Chapter 1.
Cindershine wandered through the dark forest, lost and confused, where am I? She thought.
She swung her head around; she couldn't see, hear or smell any other forms of life.
Then she heard a voice. "Greetings, Cinderhine." It said.
Cindershine spun around, her hackles rising, "Who's there?" She yelled. "Show yourself!"
As if in response, a huge, bracken-coloured tom stepped out. Cindershine recognised him immediately.
"Brackenstar?" She whispered.
The tom gave her no answer; instead he stepped forward and whispered to her;
"Your clan is in danger."
Cindershine recoiled, horrified, "What do you mean?" She gasped.
The tom whispered one word. "Poison."
Cindershine recoiled further.
Then the tom looked at her, hope flooding his gaze. "You are the cinder that will shine to save it." He whispered. Then he disappeared.
A paw prodding her in the side woke Cindershine from her disturbing dream. "Wake up." A voice grumbled. She grudgingly opened her eyes. "What?" She moaned, then "Oh, it's you Ashwhisker."
The pale gray tom glared at her for a second and then said "Yes, it's me, it's dawn, thought you might want to organise a patrol." "And" he said, pausing to yawn, "Considering I've been on watch all night, don't include me in it."
'Thanks." Cindershine murmured, sitting up. What was that dream meant to mean? She thought.
Ashwhisker eyed her for a moment then stalked of to his nest and collapsed into it, his snores could be heard almost instantly. However grumpy he may be, Cindershine didn't mind her sister's mate. She had three siblings, and all of them had kits.
Her older sister, Bluefire, had a daughter with Ashwhisker, a pretty gray tabby called Silverpaw. Her other older sister, Honeyfall, had two kits with Blackmask, Lilypaw and Patchpaw, Lilypaw was apprenticed to Cindershine. Then her littermate, Larchtail, was mates with Sorrelwing, and she was expecting his kits. Cindershine felt like the odd one out.
Standing up and shaking the scraps of moss from her pelt, she prodded the three cats nearest to her. Immediately, she had three sets of eyes staring up at her, "Mossfern, Snowpetal and Stormcloud, dawn patrol. Oh, and take Patchpaw with you."
The cats nodded, then stood up and set off sleepily.
Cindershine strode into the clearing, the dream plaguing her mind.
What do they mean 'the cinder'? She thought, what do they mean I will shine? What does any of this have to do with poison?
All of it made no sense.
Trying to take her mind off things, and seeing how low the fresh-kill pile was, she decided to hunt.
HiddenClan's special skill was to hide in the bushes that covered their territory and leap out on to enemies and prey that had no idea they were there.
The elders told them stories about the five other clans, SkyClan, ThunderClan, WindClan, Thunderclan and ShadowClan.
HiddenClan had learnt to abide by the warrior code by StarClan telling them the laws and the occasional rogue or passing loner who knew of the warrior clans.
When the clans had been formed, many moons ago, there had been a group of cats with HiddenClan's skill, but no suitable territory, so the cats had ventured on and eventually found territory that was boarded on one side by mountains and the other side by a small Twolegplace
Cindershine bounded out of camp and glanced at the sun peaking over the distant hills.
Then, trying to clear everything out of her mind started hunting.