"Dodge left. Roll right! Jump!" Silver exclaimed as she watched the two tom cats train. It had been a while since they had decided they wanted to go back to the city. In four more days, they would set out for the city.
"I'm trying!" Feathers exclaimed as he rolled in the dust dodging Tetra's strike. "It's harder than it looks, Silver!" He meowed as he rolled around and dodged the black cat's attacks. "You wanna try it?" The small tom cat asked, tilting his head to the side with a smirk.
"I'll pass. I will be the one helping the cats who get injured so I won't need this training," Silver responded with a sigh, "we've already gone over this, Feathers."
Tetra smiled and walked over to Feathers to whisper something in his ear. Silver glanced over at them but just rolled her eyes before looking up at the sky. "I'm waiting," she mumbled to them with an annoyed sigh before being knocked off her perch by Feathers and Tetra.
"Ha!" Tetra and Feathers laughed as they rolled on the ground, now laughing.
"You should've seen yourself," Feathers started in between chuckles waiting for Tetra to finish his sentence.
"It was hilarious!" Starling continued to laugh. Over time they had grown closer and closer together and Silver was likely jealous.
"Very funny, back to training you two. I'm getting prey so stay on task while I'm gone," Silver growled, walking off to go get food for them.
"Alright, any advice on what I could do to fight better?" Feathers asked his friend, Tetra. And who made you the boss, Silver. He thought to himself with a flick of his ear.
The black cat thought for a second before taking a long breath, "I would advise not getting distracted by Silver, Why? Because she is making it harder for you. Why don't you try attacking me without her yelling at you the entire time and telling you what to do?" Tetra asked crouching, getting ready for Feathers to attack him.
Feathers thought about the distance between them and made a quick plan in his head before jumping onto Tetra and batting his ears with soft paws before leaping off and rolling underneath him quickly and then sliding out again and flipping Tetra over with his paw to his neck. "So... How did I do?" He asked while panting with a smile.
Tetra's jaws were open and his eyes were wide. "WHAT THE HECK! FEATHERS, THAT WAS THE SINGLE MOST AMAZING THING I'VE EVER SEEN A CAT DO IN AN ATTACK!" He rolled out from underneath Feathers, his jaws still wide open and his eyes huge.
"Really? It was that good?" Feathers questioned, tilting his head to the side. He didn't know that he was really that good, he never did well in fighting because Silver was yowling commands at him the entire time.
"It was pretty amazing, when Silver comes back we have to show her!" Tetra exclaimed before jumping over the fence to walk off and find Silver. "Coming Feathers?" He chirped.
Feathers nodded and followed.
After only about a few minutes they came across two cats, one was a golden and brown cat and the other cat, a tom, was a bunch of different colors and looked very unusual for a cat, the coloration of his fur reminded Feathers of a bird that he had seen once on the way out, a pheasant.
"Hey! What are you doing here?" The larger cat asked glaring at Tetra and Feathers with amber eyes that were cold and unwelcoming.
"Well, I'm finding my friend Silver. We aren't from here, well, not really anyways, and we're not here to stay. In a bit we're going to the city to avenge my brother's death. Lightning made his cats kill him and I won't let him get away with it. Who are you though?" Tetra asked, narrowing his different-colored eyes at the two cats.
The golden yellow and brown molly stepped between the two new cats who were glaring at each other before they started to fight. "I'm Finch," she told Tetra and Feathers. "Pheasant and I live here because of what happened in the city, it used to be our home until a few days ago. Have you heard what happened?" The small cat asked the other two cats.
Feathers' eyes widened. "Wait, what happened?" He asked, now very concerned about what happened.
"The place is a mess! A cat named Lightning has taken over and if cats refused to join him they were killed!" Finch exclaimed in horror. "A group of three cats were kidnapped by Lightning! It was a mother and her two daughters, and they couldn't escape!" She finished informing the two other cats.
"Any cats who have escaped are being hunted down by Lightning and his cats. Monsoon and Hurricane are after me and Finch," Pheasant added with a small shake of his head in sadness.
"What's wrong?" Feathers asked the larger tom cat. He expected the worst, he was pretty sure he was going to say something like one of their littermates being killed. He was one hundred percent right.
Finch looked at Feathers with sad light green eyes, "Our brother, Fox, was killed by Monsoon and Hurricane. He died saving me and Pheasant, we were being chased and he ran off in the other direction where they followed him and we knew he was killed when there was a large screech followed by meows of victory from the other two cats that were chasing us," Finch finished explaining before stroking her brother's back with her tail.
Tetra looked at both of them. "Me and my friends are going to California soon so we can end Lightning's rule over the streets and save the rest of the cats to give them peace. We need some more skilled paws to help, what do you say?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.
Pheasant and Finch looked at each other and whispered a few things before the golden and brown cat spoke up. "We're in."
"Great! Follow us!" Feathers exclaimed trotting back to the yard that they were living in.
When the group of cats arrived Silver was there looking at Finch and Pheasant with interest. She had gotten back to where they lived and at her paws were two dead crows.
"This is Silver," Tetra explained to the two cats behind him. "She is the one who originally started our small group of cats. When we go to battle later against Lightning, she will heal and take care of cats that are wounded."
Finch and Pheasant nodded at what Tetra had said about the silver cat with narrowed green eyes.
"Wait. If we are all going to battle we need a plan. Do you already have a plan?" Pheasant asked, his amber eyes narrowed in concentration, he slightly resembled Silver now.
"We sure do! I'm glad that you asked!" Feathers chirped with a smile before continuing to speak, "We plan to find a group of cats that are friendly and have been in the city for a while. We then will seek out a cat who is good with their surroundings and that would help us make up a plan for how to approach Lightning. Before we do that though, we'll gather a large group of cats and teach them how to fight. After we figure out the approach we'll follow through and try to end Lightning's rule over the city with words rather than combat. If he disagrees then we will have to rely on fighting. If we lose then we will all meet up in a spot and discuss a new plan. Is that a good idea?" The blue-gray tabby asked Finch and Pheasant.
"Yes, it's a great plan! I also wanted to ask if I could help out Silver. With so many cats that will be in this idea, there will be a lot of injuries if a battle happens. I don't think Silver could take care of that many cats, so I just really want to help," Finch explained to Silver, Feathers, and Tetra.
"This is not me or Tetra's call. Silver, what do you think?" Feathers asked the female cat, his tail flicking around quickly as he anxiously waited for an answer.
Silver thought for only a few moments before she smiled and let out a small rumbling purr. "Finch, I think you'd be a great assistant. You will help me heal the injured cats, and together, I think we will save a lot of lives," she spoke before walking over to Finch and licking her head.
The golden cat jumped around excitedly, "Thank you so much! This is amazing! I'm going to learn so much from you and make a difference and save lives!"
The young cat was only a bit younger than Feathers but was so excited about Silver saying yes that she looked like a kitten who just opened their eyes.
"Pheasant, you look like a strong cat." Tetra started off to the oddly colored cat. "Would you like to train with me and Feathers in battle tactics every day so that you can be one of the cats in the front lines helping to fight for our rightful freedom?" The black cat's eyes were very large as he hoped he would say yes.
Pheasant thought for a while before nodding with the slightest smile, "I would love to," he decided. He padded over to Tetra and laughed a bit when the black cat looked up at him with his jaws parted.
"You're so much bigger than me. I never realized how much muscle you have." Tetra said to him with his jaw dropped.
Even though Pheasant and Finch were siblings, Pheasant was born in a much earlier litter, so he was way older than Finch and he was actually the oldest cat there, kind of like how Tetra and Starling used to be.
"So, what are we waiting for? Are we training or not?" Feathers asked all of them with a lot of enthusiasm in his higher voice.