Disclaimer: I don't own Warriors.

It felt strange to the apprentice, walking around in Starclan territory, if it could be called that. It was a cross between the sky and the forest. She couldn't tell which one she was in most of the time. But it was also fascinating, viewing the world as her warrior ancestors did. She wondered if she could meet Firestar.

As she pondered the possibilities of what she could do up here, her power became more real to her. She started to become convinced that this really was her spirit, leaving her sleeping body behind to come up here. Did Starclan live in eternal darkness up here, or did they get to enjoy the sunlight as well?

Suddenly Rainpaw realized that she had wandered up to Highstones. She was overcome with the urge to see what they were like in Starclan's eyes, and bolted toward them. Strangely, she never became fatigued by the running. She ran up the mountain and down without feeling tired. Excited, she ran around in circles until she became bored of never feeling that exhilaration that always encouraged her to press on. She wondered what it would be like, to run around the world and never feel tired. Or maybe she just hadn't run enough. Finally she just decided to go climb one of the mountains to the top.

She chose a mountain with a flat-ish peak that she could stand on when she reached the top. She darted over to it as if she was the wind itself, then began walking up. She didn't want to run; that would be cheating.

Soon she was high up above the ground, if it was even that, and felt like she had climbed to the top of the world. She still had a lot to go, but it was still dark. She had time…

Then the summit of the mountain was before her. She scrabbled up, stood there, and wanted to cry out. She wondered if there was anyone who could climb this at home on earth. She could have just sat there, admiring the dark, shining objects in this ethereal version of the world she knew. But after a while, she decided to go back down. She took a different way down. It seemed like a path, though the surface was rough, but it seemed like it would be easy to descend from. She climbed back down. She wondered if Dawnstar ever felt like that, sitting on the Highrock, watching over her Clan. But the view definitely wasn't as breath-taking as this.

Soon, Rainpaw came to a den. It looked like a small alcove, as if one might have slept there while traveling through the mountains. She stepped inside and felt for the wall. But where she figured it would be, through guesswork since it was covered by shadows, the back of the alcove wasn't there. She carefully walked on, searching for the back, but never found it. It was a cave. She looked behind her, and saw that she couldn't see where she had come from. She could see, though, that behind her, the path split into two. There was no way of telling which way she had come from; the dank smell of the cave would overpower any scent a single cat could, if spirits could even leave scents. Scared, Rainpaw pressed on.

Soon she saw something amazing—there were glowing sheets of stone running alongside the tunnel. Sometimes the sheets moved, and once they moved to reveal something amazing—a river of liquid fire, making the cave warm and producing light to see. It was incredible. Rainpaw wasn't sure how she could feel the heat but not get worn by running or trace her own scent, but the thought was overpowered by her fascination in the liquid fire.

Magma. The word came to her, and she knew that that was the name of the liquid fire, despite the fact that she had never heard the word before. Rainpaw was confused by this world. Things you could feel, things you couldn't, it was different than earth. Rainpaw suddenly noticed that the magma was flowing into a tiny tunnel out of the cave, and deep into the mountain. She did know the word volcano, and realized that that was what this mountain was. And the knowledge came to her that this was a lava tube, where magma would flow out of the mountain and into the outer world to cool down and become rock. She wondered what would happen if the volcano were to stir while she was in it and drown her in lava. Would her spirit burn up as her body would on earth? The more she sought to understand this world, the more confused she was by it. Starclan had obviously never bothered to come here, she assumed.

Finally she gathered up the will power to move on. She plodded deep into the cave, which soon became dark. There was the faintest bit of light, just enough to help her navigate without crashing into a wall. She felt like it had been hours since she had left her body; was it day now? Did time pass the same way here as it did on earth? She decided to keep her mind contained and focused on keeping safe. Even though it nagged at her, she kept it steady and under her will.

It was soon that she felt a strange feeling in her gut. She walked for a few minutes—then heard voices. What? Why are there people here? Who are they? Her questions were soon answered. As she carefully crept closer to the source of the voices, the makers of the sound came into view—they were cats. That blazed like Starclan, but with black fire instead of starlight. It was amazing. There were not quite as many cats as there were in Starclan, but certainly a lot—and in the center was a cat that Rainpaw took to be the legendary infamous traitor, Tigerstar. She gasped, then drew back. She bolted away. So Tigerstar hadn't gone to Starclan… but where was this place he had gone? Even in the otherworld Tigerstar seemed like he had taken over this… clan? She ran, now suddenly glad that running didn't make her tired. Ignoring the magma only to the extent that she still wouldn't step in it or something, she ran. Away from the shadowfire-cats, away. She ran until the split which had confused her in the beginning, with luck taking the correct path to get her out. She found herself out of the lava tube in a matter of minutes. Somehow, she felt tired. Running as fast as she could, she got back to Starclan. Froststar was the first to greet her.

"Rainpaw? You look… tired…" she said, cocking her head.

"Tired? No, nervous. I… f-found… Ti-Ti-T-Tigerstar…"

"What? Tigerstar… what were you doing, child? Tigerstar never joined Starclan."

"I know… he seemed to have joined a clan… or something… of cats who live deep within a v-volcano just beyond Mothermouth… who burn with fire of the truest black, that rather than giving light like normal fire, it seems to absorb it…"

"Demonclan…" Froststar gasped. "Rainpaw, how did you come across them?"

"I was up in the highstones, and I wanted to climb a mountain… I got to the top, and on the way down, I came to a lava tube… which I thought was just an alcove… then I tried to find the back of the cave, but it was never… I never found it… I was exploring the cave, and I heard voices, and I found their source… the cats all looked evil… I only saw Tigerstar, I think, but that must be where Mudclaw and Brokenstar… Brokentail… must have gone when they died. Why they aren't here…" rambled the apprentice.

"Rainpaw, it is day. See the light? You must get back to your body. You realize you were sleeping on earth all this time your… spirit was gone? Your Clanmates might be worried."

Rainpaw looked plenty worried, too. But without delay, she nodded farewell to the late leader and ran back to her body. Nightwind was just coming over to wake her up. With all her strength, she made a mad dash for her body, and got there just in time as Nightwind prodded her. "Wake up, Rainpaw," he mewed.

Rainpaw wondered if her mind would be tired or well-slept. She would find out soon. Groggily she got up, stretched, and found a piece of fresh-kill waiting for her. "Thanks," she purred, then settled down to eat.

A/N Nor do I own Tigerstar, Mudclaw, or Brokentail/star. Yeah... I'm also thinking of a better chapter name. Perhaps simply "Demonclan." Please review, especially if you can help give me ideas for later in the story! Maybe the volcano will erupt, I don't know...