"Are you ready?"

The voice sounded over the crowd of cats, the felines jostling each other for a better view as they stood in a clearing by the biggest Twoleg city. It was nearly all the cats of the Clans, with so many colors and faces that it nearly hurt Aspenfrost's eyes to look at them. The tom was standing in a somewhat shady corner as a big, muscular gray warrior stood on a huge rock by the front of the crowd.

"This is the biggest battle I've seen in my life," a small brown tabby muttered to her neighbor. "So many cats... blood will mark the streets until this is over."

And I will spill the blood of many Twolegs, Aspenfrost vowed angrily. Iriskit will be avenged. He straightened up, angling his ears toward the tom who had stepped onto the rock.

"We will attack at dawn, while the Twolegs are sleeping. You'll be split up into groups, attacking at weak points around the city. Snakewhisker will divide you."

Aspenfrost nudged the cat who had spoken a heartbeat earlier. "Do you really think this is such a bad idea?" he whispered.

She glanced over at him, ears flattening slightly as she realized he was talking to her. "Yes," she responded carefully. "It's always unwise to spill so much blood."

* * *

Aspenfrost's group converged around him, plunging down a slope into a small Twoleg neighborhood. Their job was to cut off this community from the rest of the city, and in only several seconds, the roads were blocked with hissing, snarling cats.

Twolegs poked their heads out of houses, confusion spreading on their faces when they saw the felines grouped on the streets. Aspenfrost's feelings were still in a turmoil over what the she-cat had said. He had been sure in his resolve to avenge Iriskit. But now he was nearly as confused as the Twolegs.

A Twoleg approached them, paw stretched out. Its eyes were gentle, but Snakewhisker--who had agreed to lead the patrol--stepped forward, fluffing up his fur. The Twoleg stepped back in response to his ferocity.

Snakewhisker leaped at the creature, claws sliding out. He slashed once at the Twoleg's leg and again at its side, ripping the pelts that it wore.

Shocked, the Twoleg stumbled backwards, pink mouth gaping in fear. These were civilian Twolegs, Aspenfrost realized. They didn't know fighting tactics against the cats--but as more Twolegs began to appears in doorways to the dens and along the road behind the first Twoleg, the brown tom wondered exactly how easy it would be to secure the town.

The cats sprang into battle, a light of fury shining coldly in the heart of every eye fixed on the Twolegs. The creatures swarmed forward, raising the long metal sticks that hurt so much and metal poles for slamming down on a cat's head. But there were less firesticks than usual, and the metal poles were slow and unwieldy, hard to be swung when an agile cat could leap out of the way with ease.

A siren wailed behind them and Aspenfrost turned. He had been jumping into the battle whenever necessary, and trying to save cats from getting too hurt. Refusing to actually attack a Twoleg directly, he would just swipe at their legs and paws.

More Twolegs had arrived, pouring out of the wailing red monster. Every Twoleg held a firestick, the menacing metal sticks gleaming in the sunlight. He yowled in fear, warning the other cats. Even blood-hungry Snakewhisker couldn't argue: The Twolegs were too numerous for the cats to defeat.

A shape crashed through the trees at the same time the Twolegs began closing in on the group of warriors. A black she-cat yowled at them from the shelter of the trees. "Hurry! All of the groups have diverged onto the main building in the city so we can kill the Twoleg leaders. Your fight here is hopeless--come!"

"That's what we were about to do!" Snakewhisker screeched back at her, sweeping the cats together with his tail. "But we're a little stuck!"

They were pinned between two large groups of Twolegs, with the newcomers advancing slowly and angrily. Aspenfrost spotted a rapidly closing gap between the Twolegs and freedom, the forest directly through it. "There! Retreat!" he called, shoving the nearest cat towards it. "Hurry!"

The group plunged through the gap--Aspenfrost heard a loud crack of a firestick and a cat fall in pain with an anguished cry--and he longed to go help, and save some family the grief of losing someone like he did with Iriskit--but he knew if he did he would be killed, and seeing his family again was too important for that.

They made it to the trees, the Twolegs not pursuing. The creatures seemed to understand that they were giving up. Snakewhisker padded through the group of cats, checking wounds. A limp bundle of fur lay at the edge of the clearing; Aspenfrost's heart stopped for a second as he realized that it was the cat who was so against fighting. She had been the one killed by the firestick.

He hadn't even really known her, but sorrow clouded his vision as he thought of her words to him earlier. The fire that had lit his belly for so long over the death of Iriskit flickered and died, like someone had snuffed it with a freezing pawful of water. Is the death really worth it? he wondered with sadness striking deep into his heart. 

"Hey! Brown cat!" A harsh voice cut into his grief. "I'm sorry for your loss, but we need to get to the city. It's not safe here. Are you coming?"

He looked up. Snakewhisker stared at him from across the clearing, the rest of the cats gathered around him. He rose to his paws. "Yeah," he muttered. "Yeah, I'm coming." Shame burned under his pelt as he padded over to the group. He must have looked like a fool.

A comforting tail was laid over his shoulders. "I'm really sorry," a she-cat whispered. Her scent was minty and refreshing; as he breathed it in he felt the spark of anger against the Twolegs kindle once more. "I'm fine," he told her softly. "Thank you...but the Twolegs will pay for the grief they have caused too many cats."

His belly felt like ice, but he welcomed the ice.

* * *

"Attack!" Snakewhisker yowled, springing into battle. "Kill the Twolegs! Get to the machine and destroy it!'

Aspenfrost slipped silently into the midst of cats and Twolegs, feeling blood slide under his paws. With nausea boiling in his stomach, he stuck to the shadows and reached the machine soon. Suddenly a paw struck him painfully. "What--" he gasped, terrified. A kittypet loomed over him, teeth bared in a snarl. "Scum!" the cat hissed. "How dare you come here and try to kill Twolegs? And now you're trying to destroy the machine that they built."

The tom's paw raised to strike Aspenfrost, but before he could land a blow, a brown blur cannoned into him with a great force. The cat dealt several hard blows to the kittypet's stomach and then kicked him away with strong hind legs. Shaking out her fur, she turned to Aspenfrost.

"Melongsong!" he gasped, half in relief and half in dismay. "Why are you here? You could get hurt!"

"Not as hurt as you," she replied teasingly. "You're welcome for saving your tail, by the way!"

"We've got to destroy the machine," Aspenfrost told her quickly, changing the subject. "Once we do that, the Twolegs will have nothing to fight for!"

She nodded and began scratching at the smooth sides of the machine. But it was useless, only blunting her claws and making the machine dented slightly. Melonsong continued anyway. Aspenfrost hunted around the side of the machine, searching for something to destroy it with. He found a small silver switch and ignored it, but bumped into it and flicked it upwards. The machine rumbled ominously.

"What's happening?" Melonsong gasped in fear. She pressed close to him as lights began flashing all over the machine, spelling out words that were unlike any Twoleg words Aspenfrost had ever seen. 

A Twoleg since the start of the battle had been screaming something into a microphone to try and get the cats to stop fighting with the Twolegs, but it only came out as gibberish. Now, all of a sudden, the words changed to understandable language.

"Stop! Please stop! This is all a misunderstanding!" the Twoleg begged. He stared in shock at the microphone as it began to translate his words correctly. "The machine stopped working!"

As he started to explain in a language the cats could understand, the fighting drew to a halt. Every cat stared at the Twoleg.

"We accidentally made some mistakes and the machine began to malfunction. Something must have rerouted it to the proper mode and now it works. Please don't fight!"

Robinstar stepped up from the masses of fighting cats and looked at the Twoleg clearly, with no anger left in her eyes.

"I believe you," the leader mewed peacefully. She turned to the crowd. "Do you believe me?"

Meows of agreement sounded from the mass of cats. The other leaders stepped out beside her, relief displayed clearly on their faces. Aspenfrost turned to Melonsong with a purr in his heart, but it halted quickly as he stared at her. "Where's Winterkit?" he gasped in terror. "Why did you leave him?"

Melonsong let out a mrrow of amusement. "He's fine, just back at the den with a catsitter."

She looked at him with love in her eyes, and the ice that had slowly formed in his belly melted. The war was over; Winterkit and his mate were okay; and now he could finally focus on what was important.

But first, to bury the dead.

omf I actually feel really proud of this chapter <3 it's over 1500 words and kinda long but still good. written by leopard :)