Chapter One

Exile

Rage flared in my chest as if a fire ignited in my heart, sending waves of spite and animosity coursing through my veins. My glaring green gaze watched as three cats sulked up to the High Ledge where /he/ perched, the three settling below him with solemn eyes, appearing anything but eager for one of the most important things one could accomplish before they joined the ranks of StarClan. Those three were becoming warriors, but the remorseful look they owned suggested they wished they never passed their assessment.

I didn't blame them.

"Thistlepaw," the leader grumbled, dark gray tabby fur ruffled by the breeze, "You have trained hard to become a kit- warrior, so I shall name you Thistlefeather."

Thistlefeather's eyes dropped to his golden paws, gaze glinting as he received his warrior name. By the way his ringed, spiky-furred tail lashed, I assumed he experienced the same loathsome feeling that welled in my chest, perhaps with even a worse spark of fury. However, the golden tomcat simply bowed his head.

"Thank you, Stormstar," he nodded curtly.

"The other... golden cat, come here," the gray cat instructed and squinted his yellow eyes.

The two felines ready to earn a warrior's status exchanged a green-eyed glance of uncertainty, eyes briefly flickering over each other's identical, sun-colored pelts dappled with darker gold.

"Er," meowed one of them, twitching her right ear, her soft voice barely carrying to me. I could tell the two apart easily enough; their voices contrasting greatly from each other. The one who had spoken was Featherpaw, who I considered my best friend. The golden she-cat cleared her throat and asked in a stronger, louder call, "Which one of us, Stormstar?"

"I don't care," snapped the leader harshly, thrashing his long tail. Disinterest and boredom owned a large grasp on his expression. He obviously wanted to get back to sulking in his den. "You. Whatever your name is. Come here."

I needed to bite my tongue to keep myself from insulting Stormstar. How dare he be so disrespectful to a warrior that he was naming? And not only that, my best friend! But it wasn't as if naming took him so much energy. I scowled. He'd better not give her that name, I thought as I unsheathed my claws and dug them into the earth.

Tentatively, Featherpaw stepped forward, glancing at me, her eyes reflecting a mixture of unhappiness, resentment, indecision, and a silent plea for help. I attempted to encourage her, nodding. Surely Stormstar still possessed enough sense not to give her the name that sparked so much anger in the cats of ThunderClan for so long. She was safe from that name.

"Featherpaw, you have trained hard to become a warrior. Probably not, but whatever. Your name shall be," the tomcat paused, pondering a name suiting for the golden she-cat, "Featherfeather."

A snarl escaped my maw as fury encased my mind. I leaped to my paws and dashed beside Featherpaw. I angled my head up at him, lip curled. "What is wrong with you? Featherfeather isn't going to be her name, you piece of fox-dung!"

"Tinypaw!" Featherpaw hissed under her breath as shock rippled through the gathered felines.

I shot a glance at her before glaring back up at the gray leader, who flatted his ears against his head and barred his fangs, fur bristling. "Filthy apprentice, so disrespectful to me!" he yowled, voice breaking off.

"Yeah, no. I'm not going to show respect for a lousy, uncaring leader who mopes in his den all day," I huffed, eyes narrow slits, "You're demented, Stormstar, you don't have a right to be serving our Clan."

That seemed to catch the gray tomcat off guard, as well as the rest of Clan by the sounds of the gasps erupting behind me. Though, Stormstar's eyes remained empty and apathetic. His confidence seemed to waver by my audacious remark; however the leader snarled once and lashed his tail. After an awkward silence settled over the audience, Stormstar hissed once more. "You're bound to camp for the next moon, cleaning out the Elder's den."

I snorted. "No."

The tom paused, seemingly uncertain how to answer my concise answer. After closing his jaw, and then opening it again, he announced harshly, "You'll never be warrior."

"Don't want to while your leading this Clan," I spat.

"You don't deserve to be one whether I'm leader or not!"

"Coming from the cat who fell out of the crazy tree and hit his head on every branch on the way day." I took a threatening step towards the boulder he perched on.

Stormstar lunged from High Ledge, paws thudding on the ground just a tail-length from where I crouched down, in a pouncing posture. We stood nose to nose, narrowed eyes locked, muscles bunched and fur bristling, seemingly unaware of our Clan mates staring wide-eyed around us.

"Get out of my Clan." Stormstar hissed. "And don't come back."

"Woah, Stormstar, I understand Tinypaw's being rude, but that's a little unfair to him!" a cat yowled from the very front, and I jerked my head to lay my eyes upon a semi-new warrior named Brightfeather, her voice firm yet subtly suggestive.

A few murmurs of agreement rang out. I recognized a few of the mingling voices, such as my fellow apprentices Featherpaw and Foxpaw, some warriors like Thornfeather and even my brother Darkpaw, but I kept my gaze fixed on the leader, barely paying them any attention as I focused my built up rage on the gray tom.

The ThunderClan leader peered at the tortoiseshell she-cat who spoke first, blinking once before sweeping his gaze across the gathered felines and then spitting furiously. "You can go with him," offered Stormstar in a growl, pausing briefly before hardening his tone and snarling, and thundering back to his den.

A shocked silence fell over ThunderClan camp, my heart thudding like paw steps in my chest the only noise I noticed. I waited for the deputy to step up, or at least a senior warrior to provide directions to us, but not a single cat raised his voice to shatter the quiet air that settled after the quarrel. I didn't really care. Instead, I twitched my whiskers, turned, and trotted towards the camp exit.

I wasn't going to take that anymore.

Shriveled, brown grass bent beneath my paws as I perambulated around my Clan mates, I uncaring to any of the gazes that followed. The frigid breeze rustled through the barren branches circling around the camp's clearing, sending chills down my back and causing my dark hair to stand on end.

"Wait!" a soft voice called, Featherpaw's.

I didn't wait.

I didn't stop.

I was done with this ThunderClan leader drama foxdung.

"Tinypaw, I'm coming with you," a different cat meowed, my brother, and the shuffle of feet on ground followed. "Can't let my cute little kin wander around in the forest on his own, now, can I?"

I only huffed out a puff of air.

"I'm coming too," Featherpaw sighed just before I reached the bramble barrier.

A ginger tomcat standing on the edge of the group flicked his bushy tail and bounded up, "Foxpaw's coming too!"

"You're fools for this," I muttered, quickening my pace.

I pretending not to notice them despite the length we traveled away from our camp, nearing the outskirts of our territory. Leaves and snow crunched under our paws as we steadily sauntered through the dead undergrowth and meandering branches reaching out like claws and snagging our pelt. I simply focused on my own shadow as it flickered over the ground, the cold sun its maker. Maybe if I ran far enough, these mouse-brains would give up and go back to amp.

I was wrong, of course.

I stubbornly ignored the group behind me, even as I made a snap decision to go to the Moonpool. My paws slipping on the wet snow-covered rocks, I climbed up the trail the medicine cats took every half-moon. Where else was I supposed to go? ShadowClan?

The group of cats followed me with silent determination. For all I cared, they weren't there.

Once we arrived, I my heart skipped a beat; I dismayed to find that the hallowed pond was frozen over. I foolishly assumed that the water in the Moonpool had special qualities so it wouldn't solidify. Wrong, again.

I shivered, and finally glanced back at the others. They gazed at me, their eyes glazed with exhaustion, but I could tell that they would follow me to the ends of the Earth.

The thought didn't make me comfortable.

"Well," Featherpaw tested, flicking snow off of her paws. "Are you following some sort of plan, or are you just playing it by ear?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I grumbled in reply, sitting down on the cold ground and lashing my tail.

"We –we could join another Clan!" suggested Foxpaw as he curiously nosed a few pebbles lying at the edge of the rigid walls.

The others instantly shot his idea down, Darkpaw the rowdiest. "We're ThunderClan cats through and through!"

"Not anymore," Foxpaw countered. "In case you don't quite realize what we did back there, we left ThunderClan. Forever. Now, like Tinypaw says, we need to make a plan. I say we join another Clan."

"No," I told him dryly. "I'm not going back to a Clan."

"We could go to the mountains," suggested Featherpaw. "The Tribe might take us in."

"Yeah, I'm also secretly a mouse," Foxpaw sniffed, waggling his hindquarters. "Looks delicious, don't it?"

"Yeah, delicious as foxdung," Darkpaw commented wryly, green eyes narrowed against his black fur. "Now I say we just go to the mountains, see what happens. Maybe the Tribe wants us, maybe they don't. Whatever."

I snorted in agreement, but remained silent otherwise.

"Foxdung's gonna look pretty tasty when we're starving and cold up in the mountains. Of course, if we resort to eating each other instead of the foxdung option, I'll be the first to go due to my scrumptious tail. That's not right, Darkpaw."Foxpaw flicked his tail.

"Let's just go to the mountains." Featherpaw stepped in between the two felines before they could argue. "If we can't stand it, we'll know by the first sunrise and then come back down. We'll be loners, together."

Assuming the group reached a somewhat agreement, I muttered, "As far as I remember from elders' tales, we'll have to cross WindClan territory on our way to the mountains."

"Eh," Foxpaw sighed, "I guess it'll be okay. Just don't eat me."

"So, mountains it is, then," Darkpaw announced.

We nodded.

Amber's Note

This was co-authored with the wonderful Coqui's Song. Interesting, really, since I wrote one paragraph, sent it to her, she wrote one and sent it to me. And then, we stopped for like a month, and finished it in about three days. Writing comes in spurts, I s'pose. Anyways, meow to you and have a nice day.