Prologue
Feathertail glanced at the ground as she trotted toward Silverstream, her mother. She had just gotten back from having a word with the Tribe of Endless Hunting, and now wanted to relax beside her mother.
"Silverstream!" Feathertail called, but was dragged down into the earth with an uncontrollable force that covered her in darkness. She screamed as she plummeted down into the hard earth, landing roughly in a cave.
"St-Stoneteller?" she gasped, backing up with confusion as the very first Stoneteller approached her.
"As you know, my original name was Half Moon..." meowed Stoneteller. "But that is not the reason in which I brought you here."
"Then what is the reason?" Feathertail mewed quizzically.
"The reason," muttered Half Moon darkly. "Is that you are needed... alive... in the Tribe... now."
"Not the Clans?" Feathertail was slightly disappointed, but then realized that she was happier in StarClan and the Tribe of Endless Hunting.
"No, but perhaps Stoneteller will allow you to visit them sometime," Half Moon told her gently.
"But... but I don't want to be reincarnated!" protested Feathertail.
Half Moon's face dropped. "You have no choice," she murmured meekly.
Feathertail huffed, "If you... er... the Tribe needs me, I will be happy... or sort of happy... to oblige."
Half Moon brightened. "Good," she meowed. "You go now."
A spinning darkness lapped Feathertail's mind as she plummeted down, down, to nowhere she knew of.
) ( )
Feathertail blinked open her eyes to find the sun smiling down on her from a familiar cave as two cats crowded around her.
"My name is Gray," meowed the pale gray tabby tom. "And the gray she-cat is Pebble, your mother."
Pebble's eyes drifted along with a dark feather that floated down from a soaring eagle in the distance.
"Let's name her," began Pebble. "Feather that Falls from Soaring Eagle, or, Feather."
"Wonderful," Gray mewed. "And the brown she-cat..."
Pebble's eyes quickly darted over to a shadow that lay out across the cave wall.
"Shadow on Cave Wall, or, Shadow," she meowed proudly.
"They're so cute!" mewed a pale tabby she-cat.
"They sure are, Lark," meowed a dark gray tom.
"Hi, I'm Stormfur," the dark gray tom meowed. "I used to be part of a Clan called RiverClan."
Stormfur! Feathertail, or, Feather, she guessed, wanted to screech his name and cover her brother—or no longer her brother—in licks from her tongue.
But instead of screaming his name, she let out a tiny, pitiful wail.
"How adorable!" praised Gray. "She and Shadow are going to be the best Tribe cats ever!"
"And they're both prey-hunters, too," meowed another dark gray tom.
"Stoneteller." Stormfur dipped his head. "They'll make great prey-hunters."