Chapter 1

Warm sunlight slanted through the mouth of the den, waking Twilight with its warm touch. Stretching, she went outside and had breakfast. Licking her lips as she finished, she started on her way to the old oak tree.

On her way through one of the trails in the park, she passed some human kits throwing something, and shrieking with delight when they caught it. Twilight shook her head and continued.

As she got into the more wooded area of the park, she passed some other loners. There was Squirrel, Bounce, Crow, Mouse, and Leaf, who also lived in various places around the park.

There were also some city dwellers that visited the park, like Rose or Dragon. Plus Raccoon, whom Twilight thought was charming. She passed them all on her way to the oak, and they exchanged polite conversation, but did not tarry on their separate ways.

About noon Twilight reached the oak. From the scents she could tell that Sky was not yet here. Twilight glanced around casually to make sure no cat was watching her and clawed her way up the rough bark of the trunk, up among the branches.

She climbed until she was sure no cat could see her from below. Perching on a fork in a branch, she waited for Sky in comfort.

The oak was large and had many more branches spreading out above and away from her. It still had plenty of leaves, though leaf-fall was approaching, and all of them were a brilliant gold hue. They shuffled and danced in the wind.

As Twilight waited, she watched the birds twitter around in the tree, and she laughed when she moved and they scattered in a flurry of feathers. They always came back though; she was impressed in spite of herself.

Then Twilight spotted movement near the lower branches. She pretended to be hunting the birds in case it was BloodClan, but then she caught a trace of the blue-gray pelt that let her know it was Sky.

Her friend weaved her way among the branches until she sat next to Twilight.

"I hope you haven't been waiting long," Sky mewed when she had settled herself. "Strike and Adder happened to come by and I had to explain that I was going hunting. They let me go, but they followed me for some time, so I had to prove my story." She shivered, and there was fear in her eyes as she spoke of the two.

Twilight herself shuddered at the BloodClan cats' names. They were two of the most dangerous warriors of BloodClan, besides Titan himself and Whip, his deadly second-in-command.

"Why can't BloodClan leave us alone and let us live our own free lives?" Sky spat suddenly, hatred flooding in her blue eyes. "They have to kick us around and makes us follow their law. What'd we ever do to them?"

"I wish they would leave us alone, too," Twilight mewed. "But we can't very well change it, or escape. Titan posts guards at the limits of the city, and every cat that has tried to escape was restrained or killed."

"Except for Barley," Sky mewed.

Twilight smiled at the long-dead name of the black and white tom that had escaped from BloodClan. His name had been handed down in the city for many years, encouraging kits to be strong.

"We don't know how Barley did it, and if we follow BloodClan law, they leave us alone for the most part," Twilight mewed.

"But I don't want to follow any law. When my mother or father grows weak and old and can't hunt for themselves, they'll starve if I can't hunt for them," Sky snarled, tearing at the bark.

Twilight felt a strong twinge of pain, and anger rose like a cloud. Her mother had died that way. She was too weak to hunt for herself, being old and ill.

Twilight, as a very young cat, had tried to go to Titan himself to ask if she could hunt and care for her mother after she was of age.

She hadn't gotten past the gate of his court. The two guards just sneered at her when she tearfully told them her plea. Needle and Poison were their names, and they led her back home again. Twilight was under twelve moons, which meant she could still live with her mother. She had no siblings.

Twilight had had to watch in horror as Poision dragged her mother out and gave her a severe beating, then left. Twilight had crawled over to her mother and rubbed against her, telling her it would be fine.

Her mother managed to tell her kit that she loved her before she died, and to always try to look after her friends and herself.

Twilight shook her head to rid herself of the memories, and pushed the pain down again. Sky blinked at her sympathetically and turned the subject away from BloodClan.

They talked about many more things such as the hunting, the oncoming leaf-bare, and which toms took were beginning to take their fancy. Then the sun began to set, bringing a night chill to the park.

Twilight climbed down first, and loped away from the tree as casually as she could. After a time, Sky came down. It was their way of not attracting the eyes of any BloodClan supporters.

Twilight ran quickly to her home as the wind grew icier and began to chill her through her fur. It was her first leaf-bare, and she didn't think she liked it.

Twilight crawled into her den, snuggling vainly into her bed of leaves. After an uneasy period of shivering against the cold, she fell into a shallow sleep.