WARRIORS: RISE OF HEDGECLAN

#1: ESCAPE TO SKYCLAN

SKYCLAN

Leader:Cherrystar: Reddish-pink she-cat with amber eyes.

Apprentice: Leafpaw

Deputy:Dapplefeather: Gray and brown tortoiseshell she-cat, mother to Leafpaw

Apprentice: Snowpaw

Medicine Cat:Mudwhisker: Dusky brown tom with black stripes on his tail, face, and legs.

Apprentice:Weedtail

Warriors:Grayfur: Dark gray tabby tom, Stormfly's brother

Stormfly: Silver-white tabby tom, Grayfur's brother

Weaseltail: Mottled grayish-brown tom, Snakefur and Adderclaw's brother

Snakefur: Strange tom with intricate tan tabby pattern on his back, Adderclaw and Weaseltail's brother

Moonfall: Black she-cat with pale silver paws and muzzle, Sharpfang's sister

Adderclaw: Brown tabby she-cat with sharp black claws, Snakefur and Weaseltail's sister

Sharpfang: Golden-yellow tabby tom, Moonfall's brother

Apprentice: Sunpaw

Darkwing: Dark gray-black she-cat, mother of Stormfly and Grayfur

Duskpelt: Silvery gray tom, father of Stormfly and Grayfur

Dustfur: Dusty tan she-cat with brown tabby markings, mother to Snakefur, Weaseltail, and Adderclaw

Mudpuddle: Brown tabby tom, father to Snakefur, Weaseltail, and Adderclaw

Whitebird: Light, pale ginger she-cat, mother to Sharpfang and Moonfall

Nighttail: Black tabby tom, father to Sharpfang and Moonfall

Cloudpelt: White and silver tabby tom, father to Weedtail

Firefang: Bright ginger tom with blue eyes, father of Snowpaw, Sunpaw, Palekit, Cascadekit, and Gorgekit

Lightheart: Tan tom with dark brown feet, father of Leafpaw

Apprentices:Snowpaw: White tom with green eyes, brother to Sunpaw

Weedtail: Tawny and gray tortoisheshell she-cat, daughter of Brightfur and Cloudpelt

Sunpaw: Ginger tom with green eyes, brother to Snowpaw

Leafpaw: Mottled gray and white she-cat, daughter of Dapplefeather and Lightheart

Queens:Brightfur: White she-cat with silver tabby patches

Iceheart: Pale blue-gray she-cat with white paws and muzzle, mother to Sunpaw, Snowpaw, Palekit, Cascadekit, and Gorgekit

Kits: Palekit, Cascadekit, Gorgekit

Elders:Echosong: Ragged silver she-cat. Retired from medicine cat duties due to failing sight.

Dawnheart: Shadowy ginger she-cat with bad hearing

Chapter 1

"Hey, Blue, wait up!" Blacky called after his sister. She was crouched in the grass, preparing to leap at a butterfly fluttering its wings innocently on a leaf a few pawsteps away. The fern shook as more butterflies landed on it.

Blacky smirked as his sister jumped and pounced, but missed; the yellow and black butterfly, petrified from the sudden attack, flew away, along with the rest.

"Mouse dung!" Blue spat. She shook the fern leaves off her claws and sat down, licking her paws. "Dumb butterflies. I'll get them one day!"

"Blue! Blacky!"

"Master calls," Blue serenely curled her tail, moving toward the house where their female Upstander stood, calling their names.

"No way, not yet, Blue! We're not done exploring! I thought we were going all the way into the forest today?" Blacky shouted after her, running and pouncing on her tail.

"Oh, we can do that tomorrow, besides, the forest doesn't have water or food ready in a bowl when we want it," Blue explained, shaking him from her tail.

"I know, but that's the excitement of it, isn't it?" Blacky's emerald eyes glimmered. He sat down, curling his tail around his frail figure. He was black all over (hence the name 'Blacky') with white paws, ears, muzzle, and tail-tip. He had green eyes. "You never know where your next meal is coming from, so you have to be so vigilant!"

Blue snorted scornfully. "What's so exciting about knowing you can starve to death?" She asked.

The Upstander continued to call their names, but they ignored her.

"Knowing that you can do it all yourself! Brave the harshest, hottest green-leafs, the longest, coldest bare-leafs, catching all the warm, delicious mice you could ever want, and meeting all the wild forest cats! Oh, come on, I know you smell them, too, and Stormy's been telling us great tails about Echo!"

"Echosong, and I don't care, I'm hungry, can we talk about this later?" Blue whined. She turned around and bounded toward the Upstander, rubbing against her leg.

Irritated, Blacky did no such thing. He turned on his heels and stalked away, anger filling him to the top. If Blue didn't want to come with him, then he would go without her. He wriggled under the fence, escaping with a mere cut on his back to show his defiant leave.

He raced toward the trees, bouncing and batting at any butterflies that dared venture close to him, or racing absent-mindedly after fat, brown mice. But then, he heard a twig snap and a branch fall.

Turning on his heels, he came nose to nose with the biggest, blackest dog he'd ever seen. Pointed ears swiveled on its head, and an elongated nose was on its face. Its tail was long and bushy, and he had the deepest, most serious brown eyes ever…

Then he opened his jaws and gave a loud, snarling bark, charging after Blacky who turned back around and went running as fast as possible.

The dog dove for him, swiping him from the ground to a tree, slapping him against it. The ground here was craggier and more peaty than that of his garden… His back throbbed from being thrown and his vision was blurred. Dazed, he turned and began blindly running through the forest, when suddenly, the trees ended.

He flung himself, without realizing it, over the edge of a gorge. Terror pulsing through him, he struck out his claws and grabbed onto several rocks jutting from the edge of gorge, watching the ground below him with a hammering heart.

Suddenly, yowls filled the air. Angry ones. Four cats charged out from above him and attacked the black dog head on, tearing his fur and flesh, snarling curses at it.

But what really made him remember that day was what the dog did next. After throwing off all the cats, it glared at them. It said, "Cats do not belong here. The Pack of Sundew has been here for millenniums. I will not allow flea-bitten mongrels such as yourselves take over our lands! I will not tolerate border violations!" He snapped, swishing his tail.

"He can talk?" One of the four cats, a tom, said.

"To us? That's crazy, he's a dog!" A she-cat whispered to the tom.

"I can and I will do more than speak your pathetic language next time you cross our borders! GO!" He snarled, "Back inside your own borders, mangy felines!"

A large she-cat with tortoiseshell fur held her head high. "We are in our borders, or can't you smell?"

The dog grudgingly took a sniff of the air. He curled his lips back as though disgusted. "Whatever. I, Nightly Whisper, leader of the Pack of Sundew, allow you to pass," he growled.

"Allow us? On our own territory? Is he mad?" The tom said again, outraged, as they walked away.

"Get that stupid kit that was running from the dog from the side of the gorge, Weaseltail," the tortoiseshell she-cat ordered, rolling her eyes.

The grayish-brown tom nodded and jumped an amazing distance, landing on a crag next to Blacky. "Climb on, I haven't all day to wait on you," he meowed.

Blacky nodded weakly and clambered onto the tom's back, feeling his face return to color.

Back on flat land, the she-cat explained their names. "The tom that rescued you is Weaseltail. I'm Dapplefeather, the SkyClan deputy, second only to Cherrystar—she's not here—and these other two are Grayfur and the other is Stormfly."

The gray and silver toms kinked their tails over their backs and held their heads up high at the same time, closing their amber eyes. Blacky turned to Dapplefeather. "Are they brothers? And why do you have such long, and weird names?"

"Kittypet," Weaseltail grunted, suddenly sounding very gruff and disconcerted.

"You mean we just risked our tails for a kittypet?" Stormfly shouted, hackles rising. "Sharpclaw would have a fit if he knew—"

"But Sharpclaw doesn't know, does he?" Dapplefeather growled, her own hackles rising. "Stormfly, kittypet or not he was in trouble and needed help."

"Yes, but that was a dog we had to fight, or had you not noticed? A DOG! Dogs have teeth that are a mouse-tail long and claws like rose thorns!" Grayfur exclaimed.

"And so do I, and if you don't want to feel them, I suggest you move it. We can tell Cherrystar we thought it was Cascadekit, she'll believe that," Dapplefeather muttered. "What's your name, kittypet?" She asked Blacky.

"Huh? What's a kittypet?" Blacky blankly stared at her.
"Cat that lies at a twoleg's feet, meowing to them like they understand and are family," Stormfly sneered. "Big oafs don't know a thing about cats."

"Twolegs? You mean Upstanders? That's what we call them," Blacky explained. "Well, me and Blue anyway. I'm Blacky."

Grayfur and Stormfly were obviously stifling laughter and Weaseltail looked shocked beyond words. Dapplefeather hissed at them, "Knock it off, Twolegs gave him that ridiculous name, he didn't choose it! Blacky, I think you'd be better off coming with us so Cherrystar can meet you. She's nice, I swear she's got more sense than these boneheads," Dapplefeather pointed the tip of her tail at Stormfly and Grayfur, who were still laughing.

Blacky felt the color drain from his face again. "No thanks, I'm good…"

"Come on, please?" Dapplefeather settled her blue gaze on him and he couldn't look away.

"Okay, fine, but I need to be home by dusk," he reluctantly agreed, nodding.

Dapplefeather walked ahead of them all. "Alright, let's go back to camp, everybody."

She curled her tail around Blacky's shoulders, leading him gently with it. Blacky was overwhelmed by the smell of cats as they entered a sheltered gully surrounded by small craggy cliffs, and filled with caverns. In the middle of all the small caves, was a pile of dead mice, rabbits, and birds.

"Whoa, where are we?" Blacky stopped moving. "This is awesome!"

"This is our camp," Dapplefeather said endearingly, moving her tail in a sweeping motion around the entirety of the camp.

Hissing sliced through the air and a reddish-pink she-cat bounded toward them. "Dapplefeather, what is this? Showing enemy cats straight into our territory, are we?"

"Cherrystar, this is a kittypet we found being chased by Nightly Whisper. We thought it was Cascadekit," Dapplefeather explained. "I thought you'd like to meet him. He loves the camp."

"I bet he does," Cherrystar narrowed her eyes at Blacky, but he paid no attention. He was gazing, starry-eyed, at two grown cats as they returned to the clearing, carrying jaws full of prey. This is it! He thought, nearly squealing in delight. This is exactly like how I wanted!

Blacky bounced over to the two newcomers. One was a black she-cat and the other was a golden-yellow tabby. "Hi! I'm Blacky, who're you?"

Both cats reared back away from him, as though repulsed. "Kittypet, ew!" The black she-cat squeaked.

The yellow tabby tom growled at her. "He may be a kittypet, but we shouldn't be so rude… sorry, I'm Sharpfang. That mouse-brain is Moonfall."

Blacky nodded, but was utterly crestfallen. Would all these cats respond to him this way? He walked back over to Cherrystar and Dapplefeather. "Why do they all hate me?"

The rest of the cats in the clearing had obviously noticed there was a stranger among them. They were all staring at him through slits for eyes, and some had their ears flattened. Two very old looking cats entered the clearing next. One was a shaggy silver color, with delicate white paws.

She sniffed the air. "I smell kittypet."

"Yeah, that'd be the newcomer Dapplefeather decided to bring home," a graying ginger she-cat said, growling.

"Dawnheart!" The elderly silver she-cat meow turned into a high-pitched, outraged yowl. "You disgrace your name! If he's a kittypet, it doesn't automatically mean that he's not worth our time! I was a kittypet when I first came here, have you forgotten that?" Her meow turned venomous and she lashed out a sheathed paw at the ginger she-cat, cuffing her ear. "Anybody else got anything snide they want to share about kittypets?" She growled darkly.

"Not really…"

"I'm good."

"Kittypets? Ha-ha-ha, who said we hated 'em?"

"Nope, nothin' wrong with kittypets…"

Cherrystar snorted and smiled. "Thank you, Echosong," she said. The silver she-cat bowed her head. "I may not be able to see very well, but I can hear and smell just as well as any of you," she added venomously, lashing her tail angrily.

Dawnheart looked completely caught off guard. She was lying on the dirt, looking dazed and confused.

Cherrystar turned back to Blacky. "Blacky, what made you come into the forest?"

"I love the woods! I hear that they're full of life, and cats! Wild cats, which don't have to listen to stupid Upstanders," he growled, lashing his paw out at the earth. He wanted to show just how much he disliked being owned by an Upstander. "It's horrible! They make you eat this pebbly stuff and water that smells like it's been in a bird's nest for a week, and—"

"Wow, doesn't talk like any kittypet I've ever known," a brown tabby tom commented, nodding approvingly.

It's working! "—And make you sleep on a hard ground unless you can get into their bed, which is nearly impossible! I'd prefer ferns," he grumpily sat his rump on the ground, pretending to glare at the ground, as though wishing it painful death for sitting there and doing nothing after his rant.

"I like him," Echosong, the silver she-cat, gave amrrowof laughter. "I'm sure he'd fit in well here."

"Huh?" Blacky raised his head, suddenly intrigued.

Cherrystar smirked. "We do need more apprentices…" She tilted her head. "So, Blacky, would you like to join SkyClan?" Her face went very serious after this. "You'll have to learn the Warrior Code, how to hunt, how to obey StarClan, all the rules of the kind, and work very hard in order to earn your warrior name. Also, how old are you?"

"Five-and-three-quarter moons," he said.

Two she-cats turned and laid eyes on him. One was a pale blue-gray color and the other was white with silver tabby patches.

"Then you'd have to receive a kit name, but only for about a quarter of a moon," Cherrystar said. "But you said you wanted to be home by dusk, so, we'll see you there. Sleep on it. Make sure you really want to leave the cozy life you lead now."

Blacky nodded. "Right! Can I tell my sister about this, too?"

Cherrystar and Dapplefeather look very taken aback. Grayfur, Stormfly, and Weaseltail all joined a pale yellow tom with a strange, tan-brown tabby pattern down his back, and began whispering to each other, snickering and sneering about something.

Echosong's ears perked and she yowled loudly, "Come and say it loud enough to where everyone can hear you, Snakefur, Grayfur, Stormfly, and Weaseltail! Don't be a wimp and whisper it!" Echosong snapped.

The four toms just gaped at her. "How…?" The strange tabby tom's mouth was left hanging open.

"Because I can't see well, I can hear better than I can anything else, and I heard what you said, what was it, kittypets are filthy, mouse-dung ridden housepets?" Echosong snarled.

Fury welled inside Blacky. He tore after the tom that had been called Snakefur, and raked claws across the tom's muzzle, taking him completely by surprise.

Snakefur reared up on his hind legs and before he could lay all his wait on Blacky, Blacky struck out, laying down scratch after scratch on the yellowish tom's underside. He howled and dove away from Blacky. "Bad kittypet!" He sneered.

"ENOUGH!" Cherrystar yowled.

Panting, Blacky just glared at the tom. Hatred welled inside him like rain in a puddle. "Didn't you hear Echosong before? Why do you have to be such a jerk?" Blacky demanded angrily, swishing his tail.

"A what?"Snakefur tipped his head dumbly.

"It means, you were being mean, stupid!" Echosong meowed.

Snakefur narrowed his eyes at the elder. "Why doesn't she just bite the dust already?" He muttered under his breath. If Echosong heard that, she didn't let it on, but did glare back at him, even though she had made it perfectly clear she couldn't see very well.

"Blacky, here, now," Cherrystar growled.

Blacky stalked toward her, his good mood gone. Cherrystar's stern gaze suddenly turned to that of immense joy. "Blacky attacked Snakefur to show his hatred of being a kittypet! I just hope that if Blacky decides he does want to join us he's not going to get into fights with anymore Clanmates of his," she winked. "And you may tell your sister, as long as she'll be comfortable with our kind of life. We have to fight for our survival, Blacky. Food is not always this plentiful. This new-leaf was very kind to us."

Blacky nodded. "Erm, can Echosong and Dapplefeather take me back?" He asked timidly.

"Dapplefeather can. But I'm afraid Echosong won't be able to travel with you, she's an elder and has deplorable eyesight," Cherrystar said. But Echosong was already at her side.

"Nonsense, Cherrystar. I can see to it that Blacky is taken home safely. Dapplefeather, bring that apprentice of yours, will you?" Echosong flicked her tail towards a small cavern where three small cats and one larger cat were peeking out.

"Right, Snowpaw!" She yowled.

One of the smaller cats, a white one, came barreling from the cavern. "Yes, Dapplefeather?"

"You're going to help us bring Blacky home," she told him.

Snowpaw wrinkled his nose as he looked at Blacky. "I think he needs a new name…" Snowpaw muttered.