Disclaimer: I do not own the Warriors series. This story was based on the books by Erin Hunter.

Note: I apologize for the appearance of the text. I had trouble reformatting it when I loaded it to this website.

Chapter 1

Moonlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the ground

with silvery light. It illuminated two grayish pelts, the cats they

belonged to sitting at the edge of a forest clearing. Neither of

them dared speak, but solemnly watched over the entrances to

the several dens within this clearing, and to the clearing itself.

The forest is beautiful tonight, thought Forestguard as he

watched the moonlight trickle into WoodClan camp. It's almost

enough to forget all of the troubles in WoodClan. And unfortuna-

tely, the troubles were numerous. Ever since Forestguard and

Rockstorm, his brother who was sitting vigil with him tonight,

were kits, RustClan had been openly hostile towards WoodClan

for taking in Swiftclaw, who back then was only six moons old,

an apprentice. He had once been a loner named Tabs, scraping out

a meager life in the alleyways. After being chased by a group of

rogues, he had sought refuge in a small copse of trees at the edge of

their territory. When he had met a passing patrol of warriors, he

became so captivated by the Clans' "strange" way of life, he begged

the WoodClan leader, Stonestar, to let him train as a WoodClan

warrior. Forestguard could remember when he was accepted,

and became apprenticed to Woodpelt, he was so excited that

he did a back-flip after the ceremony! Swiftpaw trained hard daily,

and soon was an excellent fighter. By the time he was a warrior,

he was a completely different cat than the eager Siamese he had

entered the Clan as. He was now a somber warrior, Swiftclaw, who

was worthy of respect from all the Clans.

If only RustClan could see that, Forestguard thought

bitterly. Another Clan that was causing worry -- among all three

other Clans -- was GrassClan. They seemed to grow stronger every

day, becoming plump off of the rabbits and mice that were abundant

on their moorland territory. Their Clan's population was starting

to grow, as well; almost every Gathering brought news of a

new queen, birth, apprenticeship, or warrior. Fortunately,

GrassClan had been completely unaggressive... so far.

And a trouble within WoodClan itself was causing anxiety:

Mousepelt, the medicine cat, was growing very old, and had

no apprentice to carry on her knowledge of StarClan and herbs

for WoodClan. Please let one of Dawnray's kits take an

interest in medicine, or we may be in serious trouble. Dawnray

was currently the only queen in WoodClan, and her three kits were

Sunkit, Flowerkit, and Soilkit.

Yes, times were hard in the woodlands. But Forestguard

and Rockstorm felt like they could take on the entire world

between the two of them... they were warriors now.