A/N: Has anyone noticed how absolutely enormous ThunderClan has grown by A Vision of Shadows? I have, and I've decided to write a fanfiction about it. It's set after A Vision of Shadows so if you haven't read the latest book, do be wary of spoilers. I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One

Featherfrost emerged from the apprentices' den, fluffing her silver-and-white tabby fur out against a chill that hinted at the end of greenleaf. Already the leaves of ThunderClan's great oaks were turning red and brown and gold and were drifting into the hollow. Soon it would be leaf-fall, and the forest would no longer be as rich in prey as it was now. She had to make sure the Clan was well-fed before that happened.

Suddenly something hurtled into her. Featherfrost's fur instinctively bristled, but she forced it to lay flat when she saw it was only Leopardkit.

"Sorry!" Leopardkit squeaked. "I didn't mean to run into you. I was just chasing this mouse," she added, flicking her tail towards the dusty piece of fresh-kill beside her.

Featherfrost blinked disapprovingly down at the spotted she-kit. "You really shouldn't play with your food," she began, but Leopardkit had already scampered away with the mouse in her jaws.

Featherfrost sighed. It was only dawn and half of ThunderClan was still asleep, but there were now so many cats in the Clan that it was impossible not to tread on each other's paws. It had been big enough already, but a few moons ago they were approached by Leopardkit's mother, a kittypet named Bella, who had fled her Twolegs fearing they were planning to drown her kits. She was desperate and of course the ThunderClan leader, Bramblestar, would never turn kits away to their deaths, so he took her in – despite the fact that she could neither fight nor hunt, Featherfrost soon noticed. In fact, like Daisy – the other queen in the nursery - all Bella seemed to do was laze around camp, eating the prey that the warriors had caught.

The rogues joined ThunderClan after. They were a bit better, Featherfrost supposed, because they could hunt and they could certainly fight. The problem was that they had no respect for the warrior code. They often disobeyed Bramblestar and a few times she'd noticed the rogues eating their kills when hunting instead of bringing it back to the Clan first. Featherfrost had told Bramblestar about it, but he seemed unbothered. "They aren't Clanborn," he had told her. "You need to give them time to settle in to our ways." Featherfrost had simply dipped her head, but privately she didn't think the rogues would ever settle in to Clan life.

Rustling from the thorn tunnel snapped Featherfrost from her thoughts. A few heartbeats later, the dawn patrol came scrambling through the camp entrance.

It didn't take long to notice that something was wrong. Birchfall, who had led the patrol, made his way immediately to Bramblestar's den, and everyone else's fur was standing slightly on end. Lionfur, a pale ginger tom who'd been on patrol, looked exhausted as he dragged his paws to the fresh-kill pile.

Featherfrost bounded over to him. "Are you OK, Lionfur? What's happened?"

"I'll tell you in a moment," Lionfur meowed wearily as he pawed through the meagre fresh-kill pile. "I've been up since before sunrise and I'm hungry. Great StarClan, where is all the prey?" he added, his tail flicking irritably. "It's greenleaf. There was a hunting patrol yesterday at sunset!"

Lionfur glared pointedly at Raven and Roach, two rogues who had been on the hunting patrol. The rogues met his gaze and their eyes glittered as if daring Lionfur to challenge them.

"Yes, there was a hunting patrol yesterday," Roach said calmly after a few moments. "And we hunted."

Yes, Featherfrost thought accusingly, but you didn't bring all the prey you hunted back to camp!

Both Featherfrost and Lionfur turned their gazes to Bella a few tail-lengths away, who was sharing a fat wood pigeon with Leopardkit and the rest of her kits. She looked up from her meal when she noticed Featherfrost and Lionfur staring at her before swiping her tongue around her jaws.

"What are you two looking at?" the kittypet meowed defiantly, as if she could read their minds. "My kits need to eat."

Featherfrost looked away. It was true her kits needed to eat. But she noticed that the mouse Leopardkit had been playing with lay uneaten a few tail-lengths away from them, half-covered in dust and dirt.

"Great catch!" Featherfrost mewed as Lionfur brought down a pigeon.

Lionfur snapped its neck in one swift bite. "I just hope it's enough," he said grimly through a mouthful of feathers.

The two warriors padded through the ThunderClan woods, Lionfur's pelt blending in with the leaves that crunched underpaw. Late greenleaf sunlight danced in dapples on the forest floor and turned Lionfur's pale ginger pelt to flame. All around them Featherfrost could smell the musky scent of rotting leaves and, beneath that, prey growing fat on nuts and seeds and forest berries.

They had decided to go hunting since the fresh-kill pile was so small, and Lionfur was clearly in a foul mood about it. And it isn't hard to see why, Featherfrost thought. Lionfur had come back from an early morning on the dawn patrol expecting a good meal and a warm nest. Now he was out in the forest again, having to hunt for his meal because the rogues and kittypets had eaten – or wasted – all of the food. He hasn't even been able to eat during the border patrol, because of whatever had happened there.

"I hope it's enough too," Featherfrost meowed in agreement. "StarClan knows there certainly isn't enough space. I can't believe I'm a warrior and I'm having to sleep in the apprentices' den because there isn't enough room to sleep with the warriors! What's the point of becoming a warrior when you're treated like an apprentice in everything but name?"

Lionfur gave a grunt of agreement. "I'm worried, Featherfrost. About the future of ThunderClan. We're struggling to feed everyone now, and it's still greenleaf. What's going to happen when leaf-bare eventually comes, when there's hardly any prey running in the forest and the fresh-kill we do manage to catch is barely a mouthful? Will Bramblestar continue to do nothing when the kittypets in the Clan are wasteful with food, because they've never seen the struggles that leaf-bare brings? Are we going to do nothing when the rogues eat our precious prey out in the forest, whilst ThunderClan kits and elders starve in camp?"

Suddenly Lionfur stopped and put his kill down. "And that's not all. The border patrol today…"

Featherfrost stopped, too. It was warmer now the sun had risen above the treetops but all Featherfrost could feel was dread cold as snowmelt as she waited for Lionfur to speak. Her silver fur prickled anxiously.

"ShadowClan scent, everywhere," he said at last. "Trees and rocks marked. Blood and fur and feathers where they've tried to catch ThunderClan prey. Prey-bones left where they have caught prey. It was such a state you might have guessed a dog had been there, if it weren't for the overwhelming stench of ShadowClan."

Featherfrost's heart sank. "Perhaps some apprentices snuck out and crossed the border…"

"And why would apprentices leave scent markers and prey-bones out for ThunderClan to find, if they were sneaking out?"

Featherfrost knew he was right, but she didn't want to believe it. "Was it close to the ThunderClan and ShadowClan border? Maybe – maybe it was an accident, and they set the border markers too far, or they chased some prey over the border, or…"

Lionfur snorted. "And hedgehogs fly! No, it was too far from the border for it to be an accident, though not that far. Far enough to suggest ShadowClan are trying to expand their territory."

"Great StarClan," she said despairingly, "that's the last thing we need. ThunderClan is so big we barely have enough prey for ourselves. How in StarClan would we survive if we gave a chunk of our territory to another Clan?" She looked desperately at Lionfur with pale blue eyes. "We have to do something, Lionfur. Not about ShadowClan – Bramblestar can't ignore that – but about ThunderClan. There are too many mouths to feed, and not enough prey or hunters to feed them. I don't want to live in a Clan where we struggle because there are too many cats and half of them are rogues and kittypets. I want…"

I want to have your kits, she was going to say before she stopped herself. I want to have your kits but I can't have them if there isn't enough food for them to eat. Featherfrost kept the thought to herself. She knew Lionfur was fond of her, but she didn't know whether he felt strongly enough about her to become a father.

"I want to speak with Bramblestar," she said finally.

Lionfur flicked his tail dismissively. "Hedgehogs will fly before he listens to you, Featherfrost," he growled. "He didn't do anything when you told him how the rogues were breaking the warrior code. Why would he do anything now?"

"I don't know, Lionfur," Featherfrost admitted. "Maybe he'll listen now that leaf-fall is nearly here, or now that ShadowClan is scouting for more territory. Or maybe you're right, and he'll just dismiss me again. Only StarClan knows. But I have to try."

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'm accepting submissions for Bella's kits (I really do hate making OCs) so feel free to send me OCs. Stay alert for the next chapter!