Chapter One

Darkness. That was all Snow could see before she landed at the bottom of the seemingly endless abyss she had fallen into, the opening of the hole having long disappeared from her sight. She thought she had died but instead she found herself on dirt.

"Was it all just a dream?" she thought. "No," she shook the thought from her head, "It couldn't have been." The rush of adrenaline from her drop felt all too real. She opened her shining aquamarine eyes to find that she wasn't in the same forest anymore. She was in the middle of a clearing encircled by thorny, dark bushes. The area outside the clearing was shrouded in a thick mist, but she could see enough to know that she was in a forest. She looked up expecting to see a speckle of stars across the sky but she found nothing. The only source of light was the scarlet moon that hung in the sky. It seemed glare down at her, as if she had done something to provoke its angry gaze.

The atmosphere seemed to have a sense of loneliness and despair and made Snow's stomach cringe.

"Am I dead?" She quickly lifted a paw to her chest and to her relief, her heart was steadily beating in her chest.

"Okay then, so I'm not dead, and I wasn't dreaming. So where am I?"

"What are you doing here?"

Startled, Snow leaped to her paws and whipped around to find a muscular, mackerel-striped, tabby tom cat. He also had a snow white underbelly and pale icy blue eyes. And he didn't look very happy. Snow was tiny compared to him, even if they were the same age. Snow gulped nervously, as she had forgotten to check if she was in another cat's territory.

"I-I'm sorry if I was trespassing in your territory," she quickly said, "I'll leave right away!" She continued to back away slowly, hoping to get a head start in the possible chase afterwards.

Meanwhile, the tom was trying to figure out what this pure white she-cat was doing here. He hadn't willed her to be here, and she didn't seem to know who he was or where she was, so the possibility that she had wanted be here was out of the question. The chance that she had died and come here was unlikely, as she didn't look like the type to commit any crimes or break the Warrior Code.

"You shouldn't be here." He hissed.

Snow froze in place and her eyes immediately filled with fear.

Quicker than the eye could blink, the tom had pinned her to the ground and had already raised a paw to deal a killing blow. Snow flailed wildly and somehow managed to throw the tom off of her. He flew into the bushes, and she scrambled to her feet, lunging over the bushes without so much a look over her shoulder.

She darted behind a tree and took a moment to slow her breathing. The forest around her was too quiet, which could only mean that the tom was somewhere nearby. Suddenly, said cat leapt out of the fog and Snow quickly jumped out the way, the tom's claws raking against her shoulder. Snow hissed in pain and kicked dirt in the tom's eyes. He blindly lashed out, barely missing her ears. While he was still disoriented, she took the chance to run away. Her leg screamed at her to stop running, but she knew that if she did, the tom would be able to do whatever he wanted to her.

As she ran deeper into the forest, the fog only seemed to grow thicker. Suddenly, a tree popped into Snow's line of vision. She attempted to slow down, but ended up slamming her back into the tree. Her attempts to get up sent pain pulsing through her shoulder. Instead, she pressed herself against the tree to make herself look smaller.

The tom's figure appeared in the fog and got bigger and bigger as he drew near to her. Her heart sped up and it felt like it was ready to jump out her chest.

"Do you not know where you are?" the tom pressed as his features became clearer and clearer. Snow frantically shook her head in response, too scared to actually speak.

"You're in the Dark Forest," he growled, "There is no leaving here."

The tom lunged at her, and Snow darted under his belly and continued to run in the same direction, hoping that he was wrong. The fog began to thin out as she reached what she assumed was the edge of the forest. A gigantic wall of thorns loomed in the distance, but she was determined not to let that stop her. To her surprise, part of the wall fell away, as if it could somehow sense her presence.

At the moment, Snow didn't care why the wall opened up, she just wanted get out whatever this place was. The tom wasn't far behind her, though.

"Have to keep running," she thought. For a few moments, the two were charging blindly through pure darkness that seemed stretch on in all directions. Finally, a light appeared. Invigorated by the promise of escape from the seemingly never-ending blackness, she put on a surge of speed and burst into a grassy landscape.

As soon as she had reached the grass, however, the tom had reached her and tackled her. Snow was smart enough to know what would happen to her if he ended up on top, so she turned his weight against himself and pinned. She snarled at him and threateningly unsheathed her claws.

"Impressive for someone whose parents never taught her how to fight." said the tom with an amused look on his face. Snow gasped and clambered of the tom before saying, "Who are you?"

"My name is Hawkfrost."