The two she-cats kept telling the kittypet about Riverclan, and what it was like, and what apprentices were expected to do. They came to find out that the kittpet's name was Cheetah; and fittingly so. Her shoulders were slim yet strong, with long spotted limbs and tall, rounded ears. Cheetah was a pretty young she-cat, but she could hardly contain her excitement- eating up every word that the apprentices had to offer about Clan life. And how much it differed from that of a Colony Cat's.

As Crescentpaw felt the time slipping by she shifted her paws impatiently at Cheetah's questions. The other two cats looked over at her with slight concern.

"What's wrong Crescentpaw?" Tinypaw asked her sister, irises glowing as the light outside dimmed. Not even a whisker-tug of air flitted through the room. It was stale and still-aired, unlike anything Crescentpaw had ever felt before. It was like being... underground, somehow. With a roof above her but no crickets just outside the den. No night breeze pushing through the fern-entrance and cooling the cat's backs. No plants or twittering prey. Nothing growing in here but dust.

"We need to get back to our Clan." Her voice turned sour with worry as she focused on Tinypaw. "But there's no way out unless Cheetah knows of one."

Crescentpaw of course once again thought of resorting to violence. If the twoleg tried to leave she could just scratch her legs or climb up to her face to distract her. But that may cause bleeding...

"Oh! They always ask about that, too, instead of waiting. But I'm sure she will put you back where she found you tomorrow or so. She's just keeping you guys here for a little longer because... wellllll-." Tinypaw twitched her whiskers with mock-amusement.

"Yeah, I don't know. She does such weird things for weird reasons. But it's just her and us, and it's been that way for quite awhile now." She chattered. "So I'm sure she will return you to where you came from."

Tinypaw's responding mew sounded avoidant and annoyed, as she wiped the grin of amusement off of her face and stood up to stretch.

"Well we can't just wait around. Our clan is in awful need of us. We need to escape tonight. Is there any openings we can slip through?" Crescentpaw's jet-black sister arched her spine before stretching out her forepaws, but then something odd happened. She winced, retreating a paw into her chest-fur and licking it. Then the apprentice winced even farther and flicked her paw outward.

"Not really," Cheetah said despondently. "The windows are all nailed shut."

"What's wrong?" It was Crescentpaw's turn to ask Tinypaw this, as her sister deeply frowned and lifted her head to stare at her.

"Stretch your paws out. Try to stretch your claws. And look... at... them." Sounding horrified, Tinypaw's eyes became slits of terror. Her mouth fell open and her ears flattened, causing Crescentpaw's fur to fluff out in apprehensive confusion.

"Why?" The dark tabby-and-white apprentice asked while following Tinypaw's instructions anyway. She, too, was surprised to feel a deep prick of pain in response to the flexing of her forepaws. The pain subsided when she relaxed them, but now there was a dull ache left behind that wasn't there before.

Trying not to initially panic, Crescentpaw calmly lifted a forepaw to inspect it. Though the pain was tolerant, it flared up immediately as she extended her toes to further expose her claws.

No silver-tipped claws appeared. She flicked her paw in response to the biting pain. Just like Tinypaw had.

It felt as if teeth were gnawing into her forepaws when she tried to extend them. Now, as she lowered one forepaw to look at the other, that same throbbing sensation intensified upon touching the carpeted floor.

"I-I don't see any claws in this paw either," her littermate whispered beside her, stunned into a stupor. Crescentpaw couldn't speak as her heart rate accelerated. Some sort of newfound grief closed her throat up, choking her into wordlessness.

So Tinypaw was the first one to react. She turned a burning glare on the kittypet.

"Your stupid Twoleg took... OUR CLAWS FROM US?!" Tinypaw shrieked. It came out in an ear-piercing, trilling yowl of rage and confused pain. She jumped up with her tail spiked out, her eyes blazing and tiny pupil-slits pinpointed on Cheetah.

At the fiery, burning, singing pain in her front paws, Crescentpaw was nearby obligated to do the same. As Cheetah cringed away a dark smear crouching beneath the stairs shot forward. A cat with bony but broad shoulders and a large-framed gait bounded their way over to them. The shadows previously swamping her pelt lifted as she rapidly approached, showing a short-furred golden pelt. She finished crossing the floor in four large bounds, halting in front of Cheetah and covering the younger cat's entire body.

It was another spotted cat, sort of similar in fur pattern to Cheetah. She partly crouched on the floor in front of her kin, spotted tail high over her back. It was bushed out to twice its size, long and dappled like the rest of her. Crescentpaw momentarily forgot about her pain, her eyes stretching wide at the presence of an adult cat.

"Don't you dare blame my grandkit!" The newcomer spat in a scraping tone of condemnation. Her defensive posture reduced a bit, as Tinypaw and Crescentpaw stayed silent.

"It's not her fault for anything my Twoleg did to you. And if you've got a problem with either of them, you've got a problem with me."

Her voice was grating, and Crescentpaw flattened her ears. She's defending the Twoleg as well!

"But they just said they lost their claws, Caracal!And you scaring them is going to make them not wanna be my friends." Cheetah objectified from behind her kin, sticking her spotted face out to peer worriedly across at them.

"I heard what they said;" Caracal snarled, her broad muzzle twisting into a grimace. "They were about to double up on you! And if they think they're going to hurt you, I'm here to stop them."

"With what?" Tinypaw blurted. "We don't even have our front claws!" Her mew was filled with attitude.

Caracal growled, her darker neck-fur ruffling. She stood up to her full height and stalked closer to Tinypaw. "Are you daft? Cats still have their jaws after they've been declawed. And inside of jaws is teeth." She snapped hers in feigned intimidation.

As her sister cringed away from the large kittypet Caracal's gaze swept over to Crescentpaw, who was waiting with a tense stance close by. In case the kittypet decided to attack them.

"Hm. You two are barely older than my grand-kit. Practically still kits as well!" She sounded sympathetic now, which was a major switch from her previous attitude.

This time it was Crescentpaw's turn to claw some perspective into her words. "We're actually supposed to be warriors within just over a quarter moon. We're apprentices, not kits!"

The silence stretched on for a moment, tense and full of pressure. Then Cheetah cut in.

"What's declawed mean, Gran-cat?"

Caracal blinked in acknowledgement to the question. Her agressive posture vanished, her hackles beginning to smooth. Tinypaw still glanced fearfully her way, though.

"Declawing is something that I've seen done to other cats in the past. Ones that I used to live with in my younger years showed me how they'd returned from the vet without their front claws, not knowing how or why." Her amber-orange eyes pieced through Crescentpaw's own.

"And look, I get that you're... older than kits." Her face was curious. "But what I'm not getting is why our human had you declawed at the vet. Other cats have scratched her before, and she's never had the vet do this to them." Caracal turned her head and looked loftily towards the living room archway, where the twoleg was watching her loud noise-box.

Crescentpaw flattened her ears as the old she-cat came into her space and swiftly grabbed one of her paws. She took care to grab the apprentice by the wrist at first, rather than right below the toes. The elderly cat then lifted it up close to her frizzled whiskers, examining it. When she began to apply pressure to the paw-pads Crescentpaw flinched.

Her mind was alerting to the pain signals, making her want to jerk back. She hissed to supress it, digging her back claws into the hairy purple-gray carpet. Great Starclan, thank goodness I still have those ones! The black-blue tabby she-cat lashed her tail with repulsion. Why would a twoleg do that to us?

"They definitely did take out your front claws. They aren't fully healed yet, either. I imagine it's hurting because the vet's pain relief is wearing off."

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Caracal and Cheetah