The Take Over[Marshclan]

Snowstorm's eyes drooped slowly as the morning sun started to rise overhead. His blue eyes slowly rolled left and right around the camp, his brother had gone on another one of his angry rants and he was just fine with that. His eyes drifted to the cats he was sitting near and then back to Duskblaze, His brother was just getting to his point when Snowstorm's eyes finally opened. And they were full and wide this time. He turned his full attention to his now leader brother.

"Wait Dusk is.... what? Huh...."

Snowstorm stepped forward and walked towards his brother, taking a seat under him and looking up.

"Dusk... Are you sure you want me as your deputy?"

Snowstorm looked to the other cats, no one had spoken for or against his choice, but Snowstorm felt the gravity of the situation finally sit on his shoulders. This was a take over.

The orange tom had been sitting outside the Warrior's Den beside his Mistress, who was enjoying her morning meal, when it happened. His green eyes were low, obviously tired, and his coat was slightly dull. He had thinned somewhat from his days in the clan. Not that Kei had been an overly large cat to begin with. He was small by nature and toned through hard work, but it seemed clan life had only toughened him. Any body fat he might have allowed himself to maintain was now gone. 

"Everyone, gather for a clan meeting!"

The angry sound coming seemingly out of the blue, made the orange tom jump up in alarm, instinctively getting between his Mistress and the threat and curling his tail over the air where she lay. The few cats that lived in the ragtag group came forward but confusion, alarm, and even anger were clearly expressed on their faces. Kei looked to his Mistress for an answer. From what the very informative she-demon Turtlefrost had told him, the clan leader was the one to address the clan from the stone where the tom now crouched - not the deputy, and this particular deputy seemed far too angry to be making any sort of declarations. It was bad leading, in Kei's opinion, but not his place to say. 

When the deputy of the clan began his brutal speech, Kei found his ears flicking down in dislike. He did not know Duskblaze from any other tom, had hardly spoken to the cat other than passing greetings at the fresh kill pile and a vague recollection that Snowstorm had mentioned him being a smart trainer. -And it seemed being this fiery tom's student was paying off now as Duskblaze proclaimed the white tom to be his new deputy. Kei's whiskers twitched. He found the idea of Snowstorm co-leading an amusing one, and likely would have been very proud of the tom who he considered a friend after their hunt out in the marshes together, but not under these circumstances. Not in this way.

His Mistress seemed to be in shock, her twisted mouth agape and her meal forgotten. Other cats began to cry out now as Duskblaze glared down at them with furious eyes. There were not so many that the meaning was lost, but there were so many that the message was trivialized. Kei looked at the chaos that had become of the camp. He looked at the young kits hiding at the edge of the Nursery, afraid and unsure.

No. This was wrong.

The lackluster orange tom hopped -yes, hopped, as his front paw was still healing and not well- through the crowd, gently sliding between the disgruntled, confused, excited, and angry cats. He settled himself at the front of the throng, just below Duskblaze. He doubted his movements had even been noticed by the would-be leader. He looked back through the cats, his eyes meeting his Mistress' for just a flash of a moment between the shifting, rioting bodies.

"I'm sorry for this trouble," he mouthed, his face apologetic and sheepish.

Then he turned back to the cat on the stone and the hesitance fell away. He squared his small shoulders and let a deep, cleansing breath clear his mind. Kei was not a public speaker by nature, but he was a cat that got things done. He was a cat others relied on when things went wrong and as the cries of the other felines washed over his ears, he knew. Something had definitely gone wrong. He took one more deep breath. May Brother Sun guide his paws. Then...

"I WOULD ASK FOR YOUR SILENCE!" he requested sharply, turning on the gathered cats.

The voice rang out in a booming meow that echoed back somewhat painfully in every cats' ears in the enclosed space. It must have come as a great shock to most, if not all, that such a tiny tom could speak so deeply or with such a commanding air, but Kei was a Knight. He had led cats many a time into the heart of Hell in his youth and had never let his resolve waiver once his mind was set, as it was now. The forest felt unnaturally quiet in the following seconds as everyone was rattled. Even the crickets and frogs that roamed the marshes, constantly proclaiming their land, fell silent for that one instant.

 It would not last long before the shock wore off, but Kei did not need long. He faced Duskblaze now, his green eyes as cold and hard as emeralds. There was no give in his stance, no escape and no surrender.

"I challenge you."

The words were harsh and cold, cutting from the tom's tongue in a sharp rebuke as painful as any set of claws. It took only a moment to allow those heavy words to sink in. A moment more and the entire clan would be in uproar once again -but Kei gave these cats only one moment, not two.

"I challenge you, Duskblaze, for your right to rule, but I am not your only challenger!"

The small orange tom did not seem small at all as his strong voice rang out for all to hear, and for as many cats that cast aside the words of a rogue initially, several more would be compelled to listen by his sheer audacity alone. Who were these other challengers? What this a hostile take over? What was going on?

Kei flicked his tail in direction of the clan and looked away from the spitting tom, glowering like a king on his throne down at them all, to instead meet the eyes of the cats in the crowd as he spoke his next words. He did not know many of them. He had been in the clan hardly more than two weeks now and while the faces were vaguely familiar, he would be hard pressed to put names to them all. -But he did know some. He knew Turtlefrost, strong willed and ruthlessly loyal. He knew Snowstorm, creative and unique in his perspectives of the world. He knew Patchpaw, optimistic and brave. He knew Cherrykit and Gullkit, who flounced around the camp bringing with them joy and sadness in equal turn. And he knew, of course, the dual-colored eyes of his Mistress which met his with great interest now. His next words were spoken out to these cats, these lives that had touched his own, but even more so were they spoken out to the lives he had not yet encountered. He spoke to, and for, the strange and differing faces that crowded around him now.

"We all challenge you," he proclaimed firmly. "We who have survived a war, we who have lost those we loved, we who have experienced the strength of being alone and unhindered by the dictations of a ruler -and most of all we who have decided to start anew! This clan is young. We all have our differences and our allegiances to ourselves are still deeply ingrained. And yet we have all come here for a reason!"

Kei's eyes were hard as stones but a cold fire burned in them now as he spoke to the cats of his Mistress' home. "We have come to seek what we have lost! We have come to take part in what we heard of and longed for, for so long! We have come to gain what we can never have by ourselves because it is more than ourselves. It is a pillar of protection. A gathering where a cat can rest their head without dreading who will come to claim it though tooth and claw in the night. A clowder where we can live without malice and blood entrenched in our hearts, or claws always at the ready. We have come to be a Clan!"

The words hung heavy in the air. Maybe some had forgotten. Maybe they had allowed themselves to be cowed by a false sense of safety and forget what it meant to be alone, the tension and constant vigilance that wore down a cat and made their heart shrivel until it was bitter and cold as the drying plants of Leafbare. But the looks on their faces said they all remembered it now. They remembered why they were here -and what it was they had been fighting for.

"A Clan is not just a collection of rogues or loners. It is a group that has come together as one, to increase the strength of one by making it many. A Clan means no one is weak. A Clan means no one is left behind. A Clan means no one is ever alone!" The statement rang out harsh and clear in the camp as Kei turned to Duskblaze now, giving the tom no quarter.

"So why do you stand above us, Duskblaze? Why do you glare down with anger and hatred in your head and your heart as if no cat here is as worthy as you? Why do you disparage your clanmates, your leader, and expect us to follow like mice in a field? We are not mice. We are cats! And this is not some squabbling pack of rogues - We would be better than that. We would be a Clan such as to make the forest tremble with our might! A Clan needs patience. A Clan needs strength. A Clan needs understanding. You claim yourself to be a leader, but I ask you now, what right do you have to take what is Honeyheart's? What right do you have to decide for each one of your clanmates?"

The words were biting, but now Kei's words slowed, his tone softened, and his fur lay flat. 

"I do not know you, Duskblaze. I know Snowstorm to be your apprentice, and by naming him deputy you show a favoritism that is unbefitting any leader. I know that this morning you have come to all of us with rage and fury -but that is not what we have come together for. Protection. Strength. Honor. These are the things that we have come for. These are the things that bind us as one and make our Clan strong."

He looked back to the cats that gathered here. The strangers. The acquaintances. The friends. "I am Kei," he told them, his voice firm but gentle now, "I am not a Leader. I am not a Deputy. I am not even yet a Warrior in name." He caught Turtlefrost's gaze and a small smile quirked at the edge of his lips as he continued. "But I have heard the stories of what a Clan once meant to cats, and of what it means to be a part of one."

He looked to Duskblaze with his hard emerald eyes. "This land has been desecrated by war and death and bloodshed. Rage and Anger have ruled these woods for far too long, and so I challenge you, Duskblaze.

"I challenge you to speak from your heart, truthfully, and tell us exactly what kind of leader you would be. Have you made this choice for your clan, truly, or for yourself? If the answer is for us, then I pose this question to you-" Kei looked out to all of the cats "-and all of us. This Clan is still new. It is still young and feeble, but it is ours and ours alone. We will make it into a Clan to be respected and feared throughout the great territories but only if it is done together!"

"I pose this question to each and every cat." So many gazes met his own. So many faces. So many secrets. So many dreams. "Who would you have lead us? Is it Honeyheart? Is it Duskblaze? Is it someone else? This is our decision, and it will shape our future as surely as the might of a river carves its path into the stones for centuries to come. Let us all decide who we will follow -together." He glanced to Duskblaze, not in anger but in hope, hope that the tom would release his petty frustration for the good of the cats he sought to lead.

Let us decide as a Clan!"

The tom's green eyes narrowed and his lips flattened into an unhappy line at Duskblaze's words. The tom was brazen in his confidence and his capability as a leader was not at all in question - but rather his methods. This felt wrong to the core of the orange tom's soul. He was electing his own brother to the deputy position, and when asked to justify it, he claimed he would put every cat's life in the white tom's paws. No. That was not how a leader should think. Just because Duskblaze trusted Snowstorm, did not mean every other cat did.

Leading in the Kinsfolk back home had meant the tom or shecat was revered among their peers as not the strongest, or wisest, but as the cat they trusted most. The cat they looked to in times of need. Choosing a leader was a natural, easy selection, that seldom brought up disputes, and when that leader elected an Advisor, or Deputy as the clans called them, it was someone other cats trusted, not necessarily the leaders themselves. It was a decision for the people, not one cat. Fondly Kei remembered his father, George, and his Advisor, Greebo. The two had been the most different, difficult, and opposing cats anyone had ever met. When they were together, they fought tooth and claw more often than not, but when it came to the good of their people, they were a united front. They had different opinions and strategies, true, but that only made them stronger. It made them think more thoroughly about their actions and, ultimately, led the Kinsfolk to even greater prosperity. Diversity brought strength, not weakness.

Kei only blinked as Duskblaze outlined as much as he had already stated back to the clan. Yes, Kei knew nothing of their ways. Well, he knew what Turtlefrost had taught him, but that was still next to nothing. As he had said, he was not their leader, deputy, or even one of the 'warriors'. He was just a cat. A cat that had hunted, patrolled, and slept beside all the cats that gathered here now. He cared for the ones he knew, and long to know the ones he did not.

Listening to Duskblaze go on, his ears flattened in distaste. The tom wished to brow-beat the cats into submission. He used threats behind thinly veiled half-truths and forced his voice over all. It felt wrong. This was not how a leader should act. Perhaps Kei was judging too harshly. Perhaps there was more to the tom than what he knew and stress had only forced Duskblaze to this dangerous edge that walked the line between leadership and attempted dictatorship, but if that was true then the tom had made the wrong choice to come out here now. He had made the wrong choice to rage to his clan, rather than offer them his support and comfort as he undertook this drastic change.

When Duskblaze finally stopped, Kei looked out to the cats before him. Many seemed unaffected by it all. Snowstorm seemed caught in perpetual surprise. Turtlefrost was... was she pounding her paw into her other paw? Like she wanted him to...? -Good Heavens, she did not expect him to actually start some sort of physical infraction such as a fight or scuffle, did she?! The idea was appalling! This was a diplomatic matter. Not a violent one. The kits seemed to be distracted by something now. Kei supposed Patchpaw, Cherrykit, and Gullkit had lost interest by now as he caught the calico shecat scanning the crowd. In the back, -Kei flinched. In the back his Mistress was staring upward in horrified shock and Kei felt his ears burn.

It seemed no one would speak. No one felt concerned by the brutality he heard in Duskblaze's tone or the violent edged threats that colored his words. If these cats were content, who was he to intrude? The tom lowered his head to Duskblaze with a sigh.

"If that is the way it is to be, then-"

"K-kei!" 

The tom started at the sharp, stuttered mew. Patchpaw? What did she want?




The tiny apprentice was afraid. 

She curled tightly around Gullkit and Cherrykit. The two toms did not know what was going on, but they could clearly see the tension that bled out of every cat. They could see the way their sister stood protectively before them. And, most of all, they could see the way her tiny body quivered slightly with fear. Patchpaw's pale blue eyes were streched wide with fear and every hair on her pelt stood on end as she stood guard at the Nursery.

Duskblaze... her mentor...

She remembered now every mistake she had made on her first Dawn Patrol. She remembered every fall she had during battle training. She remembered her trouble scenting when her mentor took her out for hunting. Duskblaze had said she was doing well though. He said her crouches were good. She had good balance. Very good balance. He had said the rest would come with time. He had smiled when she worried she was not progressing fast enough. She had been relieved. Relieved that her deputy was there to help her. When everything was falling apart, Duskblaze was helping her hold it together. He helped the clan be strong so she would not have to.

Now Patchpaw looked up at the furious, spitting tom that glared down at the cats all around and did not understand. Where was the smiling cat? Where was the tom that made her feel safe? That made her feel like if she just kept trying she could do it? Why was he doing this? Had she just not been good enough? It must be. Duskblaze spent the most time with her as her mentor. She had wrong to trust in his small praises. She had not been succeeding. She had not been learning quick enough. She had failed, and now he was leading the clan and furious with her Mother and who knew what would happen to Gullkit and Cherrykit and-

Patchpaw's heart stuttered as Kei spoke up. Duskblaze's words made her tremble with fear at the horrid things he described, but Kei, the newcomer, the cat she had only known for a pawful of sunrises, gave her hope. She trusted her mentor more than any cat -at least, she had, but now the words he spoke and the look in his eyes scared her. She did not trust Kei, but did she even have that option?

It occurred to the small calico that this was what the toms were arguing. Duskblaze wanted to lead, wanted to be in full control. He knew the clans and he knew their ways. Kei, by comparison, did not wish to lead, he only wanted to ensure each cat got a say in this new decision, but he was at an extreme disadvantage. He knew next to nothing of their ways and while he was not showing it, Patchpaw wondered if maybe the small, thin orange tom was half as lost as she felt when she was attempting to hunt. He had learned a bit about them, it seemed, but not much. He needed someone that knew. 

But Tornpelt was not helping. Patchpaw looked to the gnarled, scary cat that seemed to be Kei's friend. Why was she not helping him then? The furless cat seemed to only be watching her friend in horror. Kei was being brave. Kei was speaking out. And she was just letting Duskblaze scare them. What kind of friend was she? If Patchpaw had half a brave a friend as Kei and was in her place, she would rail her protests from the mountain tops oh so far away. Maybe Tornpelt had lots and lots of friends. Maybe that was why she did not think brave ones were very important, but Patchpaw did not. She knew how important a cat that would help you was. If she knew Kei half as well she would,-

Patchpaw froze, her eyes glued to Tornpelt as something clicked. Maybe... maybe she did know him half as well. After all, he always watched Gullkit and Cherrykit for her when she had to go out training or on patrols. They weren't close, but they knew each other. Was that enough? The young shecat's heart pounded. Her white-blue eyes darted like lightning over the clan, her clan. Kei did not know these cats, but Patchpaw did. Patchpaw knew so much.

The big black tabby with white boots was Stagheart. He was smart -very, very smart- but quiet and kept to himself most of the time.

Beside him was Cedarpaw, the white splashed tabby who liked to cause a ruckus. Steampaw was big and grey with nice eyes. Patchpaw liked Steampaw, she liked him a lot. He talked sweetly and was nothing like Cedarpaw who liked to tease her. 

Steampaw was Snowstorm's apprentice, the white tom that was fidgeting from paw to paw like a frightened rabbit. Snowstorm was also the cat Duskblaze wanted as deputy. Patchpaw thought this was a terrible idea. That cat could not remember what he had for lunch, and Duskblaze wanted him to be leader some day? It was a horrible idea!

The shecat shook off the thought in a second as her keen eyes kept moving. Looking. Searching. Hoping. Surely there was someone here. Her gaze fell on Tornpelt. That calico would not even stand up for her own friend! Patchpaw certainly did not want a cat like that anywhere near her clan's leadership circle. The shaggy tortie just ahead of her was Owlfur. He was nice but far to skittish to lead even mice, let alone a clan.

Turtlefrost knew all about clans and histories and things like that. Patchpaw felt hope rocket up through her chest, but it quickly fizzled out. The shecat was too arrogant, too impulsive and snappish to ever lead without every cat around wanting to rip her fur out. Besides, she and Duskblaze, together? Eugh. They would strange one another before half an hour had passed.

And there was... there was...

Patchpaw found she had run out of cats. She bit her lip fearfully and looked back to the two toms facing off at the Leader's Stone. Kei was lowering his head now with a sigh and the tiny calico's heart jackrabbited. He was giving up? No! But- but- but what would happen to them now? With no one to protect them from the anger that Patchpaw saw in her mentor's eyes, what would they do? Would they have to leave the clan? Would... something worse happen? The little shecat lashed her tail in hopeless frustration and tried to think. Think. Think. Think! She knew this. She knew she did. She knew the code. She knew it all by heart. She knew about leaders and deputies and warriors and apprentices and-

The shecat gaped as an idea occurred to her. A horrible, wonderful, terrifying idea. 

"If that is the way it is to be, then-"

"K-kei!"

The name burst out of the shecat like a crack of lightning. Her heart pounded and her voice threatened to shake. She was scared, so horribly scared, but if she did not speak now no one would. If she did not speak now everything would change and she was scared of what Marsh Clan would look like with Duskblaze in charge and no one to counter him. No one that would stand up to him. That's what a deputy was for right? To watch over the clan, but also the leader, to make sure they did not make any mistakes. That was what her Mother had told her and even if Honeyheart was not leader, even if she was ill and... dying, Patchpaw believed in her mother's wisdom.

The tiny calico peeled herself from her brothers' sides and darted to the front of the crowd. If she moved faster there was less chance of the others seeing her shaking. There was less chance of them seeing how scared she really was.

"Did you train anybody before you came here?" she demanded quickly. The orange tom was old, older than her, but not old old. Hopefully old enough that...

The rogue blinked, confusion plain on his face at this sharp question that made no sense to him. "Well, yes, of course. Many young squires, -er apprentices," he fumbled for a word that he hoped the young shecat would know, "-were trained under my guidance, but I don't see how that-"

"I want Kei as a deputy!"

The orange tom blanched, glancing from Duskblaze to Patchpaw and back again with increasing discomfort but the small calico kept going, meeting her mentors gaze even as her tail hung low and quivered slightly behind her.

"I think you are right, Duskblaze. I think..." the shecat swallowed, maybe swallowing her fear, maybe swallowing her small wish to deny the truth, "I think my Mother is not the right leader for Marsh Clan anymore!" The words felt like a claw in her heart, but she had to say them. She had to admit the truth. She heard a few gasps behind her and her ears burned. She was denouncing her own mother now, and she felt like the worst daughter ever in existence, but that did not mean that a sick cat leading a sick clan was right. It was wrong. Very wrong.

"I think you are right to lead, Duskblaze," she mewed. Her heart felt like a trapped piece of prey trying frantically to escape from her chest. She just wanted to run and hide. It was so terrifying to be up here. Where every cat could see her. Where every cat could hear every word, know every mistake, every last screw up she made. She did not know how her mentor did it! She did not know why any cat would willingly subject themselves to this!

"-and it is the leader's choice as to who they make their deputy, but I think you over-looked someone when you made your choice."

The tiny apprentice flicked her tiny tail at the orange tom with the injured paw beside her, who actually cringed at her action.

"Patchpaw, I didn't come up here to make mysel-"

"Kei has been with us long enough that if my Mother was not sick, he would have been made a Warrior. Kei has trained cats, apprentices, just as the Warrior Code says a cat must.  Kei does not know the first thing about the Warrior Code-" At this the orange tom looked slight affronted but remained silent, "-and yet he came up here, even though he doesn't know, even though he was alone, even though it's scary, because he cares about us and this clan. He came up here for all the little cats that don't get to speak. He came up here to make sure our clan is a clan that is honorable and strong because cats can rely on each other!" Patchpaw was reusing the orange tom's words, quite shamelessly too, but she did not care. She had trusted Duskblaze implicitly up until that morning, but now she did not know what to believe when it came to her mentor and she trusted Snowstorm to be about as effective as Cedarpaw! Her Mother had told her a clan should not be that way! Her mother said,

" 'A clan is made up of all kinds of cats. The quiet. The loud. The humble. The proud. A Leader cannot understand them all and needs a deputy to help them see different sides. ' My Mother chose you, Duskblaze because even though you two were not the closest, she valued your differences and the balance that created. She knew you could give- could give-" Patchpaw stumbled as she tried to remember what it was her mother had said. Every second up in front of all those cats though, with all those eyes on her, especially those of cats so much older and more important than she was, made her start to lose her confidence. She hastily gave up an paraphrased. "She knew you two were different enough that something she did not see, you could point out and vice versa. She knew you were her balance. Maybe Snowstorm helps you see different sides, Duskblaze, but what about the times he has to stand up to you? What about the times he has to tell you about a side you do not like, even though he is your brother who loves you? I don't know if I could stand up to Gullkit or Cherrykit if they really wanted something I did not agree with, even if I was an important deputy." Not that this would ever happen, since those two could not speak anyway, but her point was still valid. It was hard to stand up to other cats, but even harder to stand up to cats you loved.

Patchpaw looked back to Kei now, who was staring at her as if she had just dropped down from the trees and burst into song. She tried to take that as encouraging. "Kei stood up to you. He stood up to you not for himself, but for everybody, even when you came up here with fiery eyes and a scary voice. Kei was brave, and strong, and honorable. Everything a Warrior needs to be."

The tom's gaping mouth finally closed and he offered the calico a sheepish smile. Patchpaw smiled back.

"The Warrior Code says a deputy must be a Warrior, have trained an apprentice, and chosen by the leader. Kei is a Warrior to me in all but name. He has trained cats before. And when you were angry and scary," Patchpaw looked at her mentor now. "Kei came up here to stop you. He balanced you. He has done everything a good deputy should do and I think you would be right to choose him. I think... I think Star Clan themselves would be proud to have a cat like him to help represent Marsh Clan and so would I!"

Patchpaw found herself breathless and drained after her long speech. Behind her, Kei found himself a strange mix of horrified and flattered all at once, completely unable to decide between the two. Essentially, both of Marsh Clan's protesters were out of commission for the moment and Duskblaze had the floor all to himself once more. Unless, of course, someone else chose to step in...