Chapter Three: Lightning at Midnight

Amberfur looked over at Tigerpaw with an eye of caution. She watched her apprentice carefully. Today, they were practicing how to fight.

"Now remember, Tigerpaw, that you have to surprise me, which, yes is rather difficult. But you must try." Amberfur encuraged her.

Tigerpaw picked herself up and this time, Amberfur saw no sign of any type of attack. Could Tigerpaw be at loss, or be onto something? Amberfur would just have to wait and see.

Amberfur din't notice Tigerpaw's claws unsheathed, and that was her mistake. Tigerpaw, fats as lightning, dashed to the side and then spun around and swiped her claws out at Amberfur before she had any time to react.

Amberfur withdrew, glad that Tigerpaw hadn't scraped her skin. "Good job, we'll continue tommrow." Amberfur smiled at Tigerpaw and then sat down for a moment and began to clean her tail.

She looked up and instructed, "Its time for you to go hunting so you can eat, go." she beckoned.

Tigerpaw obeyed and slipped off into the bushes, quiet like a mouse. Amberfur smiled with satisfaction. Her apprentice was half way through her training already, but she still needed work on her fighting skills from what Amberfur saw.

Amberfur turned around and headed back to camp, hoping to see Blacksmoke and see if they could go hunting. As she twisted her way through the pesky brambles, Amberfur wondered if LightningClan and StormClan would ever break apart. What would happen if they didn't?

Amberfur sighed with the weight of the huge threat that lay upon them. It was StormClan's plan to take them out first. She knew that it was a bad thing, and she hoped she could stop it, but maybe she couldn't. Amberfur was the Choosen Cat of StarClan. That was what StormClan wanted. Even though she didn't know what was so speacil about her yet, she hoped that it would be soon to come. After all, Amberfur was curious just like any other cat.

When she reached her camp, Amberfur headed straight for the prey pile because she spotted Blacksmoke's dark fur. She quickly grabbed her a quail and brought it over to where her mate was sitting. She sat down beside him and mewed, "Hi, where's Ashpaw?"

"Asleep. We were on patrol today, what about Tigerpaw?" Blacksmoke responded.

Amberfur told him about what had happened when they were training and smiled, "She's improving greatly. Her hunting skills are some of the best I've seen with apprentices-which isn't much, but still…Anyway I sent her out hunting, its her favorite thing to do."

Blacksmoke looked up, "Ashpaw's is just dozing around and sleeping."

Amberfur couldn't help but laugh at that. When she had finished her quail, she looked up at Blacksmoke, deciding to ask, "What to go hunting, or are you too tired?"

Blacksmoke grinned as he said, "Yep, I think I can go to sleep right here!" With that, he fell over, leaning on Amberfur for support and pretended to be asleep.

"You're such a goofball!" Amberfur laughed, pushing him away. "So will you?"

"Sure." Blacksmoke laughed, sitting up.

"Hey, can I come?" came Fishpaw's voice.

Amberfur looked at the apprentice and frowned, "Um Fishpaw, we were planning to go alone, if you don't mind." She tried to sound polite, but Fishpaw just nodded, his tail shooting down to the ground and he trekked back to the apprentices' den, his tail dragging, ears flat.

"What's you do to Fishpaw?" came Silverheart's voice.

Amberfur and Blacksmoke turned to see their deputy looking at them with narrowed eyes. "Um we were-" but Amberfur was cut off by her vision cutting off and turning black, with a single cat standing in front of her. It was Tallstar.

"Amberfur! The Choosen cat, you, are being sought out! Stay clear of the stalking danger! Peril will surly become of you Clan if you don't. In time your power will be revealed, well the rest of it, this is part of it, but stay clear….stay clear….stay…..clear." Tallstar repeated, his voice fading farther and farther each time until he faded.

Amberfur's vision returned. She was still standing in front of Silverheart, but her heart was hammering and her fur was on end in fear. What did that mean? "Amberfur? Are you okay?" Blacksome asked, looking at her with confusion.

"St-st-stay clear…" Amberfur whispered. "What do you mean?"

"Stay clear? No one said that." Silverheart meowed, her confusion noticible.

"Tallstar…" Amberfur whispered, not realizing what she was saying, for she thought she was still in the darkness with the former WindClan leader right in front of her.

"Tallstar? He's dead Amberfur, remember? And why are you talking about him?" Blacksmoke asked, his voice soothing Amberfur, but she kept mumbling to herself.

"Take her to Sharpclaw, soemthing's wrong with her." Silverheart ordered.

"No!' Amberfur hissed suddenly, leaping away from all of them. She had come to her senses at last. "Nothing's wrong with me!"

"Yes there is!" Silverheart insisted.

StormClan

Redshadow eyed Whitearrow with narrowed eyes. Something about the loner was creepy. He didn't trust him, even if Whitearrow was working for them. Redshadow stood and went to the prey pile. "Line up!" he yowled.

StormClan cats came rushing towards him, lining up in a perfectly straight line. Redshadow stared coldy at each one of them as he quietly padded towards the prey pile. He snatched up a mouse that was small and puny. He threw it at Whitearrow, who was first in line. The mouse hit the solid white cat in the face, making him snarl and unsheath his claws.

"Are you looking for a fight?" Whitearrow snarled.

"He, no!" Redshadow growled matter-of-factly.

"To bad! You just found one!" Whitearrow hissed, leaping at Redshadow and abondoning his prey.

Fang met claw as the cats fought in a whirlwind of dust and fur. "What are you tow doing? STOP!" came Shadowstar's voice, but it never happened.

LightningClan

"LEAVE THE CHOOSEN ONE ALONE!" came a loud voice out of thin air. Amberfur knew that it was Tallstar, Firestar, Bluestar, and Leapordstar.

Silverheart's fur sprang on end, her tail shot up in fear, ears flattened, and teeth bared. "Who said that?" she yelped.

"WE OF STARCLAN! BEWARE OF THE STALKING ENEMY!" came all four voices.

"Ah!" Silverheart screamed, running towards the warriors' den with fear. Blacksmoke seemed to ignore them as he comforted Amberfur, but it was clear he heard them and heeded them.

"Amberfur, do you still wish to hunt?" he asked causally.

Amberfur nodded, her fear had vanished like her trance. Blacksmoke looked as if he had forgotten the whole ordeal already and went on, beside Amberfur, out of camp.

As the two went off towards the stream, they wonndered if they should stay in the heart of the territory, just in case. But right as the thought flashed across their minds, it left. Prey was all around, them just waiting to be caught. And with leaf-bare approching, they had to find as much as possible.

StormClan

Redshadow's eeyes were furious slits as he raked his claws across the white cat's thick pelt, but they never even touched the skin, while he and his sort thin fur was getting splattered with drops of blood.

He yowled and leapt away from Whitearrow's next a attack-a swip to the face. Redshadow hissed and was about to ataack again, when a loud angry snarl interrupted their battle.

"If you EVER disobey me again, Redshadow, I will personally tear off your ears and give them to the crows!" Shadowstar snarled, her black pelt gleaming in the morning sun. Redshadow backed away, his anger not yet spent, but he obeyed his leader, a flicker of fear shining in his eyes. Whitearrow, he noticed, looked pleased at the threat. Redshadow already knew Whitearrow wanted to see the fight continue. Shadowstar had been right to choose this cat for their battle.

"Line up!" Shadowstar called. Redshadow sighed and got back to his job-giving everyone their food. Everyone who had gotten out of line, lined back up, waiting to be served.

Redshadow brought Rivertwister a rabbit, Shadowstar a huge fish, Heartstar a mouse, the rest either got fish, stolen quail, or mouse. Redshadow had saved the best for last. It was his favorite, and it was the biggest in the pile. He had stolen it from WindClan/LightningClan territory. It was a huge rabbit just like the one Shadowstar and the patrol had seen when they met Death, the wolf they had run off.

Redshadow took the rabbit to his own personal eating place and ate some of it. It was not as big as the hare, smaler, but big enough. After he had pushed it into the weeds next to the spot he slept at, Redshadow fell asleep. He was tired after the fight, he deserved a rest anyway.

LightningClan

It was night once more and the skys didn't look so well. They looked angry and the clouds were swollen with rain. Amberfur and Blacksmoke were just returning from their hunting patrol.

Windstar came out of his den, the winds howling, he rushed over to the Highrock. "Everyone, all of WindCLan is to go to Sunningrocks at once!" he yowled.

Everyone, even the ones in their dens, came out to look at him, confused, but they obeyed. Lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the dark ground below. Amberfur was quick on her paws and rushed off towards the camp entrance, the wind forcing her to run sideways.

Blacksmoke joined her within seconds, his eyes worried. "What's going on? Amberfur shouted.

"I don't know, but Windstar sounded worried, very worried." He responded over the wind, but Amberfur couldn't hear him.