Feathers gasped in pain as a cat cleaned out a gash in his back with a wet cloth. "Owwww," he growled under his breath as his muscles tensed.
"Sorry Feathers... Maybe I should go see if Silver can stop training Paws and help me..." Finch trailed off before putting down the cloth and turning around to walk off.
The blue-gray tabby suddenly sat up and glanced at the golden molly, shaking his head "No, please don't go Finch. If Silver is in here she'll scold me about fighting with a cat for no real reason even though I would have a reason..." Feathers trailed off before laying on his stomach again.
The molly nodded quietly before padding back over to the male cat and cleaning out the wound in his back more carefully. Once she was done she covered the gash in moss and then licked the back of his ears. "I'm done now." She said before trotting away back to Silver and Paws to watch them talk to each other.
Feathers sighed as he got up before then walking over to the place where the rest of the cats would be resting or eating the prey that was freshly caught.
His walk wasn't very peaceful though as a certain meow snapped him out of his thoughts.
"And we meet once again," A mottled brown tom-cat purred with a smile, which looked like it was a smile stretched a lot too much, his amber eyes were also narrowed to mere slits. Cedar was extremely mad.
"Look Cedar, I didn't do anything to you. I could exile you from here and no cat would argue with my actions." The tabby said back to the cat before then thinking for a second about sending him to exile but deciding against it, shaking his head to himself. *I should give him another chance, that's what a good leader does, right?* He thought before going to find Robin and Willow.
As he was walking to Robin and Willow's sleeping quarters he bumped into both of them by accident when he closed his eyes and his mind started to wander again. "Sorry!" He exclaimed apologetically, bowing his head politely despite having more authority than the two of them. Feathers then remembered what he wanted to say to them and he shook his head clear, "I also came here to tell you that I'm removing your brother Cedar from the rescue team and if he messes up again I'm going to exile him," the tom added.
Suddenly the brown and white molly, Robin, spoke up, "You can't do that!" She exclaimed, anger rising in her voice. "He's our brother, so there's that, and without him on our mission, we're done for! He's the best leader that we could ask for!"
The white cat continued what her sister was saying, "And second, you can't just exile Cedar if he makes another slip up! He's part of our family and Lightning and his cats will rip him apart alive, or worse-," she said before her sister joined her.
"They'll keep him hostage!" They meowed in unison.
Feathers growled before saying to them, "Then what do you want me to do? Look what he did to me! How can we know he won't do that to the other cats in our group? How can we know that we can trust him on such an important mission?" He asked.
The other two female cats were silent and they just walked away sadly together, their heads down, without saying another word to Feathers, but under their breath they were mumbling things to each other.
Feathers sighed and then padded over to where Pheasant, Cyclone, Jay, and a few other cats were talking to each other in hushed voices. Before speaking he decided to listen in to what they were saying, his ears pricking up. It sounded like they'd been talking for a while.
"Are you sure you chose right when making Feathers the leader of this operation?" One of the cats asked Cyclone and Pheasant.
The white cat growled, "I knew what I was doing when I made him our leader. In the battle against Cedar he wasn't fighting with all of his power to begin with because he didn't want to hurt my son, I respect him for that, for having that much discipline!" He looked at all the other cats with narrowed yellow eyes. "Feathers will stay the leader of this operation even if some of you disagree." Cyclone decided.
"This isn't wise Cyclone." One of the cats said, "He could easily get beaten in battle."
The older cat growled, "Feathers may be small and young but he can't easily be beat in battle, I watched him fighting earlier, he's nearly impossible to even get a hit on!"
A gray cat growled, "And what's your proof of that, that you're not just making things up? That's right! There is no proof!"
Pheasant's fur along his spine suddenly stood straight up before he stood up and growled, "Have you ever seen him fight before? No! No you haven't! He's fire at fighting and his size is actually an advantage, he turned it into one! He is never easily defeated because he doesn't depend on strength he depends on mind and strategy and always has a backup plan! Feathers will remain leader." The cat decided as he closed his eyes and let out a small huff.
The blue-gray tabby decided that it was the time that he should make his move. He stepped in the middle of the group of cats with his blue eyes cold. The first thing that he decided to say was, "You might want to find a better and more hidden place to talk about taking away my leading role."
An orange cat shook her head quickly as she quickly spoke, "No, you don't understand Feathers! This is all for your own good. We're doing this in your best interest!" She shifted back and forth on her light colored paws.
"The least you could do is to tell the truth, just say it, you think I'm incapable!" Feathers exclaimed as his tail lashed back and forth in annoyance, "I heard everything that you just said, there's no point in lying right to my face. Everyone here is dismissed other than you Pheasant and you Cyclone if you're not busy... And you too Jay I guess." He added.
The rest of the cats padded away, some were looking down with drooping tails and heavy paws, some were holding their heads up with their tails also in the air and their paws not dragging, showing no remorse or regret at all.
"Is anyone here going to explain to me what was happening just now?" Feathers asked with a quizzical look on his face, his eyes still reflecting coldness.
None of the cats spoke until Jay took a breath and spoke up, "Please don't get mad at me but... Ok, a bunch of cats were gathered over here and they were talking about what would happen if fights like that happened over and over again to you. They discussed what would happen if you died in the beginning of battle and what would happen if the mission failed and everyone died to Lightning and things like that-" The black and white cat was interrupted by Feathers.
"WHAT? You were there and you didn't speak up? This operation isn't going to work if the cats don't trust each other!" He exclaimed as his eyes narrowed to slits.
"Don't start arguing with each other, you're being no better than kits." Cyclone said with an exasperated sigh. "Jay, please continue what you were saying, you have everyone's attention," he added as he shot a warning glance at Feathers as if threatening him to even think about saying something.
The black and white cat nodded to what the white cat told him, "And then it started to get into a heated argument that attracted the attention of Cyclone and Pheasant, after that I'm pretty sure you heard the rest of the conversation... Feathers, we've got to get the cats to trust you, you have to prove yourself to all of our cats, you've gotta show 'em that you're a strong leader."
"No really? I didn't know that," Feathers said under his breath sarcastically before looking at Cyclone, "I also needed to tell you that I might need to exile Cedar so he can't endanger any of the other cats, we have to keep everyone safe."
The white cat nodded sadly with his shoulders sagging, "Ok, I understand your reasoning, we should probably gather everyone to tell them so they aren't very confused."
"Hello my fellow cats, you may be wondering why you're all here and I think I should probably explain that right now." The blue-gray tabby said. "To start off I'm pretty sure that many of you have heard about Cedar attacking me and almost killing me."
His round eyes looked around the crowd of cats and he realized that a few of them were nodding slightly at what he was saying.
"And for the sake of keeping everyone here safe I'm exiling him from this group of cats. We don't want to take any risks." He spoke quickly, loudly, and clearly so cats could hear him above the voices that were starting to sound.
"You can't just do that! Give cats a second chance!" A gray cat said over the voices of other felines.
An orange and white cat spoke next with a smug expression on. "What are you? Afraid of being beaten by another cat? Leaders are supposed to be strong and not weak and worryful."
There was a lot more talking until Cyclone meowed over the crowd of cats, "Everyone shut up!"
Feathers nodded his thanks before finishing the meeting by explaining what would happen with the rescue group, "And with the rescue group Kestrel, you can have the job as leader of the operation and Willow and Robin will assist you! Dismissed!" He exclaimed over all the meowing from cats who were enraged by his decisions, he then turned around and began to walk away, his tail lashing back and forth.
"Maybe he isn't the right leader," He heard Pheasant mumble to Finch.
*They could be right... Maybe I'm just not ready for this, maybe I've been doing everything here wrong... Should I leave and let the trusted cat, Cyclone, do all of this or should I be strong and just pull through this and become a hero known to all the cats of California?*