Prologue

A pained yowl in the nursery split through the air. The blue-silver and white furred queen gasped as a spasm shook her body. My kits! They're coming!

The medicine cat, a lithe tom with a gray pelt, rushed in through the bramble entrance. He stroked her belly, and felt a double heartbeat. "You're doing fine, Silverwing. You have two kits." Silverwing gasped again, and a ripple passed through her body. "It's nearly time. The first kit will come any moment now." The medicine cat told her.

Another spasm grasped her, then a powerful ripple. A few heartbeats later, Silverwing tensed, and a dark bundle slid out onto the soft bedding of moss. The medicine cat grabbed it and gently dropped it at a light brown queen's paws. "Lick," he meowed briskly. The queen obeyed, and began warming the kit.

A third ripple passed down her body, and a second kit slid out. Its black shape was small and thin, and it looked very weak. Its mother gasped. "It feels so cold… and it's not breathing! Oh, Rainfall, is it dead?"

Rainfall quickly started rubbing its fur to warm it up. "Not if I can help it," he growled. After what seemed like moons, the tiny black kit let out a faint mew. Silverwing nudged her kits closer and they began to suckle.

"A tom and a she-cat," Rainfall announced. "Welcome to ThunderClan, young kits."

"They're beautiful," Silverwing purred.

"Can I see them?" a voice squeaked.

"Jaykit, get back here now!" a third queen, Jaykit's mother, meowed sternly. "Go outside and play with your littermates if you must, and give Silverwing's kits some peace."

Rainfall let out a mrrow of laughter, and turned to Silverwing. "Have you chosen their names?" he mewed.

"The tom almost has the color of a sky after sundown and twilight. A bit like his father, Shadefur. I think I'll call him Duskkit. And the she-kit is almost entirely black, except that white tuft of fur above her eyes. If you look closely, it looks a little like the shrinking moon. This kit shall be known as… Crescentkit."

Frost sparkled on the rocks, the grass, and the trees. All was quiet outside the clearing, even the crickets and prey. A towering rock stood in the middle. Half rusty-red. Half gray-blue. At the foot of the rock, a starry golden cat emerged from a small cave. Faint sounds of steady breathing coming from bushes and bramble thickets indicated the presence of sleeping cats. The cat leaped up to the top of the rock. He closed his eyes and felt the wind ruffle his fur, enjoying the peace and calm of the night under the crescent moon. A few heartbeats later, a beautiful silver she-cat climbed up to join him.

"Is something bothering you?" she inquired.

The golden tom shook his head. "Just enjoying the peace and quiet here."

The silver cat tipped her head to one side, her gaze questioning. "It's not like you to just come out here in the middle of the night. You can enjoy yourself in your own den. So, what's the problem? I'm your medicine cat; I can help you."

The tom sighed. "It seems so… safe here. Yet we found two of our warriors dead in a quarter moon, lying in a pool of their own blood, deep gashes in their throats. We're having more trouble with the Place of No Stars than ever thought possible. I thought these borders were safe. I was always taught as a kit and apprentice that it is nearly impossible for anyone, even StarClan, to find our hunting grounds, and that no cat stumbles upon this place twice. Was that not true?"

The medicine cat laid her tail on the tom's flank reassuringly. "I'm sure it's true, however, the Dark Forest cats seem to have found a way around our borders. But we'll find a way to fix it, I am sure. Were you planning to visit the Cave of Blazing Ice for guidance?"

"Perhaps I should. Many more of us will be lost to the Dark Forest if we don't act soon," the leader meowed in defeat.

The silver she-cat did not reply instantly. She looked up at the stars with a sigh. Suddenly, she gasped.

"What is it?" the golden cat hissed, startled. "Do you scent intruders?"

"It's a sign from our ancestors…" the medicine cat whispered. "Do you see the moon? There seems to be stars around it, in the shape of a cat's head. It towers high, directly over our forest, like a Clan leader looking down on his Clan from the top of the Sun-moon Rock. But the moon is tainted with blood. Wait... the stars seem to be glowing brighter! And the blood is washed away, and though the sky becomes darker, the moon shines as white as ever, if not more…"

"What does it mean?" the tom leaned in closer, his mew barely audible.

The silver medicine cat closed her eyes. "A cat as dark as night, marked with the sign of the claw-shaped moon, shall be the one destined to decide the fate of our Clan. A terrible choice shall be made, but the death that will follow results in a victorious future for moons to come."

Okay it's just a coincidence that the medicine cat and Crescentkit's mother's names both begin with 'Silver'. That wasn't intentional