Disclaimer I own none of the characters or the Warriors series.
A/N Most of the prologue is taken from the book Sunset and has been changed around a little bit. This is for the prologue only.
Prologue
A brown tabby cat padded toward the lake. He saw a thrush on the ground, dragging out a worm. He hadn't eaten that morning, so he dropped into the hunter's crouch. In the same heartbeat something heavy crashed down on him, sending him tumbling over. He let out a yowl of alarm and the thrush took off with a loud stuttering cry. Flipping over to face his attacker, the tabby stared up at his brother, who was gazing down at him with a glimmer of amusement in his ice blue eyes.
"Do you mind?" the tabby spat. "Do you want every cat in ThunderClan to know you're here, Hawkfrost?"
Hawkfrost shrugged. "It doesn't matter, Brambleclaw. I'm allowed here as long as I stay close to the lake."
Brambleclaw scrambled to his paws and smoothed his ruffled fur with a couple of licks. Hawkfrost was right, but he would still have some explaining to do if any of his Clanmates spotted him talking to his half brother. He wished he had Hawkfrost's confidence, but he reminded himself that he was Clan deputy, and the RiverClan warrior's equal in every way.
"Come into the ferns," he meowed, flicking his tail to beckon Hawkfrost.
As they talked, Brambleclaw heard a faint cry. "What was that?"
Hawkfrost shrugged. "Some unlucky bit of prey."
The cry came again. "No!" Brambleclaw exclaimed. There's a cat in trouble. Come on!"
He dove out of the ferns and pelted along the shore in the direction of the cry. It came again, closer but fainter, a horrible choking sound. Brambleclaw leaped across the roots of a tree and found himself face-to-face with Firestar.
The ThunderClan leader lay on his side on a narrow path between two close-growing ferns. His limbs jerked feebly and his eyes gazed at nothing. Foam flecked his muzzle. Around his neck, half buried in his flame-colored fur, was a thin, shiny tendril, leading to a stick driven into the earth. Firestar was caught in a fox trap!
Brambleclaw leaped forward to help him, only to be thrust aside by Hawkfrost's powerful shoulder.
"Mousebrain!" the RiverClan warrior hissed. "This is your chance, Brambleclaw. You're deputy now. If Firestar dies, you'll be Clan leader."
Brambleclaw stared at him in astonishment. What is he telling me to do? Then he realized that Firestar was trying to speak.
"Birchpaw told me... Blackstar waiting on our territory... Had to come alone..."
Hawkfrost's eyes gleamed with triumph as he padded across to Firestar and bent down to whisper in his ear. "But Blackstar isn't here. We are. You're a fool, Firestar. You were too easy to trap."
"You did this," Brambleclaw said to his half brother. "You arranged for Firestar to be here, where there was a fox trap."
"Of course," Hawkfrost sounded scornful. "I did it for you."
Firestar's gaze flickered from Hawkfrost to Brambleclaw then back again. The deputy could see that unless he loosened the wire right away, his leader would lose a life, perhaps more.
Hawkfrost stepped back. "The brave ThunderClan leader," he sneered. "Not so powerful now, are you? Come on, Brambleclaw, finish him off."
Brambleclaw felt as though his paws were frozen to the bare earth. Every hair on his pelt stood on end as he heard his father whispering in his ear: Kill him. No cat will know. You can be Clan leader. You can have everything you have ever wanted.
He staggered as Hawkfrost gave him a vicious nudge, his tail lashing angrily. "What are you waiting for? This is what we have wanted all along, remember? Kill him now!"