The First Star

Prologue
Swish, swish. Four shadows with glistening claws and gleaming eyes stealthily leapt over a tree root of an old oak tree. The cats let their shadowed paws lightly skim the edges of the flattened, cool night grass as the wind blew viciously at their pelts.

The cats immediately dived into the bushes, branches swinging in their face, brambles brushing past their sides, and thorns pricking their pitch black fur.

More of the cats appeared. By now, at least twelve cats were bolting through a field of reeds; a pale grey she-cat was visible as her pelt shone in the moonlight when she sprung across the reeds.

At the near end of the reed patch, a cat poked his shadowed head out of the reeds, glancing around at the clearing outside. There was a grassy clearing with a large mass of silver stones to bask on, in the cracks there was bubbling water foaming through.

“Mreeeeeowww!” A screech erupted the silence as the twelve cats rushed onto the silver stones, and intruders began to explode from every side.

There was a large crescendo of screeching and flailing as the cats fought hard to lure away intruders, claws glistening and eyes gleaming. The cats tossed, turned, and wrestled in the bleached moonlight.

Out of the mass, a huge dark brown tabby tom broke free out of the pack and flew onto a bright ginger tom with a white flash on his nose.

“Whitenose! How could you?!” the big tabby tom growled.

“He, he, he.” Whitenose muttered to himself.

“After tonight, Thornfang, Silver Stones will just become one of ThunderClan’s hunting grounds.” Whitenose hissed, raising his head high.

Thornfang tightened his grip on Whitenose, and blood even started to seep from the force a little.

“You may seem strong, but you and your warriors are not welcome in OwlClan’s territory!” Thornfang growled.

“Mrowwwrowwww!” A cry rang through the air. Thornfang released Whitenose and strode away without a word and saw that one of the intruders had pinned down a very small, dust-coloured, pale-furred brown she-cat with green eyes.

Thornfang knocked the warrior away and he jabbed his teeth tightly into the intruder’s scruff and tossed him away from the young she-cat.

“Quick, Reedfang, run!” Thornfang whisper-shouted as Reedfang limped away with a bleeding shoulder.

Before now a sea of intruders had sprung onto Thornfang. One of them, a cream she-cat, slashed hard at Thornfang’s nose. He felt pain claw at himself.

Instinctively, Thornfang sunk his jaws in the cream she-cat’s hind leg and tossed her away. Thornfang had chucked off the rest of the cats.

“Thornfang,” a soft voice murmured behind him. Thornfang spun around to see a dark brown-and-white she-cat with amber eyes.

“What’s wrong, Cinnamontwist?” Thornfang spat.

“Thornfang, this is hopeless. There are too many intruders. We can’t fight them off!” Cinnamontwist meowed, hanging her head low, squeezing her eyes shut, and shaking her head slowly.

“No, that’s not true. We can fight them off! Eventually.” Thornfang exclaimed.

“Your courage will be a bright mark in the history of OwlClan,” Cinnamontwist explained, resting her tail tip on Thornfang’s shoulder. “But Copperstar would never had thought of us fighting off these random cats.” She finished.

Thornfang was about to protest, but Cinnamontwist had already sprung on a log that was propped onto a rock, and yelled; “Retreat, OwlClan. Retreat!”

Thornfang cleared away with his Clanmates, shaking his head. ''We could’ve. We would’ve won… he murmured to himself guiltily. We could’ve.''