A Twolegplace closer to the lake. Leaf-bare.

The grass rustled as Stony padded through the clearing, and the sun shone over an empty plain. The grass blazed as if daylight, its green glowing with heatless fire, yet something told Stony he was dreaming. Maybe it was the emptiness, or the silence, or the utter cloudlessness of the blue above. Or...maybe it was the feeling that something watched him from above.

"STONY,"

The voice boomed through his ears, and he crouched instinctively, feeling the grass brush against his belly.

Couldn't they have picked a softer voice?

But then again, who was they?

"WE...STARCL..."

The voice cut off.

"TOO FAR AWAY. WE CANNOT REACH YOU. LISTEN-"

The sky fell silent. Stony shook his head, thumping it side-to-side to try to wake up. This dream was getting too weird.

A...creature...popped in front of him. Gray-bodied, then with black and white stripes on its snout, it trundled across the grass. Yet he could see its claws, and its size. He tensed his limbs.

"Stay," it called, in a voice that seemed to echo through his head.

It can talk?

"Who are you?" he yelped.

Too scared. Can't show weakness. No more weakness. No more.

"My name is Midnight," sighed the creature.

"What-"

"Does it matter?" The voice boomed through his head again. He unsheathed his claws. This...thing...was a threat, no matter what it said. He wouldn't be manipulated again. Just like Biter, trying to give him orders. Nobody would give him orders. Never again would he-

Stony bared his teeth and sprang.

"Very well," the badger grumbled.

Voices surged in his head, overlapping, twisting, boring through his ears, and suddenly starlight exploded from his fur, and he glowed, and yowled but nobody could hear him, and a path of stars sliced the plain ahead of him - only it wasn't a plain, for it had become the Twolegplace, and he floated along the Twolegplace, across roar-paths, to a lake and a forest and a group of cats and-

He woke. Blinking out his sleep, Stony gulped at the stench in his nostrils. Before him lay a dark Up-nest, and in the street monsters grumbled, picking up more of those bags that lay on the cobblestones. His stomach screamed, yet without scraps he couldn't eat.

Useless, stupid, Bite-fool, never teaching me to hunt.

Gray clouds rumbled overhead, yet he couldn't smell rain. And he could hear barks in the distance. More dogs, always chasing him...his vision blurred, and he nearly collapsed, his legs sliding on the stones before he caught himself. He needed food. And he needed to get out of this place. For more than a moon...maybe...he'd been running, stealing from monsters or Upwalkers, finding dead prey on the streets. Hiding from dogs and Upwalkers trying to snatch him, drinking water from stale pools, slumping down in alleys to rest...

What's the point? I won't live much longer, anyway.

He let out a shuddering breath, and his chest trembled. But something tingled in his paws, as he remembered the dream, the starlight glow, the promise of power…

And he didn't have anywhere else to go.

It was a dream. It isn't real. There aren't any cats in the sky to save me. That much, Bite told me the truth about.

But then why could he hear the calls, and why could he trace the path as clearly as if he'd followed it hundreds of times, and why did his fur prickle at the mind-sight of that lake? Even if it wasn't a destiny, at least it was something.

So he breathed in, let the dream flow through him again, and began to follow that path of stars.

ThunderClan camp.

Stony's eyes flickered open as something thudded beside him.

Is that...a mouse?

The scent trickled into him, and he tore at the prey beside him, tearing into strips and chewing it down, not even bothering to taste it as he shoveled every last bit down his throat. He sighed as the juices trickled through him, exulting in the unexpected gift - gift.

A mrrow of laughter came from the brown tabby in front of him.

"Want any more?" she asked.

"Where am I?" he snarled, unsheathing his claws and springing up. His body coursed with energy from the prey, and his fur sprang up as he raised his hackles. "What are you-"

"You're in the ThunderClan camp." she meowed, her voice tightening.

Good. Let them fear me. I will-

He slumped back to the ground, his limbs giving out as the energy fell out of him again.

"ThunderClan?" he grumbled as he struggled on the floor. His pelt prickled with shame. He'd blown it. They wouldn't fear him now. They'd just try to give him orders again, just like everyone.

"We - the cats here, around the lake live in groups, called Clans." Her voice had relaxed, yet he could sense concern - worry.

I don't need sympathy.

"And yours is ThunderClan, I suppose. What a name."

"We found you wandering by the lake, barely able to put one foot in front of the other," A sourness entered her voice, then she forced it out. Good. Let them hate him. That star-path had been nothing but dreams. Wandering around this stupid lake, chased out by those fish-smelling cats and then those rabbit-chasers. Idiots, the lot of them.

His snarl broke into a cough. "What a-" He convulsed into coughs, then collapsed.

Everything went black.

"He's too weak. I won't let you disturb him now." The familiar voice woke him.

"This is more important than you realize, Leafpool." A lower voice, from a tom - so that was her name, Leafpool. Weird.

"I just need more-"

"No." The tom's voice was firm, commanding. Like some sort of boss. Stony was done with bosses. He wouldn't-

The tom padded into the den. For the first time, Stony looked around him. He was in some sort of cave, with rock all around him. The glow at the entrance lit the boss's fur like flame. He sniffed. Sunlight wouldn't impress him.

"My name is Firestar." began the tom, his green eyes boring into Stony. He smelled something different off this boss. Not fear, but...something.

"I suppose you're the boss here, then?" Stony yelped - he was so weak he couldn't even snarl. How pathetic. What a useless dream.

"The leader, yes," mewed the tom. He seemed calm. Too calm. "My name is Firestar. And what's yours?"

"Stony," gritted out the kit. "Just Stony. Not like your stupid, long names."

The leader's eyes widened. "Son of stone..." he whispered, then trailed off.

"I wonder, Stony," continued the leader. How could he be so calm? "Why was a kit only a few moons old wandering alone by the lake?"

"Don't have parents," Stony snarled. Everything was getting blurry again. "Don't have a home. Just wandering. Outcast and exile and all that."

The leader's eyes widened. There was fear in those, all right. And something else, too. He couldn't tell what.

"So...you have no place to stay?"

"That's right," grumbled Stony. When would this one get to the point?

"Then I would offer you a place in ThunderClan…"

A star flashed in Stony's mind, and his fur was suddenly alive with the dream as if he'd dreamed it yesterday. This must be the end of that path. Yet he didn't need cats. He worked alone.

But leave, and I'll die in days. Just like before. Something has to change.

"...and show you, and then you can decide whether-"

"No need." cut in Stony. "I accept."

Firestar's eyes widened, yet he nodded.

"Then welcome to ThunderClan, Rockkit."