Every cat was born with tooth and claw to fight with. Every cat honours the warrior code, and fiercely defends his or her family.

But what happens when that code is tested, and unsheathed claws flash in the air, pitching cats against kin? What happens when the ground beneath you shifts and you can only attempt to do what is right, for the sake of your friends and your Clan?

What happens when a war is only a whisker away, and cats are forced to confront each other?

When the overpopulated SkyClan cats are given mysterious gifts by StarClan, the Clan splits into four. An era of peace is over. An era of war begins.

Chapter 1

Sundapple crept along the branch, paw by careful paw. She surveyed the prey beneath her with anticipation, savouring the way the sun warmed her pale orange pelt, setting its stripes aflame. But a whispering blanket of leaves cloaked her from view. Nothing would see her coming. She wriggled her haunches.

She leaped, springing from her branch with a yowl. She landed squarely on her quarry and the smoky-grey cat beneath her yelped and struggled.

"The SkyClan warrior is victorious again!" she declared, pressing down with her paws so Yewleaf slumped beneath her.

"Sundapple! Get off," her friend grumbled.

Her whiskers twitched in amusement.

"What do you think you're doing?" someone growled, and they looked up to see a golden-brown warrior rounding the corner. "Sundapple, stop playing around this instant."

Sundapple felt her head duck as the air turned icy with annoyance. She stepped off Yewleaf, tucking her tail between her legs. "I was only playing, Eagleheart," she mewed.

"You're a warrior now, and have been for a whole moon," Eagleheart growled. "You have to stop acting like a kit." He stalked away and picked up a squirrel he'd dropped. The latest hunting party had returned. And they all must have heard her yowling like an idiot, she realised, embarrassment flooding her from ears to tail-tip.

Yewleaf jumped to his paws and began busily licking dust from his fur.

Sundapple sighed and scuffed the hard earth with her paws. She and her friends were still the youngest in the Clan. She didn't feel like a grown-up, mature warrior. She still felt insignificant. Maybe if more kits were born, and there was finally someone else to order around, things would change.

"You do still act like a kit, you know," someone meowed, and Sundapple looked up to glare at Blueclaw. The blue-grey tom was padding towards them from the woods, two thrushes hanging from his jaws.

"You're no older than me - you can't talk," she hissed back, feeling the fur lift along her spine.

"I might as well be. Why don't you sleep in the apprentices' den tonight, Sundapple? Give the rest of us some room? At least until you start acting like one of us." Blueclaw bounded past without waiting for a reply. In a heartbeat he was gone, making his way to camp.

"Ignore him," Yewleaf murmured, brushing his soft pelt against hers. His eyes were like sunlight shining through the leaves above them.

"I can't help it," Sundapple mewed, as her friend began nudging her after Blueclaw. "It's hard when there's no one younger than us. I've never felt like a warrior. They all still look at me - us - like we're kits."

Yewleaf shrugged. "I think I've just learned to accept it. There will be more kits in the Clan eventually. Don't worry about it."

They left the cover of the trees and padded along until the two sandy gorge walls towered over them, reflecting the late greenleaf sun. Bare earth, baked and cracked, felt hot beneath Sundapple's pads. Cats lounged in the shade of the Rockpile, on the ledges and trails leading to the den caves, or splashed in the river nearby.

"The Clan is restless," Blueclaw meowed when they reached him. He sprawled on a flat rock by a shallow part of the river, dipping his forepaws in to soothe them. Sundapple and Yewleaf followed suit.

"You didn't have to point that out," Sundapple muttered. There was disquiet in the air, crackling between fidgeting cats. More than once, fights between warriors had broken out and Fallenstar or Buzzardflight had had to intervene. Recently, it had been getting worse.

"You three!" someone yowled from the warriors' den, and they looked up. "Bring some wet moss from the Whispering Cave!"

Tails lashing in annoyance, they stood and began to pad towards the Rockpile.

"See? Everyone treats us like apprentices. It's not fair. They make us run around after them," Sundapple complained.

"We're the youngest. That's how these things work," Blueclaw snapped.

They followed the little path into the cave, breathing in the cool, damp air. Moss glowed around them, and they clawed bits of it off the wall, dangling it in the underwater river to wet it for the warriors.

"I heard your complaints," a voice meowed. Sundapple jumped, nearly dropping her moss.

"Birdwing! We - we're sorry -" Yewleaf stammered.

The beautiful tabby medicine cat was sat at the back of the cave. She sighed. "It's because we are not like a normal Clan. Not anymore. We have too many warriors, no elders, no young kits to train. I have been trying to communicate with StarClan, trying to figure out how to fix this."

"It will get better, won't it?" Sundapple mewed, feeling suddenly scared. "There have been so many disasters recently…"

"Cats are saying StarClan is mad at us," Yewleaf added. "Are they?"

Birdwing sighed and shook her head. "I can't tell. I don't think we've done anything wrong - we follow the warrior code diligently, and have done for many seasons now. But something is… off."

"Maybe we could go and find the other Clans! SkyClan surely isn't meant to be alone," Sundapple chirped, bouncing on her paws. She'd always fantasised about the four main Clans - meeting them, living in the forest and going to a real Gathering. A sharp glance from Blueclaw told her she was being foolish and immature again - and maybe she was. It was a kit's dream. Leave the gorge? They couldn't. It was SkyClan's home, and would remain so. They had fought to keep it many times in the past.

Birdwing shook her head again. "No, Sundapple. Although I like your idea," she added gently.

A yowl echoed across the rocks. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath the Rockpile for a Clan meeting!"

"Fallenstar. Let's go." Birdwing bounded out of the cave and the young warriors followed.

Fallenstar's tail waved impatiently as the striking dark red tabby she-cat watched her Clan gather. She was an imposing figure, silhouetted by the sun, her eyes exactly the same shade as the sky.

Her deputy, a cat with a pelt lighter and more orange than hers, leaped onto a lower rock. Buzzardflight.

"SkyClan," Fallenstar meowed when every cat had found a place. Sundapple sat between Yewleaf and Mossfire, Yewleaf's half-sister. "My Clan. We have lived in this gorge for countless generations now. The oldest cat in the Clan remembers his or her elders telling the story of Firestar and Sandstorm, how they brought us together and made Leafstar their first leader. Look at everything we've done since then! We are a Clan to be proud of."

Sundapple lifted her chin, feeling a glow of satisfaction. SkyClan were a great Clan now. Once scattered by rats, now strong and thriving.

Fallenstar's eyes clouded slightly. "But some of us seem to think that everything went wrong since the fire."

Sundapple's ears drooped. The fire had killed her parents. It had swept through the gorge and the woods when she was only a kit. Since then, the Clan had been plagued by disasters.

"We can get through this, like we get through everything we face -"

"StarClan have forsaken us!" a cat yowled.

"What do we do?"

"Maybe SkyClan were never meant to survive!"

"Is this punishment, from when our ancestors left the forest Clans?"

"This is our home!"

"Maybe we should leave?"

Fallenstar bared her teeth and Buzzardflight growled, but the entire Clan was teeming with chaos and agitation.

Blueclaw growled. "They're all mouse-brains."

For once, Sundapple agreed with the grey tom.

Thunder rumbled, making the entire gorge tremble. The cats' chatter died down and eyes widened when they realised that a heavy blanket of clouds had covered the sun, darkening the land.

Lightning forked across the sky, lighting up the rocks for a stark heartbeat.

"StarClan is angry!"

"Enough of that nonsense!" Buzzardflight snapped. "Everyone, get inside!"

His sharp yowl was enough to make everyone snap into action. Rain began to patter down from the heavens, sending the river into a churning frenzy. The SkyClan cats bounded up the trails and streamed into the warriors' den.

"Ugh." Yewleaf wrinkled his nose at the scent of wet fur packed together. Cats jostled and shoved, trying to keep water away from their nests. Sundapple pressed against the wall to avoid getting a tail in her mouth.

More thunder shook the cliff. A cat whimpered.

"There's no point leaving the cave yet, or getting worked up about anything," Buzzardflight meowed sternly. "Everyone get some rest. Things will look better in the morning."

Blueclaw's eyes shone as he gazed at the deputy. Sundapple caught a flash of raw ambition in his face.

"I wish things weren't so uncertain for our Clan," Yewleaf whispered as they curled up in their nests. The newest warriors had been forced to take nests nearest the mouth of the cave, and the odd splatter of rain would hit their fur occasionally. Growling, Sundapple curled into a tight ball and put her tail-tip over her face.

The senior warriors remained awake, talking quietly. Sundapple wanted to listen in, but the rain masked their voices. As she began to drift off, she caught the odd sentence.

"Something is about to happen," Eagleheart meowed. "Change is coming."