PROLOGUE

"I, Eternitystar, leader of VineClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn." The black-and-white she-cat standing atop the tall tree towering over the center of VineClan's whole territory, the Hightree, glanced at the blue-gray and white tabby she-cat, her apprentice, standing next to her, the leader's pale green eyes brimming with pride. "Swiftpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do!" Swiftpaw exclaimed, her neck fur bristling with excitement and pride. But she stopped herself. That was not how a loyal, brave warrior of VineClan would act. "Er, I mean, I do, Eternitystar. I am honored," she corrected, straightening herself and puffing out her chest.

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your war—" Eternitystar was cut off by a yowl that erupted through the camp.

"Wait!" A panting pale ginger tom with ragged fur burst through the lush forest that surrounded the camp, his blue eyes wide and his sides heaving. "Stop the ceremony! I know who killed him! I know who killed Mythstar. It was…" The tom collapsed on his side, revealing a nasty cut on his hind leg and unable to complete his sentence.

"Novaspeed!" Eternitystar yowled, seeming to forget about the apprentice right next to her. Leaping onto the tree trunk and climbing down, she commanded, "Shortleg, attend to him. Novaspeed has returned from his quest, seeming successful, and he shall be honored as a hero."

The VineClan leader crouched down next to her injured deputy as the apprentice in the tree whimpered too quietly for anyone in the crowd to hear, frowning. A dumpy brown tom with a white muzzle made his way towards them, cobwebs stuffed in his mouth. He limped on three legs; his left foreleg was shorter than the others and didn't even touch the ground. Behind him trotted a small pure black tomcat, who happened to be the VineClan leader's niece. In his mouth, he held a moss packet containing poppy seeds.

Shortleg spit the cobwebs onto the ground and used his undersized limb to apply them onto the ginger tom's wound, while the black tom, Shortleg's apprentice, dropped his packet in front of Novaspeed's mouth. It immediately unraveled to show the delicate seeds inside. "Commence eating," he commanded proudly. This was his second day as medicine cat apprentice, and he aldready had an injured cat to attend to.

"No," the VineClan deputy grunted. "The murderer… it was that apprentice…. Swiftpaw."

Swiftpaw, up on the tree, was flabbergasted. Her jaw dropped. So did Eternitystar's. "Swiftpaw? But she was just an apprentice (she is about to become a warrior… if what you say is not true, that is) when that happened. Mythstar was our great, strong leader," the leader inquired.

"Actually," Shortleg the medicine cat piped up, looking ashamed of himself, "a prophecy came to me at the last half-moon medicine cat meeting. I didn't much sense out of it, so I didn't say anything." He inhaled and began to recite the prophecy from the cats' warrior ancestors, StarClan.

"Fast-stridden one,

Blue-eyed vine cat,

Destroyer of myths."

Eternitystar frowned and turned to Swiftpaw, her normally placid green eyes now burning with anger, sadness, and confusion. The apprentice gulped. She knew what was coming. Her blue eyes burned with rage. She had done nothing! "Swiftpaw," Eternitystar began, "it seems Novaspeed arrived at the appropriate time, cutting off the end to your ceremony. I do not know how, or why, you did this, but it is clear to me that you no longer deserve to be a member of VineClan. Does the Clan not agree?" The cats below either stayed quiet or murmured their agreement. "Then, from now on, Swiftpaw, you are a rogue. Do not let us see your face here ever again."

"Wait! I have one last request," Swiftpaw begged, her blue eyes filled with tears that refused to fall in front of the whole Clan. How could they do this? She was being exiled for a crime she had not committed. Truly, she loved Mythstar as much as the next cat. What made them think that she had killed him? Oh. StarClan's stupid prophecy, of course. In her mind, she swore to herself that she hated StarClan.

Below her, the leader nodded nonetheless, her eyes narrowed. "I trained as a warrior…. Before you ban me, may I just get my warrior name?"

"Never!" Eternitystar snarled, her voice cracking with sadness. "Becoming a true warrior means you followed the warrior code, which you have not. Now be gone!"

At once, the Clan became one mass at the base of the tree, hissing and snarling their hatred at Swiftpaw for killing Mythstar, their beloved leader who had ruled VineClan for countless leaf-bares. "But I did nothing!" Swiftpaw cried, tears streaming down her eyes. In a blur, she scrambled down the Hightree, falling when she was near the ground and landing with a thump. That did not stop her. She scrambled away through the trees, seemingly destined to never see her Clan again.

That night, Novaspeed lay in the medicine cat's den along with Shortleg and his apprentice, Pepperpaw. The medicine cat could not sleep. His yellow eyes stared up at the dark brown roof of his den. Something told him—maybe his instinct, maybe his conscious—that Swiftpaw was innocent, and the prophecy kept nagging at his head.

Novaspeed, who apparently couldn't sleep either, sensed Shortleg's restlessness. He rolled onto his side facing the medicine cat, grunting with the pain in his leg. Hearing him, the brown tom rolled to face the deputy. Novaspeed was smiling.

"Hey, thanks for helping me out today," he murmured. "You're good at prophecies. And don't worry; I won't rat on you."

Shortleg blinked, confused, and rolled to face the ceiling again as the deputy turned away as well. Good at prophecies? Won't rat on you? What did he mean? Maybe he meant that he was good at deciphering StarClan's foresights, but why would he "rat" on him for making sense of it?