Warriors: The Tunnels of Destiny

Prologue

Shadowbreath woke with a start, and instantly the sound of cats in distress flooded her ears. She jumped out of her nest in the nursery, instantly regretting moving so fast when she felt a sharp pain in her side, her unborn kits squirming inside of her. Pushing aside the ache, Shadowbreath galloped outside as fast as her short legs could carry her.

What she saw outside devastated her. Limp bodies lay scattered all over the clearing. Among these was her brother, Earthnose. Shadowbreath gasped and raced over to his body, looking for the rise and fall of his flank, but he was unmoving. Shadowbreath looked around with a broken heart, looking at all her dead clanmates.

All around, cats were huddled together, their eyes wide with shock. One cat in particular was laying beside a dark grey lump on the ground and mewing loudly. She was a queen named Applebloom, and her kits Molekit, Horsekit, and Stonekit were pressed against her, their fur fluffed out. The medicine cat, Grasspelt and her apprentice, Fernpaw, were trying to console her, but nothing was working. Finally, Grasspelt managed to quiet her with a poppy seed and the grieving cat was sent to her nest with her kits.

Relief spread over her from her ears to the tip of her tail when she saw her mate, Brokenrock, walking around examining the amount of damage done to the camp. She had been afraid that she had lost everyone dear to her. *But I would still have my kits* she thought.

Brokenrock turned around and saw Shadowbreath, and his whiskers twitched happily as he bounded over to her. "I was so afraid you got hurt! I couldn't find you and I was worried!" he mewed as he nuzzled her lovingly.

"I'm fine, it should be our clan we are worried about! What HAPPENED?" Shadowbreath said.

Brokenrock shook his head and muttered, " Tigerstar. I KNEW he wouldn't stay away for long. Just because this is the clan Firestar used to lead, he feels the need to attack us." Shadowbreath looked away, grieving the loss of every cat that had died because of Tigerstar's evil heart. And right at that second, she knew she would do whatever she could to avenge Earthnose, her precious brother, and the rest of her dead.