Before the tom could think about it any more, a chilling voice hissed from the shadow. A voice so rasped and eerie it sent chills down all four of the cats’ spines. "Oh, really?" the voice croaked, its sound echoing from the darkness. "Are you certain?" the voice sneered, echoing around them. Instinctively, Jonah crept in front of the kits, snapping low to the ground and ready to strike at a moment's notice. "No… no NO!" Minnie wailed, burying her head under her paws. Yes, she didn’t recognize the voice, but she knew from the way they moved and spoke that they must be working for FOx. Which would mean he would find out what she had done. She’d seen Fox commit crimes, and they were far from pretty. She knew he could do worse than death. "Or are you just saying that for your own fragile feelings?" it continued, a certain glee echoing through it. “You didn't listen, now my leader must punish you." The voice cackled. "Leader?" Daisy called, slinking closer to Jonah in hopes that they would have more safety as a cluster rather than being scattered. "WHO’S THERE!?" Minnie howled. She folded her ears over her face, just wanting to FEEL hidden. "Not Fox." The voice replied. "Many." several voices echoed. "Shall we tell him?" One of the voices asked. "Oh no, I want to see how it turns out!" Another snickered. "But would that make us unloyal to her?" A forth voice questioned. "We shall see." The first voice replied. "Yes, we shall see." the others chimed in agreement. Then, the voices fell silent. Jonah turned his head, scanning the area hoping that they had left. A long silence followed. Quiet rustles broke out from the buildings once in a while but that was it. The silence was worse than the noise the group had made when they spoke. Without warning, a cat slammed into Jonah’s side. He swiped blindly at the attacker but hit nothing but air. He was thrown to the ground before the cat retreated to the shadows once more. Eyes wide with terror, Daisy watched as the blur almost flew away. Jonah snarled “You cowards.” he hissed between clenched teeth. He had a small cut across his side but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. Before he could catch his breath, another cat lunged at him, followed by one at Minnie. The tuxedo molly shrieked in terror as she was thrown to the ground, her chin slamming against the hard rock. Glimmering scarlet blood trickled from her chin onto the stone as the cat pushed her head down harder. They leaned forward, sliding their head close to her ear. “You will regret this.” the voice growled. Minnie coughed as she tried to catch her breath, struggling for air as the cat pressed harder on her head and neck. She dragged her claws across the ground, struggling to stand but was unable. SHe heard the blurred cries of terror as Daisy and Tiger tugged at the attacker’s tail, but still they barely flinched. "GET AWAY!!" A voice screeched. Harriet threw herself at the strange cat, tossing them to the ground. She dragged her claws down the side and received a small bite to her paw. She winced, falling back and hissing all sorts of insults under her breath. To her relief, her reinforcements leapt into battle soon after. CHaos followed. Fur flew everywhere, Jonah fended the cats away from Daisy and Tiger and Harriet kept Minnie safe during the battle. Screeches of pain and anger echoed throughout, the horrid sounds almost bouncing off the buildings. No creature from an ant to a bird would be foolish enough to go near, and so they didn’t. Daisy sat in the middle of it all, eyes wide with horror as lives flashed before her eyes. These cats- both sides, were lethal. They weren’t fighting to blow off steam or to scare the others off, they fought for blood. That red liquid that was thrown across the ground, covering more space by the second. Then, within minutes, the battle was won. Though it seemed to Daisy that neither side had won, because both suffered injuries. Harriet’s right ear was torn pretty badly, and of course aside from the bite on her paw she had several cuts across her body and one fairly deep cut across her cheek. Jonah’s heavy coat had protected him somewhat but there were many patches of fur that were missing from his lucious black fur and he had two large scratches, one below his left eye and one across the underside of his tail. The other members of the ground had suffered pretty bad as well, one of which looked as if he was going to fall over. He looked pretty young and probably wasn’t used to the hardships of battle. Despite this, they had done enough to scare the group off for the time being. The voices were skilled, more skilled than the C.O.R.L members, but C.O.R.L strongly outnumbered them. All this and so much more whirled through Daisy’s head, but in a much more jumbled fashion. She drew in a heavy breath, stumbling backwards before slipping off her feet and fumbling to the ground. +
+Sure, she had seen fights, but this was beyond anything she had experienced before. Thankfully, aside from the cut on Minnie’s chin, the three kits hadn’t gotten beaten up much. One cat had lunged at Daisy but Jonah quickly knocked him out of the way, and so after that the other cats probably figured they shouldn’t go for the kits and should just go for Jonah instead. Daisy burst into tears. The reality of the situation she was in finally dawned on her. She was hunted, without a place to call home. Her mother was gone, and truthfully, it was unlikely they’d ever see her again. And so she found herself sitting there, crying. Notes: Okay, so this is another clip from strays. I really like this! I think the writing turned out alright. But I'm not sure if it's too dark. I mean, book one is probably for a younger age range but book two gets a lot darker. I'm not sure. ;-; The next chapter is sweeter- Tiger comforts her and even Jonah puts a couple nice words in but idk lol
