Month 10 - Leafbare
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It was early in the morning when they scented the rogues.
Ever since Nightfrost’s death, Goldenstar and Orangestar had agreed that having a patrol on the border at all times was more dangerous than it was worth and patrols had been limited to daylight hours. For the most part, it hadn’t seemed to make much of a difference. The city cats still tended to avoid patrols and no more of them had been caught crossing the border. Of course, that just meant that no one had seen them. The rogues had started marking the border themselves and every day they tried to push the boundary inch by inch. But still, no one had seen them and no more fights had been had.
So Ospreymask was almost excited when the dawn patrol spotted a group of them loitering just past the border markers. Pantherhaze shuffled beside her making worried noises. Darkmoon, the EarthClan deputy, and his apprentice Boldpaw were with them and Ospreymask looked to him for orders.
“Should we go run them off?” she asked.
“Could we?” asked Boldpaw, “There seem to be quite a few of them.” He wasn’t wrong. From where they stood, Ospreymask made out about seven cats lounging in the snow or sitting up to look in their direction.
“Maybe we could talk them into leaving,” Pantherhaze suggested.
“Seems worth a try,” grunted Darkmoon. “These kittypets are all talk from what I’ve heard.”
“I don’t know about that,” Pantherhaze mumbled, tail twitching. Ospreymask thought back to Yarrowshade’s bruised ribs and bloody shoulder or Aldertail’s story about her dead siblings. She had to agree, the city cats seemed to be able to back up their talk, but she said nothing. She wanted to see them for herself instead of turning tail now.
Lucky for her, Darkmoon started towards the group of cats with his tail raised. As they drew nearer, the city cats lowered their voices and one of them whispered in the ears of a big grey tabby with a blue collar.
“That’s Razor,” Pantherhaze whispered to her.
“Really?” she asked, her interest piqued. “Exciting.”
“Exciting?” he glanced at her sidelong with a nervous lift to his brows. She almost laughed. A giddy ball of energy had started to build in her belly in anticipation. She always got that way before a fight, all bouncy and coiled like she was full of squirrels waiting to be released. She hoped that there wouldn’t be a fight but she couldn’t stop her adrenaline from soaring.
“Ah, hello there!” bellowed Razor cheerfully. “Why don’t you join us? We were just enjoying a bit of a meal.” He gestured to a pair of birds that had been partially eaten, even pushing one towards them. A gaggle of cats sat around him, sunning themselves or sharing tongues. Most of them wore kittypet collars of different colors and materials, some with bells, some with dangling charms, some with studs, some reflective even. Ospreymask was enthralled by the variety and beauty of the accessories. Only two of the cats weren’t wearing some sort of collar, and they both had notched ears. Sitting close to each other, slightly apart from the rest of the group, they watched quietly and Ospreymask shot them a smile. They didn’t return it.
Darkmoon laid a paw over the bird and pulled it closer, saying, “You’re on Clan territory. I thought you were aware that you weren’t welcome here.”
“That’s no way to start a conversation,” Razor huffed, tilting his head. “Sit! Eat! It’s on me.”
“No, this prey is stolen,” Darkmoon said, tail lashing. “And you’re on our territory.”
“So you said,” Razor sighed. He shifted his weight to sit more upright and leveled his gaze at the deputy. “Look, I wanted to be friends, but it seems you wild cats are too stubborn to understand the concept so I’ll cut straight to business. I know you’re hiding Scrap somewhere and I need her back. I won’t leave until she’s returned to me.”
Ospreymask scoffed before she could stop herself. “You make it sound like you own her.”
Razor smiled at her. “No, no, it’s nothing like that,” he chuckled, “it’s more like… father and daughter. It’s my job as the Speaker, it’s my job to make sure each of the cats in the city are looked out for and Scrap is not well. Surely you’ve noticed the way she tears her own flesh, haven’t you?”
“Last time we talked, you didn’t even know what she looked like,” Pantherhaze scowled.
“There are a lot of cats in the city,” Razor shrugged. “I’ve done my due diligence since then. The point is that Scrap needs help that only I can give her and it would be in everyone’s best interest if you would bring her here as soon as possible. Then I can get her the help she needs and I can leave you all in peace.”
Ospreymask frowned. He was charming enough but she knew better. She’d talked to Aldertail and seen just how scared she was of him. Whatever peace he offered, she was certain Aldertail wouldn’t be getting any of it.
“I’ll consider it,” Darkmoon said, causing Ospreymask to jolt in surprise.
“Good,” Razor said. “We’ll be here when you have your answer.” He settled back down, spreading out over the grass like he owned the place. Darkmoon nodded and turned to leave, Boldpaw slinking behind him. Ospreymask shared a stunned glance with Pantherhaze. She looked around the group of cats and realized they were all watching her. The attention made her pelt crawl and she took a self conscious step backwards before she moved to follow Darkmoon. Pantherhaze hurried to keep up with her. Over her shoulder, she heard one of the kittypets mutter to the others and they all laughed. She couldn’t decide if she wanted to know what he had said or not.
She bounded to close the distance with Darkmoon. The squirrels in her gut had turned into a stormcloud rumbling uneasily. “What was that about?” she asked, glaring at him.
“What do you mean? I told him we’d think over his offer, it’s not like I surrendered the territory to him.”
“You didn’t even try and get him to cross over the border,” she persisted. “If he’d been infringing on EarthClan territory, I bet you would have had a bit more to say to him.”
“Oh, Ospreymask, let’s not make it into a fight,” Pantherhaze fretted but she dismissed him with a flick of her tail.
“What would you have me do?” Darkmoon said, “We were severely outnumbered and we had nothing to bargain with. I did what I had to to get us safely out of that situation.” Ospreymask could see his point but it still felt like he was trying to ignore the point she was making.
“I’m just saying, you could have given him a little more pushback,” she grumbled.
“You should probably go tell Goldenstar about them being there,” Boldpaw spoke up. “That feels important for her to know.”
“Yeah,” Ospreymask relented with a frown.
“StarClan light your path,” Pantherhaze said as they branched off to return to camp. The wording stuck with Ospreymask. She wished StarClan would light their path! They needed an omen or a prophecy or something to help them get through this.
Razor’s little band there had just about as many cats as RisingClan had able bodied warriors and she knew for a fact there were more in the city. How many were there in total? How well trained were they? Even though it had been a whole year, the Clans still hadn’t fully recovered from the Red Gut. Maybe they would have been able to easily handle this before the plague but now… she worried about what would happen if they didn’t find some way to out-think or out-maneuver Razor.
UPDATES: - Rather than fight with a group of rogues, a patrol leaves them to muddy the border.