Chapter One

The clouds shifted slowly in the foreboding black sky, the darkened blue shapes breaking up and vanishing to give the spotlight to an eerie silver moon. There was a stiff breeze that hardly seemed to rattle the branches on the trees, which were full and blooming with pink and white flowers. Their heavenly scent rose up to greet a single cat, so beautiful and young she looked as if she could've come from a dream. Her pelt was the color of the morning dew on the blades of crisp, green grass, and her eyes shone with all the brilliance the world ever had to offer. Her figure was lithe and slim; perfectly cut to be a stunningly fit, powerful warrior, yet all the same sleek and well mannered. She had eyes the color emerald, and they looked exactly like the priceless gems they were when the light from the moon illuminated her ghostly figure. Her pace slowed, coming to a stop as soon as she had reached the base of an ancient, coiling oak tree, with roots springing up in the air to meet her, and gnarling many yards around her.

'This feels so… Real… Could it be I remember a place that I never seen, except for glimpses in my dreams?' Even her own thoughts startled her, and she flinched and backed away when two more cats rounded the corner. They were both toms, brave and scarred, looking as forbidding as ever. One of the cats had a magnificent flaming gold pelt, with thick fur covering the entirety of his body. He was twice the size of the she-cat, as well as the tom next to him. The other looked like he commanded attention, too, with a coat as black as the night itself. Yet both seemed mysteriously alike, with a silver shine to their coats that seemed to reflect the stars.

More curious than afraid, the young cat stayed where she was, tilting her head a bit to the side, forcing herself to look each cat in the eye instead of at her paws. "Reason," the golden cat's voice boomed, "you must not be afraid, and you must listen."

At the mention of her name, Reason's eyes flew wide in astonishment. How could he possibly know here name, when they've never even met? Yet the other cats seemed unaffected, so she tried to pose herself to look so, too.

"You look as lovely as the roses that bloom on the thorn bushes," he continued, forgetting himself for a moment, and he couldn't help the smile that spread over both him and his companion's lips. Reason, a natural flirt to anyone, gave each of them a look from beneath her long, black eyelashes. The cats blinked, and the one who had first spoken started, clearing his throat.

"You must go into the forest, for there your destiny awaits you. Find the Tiger's son, yet be wary of his daughter. He and he only will save you from your fate. Let no blood spill between them, for shadows lurk everywhere. Trust not the night stars, nor its friends; be dismayed, lest you resort to age-old alliances. There you will find comfort in the heart of the one you love, and peace will finally reach your soul…"

"Lionheart," the black cat said coldly. "She hardly knows you, and yet I've known you all my life and understood not a single word you just said. How can she follow your will when she's just heard a completely foreign prophecy?"

Lionheart glared at the black cat, baring his teeth. "You hardly know the way of StarClan, and yet you've been there longer than I. It is the way we speak, and she must decipher this herself, Crookedstar star." Lionheart said with an air of disdain, forgetting completely about Reason and turning to walk away. Crookedstar followed ruthlessly.

"Wait!" Reason cried, springing to her paws to following them. But they did not stop; they continued to argue, the distance between her and them growing farther and farther all the while. She narrowed her eyes, not actually believing herself for doing this, but bounded after them anyway, crying out their foreign names.

Then, just as she was Crookedstar turned around, looking rather flustered and put out, a brown, rotting root flew up from the ground. She screamed as her body was sent hurtling threw the air, landing harshly in a rose bush, thorns snagging her fur and pricking her sides. The old root loomed over her, menacing and evil, as the two cats laughed discreetly at her from a distance. Reason snarled, hurt, when the root whipped back into action, lunging at her face.

"STOP!" Reason yelled, clawing the ground. "Stop! Stop! No, no, stop it!" She cried in her sleep.

"Reason," a cool female voice whispered, sounding affronted. "Reason, wake up. It's morning – and you're dreaming again."

Reason was shook awake, suddenly aware that she was enclosed in four walls, lying on softening wood. Blinking up at the few faint streams of sunlight pouring in through the cracks in the walls, the she-cat roughly threw her head back down. She squeaked, realizing the laughter in the background and the smart, stinging in her head become more predominant. Although reluctant, her eyes a mere crack, trying hard to squint through the sunlight to look up at Missy's face without looking like she was too much awake.

"I can still see you," Missy whispered coolly. Crap, Reason thought. It didn't work.

Reason rolled over, not wishing to see her friend nor the morning for at least another five minutes. She buried her nose in a crack on the wooden floor – only to find that she could hardly breathe. But that didn't stop her – no, for she was far too stubborn and hard-headed, and decided to ignore Missy's warnings and voice completely. Instead, she busied herself inhaling deeply, taking in the fresh, moldy smells of the damped earth beneath her. The floor stunk, as if it had gone through some heavy water damage, even in the earlier years, when twolegs roamed the house, and it was lit and partly clean, bearable to live in. Now mice and spiders walked the corridors, as well as the two larger inhabitants, which, I might add, were very well fed.

"I said, get up," Missy said, not unkindly, as she resorted to digging her paw into Reason's side. Missy was awarded a small smile as Reason jumped, squirming to get to her feet, and whipped around to glare hatefully at the older she-cat. Reason snorted, rolling her eyes. She gave one last, long look at Missy, and then swung her nose arrogantly up in the air, prancing lightly away. All Missy could do was watch her. She knew that Reason would be back – she always did come back…

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"Aha!" Reason declared as she clamped her paws over a rather large bullfrog. It writhed and croaked beneath her weight, and she beamed in delight as she stared down at it. By this time, it was late afternoon, and the sun was already beginning to sink behind the treetops, its crimson light playing wistfully across the cat's face. She was covered in mud, and her fur was slick and ranged with spikes from ears to tail-tip. Even now, at two and a half summers old, Reason was a kit at hard, and found it difficult to past the time playing by herself. Yet today, somehow, she pulled it off, away from the twoleg nest and roaming free over the hills, jumping in and out of the water at the shoreline of the lake.

The lake. She loved it. She loved everything about it – its blue hue, the wetness, the sheen to her fur when the sun glowed down upon her back. It was like magic to her, pure, undaunted magic. And she loved it.

At the sighting of a butterfly, Reason completely forgot about the frog, and let it go and she sprang after her new target. It was yellow and black, one that she'd seen often enough, but couldn't get over how it floated gracefully through the air, and so took up chase. Chase – she loved that game, too.

Strangely enough, Reason didn't even notice how the sun finally dipped below the horizon, and how the sky became that familiar inky black, or how the silver stars blinked on to lit the night, one by one. She was far to busy to notice something oh so unimportant. No – she was jumping and spinning in the air, attempting to do back flips and half twists. She skid under low hanging branches, leaped over logs, and ran lightly over the tops of them. She even pretended to be chased herself, and lost track of the butterfly. But not even that mattered now.

Reason slid through fallen leaves, splashed through puddles, raced through thorn bushes without a second thought. But, pretty soon she became tired, and so she stopped running, panting from her huge effort. Pretty soon she was humming a tuneless song and skipping along through the forest, which she hadn't even known she was in until –

"Wha..?" She stopped, stock-still and suddenly very seriously. Her eyes flashed as she took in her surroundings, flinching back as she stared up at an enormous oak tree… It was the tree from her dreams. Scared to death, but curious all the same, Reason inched slowly forward, instinct rushing into her as adrenaline pounded through her system. She could hear the rush of blood in her ears; feel her fur prick with unease. She could even pick out her own strong fear scent as she slinked along the shadows and around the perimeter of the tree.

But there was nothing – no one. Even the roots seemed stilled and dead, just like they should be when out of the dream world. And then…

"What are you doing here?" A male voice demanded in a sudden hiss. Reason whipped around, but it was too late. Another cat rammed into her side, knocking her to the ground and driving the breath from her lungs. She tried to wheeze a response, but instead screamed as another cat came hurling from the shadows.

"I asked you a direct question," the first cat snarled. She could feel claws digging into her flesh, and she felt warm blood, her blood, as it burst from her skin.

"I – I don't know," Reason managed to say. She tried to turn her head to see her attackers, and was met by two pairs of blazing eyes. She visibly flinched and turned quickly away.

"You're a rouge, aren't you?" The second one asked. "Aren't you?"

"What?" Reason asked, totally confused. She'd never heard such a word before.

"Don't play dumb with me. I'll claw your eyes out if I have to hear your crap again."

Reason narrowed her eyes, about to retort. No one dared even try to get smart with her.

"Shut up," The second cat said irritably.

"No, you shut up, Brambleclaw. I can handle this myself, thank you very much, so you can just go ahead and head back to camp now," It seemed like a direct challenge, and Brambleclaw was sure to take it.

"Why don't you both shut up?" Reason hissed. "And I'm not dumb, and if you weren't so hideously arrogant, perhaps you could see that."

And then the shadows grasped her world.