Shadowsky was dreaming, she was with Blizzardpelt and he was whispering, "Of course I'll join Nightclan for you. I would follow you to the ends of the earth Shadowsky." Her eyes lifted to meet her mate's yellow eyes and purred, "I love you Blizzardpelt." Her clan wasn't going to be happy but she knew Stonenight would let Blizzardpelt join, he understood love. They heard a shout and Blizzardpelt's head snapped around, "That's Stonetalon!" He turned back to Shadowsky, "Go back to the Queen's Den, I'll join you there when I see what he's shouting about." Shadowsky was mute, she knew he wouldn't come back but found herself saying what she had that fateful night, "You better you silly tom!" Her tail flicked his nose and she walked away, her heart rising and falling at the same time.
She was in the Queen's den, there were 5 other she cats, all having their kits, "This isn't a coincidence is it?" She turned to look into Earthstar's eyes, "I don't believe so." Time skipped again. There were 7 mothers nursing kits and Moon staggered in, she was a young apprentice and would become a wonderful healer. "Shadowsky!" she gasped, her quiet voice the loudest Shadowsky had ever heard it, a shallow wound down her heaving side was clotted. "Yes Moon what is it?" She shuddered and said, "Wolfbane has overthrown the clans with two loners, Snow and Sand! They killed Ivorysky!" The pain in the apprentice's eyes was clear, "What else did they do?" She asked knowing there was more. "They-they said they only need healers they can trust, so they said I won't be a healer." Shadowsky hissed in anger. Her eyes flashed and only the small kits at her belly kept her from leaping up in outrage. "They can't do that!" she whispered angrily, not wanting to awaken the sleeping kits. "As leaders we can." Said a smug voice, Shadowsky turned her eyes angrily on her brother, "How could you? How many have you killed brother?" Wolfbane just smiled "More than you could imagine sister, but it will be worth it! We will start a new dynasty." He walked forward with a grin, "And you can't stop it." She glowered and found another voice saying, "You can't but the 6 can." The outrage on her brother's face made her want to recoil. "Who are the 6?" the light brown tom behind her brother hissed, "You will not know of us until it is to late False One's, don't bother hurting this vassal she knows nothing." Her fur was glowing and her brother stepped back. "And if I kill her?" He asked the voice curled her lips into a sneer "Then we shall find another." He grimaced. He stalked out, "Sand, Ice let's leave we won't get anything out of her." The white she-cat turned her ice-blue eyes on the healer, "Oh and that cream tom, the one with the white spots and yellow eyes? I killed him." She turned and stalked out. Shadowsky felt a yowl rise in her throat but found it beaten by silence. 'It can't be him' she thought 'he promised to return' but she knew it to be true. "I shall name you Cloud." She whispered to the kit, and looked at the dark one, the dark she-cat seemed to shine, and opened pale eyes to stare at her mother, "Moon" she whispered.
Cloud watched her mother dreaming and knew she was dreaming of that fateful night a year ago. She hadn't known it had been her birth until the Elders had told her. Their glowing forms brightening in anger at the cats who had defied their wishes. 'Is what I'm doing really right?' she thought as she had many times before. A small smile crept over her lips, she thought of the plan the Elders had for her, she was about to leap off of it and they would not be happy "We'll be leaving for Homelake soon anyway, I'll find the six and lead them my way" she whispered and curled up to fall asleep.
Scorpion's tail twitched, he felt a lizard moving quickly over the sand, his paws told him what his eyes could not. He leaped forward and felt its spine crunch under his paws, he lifted the lizard and turned to where Yelloweyes was hunting, and his mentor glanced over and huffed, "Unnatural, blind cat hunting!" Scorpion's ears twitched and he half wanted to leap at the older cat, but stopped and just stormed away, walking back to Owl Cliff he started the climb up, his paws had traveled the path many times but some fell away and he always had to be careful. He dropped the lizard on the prey-pile and leaped away just in time. Frog landed beside him, "You sly fox. Are you sure you're blind?" Scorpion smiled, "I don't know is there no light in your world to?" A cat walked up, he sniffed the air. Blazing. He quickly dropped the ground owl he had caught onto the prey-pile and asked, "You want to go out again?" Everything Blazing did was quick, from the way he spoke to the way he ran. Blazing didn't hunt with patience as other's did, he hunted with speed. Which was an advantage when they lived in Oak Clearing, the home of the former Fireclan, but was a hindrance here, often he came back with nothing, and so went hunting a lot to make up for it. Before Scorpion could answer Sand's Streak exited his cave at the back of the cliff, "All Clan cats, young and old, gather to hear me." He said it loud enough, and Scorpion felt himself walking toward the older cat. He remembered what his mother had told him after he had become an apprentice, "Scorpion," she said, "You are a survivor, after- we left Homelake" he could tell she wanted to say '"after the massacre" but she couldn't "Sand's Streak told me he would have no weakness in his clan, he told me to abandon you." He remembered pressing into his mother's warmth and asking, "Did you?" She had leaned into him, "I had to. I remember those days as a haze, I didn't want to eat, my kit. Abandoned to die! Anyways 5 days later we appeared at Oak Clearing and there, playing with a scorpion's stinger, was you. You never told us what happened but it was clear the Elder's favored you. I called you Scorpion and Sand's Streak had no choice but to let you stay. And that my little kit is why he doesn't favor you, you are a stain to him. He left you to die but you disobeyed orders. You changed things." He felt his mother's purr, "And I am proud of you, never forget that." He remembered what had happened. He had been nameless then, a small, blind kit. A large cat had come to him, "Follow me." He had rumbled, "But I cannot! I am only 3 days old! I was told to stay here by the leader himself!" The tom had hissed, "You owe no allegiance to that false one, you, my descendant shall truly understand what it is to be Desertclan. You are blind and must work to survive, now follow me." The tiny kit had stood and toddled after the tom and the tom had told him stories, stories of another blind kit, born to live on the sand. A kit, he said, who had grown to become the greatest cat in the desert. "Do you know who that kit was?" Scorpion had said no, "He was named after the Desert but when other cats met him they simply called him Endurance. He along with 6 others, one to lead the 5 to knowledge, and 5 for each area inhabited by cats, grew to be the Gainers of Knowledge, the first 6 clan leaders after the fall of the 4. That cat was me, and you to shall grow to become great. You will survive." Scorpion felt shadows fall across him and the prairie grass ended, "Play with this young one, and go with my blessings. The tom disappeared and Scorpion had lifted the thing in his paws. The clan had found him then, holding the stinger and still very much alive.
Sand's Streak's gaze fell over the cats landing briefly on the russet tom, Blazing felt an urge to hiss at the clan leader, and felt Scorpion tense at his side, the cat saw, and knew, more than he would admit and Blazing glanced over at his friend, golden stripes decorated his fur, he looked like a desert sunset, the sun casting its rich oranges to the sky and the desert reflecting it as gold. Frog moved over and Rose bumped him as she tried to see, "Too short?" He asked teasingly, "Better than being a giant." Scorpion hissed beside him the tom was smaller than him, Rose giggled. His gaze snapped up to the ledge upon which their leader was. "As you know, last year I and my fellows, Snow's Path and Wolf's Bane, came into power. We will keep the tradition of meeting at Homelake and our Apprentices who are old enough shall receive their full names in the shadow of the tree that supported the 4 clan leaders of Thunderclan, Shadowclan, Windclan, and Riverclan." There was excitement among the clan and Blazing knew that most of them hadn't expected to see their friends from other clans again. "We leave in a week, prepare." He leaped down and Blazing's fur stood on end, excitement and fear spread through him, he had a feeling that more would change than his name.
Frost looked over her shoulder at Stone; the tom was holding up a large stone and was prepared to throw it over the edge, onto a bird that was very large. "Stone!" she hissed he looked over, she gestured to the rock and mouthed, "Too big" he shook his head and she hissed "You idiot! What if someone sees you?" Stone was lifting a rock bigger than two cats put together, proof of the strange strength that possessed his body. He wasn't invincible; he many times had dropped a stone he was lifting, to show off, onto his paw and spent a week or so favoring the paw until the pain went away. She glanced back, no one. The bird was almost directly below and she waited, calculating. Finally her tail twitched and the rock tipped over, falling onto the bird. The cry of pain that escaped its throat was quickly cut off. Stone stood on the cliff, "Look Frost, with my brawn and your brain we can do anything." She eyed him and found herself meeting those pale eyes, like a winter sun, just enough color to avoid white. "Come on you lug, we have to get it before other's notice." She skipped down the wet rocks, her paws light as her fur. They walked up to the boulder and she quickly rubbed her scent on the rock as well. "Stone, go back and alert the warriors, I'll stay and protect it from wolves." His concerned face warmed her. He was like a brother to her, her parents had been killed by Snow's Path and his mother had nursed the young kit. "You know I can outwit or convince a wolf!" she said it proudly, like all Iceclan cats she could speak to the lupine predators of the north. It was essential; cats could easily distract prey while the wolves brought it down. The bond was an uneasy one, only allowed because cats didn't eat much. He shifted and then turned to run back. It occurred to her that his run wasn't fast, he had a steady run but she could imagine a cat running faster, so fast that he was a blur, a russet blur.
Stone ran until he saw his mentor "Snowleaf! Frost and I found a bird that was taken down by a rock. Pretty big too, we'll need some help to get it." She looked over, "How come that it's always you and Frost who find these things," he paled under his fur but replied, "Crescent found the last one!" Snowleaf just stared and sighed, she turned and trotted up to Stonetalon and Sharpthorn, "Apprentices found another falcon, Frost is defending it." Sharpthorn laughed, "I bet she'll run the wolves off running, that tongue of hers is sharper than a cat's claws." Stone chuckled and thought that the description was appropriate. They traveled back to the rock where the falcon had died and with Stone's help they were able to lever the rock off of the corpse. It was easier for the apprentices to hold the bird as they walked back, the mentors casting glances around for things that would carry them or their prey away. "You two are a good team. Almost like Cave Guarders and Prey hunters of the Tribe. The Tribe, the cats who lived in the western part of the mountains, they and Skyclan, which was too far away to feel the discord that destroyed their fellows, alone had survived the Dark Years. It was a compliment to be compared to such cats. Stone smiled over at Frost who twitched her ear to say she acknowledged his support and approved. 'She's so cold sometimes'he thought then turned back to watch where he put his paws. When they got to Wolf Cave, Stone felt the history of the place, it had belonged to Frozen River pack, the ones who had taught Ice's Intelligence and her clan the language of the wolves. Frozen River had left the near-barren land when the caribou stopped coming. However cats traveled north every year in the dead of winter to assist what was left of the pack with hunting. Sometimes cats didn't come back, but it was an honor to be chosen for the trek. Only Lone wolves lived in the area now, they were a manageable nuisance that didn't bother them much.
Frost sighed as they reached home, she loved the place, and its echoes could bring back the voice of a cat. She had tested this as a kit and found that if she went far back in the cave and yelled at the wall cats at the entrance could hear her; it had gotten her in trouble. Snow's Path was outside of her cave at the back and she frowned at the group for interrupting her. "As I was saying, we are going to go to Homelake where our of-age apprentices will be given their names, we leave in 10 suns." Frost felt excitement grow and looked over at Stone, his face was unreadable and she felt a twinge of worry, 'What is he thinking?' but he looked over and smiled and she buried the worry. "We'll finally be Warriors!" he said excitedly. She smiled and they were able to fool themselves into thinking that their worry had no purchase in their world.
