A young gray she-cat peered across the clearing with wide blue eyes. Her gaze swept across the bodies of fallen Clanmates. She saw what was left of her Clan huddled in a corner, at the foot of a small hill. They were licking their battle wounds and grieving for the ones who'd been killed in the battle.

The young she-cat stood up on shaky paws and made her way to the cats. She stopped at one body in particular. A black and white tom, his yellow eyes already clouded and his body already stiff.

"Badger Pelt," she whispered, burying her face into her second-in command's pelt. "You would have made a great leader one day."

"Dove! Dove, what happened?" a tom's voice called. Dove glanced up to see a creamy yellow tom. She looked at her paws.

"What happened, Dove?" the tom said again, with a concerned look on his face.

"M-Marsh's Clan. A tree fell and destroyed our camp, so we came here for shelter until we could find a new one. Marsh came charging in and-and then he attacked us. H-he said that if he came back and still saw us here, he'd kill ever last one of us." Dove said, whimpering. "None of us are strong enough to travel very far, let alone search for a new camp. What are we going to do, Sun? He- he killed Badger Pelt."

"Badger Pelt. . . my only brother. . . Oh, Dove, I'm so sorry." Sun, the tom whispered. "Let me get my cats. We will stay the night here with you, and help fight off Marsh's Clan when they come."

Dove watched Sun disappear over the hill. She'd forgotten that her deputy was Sun's brother. Now they would have double the fighters for tomorrow, but none of her own warriors were strong enough to take on a kit, let alone a gang of bloodthirsty, full-grown cats. And now she was putting her friend's Clan in danger.

Dove's last worry, though was not about her or her friend's Clanmates. It may seem selfish, but she was worried about herself. She'd lost the first eight of her lives to greencough, and if she died tomorrow, she would be leaving her 'Clan' without a leader.

No time to worry about that now, she told herself. I need to get some rest.

The sun rose above the horizon. Dove sat up. She buried her face into Badger Pelt's fur once again, and padded over to Sun's Clan, she nudged the creamy yellow tom to wake him.

"Wake up," she said softly. The young gray she-cat's blue eyes were like pools of grief. It was evident that she was in no condition to fight.

"Dove," Sun said sitting up. His eyes shined in the sunlight as he looked down on his younger friend. "Whatever happens today, I want you to know that you are a great cat in my eyes. You took in my brother after Marsh cast him out, and even though you are younger than your Clanmates, you've lead them with the wisdom of the oldest members. "

"Thank you, Sun," Dove whispered. "Good luck in battle today. And if something. . . happens to me, I want you to choose my successor."

"Don't talk like that, Dove. Nothing's going to happen to you." Sun mewed calmly.

"How do you know that? I'm only just getting over greencough, prey's been scarce, and I'm still weak from the battle yesterday!" Dove hissed.

"Nice way to admit your weaknesses," a cold, chilling voice added in. Dove jumped, looking up at the huge dark gray tom perched on a branch of a nearby tree.

"Marsh," Sun growled, unsheathing his claws. "You leave Dove's Clan alone. Since when could she not bring her cats here to shelter. This territory does not belong to you. In fact, this territory isn't claimed by anyone's Clan. What makes you think you have the right to come here and say Dove can't be here?"

"Shut up, Sun Shine," Marsh growled, jumping down from the branch to face the two leaders.

"Never call me that again if you value your life," Sun hissed, stepping forward and blocking Dove from Marsh's reach. Dove watched wide eyed, like a kit watching apprentices practice battle moves in the present-day Clans.

"You will never be able to take our cats on single-pawed," Sun continued, staring Marsh straight in the eye.

"That may be so, Sun. But who said I came here by myself? ATTACK!"

At his word, many more cats jumped out of the trees hissing and spitting. Both Sun's and Dove's cats jumped to their paws and began to fight back. It was total chaos!

Dove watched as fur flew, and winced at the sound of tooth and claw meeting flesh. She snapped out of her trance when a black tom knocked her off her paws. Yelping in pain, she scrambled to bite his tail. The tom hissed with fury, and shoved his paw into her ribs.

Dove crumpled to the ground whimpering in pain. She managed to pull herself to her paws before jumping onto the tom. He threw her off without moment's hesitation, and she flew through the air, landing right on top of none other than Sun.

The creamy yellow tom had just sent a tabby she-cat from Marsh's Clan screeching away over the hill toward Marsh's territory. "Dove?" he whispered, letting the pale gray she-cat slide off of him and onto the ground, landing with a gentle thump.

"Sun. . ." she groaned sitting up.

"Come on, Dove you're in no condition to fight. I'm taking you away from here." Sun said calmly, scooping her up by the scruff.

"You're not going anywhere, you two cowards." Marsh hissed, jumping in front of them. With a massive dark gray paw, he knocked Dove out of Sun's mouth.

Dove squeaked like a kit taken from its mother. Marsh growled at her, pinning the squirming she-cat down with just one paw.

"You're weak, and you know it, don't you, Dove? You're about as weak as the bird you're named after. I eat doves for breakfast. Weak cats deserve to die."

"Stop!" Sun hissed, barreling into Marsh. "Leave her alone, you-you fiend! You don't deserve to live!"

"What would you know about who deserves what?" Marsh growled, shoving Sun out of the way.

"May be I don't know anything about that. But Dove doesn't deserve to die. She's not weak; she's the strongest cat I know. And what'd she ever do to you anyways?"

"She's populated our world with weak, good for nothing cats. In the wild, only the strongest need to survive. Dove and her weak cats take the prey that needs to go to the strong ones." Marsh snarled. Dove whimpered. The wind blew hard, and she wished he were dead already. But she knew that neither Sun nor she could kill Marsh. He was too strong.

"What do you know? How do you know that Dove is weak? Oh, that's right, she not. The sooner you learn that, the better of you'll be."

Dove watched, wide eyed. She noticed how Sun's voice never wavered as he spoke to Marsh. But there was no way he could convince Marsh not to kill cats he considered 'weak,' was there?

There was a squeak from Sun as Marsh shoved him out of his way, he scooped Dove up in his paws and tossed her into the air, catching her by her scruff.

The young gray she-cat squeaked as he dropped her, swiftly pinning her down. Her raked id claws down her exposed belly, and before Sun could stop him, he shredded her ears, too.

Writhing in pain, Dove called out to Sun. Sun whimpered, looking her straight in the eye. He launched himself onto Marsh's back, clawing and biting at him. Before Marsh could shake him off, the creamy yellow tom grabbed a hold of the dark gray tom's ear.

"Get off me, you idiot!" Marsh roared, throwing Sun off of him. He didn't let him go so quickly. Abandoning Dove, he tore after where Sun had landed. He pinned him down, and aimed a bite at his throat.

"NO!" Dove cried, scrambling to her paws and leaping onto Marsh's back, pulling him away from Sun.

"You!" Marsh snarled, surprised. "I suppose you're going to sacrifice yourself so that Sun can live? I don't think so. You are both going to-"

"Marsh!" cried the black tom that had attacked Dove at the beginning of the battle. "All of our cats have either died or run away. We have no chance of winning this battle!"

"No! My Clan shall never be beaten!"

"We can't afford to lose any more warriors!" the tom protested.

"Arg! Fine, Dark Heart." with one motion, he scooped up Dove, tossed her into the air, and let her slump to the ground in an unmoving, bloody gray heap. He leapt to the top of the hill and yowled into the air.

"RETREAT! MY WARRIORS! RETREAT!"

What was left of Marsh's cats disappeared back into their own territory.

Sun scrambled to his paws and limped over to where Dove lay. With a sickening flood of emotions, he realized what he would most likely see; Dove, that pretty young she-cat with the fluffy gray fur and the wide blue eyes, sprawled on the ground, covered in blood, dead. He moaned in grief.

"Sun," a weak voice coughed. "Sun. . . I told you something would happen to me."

"Don't speak like that, Dove. We're going to get you fixed up right away." Sun mewed gently as he moved closer to her. The young she-cat's breathing was ragged. She was really hurt.

"No, Sun. I'm dying," Dove choked out. "Watch over my Clan for me, will you?"

"No, Dove, I'm not going to let you die!" Sun cried.

"You can't control it, Sun. No one can, you know that." Dove's eyes began to cloud over. She closed them slowly, staring up at Sun.

"But Dove-"

"No, Sun. I-I can't hold on anymore." She opened her eyes, bright and blue, like the sky. They sparkled with slight amusement. "I'll say hi to Badger Pelt for you, if you'd like," she joked.

Sun's whiskers gave the very slightest twitch. "Please do," he said, choking on the words. "Dove. . . I-I'm going to miss you."

"We'll meet again, someday, I promise. Goodbye, Sun."

"G-goodbye, Dove." Sun whispered. Dove looked up at him one more time, closed her eyes, and sighed. Her tail tip twitched once; then she was still.

"DOVE!" Sun wailed. "It's all my fault. Y-you were too young to die." he whimpered.

He leapt up to the top of the hill. All of the surviving cats looked at him.

"D-Dove is dead," he said. The words came easier than he expected, but not any less devastating. "She told me that I had to choose who would succeed her, as Badger Pelt is dead, too. Dog Fang, you were Badger Pelt's son, am I correct?"

A dark brown tom stepped forward and nodded.

Sun looked at him. "Would you like to take Dove's place as your Clan's leader?"

"I-I would be honored. But I refuse to call it my Clan. Forever, until the day we are no more, I put forward that we call our group DoveClan."

There were murmurs from the audience. A young tom called out "DoveClan!" and the rest joined in.

"DOVECLAN! DOVECLAN! DOVECLAN!"

Sun watched them, and wondered what Dove thought of his choice. He'd seen how Dog Fang wanted to honor her memory. Dove would be pleased with that. As he looked up at the sky he could have sworn he saw a cat's face in the clouds. It was Dove, sending him a sign, he was sure of it.

He closed his eyes and joined in the chorus.

"DOVECLAN! DOVECLAN! DOVECLAN!"

And so, the end of young Dove's life marked a new beginning for the new Clans. For just a three day journey from the lake, a new Clan was born, soon to be followed by two others. Dove may have been young, but without her, the course of the three new Clans would have been put on a different, much more bloodthirsty path. So even though an innocent cat was murdered by the founder of the most bloodthirsty Clan, Dove was probably one of the most crucial parts in the beginning of the three Clans.

THE END