Kanji & the arguements against insanity

[Kest]

the arguements against insanity fall through with a soft shirring sound.

The sky was dark navy-blue, touched with hot red-pink around the edges. The faintest of breezes stirred the stubby trees and thick brush of RisingClan's vast territory.
Nestled between two giant boulders, sheltered by high cliff and massive hill, and ringed by spiky bracken, the RisingClan camp was nigh impregnable. Except by two means: the highly unsubtle main entrance...and a narrow path through the bracken, a sort of side-door into camp.
Unless you were a very skilled cat, you would most likely never find that side entrance.
Except that a certain black-furred lunatic happened to be a very skilled cat.

As night fell and the war began rattling ahead like a freight-train--unstoppable and gaining intensity--the camp was very still. The breeze brought a sweet flowery smell with it, and the nursery's blind helper made her way outside to enjoy this fresh scent.
Worry gnawed at her; after all, it was her friends and her sister who were fighting today. There would be deaths, she knew this just as surely as she knew her own name.

Sonna ato kanbashi i nioi sunawachi, she thought, and she felt both happy and sad at once.


Pripyat had found the side-way into RisingClan's camp only through the most careful tracking. He was delighted to find such a stealthy and useful path, despite the fact that the pathway was claustophobic and deeply-shadowed.
Instead of stepping out into the camp right a way (which was always a tactical blunder), the BoneClanner crushed himself against the wall of the tunnel to watch through gaps in the tightly-laced branches.
So, he thought, the ghost of his manic grin flickering across his face. This is where the little Risey-kitties sleep at night.
He almost laughed.
How very droll!
The camp was circular and sandy, and, he admitted, very well-protected. If he craned his neck, he could see a high cliffside reaching into the sky...and the occasional dark hollows studding its' sides, marking various dens.
Close to the ground, a particularly spacious small cave yawned. Outside, a darkly-mottled she-cat stood, her face turned away from him. Her build reminded Pripyat oddly of another cat he had recently seen.
But, and far more importantly, he believed (or intuited) that this was RisingClan's nursery.
He took a silent step forward, all but ready to leap from his hiding place.
The she-cat's ears twitched. Pripyat froze, gritting his teeth in irritated bemusement. How could she hear me? he thought, with something approaching amazement. I'm too far away and too quiet.
After a long moment, however, the she-cat seemed to relax. Pripyat did as well, and even more so when he realized one important detail: the she-cat was blind.
Her blue eyes were cloudy and unseeing.
Oh YES, he thought, his tail lashing. Poor little blind kitty shouldn't be guarding something so pre-cious as KITTENS, no?

He is feeling particularly strange and manic today.


Kanji, keyed-up as she was, thought she heard something from the thorn-bushes...from that odd side-path in. Ano? she thought, turning her useless eyes in that direction.
But she heard nothing else, and relaxed. "Imagine things," she muttered to herself, shaking her head. She was just far too nervous today.
And for good reason.
Another puff of breeze brought a wave of sweet, fresh flower-scent. It was so soothing that Kanji even closed her eyes for a moment.
There was another rustling sound, louder and longer this time. And then...is that pawsteps?
Kanji opened her eyes and whirled toward the source of the sound, bristling, scenting the air anxiously.
The smell she caught was not famillar. It was not RisingClan or loner...she had never smelled anything like this directly, but she believed it to be BoneClan's scent.
It sent a shiver through her. Oh. Hell. This time her thoughts were all english, and perfectly understandable.
She drew in another breath, all the while struggling to keep her movements steady.
It was a tom, neither young nor old. An adult BoneClanner, with the faint blood-smell all seasoned killers carried.
There was a sudden rushing sound, and then two bright flashes of pain; no warning, only the attack, which tumbled Kanji right off her feet.
Then she was up again, balancing on her slightly-trembling legs with blood on her face and her shoulder.
In her broken english she spat out, "What...you want?"
And a voice answered, low and rumbling, like the warning growl of a wolf: "Stand aside."
Claws of ice seemed to grip at the blind cat's heart: he meant to go for the kits, she knew it.
"No," she answered bravely, despite the fear rising in her.
The BoneClanner took a step forward. "Stand aside now, she-cat, before you lose more than just an eye!" he snarled.
Somehow, for the first and likely last time, Kanji spoke in complete and perfect english--"No! I am honor-bound to protect these kits!"
The tom spoke again, and now his voice was soft and dangerous. "You poor she-cat. Poor little Risey-kitty."

The BoneClan tom pounced then, and Kanji cried out in fear and pain as his teeth tore into her.
He went to work quickly and efficiently. For a few moments Kanji struggled to fight back, even managed to land a few weak blows on him, but her strength waned quickly.
The bitter coppery taste of blood grew thick in her mouth and nose.
A minute later, she blacked out.


Pripyat shook his head, scattering droplets of blood everywhere. There was blood everywhere: it pooled deep on the sandy floor, his face and chest were soaked with it, and even the cliff-walls nearby had smudges on it.
Pripyat allowed himself a fleeting grin. His teeth were red-rimmed and needle-sharp.
Enough fun, he chided himself. There's WORK to do!
He turned and jogged toward the nursery, glancing left and right to make so no troublesome guard had showed up.
No, it seemed the camp was nearly empty.
All the better.
Pripyat dropped into a crouch and slinked into the shadows of the nursery.

"Hello, little kits," Pripyat meowed gleefully, looking down at the kittens as though they were items on a buffee and he was particularly famished.
"Eeenie-meenie-mienie-mo. Time to die, small ones." He almost sang the words, scooping a nearby kit toward him.
The kit screamed in fear. This bloodstained monster was something that had come crawling from a nightmare, something that had clawed its' nasty, terrifying way from some kid's dark closet to devour an innocent kitten.
The kit's life ended between Pripyat's jaws, and quickly.
He reached for another kit. Risey-kits turn into Risey-cats, he thought. And Risey-cats want to KILL us BoneClanners, would you believe it? So the kits have to GO.
And so they did. Messily.

[ a few notes:
one, yes, the butcher of kittens is a gory things. Sorry aobut that. ^^'
two, Pripyat seems unusually crazy here, doesn't he? <3
three, the title of this thread as well as the first line come from the book 'Lisey's Story' by Stephen King. You know, the 'arguements against insanity' thing. =)
and four...eh, sorry this is so long xD ]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate was cat-napping in one of the dens in the rock face. His was stretched out with his head near the edge so that he could have seen the camp- if his eyes had been opened.

But they weren't, and so it was only Kanji's yowl that woke him. He shot to his feet and out of the den without thinking, and half fell half scrambled down to the ground.

"Kanji?" he said, rather stupidly since he could see she was out cold. Ears forward, his eyes glanced quickly around and then to the nursing den. The kits... The smell of blood reached his nose and he snarled, claws digging into the ground.

"Come out here and fight, coward," he yelled. The small begal to apparently had no idea who exactly he was messing with.

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I realize he's likely to come out the worst for picking a fight with Prip, just don't kill him.

[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Checkmate definately did not know who he was dealing with.

Pripyat backed out of the nursery, dragging a small, sickly kit along with him.
With one paw, he pushed the kit down. Almost delicately he wrapped his jaws around the kit's throat--and crushed it as easily as a twoleg crushes a paper cup.
The kit's blood ran out between Pripyat's teeth and puddled on the sandy floor.

The black tom turned, licking his lips. His face was bloody; red drops ran down his chin and dripped to the ground in a steady trickle. His paws were sticky with the stuff.
The entrance to the nursery was a mess. At least five kit-bodies lay sprawled and soaked with blood.
Beside the nursery entrance lay Kanji; she had been reduced to a huddled, unconsious mass of torn flesh and blood, scarcely reconizable.

Pripyat looked Checkmate up and down, his blue eyes narrow.
Then he grinned a grin that showed every one of his razor-tipped fangs, a manic, gleeful grin...the grin of a lunatic.

"Hello, cat," he meowed. "Coward, am I? Such strong words, and you don't even know me."
He shook his head as if this were such a shame, but still he smiled.

He stepped forward, his head low.
Smiling.
"My name is Pripyat," he said.

[/blockquote]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate ground his teeth and growled as Pripyat dragged a kit out and killed it right in front of him.

"Only a coward would attack a blind she-cat and five kits," he said conversationally as the other cat came toward him. One step carried him back from the easy range of the other cat's jaws or claws. He raised his chin haughtily.

"I don't care what your name is, tom, but if you think you're getting away clean with any of that, you're dead wrong," he said. There was no doubt in his mind now that he was picking a fight that should have been slightly more thought out- but it was a little late to back off now. He'd be damned if he was going to just let this insane cat off with murder.

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[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

"It's duty, not cowardace," Pripyat said. "And I gave that blind she-cat plenty of warning; what happened to her is her own fault."

He watched Checkmate curiously, his head tilted slightly to one side. He was wary but not frightened, and there was very little hostility on his face.
Pripyat's tail twitched. "That's not very polite."

This cat showed every sign of wanting to teach Pripyat a lesson.
The idea was laughable and futile to boot.
Pripyat laughed softly, taking a slow, predatory step sideways. "I'm sure I'll get away clean," he meowed unconcernedly. "I'm giving you fair warning now. I'm not interested in fighting you, but if you want to fight me..."

He lowered his head, his blue eyes narrowing. His voice dropped down to a low, rumbling, threatening growl; "Then you must have a death wish, cat."

Pripyat waited, braced and ready to spring.

He was (usually) a cat of his word; he wasn't interested in another mauling, he just wanted to finish the job and get back to the battle.

[/blockquote]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate moved with Pripyat, blocking the cat from going anywhere unless he wanted to go through Checkmate. The idea was laughable- the smaller bengal was so obviously outmatched in terms of strength and size, and yet he stubbornly- or stupidly- remained in the way.

"And you will leave unharmed over my dead body," Checkmate replied calmly. He was sure the other would leave- he was no idiot and knew himself to be at the disadvantage, but if he could injure the cat, that was less damage Pripyat could do at the battle. And Checkmate could consider his debt to Kanji and her clan repaid.

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[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Pripyat's blue eyes flitted back and forth, measuring the distance between him and his target, between his target and the exit; he quickly and accurately judged the levelness and condition of the terrain; he calculated the probable size and speed of his target. All this he did in mere seconds, utilizing his well-trained fighting mind.
He was one of BoneClan's elite. He knew what he was doing.

He unsheathed his claws. "Gladly," he said.

Then he struck.

Pripyat's fighting style was unlike anything Checkmate would ever see; unlike other cats, he used his claws for grounding, not for attacking. With his claws for traction, he could launch faster attacks and more complex movements without losing his balance. The price of this was that it wore down his claws to dull points--but Pripyat did not fight with them.
He used his teeth instead.

The black tom covered the distance between him and Checkmate in mere seconds. His teeth flashed at the bengal tom's face and then at the side of his throat; then Pripyat was whirling away, out of reach of Checkmate's claws.

In his head all was calm and silent; he did not think in combat. He used his instincts alone.

[/blockquote]

[Bristle + War]

<sub>"KANJI!"

Kanashimi leaped nimbly into the nursery, her stubby tail just a big puffball. Kanji, was she dead? No, no, she thought, panicking. Fukanou desu! Moshi shin deireba, kanojo ha kokyuu sh*teimasen! The other nursery helper, the one who wasn't blind, let out a hiss. BONECLAN scent. Those bastards! They almost killed her best friend! Checkmate, Checkmate, what was he doing? He could not get himself killed, that would be just horrible! Watashi ha kare nashide naniwo shimasuka?

She had not witnessed anything, unless hearing the conversation between her Clanmate and her enemy counted as 'witnessing'. She leaped down to stand a few foxlengths away from Checkmate, and again, let out a hiss. Teishi, teishi! Kanashimi was tempted to screech. But Checkmate and Pripyat did not understand Japanese, and they would not understand that 'teishi' meant 'stop'. The bobtail leaped forward and growled.

"Leave RisingClan alone!"

Had Kanashimi had a tail, she would have lashed it about. Her eyes were blazing with fury. What was this whole war for? Peace? It made absolutely no sense! The nursery helper growled at Pripyat, but stood her ground, not stepping forward and not stepping backward. But then Pripyat attacked, and she let out a shriek. LEAVE US ALONE, she would have shouted, but that didn't enter her mind quick enough. She leaped at Pripyat as soon as he was far away enough from Checkmate, aiming for the throat. Surely she too had a deathwish, for Kanashimi had not trained in combat since she was eight moons old.</sub>

[Kest]

[ some powerplaying; obviously, feel free to ignore. i'm thinking either Prip was moving too fast and missed the right veins in the throat to kill Kanashimi, or Checkmate distracts him somehow before he strikes a killing blow. ]


satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Pripyat did not pay the she-cat much attention until she attacked, driving for his throat.
He tracked her unskilled movements from the corner of one eye.

Foolish she-cat, what did she expect to gain from this?

Very suddenly, Pripyat turned and leaped at Kanji, [hopefully] spinning her backwards into the dirt. The moment her side touched the ground he struck again, aiming to put his teeth in her throat.

No screwing around. The she-cat would die.

[/blockquote]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate bounced back in surprise, turning his face and getting a good nip to the side of his neck instead of his throat torn out. His hind claws dug into the dirt and stopped his backwards motion as Kanashimi jumped into the fight.

He shook his head and then launched himself at Pripyat to keep him from killing the she-cat. He hissed, mouth open and fangs bared as he went straight for the other tom's shoulder. For now, he was ignoring the bite on his neck- his blood was up and he was ready to turn Pripyat into ribbons.

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[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Pripyat dropped Kanashimi and whirled at Checkmate open-jawed. Unless Checkmate moved fast, he would be getting the side of his face torn open by the BoneClan warrior's sharp teeth.

[/blockquote]


[ very short, I know ^^' it's hard to write long battle posts when things are moving fast, especially when one of the characters isn't really thinking anything when he's fighting o.o ]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate was going a little bit too fast to avoid Pripyat's sharp teeth- you can't backpedal in mid-air, after all. He tossed his head to the side, and so at least didn't get teeth to the eye. When his paws hit the ground he was just a little behind the Boneclanner. His hind end skidded around and he kicked the ground, launching himself more or less forward at Prip's back-end or whatever part of the other tom happened to be nearest, ready to bite or claw anything within reach.

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[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Pripyat reacted instantly. He leaped away, feeling Checkmate's claws score into his flank. Bright red drops scattered through the air.
The black tom turned and rushed Checkmate, teeth bared like a wolf. He aimed to tackle the RisingClanner full-on and crush them into the wall. The impact alone could knock him out, and Pripyat wanted to end this quickly. He was enjoying the fight, but growing anxious to get out to the battle field at the same time.

[/blockquote]

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate slashed at Pripyat's face with both front paws rather than jump out of the way of the tom's charge. He wasn't sure how successful this idiotic move would be, and he wouldn't remember later. He was smashed into the hard rock wall, and slumped down to the ground like a limp dishrag.

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[Kest]

satan, satan, lend me a dollar.

Pripyat stepped backwards. He raised his head happily, his tail curling.
Blood was running down one side of his face. Checkmate's claws had scrawled several red lines from the base of his ear to his eye; the eye itself was undamaged, but the blood was blurring his vision.

The black BoneClan warrior turned and padded away, his gaze flitting across the camp as he did. An idea leaped into his head, and he grinned craftily.
He circled the camp, his nose low to the ground; after a few moments he found RisingClan's fresh-kill stock.
He dug it up and was delighted to see that the RisingClanners had been hunting well. He devoured several peices hungrily, and tore the rest apart.
No one would be eating here today.

When he was finished, Pripyat moved back to the center of camp. He glanced toward the battlefield anxiously; he wanted to be there with Panic and most of all with Spiderlilly--what if something happened before he arrived?
He shook the thoughts from his head with a growl. She was a highly skilled warrior, after all. She would be fine.

Beside the den entrance, Kanji stirred weakly. Pripyat jumped.

The kits were dead--Pripyat thought he had gotten all of them. There were no guards still awake. There was no prey.

"My work here is done," he purred.

He left by the main entrance.

[/blockquote]

[Battlecry]

_{[Eh.. x3 I'm gonna assume one of the kits was a Bluerage x Crisp kit like we agreed. << -late'd- Let me know if it's not so. ^^]}

Eyes gleamed as Bluerage stepped forward, eyes blank, emotionless, as she looked down at the five dead kits, and the one dead nursery guard. Her eyes lingered on the middle kit, bloody and beaten. But even then he still looked like his father. At war, was Crisp, and as she looked down at her dead son, images flashed of Crisp falling in combat. Even though he would not be this helpless, it struck terror in her heart. She had heard the arguement, and Bluerage silently went about trying to hide her kits in the darkness. She thought he would be scared away, but as she turned around, saving 4 of her kits and 2 others, he had killed. She could not fight, she was weak from birth. She suddenly felt hate.. Hate of the dark maniac, hate of herself, for having had to have these kits at such a time. She nuzzled into the still-warm body, emerging with a bloody streak across her eye, sad and dull, and the assasin turned away into the darkness, tail dragging in the dust. She had to find help, somewhere, someway.

[Onyxdart]

After Bluerage left, Checkmate awoke. He didn't know if something made a noise or if he simply awoke, but he had a splitting headache and his face was still bleeding sluggishly. He didn't know if his neck was still bleeding, but it stung. He would most certainly have a scar on his face also.

For awhile he lay where he'd fallen, just blinking at the scene as he could see it from there. Then, with a grimace, he levered himself up to his paws and trod to where Kanashimi had fallen, simply because she was closer. He flopped down and nosed her shoulder, which left a nose shaped patch of blood- it had dripped down his face onto his nose.

"Kanashimi," he said as he nudged her, and with the repetitive stubbornness born of only really being half there anyway mentally, he kept nudging her shoulder and saying her name.

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[Bristle + War]

"Bluerage!"

Crisp sprinted back to RisingClan's camp as soon as he saw that Pripyat from BoneClan coming from the camp direction. What had he done? Had Bluerage had her kits? Were his mate, and Kanji and Kanashimi and the other cats back at home all okay? The black cat shot through the entrance and his look of panic was replaced by one of horror. Kanji, Checkmate, and Kanashimi lay on the ground. "Sons of bitches," he growled before slinking into the nursery.

Bluerage was gone. He'd gotten there too late, the bastard had killed his mate and maybe already born kits! "BLUERAGE!" he screeched in an attempt to maybe get her back...No, no...she couldn't be dead...Stirring outside drew Crisp back out of his sorrow. "Kanashimi," Checkmate's voice meowed, "Kanashimi." They weren't dead? He sprang out of the nursery and, to his surprise, Checkmate was standing over the nursery helper Kanashimi.

Kanashimi's eyes flew open at Checkmate's touch. She whirled her head around, then groaned - she had a terrible, terrible headache. "Checkmate," she purred, wincing. Her tail tip flicked as she rearranged herself to look more like she was actually laying down for a rest, her paws tucked neatly under her chest, her tail curled around her. "What...Kanji?" the bobtail suddenly mewed, looking around more slowly this time - to find Crisp standing a few tail-lengths away, looking completely astonished and at the same time, horribly upset.

She rose to her paws - painfully - and limped to where the black warrior stood. "What is wrong?" she asked, tipping her head to the side. It looked as though he'd lost his whiskers, which for a cat was truly very bad. Kanashimi would have touched his shoulder with her tail, but that was only a little stub, which made comforting cats that way a bit difficult. "Bluerage, okay," she meowed, though she herself wasn't entirely sure - she'd been knocked out before she'd gotten a chance to see what damage Pripyat was doing.

[Kest]

Kanji could not possibly be alive. Not after what had been done to her--she had been torn almost apart. Blood soaked her sides and face; her tail seemed to be in two pieces, and blood still throbbed gently from dozens of deep wounds.
Yet she was alive. Somehow, perhaps by the grace of StarClan (or maybe because she was a relative of Kestrel) she was clinging to life.

She stirred weakly, one eye opening to a clouded blue slit, one paw shifting in its pool of blood. She was delirious, dizzy with bloodloss and cold with shock. Her mouth formed fractions of words she did not have the energy to speak whole. "Am...Amer..."
She turned slightly, wincing, then hissing. "A...tu. Tu."

Kanji's one open eye fluttered and she relaxed, falling back into a darkness through which she could neither see nor hear nor smell.

[Onyxdart]

Checkmate's ridiculously large ears swiveled towards Kanji as the she-cat spoke. He'd just about figured her for dead, so it surprised him a little. Kanashimi was speaking with Crisp, and Checkmate was hesitant to interrupt conversations, generally... but this was important.

Someone should check and see if any living kits were in the den, too, in case they'd somehow gotten injured. Shouldn't Bluerage be around somewhere? He shook his head to knock his thoughts back onto what he'd been about to do.

"Kanji needs help," he said, walking up to the two cats.

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