Warriors: The Beginning

Prologue

The forest was up in flames. The Twolegs had set fire to the large forest that homed a Clan of cats. There was an ear-splitting yowl.

"Run!" The leader yelled, getting on the highest object, which was a large boulder. "Fire! Woodshine, wake the others." The leader leaped off the boulder, running to the nursery where there were five newborn kits.

"Moonfur! Spottedheart! Rockstep! Wake your kits up! There's a fire!" Blackstar meowed loudly into the three queens' ears. They woke with a jolt and spotted the flickering tounges of the fire that would have scared any cat out of their pelt.

"Wake up, wake up!" The queens shook their kits to wake them up. Several warriors filed into the den and helped the queens carry their kits out. As the leader led the queens out, she spotted the deputy helping the elders out of the cave.

"Woodshine!" Blackstar mewed. "Go to the Blinking Tree and bring the others with you. I'll gather the rest." Her deputy nodded her brown head and ran to the other cats. Most of them were cowering away from the fire.

The orange blaze licked out at them, and heat was pressed against their pelts. The cats didn't need to be told twice—once the command came out of the deputy's mouth, the cats ran, helping the weaker ones on the way.

"Hurry!" Blackstar meowed frantically, urging the three elders on.

"What's going on?" Sandpelt, a pale yellow tom, asked, his brown eyes clouded with curiosity rather than worry.

"Fire," Blackstar replied, with a troubled note. "We've got to get out, now!" The black-furred leader led the three cats towards the Blinking Tree, which was surrounded by a horde of cats, their eyes glinting with terror.

"Cats of SharpClan! We may have been chased out by fox-hearted Twolegs, but our Clan still lives on! We will find a new home and continue the legacy of SharpClan!" Blackstar meowed loudly, over the muttering of the Clan cats.

The cats mewed their approvals. Blackstar reveled from her Clan's support that they should find a new camp and not fret. Suddenly, a shrill shriek rung from the middle of the horde of cats.

"Yinkit! Where's Yinkit?" The moon was a claw-scratch in the sky, bathing the Clan with just enough moonlight to be able to see. The leader spotted a frantic queen in the middle of the cats, her wide-eyed expression showing nothing but concern for her kit's safety.

It turned out that the black and white queen was Moonfur. She left with a wordless departure, sprinting away from her Clanmates.

"Moonfur!" The queen's mate, Hookclaw, called out after her. He made a desperate attempt to follow her, but the other warriors held him back. Blackstar meowed, "Hookclaw, come with me. Mousefur, Foxtail, let him go." The two warriors who were holding the cat back released their hard grip, and almost instantly Hookclaw bounded towards the inferno, which already was flickering menacingly  on the outskirts of the camp.

Blackstar followed the black warrior, her black paws padding against the short grass, which would soon be nothing but ashes and dust. It was tragic for the Clan to think—they spent uncountable seasons in this area, specializing in stalking quietly, running swiftly and silently and excelling in catching prey that hung around in their territory.

And all because of the terrible, fox-hearted Twolegs, all of this beautiful land will be gone! Although every hair on her pelt was seething with rage and so terribly wanted to take revenge on the Twolegs who burned the camp, Blackstar took all her self-control to ebb away that feeling.

Rather than spend time growling about the Twolegs and how much they needed to pay, the black leader used that time to look for Hookclaw and Moonfur. She hated to admit this, but the inferno did help her see better as it was a source of bright, orange light. It burst from the bracken and licked out at the cats, growing more destructive every second.

Blackstar saw the familiar black and white pelt of Moonfur; the queen was crouching over something. Blackstar couldn't make out what it was, but suspected that it was Yinkit.

"Moonfur! Are you alright?" Hookclaw ran over to his mate, his voice edging with concern.

"Fine," she snapped, rather surprisingly. Moonfur then continued in a softer voice, "Y-Yinkit's not." Hookclaw padded up to her side, Blackstar doing the same. The initially white kit was scorched on her left side, her fur blackened and looking like she was dead. When Blackstar was about to mutter a prayer of "May StarClan light your path", Moonfur cried, "She's breathing!"

The hope that was dwindling inside Blackstar rose again, but not by much. She didn't want to get her hopes up too high; it would be tragic if Yinkit didn't survive. Yinkit did still look as lifeless as a corpse, apart from the occasional rise and fall of her flank.

"Let's get out of here," Hookclaw muttered, using his tail to brush his mate's flank. Moonfur picked up her kit in her jaws and nodded. Blackstar lingered behind them, making sure that they didn't get burnt.

Once the three cats were safely out of the inferno's hot grasp, they bounded towards the Blinking Tree.

"We've got to get to a safer place, away from here!" Woodshine meowed. "Then we can have a better look at Yinkit." The Clan cats, although anxious for the sake of themselves, listened closely to what the deputy and leader had to say.

Moonfur and Hookclaw wanted Ambereye—the medicine cat—to see to their kit immediately, but both of them knew better than to demand attention from the leader. They had to concentrate on the more pressing problem of finding a new camp, or at least a temporary place to seek shelter.

The unbreachable problem lingered in the Clan cats' minds. Ambereye padded beside Moonfur, casting a glance at the injured and unconscious, her breaths uneven.

"Blackstar, when it becomes sunhigh, will we stop to hunt? Will we rest anywhere?" A warrior asked idly.

Blackstar's heart froze. She hadn't thought of that. Woodshine, who was padding beside her, whispered, "We'll find a suitable resting spot and tend to Yinkit." Blackstar looked over to her deputy and flicked her ears in acknowledgement.

"We will find a new camp if it's the last thing we do," Blackstar vowed, to StarClan, herself, and her Clan.

[edited] 5/6/16