A note about this story: Before the clans-The story begins is completely original, it does not take place within the forest nor does it contain any cats from the Erin Hunters warriors series. Those cats and that world never existed in this story.

Before the clans is the first story in a five story series.

Warrior cat terms:
Moon= The time span from one full moon to the next, the equivalent of one month

Season=A rarely used term referencing an entire season(to simply say "three moons" is more common (new-leaf, green-leaf etc) the equivalent of three months, there are four seasons in a year.

I was just a kitten when I first started having the dreams, laying at my mothers belly with my brothers.

They were faint at first, like a voice whispering in my ear, calling to me and vivid images of forests, rivers and trees.

While my brothers were more concerned with one day finding homes with the humans, I always knew I wanted more for myself, I wanted to see what was out there, didn't want to venture outside only when my future housefolk allowed it.

My mother said I would grow out of those dreams, that all young kittens dreamed about the forest now and then, it was a hearkening back to our ancestors, Great wildcats that roamed the forest and hunted for their own prey, without any housefolk to guide them, and that, one way or another, all Housecats were descended from these wild cats.

But the dreams never left. Day by day, moon by moon, as I grew, so did the dreams. More vivid, more beautiful than ever. I knew that I wanted more than a simple life as a simple house cat, I wanted what the cats of the past had, before the human nests, before there were even House cats.

Eventually, I came to have a family, Housefolk who loved me, accepted me for petting whenever I wanted it and never made sure I went hungry or thirsty. I should have been happy, right?

Well, I never was. The dreams continued and the voice in my head grew louder with each dream.

I felt myself being pulled towards the forest each and every time I set paw outside.

I always wandered what it was like to live as a wild cat...

and now, I get to live my dreams.