Autumntide

He stood in the clearing speaking to Madronestar and Wolfprowl about mundane clan news. Autumnfang was recently promoted deputy after Wolfprowl had retired. He saw his friend Riptide waiting outside the warriors den, his gaze flickering from the ground back to Autumnfang. The blue tabby was waiting for Autumnfang to finish his task before he approached. Riptide seemed like he was going to try his luck, the taller cat had denied his attempts to hang out the last two occasions. Autumnfang had to shut him down every now and then. He was wary of giving off the wrong impression to this over-eager cat, but he had to admit it was fascinating to watch.

Wolfprowl walked away, and Madronestar gave Autumnfang a quick poke at his chest before quickly fleeing and jumping over the camp wall. This was typical behaviour from Madronestar, maybe one day he would give chase and play around. Not today though, he was alone at last and so Riptide made his way over. Autumnfang turned and looked down at him, giving the shorter tom all of his attention.

“Hello.” Autumnfang said smoothly. One word had made Riptide’s fur on his back twitch, he noticed this happened a lot when he spoke to him.

“Hey, Autumnfang, Wisteriabloom’s down at the beach now and I’m gonna go meet up with him. Wanna come? You seem stressed out.” If Riptide was nervous, he didn’t let it show.

“I’m not stressed out.” Autumnfang said plainly, “But sure, let’s go.”

“Nice, awesome!” Riptide huffed in response, he must be happy to not have been rejected again. “I’ll race you down there!” He whipped around and darted towards the camp wall. Autumnfang found it amusing that only moments ago he decided against chasing one cat, only to now be chasing a different one. He intentionally let Riptide take the lead, he was sure he could beat him down to the beach had he really wanted to. They ran through the fields of long green grass down to the shoreline, sure enough there was a large grey cat waiting on the soft sand. Wisteriabloom wasn’t alone, the white and black young warrior, Leaffall, was with him. Autumnfang was immediately appreciative of her presence, he liked the boys but they would make things awkward sometimes. He never really cared for romance, so when they started being a bit too lovey-dovey… He felt inclined to leave the area swiftly.

Leaffall looked bored, but Autumnfang knew she was just pretending. The butch was often trailing after these two boys, it wasn’t uncommon for her to win against them in the games they played together. Wisteriabloom perked up upon seeing the two tom cats joining him and Leaffall.

“Yes! I’m glad you could come, Autumnfang!” Wisteriabloom called out to him. It was admirable, the amount of kissing up these cats would do for him.

“Good. I was losing interest.” Leaffall muttered.

Autumnfang turned his attention to her. “What’s the game plan?”

Leaffall paused, she looked at Riptide and Wisteriabloom each individually for a moment. An unspoken communication to see if they were all on the same page still. “Well. These guys said it would be fun to see if any of us can best you in a fight… I’m curious.” The white and black molly always spoke so plainly. “If you don’t want to do that, it’s fine. I won’t care.”

“I would care…” Wisteriabloom angled his head down, widening his eyes in an attempt to look cute.

“Hm… It sounds fun and all, but it wouldn’t be a very fair fight, I’m afraid.” Autumnfang looked over at Riptide, who was being oddly quiet. The blue tabby was looking right at him, but he quickly averted his gaze once he noticed Autumnfang’s attention. “However… It would be very good to see where you three place in combat training. There is no telling what may happen in the future, especially with those raccoons. It’s important to stay in shape, just in case.”

“Hell yes!” The grey tom almost howled with cheer.

“Ground rules, let’s set those.” Autumnfang continued on, “No drawing blood, don’t throw sand, try to not send each other to medical den. If you can pin your opponent for a solid ten seconds then you win. Whoever wins can fight me.”

Wisteriabloom froze in place. “What?? You’re only gonna tussle with the winner?” Leaffall and Riptide exchanged glances.

Autumnfang had to admit it was funny watching them be disappointed that he would only beat one of them. “I’m deputy, I don’t need a bunch of bruises nor do I need to be bruising up a bunch of my clanmates.”

“Fair enough…” Wisteriabloom was disappointed but he agreed nonetheless. “Hm but wait, there’s only three of us, who’s fighting who-”

Leaffall interrupted, “I’m beating you first, Wisteria. Then I’ll get your boyfriend.” She ran at Wisteriabloom, lunging at his legs with her paws.

“Hey wai-” The molly knocked his legs out from under him and climbed onto his back, pushing on his shoulders with her paws in an attempt to pin him. Wisteriabloom used his back legs to roll over and she tumbled off. “I wasn’t ready!”

Their deputy let out a small laugh. “A real enemy wouldn’t wait for you to be ready.” Wisteriabloom grumbled in response to Autumnfang’s commentary. He looked over to Riptide. “A real enemy also wouldn’t wait to join in the fight, but I want you to sit tight until they’re done.” The blue tom nodded.

Anytime Leaffall would get a hold on Wisteriabloom, he would shake her off. The grey tom didn’t seem to be able to get any sort of hold on Leaffall, however. The two were rolling around in the sand so much that he could only assume they’d be shaking it out of their pelts for the next few days. The white and black cat grabbed her sparring partner’s paw and tripped him again, this time she got him on his back and managed to twist him around to where all four of her paws were pinning him. Wisteriabloom squirmed under her, she was smaller than him so it was impressive to see her bring him down without using any claws or teeth. He couldn’t break out of her hold, so Leaffall won the spar.

“Ha. Told you so.” Leaffall said before releasing Wisteriabloom.

“I will be wanting a rematch, girlie!” He pretended to sneer at her.

“You, Riptide. Give me a moment to catch my breath, then let’s go.”

The blue tom briefly glanced at Autumnfang before jumping at Leaffall. “If you’re going to do that to my man, I’ll do it to you.” Leaffall let out a sigh of frustration as Riptide knocked her off her paws. She may be a little tired, but she’s still fast and rolled away from Riptide in time to get back up. He didn’t chase her as she darted away to create space. Watching her with a determined face, he waited for her to come back. The molly lunged at him with outstretched arms, Riptide grabbed one of her forelegs firmly and spun her to the ground.

“Ouch! You ass!” Leaffall cried out.

“Sorry, I just wanna win.” Riptide said nonchalantly back to her. Leaffall tried to get back up, but Riptide pulled her arm up and locked her in place. She kicked her hindlegs out but couldn’t get enough traction in the sand to free herself. Leaffall growled as Riptide won the match between them. He let her go and she huffed as she walked over towards Wisteriabloom, plopping down on the ground next to him. Together they looked at Riptide and Autumnfang expectantly.

Autumnfang gave Riptide a proud smile, he already knew he was going to be the one tussling with him. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” Riptide kept the same tactic he had with Leaffall, letting his opponent come to him. Autumnfang was fine with this, he could work with everything and anything. He slammed his paws into Riptide’s chest, the smaller tom rolled with it and let himself fall towards the ground. Before he could be pinned, Riptide grabbed hold of Autumnfang’s forepaws and kicked his legs into the other tom's stomach to knock him unsteady. In that split second, Riptide was able to squirm out from under his deputy and kick him to the side. In a real fight, Autumnfang would have sunk his teeth into Riptide’s throat and killed him before he had the chance to do any of that.

“Nice moves.” He complimented the other warrior, he did mean that. Riptide was a skilled fighter, his talents will come in handy in the future. He lunged at Riptide again, aiming once more for his chest. This was a facade, however, at the last second he switched his direction and grabbed one of Riptide’s hindlegs. The tabby tom was yanked to the ground, he tried to shake Autumnfang off but the moment the larger cat placed a paw on his chest… He stopped. Beneath his paw he could feel Riptide’s heart racing. In a real fight, he would be dead.

“Hmm? Giving up?” Autumnfang asked him casually. Riptide only answered him with a shiver, his eyes were wide and unmoving. The fight was won, but not in the way the deputy had expected it to. What was wrong with his compatriot?

Wisteriabloom had gotten up and moved closer to them, Leaffall remained where she sat but watched curiously. “Hey, buddy? You good?” Riptide blinked at the sound of his boyfriend and seemed to have snapped out of whatever trance he was in. Autumnfang let him go.

“Yeah. Got the wind knocked out of me… Good spar, Autumnfang.” He sat upright and shook the sand out of his pelt. He looked embarrassed, Autumnfang wanted to ask but before he could something else had drawn his attention. A strange yowling sound was coming from the distance.

“He-ey!” A sing-song voice called out, it was Madronestar. “What’s going on!~” The short red cat was running towards the group cheerfully. She was jumping dramatically as she approached. Autumnfang braced himself for whatever shenanigans the leader was preparing for them. “My sweet jocks are all hanging out on the beach without me…” She gave them all an exaggerated pouty face.

“Why do you always have so much energy, Madronestar…?” Leaffall asked rhetorically.

“Saw my hot girlfriend!” Madronestar smirked, Autumnfang wished he could turn his ears off. His leader has said way too many inappropriate things about her outings with that strange cat, Haven. His uncomfort must have been noticed, as she picked up and threw a pebble at him.

“Don’t be getting jealous, Little Neph.” She grabbed a pawful of sand to throw next, but the slight breeze just blew it back in her own face. She coughed, “Blech, why’s it gotta do that?”

Wisteriabloom bounded over towards her. “Miss Madronestar, we got a no sand throwing rule around here!” She stared at him blankly, narrowing her eyes before a large smile crept on her face. SHe jumped ahead of him and threw more sand, letting it blow back onto the grey tom. “Ah! My eyes!” He yelled dramatically, the sand didn’t get anywhere near his face.

“I make the rules around here, young man!” She ran over to throw sand at Leaffall too, who gave a melodramatic reaction to this. Autumnfang would entertain her, but he looked over to check on Riptide who has been very quiet this whole time. When their gazes met, Riptide’s back fur started twitching furiously. Something was not quite right with him, Autumnfang wasn’t certain how to respond to this. Some of this behaviour was normal, some of this stuff was just regular Riptide… But this had to have been the longest time he had ever spent being so quiet.

“Are you well?” The taller tom decided to just ask. Riptide dropped his stare to his paws.

“I’m fine.” Riptide looked up and in the direction of the camp. “I’m… Hungry. I’m gonna head back.” He got to his feet. “Thanks for coming out with us.”

This wasn’t helping Autumnfang understand what was wrong at all, but he let the fellow warrior leave. “Alright, see you later.” He watched Riptide walk away before turning the other direction towards his friends who were still playing in the sand. Autumnfang rarely ever felt uncomfortable, he often had full control of the situation… Not this time. Hmm...