Okay, so this is my first story! I hope it's alright! I'm not the best with grammar.
R&R?

I don't own any of the Warriors ideas or concepts! But I do own the the characters in this fic.

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.Prologue.

A strange prophecy came to Thornfoot as he slept.

"The sun will rise, and the shadows will fall."

In his haunting dream the Shadowclan medicine cat found himself watching the horizon from the top of a tall rock jutting out of the ground. It cast a long, lightless shadow, stretching unnaturally far. Suddenly the sun burst from the horizon. It's light was so bright Thornfoot squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the brightness. But he still saw it. Even with his eyes closed. That's when the voice whispered to him.

"The sun will rise, and the shadows will fall."

He opened his eyes and jerked around to see the long shadow of the rock shrinking quickly. He could here horrible caterwauling all around him. He recognized the voices...

"My clan!" He yowled

His eyes popped open. The medicine cat den surrounded him...He was awake, but still terrified.

After a moment of silent panic he jumped to his paws . He had to report this to Talonstar immediately!

.Chapter One.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join me for a clan meeting!!" Talonstar spoke sharply. He was so flustered he hadn't even recited the call correctly. However, the cats of Shadowclan wasted no time gathering below the large branch where Talonstar was perched.

The branch hung directly over the ShadowClan leader's den, so it took him less that a heartbeat to scramble up to it after hearing Thornfoot's news.

The calico leader looked upon his clan with worried green eyes.

"I have some bad news..." He began.
Thornfoot, also calico only much darker in color, sat directly below the branch with equally distressed eyes.
Talonstar motioned to him with his tail.

"Thornfoot has informed me of a dream Starclan has sent him. It holds an ominous meaning for the whole of Shadowclan."
A hush swept the gathered cats.
An apprentice named Willowpaw mumbled something to her friend, Dustpaw; other than that not even the sound of bramble rustling in the wind broke the silence.

"I will let Thornfoot tell you about his dream, down to every detail, and what he believes the meaning is." Talonstar leaped off the branch easily, motioning with his tail to the medicine cat, who dipped his head before bounding up to the branch.
Thronfoot recited his dream for the second time ...and when he had finished, panicked mews broke out all around him.

"Stay calm!" he yowled over the noise.

"We are Shadowclan..."
He trailed off, shooting a cautious look at Talonstar.

Thornfoot often found himself in this position.
Talonstar was his brother, the two had both achieved high positions in the clan, yet Talonstar seemed out of place as leader. Every cat could see it.

Thornfoot always seemed to be doing the major part of the leading, wether it be through advising Talonstar or just taking some of the duties upon himself at times.

The Shadowclan deputy, Sparrowbreeze, wasn't too fond of Thornfoot. The deputy always accused Thornfoot of over stepping his boundaries.
Which was often the case.
Talonstar never seemed to mind though, and would always tell Sparrowbreeze to "Lay off, he's only helping."

Thornfoot's gaze was met by an unreadable expression from the leader.

"Go on" Talonstar urged.

"We are Shadowclan!" Thornfoot yowled. "Whatever the threat, we will overcome it with teeth and claws!"
A murmur rose up among the crowd.
It was clear that every cat was uneasy, but Thornfoot's words had stroked their pride a bit.

The dark calico medicine cat leaped from the branch to stand beside the lighter version of himself, his brother, the leader, Talonstar.
The two exchanged glances just before Sparrowbreeze approached them with anger in his light blue eyes.

"Talonstar! What do you propose we do about this dream!?"
Thornfoot began to speak but a sharp jerk of Sparrowbreeze's tail silenced him.

"We will wait and see...but we will also prepare." Talonstar mewed, a bit quietly."What else can we do?"

"Should we mention it at the gathering?" Thornfoot asked. Almost absent minded.
The three cats stared at each other for a moment.
Thornfoot came up with the answer to his own question in this moment of silence.

"No!" Sparrowbreeze half-yowled. "It doesn't concern any other clan."

"I agree" Talonstar mewed.

"Sorry, dumb question." Thornfoot said as he dipped his head to Talonstar and turned to pad away.
He made his way toward the nursery to inform Cottontail, a white and brown colored queen, of the news of his dream.
He knew she would probably have been busy with her wily kits, and would not of paid attention to the meeting.

He usually wouldn't have taken the extra trip and wouldn't even of thought to, but he wanted to see the queen and the kittens.
Even with the scare of his dream, he had been looking forward to it.
For Cottontail was his mate, and the kits were his.

It was of course forbidden for a medicine cat to have a mate, he knew. The clan had no idea who the father was and Cottontail made it very clear that she would not say. There was much speculation, but thankfully none had pointed to him.

The two cats loved each other, and Thornfoot often found himself thinking that no curse from Starclan could rip them apart.
He didn't worry about the wrath of Starclan as much as any other cat in his situation might.
He felt a certain closeness with the warrior ancestors, and felt that they had allowed him to fall in love and have kits without consequence.

Cottontail was half way out the nursery when he arrived.
Their eyes met and Thornfoot knew instantly that something was wrong...

"Thornfoot!" the snow-white queen mewed breathlessly. "Robinkit and Eaglekit are gone!"
Dawnfur, a dark-gray warrior who had been standing near by, looked over at the panicked queen and the medicine cat.

"What?" the dark gray she-cat muttered as she padded toward them.

"My kits are gone!" Cottontail shrieked.

"All of them?" ...the new voice startled all three of the gathered cats.
Thornfoot turned slowly to see Whitetail standing not a fox length behind him.

Whitetail was a white and gray warrior with a chip on his shoulder. He had always been a bit arrogant, and he and Thornfoot had never got on well.

"Not Stormkit." Cottontail replied. "But that little rascal won't tell me where Robinkit and Eaglekit have gone!"

"Calm down." Thronfoot mewed in a gentle tone. "They probably just ran off somewhere looking for adventure. They will not have gotten far."

Dawnpelt eyed Thornfoot, then turned her yellow gaze on Cottontail. "What happened? did you just turn around and they were gone?"

The white queen stared at her paws. "I...I dozed off. I didn't mean to!"
Dawnpelt looked a bit ashamed, she hadn't meant to further upset Cottontail.

"I'll go alert Talonstar so he can begin organizing patrols. I'm sure those noisy kits will be easy to find." Whitetail had a smugness about him as he began to turn and pad away toward Talonstar's den.

Suddenly the white and gray warrior stopped and turned to face Thornfoot once more.

"Or should I just let you organize the patrols...Thornfoot."

The words caught Thornfoot off guard.

"What do you mean?" He mewed, he was a bit irritated to find that his voice shook a little as he said this.

"You do most of the leading anyway, why should I even bother going to Talonstar when I know the final decision will be made by you?"
Whitetail's words were like a badgers claws, slicing Thornfoot all the way through.

"There's no time for this!" Cottontail shrieked. "We have to find my kits before hawks swoop down and carry them off!"

"Go alert Talonstar." Thornfoot mewed a bit darkly.
Whitetail went, as smug as ever.