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Chapter 1

Spottedpaw woke up. His eyes were still closed. There was soft grass underneath him. The wind was rippling through his fur like waves on the bank of a rocky shore. Spottedpaw could smell rain on the way, but he didn't want to get up. He felt so relaxed, but there was something strange… he didn't know what it was, but it was strange. He sniffed the air. It didn't smell like anything he had smelled before. Where was he?

He pushed himself to his paws and he looked around. It was a forest of the tallest trees he had ever seen! They were even bigger than the Mountain Birch; and that was the biggest tree ever! It was just a sapling compared to these trees!

Spottedpaw got up on all four paws, but his front left paws felt different. He looked down at it in amazement. It wasn't twisted at that weird angle anymore! When he was just a small kit Spottedpaw got his foot run over by a monster, leaving his paw frozen in a un-natural position that had stayed with him ever since.

Spottedpaw glanced around nervously. Why did it feel so warm here? Wasn't it supposed to be leaf-fall? Instead of the tree's leaves turning to amber, brown, and red they were still green. The grass around his paws was as high as his legs, not that they were particularly long anyway.

The forest was a little dark. No. It was very dark and very eerie too. Something was wrong here. He didn't feel as if he had died though. He didn't feel very alive either. There was a cold chill in the air, even though the sun was beaming down. How can a forest be so dark and so light at the same time? And again: where am I?

He looked around agian, still mesmerized by the trees. There were trees were of all sorts: oak, maple, pine, birch, cedar, walnut, cherry, redbud, dogwood, and even a willow tree. About almost every tree he could name, and had learned was here; in this strange place Spottedpaw was in.

There were no birds singing. Foxberry told me that meant it was going to rain soon, a storm was coming, or that something very bad was going to happen. But he didn't want to believe that something bad would happen, but his conscious told him that it might very well be that. Vines grew around the bottom of one particular tree that he had never seen before, or at least had never heard of. But the vine was golden, and shining in the sun. It was beautiful! He sat down, not so nervous and looked at the mystical tree. Foxberry never told me that vines could be golden! Maybe she hasn't ever saw a golden vine before and she didn't want to get my hopes up for something she though that I might never see, she's a warrior and still hasn't saw a golden vine. Or so I think. But maybe she was never taught about a golden vine. Whatever the reason was, she still never told me of one. Maybe she would've, but I failed her. I wasn't strong enough to beat the warrior. But I didn't pick a fight with him! He attacked me!

"It's not fair!" he wailed without meaning to. "It wasn't my fault! I didn't do anything to him! He broke the warrior code! You aren't supposed to kill a cat, only in self-defense!"

Spottedpaw let out a gasp. The golden vine was growing up the tree in a spiral. It was climbing higher and higher. Now it was half-way up the trunk, but something strange was happening to the tree. It was smoldering! The leaves were one by one falling to the ground and turning into ashes! And the trunk caught on fire! As the golden vine got higher, more of the tree caught on fire. Now every branch was on fire and every leaf had turned into ashes. The golden vine was still glowing! And I didn't seem to be melting. As much as Spottedpaw wanted to move, he couldn't! His feet seemed to have been rooted to the spot.

He could feel fur brush his side. And he started to get scared! He couldn't turn his head. He eyes were stuck watching the vines. And he started to breathe rapidly. "Help me! I can't move!"

The cat pushed him over and he fell of his side. As soon as he was pushed he could hear the fire was gone. There was no more crackling of the melting branches. He got up and looked at the cat that had saved him. There she was. Spottedpaw couldn't believe his eyes. The cat that he had been waiting to see for so long was finally right here in front of him. And most of all, nothing had changed.