WindClan

Leader: Ashstar- long-haired black tom with grey-black spots

Deputy: Tigersnow- white she-cat with black tabby stripes

Warriors:

Cloudfoot- fluffy white tom with a foggy grey tail-tip

Archtail- very dark grey-black she-cat with black ears

Heathercloud- pale tan she-cat with white spots

Apprentices:

Mosspaw- dark brown tom (Medicine Cat Apprentice)

Kits:

Tallkit- pale grey she-cat

Place of No Stars

Sparrowfeather- mottled brown tabby she-cat


Prologue

Silverpelt floated overhead, StarClan glowing brightly, washing the moor in silvery-white light. Sparrowfeather slipped silently from the nursery, her cold eyes shining with fury as she slunk around the edge of camp.

He choose Tigersnow! Everyone knows I'd be a better deputy. Who cares that I have three mewling wretches to worry about. I'm sure there's another queen who'd want them!

She growled softly in her throat, thinking back to the day before.

Sparrowfeather could remember watching the elders bring Hailstone's body to the center of the clearing. She remembered the Clan's astonishment at the sight of their deputy's eyes clouded and glazed in death. It had been easy to get rid of the old flea-brain. A couple death berries in his fresh-kill...and poof! No more Hailstone.

She sneered when she remembered the look on Cloudpaw's face when he saw his mentor, limp and lifeless, in the center of the clearing.

I expect more from my son. Hailstone was a terrible mentor anyway. Its better that he's gone. At least it was better.

It was better until that hare-brained idiot she called a mate, Ashstar, choose Tigersnow as deputy over her. His own mate!

But Sparrowfeather would fix Ashstar's mistake.

Sparrowfeather slipped behind the warrior den and gazed across camp to the silvery form of Tigersnow, where she sat guarding the camp, her tail wrapped around her paws.

This is too easy!

Tigersnow's back was toward her attacker s she gazed out across the moor. Sparrowfeather fluffed up her fur in attempt to make her look larger and more threatening. The scent of fox clung to her pelt as a result of the fox dung she had rolled in earlier. She felt no fear or regret as she leaped onto Tigersnow's back, raking her claws down the tabby she-cat's sides.

Hello, Tigersnow. Do I look like a fox?

Tigersnow screamed in horror and pain as Sparrowfeather fastened her fangs into Tigersnow's neck.

That should do it for now. Sparrowfeather thought, leaping away from Tigersnow and raking her claws down the side of the nursery, leaving a gaping hole.

"Fox!" Sparrowfeather screamed, instantly arousing the whole of WindClan.

Wasting no time, Sparrowfeather rolled in the milk-scented moss and leaves that coated the floor of the den. Satisfied that she smelled like a helpless queen, she grabbed to of her day-old kits and rushed into the camp, where warriors ran in confusion. Sparrowfeather dropped the kits on the earth, and killed them quickly with her claws.

"A fox killed my kits! A fox killed my kits!" she cried, racing back into the nursery to dispose of the last kit. She froze in astonishment as she nearly barreled into the sleek form of her daughter, Archpaw.

"You monster!" Archpaw screamed, leaping at her mother, paws outstretched and claws unsheathed. "You murdered them!"

Sparrowfeather threw her daughter off, opening a gash in Archpaw's leg. "Quiet!"

Before Sparrowfeather could move, Ashstar was on top of his mate, pinning her to the earth.

"I don't believe it." Ashstar whispered, his voice choked with grief. "But what I am seeing proves it to be true. You killed our kits. You killed Tigersnow." Ashstar's voce faltered, and his eyes closed in defeat. "I'm sorry."

Ashstar's claws sunk into her throat, and pain coursed through her body as the blood pooled around his paw.

The world went black.

Part One

Chapter One

"Hurry!" The pounding of paws and the panting and whistling of the wind thundered in Cloudfoot's ears. He leaped over a clump of tangled bracken and moor grass, flicking his ears back to listen for the thud of Tallkit's and Mosspaw's paws as they landed.

Cloudfoot's heart beat faster as the pawsteps grew louder, and the lean, pale grey pelt of his sister streaked along beside him. She flashed a grin at him, and the three young cats skidded to a halt.

"What are you, half rabbit?" Tallkit and Cloudfoot glanced back as Mosspaw approached, his dark brown pelt spiky and ruffled.

Tallkit laughed and affectionately head-butted her littermate. "And what are you, Mosspaw? Half snail, maybe?"

"I think you're back up to speed." Cloudfoot meowed, circling his younger siblings slowly. "How do you feel?"

"I feel like I could beat you back to camp!" Tallkit cried, racing back across the moor, her tail streaming out behind her.

"I think that means she's fine." Mosspaw concluded.

"Come on." Cloudfoot replied, smiling. "Let's make sure she doesn't get ripped apart by a fox."

"Go ahead. I'll catch up with you..." Mosspaw panted.

Cloudfoot's whiskers twitched in amusement, and he sped off across the moor.


Cloudfoot shook out his pelt as he slipped through the bracken into the WindClan camp. He spotted Tallkit chatting happily with two younger apprentices, but he found his gaze wandering to the jagged, lightning-like scar that cut through the grey fur around her throat. That was what Sparrowfeather had done to her that night, nearly ten moons ago.

Tallkit and Mosspaw had been the only two of Sparrowfeather's litter. Mosspaw had been left in the nest, while Sparrowfeather had attempted taking Tallkit's life, along with her third littermate, Stripekit. Stripekit had died at his mother's claws that night, while Tallkit had been confined to the nursery for many moons because of her injury. Now Tallkit could finally take her place among the apprentices.

"May all cats old enough to chase their own rabbits gather under the Hollow!" Cloudfoot heard his father's yowl ring out just as Mosspaw slipped back into camp and went to sit by his mentor.

"Today is a very special day. One I've been waiting for, for a very long time. Tallkit, please step forward. " Ashstar watched as Tallkit stepped to the front of the gathered cats, her body quivering with excitement.

"Tallkit, you have reached the age of six moons, your wounds are healed, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Tallpaw. Your mentor will be Cloudfoot. I hope Cloudfoot will pass down all he knows on to you."

Murmurs rippled through the Clan as Cloudfoot stepped forward. But...kin mentoring kin? He thought just as Ashstar continued speaking.

"Cloudfoot, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training in the past, and you have shown yourself to be strong and fearless in battle. You will be the mentor of Tallpaw, and I expect you to pass on all you know to her. " Ashstar meowed, fixing his son in his piercing gaze as if warning him not to argue.

Cloudfoot touched noses with Tallpaw, whose amber eyes were shining with excitement. I know Ashstar has a good reason for this. Cloudfoot told himself. So I'll follow my leader's word.


"Cloudfoot..." a soft, kind voice whispered in his head. Cloudfoot blinked his eyes open, an found himself not in his nest within the warrior den, but instead standing among huge, looming trees whose leaves fluttered and rattled uneasily, and whose roots lay shrouded in shadows and mold.

"Cloudfoot..." the long-haired white tom flicked his ears as the voice curled sweetly through the shadows of the night. Where in the name of StarClan am I?

Hair standing on end, Cloudfoot padded cautiously through the woods, the feeling of being watched prickling his pelt. He had the uneasy, niggling feeling that he knew the voice that was calling him.

At that moment, a familiar scent soared through the air. At the same time, he remembered the voice...the voice of the one he had vowed to forget.

"Sparrowfeather." He hissed as the mottled form of his mother slipped out from the leafless bracken. He pelt was thin and matted, and her eyes dull and clouded, but still the fiery sparks of vengeance burning within them.

"Cloudfoot! I've missed you! I so wanted to be at your Warrior ceremony. I helped your father pick out your Warrior name when you were still a kit." She meowed, smiling to reveal broken, yellowed fangs.

"Leave me alone." Cloudfoot spat. He would not listen to a word his mother had to say. She was dead! "Where are we?"

"The Place of No Stars, son. This is where I was banished to. Those cowardly StarClan warriors!" Sparrowfeather's smile turned to a snarl. "Is that bee-brained Tigersnow still the deputy of idiot WindClan?"

"Yes. No thanks to you." Cloudfoot hissed, turning away from his mother and beginning to stalk deeper into the woods.

Images of Tigersnow flashed through his mind, images of what Sparrowfeather's vengeful claws had done. The black-and-white she-cat had barely survived her wounds. A splotchy, pink scar slashed around her neck and the back of her head, disrupting the pattern of her fine tabby fur and causing her mew to sound more like a croak.

"Wait, Cloudfoot. I brought you here because I want to talk to you." Sparrowfeather suddenly appeared in front of him, her eyes gleaming.

"I'm not interested in a thing you have to say." He growled, although he didn't run. Something inside made him want to find out what she wanted. Why would she bring him here?

"Oh, Cloudfoot. I thought you were more loyal than that!" Sparrowfeather leaned forward so that their noses almost touched. "I want to make you the greatest WindClan warrior that ever existed. You'll be better than Tigersnow, better than your littermates, even better than your father. You want to be able to train your apprentice the best you can, right? How can you do that if you don't know the most complicated WindClan battle tactics? Tactics that were lost seasons ago. You want to be the best for your apprentice...even your Clan, right?"

Every fiber of his feeling was screaming at him to run, to refuse, to never set paw in the dark, desolate woods.

"Teach me."

Chapter Two

He could feel thick, sticky liquid rolling down his muzzle as Cloudfoot opened his eyes. The sharp metallic scent of blood stung his scent glands. Images of Sparrowfeather's shining black claws and her snarl as they trained with their claws unsheathed.

"Cloudfoot! What happened to your forehead?" Heathercloud's worried face appeared above him.

"Um..." Cloudfoot frantically scrambled for an answer. "I must've scratched myself on a burr in my nest..."

"Come on, let's go see Mosspaw."

Heathercloud led him out of the warrior den despite his protests and beckoned to him to enter the medicine den. Cloudy, dust-coated light swirled in front of him as his eyes adjusted to the half-light.

"Heathercloud? Cloudfoot? Is someone hurt?" Mosspaw bounded out of the back of the den, his eyes searching his sibling's faces for an explanation.

"Cloudfoot got into a fight with a burr last night." Heathercloud meowed, casting a disbelieving glance toward her white-furred littermate.

That's more or less true. Cloudfoot thought with a twitch of his whiskers.

"Could you get him patched up?" Heathercloud asked. "I'll go tell Tallpaw that her mentor-"

"Cloudfoot! Cloudfoot! Cloudfoot!" A pale grey blur streaked into the den. "Oh, there you are, Cloudfoot! I Need to talk to you."

"Okay, Tallpaw. Can you do it while Mosspaw puts something on my burr scratch?"

"Yup." Tallpaw sat down and wrapped her tail around her paws, her eyes two huge glowing orbs in the dim light. "Last night, I had dream about my...my m-mother."

Cloudfoot, Heathercloud, and Mosspaw gasped and exchanged glances.

"Did she hurt you?" Cloudfoot asked, stepping closer to his apprentice.

Tallpaw shook her head fiercely, her eyes wide and surprise. "Of course not! She's my mother!"

Cloudfoot blinked incredulously. Has she forgotten who ruined her life? Who pushed back her apprenticeship, who scarred her permanently?

"Tallpaw. Have you forgotten who nearly killed you? Have you forgotten who killed Stripekit?" Cloudfoot growled. Mosspaw flinched at the mention of his littermate's name, but Tallpaw seemed unfazed.

"Sparrowfeather told me it was Tigersnow who tried to kill me." She whispered, leaning in closer to her siblings. "She said that Tigersnow was jealous that Sparrowfeather became deputy, so she killed Sparrowfeather, Stripekit and almost me."

"That' not true!" Heathercloud exclaimed. "Archtail was there! It was Sparrowfeather!"

"As long as Tallpaw isn't hurt, it doesn't matter what Sparrowfeather says." Cloudfoot meowed calmly.

Heathercloud nodded hesitantly. "I guess you're right. If she visits you again, just do as she says and we'll help you and keep you from getting hurt."

Tallpaw nodded solemnly. "I will, Heathercloud. I promise."


"Okay, Tallpaw. Now you try it." Cloudfoot meowed, landing on his paws just after demonstrating a new battle move that Sparrowfeather had shown him the night before. It was the third time he had seen his mother in his dreams, and every morning, the young white warrior had a new scar or cut to hide from his littermates. Heathercloud had become increasingly difficult to avoid, her sharp eyes spotted nearly everything, and she was obviously worried about him.

Not that she should be. Cloudfoot thought. I'm a grown warrior, not some kit!

"Okay!" Tallpaw leapt into the air and perfectly mimicked the move Cloudfoot had demonstrated. She landed on her paws, her claws sinking into the ground and her tail outstretched.

Cloudfoot blinked, confused. Tallow had never seen or practiced that move before. How had she gotten it right unless...

"You've been training with her, haven't you?" He demanded.

"You mean, with...with Sparrowfeather?" Tallpaw asked nervously. "She said she'd help me catch up with the other apprentices since I got such a late start. She promised she'd help me."

As she spoke, Cloudfoot noticed a small red slash on Tallpaw's hindpaw.

This is the exact same thing I'm doing. I can't get mad at her. Besides, Sparrowfeather has seemed to be helping her.

"You're not mad?" Tallpaw asked quietly.

"No I'm not. I think you're doing the right thing. Sparrowfeather May have been evil and dangerous, but she was a good fighter. She'll help you." Cloudfoot replied, hoping what he said was true.