Sagebristle didn't know what compelled her to act, she really didn't. She was loyal to Aspenstar, she was an esteemed Nightclan warrior, and these cats were her enemies in active rebellion. All she knew in that moment was that Moonblight was going to hurt Sunpaw, who was... (not a friend, surely?) someone who Sagebristle didn't want to see hurt at the moment.

Whatever the reason, her feet propelled her forward, her body slipping into the space between Moonblight and Sunpaw, wincing when her mate's claws slashed through her shoulder. Blood welled immediately from the cuts, but it wasn't too deep, and she ignored the stinging as she pushed him back. "Moonblight, wait," she said through gritted teeth. "They're just apprentices. We can hold them without hurting them, surely?"

whoops double post sorry!!!!

Moonblight's head was spinning. What the hell just happened? He had Sunpaw in his grasp, claws digging into her back when suddenly, he felt someone slam into him. At first he assumed it was one of the SummerClan cats, a warrior or something that had followed behind to keep the apprentices safe, and he immediately whirled around, hostility in his gaze when it met...Sagebristle?

Confusion was written in the furrow of his brow. "What the hell–" he started, ready to argue with her, when he noticed the cut across her shoulder. Did he do that? His confusion and rage immediately melted into guilt. "Sagebristle," his voice was soft, "are you okay?" He was about to head over to her, when Sunpaw's bitter voice rang out.

"That's your boyfriend?" her eyes were defiant, staring at Sagebristle with a mixture of fear and irritation, "seriously, and I was rooting for you two, and you decided to go with an asshole like this one?" As fearful as she was, Sunpaw was never one to back down from a fight, no matter how terrified she was. Even though Sagebristle was an invader, a colonizer really, she had...liked this cat. She was grumpy, yes, but they had this sort of strange acquaintanceship at this point, and if Foxpaw trusted her, she did...yet now...

Moonblight immediately whirled around. As much as he blamed himself for hurting his mate, he blamed this apprentice even more, for being the cause of all of this. If they had an argument back home, surely he'd make Sunpaw pay for it. He didn't care that they were apprentices; they should've known better, they should've–

His eyes met Sunpaw's for a moment, and for the first time, he saw her. Truly saw her. The wide hazel eyes, the sliver of gold in her left iris...he knew this cat. He knew this cat like they had never been separated, and from her expression, she knew him too.

Everything had been a blur while she was running, but now that Sunpaw was looking face to face with the tom, she recognized his distinctive pelt. They should've called you moonface instead of Aleksy, she had once joked as a kit, you look as bumpy as the moon does. Her shock was written across her face as she stood frozen, unable to look away from the cat she had once called brother.

"Evenie?" Moonblight's voice was the first to break the silence. She was alive. How did he not know she was here? The stunned silence was swimming with so many words, filling his mind with questions.

"Aleksy," Sunpaw's voice cracked, as her face fell, emotions whirling within her. She was overjoyed that she had finally found him. She was furious that he had not only left her, but he was one of their attackers. She was confused; how had they not noticed before? She was mourning the relationship they never had.

"You're alive?" her voice was barely above a whisper, as if still trying to convince herself that this wasn't just some dream, some horrible, twisted dream, "you're alive." There was a moment of jubilance in her eyes, as she tackled him to the ground, tears in her eyes. "I didn't know where you guys went," she buried her face in his fur, "why did you guys leave me alone?" sunlight

sunlight

In another life, one where they weren't equally marred by tragedy- if Phantomfox could still be Coyotewild, SummerClan's ravishing devil, and Rosethorn not carrying the weight of five dead kits on her soul- could this have been different? Could they be frolicking these woods as lovers still? If he stopped to remember those good days of their early romance, he would have recalled the times he had chased her through the trees and into wild meadows, laughing as lovers would. It was a time where his paw reached out to hold her rather than to harm her.

He didn't stop to think of that, because Phantomfox and Rosethorn were both marked by their trauma. Coyotewild was no more than a shard of himself meticulously chiseled out, as corporeal as his ravaged sister's soul following him down this road of no return. It was a piece of himself he would never reclaim, and the further he slipped into his identity as Phantomfox, felt his pain coil around his heart and soothe its misery, the more irreversible the effects became. By now, he was unrecognizable as the SummerClan warrior Coyotewild and even more indistinguishable as the tom who'd at one point wrapped himself around his grieving mate, shielding her from her grief as he took it on himself.

He loomed over most cats, graced by long and powerful limbs, and it wouldn't take him long to gain the ground separating him from Rosethorn's silhouette- except she was smaller, able to weave quicker, his sight was blurred by his own blood, and Phantomfox no longer knew every turn he took. Formerly a son of these golden lands, he now crashed as if nothing more than a rabid animal, frothing at the mouth at just the thought of crunching his former mate's throat in his jaws.

Soon, thick copse thinned to moorland, but eventually his pursuit of her took him to the silver sand beach. Gleaming waves crashed the shoreline, firelight dancing across the water, but all Phantomfox could focus on was Rosethorn. His pace slowed to a saunter, a sloven grin dividing his drooling jaws. "There's nowhere else to go, Rose. It's just you and me this time." The noise of the humans behind him unnerved him, but without the cover of a treeline, nothing else stood between him and his mate.

Canarynight growled in frustration as Sunfreckle seemed to keep going and going. Doesn't this cat ever get tired?! The bright-furred tom raced under the trees to keep up with her until she was finally forced to make it to the ground. "There's no shelter for you now." He mocked and picked up his speed until the muscles in his hind legs began to burn. As she grew tired, he began to shorten the distance between them. He could also feel the exhaustion starting to threaten his stride, but he had one advantage in that he didn't just hop through trees like a squirrel. The salty air and camp smoke stung his throat and chest as his breaths quickened with his speed. "Where...are..you..running to? Just give...up!" He irritably gasped out, admiring her grit at this point. She's going to get us both captured by twolegs if she doesn't stop. goldcrest

"This is very touching," she said, lacking her usual malice. "But we still have a war unfolding behind us, and it's going to catch up." There were voices in the distance- other traps being triggered, other Summerclan and Nightclan cats running in the darkness of the forest. She moved forward, tail tip touching Moonblight's shoulder gently. "We need to let them go. Say they escaped. You two can catch up later, now that we know where she is."
Orchiddrop moved instinctively towards her sister, eyes widening, before Cinderflower moved to block her path. "No, ma," she whispered, her own gaze full of fearful tears. "You can't go. Please- I need you. My brothers and sisters need you."

The white-furred warrior turned back to her newborn children, the only instinct strong enough to keep her from darting in Phantomfox's direction. After a long pause, she turned back to the kits, letting Doefreckle block the sight of it. She was still weak from pregnancy and birth, and she was no match for the tom.

---

Rosethorn backed away from her former mate, until the warm water was lapping against her heels. The look on his face was absolutely murderous, lacking any hint of the tom she'd known- the one who'd won her heart, who'd fathered her son. Was this how it ended? With her blood dripping from his teeth, with her body cooling on the sand?

I'm sorry, Foxpaw, she thought, squaring her shoulders. To Phantomfox, she narrowed her eyes. "I hope you can swim," she said, her voice quiet in the night air. Rosethorn turned on her heel, plunging into the waves. Her body was screaming at her to stop- the frantic run across the territory had drained her, and the water was heavy on her long fur, pulling her into the depths. It took all she had to keep her head above water, but even that was getting more difficult...

FALLENPAW
Fallenpaw couldn't believe all that was happening. He had been one of the helpers in sending messages back an fourth being a garden keeper apprentice feeling proud of how rebellious he had been against the Nigthclan scum. However seeing the battle itself around him was hard and was uncertain of what to do. He had stayed close to the other apprentices and although scared did not want to give up the hard work they had all been doing.

FALLENREDMEPTION
Everything that had happened up to now felt like it had been A nightmare or a fog of such. The red guard tom felt like an utter failure at his duty but kept his head down low as to not get killed but to also be here to try to help his fellow clan mates...or so he told himself. But now he would help. Fallenredemption had to help in some way. He refused to allow things to go on like this any longer!

(I too am trying ot catch up, sorry if i miss things, lol someone give us a play-by-play announcer xD)

/ Go, go. Remember: towards the shore! /
Nebulous-sight could only whisper a quiet 'thank you' lost in the din of the rumbling commotion as he turned away and headed off. He was a stubborn old fool, but he was sure he'd be of more use out of the way than in the middle of it.
~

Arriving at the shore on his own wasn't as much of a problem when the the tiniest little sounds of fragile kits that should've made him instinctively worried knowing they were outside the safety of camp - ironically was the reason to be so bold and protective of their clan and way of life and fuel them on this night.
"I don't suppose you need an extra paw to help carry those kits?" the garden keeper started to say to announced his presence unsure of who he was speaking to- with the mingled scents of ... who was it? Shadedsun? Doefreckle? Surely the kits' mother Orchiddrop was somewhere nearby as well. Then Phantomfox's scent came across him and gasped.

"NightClan?" he hissed confused and worried for all of them collectively. goldcrest fox sunlight
(i was just gonna have him help with kits but kinda walked into something else lol, let me know if there's anything i can do or not do so i dont ruin any pre-planned moments i don't know about.)

SUMMERCLAN

"Shh," Doefreckle hissed at the newcomer, sparing him only the briefest glare that barely gave him time to work out who it was; even when he recognised him by sight, his mind was whirling too fast to put a name to him. Cruelly, perhaps, his priority when it came to blind cats was the one standing next to him; this new tom was just another liability and he couldn't be expected to help him as well - if the others did, they'd likely end up with a cat left to drown. Perhaps it was compartmentalisation in a time of great strain; maybe it was just that Doefreckle really didn't care very much about anyone beyond the few he did. Almost immediately, though, he felt guilty; but even as he softly apologised to Nebulous-sight in his head, he was trembling too much, simultaneously fatigued and adrenalised by stress, to know if he said it aloud.

These Nightclan cats hardly know where their tails are. In that same stressed mindset, his eyes not leaving Phantomfox and his body stiff and tensed, Doe rumbled a quiet growl in his throat. I'M NightClan, he was about to snap back, before that painful jolt of no you're not cut through him again. It was only when Shaded's tail brushed against him that he realised how much he was shaking, how erratic and senseless his thoughts were, how much pain his legs were in from the biting cold and from being held so stiffly. He let out a quivering breath, sinking into Shaded and into the flood of his own fear.

"I suppose we-" He turned and looked around helplessly, frantically, at the others. "I don’t know, are we supposed to go now? That wasn’t the plan. We should, maybe, but…" Doe sounded like a frightened, overwhelmed kit, his forepaws pacing back and forth and picking up and down in place with anxiety, his eyes wide, his quiet voice catching on little breaks and quivers. His ears drooped; he looked drained, desperate, lost, uncertain. "Sunpetal isn’t here yet." He was torturously torn between waiting for Sunpetal and staying with Shaded no matter what, between loyalty to his friend and de-facto leader and keeping his promise. He hadn’t had to make any decisions since he was leader - he didn’t know how to anymore, hated having these lives weighing in his paws.

Then Rosethorn took the choice away from him. He heard splashing and whipped his head around, the rest of his body turning a heartbeat later, his paws slipping in the cold sand. His heart broke with terror and grief as he watched her splashing out against the waves, his brows pushing up in helpless suffering. Were they going to have to sit here and watch her die? But they couldn't go out now - if Phantomfox followed her, if he caught them in the water, he'd drown them, or use the threat of it to get to Rose. Crouching down with panicked decisiveness in the shadow of the cliffs, Doe licked his lips and looked up at Nebulous-sight. "Right. When the others arrive - when there's enough chaos - Orchiddrop, Cinderflower, you," he gently tapped Nebulous-sight's foreleg with his paw, "and me will take a kit each. We'll follow the plan." It was a risk in itself, the waves filled with panic, but it was still a safer option, to hope to disappear into the fray, than it was to face the inevitability of Phantomfox. "And just hope it's enough," he added quietly, no more than a breath, shuffling his forepaws in closer under his chest one after the other and gazing out at the NightClan Captain. goldcrest sunlight Shadowbladeღ

---

Lynxfreeze was feral, but Weevilspike was protecting his home and his family; with her rabid swiftness, streaking after him like a coyote on a rabbit's blood trail, and his strength, they were evenly matched in speed. All he could do was rely on the fact he knew this territory better than she did - he crashed through undergrowth that whipped his cheeks bloody and splashed through streams that squelched mud under his claws and ducked under fallen branches that scraped his spine when he didn't duck lower enough, leading her on a wild goose chase. "No," he called back, and the pure joy in his voice and on his face was surprising; he was enjoying this just as much as she was. After so long being subjugated, the freedom of doing something back was euphoric. "I just love being chased by a strong woman! Gets me all giddy.” He punctuated the last word by leaping up and scrambling onto a low branch overhanging the path, his large paws making it difficult for a moment to find his balance. Finally, he failed entirely and, with his claws still clinging to the bark, flipped over until he was hanging in mid-air like a sloth, all four paws still on the branch but his body dangling beneath it - right in Lynxfreeze’s path. “Ah!” he greeted her. “Well.”

Before she could react and bite his face off, Weevilspike planted a quick kiss right on her nose - a diversionary tactic or something; bewilder the enemy, wasn’t that what they said - and hauled himself back up, leaving deep scores in the branch. He was much too bulky to be up in the trees but this was the regrettable path he’d set himself on now. Sending dry, orange leaves raining down below him, he raced along branch after branch, barely looking at or thinking of the ground below; he just leaped and scrambled and ran through the whipping leaves until he became surprisingly graceful - such was the nature of complete recklessness.

Steadily, he was leading them closer and closer towards the sea, but two things were starting to nag at his mind as he ran: one, the trees were going to run out, and soon; and two, there was no way this she-cat was going to stop at the water’s edge. Twolegs or no twolegs, she was crashing into the waves after them. Please, Sunpetal, he thought desperately to himself, because he’d never been the sibling to plan their play sessions or make decisions - it was always her, and right now he needed her to get him out of this problem he’d created. Please, please, please catch up and lead her into a trap. He’d completely forgotten where they’d all been placed. He needed his sister — now. woof

---

NIGHTCLAN

The ruddy she-cat landed in a tangle of limbs and dirt and stinking honeysuckle, growling so loudly she felt like her voice box was going to tear itself out of her throat. She had been planning to give this apprentice an easy death; now she wanted to tear him apart slowly, sinew after tendon after ligament. She was not going to be bested by a snot-nosed child.

But as soon as Foxpaw started running, a sadistic kind of joy flooded through her. He had asthma, didn’t he? Or something else wrong with those pathetic little lungs of his, something that should have let him be drowned at birth? She just had to keep him running, nip at his heels when she felt him slowing, herd him like a wolf, and he’d kill himself for her. Without her needing to lay a claw on him. Then Aspenstar and Phantomfox couldn’t accuse her of a thing - just a weak little kitling who ran himself to death. He always did have such a frail body, you know, she’d say, like she was sorry for it. Perhaps this is a kindness. Perhaps he’s better off now.

Before he managed to leave her side, she snapped out a paw and scored a line of claw marks down his spine from the back of his neck to his tail — all she had to do was hold her claws out; he shot off, and down they scraped. It would drive him on, the certainty that her claws were waiting behind him — and, well, if he bled out on the way, all the better for her. Shaking the apprentice’s blood from her claws with slow, lazy flicks, the ruddy she-cat watched him go for a moment, giving him a head start, and then, counting down under her breath (“three, two, one, go—“), shot off after him. “Your dad can’t protect you, Foxpaw,” she called joyfully, hoping Phantomfox wasn’t lurking somewhere within ear shot. “And you can’t run all night. Sooner or later you’re gonna need to,” she let out two sickly little coughs, mocking him, “slow dooooown.” Her voice took on a horrible singsong quality as she sped up.

She hared across the fields after him, careful to let him outpace her — she wasn’t trying to catch him; she just had to keep him running. “How big is this territory?” she sing-songed, her voice echoing on the breeze. “I hope it’s big enough, for your sake. Because when it runs out, I’m going to pry open that cute little rib cage and eat your heaaart!” @ian ashestoashes