Prologue

Stars fled from every footfall of the intruder, skittering across the glimmering grass to escape from his continual march. Like a snake slithering between the rocks, the ginger tom slunk through unfamiliar territories, his sharp yellow eyes blazing with a dying flame.

A snake? the intruder laughed to himself, his thoughts his only company in this endless journey. Snakes were creatures of evil and deception, deceit and villainy. He was none of those things. Perhaps a better comparison would have been a lion, brave and courageous, holding his head high as he hunted down his prey. The cowards could run and hide in their starry palace, pretending to be merciful saviours, but they were the snakes. They were the ones who slithered away once their cruel work was finished.

He wasn't going to let them get away with it any longer. Cats were waiting for him back home. They would applaud him, thank him for delivering justice to their remorseless ancestors. But he couldn't get too caught up in that. It didn't matter what the others said, not one bit. All that mattered was justice.

Justice was the single thing keeping him trudging on. Although his belly ached with a hunger he could not satisfy and his throat was rugged and raw with a thirst he could not quench, he kept on walking. Trees stretched up into the permanently violet tinted sky like eagle's talons, scoring deep, dark gashes in the heavens. A haze of starlight made it hard to focus on the distinct shapes, the blur pulsating in the intruder's mind, making his head throb painfully.

Directing his gaze back towards the ground, he focused on the patches of grass where the stars had fled from his pawstepsーit was easier to look at than the overpowering glaze of stars. As he padded onwards, the rush of stars away from his paws made him grin. Look at how they already retreat and cower away. StarClan fears me. They know I am right.

The intruder continued his persistent march, placing one foot after the other until time began to blur together. How long had he been here? It was hard to tell when the light came from no set direction, and shadows were barely visible against the all-encompassing luminous light. His thoughts strayed to his life back home, the memories chasing him as he tried to shove them away. I can't let the past distract me. A dampness grew in his eyes, and he picked up the pace, storming through StarClan's territory with even more vigour than before.

Movement rustled the grass in the corner of his eye, and the tom swung his paw around, spiky fur puffing up like a shield around him. His claws sailed through the transparent pelt of a mouse, its form flickering as it tilted its head at him. The hunger growled in his belly, and he forced his limbs to keep moving onwards, deeper and deeper into the starry land. He'd learnt long agoーor maybe it had only been a day or two backーthat hunger couldn't kill him here. The urge to hunt StarClan's prey was overwhelming, but however hard he tried, the creatures couldn't be touched by a living cat.

As he glanced around StarClan's territory, he spotted a transparent shape, glimmering against the shadow of a tree. For a second, he continued his march, certain the figure was just a rabbit or a hareーthe larger prey had confused him more times than he could count. But as he looked again he realised this creature was much bigger. It was a cat; distinctly a cat. Part of him wanted to let out a happy sob, filled with joy at seeing another cat after his endless journey. Shaking his head, he growled to himself, After all this time, I can't show weakness. I won't let this loneliness defeat me.

Tensing his muscles, he bounded towards the StarClan figure, claws unsheathed. The pale brown tabby cat's eyes widened as the intruder leapt towards her, claws glinting in the starlight. He held his breath as he waited to see if his claws would hit the spirit, or pass through like they did with the prey. Stars fled from his paws, and he felt the soft fur of the molly beneath his claws. Again the loneliness struck him, this was the first time in forever that he had felt the fur of another cat besides him, and his mind travelled to his mother's warm pelt. He commanded the thoughts to run away just like the stars beneath his feet, fixing his mind on the cat before him.

"Where are they?" he hissed, his flaming eyes narrowed at the molly beneath him.

"You're… you're alive!" Her eyes widened as she looked the tom up and down. "Who are you talking about? I don't know who you are, I promise. Don't hurt me, I'm just an apprentice!"

The ginger tom growled, lifting his paw off of the younger cat a little as he spoke. "You should know who I am. You should know the names of every cat you've wronged. StarClan doesn't care if you are young, or old, or innocent, so why should I? I'm looking for the rest of StarClan, and you're going to point me in the right direction. Where. Is. Shadestar?"

Her small body was shaking beneath his hold, her long whiskers quivering in fear as she tried to shuffle out from his grip. Weak paws hit out at his stomach, and he pressed her closer to the ground again, drawing his ears back and scrunching up his muzzle in a low growl.

"I'm only going to ask one more time, where are they?"

Lifting his weight off of her, he smiled as she gestured with one feeble paw over towards a cluster of great oaks. Nodding at her, he continued on, leaving the little molly entirely on her own, staring off after him in shock. Now he had a directionーsome sort of idea where to go after hours spent wandering aimlessly. Hours? Or had it been days, weeks, maybe even moons? He didn't know, and he didn't care. Justice would come someday, and that was all that mattered.

The trees grew nearer and nearer with each step, and behind the constant headache in his mind he was able to make out the figures of StarClan cats crowded behind the trees. A smile crept upon his face. Soon the snake will strike. Each heartbeat was filled with anticipation as he picked up his pace, until he was practically sprinting towards the StarClan cats. Here he was at last. Justice was about to be served.

Barging through the wall of trees the intruder puffed up his spiky ginger pelt, pacing around the clearing. Five spirits gathered in the centre of the spiral of trees, holding their heads high as they looked down at him. One was black and white with sharp green eyes, a scar cutting across their face.

"Shadestar," the tom hissed, his ginger flanks rippling with muscle. "You left them to die! All of them!"

The dead leader huffed, looking down at the intruder with a disdainful gaze. They didn't even move to speak, a slender dark brown tabby slipped out from behind them, ice in his sharp blue eyes.

"It was destiny. Accept it and move on. This foolish campaign is meaningless; you can't stay in StarClan's hunting grounds forever. We can't save every little group of cats who tries to call themselves a Clan, Shadestar had no choice. You were destined to crumble."

The intruder laughed, unsheathing his claws as he looked from one cat to another.

"Oh, I can't stay in StarClan, can I? Then what have I been doing for the past few moons? You're wrong. So, so wrong. We'll never crumble."

Another cat spoke, vaer long silver fur drooping as vae glanced at the intruder.

"I'm so sorry, it's too late. They are all gone."

It was like ice shattering in his mind, tearing into him over and over, until the pain was meaningless. Gone? They couldn't be gone, he hadn't been gone that long. Names swirled through his mind: Rubyfleck, Cloudsage, Mossylog, Birchfrost and so many more. Dead. Lost. Gone.

"You're lying!" he yowled, not believing his own words as he leapt forwards, trying to dig his claws into the long furred she-cat who had spoken up, wanting to sink his claws into vaer flesh, wanting to scream at vaem until vae took back vaer words. Yet the spirit dodged out of the way, and his paws hit the ground instead. Except, the ground was no longer solid. His paw sunk through the ground, just like he passed straight through the prey. Pulling his foot back, he sprinted towards the other StarClan cats, desperately clawing onto any sort of solid ground that might hold him.

"I'm sorry," The silver molly mewed, before turning away with the other cats, vaer long tail drooping behind vaem. Two tortoiseshell cats watched on in horror as the intruder spat curses towards the group, before backing away slowly. Shadestar lingered a little longer, her eyes narrowing as they looked down at the intruder one last time.

Hauling himself up, he tried to hold on to StarClan land, but the final patch of dirt gave way beneath his paws, sending him tumbling into a sea of darkness.

Black night surrounded him, flooding all of his senses. Jolts of pain and fire shot through him as he fell further and further into the never-ending shadows. After what felt like a million eternities of falling, it all stopped. The intruder was left alone, drowning in the ocean of night.