Yowls of terror arose from the ThunderClan cats as they scattered in their own camp. The grave news had been inevitable, but now it was time to face it. RiverClan's last cats had been stolen by the warriors of the Dark Forest.

"Enough!" Stormstar, the ThunderClan leader, hissed as loudly as possible, causing the panicking cats to stop.

"RiverClan and WindClan are gone, but ThunderClan still stands! We must not panic; StarClan will come up with something!" The proud leader insisted, but his clanmates looked unconvinced.

A few cats looked to Spiritfeather, the medicine cat.

"If StarClan tells me anything, you know I will tell you all immediately." The she-cat meowed nervously, looking down at her paws. Sharpnose, a warrior tom, looked at her oddly. The medicine cat apprentice, Scorchpaw, looked at the senior warrior and hissed in annoyance.

"Spiritfeather would never hide any signs from us in this time of crisis!" He insisted, breaking any accusations against his mentor.

"I didn't say anything." Sharpnose huffed. "We shouldn't argue amongst ourselves. Where is Willowleaf, anyway?" He mentioned the ThunderClan deputy, a lean tabby she-cat. Shiningpaw, Sharpnose's daughter, looked down at her feet. Willowleaf had been her mentor, she dearly hoped she would come back soon.

"That's right; she left for ShadowClan quite some time ago…" Stormstar mewed, his storm cloud grey fur bristling. "They better not have done anything to my deputy!"

"They wouldn't dare, not with ThunderClan and ShadowClan being the only two clans left!" Flowerbelly, a white furred queen, called out, wrapping her tail protectively around her two kits, Flamekit and Tigerkit. She looked for her eldest kit, Scorchpaw, hovering around Spiritfeather.

Spottedface, the only other queen, licked her two kits Darkkit and Quailkit furiously. Darkkit ducked out of her mother's reach and flicked her black tail. Quailkit sat obediently; his cream colored fur was messy.

"What are going to do?" Spiderclaw wailed, and the cats broke out into more panicked cries and chatter. Stormstar looked down at his Clan miserably. Generations upon generations ago, when the four clans had moved to the lake area, they had troubles with the great leader of the Dark Forest, Tigerstar. They had thought he had been destroyed, banished to the edges of Silverpelt, further than the Dark Forest, to walk alone for eternity.

About three moons ago, cats began disappearing from WindClan. The Clans were on the lookout for badgers or foxes or perhaps Twoleg kits, but they found nothing. It wasn't until Ravinestar, the WindClan leader, saw his deputy being dragged away into the darkness by a dead warrior, that the Clans remembered the horrors their ancestors had to go through to defeat the Dark Forest cats.

WindClan's cats were all stolen away, and RiverClan had been next. ShadowClan cats had already been stolen away, but they fiercely held onto the belief that StarClan would save them, as Stormstar also did. Stormstar had sent Willowleaf to ShadowClan's camp in order to find out what was going on their side of the border.

As if she had been called back by Stormstar's own thoughts, Willowleaf burst into camp, breathing heavily.

"ShadowClan… is down to… one apprentice… that's all I could… find out… Midnightstar thought that… we would attack her camp…" Willowleaf choked out.

"What? All they have left is one apprentice?" Lionpaw gasped, edging closer to her father, Brackentail. Her mother, Spiderclaw, was with Lionpaw's brother, Berrypaw.

"No… they have other cats… Coldpaw is just… their last apprentice…" The tired deputy replied.

"Is Midnightstar mouse-brained? Why would we attack her camp now of all times?" Flowerbelly's mate, Raggedwing, hissed. Their adopted kit, found in the forest, Pondpaw, was hiding behind Raggedwing.

Lightheart and Hornetflight, twin sisters and the daughters of Stormstar, hissed along with Raggedwing.

"I'm sure Midnightstar is just thinking of the safety of her Clan…" Stormstar began, but a piercing cry from Spiritfeather brought the Clan to silence.

All twenty cats of ThunderClan stared at the shadowy presence of a Dark Forest warrior. He could not be killed, for he was already dead. No living cat could die under his paws directly, but they could be stolen. He was an invincible enemy, and StarClan was not sending down help from the stars. The cat in the shadows hissed with pleasure, a huge black aura surrounding him, and the Clan cats were frozen. The shadowy cat looked around the camp slowly, taking his time, breathing in every scent, and then he laid his eyes on the queen Spottedface. He took a few steps towards her.

Darkkit hissed as the strange cat came near her and her mother, and Quailkit shuddered. Spottedface bared her fangs, but it was no use against the Dark Forest cat. The only thing that sent them back was the presence of a cat from StarClan, or a cat that could touch StarClan with their own paws. The Clan cats looked towards Spiritfeather, who was frozen with shock. Scorchpaw looked utterly devastated as he tried to push his mentor towards the shadowy being, but she would not move.

"Spiritfeather, save her!" Scorchpaw growled, knowing as a medicine cat, she had the power to propel him away. But the anxious medicine cat had always been deathly afraid of the shadowy cats of the Dark Forest. Scorchpaw looked between the queen and his mentor, and made a choice.

With a battle cry, Scorchpaw ran in front of Spottedface and swatted at the dead warrior. As a medicine cat apprentice, he assumed he had almost as much power as Spiritfeather against the dark warriors. The dead cat hissed and shrank back, but he hadn't disappeared. With a quick look around the area, he leapt in front of a clump of thorns near the queen. He leaned in towards Spottedface, his breath reaching her face. She screeched in terror, and Scorchpaw ran at the warrior and tackled him into the thorns.

Weakened by the full force of the living medicine cat apprentice, the dark warrior faded away, and walked back to the Dark Forest alone. Scorchpaw lay tangled in the thorns.

"Scorchpaw!" Flowerbelly cried out, nudging Flamekit and Tigerkit towards Raggedwing before racing to check on her oldest kit.

A chill went down every cat's spine as Flowerbelly shrieked. A thorn had deeply jabbed Scorchpaw in the throat, and blood was spurted out of the apprentice, staining his fur and the thorns around him. Raggedwing howled in anguish over the loss of his oldest kit, and padded over to Flowerbelly to console her. Flamekit and Tigerkit looked at each other sadly, silently mourning the loss of their older brother that they hardly knew. Pondpaw sat next to the two kits. Spiritfeather stared blankly at the grave of her apprentice, her eyes clouded with unknowingness.

Spottedface buried her nose in Sharpnose's fur, and her mate consoled her. Scorchpaw had sacrificed himself for the spotted queen and her kits.

And all was silent in ThunderClan except for the cries of Flowerbelly.


While the Clan slept and only Brackentail was awake to guard the camp, Spiritfeather rummaged through her supplies in her den. Behind a thick slab of rock, one carefully hidden berry was wedged between the wall and bits of bramble to keep kits out. Ignoring the scratches on her paw, she carefully rolled the dark red berry out and into the clearing.

"StarClan, you haven't helped us, why should I help you?" her voice was rough and accusing. With an insane gleam in her eye, Spiritfeather ate the berry. "I can't live anymore, with my apprentice dead and the Clans practically destroyed, there's no point!" she screeched, laughing to herself.

The laughter turned into choking, and blood was heaved onto the stone floor of the medicine cat den. The choking became gasps for breath, and when they stopped, the pale she-cat was not in StarClan, but stolen away to the Dark Forest.