The night sky was like indigo velvet spattered with silver-white flecks, the moon like half an orb, sending light into the forest below, particularly a certain small pool. Five cats crouched at the waters edge, pelts turned silver. Fadedfur closed her eyes in reverence and touched her nose lightly to the cold water.
A chill shot through her from her nose to tail-tip. It was like ice, yet she didn't flinch. She opened her eyes and gasped softly. Before her stood StarClan, starlight highlighting their whiskers and shimmering on their pelts. She was still crouched at the waters edge at the moonpool, the other medicine cats on either side of her. She was puzzled. Why had StarClan not taken them to their forest like they usually did?
"Welcome," meowed a silvery tabby. It was Brookstar, ShadowClan's leader before Stonestar. The medicine cats stood and mewed quiet greetings. The faces of the StarClan cats were grave, sending a feeling of dread into Fadedfur's heart. StarClan would not gather all the medicine cats together unless there was a threat to all the Clans.
"I must warn you of the danger that soon you will face. Twolegs are coming to the forest with the intent to capture the Clans cats and take them away," meowed the tabby calmly. A collective gasp came from the medicine cats, Fadedfur glancing to one side at her companions.
"Brookstar, how can we stop them?" mewed Pepperpaw. The speckled black and white apprentice was young but very sharp. The she-cat closed her eyes and tilted her head back. When she spoke again it was in a whispery, rough tone.
"The forest will not be stained crimson with blood yet the Clans face slow extinction. The part-human Clan will come, bringing both danger and the means to stop it. Two will meet three and together they will persuade the sixth to save the Clans…"
Fadedfur's eyes snapped open. StarClan was gone and the others were stirring around her. They gazed at each other in horror, each of them repeating the prophecy in their minds. Slow extinction? Part-human Clan? Who was the sixth? Questions buzzed in Fadedfur's mind, yet there was no way to answer them…
She stared out the window glumly, blue eyes dull with boredom. She and her family were spending the summer at Sanctuary Cottage, volunteering to help tame the forest there. It was overrun with feral cats. Her family was going to be acting on behalf of the AFRP Trap-Neuter-Return program. They would trap the feral cats, drive them to the vet and have them fixed, then return them the next day. Her parents said it would be character-building and that it would help the family grow closer together. So far she was the only one, other then her mother and father, who was actually excited about the trip.
She glanced at her mother, who had her eyes on the road. She could hear Boney and Raja moving about restlessly in the backseat. She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed over the seat, careful not to disturb her sleeping siblings. The family owned eight cats, most of them rescued. She opened the oversized dog kennel and took out her two thirteen-week old kittens. Boney blinked at her and reached up to bat at her long golden hair. Raja squirmed from her grasp and landed on the floor. She smiled, placing Boney next to his sister. The two littermates, tails held high, began exploring the car. They were joined by their adopted sister, Jackie only minutes later. Sleepily the girl laid down, ignoring the three rambunctious kittens that had pounced on her toes and were proceeding to try and eat them. It was three in the morning and she was tired, even tired enough to sleep without a blanket. The whole long summer stretched before her. The whole long summer filled only with her eight cats and the rest of the feral forest. She smiled, closing her eyes. She couldn't wait to save those cats…