5 Moons later

Talonstar launched himself at a squirrel and pinned it and bit it on the back of the neck, it twitched its ear once and then went limp. "Great catch!" Ravenpaw meowed padding from the wheat. Talonstar nodded in thanks. Whitetail padded out of the wheat with a rabbit in her jaws. She dropped the rabbit with shock. "You caught a squirrel! I haven't seen one out here for a moon. The last one who caught one was Mo…" She paused "Mom." Ravenpaw's head drooped. Their mother had died of a sickness about a moon ago, Talonstar shuddered as he saw a vision of his mother on the wool nest, coughing up this clear liquid. Talonstar leaned against his father and licked his cheek. "She fought the sickness, but it beat her." Talonstar never saw so much grief clouding his father's gaze. Their mother had given them new names on her last breath and told them they need to go to the Forest on the horizon right before she died, but Ravenpaw didn't want to lose them too, so he said they couldn't. Whitetail thought of the journey as a memorial for her mother, Talonstar felt the same, but he would never tell his father that. They carried their prey to the barn and Barley was sitting in the entrance, Talonstar noticed for the first time that Barley was getting old, he'd never realized it before. Barley walked up to Ravenpaw and whispered something to him and he nodded and then turned to Whitetail and Talonstar. "You need to go to your nests, we are going to sleep early tonight." He rasped. The sun was still out, Whitetail looked confused. "Why?" She asked. He shook his head "You'll find out tomorrow." Talonstar watched Ravenpaw pad to his nest, he lied down and wrapped his tail around himself. He shook his head and walked to his own nest and fluffed the sheep wool and settled down and eventually fell asleep.

Talonstar woke to Whitetail prodding him in the side, it was barely dawn. "What?" He asked sleepily. "Ravenpaw wants to take us somewhere." She whispered. Talonstar stood up and stretched, shaking pieces of moss and wool from his pelt. He followed Whitetail to the barn entrance, where Ravenpaw was sitting there, staring off into the distance. He turned and his expression was unreadable. "We are travelling over there." He meowed, pointing his tail tip to a cluster of trees and twoleg dens. Whitetail didn't say anything, which was surprising to Talonstar. Ravenpaw started down the slope, Whitetail looked at Talonstar then followed him. They walked for several minutes until they came to a clearing, There was a large chunk of rock on the ground, there were cat claw marks engraved in the stone. Ravenpaw stared at it, and walked towards it and rubbed the marks with his paw. "This was part of the Great rock, Where the four clans gathered every full moon, for peace." Ravenpaw meowed. "There use to be four gigantic oaks that went around the clearing, but the twolegs tore them from the ground." Without a word, Ravenpaw started to pad away towards a little clump of forest a little bit off. Talonstar put his tail-tip on Whitetail's shoulder. "We should stay close to him, if we run into trouble, he won't fight." Talonstar murmured. Whitetail nodded, they both ran to catch up with Ravenpaw. They walked through a large bramble thicket, and then Ravenpaw stopped. "The ravine." He murmured. Talonstar hated the brambles pricking his fur, he moved through them as fast as he could. Ravenpaw stopped abrubtly and opened his mouth, tasting the air. He twitched, as if he scented something revolting. Before Talonstar could ask what it was, the scent of death hit his nose. Ravenpaw ran towards a den, and went inside. Talonstar heard him gasp, he ran to the den. He stuck his head in and the death-scent struck him like a heafty blow, this was definitely where it was coming from. Ravenpaw was shaking, fear clearly gripping him. Talonstar slowly walked up beside Ravenpaw and followed his gaze. Three cats were tucked away behind some moss, he stepped forward, to see if they were okay. But Ravenpaw stopped him with his tail. He stared at Talonstar sternly "They're dead" Talonstar stopped and looked into Ravenpaw's eyes. "Who were they?" He asked, shaking. "Speckletail, Shadepelt, and Loudbelly, they died of starvation." Ravenpaw mewed. Talonstar could easily see their ribs showing through their ragged pelts. He didn't want to look at them anymore, he shook his head and padded out of the den. Whitetail was sitting on the hard earth and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "What's in there?" She asked. Talonstar looked at her. "3 dead cats." She looked terrified. "Why did he bring us here if we were going to see something that horrible!" She cried. Ravenpaw stepped out of the den and looked at the brightening sky. "You don't know why I brought you here do you?" Whitetail stared at him. "To show us death?" She hissed. Ravenpaw shook his head. "I want you to create that clan, because I lost my clan and family to twolegs, I want you to be warriors. Now go."