The sky was dark. There was no moon tonight, and the stars were covered by clouds. Two dark shapes slipped through the trees, moving swiftly yet silently.

All of a sudden, one of them stopped. He motioned for his companion to stay still and listen. Voices drifted over to them, loud in the silence of the night. Yet the two were unable to make out the words.

A light breeze blew towards the two, and instinctively, both cats' claws slid out and their fur bristled. The scent that was carried on the breeze was not of their own Clan, and that meant one thing.

There were intruders in their territory.

As the cat who had first heard the voices moved forward, the other flicked out her tail to bar his way.

"Wait, Whitewater," she hissed. "We don't know how many there are."

The long-haired white tom lashed his tail impatiently. "I know, Darkwhisker. I'm just going to look."

"I'll go instead. Your white fur will be easily spotted. My dark fur would blend in," Darkwhisker meowed quietly, then crouched down and crept towards the sound.

Whitewater followed the dark tabby, ignoring her words. His ears swiveled back and forth, listening for any sounds of ambush.

Darkwhisker stopped all of a sudden, causing Whitewater to crash into her painfully. His mouth opened in a protest, but only a muffled squeak came out as Darkwhisker slapped her tail over his mouth. She shifted a little to the side so that Whitewater could see.

The trail they were following led into a small clearing. They were hidden among the roots of a tree that grew close to the edge of the clearing. A few cats were gathered in the clearing itself; Whitewater could see that there were five of them.

"Rogues or loners," Darkwhisker whispered to Whitewater. He nodded. They carried a scent that did not belong to any of the four Clans of the forest.

Both cats could hear the mews now.

"Ginger, Ghost, this is Fang and Claw," one of the cats, a dark red tom, meowed, flicking his tail to two massive cats that stood beside him; one was completely black, the other was white.

"The dark red tom looks like Thornmask!" Whitewater hissed to Darkwhisker, referring to the deputy of ForestClan.

Darkwhisker nodded silently, still watching. The wind that had at first carried the scent of the unfamiliar cats to them had died down, but the clouds still floated in across the sky. By the light of the stars, the five cats could be seen clearly.

"Are you sure we can trust them, Berrynose?" one of the cats spoke, a silver tom. He and another cat, a light ginger tom, were facing their backs to Whitewater and Darkwhisker.

"They will kill at my command. Does that satisfy you, Ghost?" Berrynose meowed menacingly.

Ghost hesitated, but nodded. His fur was very pale; he almost looked like a spirit of StarClan to the two Clan cats.

"Now, Ginger," Berrynose voice was friendly, but at the same time, it sounded completely mocking to the two Clan cats that still remained hidden among the tree roots. "The time has come."

Ginger flinched. The fur on his pelt began to rise, and he hissed, "I've already said, I'm not going to sneak into ForestClan, pretend to be one of their own, and then betray them. This betrays any morals that cats have."

"Are you sure, Ginger?" every single word hid the threat of death, dripping with venom. Darkwhisker shuddered, her fur bristling. She had never heard any cat speak that way before. "This is your last chance, Ginger. Join ForestClan, pretending to be one of them, and then kill the leader for me to take over the Clan – or die."

Ginger stood his ground staunchly. The wind started up again, blowing towards him, as if Berrynose was controlling the wind to terrorize Ginger into obeying. But Ginger continued to glare at Berrynose. "I stand by my belief."

"Then you are a fool."

Darkwhisker and Whitewater did not catch a signal, but the two cats beside Berrynose leaped in a perfect, synchronized movement, claws unsheathed. The starlight glinted unnaturally on one of the cats' claws, and both Clan cats flinched when they realized that the cat's claws were extremely long and sharp. "Claw," Darkwhisker muttered. "The white tom's name is Claw."

Fang, the black tom, changed his direction mid-leap as Ginger whirled around to face Claw first. He landed on Ginger's back, pinning him down. As Claw raised his forepaw to deal the final slash across Ginger's neck, a sharp command was heard, "Wait!"

All three cats turned to look at Berrynose. There was hope in Ginger's blue eyes, that he would not be killed but exiled, alive and free.

Then the hope turned to despair as the obvious leader of these cats turned to face Ghost.

"Ghost, here's your chance to prove yourself not as foolish as your brother," he purred, amusement in his voice.

Whitewater trembled with rage, barely controlling himself from leaping out to Ginger's defence. How could any cat look upon killing as a form of amusement?

Darkwhisker, sensing Whitewater's fury, laid her tail on his shoulder to calm him down. Both cats watched in silent rage as Ghost stepped forward smoothly, almost as if he was gliding above the ground.

Ghost unsheathed his claws and lunged forward, slashing at his own brother's throat. Ginger's cry broke as blood began to spill out of the terrible wound, and he collapsed onto the ground, coughing. Claw and Fang released him, but Ginger did not attempt to run. His eyes stared lifelessly up at the sky, as if asking StarClan why they allowed such injustice to happen.

Ghost raised a paw and licked the blood from his claws, tail flicking as if he had done nothing but brought down a mouse for fresh-kill. Berryfire nodded to Claw and Fang and they slunk back to his side.

"You have done well, Ghost. Now that Ginger is gone, I will need a new replacement to carry out what we have planned for those fools in ForestClan," Berryfire padded forward to stand in front of Ghost.

The light gray tom dipped his head in respect, then meowed, "I will go in my faithless brother's place, Berryfire. You saved us from the Twolegs, and I will not forget the debt I owe to you, even though my brother seems to have."

Berryfire twitched his tail in amusement. "Do not worry, he has already paid the price for it. When we add this forest to our territories, you will be in charge of here," he narrowed his eyes, "Get into ForestClan, make them trust you. Then lure their leader out to die. We will discuss the other three Clans when you have accomplished this task." He waved his tail dismissingly, turned and strode in the direction away from the two Clan cats still watching from among the roots of the tree.

"I will not fail you, Berryfire," Ghost murmured, even though he knew Berryfire couldn't hear him anymore.

All of a sudden, his head whipped around and he stared hard at where Whitewater and Darkwhisker were hiding. "Who's there?" he meowed sharply.

Berryfire stopped and turned around. "Something wrong, Ghost?"

"I saw something moving," Ghost replied without taking his eyes off the tree roots.

Berryfire signaled to Claw and Fang to search where Ghost was looking at. They nodded to him and prowled forward.

Darkwhisker tried to stifle the panic. "We've been seen!" she hissed into Whitewater's ear. "We've got to run now and warn ForestClan!" she sprang to her paws and raced into the dark of the forest.

Whitewater scrabbled backwards, turned, and fled after Darkwhisker.

"There!" Ghost yowled, spotting them.

Whitewater stumbled over a tree root and fell painfully, twisting his paw. He heaved himself to his paws with a pained gasp, but one of the cats were already on him. He saw a flash of white, then something sharp digging into his neck. Then he saw and heard no more.

Darkwhisker veered sharply to her left and clawed her way up another tree. Her limbs were shaking as she finally hauled herself onto a tree branch high enough to see the path she and Whitewater had followed to the clearing. Then she gasped. The white tom – Claw – was standing over another white cat, sheathing his claws that were blood-stained. Whitewater lay sprawled out on the ground, blood still seeping from his neck into the ground. Darkwhisker felt sick, and closed her eyes to the horrible scene.

A rustling behind her, made her whip around, almost causing her to lose her balance. Fang leaped at her from above, taking advantage of Darkwhisker's stumble to slam her into the tree trunk. He pinned her against the trunk, then lowered his jaws to her neck. The she-cat felt pain, then everything went darker than the darkest night.

Allegiances

FORESTCLAN

Leader
Rubystar – dark ginger she-cat with amber eyes
Apprentice, Ghostpaw

Deputy
Thornmask – dark red tom, tinged colour muzzle
Apprentice, Sapphirepaw

Medicine cat
Icemask – tortoiseshell she-cat

Warriors
Skywhisker – light brown tom

Iceclaw – white she-cat with blue eyes
Apprentice, Brookpaw

Breezefoot – swift gray tom
Apprentice, Shadowpaw

Hollyheart – brown she-cat with green eyes

Apprentices
Ghostpaw – sleek silver tom with green eyes

Brookpaw – silver she-cat with blue eyes

Sapphirepaw – blue-gray tom with blue eyes

Shadowpaw – dark gray she-cat, almost black, blue eyes

Queens
Swiftpelt – black she-cat with white paws

Elders
Brownclaw – long-haired brown tabby tom

FIRECLAN

Leader
Mossstar – orange tabby she-cat with green eyes
Apprentice, Rainpaw

Deputy
Oceansky – gray-blue tom with blue eyes
Apprentice, Lionpaw

Medicine cat
Iceeyes – gray (with darker flecks) she-cat
Apprentice, Opalpaw

Warriors
Hawktail – brown tom with darker spots

Battlesong – golden she-cat

Fallenleaf – pale ginger she-cat with blue eyes

Morningdew – small gray tabby she-cat

Apprentices
Opalpaw – cream coloured she-cat with amber eyes

Lionpaw – light orange tom with green eyes

Rainpaw – blue-gray tabby she-cat

Queens
None.

Elders
None.

WINDCLAN

Leader
Talonstar – light brown tabby tom with a long tail
Apprentice, Rockpaw

Deputy
Icefur – pure white she-cat

Medicine cat
Iceweed – gray and white she-cat with amber eyes

Warriors
Nightheart – black she-cat with green eyes

Huskyfeather – silver-gray tom

Silverwind – silver tom with lighter stripes

Fennelheart – gray she-cat with amber eyes
Apprentice, Spiritpaw

Brightfoot – dark ginger she-cat with white paws

Apprentices
Rockpaw – silver-gray tom with blue eyes

Spiritpaw – jet-black tom with amber eyes

Queens
None.

Elders
Airlion – light brown she-cat with blue eyes

RIVERCLAN

Leader
Snowstar – long-haired white she-cat

Deputy
Deathshadow – black tom with blue eyes
Apprentice, Silverpaw

Medicine cat
Icespot – white she-cat with silver paws

Warriors
Fernheart – light brown tabby she-cat

Iceheart – silver-blue she-cat
Apprentice, Swiftpaw

Wolffang – dark gray tom with blue eyes

Coalpelt – dusty-looking brown tom

Rippletail – long-haired brown tabby she-cat

Apprentices
Silverpaw – long-haired silver tabby she-cat

Swiftpaw – light gray she-cat with green eyes

Queens
Lakeflower – silver-blue tabby she-cat

Elders
None.

Cats Outside Clans

Bear – black tom, lives on the edge of ForestClan and FireClan's territory.

Berryfire – dark red tom, rogue.

Ginger – pale ginger tom, rogue.