A/N: It seems like forever since I updated. Well, I found my notes for my stories and now can update again (I lost the notebook they were in...oops). Enjoy!

Flashback, Moons and Moons Ago

"She's dying, Knife, there's nothing we can do," meowed a feminine voice.

"No, no, there must be something!" a jet-black tom who looked to be barely a warrior pleaded.

"You love her, don't you, Knife?"

The dark-pelted tom answered slowly, his voice choked with emotion. "Yes. Yes I do."

"I'm sorry, brother" the she-cat whispered quietly. Another she-cat with a cream and ginger pelt lay in the middle, breathing laboriously. Next to her lay two tiny kits. Slowly, slowly, the she-cat's breathing lessened and soon it had ceased altogether.

The black tom let out a long, agonizing wail of grief. "Noooooooooooo!"

"Your kits still live," the tom's sister reminded him. "I just had my kits – I can take care of yours as well."

"It's no use," the forlorn tom meowed dejectedly. "The housefolk will just take them away."

"It is not so," the she-cat purred. "When my kits are old enough, I will send them to join the Tribe of Rising Stars that lies beyond the mist."

"Then my kits will join yours, Bird" Knife meowed decidedly.

"But first you must name them," Bird prompted.

"I suppose," Knife began. "The black and cream one is Ace, and the ginger one is Hyacinth."

"Fine names, very fine," Bird purred. Suddenly, a rustle sounded from the grass behind the dead kit-mother and out stepped a tiny kit, not noticed in the commotion. She was an exact copy of her mother, her pelt cream and ginger as well.

"She," the tom choked, "is Candy."

OoOoO

Three Moons Later

"Must we go?" Hyacinth murmured quietly to her father and adoptive mother.

"Yes," Bird meowed gently. "You don't have much of a choice."

Ace sighed and Bird's birth sons, Yarrowkit and Gravel, slumped.

"It will be an adventure!" Candy purred. "Let's go!"

Soon the five cats had begun their journey into the unknown.

OoOoO

Candy's POV

"There! This way!" Gravel shouted. I could hear my friends chattering excitedly but could not see them through the mist. I just kept padding forwards, but soon their voiced were gone. For what seemed like forever I just kept going, until I heard a voice.

"You there! Kit!"

I whirled around. A blue-grey she-cat stood behind me.

"I'm Blue Jay," she purred. "I'm a kit, too. Do you want to join the Tribe of Swirling Mist?"

"What about the Tribe of Rising Stars?" I asked.

"Oh, we can't find them. Did you get close?"

"My companions made it," I purred.

"It's too easy to get lost in the mist," Blue Jay meowed. "Come with me. The Tribe of Swirling Mist is just fine, you'll see."

I sighed and padded slowly after the she-cat, all the while wondering where my friends had gone off to.

OoOoo

After Flashback

Candy awoke with a start. She must have been dreaming about her past again. It was so mysterious...where could her friends have gone? A tiny mewling broke her thoughts. Larkkit sat next to her, eyes wide open.

OoOoO

Larkkit's POV

I awoke from a strange dream that started when a cat named Knife lost his mate, and his sister Bird took care of his kits for a while and then sent them to find the Tribe of Rising Stars - but my mother, Candy, found the Tribe of Swirling Mist instead. Surely, it couldn't mean anything...right? I hoped not. Blue Jay tells us stories she learned from her mentor about horrible things that lie beyond the mist. There certainly couldn't be anything good there.

"Are you alright?" my mother purred quietly. She'd woken up too.

"Yes, I'm fine," I meowed, settling down until my mother fell asleep once more. Then, I slowly got up, moving as quietly as the moon when it travels through the nighttime sky. Slowly and cautiously, I padded towards the top of Falling River, all the while thinking about how much I disliked having to follow the warrior code and not leave camp. Oh well, I didn't really care, since I wasn't really out of camp.

Unlike most other cats, I loved to swim. Once I reached the top of Falling River, I leapt in and let the current take me towards the edge. (A/N: Falling River is a small waterfall.) As I slipped off the overhang, I felt as though I was flying through the water, and when I plunged into the restless river at the bottom, I immediatly pulled my head out of the water. For a few more seconds, I let the river soak my pelt, and then I swam out. Again, no one had noticed my outing.

As I padded back towards the nursery, after licking myself clean, I heard a rustle in the bushes. I froze. You're just being silly, I told myself. It's probably just a rabbit. So everso slowly, I turned around. A large pair of yellow eyes peered out at me. This was no rabbit, it was a cat. It was a cat I knew, a cat I was terrified of. I tried to run, but I was petrified by the tom's gaze. Suddenly, an owl's hoot broke the trance and I ran for my life, the tom right at my heels. I felt a massive paw collide with my back as he pinned me down.

"Too late, little kitty," he purred evily into my ear. Then he lunged, claws unsheathed, fangs extended, ready to administer a death blow.

A/N: All of you who guessed Larkkit, you were correct. Yay! This chapter is mainly to explain Candy's heritage and...possibly...foreshadow events to come. You also get to meet a villian, but he's not the main one...or maybe he will be, I'm not sure yet. Should I do some chapters from the POV's of the cats who went to the Tribe of Rising Stars? I'm not sure...R&R!