CHAPTER 1

Brambleclaw was only a cat, but he had many thoughts in his head. He had thoughts other than what he was going to eat that day or the weather. The Maine Coon tabby was scared of many things despite looking like a great gray lion. The road frightened him, dogs frightened him, and feral cats also frightened him, but Brambleclaw tried to hide all of that because he knew that letting other animals know of his fears would make him seem worthless and weak.

Brambleclaw had never, in his entire life, considered himself a nasty feral cat, and personally, had no desire to be like one, yet one thing lingered in his mind ever since he got thrown out of his house-cat home for some mysterious reason: no matter how hard he tried to hide from his reality, he was going to have to adapt to his new, lonely life. He could hunt by instinct, and in the end, he felt he would always be alone, forgotten, and never known by any other animal or human in his entire neighborhood.

Brambleclaw let out a little sigh and closed his eyes, urging himself to think happy thoughts. Silence surrounded him like a soft, comforting blanket. Suddenly, the blanket was torn. Brambleclaw opened his eyes, feeling irritated at the tiny chittering of a squirrel. He wasn't in the mood for hunting, but it wouldn't hurt to restore the silence and catch a squirrel to enjoy at the bright beginning of his day.

The huge cat crept skillfully toward the tree, then dug his claws deep into the bark to climb up and so he did. He caught sight of the little red squirrel and softened his next movements to be as quiet as he could. When Brambleclaw looked at the squirrel the second time, he froze because the squirrel was looking straight at him with its little shiny black eyes, and its furry little ears perked up.

"Hey," the squirrel told him, clearly unalarmed. All the animals could talk to each other, but usually prey just freaked out and attempted to scurry away. The squirrel then climbed further up the tree and giggled a little bit. Brambleclaw growled menacingly to clearly assert his dominance. "Hey," the squirrel taunted, "Don't you wanna talk to me?"

"No," Brambleclaw hissed back. The squirrel abruptly turned around with her ears perked up.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no…" she whispered under her breath, "Dogs, there's dogs!" Brambleclaw tuned to the direction the squirrel was looking and tensed. Panicked, he tried to figure out how to protect himself but all he could do was stay still. The dogs ran toward the tree and Brambleclaw looked down to face them.

"Please," Brambleclaw told them, "Don't hurt me… that's all I ask of you!" The dogs just growled and slobbered, their strong musty dog odor rising up so that Brambleclaw could smell it, and it gave him a headache.

"We can't climb a tree," one of the dogs muttered frustratedly under his breath, "But there's no way I'm going to be nice," Moments after, the dogs all violently began to shake the tree. Brambleclaw wasn't quite sure what he was going to do, so all he did was close his eyes, his method of escaping from reality, and finding a relaxing place wherever he was.

He felt a little scuffling next to him, different then the leaves that were falling and rubbing against him as the dogs still vigorously shook the tree.

"Are you that dumb?" the squirrel squeaked, "We could literally die, my friend."

Brambleclaw forced his eyes to open and he glanced down at the squirrel as she frustratedly looked up at him. "Do something! I'm a squirrel, I can't!" she angrily told Brambleclaw.

"Squirrelflight!" one of the dogs growled angrily, "Look guys, it's the pesky little squirrel, Squirrelflight. Looks like she banded with that weird cat."

When Brambleclaw looked down at Squirrelflight, he noticed she was practically fuming, and fully aware of who these dogs were.

"I'm not getting out of this tree!" she called to them, "You can't make me."

"Yes, but we're strong," the lead dog called back. "We can fight our way to victory." Suddenly, an idea popped into Brambleclaw's head. Dumb it was, he had thought, but he absolutely had to try it. Brambleclaw winked at Squirrelflight, and the little red squirrel shot him a confused glance, but just shrugged and looked back at the dogs.

"Oh really," Brambleclaw growled at them, "I suppose you haven't met me yet."

"No, we haven't, '' one of the dogs replied, "Why, is it a great honor to meet you? We're sorry, we didn't know you were famous." Squirrelflight snickered a little, but Brambleclaw started to bristle, unsheathed his claws, and bared his teeth.

"You're gonna regret this," he hissed as he sprang off of the tree and onto one of the dogs. The dog instantly collapsed because of his surprise. Brambleclaw was pretty sure that the dog wasn't expecting the attack to land on himself. As Brambleclaw began to slash his claws through the devastated canine's thin black fur, he caught little glimpses of the other pack members, who were staring in shock, all looking like they couldn't believe that Brambleclaw would do that. Squirrelflight let out a little gasp. If Brambleclaw were to be honest with himself, he didn't believe he did that either.

"Stop!" the dog he was attacking rasped, "Please, I promise, we'll stop too!" The pain from Brambleclaw's attack was evident in the dog's voice, and it made Brambleclaw feel sympathetic. He stopped for a second and looked at what he had done to the dog. He backed up and climbed up the tree again.

The dogs just looked at Brambleclaw in disbelief. They all walked away, four of them helping to carry the injured dog away. The leader of the pack turned back to look at Brambleclaw. "You're going to regret this," he barked, then proceeded to walk with his pack.

Squirrelflight looked up at Brambleclaw. "What was that about?"

Brambleclaw shrugged, "Self-defence," he answered in a monotone voice, "Cat stuff."

"Cool," Squirrelflight replied, "What's your name?"

"Brambleclaw," he replied, hoping to be able to leave, but Squirrelflight flashed him a determined look that made him feel like he would never be able to leave.