Prologue:

Dawnpaw padded silently through the damp, shadowed marsh, the excitement of the journey rushing through her blood. She was tired of being confined to the inner territory of Cloudclan, always being hidden for what she was, but she felt that whatever she may look like or be able to do means nothing if you're all the same at heart, all just cats. This is the only reason she worked up the nerve to pass the territory line into the neighboring clan's territory.

The marsh ground was wet and soft under-paw, she felt the mucky floor squish between her toes and grimaced, stepping out of the low water line for a drier spot and found her leg sinking into the mud. Dawnpaw muffled a yowl of surprise and heaved her leg out of the thick sludge, the mud made a sucking noise and the hole where her leg had been collapsed inwards. She snorted with disgust at the layer of muck on her leg and hastily rubbed it off in the murky water. Keeping herself low, so that she wouldn't be spotted, she trudged out of the marsh to the undergrowth-less shade of the dark, sharp scented pines.

Usually her creamy fur would blend in well with the heather and gorse of her territory's fields or the bracken and undergrowth of the woodland there also, but here Dawnpaw didn't have the dark-pelt necessary to hunt. Or hide, she gulped. But she pushed on forward, near the edge of the territory, with the walls of the mountains that surrounded the valley barely visible through the thick forest of pines.

Suddenly the forest gave way and she crawled next to the bright sunlight of a clearing. Underneath a holly-bush, Dawnpaw opened her jaws to scent for a patrol. With only the scent of pines and cool air on her tongue, she stood up and entered into the golden glow of the sun.

Dawnpaw let out a sigh of relief as she felt the warm rays stroke her back and fill her with a sparking energy. It surprised herself how much she actually missed it. Tilting up her head she saw the endless expanse of sky ahead of her. The pure ocean of azure was only tainted by a few cotton tufts of cloud scattered among it. But what amazed her the most was the wall of stones, jaggedly pointing upward towards the eternal horizon.

The mountainous wall seemed to touch the same clear sky, and then Dawnpaw realized she could see a patch of clouds drifting between two peeks. It's amazing! Never had she seen the mountain walls up so close confined to the inner territory of Cloudclan.

The light filled hollow was flanked on one side by the ginormous mass of gray, and on the other, the shadow covered forest. But as Dawnpaw's gaze drifted down from the mountainous wall, she only saw one thing.

In the center of the clearing stood a gigantic boulder the shape of a tooth erect towards the sky, its sides were jagged and the top was a thin point with a broken cap, making the summit flat. The "tooth-rock" reached above the tall pines but looked tiny compared to the mountains that Dawnpaw assumed it came from.

"What a view I could see from up there..." her words seemed to trail off as she remembered the memory of the view of her territory, she hadn't gone very high, but she thought she could see to the edges of the world. She remembered the feeling of freedom and the wind in her fur, but along with it shed the memories of her clanmates looking up with fear and worry in their eyes worry not for her but for if the other clans saw her. Along with those emotions came others, ones that she was used to. Anger, fear, and disgust. The clan ordered her never to do it again, the voices of the moments filled Dawnpaw's head. Why doesn't she just go, no one wants that freak here! It's unnatural for cat to do that, much less want to! She's just a burden to the clan, when she is old enough we should make her leave, for good!

The remarks stung at her chest, making it ache, and the all-but-distant memories of the painful glances and glares made her look down at her paws. I won't do anything they told me not to do, I'll just be up there for a second and then come back home. Shoving the feelings to the back of her mind, Dawnpaw trotted over to the erected stone.

Easily, Dawnpaw found paw holds and she began her assent. Going upwards she only lost her footing twice, each time regaining balance afterward. Feeling the wind blowing from around the other side of the boulder growing stronger with every heave towards the top excited her. The wind only brought up her spirits, a yearning that she had been feeling in her heart, finally, so close to fulfilling, even if only for a minute. At what felt like long last, her pink and gray dimpled pads brushed the smooth surface of the summit, and with some digging of claws in the cracks of the stone, she hauled herself over the edge.

Wind battered Dawnpaw's face and she closed her clear blue eyes against it, squinting, she attempted to see past the strong air current. As soon as Dawnpaw got a glance she had to stretch her eyes wide to take in the glorious scenery, a gasp of amazement escaping her lips, the wind no longer a worry or care. Around her she could see all of the clan territories, colors of the dark green forest melted into the new-leaf green of the meadows beyond it. On the upper valley Cliffside, she could spot the pouring waterfalls running off the mountains in Rainclan, bright against its gray, stone covered territory. The gold fields of Cloudclan met and seemed to blur against the landscape of gray and spots of clover-green woods dotted along the course of the border. The blue streaks of rivers ran their course throughout all of it, meeting in the center in the form of a magnificent waterfall.

A gust of wind pushed Dawnpaw back, she dug her claws in the stone to stay on the ridge instead of plummeting downwards to the forest floor. She gazed around her, never wanting to see anything else ever again, but flicked an ear as she heard a faint yowl. Reluctantly, she looked towards the ground to see a small, blurred form of a cat. Its pelt was dark and the cat was no bigger than Dawnpaw. It yowled something more at her, its tail lashing.

Dawnpaw could make out only a few things, "Get down you- I'm warning- This isn't funny- could hurt yourself- are you a mouse-brain- I'll get a patrol- get you down! -"

She turned her head away from the cat and squealed in excitement as another gust bombarded her. The wind flew through her pelt, sending feelings, that she had sought for, coursing through her veins.

Exhilaration flooded throughout her, hitting her like waves with every heartbeat. But even though she felt like this, there was a peace that filled her chest. The wind and sky lifted any feelings of doubt or sorrow from her body, she felt as if she had no ties in the world, only an endless expanse of freedom like the calm, blue sky. Her paws tingled, she knew what she really wanted, she didn't even remember their words anymore, all pain and sadness seem as if it was a far off memory. She could go where ever she pleased, she was free.

Closing her eyes, she took a step of into nothing but the thin air and let gravity pull her body down as she plummeted towards the earth.

From her sudden leap, a shocked yowl came from the cat below, filled with panic. But Dawnpaw didn't care, she didn't need to anymore. She felt as if she was floating on a beam of light, relishing in the sting on her cheeks as the quick air whizzed past her. She shot downwards, and about half way down the sharply risen boulder, Dawnpaw opened her wide, magnificent, tawny wings.

The wind pushed forcefully up against them, and she rocketed above the forest into the wide sea of blue. Dawnpaw could see, as she looked down, the cat on the forest floor's jaw hanging loosely with shock and awe. The dark greens pines of the forest blurred together as she flew up higher and higher. A beautiful feeling spread through her limbs and felt like it shone throughout every pore on her body. As Dawnpaw glided below the clouds, wind on her back, her breath seemed to catch in her throat, it was all so beautiful. Yes, she knew, this what I wanted all along.