The Code of the Messengers

by Amasis Isis-Ra

This is the first field guide from The Chronicles of the Messengers. This story is to show how the six Warrior Clans came up with the Messenger Code that they must always follow.

1. The Beginning of the Clans

The Beginning of the Clans

Many moons ago, a large group of cats settled in the dense woodland just off the Great Russian city of Moscow. Some were HouseCats interested by the idea of exploring beyond their owner's yards. Others were born and raised in the wild by cats who knew how to catch their own prey and how to find shelter in the freezing nights of winter.

The woodland with the fast running river, proved to be a good territory for the cats. There was enough shelter for every cat, enough prey to feed them all, and the freedom to hunt among the trees, on the moor, and along the river.

The cats began to settle depending on their ideas of hunting and prey. Those that ate fish stayed mostly along the riverbanks, making their dens along the reeds and twisted willow roots. Those that pounced mice stayed in the densest trees, perfecting their leaps among the undergrowth. The bird eaters made their dens along the collection of rocks. The rabbit-chasers kept to the open moors not far from the bird-eaters. Then there were two different groups that ate a mixture of woodland creatures, however they had different ways of hunting.

There were no borders at first, and within each hunting ground, the cats lived separately, meeting only as they went in pursuit of the same prey. More times than not, the cats clashed over a piece of prey or a good area for a den, but battles between large numbers of cats were unheard of.

Then a time came when prey was scarce, and there were more mouths to feed and more bodies to shelter in each hunting ground. Battles began to break out, just a few cats in the beginning, but more and more until hunting ground fought hunting ground, fighting for survival, not just for themselves, but also for the cats that lived alongside them. After a terrible battle, when the ground and water of Gathering Island turned red with blood, the spirits of the dead cats came back to plead for peace with the strongest cats from each hunting ground: Cloudnight, Skystone, Waterfall, Leafsong, Lightblast, and Sunspot.

The six vowed to their fallen companions that they would find a way to put an end to the fighting, to live in their separate hunting grounds in groups that would reserve each territory for moons to come.