Author's Note: Hi everyone! This is my first real story! I really hope it turns out well, since I've worked pretty hard on it! Hopefully I'll put up a new chapter once a week or so. Also, any spelling or grammatical errors are my fault, and please feel free to point them out to me. Enjoy!
Prologue
A squealing mew split the air, and a snowy white tomcat stopped his pacing shortly, eyes wide with barely suppressed anxiety. He padded slightly closer to a brambly hole that led to a dim, warm den inside. The sun was high in the sky, nearly noon, and it shone down on him like a bright beacon. As he cautiously approached the den, a brown she-cat slid out.
"You can come in now," she meowed. "You've got two healthy she-kits!"
The tom breathed an audible sigh of relief, and stepped into the den. He rushed over to his mate, a yellow she-cat laying on a moss nest near the back of the den. Two squirming bundles of fur lay at her belly, their eyes squeezed tightly shut as they suckled.
"Oh Yellowshine, they're wonderful! I'm so proud of you!" The white tom exclaimed. "That one looks just like you!" One tiny she-kit was a pretty yellow tabby with a long tail, and she did indeed look like her mother. "Let's call her Sunkit."
"Perfect!" Yellowshine gazed down at her to kits, her eyes filled with motherly love. "And the other should be Brightkit, in honor of your mother." The second kit was splotched brown, yellow, orange, and white, with thick fur.
"Sunkit and Brightkit..." The tom sighed. "They will be strong warriors one day. I know it."
"Cloudkit, come here." Cloudkit rolled over to face his mother. She was laying on her side a tail-length away, smiling kindly at him. "Drink some milk," she purred, and Cloudkit wriggled over to her. He still couldn't walk yet. In fact, his eyes had only just opened that day, and he was still marvelling at the bright, albeit slightly blurry, world that surrounded him. He mewled and nuzzled his mother, finding her teat and beginning to suckle.
Just as he was finishing, a huge gray tom entered the den. Cloudkit squealed in fright and buried himself deeper into his mother's side. He doesn't have the big-warm-milk-mother scent like my mother! Cloudkit thought fearfully.
"Oh Cloudkit, don't be shy," his mother purred, and he could feel the vibrations in her tummy. "It's your father Ashtail, come to visit us, silly kitten." Cloudkit turned and looked up at the gray tom standing awkwardly in front of him. He has some big-warm-mother scent, Cloudkit realized, but no milk. Cloudkit then turned away from him and curled up in his mother's fur again, zoning out on the two older cats' words. He didn't speak at all yet, but he knew some words, and he reviewed them in his head. His mother had two names: Mother and Snowpelt. He knew his own name, Cloudkit, as well as a few other words too: 'milk' and 'drink' were used to signal him to get food, and 'come' was to tell him to go to whoever had said it. 'Walk' was what bigger cats did, supporting themselves on their paws, and 'den' meant the whole world. He did not understand where other cats came from, besides that they entered through a hole, but it didn't really matter, as long as he had his mother.
Then there was this other cat, the big gray one that his mother called Ashtail and father. It seemed that he had two names too, and he had a special connection with his mother that was not unlike his own with her, but not exactly the same. Ashtail, he thought, a sudden fit of drowsiness overcoming him after thinking so hard. Ashtail. Father.
That night, the sky was an inky black sea, punctured only by tiny sparks of light. It blanketed the land beneath in darkness, though the faint light of a half-moon shed enough brightness for two cats to be seen, sitting beside a jutting spire of rock that glittered with ingrown crystals. The cats' eyes glowed luminously as they conversed in quiet tones.
"Is it a good idea?"
"Of course! It'll save the clans, won't it?"
"I don't know, Brownleaf..."
Brownleaf snorted and slashed her tail back and forth, her yellow eyes bright with aggravation. "I don't know why you're hesitating, Bluepool." she growled. "This is obviously the only way to save the clans. And if it's decreed by StarClan, how can anyone protest?"
Bluepool sighed. "They're so young, though... Is it wise to put such a weight on the shoulders of a kit?"
"They must be young!" Brownleaf insisted, her eyes boring into her companion's with a deep intensity. To her credit, Bluepool did not flinch away, and Brownleaf continued after a moment. "If they are already poisoned by this rediculous feud, even the will of StarClan won't be enough to sway them. Anyway, it's two kits, not one. They will bear it together."
"It is their destiny, I suppose..." Bluepool said wryly, and her eyes glittered with a strange humor, as if she knew the punch line to a joke and was allowing it to be told anyway.
"Yes," Brownleaf agreed. "Their destinies are twined together. All we have to do is nudge them in the right direction. Then the clans will be reunited and all will be peaceful."
Bluepool merely nodded, gazing off into the darkness. A hint of dawn had just peeked over the eastern horizon, and the black hills had begun to turn gray. The two sat there in silence for a while, watching the world turn from black to gray to pale color, the dawn sky flooded with pastel pink.
"We must go back," stated Bluepool, standing smoothly and turning to bid her companion farewell. Brownleaf stood with considerably less grace.
"You remember the prophecy?" she questioned.
"Of course. It's not hard to recall." Bluepool snorted.
"Tell me."
Blueleaf rolled her eyes, but spoke solemnly. "A sun and a cloud will bring peace to the clans."
"Good." Brownleaf nodded briskly, and the two cats turned and made their way back to their clans, ready for a new day.
