A/N: My second Warriors fanfic, and it's a LOT shorter than my first (At least, I'm planning to make it shorter). Thanks for reading! Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors; the two authors of the Warriors series—Erin Hunter—own them. Constructive criticism is welcome, and PLEASE review! Thanks for reading!

Prologue

There was almost a full moon in the night sky, shining its silver light upon the nonmoving camp. It would be a few days—perhaps even less—for the wild cats to meet under truce with their rivals, and nothing moved except for the occasional rustling of leaves and bushes. A dark ginger tom stood guard over the sleeping camp, and he inspected almost every sound with a small growl.

Something stirred in the moonlight, but the tom did not notice another cat, smaller and slighter of build, stealing into the edge of the camp. It slunk silently into the back of one of the several dens, and peered into the spaces between the branches and leaves. The cat that it was looking for was sleeping right in front of it, her white fur contrasting with the darkness. The cat gave a low hiss that barely traveled farther than his own ears, but luckily none but the she-cat heard. She stirred slightly, and blinked open her blue eyes.

The she-cat blinked again and was about to go back to sleep when the other cat, outside of the den, gave another hiss to catch her attention. The white she-cat turned and saw the tom's dark green eyes glinting in the shadows, and immediately snarled, "What are you doing here, Shadowstripe?! I thought we were arranging all of our—"

"Shh!" Shadowstripe hissed, his green eyes wide with panic. "We have to get out of here! Your leader—he's—"

"What does Jaggedstar have to do with this?"

The dark-brown tabby tom shook his head and mewed, "Can you sneak out? It's not safe; your Clanmates might hear."

The she-cat nodded and roused herself, causing a few stirs from the other cats. The ginger tom on guard spotted her immediately, and prowled over to her. "Where might you be going?" he growled, irritably.

"I'm only going to make dirt," she lied lamely, and although the ginger tom looked as if he didn't believe her, he did not have the courage to directly accuse her of lying.

"Just make it quick. Jaggedstar's plans require all of our warriors ready to go."

The ginger tom stepped back, and left the white cat to guard the entrance to the camp. She leaped into the bushes towards the little area where the cats usually made their dirt, and located Shadowstripe. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she snarled angrily. "Why are you risking everything just to come see me? You're risking your life, and I can't have that!"

Shadowstripe looked away and meowed, "I'm sorry, but I had to. I was hunting—I couldn't sleep, because Jadestar told me I could go to the Gathering, and I couldn't go last time. And I scented ForestClan nearby, and at first I thought it was just because I was near the ForestClan border—but then I could hear some mews coming from the bracken. It was Jaggedstar, and several other ForestClan cats that I don't know."

The news chilled the white she-cat, and she shivered. "Did you hear what they were saying?"

The tom looked away again, unable to share what he had heard from Jaggedstar's own mouth. "They… They said they're going to lead an attack on the two other Clans during tomorrow's Gathering."

"What?!"

"That's not all, Stormspirit. They're going to… they're going to kill you and Shardwhisker, Jaggedstar said it himself."

"S-Shardwhisker? Our deputy?" The she-cat trembled. "So he's really going to kill both of us for protesting against his rule." She sighed. "I guess it's time to say good-bye then, Shadowstripe."

Shadowstripe glanced up and snarled, "No, I can't let that happen! Many terrible things have happened ever since Jaggedstar became leader of ForestClan, but we're both still living, and we owe it to the cats that've died to go on!"

"But the only thing we can do is… run away," she whispered. "How is that going to help the spirits of the warriors who have died? And even my parents are getting closer to Jaggedstar. They're not the same…"

"Don't you get it? We have to try to overthrow Jaggedstar. So we can stop any other cats from suffering like you, or me! We can't have their parents being fooled by a mad cat! Don't you want to stop it? We'll find a way, somehow, but now we have to run!"

The she-cat closed her eyes and steadied herself. "You're right." She nodded and was about to continue, but a sharp yowl interrupted the she-cat. Shadowstripe's eyes widened in terror when he saw the four ForestClan cats leaping out at him with claws extended. "Shadowstripe, run!"

The two young cats raced away from their pursuers, and their terror would not allow them to even look back to see if they had shaken off the ForestClan cats. They ran on and on, guided by the moon's light, and only stopped when they had reached a meadow filled with flowers. The she-cat gasped at the sight, and they stood and gazed at the flowers while calming themselves and resting their aching legs.

"Where are we?" Shadowstripe murmured, brushing past her.

"It's beautiful," the she-cat purred. "I wish we could have a place like this back in the Clans. It would have been a perfect meeting place." She traveled deeper into the flowers, breathing in the cool, flowery scents. "I'm sure they have all sorts of plants here, especially ones that the medicine cats use. Pantherheart would love this place."

Shadowstripe nodded, and continued on to her's side. "We could be safe from Jaggedstar here." But then he pleaded, "But we could still just stay here, instead of going back. If we have the chance, we can try to defeat Jaggedstar—but it's a bit impossible now, seeing this…" His voice died away when Stormspirit did not answer.

Shadowstripe shook his head. How could I have been so stupid? "I love you," he blurted out, trying to break the silence. It was a dumb idea to tear her away from her parents, her Clanmates, no matter how great the danger was for her—but he had to ease the guilt, by hearing her say that she loved him too.

"Me too," she murmured and turned, a sad yet glad twinkle in her eyes. "And no matter what happens, I still will—even when we both die and go to StarClan."

"To the edges of StarClan, then." Shadowstripe nodded, but suddenly he froze, and the she-cat sensed his alarm as his brown tabby fur start to bristle.

"What is it?" She followed his gaze and stiffened, for facing them, only a few foxtails away and downwind of the two cats, was a wolf.

"Don't… move," Shadowstripe hissed, and they watched the gray scarred wolf studying them. He didn't want to bolt; a wolf would surely overtake at least one of them. One of us. It would have to be him. "I'll distract it, and you run back to ForestClan---"

But suddenly a strong scent hit his nostrils, and when he turned, there was an entire pack of wolves, waiting and watching. "Run!"

A/N: Ah, the ever-clichéd wolves in a Warriors fanfiction…