Author's Notes: Yay! The second in a series of six! Be patient people, please! I'm rewriting this series because the first one was too confusing, so the chapters will only be up one or two at a time!
Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors! I own the characters made up for this story. If you characters have the same name(s) as mine, it's not my fault. Please don't intentionally steal my characters! Thank you!
Prologue
"I can't believe you agreed to come with me," the brown tom cat said.
The ginger-brown she-cat walking beside him in the dark lashed her tail back and forth. "You would have done the same for me."
"I hope my dad is okay," the tom whispered. "If what you say is true..."
"I wouldn't lie to you about that!" the she-cat gasped.
"I wasn't calling you a liar," the tom said, his silver eyes flashing in the moonlight. "It's just hard to believe."
"I know. All of this is hard to believe. Rowanpaw keeps trying to convince me that everything will be alright, and I really want to believe him, but it's, like, really hard to do that when I've been turned into a wild cat!" the she-cat meowed.
"Wow. There's no doubt you were a Twoleg once!" The tom laughed. He flicked his tail. "I can't believe I've been with RiverClan for so long! It feels..."
"Like you've been there forever?" the she-cat suggested.
"Yeah."
"I've tried to keep track of the days myself, but I've lost count," the she-cat sighed. "It's nice to know that there's another person who's been turned into a cat, though. I thought I was the only one."
"I thought I was the only one, too!" the brown tom whispered.
"Hello!"
The two cats jumped as a silver she-cat with black stripes jumped out of a bush.
"Hello!" the she-cat repeated.
"Um...hello..." the ginger-brown she-cat mewed.
"I'm Maggot! Who're you?"
"Gingerpaw," the she-cat replied.
"And I'm Lionpaw," the brown tom added.
"Where're you going?" Maggot asked.
"None of your business!" Lionpaw hissed.
"It's okay, Lionpaw. I think Maggot is one of the kits of Thicket and Slug. They're rogues who live around here," Gingerpaw whispered.
"That's me!" Maggot giggled.
"Are you sure, Gingerpaw?" Lionpaw whispered.
"She's okay," Gingerpaw assured him. She turned to Maggot. "We're taking a break from being Clan cats so we can go and find Lionpaw's father. But it's a secret, so you can't tell anyone."
Maggot's light brown eyes widened. "A secret! I can keep secrets!"
"Good. So keep this one for us. And don't tell anybody," Gingerpaw said. "It's very important to us that we find Lionpaw's father."
"Okay! Have fun!" Maggot waved her tail and disappeared back into the bushes.
"Are you sure we should have trusted her?" Lionpaw asked Gingerpaw.
"I hope so," Gingerpaw replied. "Let's keep going."
"What was that cat doing out in the middle of the night, anyway?" Lionpaw grumbled.
"Maybe she was on a secret mission, too," Gingerpaw suggested with a laugh.
Lionpaw shook his head.
The two cats continued on into the night.
They reached the lake and walked around the edge, keeping within three tail-lengths of the water. When they reached the other side of the vast, moonlit lake, they veered away from the water and past a quiet, dark Twoleg nest with horses. Their paws brought them onward, over a Twoleg Thunderpath. They crossed fields of long grasses, passed around a forest, and came upon a clutter of Twoleg nests.
"This is it?" Gingerpaw whispered.
"Yep," Lionpaw answered.
The two cats walked along between the Twoleg nests. Gingerpaw let Lionpaw take the lead. They were going to the home he lived in while he was a Twoleg, after all. A noise made the two cats stop. Gingerpaw looked over her shoulder, but she couldn't see anything.
"Let's keep going," Lionpaw whispered.
They padded onward, keeping their ears perked. Gingerpaw stopped again. She thought she'd heard footsteps behind them, but when she turned, there was nothing there.
"Come on, Ginger!" Lionpaw hissed.
She took a hesitant step forward. Lionpaw continued to urge her on before she finally caught up to him. They rounded a corner further down the Twoleg street. Lionpaw looked up to read the street sign. Gingerpaw waited impatiently, her nerves on edge. She had the feeling that they were being followed. She looked over her shoulder again, but there was still nothing there.
"Leo..." Gingerpaw whispered. "I'm scared. I think someone is..."
They were suddenly surrounded by a group of moving shadows. There were nine shadows against the two of them. Gingerpaw and Lionpaw went back to back, hissing. One of the shadows chuckled. Gingerpaw realized the shadows were cats. One of the she-cats had a bright red collar around her neck. They weren't just cats, they were kittypets!
"Look at the little forest cats!" the cat who had laughed said. He was a scruffy tom with a torn right ear and squinty, yellow eyes. "What were we told to do if any forest cats came here?"
"Kidnap 'em!" a black tom with blue-silver eyes sneered.
"Get 'em!" the scruffy tom snarled.
"Stop!"
The dark-furred cats surrounding Gingerpaw and Lionpaw turned. Gingerpaw and Lionpaw saw a gray she-cat running up to them. She had a light blue collar around her neck. The metal tags dangling from it jingled as she ran.
"You can't hurt them just because a couple of wild cats tell you to!" the gray she-cat said loudly. "Leave them alone!"
"Joe, take care of the wimp," the scruffy tom ordered. "We'll take care of the two forest cats."
A dark gray tom with dark amber eyes attacked the she-cat. Gingerpaw and and Lionpaw had no time to help the gray she-cat kittypet. They were being attacked from every angle by the eight other cats.
The last thing Gingerpaw remembered before falling into darkness was seeing Lionpaw fall beside her, his face bloody and ripped open.
End of Prologue
