PROMPT ONE | underdog
Word count | 2302
WarriorzLove

Nettlestep crouched down beside her brother as he waited for the small fish to swim closer. His amber eyes following its movement before he jumped down one it. Fishing the minnow out of the water and onto the rock beside him. It flipped around for a moment before stopping. Nettlestep rolled her eyes as his apprentice mewed in admiration. Raintalon was a skilled warrior, to say the least, and while most who hate to be his shadow Nettlestep didn't care as much. She wasn't trying to become leader or deputy she was just trying to get through her life as easy as possible.

"Alright, Cypresspaw grab your prey." Raintalon broke into her train of thought as he called to his apprentice. The small brown she picked up the silvery fish she had caught. He looked back at his sister waving his tail for her to follow. She quickly grabbed her prey before following her brother back to camp. As Cypresspaw raced ahead of them happy of her catch, the young tom stopped beside his sister looking at her prey as his apprentice had taken him as well. "Two mice and a measly minnow."

She stayed quiet until she was able to put her prey in the prey pile. "You're a piece of work you know that?"

"Well, I have something going for me all you can do is hunt." Nettlestep flexed her claws letting them sink into the earth beneath her. His eyes followed her movements. "I care about you but how can you get anywhere when you don't do anything to benefit the clan exponentially?"

She rolled her eyes sitting down near the warriors' den seeing how most of them were out socializing or on patrols. "I'm helping the clan plenty I just don't care for the opportunity to become leader or deputy. Hunting is the one thing I'm good at and I will stand by it until I die."

He nods looking over to Cypresspaw who was chasing after her den mates before they went out for training. "I just don't want you to be like Crookedstep." Nettlestep looked down her grey tail moving to cover her shortened and crooked back leg. "And I know that Frostedstar named you that to humiliate you and Galestar changed it but, what that changes without you actively benefited the clan. What would Dovetail say about that?"

"I'm more helpful that Darkbriar is right now, or Tigerflight, oh and I can't forget about Eveningpelt." She snapped back laying down on her stomach. Her ears tipped back in slight embarrassment at her intentional outburst.

"They fought well."

"Tigerflight can't walk any better than I do."

"I'm just trying to look out for you it the least I can do to show that I care."

"If you really cared you wouldn't have brought it up." The grey she stood up quickly nearly stumbling. Her brother watching as she flicked her tail. "Dovetail may have kitted both of us and fought to keep my name but don't you dare say that everything you're doing is for her. I have always been stuck behind you as long as I could remember, I have endured so much and you make it seem as though I do it in little thought because I'm worthless to the clan, no. I'm not weak or need your pity brother. I get it you want a sister who can take care of the clan almost as well as you can but I'm not, I'm just a warrior whose blood happens to be similar to yours."

With that, she left her brother in camp. Leaving behind the few warriors that had seen her go off on her brother if you should even call it that, to go hunting. She cursed herself as she found a small clearing a little ways into the territory and away from camp, a small place she had gone to several times when she a bit agitated. She hated her brother sometimes. Why was he the one born without a disfigured leg, how come he was favoured by the clan over her, why didn't she try as hard, why was she okay with being below him? She never hated him for being well-liked or trying so hard in the clan. She hated how he thought of her as a waste of prey sometimes. Just like their father he thought all she did was go on walks through the territory and eat their prey. But he had seen her hunt, the way she was able to hook a fish in her claws and yank it out of the water or how she had laid so still that the mouse she caught had basically walked into her paws.

Her mother saw it, Dovetail saw that Nettlestep was a skilled hunter whenever the kits played, saw how Nettlestep's crooked and short leg didn't stop her from chasing after her brother, or how she was the fastest cat when bringing back prey during their warrior trials. But nobody ever saw it, they just thought she cheated during her trails so Frostedstar gave her a horrid name as a reminder. That was until his death and Galestar took over. She had mentored Nettlestep before the trails and was long into the senior warrior title, but because she knew her former apprentice well she renamed her. Taking a few deep breaths Nettlestep scrapped her claws along a tree before turning to a noise further away. Closer to the border. Screams.

Nettlestep started to limp towards the screams before they grew quieter. Know it was not good she ran the best she could without tripping. Her paws flying over the earth beneath her as if StarClan themselves had fixed her leg. She came to a stop at the EbonyClan border. She stumbled as the scent of blood consumed her, along with the stench of fox. In front of her were two bodies one was an old friend and the other an EbonyClan warrior. She choked as the heavy scent settled in the pit of her stomach. But she couldn't mourn now, not when more lives were at stake.

The remaining warriors of the border patrols hissed and clawed at the fox keeping it at the border. She growled running forward and grabbing it by the back leg. Swinging its large head towards her it let out a shrill shriek. It caught her crooked leg before swinging her in its jaws. She growled contorting her body to grab the foul beast by its muzzle her claws hooking into the soft skin. The adrenaline pumping through her veins shadowed her judgement and even masked the pain in her bleeding leg. The fox dropped her legs which allowed her to continue maneuvering around its muzzle.

Scrapping her claws against it once more she fell off landing with a thud on the corse earth beneath her. She hissed in pain on impact and with the fox temporarily stunned and overwhelmed with pain the last of the patrols took the chance to storm on the beast. Grabbing its legs and clawing at its belly until it fell over in a pile of fur and blood. Nettlestep flickered in and out of consciousness as the cats from her clan gave thanks to the EbonyClan patrol for helping them. One of the cats walked over to her and prodded at her side gently before sniffing over to make sure she was still alive.

"Nettlestep?" He crouched down beside her and grabbed her scuff trying to get her back to camp with help from a smaller she-cat.

— — —

"Are you sure we have to keep it clean? I mean it's not like the leg will be much use to her anyway." Nettlestep groaned as her head felt like it was being crushed by a boulder.

"Yes, now get her some poppy seeds she's going to need it to help out her headache." The second cat murmured as he unwrapped Nettlestep's cobwebs to rewrap them. She opened her eyes allowing the darkness of her mind fall away and get bombarded by the medicine den's muddled light.

"Why didn't they leave me?" She asked on a dry throat. She let out a curdled cough looking at the old medicine cat. He flicked an ear walking away and returning swiftly with a water-soaked moss for her. Beetleslip sat down beside her as his apprentice hurried in with herbs. She licked the water from the moss before attempting to sit up.

"Wait a moment." The apprentice ran to Nettlestep's side and tried to get her back down but the she-cat grumbled insisting on sitting up. Once sitting properly she clenched her jaw as the pain in her leg shot up into her back and side. "How bad is it?" She asks seeing the older she-cat's discomfort. She shook her head looking down at her paws. "Here take the poppy seeds, they will make you sleep but also mask the pain."

"Thank you." She muttered taking the herbs and settling back down, deciding it was okay to not be looking at the medicine cats when she needed to rest.

— — —

Sunrises passed slowly for Nettlestep as she healed, knowing fully that her leg would be even more useless to her than it was before. Several times Beetleslip would help her out of the den to go for a swim to help strengthen her muscles as it would be needed if she didn't want to be an elder earlier than she wanted to. She soon found out that two of her old denmates were the ones that helped her back to camp. Her brother visited from time to time too, if he wasn't busy of course.

"So I went hunting and a wren just so happened to stumble into the territory." A dark brown she-cat sat beside Nettlestep and presented her with her favourite prey.

"Birchspot you didn't have to-"

"I wanted to. Besides what are friends for if you didn't save their lives and then they brought you gifts because of it." Birchspot mewed with a slight purr nuzzling into Nettlestep's side clearly happy about catching the bird. Birds were by no means a common prey for BrookClan as they focused most of their energy into fishing but with the off chance that she might be able to snatch a bird from the prey pile Nettlestep would. But she would most definitely grab the wren given that there would be options at times.

The small grey she-cat offered some to Birchspot before digging into her meal. She had only taken a few bites when her brother walked in swiftly followed by Galestar. Birchspot moved away slightly as Nettlestep dipped her head in respect. The orange tabby sat watched as Birchspot and Raintalon left them. She sat down beside her former apprentice curling her thick tail around herself.

"That was very brave of you to help out the patrols."

"It was the right thing to do."

Galestar smiled and leaned down to whisper in Nettlestep's ear. "I bet Raintalon wouldn't have even thought for allowing the fox to grab him in a compromising position and allow the others to gather themselves and finish it off."

"No, I just knew that there would have been worse consequences had I not done what I did." She chuckled. "When the fox grabbed me I knew I was going to join Dovetail. So I did what I could while I was still in the right mind."

"There's no need to downgrade yourself Nettlestep. You are looked down by everyone because of your simple nature and crooked leg but," Galestar flicked her tail. "You are not what you think you are. You're brother and Birchspot were terrified when they heard what had happened to you, and I'm a little hesitant to admit it but I was too."

"They have a right to be I can't even hunt anymore now that my leg has been ripped to shreds and only makes my balance worse." She mumbled under her breath, looking down at her paws.

"Now, I want you to get up and walk out of the medicine den to bring fresh prey to the nursing queens. And don't you say you are weak, your mother saw it as did I."

Nettlestep nods standing up shakily. It had been a few days since the last time she left the den to swim. Beetleslip and his apprentice were busy helping out the young queens who had recently kitted. As she walked out into the leaf-fall sun she purred, letting it warm her pelt and allow Galestar to watch her accomplish her task. She walked to the prey piled, limping as the weight in her leg had shifted from the fight she had with the fox. She picked up two large fish. The sun glinted off the sunlight into her eyes. She blinked before Birchspot trotted her side.

The grey she was left on her own before entering the nursery. The small kits stumbled closer to their mothers upon seeing the scarred she-cat. She dipped her head setting down the fish. "Galestar asked if I could bring you prey. I assumed that both of you would want some."

The two queens looked at one another before the silver pointed one stepped forward picking up the fish and bringing it back to her friend. She looked over Nettlestep parting her lips. "Thank you." She whispered. "My mate would've died had it not been for you."

The kits clumsily stumble around Nettlestep leading at her paws and mewing with excitement. With full bellies, they settled back along their mothers' sides as they finished off what was left of the fish. As she walked out she looked back to the silver she-cat.

"It was the right thing to do."