Disclaimer: Warriors by Erin Hunter

Thanks to reviewers: HeatherDiamond128 and EnlightenShadow

For an explanation: You'll notice that Fawnfur's history of the Clans and the battle with the Dark Forest is different than the main series. This is because Steps to the Stars follows the events from my series that started with Hollyleaf's Challenge. My books take an alternative direction because HC was written when Hollyleaf "died" in the tunnel. The book went with the theory she did not die (later proven true) but because of Hollyleaf's actions, the events of the Clans play out differently than in Hunter's series-including when the Dark Forest invaded in Unknown Skies versus Omen of the Stars.

For details you'd have to read my other works (mainly Falling Into Shadow and Unknown Skies), but Fawnfur's summary should suffice. Just keep in mind there will be characters you don't recognize, but all too familiar villains.

Chapter 1

The tabby she-cat's ears twitched. Something scuttled in the thorns. She opened her jaws letting the wild odor of dirt and pine needles hit the roof of her mouth. Mouse. The tabby swallowed the sudden rush of saliva. She could practically taste the blood on her tongue. Her hunger, long unsatisfied, awoke once more. Her stomach grumbled. This would be a wonderful meal. The best thing to happen to Fernstripe in a long while.

She stilled her paws. She couldn't let the mouse feel her movement on the ground. She couldn't let it get away. She had to find it. Be the first to reach it.

In the thick undergrowth, the hunt would be difficult. The thorns and brambles here in the Dark Forest were thicker than fleas on rabbits. Every step drew the long, pointed plants through fur to pierce skin. Cuts were frequent here and the scent of blood was a companion as constant as the darkness above and the smoky tang that wafted through the air.

Fernstripe had never come across the fire causing the smell, but the eternal-leaf-fall forest was rife with a thick haze. She supposed one day that the hidden fire would burn in her direction and the next stage of misery would begin. But maybe it would burn away the brambles and thistles. That might be the only blessing.

She contained her shudder at the images of burned forest and cats, not wanting to scare the morsel she stalked. Fernstripe flicked her ears, searching. There it was. She could hear the mouse now as it gnawed at the wooden stems. Was it searching for food too? Not much here. There was never much of anything here. Which might be why there was so little prey for Fernstripe and her fellow cats. The Place of No Stars was not a friendly territory. It was not meant as a place to rest from the long labors of warrior life. She'd learned that as soon as she'd arrived. At least the tabby hadn't needed to make her journey alone. Soon after she'd awoken in the forest Fernstripe had found her sister and together they'd discovered the other inhabitants of the dark trees. The spirits were gathered, plotting revenge on the living and StarClan for forcing them to this miserable existence.

Fernstripe placed one paw in front of the other, easing between the sharp ends of the dry, brown vegetation. Carefully, carefully now. Her stomach rumbled and she willed it to silence. Killing this mouse should be easy. She was frightened in her eagerness she would make a mistake and scare off her prey, so she proceeded cautiously.

The mouse was in a particularly thick tangle of brambles. Sharp thorns poked out at every angle as if the plant's only purpose had been designed to hurt. The aim of everything here, really. If it wasn't the thorns piercing skin or patches of nettle and burning ivy driving a cat mad, the other spirits had no concern for the others. They were willing to catch claws on anyone not considered an ally.

How could she get inside this tangle? The tabby lifted her ears, listening for the mouse's reaction. It was still chewing away. It didn't sense her. Just as she had difficultly sniffing it out due to the hazy smoke, the mouse couldn't smell her, not used to the stench. It chewed too loudly to hear her. She must step with care. Or should she?

Would it be worth flushing the mouse out? Fernstripe could chance it and hope the creature had no hole to hide in. Open ground was scarce, but patches of dirt, embedded with stones, were smattered between the thorns. The ground was tough to claw into, not that there was any good reason to dig. The mouse wasn't likely to have a hole. She decided to flush the creature from its den.

"I see it! I see the light!"

Fernstripe's head shot up. Who had yowled?

From the corner of her eye, the tabby saw the mouse darting from cover. She ignored the shout and sprang after the creature. The thorns clawed at her side, pulling fur and tugging legs as she squeezed passed the bush, thrusting herself off of the hard dirt. One leap, two, and crashing into the nettles which raked her nose and eyes. Fernstripe tumbled through the thorns and she bit down on the mouse.

Something thin and hard wriggled against her tongue. Fernstripe squinted. The mouse struggled in front of her nose, tail caught between her teeth. The brownish-gray creature jerked and flipped about, biting at her jaw and squeaking violent protests. Fernstripe wrestled the morsel to the ground, pinning it with her claws as the beast tried to draw blood from her paw pads. She was glad she had not met a rat. Though she still would have eaten it.

She ignored the creature for now, hungry, but someone was nearby. She was not about to let them get her prey!

"This is going to be fun!"

Fernstripe's shoulders hunched and her pale fur prickled, making her bigger. Her ears flicked and her eyes darted around the undergrowth. No one was there. Not nearby anyway. Was the other cat even aware of her? Fernstripe heard the sound of heavy breathing and two or three other voices taunting. The sound of their claws tore through the thick branches of the thorns. They were hunting alright, but they weren't hunting her.

It wasn't unusual to see the cats gang up on each other. Once long ago, the cats of the Place of No Stars had been forced to travel alone. In this new era, the Dark Forest cats had learned it was not a good idea for anyone to travel without a companion. You were safer with the eyes of someone else to watch your back. Not many cats got along nor would they share what food they caught, but it was safer than having another group decide you'd be as fun as a moss ball and as easy to claw to bits.

Fernstripe bent to readjust her mouse and escape. She would enjoy it in peace somewhere else. Before she was the next victim. She'd already escaped the clutches of the nastiest of the Forest and was not going back to them.

She nearly broke the mouse's spine when, suddenly, she caught sight of the light leaking through the undergrowth. Brilliant bright, and warm. Had the fire come already to consume her? She nearly jerked away until she realized the words of the taunting cats:

"We'll tear the stars off of you."

"I wonder if she'll still glow then!"

Harsh laughter echoed against the tree branches overhead. The red and yellow leaves rustled and the black abyss beyond sucked their voices away unheard by anyone but Fernstripe.

Was it? Could it be? Fernstripe had only caught a glimpse of one or two racing away from their tormentors. She'd been busy fleeing as well. At the time she'd thought it nothing more than a StarClan skirmish. Until one day she'd overheard a hunting trio talking about how Tigerstar had taken StarClan cats captive. Not glowing cats who had come over from the StarClan border, but cats who'd been living. Who'd died during the battle of the Dark Night and had failed to reach StarClan as they properly should. If the Dark Forest cats could not have their revenge on the living, then they'd take it out on the lost warriors who'd failed to get to the correct afterlife territory.

Fernstripe crept carefully toward the sounds of laughter, her stomach still grumbling. She breathed in sharply, hoping not to regret her next action. She flung the mouse into the middle of the attackers. The creature squeaked and skittered away in terror, not the least dazed.

The other cats froze for only an instant. "Mouse!"

With that cry they were chasing after the fleeing morsel. Fernstripe spat in annoyance at her rumbling stomach and bounded toward the glow that pierced the thorn bush. The undergrowth was nearly as thick as the one she'd found the mouse in.

"Hey," Fernstripe yelled into the bush. "Get out of there!"

She could just glimpse the bright she-cat through the branches. The gold wasn't just from the flecks of light surrounding the she-cat. The StarClan cat's fur was the color of the golden beams of the sun. Fernstripe only dreamed of the sun now. She wished there was a rock warmed by the glorious heat to rest her scratched and battered body on. She had nothing but her memories.

At Fernstripe's order, the she-cat flinched. She didn't look like she was coming out. Her chest was streaked with dried blood. Probably from the thorns. There would have been worse if the hunting trio had caught her.

"I didn't let that mouse go just so you could sit there," Fernstripe meowed. "Those things are rare and I just gave up a good meal for you."

"Wh-why did you do that?" asked the other she-cat through heaves of breath.

"You're StarClan," Fernstripe meowed.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

Fernstripe wasn't sure if she should start laughing because the other she-cat was joking, or if the golden cat really was that mouse-brained. Fernstripe had wasted a good mouse on this pathetic fluff.

"There are others of you," Fernstripe meowed.

"Really?"

"Yes, I caught glimpses before they were captured."

"Did you save them too?"

"No. I'm sure they could handle themselves better than you and if not, I wasn't going to risk getting captured. I'm a hunted she-cat too, you know. It's not like I have the time to save everyone who gets themselves into trouble. And we don't have a lot of time before the hunters catch that mouse. Arguing over who gets to eat it might delay them a little, but we really should get out of here. Come on!"

With reluctance, the golden she-cat pulled herself from the dome of thorns. A few snagged her fur, ripping free with tufts in their sharp clutches. Fernstripe turned on her paws and hurried in the direction opposite the three cats had chased the mouse.

"Y-you weren't in the battle were you?" meowed the golden she-cat as she followed.

"No. I was busy freeing myself from a dirt pit."

"What?"

Fernstripe growled and her pace became quicker. She avoided the thicker thorns, moving her body in a way to push in the direction the plants instead of moving against them. She had learned to avoid getting caught on the prickles-"swimming with the current" as the RiverClan cats put it. The other she-cat stumbled through, her thick tail-fur getting caught on everything.

"Tigerstar thought he'd use me to draw my sister out," Fernstripe eventually meowed. "He had me buried in a small chamber. She never even came!"

After all she'd done for Eveningbreeze, her sister hadn't even bothered to rescue her!

"So how did you get out?" the golden she-cat asked.

"The guards abandoned their post on the Dark Night. I dug my way out. I've been on the run since." She had no intentions of meeting up with Eveningbreeze ever again. Let that fox-hearted she-cat get caught and shoved down in the cold dirt, buried alive. Trapped without air. Fernstripe had died that way, swallowed by a collapsing tunnel. Tigerstar had put her back into her worst nightmare.

"You gave up your mouse for me," the golden she-cat whispered. "Thank you."

Fernstripe twitched an ear back and tried to calm her racing heart. "You're welcome."

"Why did you do it?" the other she-cat asked.

"Well. . . This might sound odd."

The she-cat did not answer and when Fernstripe looked back, she could see her companion was waiting. Fernstripe's tail twitched and caught on some thorns. She yanked it free. Dare she even say it? Why not? The she-cat would find out eventually. Fernstripe might as well be honest.

"I figure eventually the rest of StarClan will come back for you," Fernstripe meowed. "I want to be there when they do. I'm tired of this horrible forest and being afraid I might run into some cat who wants to make my life more miserable than theirs."

"You think they will?" the other cat asked.

"Will what?"

"That StarClan will come for me? For us?"

"I'm betting my everything on it," Fernstripe meowed. "To travel with you otherwise is foolish. We can barely protect each other. We need a Clan."

"A Clan?"

"There's greater protection with more cats. I think we'd be better off if we could take care of each other. Maybe we could actually catch prey and bring it back to camp. It's a lot better than living on your own, waiting to be ambushed. Everyone else travels in their small groups, but we need a Clan."

"Who will be a part of it?"

"Me and you for starters, if you agree. I know you don't trust me, I mean I don't trust any of the cats here either, especially not my fox-hearted sister. I did everything for her, did as she ordered all my life, listened to her lies, and this is how she repays me. Abandons me to Tigerstar and his lot. Let's them torture me for fun—"

The golden cat's ears went back and her eyes darted to the undergrowth as though she might try to flee. Fernstripe clenched her jaw. She couldn't lose the StarClan cat.

"It won't just be me and you in this Clan," Fernstripe meowed. "Don't laugh, but I want all of the rest of the lost StarClan."

"All!" exclaimed the other she-cat, attention pulled back. "How many are there?"

"Quite a few, I'd think. I need a Clan and only StarClan cats work well together. You have a reason to band together. And maybe if there are more of you, the actual StarClan will come that much quicker and get me out of here. Besides we'll all be hunted anyway, might as well be hunted together."

"I'll join," the other cat meowed. "I'll help you find the others and convince them to join too."

"Really?" This was wonderful. "You can be deputy then!"

A foolish grin spread on the other cat's face. "Great! I'm Honeybee, by the way."

"Fernstripe, formerly of ShadowClan."

"Really? Me too! I'm from ShadowClan," Honeybee meowed.

Fernstripe decided to take that as a sign this was meant to be.