A Falling Shadow

## **Chapter 1:**

Storm looked up at his mother, Leaf, and smiled, "Can we go hunting today? I'm not really a big fan of *swimming*." he said, the she-cat chuckled, "I mean I've been training you for three moons now, I'd *hope* you'd have learned how to swim, then again..." she nudged the young tom into a calm stream. "Gah! Why'd you do that?" he snapped as he swam back to shore. Leaf continued to chuckle, "Alright we can go now!" she meowed as she walked down to the hunting grounds. Storm licked his lips as he saw a nice, large, juicy mouse. Crouching down, he slowly crept up to it and pounced on it, killing it almost instantly. he dropped it at his mothers feet, "Am I ready to be a Prey-hunter yet?" he asked a bit to excitedly, the calico shook her head slowly. The gray tabby dipped his head and walked back to where he had always hunted. "Fine, I'll help" Leaf calmly said. He smiled, it was nice to have a hunting partner.

By the time they started to head back, Storm and Leaf had caught two voles, three mice, and a fish. "Y'know you're getting better each day..." Leaf said to him "Really?" he said, his eyes lighting up. She nodded and continued to walk back until, she stopped for a moment. *W-what's wrong with her?* Storm thought, she sniffed the air, and turned around, a large figure was creeping up on them, "Run! It's a badger!" she said as Storm immediately took after her, "Why can't we f-fight it? We're strong enough!" Leaf hissed at him, "No! Two cats are *not* strong enough to take on a badger." he grunted. He saw that for a moment, Leaf stopped looking at him, he quickly bounded off to the side without her noticing, *This'll do it! I'll chase off the badger and become a Prey- no! I'll become a Cave-guard! Dad always tells me that only the strongest cats can become one of those!* He hid behind a tree, but before he could pounce on the badger, a large group of cats attacked it, chasing it off. *Should I follow them..?* he wondered to himself, he padded of after the cats when suddenly one of them noticed him, "Hey!" the bristly she-cat snapped, "What are you doing on ShadowClan territory?" he stopped, "H-huh?' she shook her head, "Surely you know about the clans?" she said. Before he could answer a larger black tom intervened, "Now, now Owlwing, we don't know where this young kit comes from" Storm glared at the cat, "*Young?* I'm nearly a full grown prey-hunter!" The cats titled their heads, "Isn't that something those *tribe* cats use?" sneered the brown she-cat. He nodded, "Y-yes I'm from the T-Tribe of Rushing Water." the tom looked at him, "What's your name?" he took a bit to answer, "S-Storm... Storm that Brings Thunder." the cats nodded and spoke with each other, than a pale ginger tom spoke, "Our leader has been looking for new warriors and *you* look like you would make a good, strong warrior. Toadleap, Owlwing, take him back to camp, we'll finish the patrol." The black tom and brown she-cat nodded. The took him by the scruff and took him away.

They arrived at a den where they sat him down, "Rockstar?" Toadleap called, a large gray tom came out of his den, *Well I can see why they call him Rock* thought Storm. "What's *this?* Did you bring me a prisoner?" He asked hiding a bit of excitement, "Kind of, y'see you wanted strong warriors and we found this tribe cat in our territory, he looks strong and's almost as old as a warrior! If you taught him some ShadowClan hunting and fighting techniques he might one of your strongest warriors!" Owlwing said. Rockstar nodded, "Very well, he'll stay in my den for a moon, then I'll give him a mentor. Just a little punishment for tresspassing right..?" He looked at Storm, "O-oh..! It's Storm... Storm th-" Rockstar silenced him with his tail, "Okay Stormkit, you will sleep in my den with me for a moon and Toadleap would you mind hunting for this cat and giving him a tour?" the large tom shook his head, "Not at all Rockstar." Rockstar nodded and went back into the den, and Owlwing went somewhere else. "So Stormkit you want a tour of ShadowClan camp?" he shrugged, "Sure..." Toadleap nudged him with his tail, "Hey, it's not so bad! Rockstars not the worst... I guess... we've seen worse but we've also seen a lot better..." Stormkit nodded, worried, as he followed behind the large, bulky tom.

## **Chapter 2:**

Stormkit looked around, it had been a moon since he first joined ShadowClan. Toadleap told him about ShadowClan's past and told him about how if it weren't for him and Owlwing, he'd be crowfood, no questions asked. While Owlwing might be a bit more agressive, she can't bear to see an innocent cat get murdered. He even was close friends with the cat that lead that patrol, Sandsparrow. She usually acted like she was the leader, always wanting to lead patrols, bossing everyone around, and she's even had multiple apprentices. Then again she was the oldest of the group, while Owlwing was the youngest. "Get up! It's about time you became an apprentice." Rockstar snapped. He followed him out of the den where he heard, "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Clanrock for a meeting!" all of ShadowClan came to where Rockstar sat, "ShadowClan is in need of more warriors, but today, we gather together to name a new apprentice," he looked at Stormkit, "From this day forward, until he has earned his warrior name, this apprentice will be called Stormpaw. Owlwing, you are ready to have an apprentice, your mentor was Pouncestep, I hope you pass on all she knew to this apprentice." The cats chanted his name, he didn't know how to feel, nervous, happy, worried, excited? He looked at his mentor, her fur shining. The she-cat touched noses with him, "Clanborn or not, you'll make a fine warrior." Stormpaw smiled and blushed. "R-really?" she nodded, "Now Toadleap might have given you a tour of the camp already, but... *I'll* show you around the entire territory. " Owlwing mewed, "C'mon Stormpaw!" she called as he caught up to her.

Stormpaw returned to camp after the tour, but, there was one place he couldn't get out of his mind for some reason. That one river, it was long and wide and on the other side, it was completely treeless, like a marsh. He'd thought he'd seen what looked like a tall, ginger she-cat but Owlwing told him that it might have been a fox. It ran away shortly after he saw it so for all he knew, it *was* a fox. He shrugged it off and eventually saw Snakeheart, the cat that Sandsparrow took as her mate, doing something that he was told the grey-brown cat would ever do. He was panicking. Stormpaw padded up to Snakeheart, nervously, that name was given to him for a reason, "Snakeheart? What's, what's wrong?" Snakeheart growled for a second and then sighed, "It's Sandsparrow she's..." he smiled, "She's expecting kits soon!" Stormpaw's eyes widened, "Really?!" the senior warrior quickly went back to his old self and ignored the apprentice, walking to the nursery to check on her. He'd remembered some of what the tribes healer had told him when he was still a kit and could see that the pale ginger queen would probably start kitting in only a moon or two. He looked around ShadowClan camp looking for something to do, Owlwing and Toadleap were the only cats he really knew. He decided to find Owlwing and see if they could train.

Days had passed, and Owlwing took him out for some hunting training, "Y'know, I think that the moment you get a hang of our hunting and fighting techniques you'll be a warrior in no time!" Stormpaw smiled, "I guess!" the she-cat smiled, "You're already pretty good at this y'know" he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, I know I'm great." he returned with two mice and a mole, he saw a brown she-cat bound towards him, Molepaw, "Hey it's me!" she said pointing to the mole with her tail, "It's my turn to do the duties, Alderpaw already took something to the queens, I can take those to the elders for you." he nodded and gave the prey to the apprentice, "Bye!" she said, as she bounded off to the elder's den. He easily recognized the Alderpaw as the tall, blonde tom left the nursery, he knew why the two were so excited, they were becoming warriors today, Rockstar wanted their last day as an apprentice to be useful so he made them do their duties today. He looked up at the sky, in a few hours they would be made warriors, hopefully, this wouldn't impact Alderpaw or Molepaw's view of him.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Clanrock for a meeting!" called Rockstar, Molepaw and Alderpaw walked forward, "I, Rockstar, leader of ShadowClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these two apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn. Molepaw, Alderpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your lives?" the two cats nodded, "I do!" they replied, "Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior names; Molepaw, from this moment you will be known as Molefoot. StarClan honors your speed and strength, and Alderpaw, from this moment you will be called Aldertree, StarClan honors your persistence and kindness, and we welcome you as a full warriors of ShadowClan!" Rockstar finished, "Molefoot! Aldertree! Molefoot! Aldertree!" the clan chanted. "Clan meeting dismissed!" Rockstar called, Molefoot and Aldertree the two cats sighed, Owlwing apprached the apprentice, "It's almost night, you two should go and sit vigil." they nodded and ran off the the camp enterance, Owlwing turned to Stormpaw, her pelt glistening in the moonlight, "You should go get some rest." she smiled, "Just because Molefoot and Aldertree are warriors now doesn't mean they'll forget you." *What?* "H-how do you know what I was thinking!" she laughed, "You have it written all over your face, you'll be a warrior soon enough." she said, Stormpaw blushed and padded to the apprentices den.

## **Chapter 3:**

A moon and a half had passed and Stormpaw was still an apprentice, luckily, Molefoot and Aldertree still hung out with him, however he saw Snakeheart's face full of concern and worry, he didn't even need to say anything, he already knew what was happening, Sandsparrow was kitting, he padded over to the nursery and saw Sandsparrow curled up with two kits infront of her, Raveneyes, the medicine cat, exited the den to fetch Snakeheart, "She's okay." he meowed, Snakeheart smiled and followed him, Sandsparrow looked at her kits, "I wanted you to name one of them, I don't care which one." the tom looked at the kits and pointed to the black and white tom, "That one's Hawkkit." the queen nodded and looked to the the other kit, "Then I'll name this one Turtlekit." the black and orange she-cat wriggled around. The elderly black tom turned to him, "Oh! Stormpaw, you want to see the kits don't you?" Raveneyes turned to Sandsparrow, she nodded, "He can come in." Snakeheart interrupted, "Just be careful." he smiled and padded into the nursery, the two kits were beautiful, "They'll make great warriors." the queen murmured, Raveneyes nodded, "I know they will." his gaze turned to Hawkkit before he got up, "Do you need anything?" he asked, the she-cat shook her head. Raveneyes nodded, "If you need anything make sure to ask someone to get me, I don't want you leaving so soon after kitting." she sighed, "Yeah yeah." Stormpaw stood up as well, "I should get going too, Owlwing wanted to see me." the two cats nodded, as he left the nursery.

Owlwing sat and smiled at the apprentice, "I think it's time for your warrior assessment." Stormpaw's eyes lit up, "Really?!" he mewed. His mentor nodded, "You've shown to be a great hunter and fighter." she continued, "I want you to hunt near the Twoleg place, I heard that their used to be two aggressive kittypets there, however there is one still there, I think he's one of their descendants, just don't get to close alright?" he gulped, "What does he look like? S-so I can watch out for him..?" he looked at Owlwing with concern, "His name is Leo, a bright golden tom with white badger-like markings. Sandsparrow met him once, she said he was a young cat who can leave some serious wounds..." he nodded, "Now get going!" yowled Owling.

He had finally reached the as no sign of Leo. *If an experienced warrior like Sandsparrow can easily get beat by him, then what about an apprentice?* He shook the thought out of his head and targeted a vole. Stormpaw slowly prowled the vole before he pounced on it killing instantly. He repeated the process a few times catching a total of a vole, two mice, and a dove. But then he hear something, "H-hello?" a voice mewed, a small, brown kit hid under a tree, he placed his prey down and approached the kit, "Hello? Who are you, I was only told about a kittypet named Leo... you don't seem like him." She shook her head, "I'm not Leo, well, he's my father, I never knew my mother... but the housefolk threw us out, I have two siblings, we had to name ourselves, I'm Mouse." she turned behind her, two cats approached, "And this is Moon and Pine. We named ourselves after the only things we could think of. I named myself after the first mouse I caught and the first mouse we ate, Moon named herself after the moon that shone above our owners place, and Pine named himself after the pine tree we took shelter under." Stormpaw sighed, "I'm sorry but... I don't know what I can do..." he looked back and picked up the dove, "Here. Take this I'll see if I can find you a place to stay. I'm uh... Stormpaw by the way" he picked up the rest of his prey as he headed off back to the camp.

Stormpaw was greeted by his mentor, "Well done!" she cheered, "I think you're almost ready to be a full warrior!" Stormpaw smiled, "There's something I need to tell you about... by the Twoleg Place I saw three kits, about the age of apprentices maybe... they claimed to be Leo's kits and that their twolegs abandoned them." Owlwing looked confused, her fur was almost glowing in the sunlight, Stormpaw blushed a little, "I remember when Rockstar said that ShadowClan needed new warriors, from what I heard, they're pretty good at surviving for kittypets, or loners I guess." the she-cat nodded, "I see... I'll tell Rockstar and see what he thinks, I needed to go over there to tell him about your warrior ceremony anyway, but why don't you go and put that in the fresh-kill pile, and give something to Sandsparrow aswell." he nodded and headed over to the pile then over to the nursery. Sandsparrow smiled, "How are you today Stormpaw?" he placed the vole down infornt of her, "I'm good. What about you?" the two kits still sat by their mother, "I'm alright." she looked down at Turtlekit, "I'm a little worried about her though, she seems so small, leaf-bare is coming soon, she hardly eats, coughs a lot, I don't know if she'll make it..." she quietly meowed. Stormpaw gasped, "I-I can get Raveneyes if you wa-want me too..." she looked back at Stormpaw, "Please..." he ran out of the nursery and found Raveneyes, "Can I come in?" Raveneyes turned to him and nodded, "Turtlekit itsn't eating, and she's coughing a lot, Sandsparrow's worried about her." the old tom sighed, "I'll take a look at her, I wanted to talk with Sandsparrow anyways..." Stormpaw looked confused, "Really?" Raveneyes nodded as he padded over to the nursery. He followed the medicine cat and hid in a bush, he overheard their conversation, "Turtlekit will be alright, she just has a cold, I'll find some herbs for her." Raveneyes rasped, "But there's something I wanted to tell you about, it was one of my dreams." Sandsparrow was confused, "But I'm not a medicine cat!" the tom interrupted her, "I was in camp and, on top of the clanrock there was a hawk, I saw StarClan cats by it, some cats weren't even dead yet, Rockstar, Thistlebranch, and Molefoot." he paused for a moment, "And some cats who had already passed on, Petalvine, Mosspaw, and even Beetlestar. Under the clanrock there were even more strange things, naturally growing catmint, behind the catmint stood Daisytuft, she took the catmint away from camp." He finally finished, "W-what? That sounds like a weird dream to me! What do *you* think it means?" she asked him, "I don't know yet, and it might be a while before I do." Raveneyes sighed and left the nursery. Then he heard Rockstar's voice, "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Clanrock for a meeting!"

## **Chapter 4:**

"I, Rockstar, leader of ShadowClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as a warrior in their turn. Stormpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your lives?" Rockstar looked down at Stormpaw, "Y-yes! I do!" he stuttered, "Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name; Stormpaw, from this moment you will be known as Stormtrail. StarClan honors your bravery and wit, we welcome you as a full warriors of ShadowClan!" he gulped "Stormtrail! Stormtrail! Stormtrail! Stormtrail!" the clan cheered he could looked around a saw Molefoot, Aldertree, Toadleap, and Owlwing full of pride. "But this clan meeting isn't over yet, Stormtrail had found three kits by twoleg place, he claims that they are the kits of Leo and were forced out of their twolegs den. ShadowClan needs more apprentices now that we have none, so Thistlebranch I want you to organize a patrol down to the twoleg place, make *sure* that you bring our newest warrior, he'll have to just sit vigil a little later." the deputy nodded, "Will do Rockstar!" she yowled. "Clan meeting dismissed." Rockstar said as he leapt down from the rock. Thistlebranch hopped up to where Rockstar was sitting, "For this patrol I'll lead, and I want Stormtrail. Molefoot, Daisytuft, and Aldertree." all the cats that he called approached while the others went back to doing their duties.

Thistlebranch turned to Stormtrail, "Is this the place?" he nodded, "I'll try and find them-" Molefoot interupted, "I think someone should come with you, just in case y'know..." he rolled his eyes, "Alright you can come with me." the she-cat smiled and followed him into the trees, he sniffed the air, "I smell them." he stopped, "Mouse? Moon? Pine?" a small tabby she-cat came out from the trees, "H-hi Stormpaw... he-hello stranger." Stormtrail looked at the kit, "I'm Stormtrail now, and I foun-" Pine ran up to him, "You changed your name? Why? Why, why? Why?" he growled, "I'll explain *later* but right now I found you guys a new place to stay."