Prologue
Snow fluttered down into the FlameClan camp, creating a frigid icy blanket beneath every cats' paws. Ravenkit shuddered as she took a step on top of the white cover over the ground, stifling a mewl of discomfort. The moon glowed startlingly bright above the lush forest.
"Mommy! Why do we have to leave?" Ravenkit whined to the cat at her side, whom was staring beyond the camp barrier.
Ravenkit's mother, Honeyblaze, gazed down at her daughter, unknown thoughts clouding her eyes. "My little Raven," she meowed solemnly. "You…You can't stay in FlameClan with me."
Ravenkit's white-tipped ears shot straight up in shock. "What? Why?" the kit mewed, sounding desperate. "I… I want to stay with you!" Her vision began to blur as tear drops formed beneath her eyes. "I love you, Mommy."
Honeyshadow's eyes bubbled up too, and she stole her gaze from her kit and glanced in the opposite direction. "I know–" Honeyshadow dipped her head in indecisive pain. "Please, just – come with me."
Ravenkit's mother gently nudged her along towards the camp entrance. Ravenkit wanted to wail in horror. Why was her mother making her leave?
As Honeyshadow padded through the forest of FlameClan, tail dragging on the snow-covered grass in sorrow, Ravenkit flanked her, numb with the cold of the wintry wind and the surprise of her sudden journey from her Clan. "Mom…" the black and white she-kit held back a plea of distress. "Where are we going?"
Honeyshadow, not glancing down at her daughter, murmured, "We're– You're going to CloudClan, to be with your father." The ginger-brown she-cat seemed to be suppressing any hints of grief – the queen was avoiding any eye contact with Ravenkit.
After several heartbeats of eerie silence, the two reached the edges of the lush FlameClan greenery. A shallow stream ran at the edge of the treeline, splitting Rvaenkit's Clan's territory from CloudClan's taller vegetation.
Ravenkit, still filled with utter shock and horror from the recent events, turned to her still mother. "Wh-What now?" she asked quietly.
Her mother's tail swished. Honeyshadow opened her mouth to speak, but before she gave a reply, another cat slipped out of the towering skinny trees on the other side of the stream. "Blackclaw." Ravenkit's mother glared over to the dark tom that had appeared, distaste rolling off her tongue.
The apparently-named Blackclaw did not return the same glare, however – he seemed more welcoming as his gaze slid from Honeyshadow to Ravenkit. "I see that you've brought my daughter," Blackclaw meowed happily.
Honeyshadow snorted. "Our daughter," she corrected. "And yes, I have." Ravenkit shifted uncomfortably from paw to paw. Her newly-found father was acting as if he was her only parent, and she had gained a sudden distrust of the tom. Regardless of her mother's behavior towards Blackclaw, she was sure that he was to blame for their falling out as mates… if being from other Clans hadn't been enough.
Honeyshadow sighed and looked down upon her daughter. "Ravenkit – You are to live with your… your father," she mewed.
Ravenkit's neck fur rose in alarm. "M-mom?"
Her mother once again stared off into the distance, away from Ravenkit. Blackclaw waded through the clear blue water. He padded up onto the shore on FlameClan's territory, his black paws dripping in water. "Come, Ravenkit," he meowed as he bent down to fasten his teeth in her scruff.
Ravenkit tried vainly to wriggle away from the powerful tom-cat's grip. Blackclaw uttered a sigh at his kit's refusal to join him, and turned back to CloudClan's territory.