Prologue

Fire! The clearing around him was filled with fire and the yowls of battling cats. He looked around in horror and recoiled as one fighting pair rolled past, hissing and snarling at each other. He watched in horror as a gap appeared in the snarling warriors and saw a small circular area in all the fighting. He ran forwards and saw a huge ginger tom with green eyes being held down by a huge tabby with amber eyes that looked down at his victim with a victorious glare and the fighting broke off as all the fighting cats saw the two in the centre. And the tabby tom looked down; and slashed the ginger one across the throat. Blood flashed from the wound like a knife and the ginger cat convulsed. He ran forwards towards the ginger cat in horror. He wouldn't wish this death on any cat, but he ran forwards because he knew this cat. He ran and ran but the more he ran, the further away he seemed to become. Then, a white light started to fill his vision. He just had time to shout to the ginger tom before he woke. "RUSTY! NOOOOOO!"

The stars of silverpelt shone brightly through what was left of the forest. They illuminated the small area of twoleg space on the edge of the forest and their gaze seemed to fall upon the cat that stepped out of his house and jumped up onto the fence. His black and white fur blew about slightly as though in a breeze, but there was no wind tonight. He looked out across into the trees ahead, his tail twitching slightly in anxiety. He knew his dream wasn't real. It couldn't be real. Not that. Not Rusty. Rusty couldn't be dead. And who was that massive tabby who had killed him?

He looked up at silverpelt as though looking for answers, but not expecting to find any. Instead, what he saw amazed him. The stars above were moving! He looked on in shock as they formed the image of a great cat above him. Then the stars making up this picture began to spiral downwards towards him. The image of the great cat growing smaller and smaller, but never changing. Finally the image was in front of him, still made up of stars but the same size as him. And out of the shape, walked a cat. Not just any cat, this she-cat was beautiful. He stared in awe as she gracefully walked towards him. He jumped down of his fence to get a better look at her. She was lithe, with a dappled brown and orange tortoiseshell coat. She had a nice looking dark patch of fur around one eye, and a white muzzle and chest.

She smiled at him as he walked towards her, but something about her radiated power. He sat down in front of her and he tilted his head to one side as he noticed the tiny stars that covered her entire body. "Hello," she said in a friendly way. "Hello," he replied nervously. The she-cat was watching him interestedly. "Do you know Rusty?" he asked suddenly. "Is he really dead? Was my dream real, or was it just a nightmare? Can you help-" He broke off. She was smiling as she placed a paw over his muzzle and said, still smiling "hush, young one. Whether that dream was real or not, I cannot say. But it is certainly something that might be coming. As for your first question, yes, I knew Rusty very well in the short time that I knew him" Her smile had gone and her head drooped slightly. She carried on in a slightly bitter voice "I just wish that I'd known him better..." She broke off, shook her head and when she looked at him again, her smile was back. "But Rusty isn't why I am here. You are!" She looked him up and down and evidently saw something that she liked, for she grinned up at the stars above and said, "My my, StarClan do choose cats well" Laughing, she turned back to him. "The reason that I have come here is to deliver something to you" "To... ME?" He spluttered in utter shock, "but, why me?" She looked at him, as though seeing how much to tell him. "Because your destiny will only truly start to be realised after tonight. You will realise that you can be a great fighter, a noble leader and a truly loyal friend"

He stared at her in shock but before he could ask any of the hundreds of questions rushing through his confused mind the she-cat suddenly went rigid, her eyes staring, her mouth open wide. He looked at her and mewed in a scared tone. He reached up to see if she was ok but before he could touch her, she moved again, collapsing onto the ground. "Are you ok?" he mewed in utter shock. She stared at him as though seeing him for the first time. "StarClan can't stop it" she muttered. "StarClan have sent me a prophecy young one. Two prophecies actually. The first is this:" suddenly she was speaking in an echoing voice that he could hear from 4 different directions, then he realised that she was speaking to him inside his mind! "StarClan cannot stop what will come; only a warrior born of the dark can finish the fight." He shivered slightly as there was a pause, then she spoke again. "StarClan itself cannot stop the death that is descending over the clans. 9 will fight in the forest and the lake. Friends will become foe and foe will become friend and both shall return. The cost will be many, but the dark cannot be stopped unless a terrible sacrifice is made" the voice stopped and the she-cat shook her head violently, and then spoke normally to him again. "That was the final prophecy of StarClan. Whatever happens now, the clans will either live, or die. And all this hinges on one cat."

She turned away and began to walk away from him. He shouted after her "but what does all of this have to do with me?" She looked over her shoulder with amusement in her eyes. "That is for you to find out young one. I have done all I can; now it's your turn" She stepped into the starry outline and the silhouette flew back up into the stars and vanished.

And Smudge, was left to look up into the darkness.