THE BEGINNING OF THE CLANS - STARCLAN'S REQUEST

CHAPTER 3

   "Snowshade! Come out and hunt with me!" Sunfur, Snowshade's sister yowled. "No! I am busy, I will join you in a bit!" Snowshade yowled back. Back at the herb storage, Snowshade was busy finding some herbs like burnet. Those were travelling herbs to keep cats' strength up. "Ugh! No burnet anywhere! Perhaps I should hunt with my sister to keep everyone's strength up instead," Snowshade grumbled. Nearby, a silver she-cat came into the den "Huh? Oh, greetings Snowshade! Moondust waved her tail, Moondust is a beautiful silver she-cat with frost blue eyes. Snowshade twitched her ears knowing that she acknowledged it. Moondust could tell she was busy. When Snowshade was done organizing herbs, she turned around and exchanged her greeting, "How are you Moondust?" "Could be better, Blueshine needs more borage to keep her milk flowing. Wolfkit and Violetkit have big appetites for milk." Moondust chuckled. Blueshine is Moondust's sister, of course she is concerned, Snowshade thought. "Well, there are still a bit more borage in store and I think it would be the last of it, but I am sure there would be more when we move to a new home," Snowshade murmured. "What? A new home?" Moondust questioned. "I will explain everything, I might call a clan meeting!" Snowshade decided. "But first, take some of the borage for your sister. It is at the most back of the den," Moondust waved her tail in acknowledgement.

Snowshade padded towards birch trees surrounding flat, long, yellow rocks with warm and sunny rays of sunlight. Her parents and some other elders lay there enjoying the sunlight. "Stonestorm, Goldblaze, can I talk to you about the... thing?" Stonestorm and Goldblaze exchanged a knowing glance. They waved their tail as goodbye to the others and padded off to a small bramble thicket. "Why do we need to discuss about this again?" Goldblaze grumbled. "I feel the same way about you, I don't want to leave this home. However, this is a prophecy we cannot ignore," Stonestorm reminded him. Snowshade wrapped her tail neatly around her paws while she waited for her parents to finish. "May I talk now?" Snowshade asked. "Oh yes you can," Her mother mewed. Snowshade took a nervous breath as she thought what she wanted to do might be wrong. Snowshade mewed, "I accidentally gave away a hint about the prophecy while I was talking to Moondust. And she asked me about it, I was thinking... should I tell the whole clan with a meeting?" "Yes, it would be better for them to face the truth first," Snowshade's parents mewed at the same time. All of them tried to stifle a laugh, but, all of them ended up laughing. "Alright, I will call a meeting," Snowshade decided.

"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather beneath the rock for a clan meeting!" Snowshade's yowl rang clearly across the area. Confused murmurs filled the bottom of the rock. "What's going on?" one cat asked, another one mewed, "I don't know?" Snowshade lashed her tail for silence and began, "StarClan has spoken to me, we need to rebuild a clan with the cats we have here. We need to find a new territory that we will need to share with." She ignored the shocked murmurs and beckoned her daughter Mintpaw to share about the territory. "My great-great grandmother, Stoneshade, brought me and my kin to a simple forest similar to this but with more area, a beautiful sparkling stream and more details, there was another large, empty forest beside us. There were two more groups of cats beside us. They were a bit far from us and there was a line of trees in between our land and theirs. Stoneshade told us to find this land and settle there with those other cats. Then, she vanished into thin air," Mintpaw explained. "Well, I won't go against StarClan," Greydust, a grey-blue tom with frost blue eyes, just like his sisters Moondust and Blueshine muttered. Everyone agreed to what Snowshade had mewed and started sharing urgent mews with each other. "How about Blueshine and my kits?" Flowerlaugh, a lavender and cream she-cat fretted. Her kits were just two moons old so she had the right to be worried. "Your kits are strong enough to make the journey and we will have breaks near the end of each day," Snowshade confirmed her. "I trust you Snowshade, why not start the journey tomorrow at dawn?" Flowerlaugh suggested. "Then it is so, tomorrow, we will start our clan!" Snowshade cheered.