Chuck was out on his daily rounds around the neighborhood. He usually caught some prey to eat and had skirmishes with the local toms. He was no stranger to fighting and thought he did well for himself.

Ralph, his brother, had said that it would be a good idea to split up that night, to see what it was like to have an adventure alone for once.

Chuck thought it was odd and out of the ordinary for his brother, but he reluctantly accepted the proposition and went on to kill a few mice, mostly for sport, and then returned home near morning.

"Ralph?" he called, expecting his brother to answer, but he wasn't back yet. Maybe he's just having a lot of fun and hasn't returned yet, he thought and went inside his housefolk's nest.

The ginger tabby tom went to nap on the sofa, surrounded by many cardboard boxes all around that the twolegs were currently using to put things inside, and awoke around noon day. Hungry, Chuck fed from his bowl of dry pellets, which tasted oddly bland that day. He then searched for his brother, finding no fresh trace of scent nor seeing him.

Where could he have gone? wondered the ginger tom, worried. I hope he's okay.

Chuck padded outside through his cat door and out into the front lawn. If he could just find out where Ralph had gone last night, perhaps he could track him down. Sniffing around, Chuck came to the road that went through his neighborhood. As he was concentrating, a sweet she-cat spoke to him, approaching.

"Hello, Chuck!"

Chuck looked up and saw a small beautiful tortoiseshell she-cat with yellow eyes. "Precious," he greeted her with a smile.

She smiled back and lashed her tail slowly. "Are you looking for something?"

"My brother never came back last night after he said wanted to go exploring," he explained.

Precious gazed off into the woods at the far end of the road. "Ralph has been acting very strange lately, don't you think?" she asked.

Chuck tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"You haven't noticed?" the tortoiseshell she-cat furrowed her brows with amusement. "He's barely taken his eyes off the woods since he heard about what housefolk do to male cats out of the blue."

Chuck supposed she was right. When him and his brother were old enough, they knew what was coming; they would be stripped off their ability to be a tom. They couldn't have kittens of their own. Perhaps that bothered Ralph more than it did him and that was why he was being somewhat distant.

Precious pressed her tail tip against his shoulder. "Would you like me to come help you look for him?" she offered.

Chuck appreciated the help. "I would like that. Especially now that you've given me an idea!"

"What is it?" she asked, curious.

"I think I know where to find my brother… he must be in the forest."

Chuck and Precious dashed into the woods, with no fear for they had no idea that a large clan of cats lived there, no less four clans. The worst thing to fear was a fox or coyote, and the cats where Chuck lived were not afraid of them. They may be tame cats, but they were no cowards.

The forest was so fresh and warm, the grass and leaves under their paws soft and crisp. The many scents of prey whirled up into Chuck's nose and he had to fight the urge to begin a hunt. To be quite honest, he had never really hunted here. He mostly caught lonely mice in fields and nearby the humans housing.

The forest floor began to slope upward, becoming steeper until there was a steep cliff face before them. "I definitely smell Ralph," observed the ginger tabby tom. "I just can't understand where he may be exactly…"

Precious began to climb the rock face, easily leaping from rock to rock, to get to the top. "Well, let's keep going… keep in mind, Chuck, there's always a possibility that he may have run away for good this time," the she-cat warned.

Chuck's fur fluffed up. "Do you really think he would run away and not tell me, or invite me with him?"

"Maybe," replied the tortoiseshell.

The ginger tom remembered how just moons ago Precious had been a tiny kitten mewling for her mother, helpless with her brother Cookie by her side. His housefolk's daughter had convinced her two neighbors to take one each, so Precious went into one home and Cookie into the home right beside hers so that they never had to be apart for long and could see each other every day.

Your mother was quite cranky all the time, but… I do miss her sometimes, Chuck thought and remembered with nostalgia the times when Precious' mother Black Kitty would curl up with him at night. She had been mean most of the time, but it wasn't her fault that she had had an accident when she was a kitten and had been somewhat mentally damaged.

Chuck snapped back to the present when he realized that Precious was almost at the top by now, and he leaped up and proceeded to climb. Once at the top, he saw that his she-cat friend had waited for him.

He was about to discuss with her where to head next, but he was cut off by the dark voice of an approaching cat. "Well, well, well—look who decided to venture into the woods!"

Cookie! The ginger tabby instantly recognized him. The blue-gray-and-white tom padded forward out of the undergrowth and came to a halt a few tail-lengths away from Chuck and his sister.

"We came looking for my brother Ralph," Chuck stated, flicking the tip of his tail. "Have you seen him?"

Cookie laughed with a smirk on his lips. "It's funny you should mention him, I was on my way back to tell you guys what he's discovered."

Chuck's eyes lit up in excitement. "So you know where he is then! What has he discovered?" he asked.

The fur along Cookie's spine rippled with sheer enthrallment. Whatever Ralph had found was enough to drive a cat crazy. Precious trotted forward and urged her brother to take them to where Ralph was and to what he had found that was so amazing.

The blue-gray-and-white tom cat winked. "You'll have to see for yourself when we get there, but just know that it is the most awesome thing a cat can ever know."

Chuck could feel his pelt searing with urgency and the need to know. Once Cookie took off and led them, he followed him with Precious by his side.

It took them a while, but they finally reached the location that Cookie had talked about. Cookie crouched in some bushes, peering out through the other end of them. Chuck and Precious crawled up beside him and did the same, and gasped at what they saw.

They were on top of a ravine, cliffs and rock faces on every side of the indent in the earth. However, they weren't interested in the terrain; it was something far rarer. They looked down and saw a flat ground at the bottom of the ravine, covered in lush grass, and upon it walked a large group of wild cats, seeming to be going about their daily business and grooming each other.

"Who are they? I don't think I have ever seen so many cats together before, not in the alley ways in town!" remarked the ginger tabby tom. Did they all live together and fend for themselves? Or was this some sort of special meeting between stray cats? So many questions buzzed through his mind.

Cookie flicked his tail, impatient to meet them and find out exactly what Ralph was up to. "I don't know, but I have heard stories about wild cats that live in groups called Clans. I didn't believe the tales until I followed your brother's scent here and found them all down there."

Precious flattened her ears. "You say Ralph is down there, with them?" she asked. "What if they captured him and are going to kill him for trespassing on their territory, or something?"

Cookie laughed, maybe a little too loudly. "Call me a spy, but I've been watching that tom for a while now!" he stated. "Any cat who takes an interest in the woods has a craving for adventure, and when I saw him last night finally having the courage to enter it for the first time, I followed him and he met with some strange wild cats. At first they tried to kill him, but they saw his fighting tactics and, I guess they saw the potential in asking him to join their Clan."

"What?" Chuck and Precious exclaimed in utter shock at the exact same moment. Ralph, his brother, had really been asked to join a wild cat clan? How amazing that thought was. These professional hunters, professional warriors, had seen potential in his brother and invited him into their group and their lives; oh, how Chuck desperately wanted an opportunity like that as well.

No! There's no way I am leaving my housefolk, they love me, Chuck pushed the thought of becoming a wild cat to the back of his mind.

Chuck stood up, pinning his ears against the back of his head. "Well, I'm going in after him," he said and turned to walk along the ravine's edge, to find a way down.

"Are you crazy?" Precious fretted. "I've heard about those wild cats, they kill for pleasure and they don't take kindly to trespassers."

"They took kindly to my brother, I will just say I followed his scent and it led here," the ginger tabby responded, not stopping or looking back. He hoped his two friends would go home for safety reasons, but they stuck with him; Cookie especially stayed close, probably interested in the clan and learning about them. Precious was terrified, but stayed with her friend and brother loyally.

After swiveling through some thick undergrowth, Chuck came upon a narrow slope downward into the ravine, covered and rather well hidden by brambles. He squeezed through and trotted quickly through the bramble tunnel, followed closely by his friends, and when he had come to the bottom, he paused. He narrowed his eyes and watched the cats in the clan's ravine.

Chuck was about to explain the plan to introduce themselves when all of a sudden a fiery red she-cat burst through the bramble entrance and crashed into him. Immediately Precious' fur bristled and it looked as if she felt the urge to run away, but something stopped her.

Chuck backed away, tensing himself and readying for a fight if he had to. He hoped the she-cat would not attack him, he meant no harm to anyone. The red she-cat shot up to her paws and snarled at him. "Trespassers! What are you three doing in ThunderClan territory?" she demanded, claws unsheathed and ready to flay them alive.