Midnight

Chapter 1

Leaves rustled as the young dark ginger cat slid through a gap between two bushes, her jaws parted to drink in the scents of prey. Dustpelt had probably sent her on another night hunt though for some reason she couldn't remember speaking to her mentor about it. Movements twitched endlessly at the edge of her vision, but when she turned her head she could see nothing but thick clumps of fern and bramble, dappled with moonlight.

Trotting with her head raised proudly, a vole between her jaws, she stopped in confusion as she stepped out into a wide clearing. She could not remember being in this part of the forest before.

Oh, StarClan, she thought. Skystar will kill me if I crossed the border again. She looked across the smooth-cropped grass, glowing silver in a cold wash of moonlight, to a softly rounded rock where another cat was sitting. Starlight sparkled in her fur, and her eyes were two small moons.

The young cat's fur bristled instinctively as she took in the intruder, her green eyes narrowed. "Who are you?" she demanded, dropping the vole. "Mistyfoot?"

"Close," the stranger purred. "I am her mother, Bluestar. Come closer, young warrior, I have a message for you."

She had heard of the great leader before her own mother took over the position. Bluestar had given up her last life in the great fight against the dog pack seasons before her own birth saving Skystar from certain death. The Clan honored her through many stories and she'd heard that her mother's adopted father was kin to Bluestar.

She must be dreaming if the former leader was sitting before her. But why was she getting a visit from StarClan when her sister was the one who chose the path of a medicine cat? Shivering with awe and barely contained excitement, the young apprentice crept across the shining stretch of turf until she crouched below the rock and could look up into Bluestar's eyes.

"Why come to me instead of Leafpaw?" She couldn't help asking.

"A time of trouble is coming to the forest," Bluestar told her. "A new prophecy must be fulfilled if the Clans are to survive. You have been chosen to meet with three other cats at the new moon, and you must listen to what midnight tells you."

"Why me?" The young cat felt her excitement fade to dread as the implication of the former leader's words finally set in. "What could be worse than what happened with BloodClan? And what use is midnight to us?"

"All will be made clear to you," Bluestar replied.

Her voice faded, echoing strangely as if she were speaking from a cavern far beneath the earth. The moonlight also began to grow dim, leaving thick black shadows to creep out of the trees around them.

"Hey, wait!" the apprentice cried out. "You need to explain more!"

Her eyes flew open and she jumped to her paws, fur fluffed up and claws extended. Something nudged her in the side and she turned quickly to see her brother, Cloudpaw, standing next to her.

"Great StarClan, Squirrelpaw, you crazy furball!" the white apprentice meowed. "What's wrong with you? You've probably scared off all the prey between here and Fourtrees."

"I did not," Squirrelpaw retorted, shaking her pelt to make it lie flat again. "I was just having a weird dream, that's all."

"A dream?" Squirrelpaw's last littermate, Swiftpaw, lifted his head from his nest. "You should talk to Skystar about it if it has you leaping up like that."

"Skystar doesn't need to be bugged for a silly dream," Spiderpaw grumbled. "Sandstorm told me stories about how Skystar always woke up like that when she was in the warriors' den. Perhaps it just runs in the family."