn't going to get in her way, but then she spotted a particularly large snake darting away into the brush nearby, Dawnstar in her path to it. The Deputy took a running leap, flying over her mate and landing on her other side, flashing her a teasing smirk before heading towards the runaway.

Mistlewhisker slammed her forepaws down on the snake's tail just before it could slither away, the scaled creature hissing angrily and shooting up at her. She narrowly dodged a bite to the face, darting forward and clamping her jaws around the snake's muscled body, biting down hard. The metallic taste of blood mingled with the sharp scales falling over her tongue, flooding her mouth and nearly making her gag. But the snake died without trouble, and she spat out the blood and scales next to it. Yuck.

The Deputy thundered back into battle, noting with pleasure that everyone had been doing well. The number of rats and snakes was rapidly dwindling. Mistlewhisker continued fighting her way through the hoards. A cat's hiss nearby caught her attention, and Mistlewhisker spotted Ratflame dealing with a rat on her shoulder. The Deputy bounded to her side, able to reach the rat from her vantage point and tearing it off of the young warrior. She sank her teeth into it's neck, feeling its feeble spine snap under her strength. She gave Ratflame a nod, noting how much she was bleeding, and jerked her head to where Rookfire lie in wait in case she wanted to get it checked out. "Don't let that overwhelm you." Was all she said before she turned back into the thrall.

Even though their numbers were diminishing, rats still managed to swarm Mistlewhisker, snapping at her with yellowed teeth. She hissed, swatting a few away only for them to come back in droves. She felt teeth sink into her back leg, the same one that had been bitten earlier. Another hiss escaped her, pain lancing like fire up her leg. Adrenaline flooded her pelt, her strength tripling as her nerves and muscles worked overtime. The black feline threw all of the rats off of her with one twist, her claws snagging in two and sending them hurling against a pine tree, their spines snapping on impact. The other rats fled, only to be met with the claws of the cats around her.