Legacy (Book 1)

Prologue & Alliances

Prologue

It is to be noted that the long mountain range houses more then just the Tripe of Rushing Water. Another group of cats live there, similar and different from the Tribe in various ways.

I shall start with the similarities, this other group of cats, for they have no name, and are usually called by whomever is their leader at the time, is divided into hunters and fighters, much like the Tribe's cave-guards and prey-hunters.

This group also lives in a cave behind a waterfall, though the waterfall is just a trickling stream and the entrance is mostly covered by ivy. Also, the cats of the Tribe and this group share ancestors. Unfortunately, the similarities end there.

You see, my name is Song, I once lived by the lake where the Clans now dwell. When the three groups of cats that lived there broke apart; one part becoming loners, rogues, and kittypets; one part staying and living loosely to the former cats way of life; and the last part followed me far away.

We entered the mountains far north of the Tribe's home, though the weather is much the same, if not a bit warmer, since our territory is mostly large, low, grassy valleys surrounded by tall mountains. We settled in an earth cave in the side of a mountain and devised different ways of hunting and fighting the mountain birds, for we rarely saw any other cat for generations.

To say the least, it was idealistic, every cat always well fed, well trained, and comfortable. It remained so beyond my passing for several generations. The one fatal flaw in our life was that we lost our belief in ancestors in the sky almost as soon as we left the lake.

This flaw led to our second flaw, we organized the leadership in two parts. There was one leader for the hunters, and one leader for the fighters. When I devised this, I hoped that the shared power would make it more difficult for tyranny to arise. But I was wrong.

The shared power led to bitter fights among the cats. This flaw led to a very grave mistake that haunts me still. You see, once, two leaders, both she-cats, fell in love with the same tom and hated each other. Blinded by their emotion, they led their cats against each other.

The fight was very fatal, only a handful of cats surviving. The two leaders had killed each other. That paved the way for two ambitious brothers, one a hunter, the other a fighter, to become the leaders. Both of the brothers had a strange way of looking down on she-cats after the fight. They thought she-cats were too emotional to think straight and passed a law that no she-cat could ever become leader.

Because of the fatal battle, there wasn't enough opposition to stop them, and most cats saw sense in the law. But that one rule, even though the brothers loved their she-cat friends, and just thought them incapable to put sense in front of emotion, led the way for harsher rules.

It continued with the leader of toms, some more shrewd, some more lenient, but all looking down on she-cats. Over countless generations, it came to a time when all she-cats were assigned to toms as kits through their father and their one sole duty was to make their mates happy and bear their kits.

She-cats weren't allowed to learn to hunt or fight, they weren't allowed to go out of the cave without their mates, they were only allowed to learn how to heal, and they weren't even allowed to be seen talking alone to a tom outside their family. The punishment against these rules stretched from a beating to death, depending on the broken rule and who broke it for whom.

Even though I myself am a she-cat, the founder of these cats who set them up and formed rock from clay, my gender was being degraded and the immorality just kept becoming more and more apparent.

I wish that I, or the other ancestors, could have done something to stop it. But because our descendants didn't believe in ancestors, we had no connection to them, and could only wait and hope that some cat could stop those horrendous crimes from becoming our family's one and only legacy.

Legacy: Alliances

Hunters

Leader: Hawk- Lithe brown tom with sharp blue eyes and off-white ears. Mate: Droplet- Elegant silver she-cat with soft gray eyes and a white stripe on her muzzle.

Hunters:

Scratch- Gray-brown tom with dull brown eyes. Mate: Shimmer- Black she-cat with white tipped tail, ears, and chest; blue eyes.

Hare- Pale brown tom with tufted ears and amber eyes. Mate: Twist- Amber and brown tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes.

Spider- Long legged black tom with brown tabby stripes and yellow eyes. Mate: Undecided

Ice- Pale silver tom with white ears and pale blue eyes. Mate: Storm- Dark gray she-cat with orange eyes.

Nightly- Black tom with amber eyes. Mate: Undecided

Tuft- Gray tom with tufted ears, long fur, and tufted tail; green eyes. Mate: Grass- Pale gray she-cat with bright green eyes.

Trainees. Cats ages 5-8 moons.

Scamp- Black and red tom with unruly fur and bright amber eyes. Mate: Squirrel- Red she-cat with a fluffy tail and blazing green eyes.

Kits: (cats under five moons)

Tangle- Gray-brown tom with dull blue eyes and white tipped tail. (Scratch, Shimmer)

Mudslide- Dark brown tom with black paws and amber eyes. (Hare, Twist)

Whisper- Lithe silver she-cat with darker flecks and green eyes.(Hare, Twist)

Fighters

Leader: Crag- Large black tom with gray ears and brown eyes. Mate: Leaf- Golden and white dappled she-cat with soft fur and green eyes.

Fighters:

Fox- Lanky red tom with green eyes and ripped tail tip. Mate: Deceased, no new one yet named.

Boulder- Muscular, solid gray tom with amber eyes. Mate: Red- Mottled red, brown she-cat with white paws and blue eyes

Swallowtail- Brown and red tom with a gray tail and gray eyes. Mate: Swirl- Black and gray mottled she-cat with dark blue, almost black, eyes.

Pebble- Mottled gray-brown tom with green eyes. Mate: Undecided

Snake- Black tom with brown speckles and dark brown eyes. Mate: Crisp- Orange-brown she-cat with amber eyes.

Trainees. Cats ages 5-8 moons.

Trip- White and brown tom with large, clumsy paws and blue eyes. Mate: Cinder- Fluffy gray she-cat with green eyes

Sleet- Muscular, white tom with yellow eyes. Mate: Undecided

Kits. (cats less then five moons)

Cliff- Gray tom with brown paws and blue eyes(Swallowtail, Swirl)

Tinge- White she-cat with gray tinged tips and yellow eyes(Swallowtail, Swirl)

Night- Large black tom with brown ears and paws; amber eyes(Crag, Leaf)