CLANLIFE

This is an account of all the stories (in correct order) that have happened to the cats of ThunderClan. These tales will begin just after a great flood that has destroyed most of ThunderClan and RiverClan. In these times the Clan leader Greystar was sick with greencough and sent his deputy, Lionheart, to the gathering instead. That day the Clan was struck with a massive flood and the cats could not return from the Gathering. When they finally were able to get back they found everyone who was left in the camp to be dead.

Our story begins one moon later.

THE BONECLAN TRESSPASSERS - RiverClan Camp - Sunrise

"Greyclaw. Jumpkit wants to see you." Said a gentile voice. Greyclaw opened his eyes. He was in the warriors den in RiverClan with Hopepaw, Shadowpaw, Mistyfur and Amberheart. Spottedleaf was currently standing over him. Greyclaw nodded weakly and got to his paws. He followed Spottedleaf out of the den and found Jumpkit standing over by the fresh-kill pile. Spottedlead left them to go to the nursery.

"What is it?" Asked Greyclaw, padding uneasily over to Jumpkit. He wasn't sure what she'd say, seeing as he'd forced her to hang from his jaws while they watched her father be mutilated by Redclaw. So he was surprised by what she said.

"Thanks."

"Thanks?" He echoed, shocked.

Jumpkit smiled, amused. "Yah. Thanks. I'm glad I saw that. I don't mean I wanted him to die, it's just that if you ran away right away before anything happened it would be hard to accept it, but somehow seeing it makes it so simple." She looked up at him, her young eyes seemed to glow with wisdom. "So I'm glad I got to see him go. He died like a warrior."

Despite himself, Greyclaw found he was smiling. "Yah. And he lived like one too." He didn't know Whitestorm personally, of course, but he knew he was a good cat; loyal not only to his Clan, but to his mate and his beliefs.

"It's weird. It's like I'm not even sad that he died. I am, really, but Frostkit spent all night sobbing." She sighed and blinked those wise eyes. "So thanks." She nodded towards the fresh-kill pile. "You must be hungry. You deserve something to eat, though I'm sure I'm worth a lot more."

"Thanks." Said Greyclaw, choosing a plump water vole. Jumpkit sure wasn't modest, but she didn't seem self-centered either, more truthful in a slightly conceited way, if such was even possible.

"I wish I could come with you to BoneClan, but I still have a while left until I'm an apprentice. I guess it wouldn't be worth it to get myself torn apart." Said Jumpkit thoughtfully.

"We might get torn apart anyways." Greyclaw said between mouthfuls. He was worried about going into BoneClan territory with the search party.

When Greyclaw finished his meal he found Riverstar, the ThunderClan party and the RiverClan party under the tallstone that rose up in the center of the camp. The RiverClan team consisted of Riverstar, Dashfoot, Featherheart, Smoothwater and Riverstar's apprentice, Cloudpaw. All ten cats looked grim as Riverstar explained how they were to get into ShadowClan territory and how to get out. It was sunhigh by the time the bleak trespassers left RiverClan camp.

They cut a short path through ThunderClan territory and crossed the thunderpath quickly; though none of them were eager to go to BoneClan, none of them were eager to be crushed by a two-leg's monster either.

When all ten cats had arrived safely on the other side, Riverstar explained what they were to do, "There will be two groups; I will lead one, Mistyfur will lead the other. I'll be taking Greyclaw, Amberheart, Cloudpaw and Smoothwater towards where ShadowClan camp was once and Mistyfur's group will go off to Carrionplace."

The cats nodded and Amberheart and Greyclaw touched noses with their apprentices before separating into their groups.

"That's Cloudysky's friend," Said Amberheart, nodding towards Smoothwater who was standing obidiantly at Riverstar's side. "He was made a warrior less then a moon ago."

"You think we can trust him?" Asked Greyclaw, keeping his voice low.

"I think we can trust Cloudysky's judgment. He seems like a good cat." Said Amberheart decisively, looking away from Smoothwater.

"I've never seen any cats like him in any of the Clans, not even ShadowClan. What's wrong with him?" Asked Greyclaw, feeling his skin crawl at the sight of the furless tom.

"It's a mutation. Riverstar was his mother and Stonefur his father, back before she was even deputy. Then the deputy died and Riverstar got the position. A few moons later the flood came and killed the leader. They say he had suffered so much he just jumped into the gorge, unable to stand the grief, but Riverstar held strong and lots of cats had survived the flood there. Stonefur had risked his life protecting Smoothwater and some of the other apprentices, so Riverstar had a good reason to make him deputy, but he was always a good cat." Explained Amberheart.

"If he hadn't done it who would Riverstar have chosen?" Asked Greyclaw. Amberheart knew a lot about the other Clans. She was good at getting information out of other cats and loved to gossip, but managed to do so without revealing anything that might endanger ThunderClan.

"Everyone thought it was going to be Silverstream because she had Medicine Cat training and had always been loyal to the Clan, but she broke her leg during the flood and was made Medicine Cat instead because their old one died." Amberheat sighed, reluctant to talk about the tragedies that the flood had caused. "You know the story. The flood cost us lots, more then RiverClan even, but they suffered too."

Greyclaw nodded. He understood, but Smoothpaw was lucky to be here now on a patrol into BoneClan territory with his mother. For some reason that made him think back to Jumpkit. Perhaps one day she would go on a mission with her mother.

-----

"Here we are." Said Mistyfur, trying to keep her voice calm but succeeded in only sounding more terrified. The cats around her were uneasy and her terror wasn't helping. Sometimes she wondered why Lionstar had picked her as deputy.

She, Hopepaw, Shadowpaw, Dashfoot and Featherheart were standing at the side of Carrionplace, looking up at the tall wire fence; the boarder between them and BoneClan's horrifying secret.

"Climb that? Impossible. It's at least ten tail-lengths high!" Protested Featherheart, looking up at the boarder, an angry, hopeless expression on her face.

"We have to. There are cats at the entrance on both sides. This is the only way in." Said Shadowpaw somberly.

Mistyfur nodded at Featherheart's questioning look. Shadowpaw was right; it was the only way.

"So how are we going to do it?" This came from Hopepaw, snappy with disgust. This had, after all, been the place where long ago two-legs had disposed of their garbage. Who knew what could be in there now?

"We climb, of course. We won't need anyone to watch from the ground." Explained Dashfoot, then continued at the looks they gave him, "Didn't you see their claws? At the gatherings? When they were in your camp?" They continued to stare. "They're so long that even when they're sheathed they stay out long enough to give you a nasty scar. They can't climb a fence with claws like that; they'll get caught and rip them out."

Now that they thought about it, the four other cats remembered BoneClan's abnormally long claws. Though Metalstar's were huge and impossible to sheath, the other cats also had anomalistic claws too. "Alright, let's go. I'll lead." Declared Mistyfur, gripping the fence with her front paws and hoisting herself upwards. It was as if the earth had suddenly stopped and turned sideways. It felt so weird, but it wasn't hard; climbing just required concentration. "Dashfoot come next, then Shadowpaw, then Hopepaw then Featherheart will bring up the rear." She called back down, hearing the sound of claws against metal as Dashfoot hoisted himself up after her.

By the time Featherheart had started her ascent Mistyfur was almost all the way to the top. Then a thought struck her; how would they get down? There was no point turning back now, so she swallowed her doubt and continued her climbing.

Finaly Mistyfur hoisted herself onto the top of the fence overlooking Carrionplace. A sharp gasp escaped her at what she saw; a sea of bodies, cat bodies, stretching across the ground. They were everywhere, stacked in towering piles that looked about to collapse. In the middle of the clearing atop a towering pillar was placed the rotting corpse of another cat that she realized had no teeth. Looking down again at the sea of feline corpses she felt the wind rise up to meet her, carrying with it the stench of rotting, decaying remains. She whimpered weakly, staggering as her footing began to fail her. Her paw came down on the steel rail and she unsheathed her claws, but this was no tree she could cling to for balance and her foot slipped on the cold hard metal. A sharp cry sounded from behind her as she slid from the fence, falling headfirst into unconsciousness.

-----

"That's strange."

"What?" Asked Cloudpaw, jumping as Smoothwater's voice broke the silence. Greyclaw rolled his eyes at the apprentice's jumpiness. He could tell by the tom's expression that Smoothwater was thinking the same thing.

"I smell smoke, but I don't see any." Explained Smoothwater, stopping to scent the air. The other cats stopped too and did the same, all five catching a whiff of the smoke.

"Strange..." Said Amberheart softly, frowning. It was clear that she was worried, and they should be. So should BoneClan, actually. "We should follow it."

"Yes, we should." Declared Riverstar. "We have to know what BoneClan is planning."

The cats exchanged worried looks, but nodded. The leader knew best.

"Smoothwater will lead the way." She announced, looking trustingly to her son. He nodded and padded forth. RiverClan followed second with Cloudpaw right nest to her. Amberheart and Greyclaw brought up the tail and the group traveled forth.

They had traveled a few minutes in silence before Amberheart realized that they were going towards the ShadowClan camp. She said nothing, but Greyclaw seemed to notice something was wrong.

"What is it?"

"This is the way to ShadowClan camp." She said back, making sure to keep her voice low.

"I can't scent any BoneClan." Said Greyclaw unsurely.

"Then this isn't their camp." Replied Amberheart. "But there has to be something here."

They continued their approach in silence until they came upon a clearing similar to the one that made up WindClan's camp. Now they could see the smoke billowing up from the crevice in the earth. Riverstar nodded and Smoothwater stepped forwards, Amberheart hopping to his side. The two Clan cats peered over the edge into a shallow pit and gasped at what they saw.

The ground was bare of any vegetation and in another small pit in the middle was a fire. It was a small one, but they could feel its intense heat from where they stood now. In the middle of the pit were three cats. Two of them with normal length claws handling chunks of metal and a bright ginger tom who was shifting nervously as he watched them work.

One of the handling cats, a big tom with fur that looked as if it was not naturally gray, but dyed by the smoke and flames, moved forwards, a piece of metal clenched in his teeth. He brought it close to the fire and the other cat, a small black a grey she-cat, moved up beside him, molding the metal with her claws. Amberheart shivered as she realized that the fur on the cat's paws had been burnt away, leaving her with abnormally thick, heat-resistant flesh. She molded the metal into a claw shape, long and sheath-able with a thin, deadly point at the end. She then moved her claws, making the underside of the claw rough and sharp. Then she called to the ginger tom, who moved over to her quickly.

Smoothwater nudged Amberheart and she followed his gaze to the tom's set of metal claws on the other paw. She frowned. They weren't all metal. Some were reinforced with something white that stuck on with the use of molten metal.

"Bone." She whispered.

And even though she and Smoothwater hadn't been able to hear the cats below, they seemed to hear Amberheart perfectly, as the she-cat jumped, turning her head to look. The metal claw went in to far, burning the pale ginger tom's fur. He yowled and pulled away, looking up to Smoothwater and Amberheart. The yellow eyes of the group flashed menacingly in the fire.

"Kill them." Commanded the big dirty tom in a low, rumbling voice. Without farther ado, the cats leaped forwards, one of them armed with a paw and a half of bone and metal.