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"C'mon, Hal, you know you want to come with me."
Jay's handsomely broad and muscular mate averted the calm but long lasting and burning embers of his red eyes, mere inches from hers, to her tail tip as she flicked it in the direction of the forest territories where their long-held adversary Shadowclan and the enemy of their enemy and thus potentially friend and ally Thunderclan lived.
He almost seemed tempted for a moment, as she knew he would be by even a peaceful opportunity to learn more about the forest clans that fascinated him so in a love hate way, but after a long pause he shook his head, looking back at her in his usual teasing way but edged with some genuine but misplaced concern.
"I want to see the Thunderclan foxers' fighting style, use its similarities and differences from those of Shadowclans' like a rock to sharpen my claws against their mangy pelts and bony frames. I don't want to see them use it against you and have to receive injuries from them that will temporarily reduce my advantage in our upcoming fights against Shadowclan to stop them."
Jay sighed, a little disappointed but not surprised that she would as usual be taking on a mission of hers to bring the war that all the other Featherpaws thought would be endless and didn't even seem to mind it being that way half the time by herself.
To the extent that a Featherpaw could do anything alone, anyway; the cats of the Earth would be all around her providing strength and support as always, even in what had artificially been decreed to be 'enemy' territory by some dead cats who had long since joined either the cats of the Earth or the afterlife the clan cats believed in, Starclan, depending on what group they had been a part of in life.
It seemed like the only living cat in the Featherpaws who even in theory agreed with her long held goal of bringing about peace and alliance between the Featherpaws and Shadowclan, of replacing the pigeonbrained war over meaningless barriers that separated the cats who were really the same deep down with a union even greater in scale than union ceremonies and whatever the Shadowclan equivalent to those were that would allow the skin deep, cultural differences and contrasting strengths and weaknesses that were truly there to be used to compliment each other rather than be used as an excuse to divide them and keep on perpetuating this stupid war, was her father Myler, and Myler...
He had never exactly been willing to back up the thoughts that he seemed to think were against the rules for him to even think with actions or even words to anyone but herself, even his mate and the leader of the Featherpaws, Crystal.
...He had seen her get spoken to harshly by her mother many a time for her deeply held principles, though, and her declaration that she wasn't going to pick Jay as her next second in command after the death of her current one, Myler, unless she gave up what she called her 'foolish, starry eyed' ideals did carry an implicit threat that she would remove Myler from his position if he openly agreed with Jay or, Earth forbid, did so in front of any of Crystal's charges.
A small part of Jay wondered if the second in command and then leader positions weren't forever out of her reach after all, if there was a limit to her seemingly boundless ability to keep getting back up when she was knocked down by cats from both sides but mostly Shadowclan for trying to help them break out of this horrible, mutually destructive spiral that they had gotten themselves stuck in and were seemingly actively trying to keep each other in... she had had to wait on her new plan of asking Thunderclan for help for a while because Crystal had forbidden her from leaving Featherpaw territory until her leg at least mostly healed from a Shadowclan cat practically trying to break it off, after all...
She shook her head a little to drive the intruding thought thoroughly out of her mind without drawing Hal's attention to the gesture too much, as determined as ever to keep going so that no one on either side would suffer such horrific injuries unnecessarily and so that Hal wouldn't get the smug satisfaction of her changing her mind and agreeing with him about how the only acceptable end to the war would be Shadowclan unconditionally surrendering to them with their tails between their legs and never daring to go onto their territory again.
"They're not going to fight me, Hal, clan cats love opportunities to show up the other clans, and I'll be dropping one right at their paws! Even though the differences between them are even harder to see than the differences between us and them, they seem to have been raised to think those little cracks in the sidewalk are massive, uncrossable ravines, and 'proving' over and over that their side of the 'ravine' is the best one and the most blessed by those starry cats of theirs is practically their whole reason for getting out of their nests in the morning! Meanwhile the 'ravine' is something like Riverclan cats swimming and eating fish and Thunderclan cats climbing trees and eating squirrels while they're all under the same stars that mean the same thing to them."
Hal sat down, smoothing out his fur to hide his intrigue in what she was saying while his eyes betrayed the truth.
Jay had thought at first that his interest in the clans was simply mathematical, that the amount of she-cats he could potentially woo besides her in the clans plus the Featherpaws was inherently greater than the amount in just the Featherpaws, but she had been suspecting more and more lately that it was more than that, that in some ways he preferred their ways even as he disavowed them and spoke to the supposed inherent superiority of those of the Featherpaws and how they would win out someday through efforts he would substantially contribute to at every possible opportunity.
She saw that sparkle of gleeful recognition and jealousy in his eyes when he fought like one of them, fighting like there was nothing to the battle but brute force and the objective of victory rather than also reveling in the inherent artistry and opportunity for crafting and implementing your own individual style in the name of the cats of the Earth, and also when that one Shadowclan cat... she couldn't remember her name... had become Houndstar's new deputy due to her fighting prowess at their expense without having to, in Hal's words, 'follow him around like a kit first' or even really get along with him beforepaw.
"How do you know all this, have you taken a mate from among them? Something that I have never done and am not currently doing, by the way, if Crystal ever asks."
Jay laughed at his joke, running through the faces of Shadowclan she-cats she could even vaguely attach to names and personalities for a moment to try and figure out who this mate of his that Crystal would return him to the Earth over was and then stopping... for now... so she could focus on the task at paw.
"No, that's your thing, not mine. I prefer my mates to be around more often than that."
She kept talking as he opened his mouth, preemting his protest.
"Yes, yes, I know, it's not your thing whenever Crystal is around, you're a completely innocent and Earth fearing Featherpaw cat who would never even think of holding paws with one of our enemies then. Anyway, I've learned more about them by spying on some of their gatherings of the full moon. It's a lot easier to get to know cats and their culture when they're not trying to return you to the Earth, and it's fun to, as the Shadowclan cats say, 'wear the shadows like a second pelt' right under their noses and prove their declaration that they're the only ones with the brains to do so wrong without them even knowing!"
Hal was satisfyingly impressed and interested by what she had just said, even as he tried to play it off.
"What else have you learned of them? ...I ask, of course, so I may fight the Shadowclan foxers with an even greater knowledge of our enemy and bring the glory of victory to us even faster."
Jay laughed again, finding humor in Hal's blatant attempts to hide his enamoration that almost bordered on a crush when he was usually so extremely open with his amorosity and affections... whenever Crystal wasn't around, anyway.
"I'll tell you on the way over there."
He met her gaze for a long moment, tempted and worried, before casting his down at the ground as if he was asking something of the cats of the Earth.
...Knowing him and how this conversation was going, it was probably for her to not get beaten up by the cats he would call 'those Thunderclan foxers' too badly to be able to escape from what he would call 'that crowded forest of theirs where you wouldn't even be able to hear yourself think, which is why they act as if they don't,' even though that was unnecessary because they wouldn't do that to her with how well she was playing into their prejudices and addiction to victory no matter how meaningless and hollow.
She had picked Thunderclan specifically because, not only were they one of the two clans that had locked themselves into a meaningless war over a pile of rocks for longer than any living cat among their ranks could remember, but their recent loss of the pile of rocks for probably the several dozenth time before they would get it back for a short while soon and then just as quickly lose it again put them in the perfect position to want to prove their strength and superiority to the other clans by helping the Featherpaws definitively beat Shadowclan so badly that they would have to surrender instead of just keeping the war going forever.
If they wanted to believe that they had done it all on their own and the Featherpaws were just helpless kits, she was okay with that in the short term when it would lead to respect and mutual support and friendship between the Featherpaws and the clans in the long term.
She just needed to get those post surrender peace talks started and then they'd be, as the members of the Featherpaws who were kittypets or used to be kittypets would say, off to the races, even if a scenario where neither side had to surrender to the other and a more mutual end to the war was instead agreed upon would be more ideal at least in the short term.
"You'll tell me as Myler patches you up from the impact of one of those missions of yours for the hundredth time."
Jay rolled her eyes at him and sighed, mostly good naturedly.
"Fine, I'll tell you after I get back here with whoever the Thunderclan medicine cat is nowadays for the negotiations as to how they'll help us. Or after the negotiations, if Crystal deigns to allow me to participate in them."
Hal looked at her with resigned affectionate amusement tinged with an uncharacteristically large amount of apprehension.
The only thing he seemed to ever have apprehension about or really any kind of second thoughts or thinking things through for a moment before jumping in to trying to tackle them were her missions for peace, it seemed like.
Meanwhile he would thrust himself into a tangle of way more Shadowclan cats than even the most skilled Featherpaw fighter, Crystal, could handle and date Shadowclan she-cats without thinking about contingency plans for 'what if their clanmates discover their involvement with me' or 'what if they discover each other's involvement with me' or really anything besides the fun he was having with them now.
He certainly didn't have any sort of long term, large scale plan for them that would benefit anyone but himself for any of his own reckless actions; at least the risks she took were calculated and would eventually lead to a much better life for everyone!
Hal moved back to her side, pressing himself against and along her and eliciting a shiver of distracting pleasure that she really didn't need clouding her head right now with her mission ahead of her.
"Want to make things interesting? When I'm right you'll do that thing you usually only do at the start of the season of my birth. If you're right I'll do the same for you."
She scoffed, managing to spin away from him to face him again.
"If you're right I won't be in a state to do that until it really is the start of the season of your birth."
He pondered this for a moment, seeming to put more thought into it than he usually put into anything.
"True. You'll do it twice at that time then."
She laughed, then lifted a front paw padside up.
"You have yourself a deal that is very- screwed- in my favor."
Hal's paw, smaller than hers much to his chagrin and her endless teasing but more toned, had been eagerly and quickly placed on hers for a few moments before the tinge of worry was back in his expression and countenance.
"Can I get through your stubbornness enough to get you to agree to run when they turn on you?"
Jay put her paw back on the ground and turned to leave the sleeping alley and head to Thunderclan territory, flirtily running her tail tip along his jaw and up to his nose.
"Can I get through your stubbornness enough to get you to come with me?"
Hal gave her a charming smile of acknowledgement before jumping up to the blanketed nest they shared in the tower of cardboard boxes with blankets that Featherpaws slept in.
"I'll see what's left of you later."
Jay started heading out of the alley with an anticipatory spring in her step, calling back to him without taking her eyes off the path in front of her to look back at him.
"We'll see what's left of who when Crystal finally catches you with one of your Shadowclan girls! You haven't exactly had the subtlety of the shadows like Shadowclan cats claim to possess!"
Jay exited the alley and started heading down the path that the Shadowclan cats had taken to invade the Featherpaw Twolegplace many a time and that they had used to enter their territory less but still a significant amount of times, her fur prickling with the association with needless, stagnant bloodshed and chaos until she had smoothed it back out several times and reminded herself that an objectively morally correct mission such as hers, that held the blessing of the cats of the Earth because of that fact and because they didn't like it when cats joined them before their time even if time looked different from their eternal, wise perspectives, was bound to succeed eventually.
She could see it now like it was unfolding in front of her eyes: Featherpaws and Shadowclan cats teaching each other battle moves that would now only be used for sharpening their skills and artistic expression as was the primary purpose of Featherpaw dance fighting before the war with Shadowclan started and still was at least in its intentions, all cats being able to have partners and friends in the other group even if they didn't possess Hal's boldness and sheer audacity, maybe even both groups becoming one true and united whole like the cats in a union ceremony one day!
Jay's visions of the two currently warring groups' glorious unified future were abruptly disrupted by the sight and scent of Crystal and Myler up ahead of her, Crystal stalking a full head ahead of him with her tail lashing in anger as usual and Myler meekly padding alongside her even though he was the least frequent target of her ire, and she dove into the closest alley, her still not fully healed leg injury that was the reason she was still technically forbidden by Crystal to leave camp sending reduced sparks of pain up to her core.
She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that their scents were getting further away rather than rapidly approaching like Crystal had seen her so close to the edges of Featherpaw territory... or, rather, what Shadowclan seemed to believe were the edges; the Featherpaws didn't think of borders as being as strict as they did.
Eventually, when the dual, very often paired scents, one harsh and one soft, were far enough away from Crystal's prying eyes and nose in her estimation formed from extensive experience and then some, she cautiously peeked out of the alley, watching them walk away from her to make sure that this wasn't some kind of trick before continuing on in her journey and quickly regaining the spring in her step and the lofty hopes and dreams in her imaginings.
She made it to what was obviously the border of Thunderclan's oak tree forest based on the overpowering smell of generations of border patrols building on top of each other along with the more metaphorically scented jingoism and xenophobia that had led them to think they were necessary, the border marking contests that formed the artificial separations between the clans as well as between them and the Featherpaws and simultaneously bound them to each other in violence and bloodshed that they thought would be eternal, and defied it by crossing it.
Jay looked around curiously as she walked, half expecting the oak tree forest to be a different world than Shadowclan's marshlands based on how big a deal the cats of both clans made of the differences between them and the implications that had for their personalities and fighting and hunting prowess, but the differences between the two really didn't seem to be greater than the ravines that actually existed between different parts of the Featherpaw Twolegplace, like the wide open plains of the park and the winding interconnected alleys between huge, sprawling Twoleg buildings.
Really, the Featherpaw culture, similarly to their territory, seemed to be able to support much more diversity of thought and individual expression than the supposedly incredibly different and distinct clans.
Some Featherpaws practically lived with their noses to the Earth all the time, consulting with the cats of the Earth for every pawstep they should take, while some only communed with them occasionally.
Some, like Hal and his friends/loyal followers, almost fought more like Shadowclan cats, while some truly reached the limits of the artistic and individual expression that was made possible with Featherpaw dance-fighting and then kept on charging past them.
Some: her and kind of almost Myler, could even think to go against the war that ran their lives, that the Featherpaws and Shadowclan were ironically united in thinking would be an irrevocable and eternal fixture of both groups until one group, theirs, got victory and glory for themselves and an unconditional surrender from the other.
They thought their differences were so insurmountable and worth fighting over, but really they were as bound together as the cats in a union ceremony already by their addiction to what they thought of as victory and glory, she reflected with grim amusement.
Luckily for her, having an existing bond to work with, even a destructive and harmful one, meant that she could convert it into a positive and mutually beneficial one instead of having to create one from scratch-
"Hey! Kittypet! What are you doing on Thunderclan territory?!"
Jay’s trail of thought was abruptly cut off by the aggressively worded and voiced question/implicit accusation.
She wasn’t surprised that they would treat her with the same hostility Shadowclan did before they realized that she was about to offer them an opportunity to get to believe that they had proven their superiority over Shadowclan, but the suddenness of the voice and the appearance of the three cats in front of her, one brown and in the lead, one black and not far behind her like she was aspiring to be in the higher social position and thus in the lead but couldn’t take the lead that the cat in that position had because she wasn’t yet, and one tortoiseshell and smaller than the other two but seemingly just as enthused as getting as close to the lead as possible, had startled her a little.
Jay took a moment to collect her thoughts and present them in the way these war mongering and jingoistic cats would like the best, but they were scattered again by the small one trying to charge towards her and the black one stopping her at the last possible second, barely enthused about doing so and almost hesitant about it.
“Not yet, Dapplepaw, first let’s let her try and explain her way out of this.”
Dapplepaw looked up at her, openly disappointed and about to protest, but shut her mouth after a warning glance from her and looked back at Jay with renewed enthusiasm, like she was a particularly fascinating mouse or whatever type of prey these Thunderclan cats ate that she had cornered against the base of a tree.
“Yeah! Spill it, kittypet, before we spill your guts!”
This was off to a great start… Jay could practically see Hal’s dog dung eating grin at her predicament, except he wouldn’t have the opportunity to give her one of those because she would turn this around like she had said.
“Actually, that’s what I came here to talk to you about. I come to you bearing an opportunity to prove your superiority to Shadowclan in gut spilling and in all other ways once and for all! Do- fox dung, it’s almost as if I was sent to you by Starclan themselves as a way for you to strike fear into the hearts of not only those shadowy manges of Shadowclan but also the fish eaters of Riverclan and win your rock- Sunningrocks back from them!”
Dapplepaw was shocked by her knowledge of the clan’s recent petty politics, while the black cat was narrowing her eyes at her suspiciously but thoughtfully and the brown one was more open and kindly to what she was saying.
The black and brown ones started speaking at once, but the black one reluctantly and resignedly stopped after a moment.
Wait… she had seen this brown cat before, separately from the context of the clans’ barely peaceful and tension laden full moon meetings.
She had witnessed her and a Windclan tom staying back from the gathering once when she had happened to decide to stay and rest there for a while longer herself… he had called her… Squirrelwhisker, that was it, and she was clearly romantically engaged with him despite their cultures’ relentless beating of the message that cats from the ‘wrong’ side of those artificial border markers could and should never get along for their clan’s good primarily but also their own into their heads.
Jay was pretty sure that their religion and so called holy and honorable Warrior Code even forbade these kinds of trysts… the elders often told ‘misbehaving’ kits and apprentices of the fate that had befallen Mapleshade and Appledusk at gatherings and never ended up telling them the intended message from it that she would have… but Squirrelwhisker was still disregarding her cultures’ obsession with fake borders and exclusive, limited loyalty to only the cats you had happened to be born on the same side of a border as!
She was a rebel, a harbinger of positive change and peace like she was!
She was the best possible cat to be leading this patrol!
The cats of the Earth surely must have blessed her mission for this to have happened, like she knew they would, of course.
“How do you know all this? Did Starclan speak to you? They visit cats’ dreams sometimes, I just never would have thought they would deign to visit those of a kittypet.”
…Okay, so her hopes for Squirrelwhisker’s current state of understanding of how wrong the clans’ prejudice against those who weren’t them might have been a little high… but she was still clearly more amenable to doing more additional learning and unlearning than cats who had rarely or never done any.
“As a matter of fact they did! I prayed to-”
She quickly redirected from mentioning the cats of the Earth, trying to not get these cats sidetracked onto the topic of the supposed stupidity of non clan cats’ religions and her into the awkward and unpleasant position of having to pretend to acquiesce to all of that to get them off of the offensive and back to being amenable to being on her side and helping her.
“-I didn’t know what at the time, cats of the Twolegplace don’t really know of matters of spirituality like clan cats do- for the war that we’ve been in with Shadowclan for ages to finally come to an end, and these starry cats came to me in my dreams that night! They were amazing, so much more dazzling and honorable than anything I’ve seen in the Twolegplace…”
Wow this was getting hard to say with a straight face, but Jay pressed on so that eventually, or, hopefully, soon, there wouldn’t be a sense of superiority to outsiders among clan cats for said outsiders to appeal to like she was doing now.
Jay gave a dramatic sigh while staring into the distance, really hamming it up, and when she looked back at the patrol they still weren’t entirely convinced, but her methods were clearly helping her make progress.
“Anyway, they told me that the great and honorable Thunderclan would be willing to help me! Then they gave me some details about your current situation with Riverclan, something a cat outside of the clans wouldn’t usually be told, so you would trust that I spoke to them. They were so nice about everything!”
The cats didn’t seem to know what to say for a moment, which was rare for clan cats.
Then, the black one spoke.
“If you spoke to Starclan, why didn’t they send Cloudberry an omen to back up what you’re saying?”
Jay instinctively flicked the middle of her tail up in a shrugging motion, remembering right after that clan cats emoted more with their heads than their tails while Featherpaws did so the other way around and tilting her head to the side as they did to shrug instead.
“They didn’t tell me that part. Maybe they thought it would be best for you to hear of our plight right from one of our mouths. Plus, I know where to take you so you can talk to our leader about helping us if you would please be so kind. I imagine it would be difficult for them to convey that kind of specific information through a sign, even with their infinite wisdom?”
The hopefully eminent part where she would take them to Crystal ironically might actually have a higher chance of her being beaten up than this part… not just by them.
Jay’s thought process was that the unstoppable force of clan stubbornness and supposed superiority would meet the immovable object of Crystal’s… exactly those same things until eventually Jay and Myler would be able to convince her to see this as an opportunity to swindle some pigeonbrained clan cats out of the significant time and effort that went into every battle rather than an instance of her being weak by accepting help.
They were slowly becoming more thoughtful and convinced, and Jay’s heart kept fluttering with more and more hope and antici-
Another cat suddenly crashed into the clearing they had settled in.
He had been audibly lumbering towards them for a while as all clan cats, not being nearly as light pawed and graceful as Featherpaws, did, Jay realized, but she had been too distracted by her attempted dealings with these cats to notice until now.
His eyes went wide when he saw her, and he squared up like he was going to fight her right then and there without even hearing her out or negotiating the terms of the fight as was proper among Featherpaws but seemingly unheard of among the clans first.
This was the type of situation where clan cats usually slid out their paws, but that unsheathing sound never came because his had already been out, she realized with a flicker of dread that she wasn’t able to immediately or even quickly counter with hope and faith in her mission.
“Squirrelwhisker, Hollypelt, Dapplepaw! How long have you lot been standing there like a bunch of meandering, lazy kittypets letting an actual kittypet make herself at home in Thunderclan territory?! And after the incident with Mapleshade too!”
Jay knew for a fact that the ‘incident with Mapleshade’ had been a while ago- not long before her birth, from what she had been able to piece together from the clans’ wild and exaggerated recollections of it but also from Myler, who had met her and moved to be with his mate Crystal in the Featherpaw Twolegplace soon after her death in his barn in part because that memory had stated to haunt the place for him- but she couldn’t retort with that because that wasn’t included in the things she was supposed to have learned from Starclan.
This guy… Oakstar, that was it… wasn’t so scary and intimidating in comparison to Crystal, but the others were suddenly dipping their heads acquiescently and fearfully to him like they were kits who had been caught sneaking out of camp, a thing that kits in the clans weren’t allowed to do for some reason, and Jay started to worry that all the progress she had built up with them and then some had become temporarily lost to her.
“Yes, of course, Oakstar, I apologize-”
That had been Squirrelwhisker, no longer confident and in charge- dog dung!
With the suddenness of lightning, she had switched from lowering her head to him practically to the Earth to charging at her like she was a dog trying to kill and eat them.
Jay came to just in time to remember her Featherpaw training… which wouldn’t have been intended for actual fighting in the before times, just dance-fighting with her fellow Featherpaws… and leap high into the air, causing the cat who was now unfortunately even more her opponent to skid confusedly on the ground and look up at her right before she landed on her, claws splayed and digging into her back in the artistic crescent moon shapes she had chosen in the development of her own unique Featherpaw fighting style.
Her potential fellow rebels’ yowls of pain brought her back to the reality of what she was doing, and she stopped, preparing to detangle herself from her but instead getting knocked off of her by a blur of black fur.
Hollypelt pinned her to the ground, staring her down furiously like she hadn’t just started getting through to her and clawing at her now vulnerable stomach and chest in a much more haphazard way than was customary for Featherpaws.
Through the waves of agony, she struggled this time to get herself to go limp so the cat who was currently clawing at her would think she had won for a moment and let her guard down.
It was usually easy to do so, but now her mind bucked against the notion of letting these foxers- these cats think they had bested her even for a moment.
Jay finally entered a much more stiff and tense version of the fake limp pose, her eyes cracked open a little, and saw Hollypelt look at Oakstar for approval.
Her expression and countenance exploded into unearned, mocking, falsely superior pride after she received a terse nod from him, and she leaned down to bite Jay’s neck, which was when she threw her off of her with her back paws and scrambled back to her paws.
“The Warrior Code says you must help kits in need, doesn’t it? The kits of the Twolegplace are in danger because of our war with Shadowclan!”
Oakstar stepped menacingly to the front of the patrol while Hollypelt scrambled up and glared at her, clearly playing off the fact that Jay had knocked her into a tree.
“What do you know of the Warrior Code, kittypet? It means nothing to you, nothing means anything to you but what treats your owner will give you today and which patch of sunlight within the confines of their house you’ll laze in like the worthless, honorless lump of fur you are!”
He angled his head towards her, and before she could process it in her injury and pain induced haze they were all on her like they were four cats instead of one, even Squirrelwhisker, even her potential ally-
…
No…
No… she had never been a potential ally, had she?
Every ruthless thrust of these cats’ claws into her flesh like it wasn’t that of a fellow cat at all, every bite and subsequent shaking of their heads like they were trying to kill prey, every flash of vision she got through the waves of agony of their pelts looking like the fur of one very large cat despite its wildly varied colors forcibly drove the obvious truth that she had never wanted to accept, that she would never in a million years have thought she would accept but that had been staring her in the face as clearly as Hal had before she had charged into this mess further and further into her until it was in the core of her bones just as the mission she had gone into enemy territory on had once been.
Thunderclan cats could never be allies to Featherpaw cats.
Clan cats could never be allies to Featherpaw cats.
Her brief bope of getting some reason into their thick skulls, of getting anything besides warmongering and an obsession with the honor and glory they supposedly possessed in there, had probably just been an illusion fueled by her previous naivety, and even if it had been a flicker of something real, their nasty cultures as represented and exemplified by their leaders would always be right there to reel them back in every time they accidentally stumbled upon a thought off the beaten path, the path condoned and tightly enforced by themselves and those starry cats of theirs.
She never wanted to see another one of the pigeonbrained, brutish, lowlife foxers again in her life as her vision filled with nothing but their dirty fur and the blood that they were drawing from her.
Jay strained against them, but making any progress against four cats at once seemed to be as impossible as getting any sense past their extensive, irrevocably ingrained mental barriers.
Eventually, she saw her opportunity and clawed whichever one was closest to her- Dapplepaw, it turned out, not that it mattered or these foxers were meaningfully different from each other in any way like Featherpaw cats were- in the eyes as hard as she could, still leaving a much shakier than normal version of her characteristic Featherpaw crescent moon shaped claw mark in her hopefully ruined eyes for her and her clanmates to remember her by forever.
She gasped from pain as blood and eye viscera flooded down her face, and that was what finally got her doghearted clanmates to stop their assault on Jay for a moment.
Even with how badly injured she was, even with the waves of pain hitting her as harshly as actual waves, she almost hesitated to leave without obtaining a victory over these foxers more definitive than blinding one of the cats who was supposed to be their ‘future’ if doing the same pigeonbrained things over and over without nearly as much variety in leisure activities and artistic pursuits or even actual reasons to be fighting and principles to fight for as the Featherpaws could be worthy of the term… but Dapplepaw collapsing unconscious but unfortunately not dead… yet, at least, especially given the clans’ skill or lack thereof with healing… onto the ground convinced her that she had proven her point and skill at fighting well enough.
For today, anyway.
Jay sprang up as fast as she could with her injuries seemingly trying to drag her down to the Earth and return her to it before her time, charging back the way she had come.
Through the blood rushing in her ears and her heart pounding in her chest and her entire body screaming at her to stop, she vaguely heard at least one of the cats pursuing her… of course they couldn’t have all stayed behind to give Dapplepaw the best fighting chance possible, and of course whoever this was was thundering her ungraceful paws into the Earth as if she was trying to piss the cats of the Earth she didn’t even believe in off, unlike the Featherpaws, who knew how to move elegantly and lightly.
She ended up tripping on one of the unruly and gangly tree roots that populated the ground of their territory right before she had made it back to hers and collapsing into it rather than getting into it in a way that better reflected her strength and control over her movements.
Jay was just putting all her effort and strength into scrambling back to her paws with as little appearance of anything that could be mistaken as weakness as possible when her pursuer… of course… Squirrelwhisker… barreled into her and knocked her back down because she had somehow managed to take her surprise by doing so even with her already incredibly lowered opinion of her and her ilk, completely ignoring the border despite this all being about Jay crossing over it for a peaceful mission earlier.
“You foxhearted rogue! How dare you blind an apprentice?! You’re even worse than Mapleshade; the cat she blinded was a warrior, and at least she had some respect for Thunderclan and the Warrior Code before she chose to cast it aside and become nothing but a lowlife rogue like you!”
Jay strained to shove her off as claws clumsily but painfully dug into her pelt, and that’s when she saw the last cat possible she wanted to see in this situation besides Crystal charging towards her with the determination and focus he usually reserved for his affairs and battle.
Hal.
Dog dung.
Seeing him gave her the strength to shove her attacker off so that he couldn’t do it for her and lord it over her for the rest of their lives, but then he reached her and knocked Squirrelwhisker to the ground of her territory, pinning her there with all his admittedly significant strength as if Jay hadn’t just dealt with her herself.
He clawed at the cat who was now intruding on their territory in a way that really wasn’t that different than the inelegant way she had just done it, eliciting yells of pain from her that were satisfying even if Jay wasn’t the one drawing them out.
“When I let you go, you’re going to go back to your fellow bonemunchers, or else you’ll never see them again. Do you understand?”
The surprisingly but now annoyingly defiant cat hissed at him, then yelled in pain even louder as he bit down on her neck in response.
When he lifted his head back up, his teeth and the fur around his muzzle were stained with blood.
“...Fine- yes… for now.”
Jay didn’t think that Hal should let her back up to go return to her clanmates and be a part of the supposed strength of Thunderclan in general, but especially not after that ‘for now’ part she had stupidly tried to sneak in, but before she could say so he had sprung off of her like the dirt she was.
Squirrelwhisker stumbled to her paws, not nearly as strong and elegant with it as Jay had been despite her injuries not being as bad, and stood their dazed and even more pigeonbrained looking than normal for a moment before fixing an unjustifiably angry glare on them, whipping around, and fleeing back into her territory and the stench of Thunderclan.
Hal watched her go for a moment before turning to Jay, his expression one of a paradoxical mix of smugness and even more worry than before.
“Did the Thunderclan bonemunchers leave you in a state where you can still understand ‘I told you so’s, or will I have to wait a while for that?”
Jay whipped around so that she was no longer facing him or Thunderclan territory angrily, managing to keep her balance in spite of her dizziness and pain.
“Shut up.”
She started padding back to the sleeping alley, and he followed her, so she kept up putting a little more force into her pained steps to be a head in front of him until he eventually stopped trying to be even with or ahead of her.
“I can tell from that look on your face that you’re now eligible to be the second in command when Myler returns to the Earth. What power will you ask the cats of the Earth to give you when you take over from Crystal?”
Jay scoffed, lashing her tail annoyedly even as it strained her muscles further.
“You think I need a power to show these pigeonbrained foxers what’s what? I’ll do that with Shadowclan with my regular Featherpaw fighting prowess if Crystal hasn’t gotten our superiority through their thick skulls by then, and then we’re turning our attention to the bonemunchers in Thunderclan if I think they’re worth the time it’ll take us to trounce them, which I haven’t decided on yet.”
Hal practically stopped in his tracks from amused astonishment, and Jay kept moving right along at the same pace, quick in spite of how painful even walking normally was, forcing him to catch up.
“Jay changing her mind on something?! What’s next, dogs and cats getting along? Featherpaws and Shadowclan cats playing nice with each other like you used to think you could will into existence? The cats of the Earth running through the streets in the physical forms they once inhabited?”
Jay hit her tail against his side, sliding her claws out even as they already felt heavy.
“Don’t count on it happening again. I wasn’t wrong either, I was just giving them more credit than they deserved.”
She strained to jump up to their box in the sleeping alley with as much grace and strength as possible, and he did the same after a moment, settling in next to her.
“Yes, yes, of course, the dear and honorable Jay can never be wrong, even as she does what she usually only does once at the start of the season of my birth twice.”
Jay moved her claws so that they were poking him.
She wanted to verbally protest more than she was about to, but she could feel sleep dragging at her after what she had had to endure thanks to those honorless clan cat foxers, so weak that they had had to attack her four to one to have even a chance of victory and still hadn’t been able to triumph over her, so the bulk of it was going to be after she had gotten some rest and recovery, she decided.
Then, she would become a scourge on the clans, making them curse her name and lament the fact that they could have gotten an olive branch from her instead of her vicious claws and Featherpaw fighting prowess if only they hadn’t crossed her one too many times.
“Shut up.”