Will you Welcome
The
R-e-t-u-r-n
of
the
T-i-g-e-r?
Prologue
A small gray tabby cat sat in a large clearing lit occasionally by flickers of moonlight. He leaned over a pool of water, filled with stars, as if looking for something. The pool and the trees rippled with the wind, while the dark clouds above swirled and churned. The cat sat still, his gray pelt blended with the sparkling water.
Suddenly, a small tree at the edge of the clearing groaned and leaned forward. The gray cat stiffened. He braced himself as another cat flung itself out of the young tree, and the tree snapped back into place. For a split second a flash of lightning illuminated the newcomer. Its pelt was golden, filled with stars, and his amber eyes blazed almost as bright as the moon. But the dark gray cat did not need to see the gold, star-filled pelt to know who this cat was.
"Lionblaze," meowed the gray cat as he dipped his head in greeting. The gold cat, Lionblaze, nodded to the gray tabby and padded over to him. "Jayfeather," Lionblaze rumbled. "Why did you choose only the four to come here?" Jayfeather ignored Lionblaze and turned to stare into the pond. Suddenly, Jayfeather jerked his head up and hissed a warning. "Some cat is coming!" Lionblaze whirled around at the sound of paw steps in the trees.
"It's okay! It's just me." A small gray she-cat stepped out into the clearing. Lionblaze and Jayfeather visibly relaxed. "Dovewing!" Lionblaze exclaimed. "Do you know where Firestar is?"
Dovewing shook her head. "No," she replied. "In fact," Dovewing added thoughtfully, "I haven't seen him for a while."
"Hmmm…" Jayfeather thought, groping for a reason for the former ThunderClan leader's absence. "Oh well. He doesn't have to be here yet anyway. You two came earlier than I expected."
All of a sudden, an awful screeching sounded in the woods surrounding the clearing. Lionblaze stood bolt upright, His pelt spiked, and his claws dug deep into the ground. Dovewing gulped nervously, and then fluffed out her pelt, her eyes gleamed in the dark. But Jayfeather was calm. No flash of alarm entered his eyes, nor did he bristle and unsheathe his claws.
"It's Firestar." He mewed. Lionblaze stared at him, while Dovewing blinked in confusion. "How do you know?" Lionblaze queered.
Again, Jayfeather did not reply. He did not need to; Firestar had just staggered into the clearing. His pelt was ruffled, and scraps of leaf stuck to it.
Jayfeather hissed in annoyance. "Firestar, you do realize that almost every cat in StarClan will have heard you screech, and will be on their way here right now?"
Firestar looked surprised. "That wasn't me. It was Ivypool." Firestar shook his head. "She insisted on practicing her fighting moves. I don't know why."
Lionblaze sighed and his eyes darkened. "I think it comes from having trained in the Dark Forest. They might yet attack our Clans again."
Jayfeather glared at Lionblaze. "It's not our Clans we came to talk about!"
Dovewing flared up in defense of her sister and glared at Lionblaze as well. "She had to, Lionblaze! And you were the one who insisted she spy!"
Now Lionblaze looked a little surprised, but he didn't so much as twitch his ear toward Dovewing.
"Did Ivypool get hurt?" Dovewing asked anxiously. Firestar purred with amusement. "No, I did, a bit. You can't really get hurt in StarClan, unless…" Firestar's eyes clouded with grief, and Jayfeather knew he was thinking of Spottedleaf, the gentle medicine cat had been killed in the attack from the Dark Forest. Spottedleaf had already been in StarClan when she was killed again. "That screech was just Ivypool's battle cry," Firestar continued. Dovewing blinked in relief.
Jayfeather hissed again. "Do you mind? We're supposed to be discussing the new prophecy right now!"
Firestar, who was still at the edge of the clearing, darted over towards the pool, trying to get Spottedleaf out of his mind, followed closely by Dovewing.
"At last!" Jayfeather muttered. He lowered his head as if to lap up some water from the pool. He kept his head lowered and took a deep breath.
"Wait!" The interruption came from Lionblaze. Jayfeather glared at him. "What now?" He snapped. Lionblaze studied his paws for a moment then blurted out, "It's just—well these Clans aren't our Clans! Why should we help them? They have their own ancestors!"
There was dead silence. The breeze stopped blowing, the trees stopped swaying. The clearing fell absolutely silent.
Did he really just say that? How dare he? Jayfeather wondered as his rage grew. He stood up as tall as he could and fluffed out his pelt. Anger smoldering in his jay-blue eyes, Jayfeather stalked stiff-legged over to Lionblaze and towered over him. Lionblaze shrank back; clearly he had not expected Jayfeather to grow so angry.
"They may not be our Clans," Jayfeather snarled. "But have you not seen the pain they will suffer? If we don't send this prophecy, they will suffer even more! They could even die out completely! Would you want our Clans to suffer like these? No!" Jayfeather had to take several deep breaths to calm himself a little, and then he continued. "As for us helping them, does the warrior code forbid us from helping others? These Clans have only existed for three seasons! They don't have any dead leaders yet, their medicine cats are young, all of them! The only cats in their StarClan, are warriors, apprentices, and kits killed by leaf-bare hunger and sickness. Their warrior ancestors are few, very few." Jayfeather yowled the last part. "That is why we must send this prophecy!"
Without another word from any cat, Jayfeather whisked back to the position of leaning over the water, then silently checking every cat was listening, began again in a low whisper:
"Four will be chosen to save their Clans, four others will help them, and together journey to find help from the first to battle the Tiger. Only then can they hope to stand against the Tiger and Darkness, but much will still be lost…"
Oh yeah, I don't own warriors...I really wish I did, though...Oh, and also right after this the four original Clans' StarClan chooses cats to be reincarnated down into the four new Clans...The whole reason for this is that Tigerstar figured out to reincarnate himself (and a few other Dark Forest pals) into the four new Clans. StarClan is once again opposing the Dark Forest...
