A NIGHTCLAN GUIDE TO THE CATS OF PYRRHIA
SANDCLAN
Description: Sandy or white fur the color of desert sand; small poisonous barb on the end of tail; forked black tongues
Abilities: Can survive a long time without water, poison enemies with the tips of their tails like scorpions, bury themselves for camouflage in the desert sand, breathe bursts of fire
Queen: Since the death of Queen Oasisstar, the tribe is split between three rivals for the throne: sisters Burn, Blister, and Blaze.
Alliances: Burn fights alongside SkyClan and MudClan; Blister is allied with SeaClan; and Blaze has the support of most of SandClan as well as an alliance with IceClan.
MUDCLAN
Description: Thick, armor-like brown fur, sometimes with dark ginger of golden underbelly; large, flat heads with nostrils on top of snout
Abilities: Can breathe bursts of fire (if warm enough), hold their breath for up to an hour, blend into big enough mud puddles; usually very strong
Queen: Queen Moorhen
Alliances: Currently allied with Burn and SkyClan in the great war
SKYCLAN
Description: Ginger-golden or orangish-ginger fur; long, powerful legs
Abilities: Powerful fighters and run-fliers, can breathe bursts of fire
Queen: Queen Scarlet
Alliances: Currently allied with Burn and MudClan in the great war
SEACLAN
Description: Blue-gray or green-gray or blue-green or green-blue fur; webs between their claws when unsheathed; gills on their necks; glow-in-the-dark silver stripes on their tails/snouts/underbellies
Abilities: Can breathe underwater, see in the dark, create big waves with one splash of their powerful tails; excellent swimmers
Queen: Queen Coral
Alliances: Currently allied with Blister in the great war
ICECLAN
Description: Silver fur like the moon or pale blue-white like ice; rigid claws to grip the ice; forked blue tongues; tails narrow to a whip-thin end
Abilities: Can withstand freezing temperatures and bright light, exhale bursts of a deadly freezing breath
Queen: Queen Glacier
Alliances: Currently allied with Blaze and most of SandClan in the great war
RAINCLAN
Description: Fur constantly change color, most of the time depends on mood, temperature, and light, or will, but usually bright like birds of paradise; prehensile tails
Abilities: Can camouflage their fur to blend into their surroundings, use their prehensile tails for climbing, no known natural weapons
Queen: Queen Dazzling
Alliances: Not involved in the great war
NIGHTCLAN
Description: Purplish-black fur and scattered silver fur on underbelly, legs, and tail, like a night sky full of stars; forked black tongues
Abilities: Can breathe bursts of fire, disappear into dark shadows, read minds, foretell the future
Queen: A closely guarded secret
Alliances: Too mysterious and powerful to be part of the war
THE KIT PROPHECY
When the war has lasted twenty seasons…
the kits will come.
When the land is soaked in blood and tears…
the kits will come.
Find the SeaClan kit of deepest blue.
Kit of night shall come to you.
The largest kit in mountain high
will give to you the kit of sky.
For kit of earth, search through the mud
for a kit surrounded by mud the color of cat blood.
And hidden alone from the rival queens,
the SandClan kit awaits unseen.
Of three queens who blister and blaze and burn
two shall die and one shall learn
if she bows to a fate that is stronger and higher,
she'll have the power of paws of fire.
Five kits to be born on brightest night,
five cats born to end the fight.
Darkness will rise to bring the light.
The kits are coming….
PROLOGUE
A cat was trying to hide in the storm.
Lightning flickered across the dark clouds. Hvitur gripped his fragile cargo tighter in his jaws. If he could make it over the mountains, he'd be safe. And the secret cave was so close… he moved his legs faster, staying in the air as he run-flied.
But his theft had not been as stealthy as he thought, and eyes as black as obsidian were already tracking him from below.
The enormous cat on the mountain ledge had sand-colored fur that radiated heat like a desert horizon. Her black eyes narrowed, watching the gleam of silver fur far up in the clouds.
She flicked her tail, and behind her two more cats jumped in the air and leaned upwards, legs zipping fast, rose to the sky and dove into the heart of the storm. A piercing shriek echoed off the mountains as their claws seized the moon-pale ice cat.
"Bind his mouth," the waiting cat ordered as her soldiers dropped Hvitur on the slick, wet ledge in front of her. He was already inhaling, ready to attack. "Quickly!"
One of the soldiers grabbed a chain from the pile of smoldering coals. He threw it around the ice cat's snout, clamping his jaws together with a sizzling smell of burning fur. Hvitur let out a muffled scream.
"Too late." The sand cat's forked tongue slithered in and out of her mouth. "You won't be using your freezing-death breath on us, ice cat."
"He was carrying this, Queen Burnstar," said one of the soldiers, handing her a cat kit.
Burn squinted at the small mewling kit through the downpour. "That's not an IceClan kit," she hissed. "You stole this from the SkyClan palace."
The IceClan cat stared back at her. Hissing steam circled his snout where the hot chains met cold silver fur.
"You thought you got away unnoticed, didn't you?" Burn said. "My SkyClan ally is not a fool. Queen Scarlet knows everything that happens in her kingdom. Her lookouts reported an IceClan thief sneaking away, and I decided finding you might add some violence to my boring visit."
Burn held the large kit up to the light of the fire with one paw, balancing on the other three, and turned it slowly. The ginger-and-gold kit mewled again.
"Yes. This is a SkyClan kit, no doubt about that," Burn mused. "Why would my sister send you to steal a SkyClan kit? Blaze hates any cat younger and prettier than she is." She thought for a moment as rain drummed on the ledge around them. "Unless… the brightest night is right now…."
Her tail flicked up the a scorpion's, the poisonous barb inches from Hvitur's eyes. "You're not in Blaze's army, are you? You're one of those insipid underground peacemongers."
"The Claws of Peace?" said one of the soldiers. "You mean they're real?"
Burn snorted. "A few worms crying over little blood. Unwrap his chains. He won't be able to freeze us until his scales cool down." The enormous sand cat leaned closer as her soldier pulled the chain away. "Tell me, ice cat, do you really believe in that pompous old NightClan cat's prophecy?"
"Haven't enough dragons died for your war?" snarled Hvitur, wincing at the pain in his jaws. "All of Pyrrhia has suffered for the last twelve seasons. The prophecy says-"
"I don't care. No prophecy decides what happens to me," Burn interrupted. "I'm not letting a bunch of words or baby cats choose when I die or what I bow to. We can have peace when my sisters are dead and I am the queen of SandClan." Her venomous tail dipped closer to the silver cat.
Rain pattered on Hvitur's fur. He glared up at her. "The kits are coming, whether you like it or not, and they'll choose who the next SandClan queen should be."
"Really?" Burn stepped back and turned the kit slowly between her claws as she balanced on her hind legs. Her forked tongue slipped in and out of her smile. "So, IceClan cat. Is this kit a part of your pathetic prophecy?" The kit mewled.
Hvitur went still.
Burn tapped the kit lightly with one long claw. "Hello?" she called. "Is there a kit of destiny there? Ready to end this big bad war?"
"Leave it alone." Hvitur choked out.
"Tell me," Burn said, "what becomes of your precious prophecy... if one of the five kits never lives long at all?" The kit, less than a quarter of an hour old, mewled again.
"You wouldn't," he said. "No one would harm a baby cat kit." His blue eyes were fixed desperately on her claws.
"No 'kit of sky' to help save the world," Burn said. "What a sad, sad story." She began tossing the kit from one front claw to the other. "I guess that means you should be very, very careful with this terribly important little- oops!"
With an exaggerated lunge, Burn pretended the wet kits was slipping through her talons... and then she fell back down to all four paws and let the kit fall over the side of the cliff into the rocky darkness below. The kit mewled desperately.
"No!" Hvitur shrieked. He threw off the two soldiers and flung himself toward the edge. Burn slammed her massive claws down on his neck.
"So much for destiny," she smirked. "So much for your tragic little movement."
"You're a monster," the IceClan cat gasped, writhing under her claws. His voice cracked with despair. "We'll never give up. The kit- the kits will come and stop this war."
Burn leaned down to hiss in his ear. "Even if they do- it'll be far too late for you." Her claws ripped through the silver cat's legs, shredding them as Hvitur shrieked in agony. With a swift movement, she stabbed her poisonous tail through his skull and flung the long, silver body over the edge of the cliff.
The ice cat's screams cut off long before the echoes of his corpse slamming into the rocks below.
The SandClan cat turned her black eyes to her soldiers. "Perfect," she said. "That should be the last we hear about that stupid prophecy." She held out her claws so the rain could wash away the glistening cat blood. "Let's go find something else to kill."
The three cats jumped up and raced away through the air, lifting off into the dark clouds.
Some time later, far below, a large cat the color of rust crawled over the rocks to the broken body of the ice cat. She nudged his tail aside and lifted a small kit tail from underneath it, then slipped back into the labyrinth of caves under the cliffs.
Stone walls brushed against her flanks. She breathed out a small burst of a flame to light her way along the dark passage, deep into the mountain.
"I stand with the Claws of Peace," hissed a voice in the shadows. "Kestrel? Is that you?"
"We await the paws of fire," answered the ginger cat. A blue-green SeaClan cat emerged from a side cave, and she tossed the tail at his feet. "Not that it'll do us much good now," she snarled. "Hvitur is dead."
The SeaClan cat stared at the tail. "But- the SkyClan kit-"
"Dead," She said. "Gone. It's over, Webs."
"It can't be," he said. "It's the brightest night. The three moons are all full for the first time in a century. The kits of the prophecy have to be alive."
"Well, one of them is already dead," Kestrel said. Rage flickered in her eyes. "I knew I should've stolen the SkyClan kit myself. I know the Sky Kingdom. They wouldn't have caught be a second time."
Webs grimaced, scratching one paw over the gills along his neck. "Asha is dead, too."
"Asha?" A spurt of flame shot from Kestrel's nose. "How?"
"Caught in a battle between Blaze's and Blister's forces on the way here. She still made it back with the MudClan kit, but she died of her wounds soon after."
"So it's just you, me, and Dune to raise the little worms," Kestrel growled. "For a prophecy that can never be fulfilled. Let's kill the cursed kits now and be done with it. We'll be long gone before the Claws of Peace return for the kits."
"No!" Webs hissed. "Keeping the kits alive for the next eight seasons is more important than anything. If you don't to be part of that-"
"All right, enough," Kestrel snapped. "I'm the strongest cat in the Claws of Peace. You need me. It doesn't matter how I feel about nasty little kits." She eyes the kit tail on the floor, rubbing her scarred front paws together. "Although I thought at least one of them would be a SkyClan cat."
"I'll find us a fifth kit." Webs pushed past her, fur scraping against rock.
"There's no way back into the Sky Kingdom, brainless," she said. "They'll be guarding the hatchery closely now."
"Then I'll get an kit from somewhere else," he said grimly. "RainClan don't even count their kits- I could take one from the rain forest without anyone noticing."
"Of all the horrible ideas," Kestrel said with a shudder. "RainClan cats are wretched creatures. Nothing like SkyClan."
"We have to do something," Webs said. He hissed as his tail sent the kit tail skittering across the floor. "In eight seasons, the Claws of Peace will come looking for five kits. The prophecy says five, and we're going to make it come true... whatever it takes."
A/N Hello! I hope you enjoyed the prologue. Yes, yes, I know, fire-breathing cats and flying cats, I know. But I had to make it so that I could copy the book. What did you think? Leave a review down below! And out! A/N