A new moon hung low over the horizon. To the cats milling below, it seemed that the sliver of a white claw was pointing ominously towards them. A small tomcat slipped out of the camp, eager to escape the bustle of cats moving and mewling around him. A sharp wind picked up, causing the new warrior to fluff up his ginger and black fur with a shiver. Looking up to the sky, he saw clouds starting to blow over the moon, casting the narrow path he was walking down into darkness. Flattening his ears against his head, pupils dilated with fear, he raced through the undergrowth, trying his best to avoid the brambles that grew thickly in this part of the shore. He stumbled out onto a pebbly beach, bits of bramble clinging to his pelt. Dark waves roared, pounding into the beach. Whipping his head back and forth, the tom was able to spot the land bridge to the mainland. He raced towards it, pebbles clattering and cracking behind him. As he reached the end of the bridge, the sky was wrenched apart by a bright flash of lightning, followed by a roar of thunder. As the sound of the thunder echoed away, the ground lurched underneath the tom. With a frightened wail, he stumbled away, heading for the hills on their border. The ground heaved underneath his feet, sending him crashing into a small tree. Cracks split the ground below him, and scalding brown water bubbled up from deep in the earth. Yowling in terror, the tom pulled himself to his paws, and tore off towards the hills as a heavy rain started to fall. His back paws slipped as he started to climb the muddy hill, sending him tumbling back down the way he had come, and coating his ginger and black pelt with a sticky brown layer of mud. Unsheathing his claws, he dug them into the mud with each step up the hill. As he neared the top, a fierce wind tore at his fur and whipped his tail back and forth behind him. Narrowing his eyes, he was able to spot the rabbit warrens three fox-lengths ahead of him. Clawing his way up the slope, he slid under a rock, and shook himself, trying to rid himself of the excess water streaming off his fur. Settling down under the stone, the tom turned his head towards his island home, trying to see it through the rain. He quickly found the land bridge, and followed it down the cliffs, to where the island was resting, nestled safely between four towering stone pillars.
The tom was struck with a flash of sadness. He had been asleep in his nest, dreaming that he was hunting a fish in the tide pools, when a brown spotted tabby had emerged from the palms behind him, and told him that he must spend the night at the rabbit warrens, on the mainland. At first, the tom couldn't believe his eyes, there was Pebblestar, his leader who had died two moons ago. He had been visited by a Starclan cat. Pebblestar explained that it would be critical to his clan's survival that he spent the night there. Nodding his head, the ginger and black tom agreed. Pebblestar had leaped down to him, gave him a lick on his head, and the tom had woken up in his nest, and then started his frantic climb to the rabbit warrens. A bright flash startled the tom out of his thoughts. Lightning had struck the island, and already, the tom could see the flickering reds and oranges of fire in the trees. His paws were itching to run back to his clanmates, but he remembered the Starclan cat's warning. Sending a quick prayer to Starclan for his clanmates' safety, the tom moved as far back underneath the rock as he could, then settled down to sleep.
When he woke, he was lying on the pebble beach of his island, with Pebblestar crouching on a boulder beside him, eyes narrowed. With a flick of his tail, Pebblestar leaped down onto the beach, sending a few pebbles clattering away.
"I'm sorry that things had to turn out this way. If we could have changed your clan's fate, we would have done so. You are the only cat of Islandclan left-""What do you mean, the only survivor? Did the fire destroy the camp? But cats would have survived, right? So what makes it so that everyone died?" Turning, the tom started to run towards the camp, but was blocked by a wall of brambles. Letting out a furious hiss, he whirled around, intending to run the other way, but quickly slid to a stop in front of a ginger she-cat and a black tom.
"Darkstone! Crabclaw! Why are you here? You're dreaming like me, right? Please say you are!" the tom whimpered. Crabclaw wound herself around her son.
"There is nothing to fear. You must go on a great journey to preserve our clan, and make it strong once again." She whispered in his ear.
"But why me? What makes me so important? Why was I chosen when everybody else wasn't?"Darkstone gave him a lick on his head.
"Keep our memory alive through the generations. One day, Islandclan will have their home back, and will be a part of the five clans once again. That time is not now. Teach our ways where you go, and spread our word." Darkstone's blue eyes darkened, and then he hissed in his son's ear "Sunset marks the end of the day. Night marks an absence. Sunrise marks the beginning of a new era."
"What's that supposed to mean?" The tom wailed. The two Starclan warriors started to fade from sight. "Wait! Don't leave me!"He caught his parent's scent still on the breeze as a whisper reached his ears.
"We love you very much. Wherever you go, we will be watching over you and your descendants. Good luck and safe travels, Sunfall."Their scent was gone.
Sunfall woke up under the stone, with water lapping at his black forepaws. Splashing out of his makeshift den, Sunfall's eyes widened. All he could see was black water. Here and there, the tallest trees poked their spindly branches into the sky. Biting back a wail of terror, Sunfall looked towards where the land bridge was. A stretch of unbroken black water covered where the land bridge was. Looking at where the island had been, all he could see was the topmost part of the tallest tree.
