Amaranthine/seven

As grateful as I was to be out of that prison, life in the camp was not the same as it had once been. Training continued and the routine stayed the same, but everyone was so nervous about the war. There was no way to fall back into the robotic tendencies we had once had, with our rigid training schedule. It was as if someone had thrown a pebble into the once-still waters of our group and sent ripples across the pool that was the Twilight Hunters. Our gardening duties came to a halt as every moment of our day was dedicated to training or a few wispy moments of rest.

Cherry was much quieter now, training harder than ever. I suspected she was trying to make up her disappearance to Magnolia, Onyx, and the rest of the Council, though she never told me outright. Raven trained harder than before, too, and her pranks were a thing of memory. She was often as serious as my sister in dangerous situations, and we were definitely in one now. Blizzard was uncharacteristically serious, mostly the same but minus the eye-rolling and jokes at training sessions. Lark, however, was the same as always, and it was relieving to have one familiar cat in this chaos. He his calm and kind self, still training well, but not unusually so.

I hadn't been involved in any action since the raid, but the Council brought me to speak at one meeting. They asked questions about the scraps of information I held about the other group, and I told them everything I knew. I told them about the four generals, their war plans, their guard shifts. They had received some information from Cherry and the others, but I had been kept there for a dozen sunrises. I didn't express any of the genuine care I had for some of the cats. Not a word about Creek's kindness or the sympathy I felt with them on rare occasions.

Most of this, of course, faded when I thought about my capture. The emotionless guards, mysterious leader (I thought I heard the name Hazelnut thrown around, but I wasn't sure). Golden's anger, the vicious warrior who had captured me. The Council told me that our patrollers were repeatedly finding their scent over our borders, prey killed in our territory, and direct signs of defiance and antagonism. I nodded respectfully to everything they told me, though I wish I knew more. I was dismissed shortly afterward and returned to the endless sessions of battle training.

Everyone was on edge after the threatening gestures were announced to the rest of the group. Cherry trained and trained and trained, at mealtimes and at night. Her lack of sleep showed through, and it was clear she was exhausted. Raven, too, trained whenever she could, but I suspected that she was more sensible about sleep. Blizzard shut everything out and tried desperately to continue on with life as normal, but his feeble attempts at jokes weren't the same. Elzora still strutted around with her muzzle in the air, smirking at her knowledge and Council status. Lark and I stayed together most of the time, both of us filled with fear. We both followed along with the harsher training Magnolia and Onyx gave us, went with the tighter schedule, trying to appear as if we weren't so scared.

But we were.

Although Magnolia and Onyx's stories and training sessions scared me, they could never prepare me for a real battle. The first real battle of the war came exactly seven sunrises after my release, when they attacked our camp.

I recognized some cats through the whirlwind of battle but never bothered to register who they were in my mind. Fighting was the only thing of my mind, gaining some chance of survival. We had been told to always fight together, seven Cadets back to back. Lark, Raven, Cherry, Nascha, and I obeyed this, but Blizzard fled at the first sight of claws and Elzora went and joined up with the "real" fighters. In this battle, everyone fought. Scouts, medics, patrollers, hunters, guards, Aristocrats, Champions. There was nothing of the practiced, organized battle lines of warriors that we had been taught. It was a mess of cats, pelts of all colors swirling together in a flurry of claws and teeth.

The remaining Cadets and I stood in a nervous circle, ready to claw any cat that came near. No cat approached us for a while, causing me to breathe a sigh of relief, but eventually, a group of cats approached us. I immediately recognized their leader. Inferno, a tortoiseshell general who specialized in stealth missions, according to the meeting I had overheard. She lead a group of cats, weaving through the crowd to head for Astor and Rasha, who were fighting in a group with their guards. The guards were excellent fighters and few cats lay a claw on Astor and Rasha, but an assassin approaching from behind could easily kill them. Nascha motioned toward them with a claw and we reluctantly moved forward to face them.

Lark and Raven immediately stuck together back-to-back, ready to protect each other. Cherry and Nascha did the same, claws ready to fight any cat who got near. I stood in the middle, hoping desperately no cat would attack me. Of course, that was a hope, not reality. Inferno herself leaped for me, raking her claws down my side and tearing my ear. Fear pulsed through me, all my instincts screaming run.

And so I did. I fled from the she-cat, running and running until I reached the edge of the camp, where I collapsed on the ground, pain rushing through my body. I didn't quite faint, for I could still see a fuzzy mess of torn fur and blood where the battle raged, and I could still feel pain. I felt a cat lean over me, smelling faintly of leaves and flowers.

"Come along," she murmured. "I can heal you."

And so I did. Away from the battle, away from the blood and pain and fear, away from everything. I leaned on her shoulder and we padded out into the forest toward the edge of the Twilight Hunters' territory. I had escaped, survived, but my injuries reminded me that this was a pyrrhic victory.