Chapter 1: Look Down/On Parole
"Look down, look down! Don't look 'em in the eye! Look down, look down! You're here until you die.." A group of cats said, tied to a huge tree, they were heaving it.
"The sun is so strong, why must it blaze my fur?" A dark grey tom meowed.
"Look down, look down! There's twenty moons to go.." The cats pulled and it scarcely moved.
"I've done no wrong! Please Starclan, hear my prayer!" A orange tom grunted.
"Look down look down, Starclan doesn't care.." The tree moved very slowly as they pulled as hard as they could.
"I know she'll wait, I know that she'll be true!" A light brown tom whispered, thinking of his mate.
"Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you!" The cats yelled.
"When I get free, ya won't see me 'ere for dust!" A white tom yowled.
"Look down, look down! Don't look 'em in the eye.." They recited.
"How long, oh Starclan, before you let me die?" A old scrawny cat cried.
"Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave.. Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave.." The cats had finished getting the tree out. Then, they quickly raced into a line.
"Now bring me prisoner 24601, your time is up! And your parole's begun, you know what that means?" Eaglestrike, the guarder of the cats who broke the Warrior Code, said to a black cat with white paws.
"Yes, it means I'm free!" The black tom said.
"No! It means you get your mud on your shoulder! You are a thief!" Eaglestrike growled.
"I stole a single squirrel!" Prisoner 24601 protested.
"You robbed a den!" The grey tabby snarled.
"I ruined the moss! My sister's kit was close to death, and we were starving." He mewed.
"You will starve again! Unless you learn the meaning of the code." Eaglestrike meowed.
"I know the meaning of those 19 moons... A slave of the Warrior Code!" The convict's eyes flashed to the 19 moons he had served.
"Five moons for what you did! The rest because you tried to flee, yes, 24601-"
"My name is Clawfall!" The code-breaker, known as Clawfall snapped.
"And I am Eaglestrike! Do not forget my name! Do not forget me, 24601." Eaglestrike flicked his tail, motioning for Clawfall to leave.
"Look down, look down! You'll always be a slave.. Look down, look down! You're standing in your grave.." The cat longed to be on parole like Clawfall.
After he left, he sighed.
"Freedom is mine. The earth is still. I feel the wind. I breathe again." Breathing, he calmed again.
"And the sky clears.. The world is waking. Drink from the pool. How clean the taste." Clawfall lapped at the clear water.
"Never forget the years, the waste. Nor forgive them, for what they've done. They are the guilty - everyone."
He ran past the fields. "The day begins... And now let's see, what this new world will do for me!"
He ran to a nearby barn he saw. "You'll have to go. I'll feed you off for the day! Collect your bits and pieces there and be on your way." The calico who was in the barn mewed.
"You have given me half what the other cats get! This piece of crowfood wouldn't buy my sweat!" Clawfall growled.
"You broke the code, it's there for cats to see! Why should you get the same as honest warriors like me?" A light brown tabby cat snarled.
"And now I know how freedom feels, the shadows always at your heels.. It is the law! This mud on my shoulder that makes me cursed throughout the land.. It is the law! Like a rouge, I walk the street, the dirt beneath my pads.." He twitched as he padded away, his paws were aching so hard.
A loner surprised Clawfall. "Come in, mister, for you are weary, and the night is cold out there. Though our lives are very humble.. What we have, we have to share."
"There is water here to revive you.." He flicked his tail to a nearby stream.
"There is fresh-kill to make you strong, there's a nest to rest till morning, rest from pain, and rest from wrong." The loner pointed to the extra nest.
"He let me eat my fill.. I ate like a lion pride! The thrushes in my paws were twice what I had hunted! In all those nineteen moons - that lifetime of despair! And yet he trusted me.." Clawfall said.
"The old fool trusted me - he'd done his bit of good. I played the grateful cat, and thanked him like I should! But when the den was still, I got up in the night. Took the mice, took my flight!" He quickly grabbed the mice and ran off. He had not been running long, when he was taken by two cats.