The black she-cat crouched, preparing to pounce on a piece of prey. Behind her, she heard paw steps, crunching through the leaves. She whirled around as the prey fled, to see a faded white warrior.
"Cloudtail!" She hissed, "Can't you see I'm busy?"
Cloudtail dipped his head apologetically, and took another step forward.
"Sorry to bother you, Birdcry. But we really do need to have a gathering."
Birdcry flicked her tail impatiently, a growl rising in her throat.
"StarClan have no Gatherings! I thought you would know that by now!"
A third cat slipped into the clearing, and sat with them, casually licking her chest fur. Birdcrys growl rose to a snarl.
"Mothstar. How dare you join me here. I thought you were in a different place.. a path much… darker."
Mothstar stopped licking, and she too began to talk.
"Birdcry, I know I went down the wrong path. StarClan have forgiven me, just like they have forgiven you."
"What I did was right, I was saving my clan!"
"Hm. Murdering cats to save our clan? I think not."
Cloudtail stepped between them, tail lashing.
"Calm down! We're in StarClan now, we share borders! No more blood shall be spilled!"
The she-cats forced their fur to lay flat, and once again, they settled to the ground.
"I have called a gathering, I sent Brightheart to fetch the others, they will be here soon."
Sure enough, one cat after another flooded into the clearing. Ancient ThunderClan, to EclipseClan. Everycat was there. Well, everycat who still lived in StarClan.
Mothstar rose to her feet, and padded to the fallen tree in the middle of EclipseClan territory, and yowled out a sentence dreaded by every heart in StarClan.
"Cats of the wild!" She yowled, "I am here to deliver a prophecy!"
—
"There will be four cats, three unknown, Who will go the path of which they're shown.
The path of light, the path of death, the path love, and the path of perish."