Chapter 17 - The Final Hour

(Rainfall's POV)

Rainfall was fighting a Dark Forest rogue with help from her littermate, Watertail. They had practised with each other many times, thus, they work very well together.

After defeating their opponent, Watertail turned around to look for another opponent.

Rainfall gestured to a brown she-cat. She was fighting Hailstar, who seemed ready to give up.

Watertail nodded, not speaking a word, as they charged forward to help the ThunderClan leader.

Rainfall nipped at the Dark Forest she-cat's legs while Watertail proceeded to bite her tail.

Hailstar quietly looked at them, his eyes only showing hopelessness. "Why can't you just let me die?" he muttered, more to himself rather than to the WindClan warriors.

Watertail rolled his eyes as he sank his fangs into the Dark Forest cat's pelt. He spat out the fur and muttered, "Hopeless."

Rainfall shoved their opponent away and turned to her littermate. "Don't be rule to the ThunderClan leader!" she scolded.

Watertail shrugged. "I'm stating the facts."

"The way you say it is too harsh," Rainfall responded.

Hailstar continued murmuring to himself, seemingly oblivious to his surroundings.

"Let's get him to some place safe," Watertail sighed. "The previous leader must have been a nutcase to choose that cat to become leader."

Rainfall chose to ignore her littermate as they ushered the ThunderClan leader to Sunstream, who began talking to Hailstar in a hushed voice.

"Well, that's done," Watertail mewed. "Let's get back to fighting."

Out of the blue, there was a screech. It was somewhat familiar. Rainfall tried to remember whose voice it was.

Then, she realised. A light gray and white tabby she-cat was fighting with Snarlfang, who was bleeding profusely from the many wounds on his pelt.

"Isn't that Frostblaze?" Watertail asked. "You know, that useless fleabag's kit."

Rainfall looked at him and sighed. "Show some respect for the ThunderClan leader," she mewed. "Anyways, you are right. Frostblaze is fighting Snarlfang."

The WindClan warrior spotted an unmoving body near the two battling cats. Poor Patchheart. At least he can see his mate again.

"Why are you just standing there?" Watertail's voice snapped her back to attention. "That young warrior needs our help; she is too outmatched to defeat that cat, even if he's terribly injured."

"Let's go," Rainfall raced forward.

"You go and help her," Watertail told her. "I will distract the others so that you can get through without being interrupted."

"Thank you," Rainfall gave her littermate a grateful look before rushing to where Frostblaze was fighting.

They were glaring at each other, unsheathing and sheathing their claws, waiting for the other cat to strike.

"You fox-dung!" Frostblaze spat. "First you lied about the time of the attack, then you started killing every cat I care about."

"That's the entire point of this battle," Snarlfang hissed. "Why should I hold back when I have been waiting for this moment for countless moons? And, I thought that you should know that you should never trust a Dark Forest cat. It's no wonder you are not chosen!"

He launched himself at the younger warrior. Frostblaze sprung towards him as well, but was flung backwards as Snarlfang's strength was greater than hers.

Rainfall leaped in to help. She aimed quickly and swiped at Snarlfang's nose.

He swiped back in return, catching the tip of her ear. Without hesitation, he yanked it out.

Rainfall's ear was ripped and bleeding. She growled at him, with Frostblaze beside her.

The ThunderClan warrior leaped first. Snarlfang jumped and stood momentarily on his hindlegs to meet her attack.

Noticing that he had left his belly unprotected, Rainfall dashed towards him with claws unsheathed.

Unfortunately, she was not fast enough. Snarlfang caught Frostblaze's attack and used the force of it to slam her on the ground. This prevented Rainfall to attack his belly.

There was a painful crack of bone when Frostblaze fell. She winced in pain, too hurt to get up.

Rainfall stared at her in shock. She then turned to Snarlfang, who was slowly padding up to her.

He broke into a run and Rainfall quickly sidestepped to dodge his attack.

Rainfall spun around and took the opportunity to strike. She clawed at Snarlfang's pelt repeatedly until he retaliated, snapping his fangs on her paw.

Panic surged in her belly as she realised that she couldn't free her paw. Snarlfang hung on, refusing to let go.

He grabbed her other paw with one of his claws, causing her to yowl in pain. The pain was worsening by the heartbeat.

Snarlfang let go and went for Rainfall's throat. She tried to protect her throat with her paws, but they hurt too much to move them.

She braced herself for the feeling of fangs embedded in her throat. There was none.

Rainfall widened her eyes when she saw Frostblaze clutching his tail with her teeth. "Now!" she called, her voice muffled because of the fur.

Rainfall summoned the rest of her strength and bit through the pain to attack Snarlfang.

She raked her claws across Snarlfang's face. He let out a yowl and raised his paw to attack her.

Suddenly, Snarlfang stopped. He collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath. Then he lay still.

Rainfall took a deep breath as Snarlfang's body slowly faded away. "What just happened?" she asked Frostblaze, who was slowly getting up.

"Blood loss," she replied. "That must have been it."

The WindClan warrior widened her eyes. "That was lucky. Too lucky in fact. StarClan must have been helping us."

"We have won," Frostblaze mewed as though she couldn't believe it.

"We did it," Rainfall's gaze fell on the retreating Dark Forest cats. The Clan cats looked surprised.

"The battle is over!" Breezestar announced, leaping onto the Great Rock, his pelt plastered with blood stained cobwebs. "The Dark Forest will think twice before messing with us again!"

There was a huge cheer from the crowd of Clan cats. The other leaders - including Hailstar - joined Breezestar on top of the Great Rock.

"However," Littlestar spoke, his voice sorrowful. "We have lost many noble warriors. Let's take a moment to grieve for them."

The happy cheers stopped as all the Clan cats stayed silent, all united in that moment of grieve.

"We have decided that our Clans shall not attack each other for at least a moon to recover," Dawnstar mewed, dipping her head solemnly.

The Clans began to disperse. Rainfall looked at Frostblaze sadly before padding ahead to catch up with her Clan.

I hope that when we see each other again, things will be better.

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