Ask to Join Plot Thread Waiting in the Waves (War for Sunningrocks)

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
──●◎●──

Oaktall had expected the RiverClan leader to evade rather than meet his weight head on, but the tom was quicker than most cats his size had any right to be. His claws cut through empty air instead of fur and his muzzle wrinkled in pain as a line of heat found his flank.

His paws bit into the bank as he twisted on his forequarters, refusing to give Coldstar his hindquarters. The wound stung but it wasn't deep enough to steal his footing. Oaktall feinted high with his left forepaw, inviting Coldstar's attention upward before driving his shoulder forward instead, aiming to crowd the RiverClan leader's space. If he could keep Coldstar from dancing around the battlefield and issuing orders then RiverClan lost an advantage.

He certainly sent enough after him.

Then Oaktall drove forward again with teeth to grapple, aiming to force him to either stand and trade blows or give ground.

Spawn of flame, Thunder-struck, from the ashes I rise
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Leopardrose's tackle only half found its mark as claws raked through Briarfang's pelt. The counterstrike came immediately and gravity helped her halfway as she dropped. Her legs compressed beneath her like drawn bowstrings as she folded near the ground Briarfang's paw cutting through the air where her neck had been only a heartbeat before. The rush of displaced fur brushed over her ears.

Using that same crouch Leopardrose exploded underneath Briarfang's center of balance. Her chest drove toward the RiverClan warrior's forelegs while one forepaw swept low, claws hooked, aiming to rake across Briarfang's wrists and knock their support out from beneath them.

There is peace even in the storm...

‹‹‹‹ ››››

Stormsquall’s voice rose in a savage, snarling scream!

”Bloodstar’s not here” rang through the air in Coldstar’s voice. Bloodstar might not be here, but the daughter of Boldstar was! Green eyes narrowed as her paws dug into the dirt as she raced toward Oaktall and Coldstar. The gray blur flashed into the fray, diving at Oaktall’s bulk. If she could so much as push the tom back from Coldstar half a step the pair would be able to press the advantage together.

A war-cry full of bloodlust: “Sunningrocks for RiverClan!”

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
──●◎●──

Oaktall felt muscle shift beneath his teeth as the RiverClan leader refused to meet strength with strength, instead driving his claws into Oaktall's chest and throwing his weight forward. Mud slid beneath Oaktall's toes before another impact shook his flank.

The gray she-cat hit him from the side with enough force to wrench his grip loose from Coldstar's shoulder. He wouldn't step near the river that most likely claimed his clanmates. Instead of resisting Stormsquall's charge, Oaktall turned with it.

Stormsquall's momentum carried her farther than she'd intended as Oaktall pivoted through the impact, his broad shoulder rolling beneath hers. Rather than letting her drive him backward he shoved up and across, using the difference in their size to upset her balance where his weight came down like a tree.

His jaws snapped toward the loose fur beneath her throat where a firm grip could pin her head back and end the struggle quickly if it landed. He had no desire to waste time trading blows with Stormsquall while Coldstar recovered.

Coldstar was still the objective...and she was an obstacle between them.

[OOC: minor powerplay approved by Kit]

Spawn of flame, Thunder-struck, from the ashes I rise
──●◎●──

Leopardrose saw the commitment in Briarfang's posture a heartbeat before they sprang and shifted with instinct rather than thought, her hind paws digging into ground as she twisted away. It wasn't a perfect escape though as Briarfang's claws caught her high along the shoulder instead of her throat, carving through rosetted fur.

Pain was nothing compared to the retribution she was determined to enact. Already moving she flowed past Briarfang's lunge, letting their momentum carry them ahead while she wheeled sharply around their exposed side and stayed low as she accelerated.

She came up alongside Briarfang's flank instead of directly in front of them where her sharp claws sought the softer muscles along their ribs and flank, aiming to score long lines through pelt as she continued moving rather than planting herself.

"What's the matter...? You're getting slower." She hissed with a contained grin.

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
──●◎●──

Coldstar's sudden charge caught Oaktall at the worst possible moment as the impact collided with him. His head snapped sideways and a roar tore from his throat as his grip on the gray she-cat faltered as the RiverClan leader put himself directly in his line of fire. Fine.

His broad forelegs aimed to clutch the smaller tom tight against his chest as his claws saught purchase in his pelt. The difference in their size became brutally apparent. Coldstar could strike dogdge and twist all he wanted but Oaktall had him now.

He drove his weight forward, trying to crush Coldstar beneath claws and teeth rather than wrestle him toward the river. His injured flank screamed but he barely registered it as adrenaline and perhaps something darker coursed through his bloodstream.

Coldstar had made himself the target so he treated him like one. It would only take time to carve the lives from him - he trusted his Clanmates to keep ThunderClan occupied for the meantime.

Spawn of flame, Thunder-struck, from the ashes I rise
──●◎●──

Leopardrose caught the subtle shift in Briarfang's footing and the faintest hint of satisfaction touched her whiskers. The RiverClan warrior might have the advantage of familiar water, but Leopardrose had never been a cat to shy away from getting wet - or footing around RiverClab territory.

She circled wide, trying to keep Briarfang's attention on her while Sunstrike moved into position. Her paws entered the shallows without hesitation, the shallows around her ankles as she sought a more advantageous position.

She surged forward from behind, aiming to catch the tom's tail in her teeth as her own tail flagged high to keep her balance. If Sunstrike's attack forced Briarfang's legs one way, Leopardrose would be there from the other. She woudln't give him room to breathe.

There is peace even in the storm...

‹‹‹‹ ››››

As Stormsquall overshot the big brown tom, who pivoted to follow her through, she felt the panic. The weight of the larger cat drove her to the ground. She felt a touch of fang...

Then nothing.

Only the flash of brown furred forms over her. She struggled to gather the panic and pull herself to her paws. The shame of inexperience was already washing away the fear. The tangle of the dueling toms left her no opportunity to drive directly in.

When Coldstar's unearthly cry came the fur on the back of her neck rose. Stormsquall had never heard anything like it.

Spawn of flame, Thunder-struck, from the ashes I rise
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The steady trickle of the shallows did little to dissuade Leopardrose from her quarry. Even the farther rush of the current was far from her mind in that boldness didn't allow her to demonstrate concern. All of her focus was in working alongside Sunstrike to catch the tortie tom unaware. Something seemed to draw his attention towards her ally which gave the she-cat all she needed to do to act...

With a mighty push of her back legs, she leaped from the water, droplets rushing off her hocks as the momentum of her rushed forward at Briarfang. As the two cats connected, their clashing weights spiraled into deeper waters. A furious yowl escaped her as her legs kicked out, pushing the two cats deliberately down the current -

- Both Briarfang and Leopardrose distantly bobbing shapes as they rushed downstream to the unknown...

[Leopardrose Exit]

(Permission from mush for the powerplay)

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
──●◎●──

If Oaktall could measure life force between his jaws he might have realized that Coldstar was dying...One of his lives anyway. A deep part of his blood boiled at this cat's audacity at planning such an attack on ThunderClan territory - killed his Clanmates...It was almost too much to keep whatever clawed at him in check. His method was solemn, reacting only to the tom's body when he felt himself forcibly pulled.

Relinquishing the RiverClan leader with pained reluctance, Oaktall's long fur twisted in the other's maw as his frame rounded in retaliation towards the young, though sizable, tom. He felt the skin turn and rip, bits of chocolate ticked fur rippling through air as he barreled out his chest where muscles rippled as his right paw came down heavily aimed at Sturgeonwhisker.

With Coldstar on the ground Oaktall could focus as much attention as he needed against this new challenger, while keeping an ear on the she-cat, lips curling and tufted ears flattening against his skull with a ferocious hiss. He tried not to give him a moments reprieve - and advanced, trying to thrust himself close at any opportunity.

There’s always something new to try. I’m hungry for all of it!

⋆⋅❆⋅⋆ ❅ ⋆⋅❆⋅⋆

Hot on the trail of the battling cats, Hailstrike's paws were light, but her muscles coiled and ready for a pounce. It was when she saw a massive sepia tom trying to claw the life out of her littermates that she knew who her target was.

Hailstrike hardly even let out a cry before barreling towards Oaktall's free side, her claws aiming strikes at any scrap of fur or flesh she could find, no cat messes with her siblings like that, especially the likes of ThunderClan. With a wild snarl, she parted her jaws and aimed bites and scratches at the chocolate ThunderClanner's fur, she had noticed that Coldstar was struggling for one of his lives on the ground, but she didn't hold as much concern as any other may, he had lives to spare, her kin did not.

And with the skills and equipment she was given by StarClan, she was going to make sure that none of those noble lives were taken by this mountain of a cat. RiverClan wasn't going to be left in the lurch because of a few missing warriors. She was going to make sure of that.

Even the smallest pebble can make ripples that change the course of the stream.

∙∙• ☾ •∙∙

Greypebbles' wounded shoulder hadn't done him any favors on his journey here and only throbbed harder as his paws carried him back into battle again. He chose not to mention the former situations from the previous, not yet. But what he did take note of was the lack of his own Clanmates there were... there should have been much... much more here by now, outnumering the RiverClanners even, he assumed that they still did... but what worried him and almost made him freeze in placed like a startled mouse was the lack of familiar faces. Where were the cats he was sent here for? Quailcall? Larchsong? Fallstripe? where had they gone?

Greypebbles' heart lurched as he thought the worst, there were clear signs of struggle at the banks, he knew something terrible had happened, and with most of his clanmates gone, he couldn't help his heartbeat quickening.

But he would put these feelings into something more productive than just standing around in a panic. The grey tom launched himself at the assailant to his cousin, the cat that RiverClan knew as Willowspark. He aimed his teeth at Willowspark's cinnamon scruff, hopefully to pull his away from Skyblossom so she could get her bearings. Look at me, fight with me!

There is peace even in the storm...

‹‹‹‹ ››››

Sturgeonwhisker's arrival snapped Stormsquall out of her freeze. She gathered herself and leapt back into the fray with a guttural growl. With her leader down, the rage she felt at the brown tom began to burn like a fire in her chest.

More cats streamed into the fight, but her eyes were on Sturgeonwhisker and Oaktall. She dove at the elder tom's body opposite her brother with a yowling war cry, "For Coldstar!" She would never forget his rescue or what he sacrificed for her. Coldstar had given too generously, and she would pay her clan back for the gift of her life.

Ears pinned and face contorted into a snarl she struck with paws and claws, trying to divide the ThunderClanner's attention. Trying to give Sturgeonwhisker the upper paw.

The oak remembers the storms as warriors remember their battles.
──●◎●──

Oaktall barely had time to register the new arrival before Hailstrike crashed into his free side. Teeth snapped and claws swiped into the thick fur of his shoulder as Stormsquall came from the opposite side. Oaktall's lips peeled back at the cats' persistance.

His body reacted before his mind could dwell on it. He shifted his weight hard aimed toward Hailstrike, forcing the larger portion of his bulk towards her rather than allowing her to get beneath his flank. His shoulder aimed to slam against her chest as his foreleg swept across, trying to shove her off balance.

Oaktall continued forward on momentum to allow him to slip passed Stormsquall, letting her claws skim through his fur rather than sink into his ribs. He planted one hindpaw and pivoted sharply, bringing his rear quarters around like a battering ram.

His claws flashed toward Strugeonwhisker's shoulder, aiming to remove the largest threat first as blood seeped from various small claw wounds on his body. But then more ThunderClan scents cut through - Wrentalon and Greypebbles! He kept moving, constantly changing which warrior he threatened for as long as his endurance allowed to allow Wrentalon to properly enter the melee.

"Wrentalon! The grey tabby!" He yowled, hoping to throw the attention off him for even a split moment - And then Oaktall struck, both front legs extending in a grapple towards that cat, if such distraction was successful.

There’s always something new to try. I’m hungry for all of it!

⋆⋅❆⋅⋆ ❅ ⋆⋅❆⋅⋆

Hailstrike saw the blow coming and moved with it, gripping onto Oaktall's flank a little tighter with on paw while the other released him, swinging outward to avoid the heavy ramming, surely the momentum wouldn't do Oaktall any favors. Hopefully not anyway. How much more lucky could this cat get?

With her claws still extended. Hailstrike aimed to mark vicious scratches and bats along the hind end of Oaktall's flank. If not to injure him, than to push him further into his momentum and possibly force him to overshoot and stumble over his own balance. She saw how Oaktall kept frantically changing the warriors he was keeping his attention on. Trying to remain unpredictable. But his attention was divided

From where she was, close to his hind legs, Hailstrike aimed a toothy bite to the base of Oaktall's tail, balance and strength was all he had, if she took out one, the other would be less affective... in theory anyway.

Even the smallest pebble can make ripples that change the course of the stream.

∙∙• ☾ •∙∙

"Not so fast!" Greypebbles snapped, intervening between Skyblossom and Willowspark again, his long fur puffed and his hackles raised, he may have been previously injured but he wasn't going to let this RiverClan get a chance at his cousin again. At least not without a few good injuries to his name.

Greypebbles then leapt, airborne he aimed claws to Willowspark's shoulders and tried to grip onto them with all his might. This should keep her away from Skyblossom, he thought, if he could distract Willowspark for long enough, Skyblossom could have the time to get her bearings, even if Greypebbles was injured again in the process, it was worth it to have a bigger advantage on the side of ThunderClan.

He let himself take a side-glance at Coldstar in all this, collapsed in the grass, weak and probably delirious. Did Oaktall... take a life from him? Was that a life being taken from a leader? He hadn't seen something like that personally. Nor had he been in many actual battles or skirmishes, so this was definitely something new on his part. But one thing was for certain.

Greypebbles wasn't backing down without a good fight