DISCLAIMER: If I owned Warriors...Swiftpaw, Shrewpaw, Yellowfang, Tallstar, Mudclaw, and Tigerstar wouldn't be dead, and Ashfur and Firestar wouldn't be alive.
Prologue
Shade was sleeping, unaware that a small cat was watching him. That small cat was a patched black and white tomcat apprentice belonging to a group of future warrior ancestors called StarClan. Shade knew that a visitor was coming tonight, but he did not know its name.
The cat was Swiftpaw.
But Shade, not knowing that, slept dreamily onwards. Until he heard a voice. Swiftpaw's voice.
"Hullo, Shade. Please come. I have something to show you."
"Wha--?" growled Shade. What kind of a madcat would wake him up this early? It was one o'clock P.M. and he was enjoying a quiet nap.
Swiftpaw flicked his tail and, leading Shade, sped off into the distance. Soon they came across a wide path where huge monsters rumbled.
"Those are Twoleg--" Swiftpaw began. Shade cut him off imediately.
"What are Twolegs?" he asked.
"Twolegs? They're...those things that walk on two legs, hence the name."
"Oh, you mean the Balancers." Shade was a loner who did not call the Twolegs what Swiftpaw had. The light smokey black tom with the white-tipped tail and the beady black eyes called them Balancers because they balanced on two legs. "Continue, odd-looking loner."
"I am a dead--or let's say, I will be a dead--ThunderClan cat. But you have never heard of them, correct?"
"No. As far as I know, WhatsitClans don't exist."
Swiftpaw's eyes narrowed at this strange cat. "You're right, Shade. The five Clans of the forest don't yet exist. But they will soon, or how else can the Four Great Leaders live their lives? How else can I die (which I'd rather not so soon, but fate is fate)? You, Shade, are a special cat. You were...well, you shall see what you were. Look into this pool."
Shade looked into StarClan's vision pool that was by Swiftpaw's feet. "Yeah? So what? It's a pool."
Swiftpaw smiled wryly. "You are old, but you have a lot to learn, my friend." Pausing to gaze down at the pool, he mewed, "Shade, that is a cat called Sunflower. She and Darkstream had kits, and you can only see the two of those kittypets' kits here. The pure, dark grey kit is called Lion, and he is their kit. The brindle tom is called Sillos, who now lives with Kylie in the Two--Balancer nest next door. Now. There are three more kits she is suckling. Three lost kits. The pure, dark black one is called Tiger." Swiftpaw looked up from the vision pool. "You are Tiger, my friend, and you have a destiny waiting for you. Follow my tail and the Tiger shall turn into its shadow."