MudXNight

“I have to admit, wild cat, your sense of style seems pretty cool,” Nightbreeze meowed as she balanced on the rocking tub. Mud grunted, slouching as he was resting on the other side of it, staring blankly at the swirling gray pool the tub drifted down. “So what’s your name?”

“Mud,”  the tom muttered. This she-cat is annoying. She's almost as worse as my own. . . he's not my brother even if  I was found in the forest with him. Russetsky is no kin of mine. I have no family, and I have no cat to care about.

“What did you say?” Nightbreeze questioned. “Sorry, but I don't understand mutterings. May you repeat that for me, this time normally?”

“Well, then you certainly cannot understand anything at all,” Mud growled, whipping round ot face the black cat, his tail lashing. He had seen her before at Gatherings and assumed she was friends with Brightclaw and Rubble, though he never cared for the latter. He believed she was a River Cat due to the fact she could swim unlike any Moor Cat.

''However much I would hate to deny it, Nightbreeze must have some skill to be a Mood Cat that can actually swim. Nightbreeze was silent for several heartbeats before mewing, “I'm sorry, but it is i portant that I know your name, for if I don’t then I can never credit you for helping those kits return to their mother,”''

“Mud. My name is Mud. Have you not heard of me?” the tom questioned. She mustn’t pay attention at Gatherings. I am the deputy of the Shadows, after all, so how can one cat know who I am?

Nightbreeze blinked, tipping her head to the side. “No, I’m afriad I haven’t,” she replied doubtfully. “I have not seen you before, but you carry the scent of a Shadow Cat.”

“That’s because I am the deputy of the Shadows.” He tried holding his anger back, forcing himself to keep calm and not show any signs of hostility to the pretty Moor Cat. “Why would you think I’m a stray, like those loners and rogues that roam the forest?”

“I just haven’t seen you around. I didn’t know your Group had a deputy since Ratfang seems too independant,” Nightbreeze confessed, ducking her head with embarrassment. “Mud. . . Oh, you killed Sear!”

Finally, she knows something about me! “Yes, I did. And so what? That fox-heart had it coming to him since he killed my father, Reedtail, brutally by the Shadow-Pine border. His gaze flashed with a mixture of sadness and anger as he recalled his father’s death.

“You will always be the son I wished for,” Reedtail told him, his voice a deep fur, though his voice was croaky and weak. His gaze showed pain as he lay in a forming pool of his own blood, his fur scarred and his wounds deep—too bad for any cat to ever imagine.

“You’re not going to die. You can’t just leave me here with fox-hearts like Petalwatcher!” Mud could barely speak; an invisible stone was lodged in between his throat as he stared, half-anguished and sorrowful, at the dying cat. “I need you. How can I live without you to guide me?”

“That’s why you must leave the Pine, and leave the cat that isn’t your brother, though you’ve known him since kithood. Leave, and avenge my spirit by letting Sear’s blood flow on your paws, staining them. Live wildly; kill all those who oppose you and stand in your way.”

Mud nodded. “I will,” he promised. “But do you really have to leave me alone? I still need you!”

“You’re a grown warrior not a kit,” Reedtail retorted. “I brought you here all those seasons ago. Now you must make your name known to all and carry out my legacy. Will you do that for me?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I'll kill them all, one by one. I will make Petalwatcher suffer slowly for taking you away from me.” Reedtail’s eyes shone brightly before he fell limp. Mud let out a helpless wail as he slowly closed his mentor’s eyes. He then unsheathed his claws and dug them into the ground, tearing off clumps of grass as he was determined to kill Petalwatcher.

“Hey deputy, answer me. I don’t speak to go unheard, you know.” Nightbreeze waved his tail in front of him as he snapped out of his hidden thoughts. “Do all Shadow Cats have the power to turn deaf any time they want?”

“And do all troublesome Moor Cats have the power to bother strong deputies like me?” Mud questioned back. “Nightbreeze—that is your name, right?—go fetch me some prey. You Moor Cats are supposedly good at catching things.”

“I’m not catching you anything!” Nightbreeze retorted.

Mud narrowed his eyes. “Was that just a lie, eh? I bet you couldn’t catch your own tail even if it was longer than you.”

“I could catch anything I wanted to!”

“Even the almighty greencough?”

“Well, no, not that. But. . . but I could catch other stuff if I wanted.”

“So I thought. You Moor Cats are so full of yourselves.”

“Well, excuse me deputy! At least I’m not the one who. . . Try the water out, Mud! I heard it’s lovely!” Mud yowled as Nightbreeze shoved him off the tub and into the river.