The cat shifted his head slightly on the pebbley lakeshore. Blue eyes like chips of ice flickered open, and he opened his mouth in a silent snarl. The water around him was filled with blood, lapping against his dark tabby fur and staining his white chest crimson. A lethal-looking scar across his throat showed he was a fighter.
Another cat stood above him, a huge, dark, broad-shouldered tabby. The bloody waves also lapped against his paws and legs, against huge, curved claws. But his fur stayed dry and brown, no stain of red covering it. It was as if he was not really there...
His amber eyes glared down at the cat below him. In their feiry depths the smaller cat could see frustration, pride, fury, and - perhaps - regret. "Tigerstar!" he gasped. The scar on his neck stretched as he talked, and his voice was a hoarse croak.
The other cat nodded, flexing his claws. "You have done well, Hawkfrost. You are, truly, my son. Whereas, Brambleclaw..."
Tigestar stopped. Regret flashed in his eyes, and was replaced quickly by rage. Hawkfrost tentatively got to his paws, shaking out his fur. Red drops splattered the ground.
"Th - thankyou," he croaked, crouching so his belly touched the ground. Tigerstar nodded curtly."I thought my gift would be well recieved," he growled. "It seems I was right."Hawkfrost's blue eyes glittered. "No cat could have done more."
"And now," Tigerstar continued, ignoring his son's praise, "now I am equal with StarClan in every way. I have done more than they could ever do." Hawkfrost padded slowly and unsteadily onto the firmer ground of the lakeshore. "I'd better get out of ThunderClan territory," he observed, looking around.
He could scent his half-brother, the traitor Brambleclaw, and some other ThunderClan cats - a patrol had recently gone by. "Where will I live now? They'll have told Leopardstar of my death." Tigerstar nodded. "I told you you could become a leader by the warrior code. Perhaps I was wrong."
Hawkfrost's eyes widened. "What?"
"Don't be so mousebrained!" snarled his father. "It is obvious you can't go back to the Clans, and if a cat lives outside the Clans, it lives outside the warrior code."
Hawkfrost shook his head. "I - I can't -"
Tigerstar silenced him with a snarl. "No! You will find a place to live somewhere in the forest, and gather followers, but you are no longer a cat of RiverClan."
He began to fade into the air, until only his glaring amber eyes remained. "Remember, Hawkfrost..." The voice was haunting, wreathing around the warrior crouched on the lakeshore. "You are alone now..."