*****

Duskclaw closed her eyes, Featherbreeze lay beside her, Silentecho and Gingerpaw were back at Desertclan camp. Duskclaw didn`t exactly feel good about leaving her apprentice back at the camp, with Silverbreeze so close to kitting. But it was safer there than here in isolation where the disease was at its full.

The sleep was well deserved and respected, the sick cats and medicine cats had been sent to the hollow, where everyone was trying nonstop to slow the spread of disease from the other none effected members of the two clans.

Yet instead of a peaceful sleep Duskclaw received yet another dream from Cloudclan, or in this case… not Cloudclan, but instead the place of sorrow. There the tom still sat, still staring, but he was at more ease this time.

"Hello Duskclaw, good to hear you again, I wish I could say that I see you but…" He meowed, his voice trailing away. It had never occurred to Duskclaw that Watcher (that she had named him), could not see her, always looking down at the gorge.

"Hi, you seem better…" She replied carefully, afraid that anything she said would set him off again.

But Watcher only smiled and nodded, "Yes, soon I pray that I will be able to see you! I can feel something, soon Starclan will have no power over me, I can feel it, and then I will be able to go to my ancestors in Cloudclan!" He meowed excitedly, bouncing in his one small position.

Duskclaw nodded, she was excited for him but she had a question nagging in the back of her mind. "You have a question?" He asked, reading her mind perfectly.

"Yes, if you can answer it…" Duskclaw began nervously.

"I will to the best of my abilities." He answered simply.

Duskclaw nodded and began, "Cloudclan told me that Dayclan would not be hit as hard as the other clans, and I want to know why." She said hurriedly, Watcher frowned in discontent.

"Duskclaw, you do realize that you are twisting fate?" He asked, his muzzle in a concerning frown. Duskclaw had not realized that but she nodded anyway.

"All right…" He sighed, "Long ago, well… it would probably be easier if I just showed you." He sighed again, motioning with a flick of his feathery tail. Duskclaw moved forward, she was seeing a birds-eye-view of all the lands, from the lake, mountains, desert, moor, forest, nearly the whole world which she lived.

"Long ago, there were four clans, Nightclan`s territory was from the mountains to desert, Smokeclan lived from the moor and forest, and Desertclan inhabited the whole desert, which is now the territories you know. Dayclan, lived at the lake, and shared that land with a small tribe of cats, who at first did not cause any trouble." Watcher explained the map.

"Smokeclan shared the forest with four clans, but they were fine where they were, and safe. At the time Cloudclan ruled over almost all the sky`s, and everyone was fine with that. One cat took it to the whole, that cats name was Rubble, and was a Dayclan cat. I… I…can hardly remember him, but he was alive during the time of me and Rose though."

"Rubble tried his best to convince the other cats on all the other cats outside the four clans to turn to Cloudclan, but they would not. Instead they began to revolt, their numbers were strong, and rouges and loners came to their aid. All the odds were against us and Rubble, things did not end well, and we lost. I had killed one of the leaders 'Thunder' and in turn they punished me by killing Rose… and you saw what happened."

"None of us knew about their ancestors, Starclan, they had kept that sky clan to themselves, and in turn they destroyed us. Well, they didn`t destroy us, but they pushed us to Desertclan territory, but we lived, and look at us now. Who knows maybe one day, we will be able to gain back all of the territory we once lost." He finished, the water rippling away from the scene, ending with the image of the lake.

"For Rubble`s valiant effort, he was rewarded a grant of a wish, and he wished for long live hood for his clan, and he was granted that, to a limit…" Watcher finished, suddenly his eyes grew large again, "When the stars are found of dishonesty and untruth, the rulers will once again continue their raid…" He said, the prophecy flowing from his mouth in a liquid motion.

Duskclaw woke with a start, another prophecy, oh Cloudclan, what could she do?

*****

It was colder that morning; frost layered the ground, shimmering white from the rising sun. The short furred cats of the desert very rarely faced such immense cold, and when they did it was usually only at night, never during the day.

"I hate this…" Oakpaw muttered angrily as he shivered in coldness.

Sunstar rolled his amber eyes, "It`s not that bad, I heard from a loner that it was colder the further from the desert you get." He muttered to him.

"Can we shut up and get moving?" Snowfeather yawned, her white pelt sticking up in every direction.

"Nice fur!" Oakpaw snickered to the white warrior, whose hackles rouse in furry.

Starflower gave a slight sigh, "Come on you two, we have to hurry, imagine, the whole clans dying and we fighting!" She hissed.

"Yeah, think of Delta, what would she do if we let her down?" Wildeyes added, her mismatching eyes darting, silencing the other cats further. The other cats nodded in seldom agreement, then they looked up from where they sat to the mountain they had to climb.

"How are we going to get up there?" Hawkpaw muttered under his breath.

Starflower looked up and looked back down before smiling, "It all starts with a step." She meowed, walking up to the jagged rocks at the base of the mountain.

"Oh joy." Snowfeather hissed, watching the cat try desperately to struggle up the mountain side…

*****

Gingerpaw stalked along in the woods, everything was near fine, no new cats had been affected yet, and this morning, she was hunting for the first time in ages. Rustyfoot had since gone off to hunt the scent of rabbit, while she continues to follow the smell of lizard.

As soon as she found her prey she dropped in a stalking position, the black and yellow creature was doing nothing, just sitting there with its back turned. She jumped onto it, it did not fight back, and she easily bit into its spinal cord.

In confusion she looked down at it, it had red foam bubbling at the side of its mouth, eyes, and nose. Blood-cough, she realized in horror. The prey was contagious, the prey was… her eyes rounded in horror and ran back to the camp.

*****

Thank you to winterkitten for the amazing idea of prey being dangerous!