One day I was training Dustpaw in a little hollow on the edge of the camp. "How did you do that?" She asked, as I twisted and leaped backwards over the dusty brown she-cat. "Well," I replied, "basically you need to learn how to balance on your legs first. Then you have to twist, then thrust off your paws."
An amusement purr rumbled in my throat as Dustpaw kept trying to balance on her hind legs, but always falling on her back. "Maybe we will learn something else." I meowed after a while. Dustpaw greatfully nodded her head. I got into an attacker's crouch, and ordered, "Come at me. Try to get me off my paws."
Dustpaw got into a crouch and crept forward, her hindquarters wriggling in the air. She then raced at me and knocked her paw on my leg. I turned and thrusted my paw on her side, making her slide backwards. "How can I do that? Let me do it to you." She meowed. Then I ran at her and did the same thing she did. Her paw pummeled into my side as she twisted around.
The air was dramatically pushed out of my lungs. Staggering up, I meowed, "Very good. I learned it in my rouge days.""Cool!" Dustpaw squealed. Then a yowl came from the camp, "Attention FireClan warriors! I need to say something important!" Sighing, we padded out of the hollow and walked to the clearing where the cats were gathering.
Dustpaw went to sit beside Silverpaw and Brightpaw, and I sat besides Flamepool. She asked, "How was the training this morning?""Good, good." I replied, shifting my weight from paw to paw. She looked at me, concern in her eyes, "Are you okay? Is there something wrong with her?" Her gaze forced me to tell the truth and I said, "She is not the best fighter. I am trying to teach her the twist move, but she can only do basic fighting moves-"
My voice was cut off as the FireClan deputy, Falconfur, yowled for silence on top of the Great Rock. The murmurs stopped, and all the cats turned to face him. He announced, "As you know, there were four original Clans. AirClan, FireClan, IceClan, and EarthClan. The IceClan cats are splitting up, and I want to do the same for FireClan. I will bring AirClan back!"
"What is all this nonsense?" rasped a voice from the leader's den. Oakstar padded out of the den and turned his head around and up at Falconfur. His head looked like an owl turned like that, I thought. The deputy looked to the side, then looked back and replied, "We are talking about taking over IceClan." Flamepool hissed, "Liar!" All the cats hissed or spat at the gray tom. Falconfur dipped his brown topped head and Oakstar scolded, "What did you do now?" "None of your buisness." Falconfur coldly meowed.
The cats muttered in shock at the deputy standing against his leader. His own leader! "Traitor!" A voice yowled, as a tabby tom slammed into Falconfur, brambles flying at him. The warriors circled the screeching cats, who were tumbling with fangs showing, claws unsheathed, and brambles aimed. The tabby, who was Thorntalon, growled, "You will never rule your own Clan. There was always two, and you have to accept that." "No!" Falconfur screeched as he jumped on top of Thorntalon. Hissing with rage, Thorntalon was two weak to hold up the huge tom's weight and slammed into the ground.
Falconfur whispered something into his ear loud enough for most of the cats to hear, "I will not kill, you, but you will suffer until you die." He raised his head, opened his jaw, and bit down on Thorntalon's throat. The light brown tabby yowled in pain, and the deputy climbed off of him. Moonfrost ran through the crowd to his side. Most of the cats started to leave, until me, Flamepool, and Darkclaw were the only ones left. Snowcloud and Wolfpelt padded out to stand a tail-length away from the slowly dying tom and the crying she-cat.
"Why did you have to die like this?" Moonfrost cried, "This should have never happened!" Then Thorntalon raised his tail and replied, "I'll be okay. Remember I will always watch over you. Don't forget me. Darkclaw, please avenge me." Darkclaw nodded. He continued, "Dragonwing, I will say hello to your parents." I nodded, then he flicked his paw and a daisy with dew drops floated into the camp and landed on Moonfrost's light blue head. She purred happily as he said his final words, "Goodbye, my love..."
He studdered, then laid still. Thorntalon was dead. Flamepool's eyes started to tear up, and Moonfrost letter out a loud wail of greif. I bowed my head, also greif-stricken. An elder stalked out of the elders den and looked at the dead tabby tom. She licked his ear and buried her nose into his pelt. Cat after cat, they all mourned and greifed. I said a prayer to him and looked at Darkclaw. His eyes were clouded with greif. He meowed, "I can't believe this. My friend is now dead." I pressed my side into his and replied, "At least you got me. Everything will be alright." He turned his head to me and gave a friendly lick on my ear.
"I want to show you something." He meowed. He flicked his tail to a small hole in a huge rock. "Darkclaw, I don't think-" His dark magic powers grabbed my shoulders and dragged me through the hole. Groaning in pain, I got up where the dark auras disappeared. It was a huge cave, with stalactites hanging from the ceiling, water droplets dripping from the tips. The cold, stone floor was uneven, and felt uncomfortable underpaw. Unusual symbols and pictures were scattered in the cave room. The pictures first showed huge cats, then into smaller and smaller cats. "What is this?" I asked the silent Darkclaw.
He raised his head. Then he meowed, "This will be a difficult spell, so stay silent so you don't mess it up." For some reason it felt like a bird trapped in my belly to hear his deep mew. Nodding my head, he said.
"Let all of the StarClan warriors open the gate to the Fire Cave. I shall not betray, but it is a place for me. Open the silver gate!" It felt like something carried me off my paws as me and Darkclaw started to float upwards, spinning so fast that I could only see a blurr. Then a black portal opened in the ceiling. We got sucked into its dark opening.