Warriors: Clockwise

<------ Chapter Twenty-Six --->

"Sofi's a South Faction cat-"

"-was a south Faction cat," Levi corrected, tone challenging.

Tags didn't take the bait. It was clear she'd been trying to avoid an argument with this cat for some time. "Sofi was a South Faction cat an' the daughter of one of Alpha's advisors, so she had a fairly high standing among faction cats. She learned of Alpha's plans a couple months back an' planned to reveal this information to the general public, but the war came on faster than expected, an' some officials had caught wind of her plan, so she figured she had to get out of the South District to avoid execution. Y'know, with the treason n' all," she began explaining as they continued forward at a brisk pace, "Alpha, of course, is the leader-"

"Is the leader of the South District, yes. I'm aware," Hero replied, trying to focus on where he was putting his paws so as to avoid patches of glass or rough stone. He suspected his paw pads had grown even more torn and bloody, but he couldn't summon the courage to stop and examine. He hadn't been able to feel them for a while now, anyway, so it didn't make sense to hold up such an important expedition.

"Not every cat in the South Faction supports what Alpha's doing," Sofi added, her voice quiet as she trotted up beside Hero, "Most of them don't even known. They're just blindly fighting to protect their home, and they believe that following Alpha is the only way to do that. If we can reach camp and tell them what's going on, they'll turn on him. With Alpha gone we can negotiate a ceasefire."

They passed under a flickering street lamp, the last source of dwindling light along that street, and before long they were plunged into darkness. Tags signaled for them to slow to a walk while she figured out what direction to lead them in, and Sofi and Hero continued walking side by side.

"How do you know this will work?" Hero asked, and Sofi's brown eyes clouded with something that Hero, despite his particular talents, couldn't quite decipher.

"I know where you come from it's all meadows and sunshine, Timekeeper, but the faction cats don't exactly have the same privileges as you Clan cats. You don't have a choice in the life you will lead, it's chosen for you. Kittens are sent out into battle as early as five months of age, since the start of this war we've deployed cats as young as four. The longer this goes on, the more lives are risked," Sofi murmured, and the other cats nodded and grunted in assent. When Sofi spoke next, her voice was nearly a whisper. "Nobody wants a war, Hero. Sometimes they just don't realize it until it's too late."

Tags cut in from of them, and Hero stopped suddenly to avoid being trampled. "We're here," she informed them simply, and Hero squinted to try and figure out what he was supposed to be looking at. 

Without warning, lightning sliced across the night sky, swathed in clouds that bore no rain. It illuminated the bleak city with glowing contours and flashes, and for a moment spectacle took Hero's breath away. 

Then the moment ended.

The cats stood on a chunk of cement that had risen from the street during the quakes, and Hero had walked up the gradual slope without having noticed. Where the street should have continued there was nothing but empty space, and only a few paces in front of him the cement disappeared into what he estimated was a hundred foot drop.

The cityscape that lay before him was crumbling and decrepit, the skyline melded with the darkness and the stars hidden by vast amounts of cloud. The bridge could clearly be seen from here, the water beneath it choppy and grey, churned into big white whorls by the wind that whistled past the wires and cords strung between the stone spires that stood atop the bridge. But amidst the chaos and destruction, oblivious to the disaster that threatened to reduce their city to dust, fought hundreds of armor-clad cats. A writhing mass of fur and claws and teeth and stone.