Chapter One

A tortoiseshell she-cat leapt over a fallen log, her hazel eyes shinning. "Mama! Mama!" she mewed.

Out from a large crack a silver queen slid out. "What is it, Hawk?" she asked.

"Icaughtahugeaquirrel!" Hawk was too excited to speak properly. She pushed foward a plump gray-brown lump of fur with her orange paw.

"It's pretty big," her mother said, "Now lets eat it." The gray shecat bent over to chew up the joined her and soon they finished it.

"Now what do we do?" Hawk asked. She licked her belly fluff.

"Why don't you go find Frost?" the silver cat crawled back into the crack. "All I want to do right now is sleep." Hawk narrowed her eyes, then started to bounce up and down.

"I wanna sleep too!" she declared. The pale gray queen frowned and shook her head.

"Go and explore," she meowed sharply. The silver tabby's head disappeared back into tree trunk.

Hawk turned and padded off. There was a large rock at the side of their camp. On the other side was another loner named Frost and his parents, Mole and Twig. They were nice for the most part. Hawk and Frost were good friends; whenever their parents didn't want them around, they went to each other and practiced hunting and battle moves. "Hey, Frost," she called. There was no answer. "Frost?" Still no answer.

He's probally off with his parents, hunting or something, Hawk thought glumly. Oh, well. Playing with Frost was not the only thing she could do. She streched luxiourously, her claw tips cacthing the grass, then stood up. What to do, what to do... Hawk walked around camp. Then she padded out. A fern a few tail-lenghts away rsutled, and she tensed her muscles, keeping her amber stare on the plant. A mouse nose poked out from under a few leaves. The tortioseshell crept closer, the mouse twicthed its nose, and she pounced!

The excitement of hunting coursed through Hawk. She swung out a ginger paw and her fully unsheathed claws scraped the mouse's hindquaters. That slowed it down a little, and she spead up. Then Hawk jumped again, this time landing directly on the mouse. She picked it up.

"Hello!" Frost chirped. The thin white Tom took his thrush to her. "Wanna share?" He gnawed on his prey. "Nicecacth," he added kindly.

"Thanks," purred Hawk. She kneaded the grass. She hadn't seen Frost get the thrush, but it was plump. "You, too," she mewed nervously. "Um. I better clear out the prey spot."

Hawk laid down in the grass and gulped down the mouse. The squirrel from earlier had filled her up pretty good, so she only ate about half the mouse. Frost wacthed with bright blue eyes,staying back, in the center of the camp. She carried the rest to a hole at the edge of camp, where a rotting vole, forgotten by Hawk and her mom, lay. Hawk put the mouse next to the crow food and tentivly picked up the moldy prey with one claw and tossed it into the bushes. She streched. "I'm going to head out," Hawk told him. "When Silver wakes up, let her know."

"'Kay," Frost mumbled.

Several fox-lenghts from camp, Hawk caught a strange, rancid stench. A dark shadow fell down beside Hawk. The tortioseshell loner arched her back and spun around. "Who are you?" she hissed, trying to sound treathening.

The cat was massive, nearly twice the size of Hawk, and extremly fat. He was a dark brown tabby with mean yellow eyes. Pulling back his lips in a terrifying snarl, the tabby circled Hawk. The breath caught in her throat, and at last Hawk gasped, trying to sound brave. "Who are you?"

"Aw, what a big,strong kit," the dark brown tom snarled mockingly. The huge cat slid his claws out and scanned the area with narrowed orange eyes. Silver was still asleep, and besides, she was several fox-lenghts from camp.

He planned this attack, Hawk realized. How perfect for him, a five moon old kit, far from camp, with her mother sleeping and friends away. She bristled and arched her back. The stocky tom turned and looked directly at her. Hawk glared back, and he raised his nose with a snort.

"You know how close you are to my territory?" he meowed. His voice was sinister and icy. The huge, dark brown tabby sliced a stalk of grass in half, top to bottom.

"What do you mean?" Hawk asked. The slender tortiseshell tilted her head.

"I live very close," he growled, pawing the grass."You shouldn't be here. We don't like trespassers." The big tabby clawed a huge clump of grass and dirt and tossed it away.

"Trespassers?" Hawk echoed, trying to sound skeptical and not scared.

He scowled. "Yes. Trespassers." Hawk frowned. Maybe he was warning her to stay off his territory. But why go all the way over here? Hawk, Silver, Frost, and Mole had never crossed into another cat's land, at least not in many moons.

"You're trespassing right now," Hawk pointed out.

She regretted it instantly.

The fat dark tom snarled, so low and savage it was like a lion's roar from Mole's stories. "I'm trespassing?" he demanded, amber eyes rolling wildly. "You frog-faced fox hearted pile of fish dung!" he cursed. Hawk sank back.

"Ripplesun?!" Hawk spun around. Her mother was coming up behind her. "Why are you here?" She sounded more scared and wary than hostile.

"Oh, Silver." Ripplesun's red-Orange glare hardened, burning like fire. "The traitor. You aren't dead?" He asked, his growl sinister. "What a pity. Well. You'll be dead soon enough."

"She's no traitor!" Hawk protested.

Ripplesun hissed. " You don't know your mother."

Ooh dramatic! What did Silver do?

The next chapter is really sad. If you don't read it, read my note at the bottom. Which will also be sad, but you need to know what happens for later chapters.