Chapter 1:

By Goldskies5

"I don't really know what happened to the cats." The tom began. "One morning they were fine, but the next day, they were so weak, so tired, they didn't eat, and they didn't sleep." The tom paused, as if he had forgotten what had happened.

She waited for him to speak. The story was sounding interesting.

"I think the first cat to get the disease was from LightningClan. I think the cat's name was Doestep or something. Anyways, at the gathering, the cats knew something was going on when LightningClan didn't come one night. So BreezeClan decided to head over to LightningClan to find out what was wrong." The tom continued.

The she-cat's instrest was growing. What happened? What did they find?

"We didn't find out what happened until the next gathering, and really, I wish we didn't. BreezeClan told us when they had went to the LightningClan camp, they had found something really weird." The tom paused, probably just for suspense.

The she-cat waited for him to talk again but when he didn't for a while, she noticed his expression was one of fear.

The tom continued after a while, "They-They said that the LightningClan cats were roaming around the camp, doing nothing else. They said they looked so tired and that their eyes were red. They said they looked so skinny like they hadn't eaten at all. When the BreezeClan cats tried to ask what was wrong, they just bared their teeth at them, growling and hissing."

"The BreezeClan cats said they looked more dead than alive." The tom said, shaking. "I wish they hadn't come to the Gathering that day. The cats who went to LightningClan caught the sickness and spread it to their clanmates, who spread it to the rest of the Clans. The next morning, the cats looked so creepy!" The tom said, shivering at the memory.

The she-cat tried to imagine dead cats who didn't eat or sleep. She shuddered. The very thought of it was enough to creep her out. But she still listened to the elderly tom's story, since it was very interesting as well.

"I was lucky not to have caught it. I stayed far, far away from those cats, going on patrol or hunting by myself most of the day. I slept outside of camp during night, scared that I might catch the sickness if I slept with the infected cats." The tom told me.

"Must have been very scary," The she-cat said, "To see half-dead cats everywhere."

The tom nodded, "It was. It was very very scary."

The she-cat could understand his fear. If she was alive at that time, she would probably have felt the exact same way he did.

"No more gatherings were held, since most cats were infected with the disease. Even the leaders." The tom explained. "Nobody hunted, nobody marked the borders, they just roamed around the camp. Me and a few other cats did those jobs, just to get away from the sick cats."

"We sometimes met other cats who weren't sick and we shared the news about our Clan. They were all looking for a cure, but nobody actually found one." He told me, sighing. "If only we tried harder, maybe the Clans would still be here. Maybe you and me would be protecting our Clan at this very moment."

"So that's the end of the story?" The she-cat asked.

"What? Oh no, this is just the beginning." The tom said, smiling somewhat sadly.