New Generation

Prologue
The ginger cat stood. His fur ruffled slightly in the breeze and the 5 other cats stood next to him. They were all staring intently at a pond that allowed them to see all the cats they watched over. "It is time" the ginger cat began. "Time for what, lunch?" asked the gray cat. "Oh shut up Graystripe! What is it Firestar?" this was a ginger she-cat. "Be kind Sandstorm, he does not know when he is funny and when we would all like to dunk him in the Moonpool." the white cats whiskers twitched. "Hey-" began Graystripe as Sandstorm laughed. a golden tabby and a blue she-cat stepped foreword. Firestar dipped his head, "Bluestar, Lionheart, welcome!" The 2 newcomers nodded and all the cats settled beside the pool. "The cats need new heros. The 3 are gone, driven into the tunnels by insainity.  The fire is gone.  The questing cats have broken apart.  We need a new generation of heroes." Bluestar said with authority. "Only for ThunderClan?" this was Whitestorm speaking. Firestar flicked his ear in acknowledgement but before the ginger tom could speak 3 more cats came from the shadows near the pool. Firestar seemed surprised, "Leopardstar! Blackstar!  Tallstar!  Welcome!" The dappled golden she-cat hissed, "Did you think we would let you choose the fate of the forest without us??" Tallstar, Blackstar, and Sandstorm all said at once, "Shut up Leopardstar!" the former Riverclan leader sat down but she was tense with anger. Firestar stepped foreword with stars in his fur and said "Very well! 3 cats will be chosen from ThunderClan and 1 from each of the other Clans." Leopardstar drew herself brought herself up to argue but stopped when Blackstar muttered "I knew we should have brought Crookedstar instead!" Firestar, Leopardstar, Blackstar, Tallstar, Sandstorm, and Graystripe stood, each taking a turn to stand at the pool and reveal their choice.

"Scarkit!" said Leopardstar, showing a ginger kit with a small scar in the pool.

"Mosskit!" confirmed Tallstar showing the young black and white kit.

"Rainkit!" yowled Blackstar naming the gray she-kit.

"Leopardkit!" chose Sandstorm quickly showing the cats a dappledkit with golden fur.

"Brightkit" meowed Graystripe naming a black and white tom.

Firestar stepped forewords to make the final choice and he showed a she-kit with one black paw, a ringed tail, and brown tabby fur. "Brambleit!"

"It is decided!" yowled the 3 other ThunderClan ancestors. Bluestar stepped forewords, "I have recieved a phropecy that concerns these heros!" withour further ado she stepped foreword and spoke in an ominous tone,

"The greatest promise is made to a friend but it can be broken by the thorns of betrayal."

The old leader sat down and the other members pondered the meaning of the strange phropecy. Finally Firestar said "Friend or foe these kits are our only hope. They will be the new generation!' and with that the cats all turned and left.  however if they had stayed but a moment longer they would have seen dark tabby tom with a white underbelly sneek forewords and look at the pool, seeing the kits faces.  After a minute the cat ran back to the shadowy forest that he came from.

Chapter 1
Bramblestar woke up. He wondered why he was not in the warriors den, then remembered how a few sunrises ago Firestar had been killed by a mountain lion that had wandered down from the mountains. It had taken the untied force of WindClan and ThunderClan to drive it away. Bramblestar felt a pain in his chest as he remembered the one other time he had seen and fought a mountain lion and what it had taken to stop the beast. he could tell Crowfeather remembered as well because the WindClan warrior had been fighting hardest and in the end Crowfeather had been the one to kill the terrible beast. These memorys brought back morememories of Squirrelflight when they had been mate. They would never be mates agin, Bramblestar was sure of that and Dusksky had just kitted today!

Dusksky was a pretty brown tabby with black paws. She was also Bramblestar's new mate and he loved her very much. She had just finished kitting and he decided to go visit her. He padded out of the den and practically ran to the nursery. Inside was Dusksky and Moondapple. Moondapple had a young black and white tom kit at er side. bramblestar politly asked the kits name and Moondapple replied "Brightkit!" very proudly. Bramblestar said a few more words and then padded to his mates nest. In side were two small she-kit. One looked a lot like Bramblestar, a dark brown tabbywith a ringed tail, but she also had a single black paw like her mother. The other kit was a golden dappled she-kit.

What are their names?" asked the ecastic leader. Dusksky looked up And tapped each kit on the head with her tail "The tabby is Bramblekit and her sister is Leopardkit!"  Both kits looked up at their father with their mothers brilliant green eyes.

Bramblestar was touched "You named that one after me? And their both so beautiful!  These 2 are goning to break quite a few toms hearts!" Dusksky purred and the leader realized his mate was exhausted. "I'll go fetch you a great peice of fresh kill" he promised. He padded out of the den as happy as could be. He went to the fresh kill pile and saw Jayfeather the medicine cat choosing a squirrel for the sik deputy, Graystripe.

"Hi!" meowed Bramblestar. Jayfeather nodded and said "Have you seen your kits?" Bramblestar nodded and Jayfeather said "Strange, you know that other kit Brightkit? Well all 3 of those kits were born at the same time!" Both toms pondered this strange occurence.

They had no idea that one kit each from Windclan, ShadowClan, and RiverClan was also born at the exact same time.

High above them in StarClan Bluestar smiled.

"It has begun"

Chapter 2
Mousefur grunted as a kit barreled into her side. She began to yowl but then realized the kit was holding a large mouse in its jaws.

"Hello Bramblekit! What have you got there?" she asked.

"It's my first catch! I was patrolling the camp with Leoprdkit and Brightkit and suddenly a big mouse jumped out at us!  And we lept on it but I was the one who killed it!" the 3 moon old kit squeked. a few moments later her 2 playmates ran through the enternece of the den barreling into Longtail.

"What the-? OOF!!!" the blind warrior cried. after Mousefur had calmed him down she turned back to the kits and noticed that Leopardkit and Brightkit both had mice too, just a little smaller then Bramblekits.

"Well I think this deserves a story!" she meowed. The kits squeled in excitement and ran to get the younger and older kits. They returned with Poppyfrost's older kits Honeykit and Molekit who were 5 moons old and Dovewing's kits Tigerkit, Sunkit, and Shingingkit who were each 1 moon old. All the kits listened intently as Mousefur told the story of "The Great Catch". At the end the older kits went to play fight and the younger kits curled up with the elders to hear more stories and to take a snooze. Leopardkit licked her pelt happily, "What should we do now?" she asked her 2 friends.

"We never finished our patrol!!! The camp could fall into danger agin!!" yowled Brightkit. The 3 kits ran to the edge of the clearing and began sniffing around again and leaving their scent on plants. Stormfur and Brook came up to them and said, "What are you doing little ones?"

"We're doing a patrol! We have to protect the camp!" said Bramblekit seriosly. the 2 warriors looked pleased and went away so they could start laughing but the kits didn't hear them. they had just reached the enterence to the camp when Bramblekit smelled a stinky something. "Hold it!" she ordered her patrol. She smelled deeper and her friends tasted the air too. Brightkit looked up his amber eyes wide. "That smells like a-" a large ginger paw reached out of the braken and swatted him aside. "FOX!!!!" Bramblekit and Leopardkit yowled.

Chapter 3
The fox stepped out of the bramble barrier. It caught sight of the kits and licked its lips. Bramblekit yowled to Leopardkit "Get Bramblestar or SOMEONE!! I'll hold it off!!" Bramblekits terrified sister ran backto camp and Bramblekit looked at the fox. The fox seemed confused as to why its lunch was standing defiantly. Brablekit used the fox's astonishment to attack. She yowled and landed squarly on the things back. It reared up and tried to sake the yung kit on but it couldn't. After what felt like an eternity the fox managed to swing Bramblekit off of its back and pin her down. but luckily Bramblestar and a large patrol of warriors broke through the braken and jumped on the fox, driving it away. After Jayfeather had seen to the kits injuries and the patrols with some help from Cinderheart and Brightheart Dusksky ushered her children inside where they all went to sleep.

The kits were very pleased, their story had spread all around the camp and evryone was lookingat them like they were heros, which Bramblekit thought they should. after all they were heros. But a moon later everyone was STILL talking about it and the kits had gotten bored with the story. Luckily the Clan now had something else to think about. Poppyfrost's kits were now old enough to become apprintices. Molepaw's mentor was to be Berrynose himself and Honeypaw's mentor would be Rosepetal. The whole Clan was celebrating. And now the 3 other kits were almost ready to be apprinticed as well!

"Mom, can we go fight ShadowClan?"

"Brightkit I told you NO!!! You're not even apprintices yet!!" scolded Moondapple.

"Nice try." Said Bramblekit sadly. They were so close to being 6 moons!! Dusksky returned from a visit with Bramblestar, her eyes gleaming. "Wash up kits! You too Brightkit"  The kits licked their fur as Dusksky murmered something to moondapple whose eyes also brightened. the kits were puzzledf but just then Bramblestar called them.

"it is time for your apprintice cerimonies!" he meowed. First Brightpaw was made an apprintice under Mousewhisker. Leopardpaw was to train under Ferncloud and Bramblestar would mentor Bramblepaw. the new apprintices ran to the apprintice den and settled down into their comfy new nests. The last thing Bramblepaw was aware of before she fell asleep was the warm touch of Brightpaws fur aginst hers.....

Chapter 4
Bramblepaw woke up to an almost empty den. She cocked her head and looked around. Leopardpaw was stirring in her nest and Brightpaw was STILL snoring away in his nest. However all the older apprintices, Molepaw, Honeypaw, Briarpaw, Blssompaw, and Bumblepaw were gone.

"Wake up!" she meowed to Leopardpaw. Leopardpaw streached and stood up and surveyed the den. meanwhile Bramblepaw was studying Brightpaw determining that it would take quite a bit to wake him up so she leaned down and yowled in his ear "SHADOWCLAN IS ATTACKING AND WE'RE GONNA GO FIGHT THEM WITHOUT YOU!!!!" Brightpaw suddenly opened his eyes and ran out of the den yowling. bramblepaw could hear the other warriors yowling in shock and annoyence as Brightpaw ran around. After laughing a bit the 2 she-cats walked out of the den to have their first days as apprintices.

Bramblepaw said goodbye to her friends and walked over to Bramblestar's den. She did ot know if she should knock or meow or just go in and she was saved frow having to make a choice when her father and mentor came out.

"Are you ready" he meowed

"I was BORN ready!!"

The leader smiled and then without warning he sprinted towards the enterence to camp. Bramblepaw followed and as soon as they began climbing thwe ravine she began to loose breath. She lay down on the rocks and let her tongue hang out. Bramblestar stopped

"Bramblepaw!" he ran down the slope and picked up his daughter and carried her to the top of the steep hill.

"BOO!!!" Bramblepaw yowled after he set her down. Her father hissed "Why you little-" Bramblepaw leaped on her leader and they rolled in the grass play-fighting. After a while they both lay on the grass panting.

"You STILL haven't told me what we are doing today!" Bramblepaw accused. Her father looked at her cheerfully and smirked and said, "Well I think I'll take you to the mossy clearing for battle training as you have no clue whatsoever about fighting!" he got up and Bramblepaw chased him all the way to the mossy clearing.

Chapter 5
Bramblepaw collapsed outside the apprintices den with a large rabbit. The older apprintices were chatting on the half rock but Leopardpaw and Brightpaw were not back yet. Then Bramblepaw saw dappled fur and Leopardpaw and Ferncloud walked through the tunnel. Leopard dropped a mouse on the fresh kill pile and came over to where Bramblepaw was sitting.

"Mind if I share that rabbit?" she asked.

"Of course not!" purred Bramblepaw contently.

They settled down to eat when Mousewhisker and Brightpaw entered. Brightpaw said something to his mentor and then walked over to his 2 friends. He settled down and was about to tear a piece of the rabbit off when the other 2 cats yanked the prey away. Brightpaw looked up "Hey-" the she-cats glared back "The last time we shred food with you you ate it all and we went hungry!" Brambepaw meowed. "And then you laughed when we got caught trying to eat a mouse!" hissed Leopardpaw. brightpaw rolled his eyes and got a big trush to eat. Wha did you guys do today?" asked Leopardpaw. Brtamblepaw swallowed some rabbit and said "We trained for battle all day long!"  Leopard explained how Ferncloud took her hunting.  Then Brightpaw burped and said "I got a tour of the whole territory! Which will help in tomorrows contest!!" Leopardpaw and Bramblepaw looked at him blankly and said, "What??"  Brightpaw sighed, "Tomorrow is the anniversary of the daytime gathering! All the Clans are meeting here for contests! There are 6 contests, hunting, fighting, climbing, swimming, diplomacy and racing! Don't tell me you've forgotten!? And we are apart of it!!!!!!!!!!"

Chapter 6
Leopardpaw and Bramblepaw gasped, "We forgot!" yowled Leopardpaw. Bramblepaw quickly looked for her father and saw the Clan was crowding under the High Rock, they must have missed the calling. Bramblestar explained the contest and said, "The other Clans will be coming on ThunderClan territory for the contest." his voice turned hard as he said, "Squirrelflight will be organizing it. I will also help." his voice lightened as he went on, "We have many apprintices and I want them all to be fully prepared so since there seems to be pleanty of daylight left, let's go into the forest and hunt, fight, and practice our skills!!" All the cats happily yowled and Icecloud, the deputy hurridly began organizing patrols.

Bramblestar approached his daughter as her friends were lead away by their mentors. Bramblestar told her to follow him for a grand tour of the territory. They raced out of camp in a sea of warriors, anxious to practice so they could beat the other Clans at fun games. Bramblestar quickly escorted her around the territory and hurried her home for a lesson in hunting and a short sparring lesson.

Several bruises, 3 mice, and one large rabbit later Bramblepaw collapsed in the apprintice den only to be woken a moment later by her friends pading in beside her. They all fell asleep only to be woken what seemed like minutes later to Hazeltails call, "They're here!!" And the apprintices raced outside along with the rest of their Clan to go greet the visitors and have some fun.

Authors Note
The next 6 chapters are through each apprintices eyes. These are the 6 man charecters so you WILL see them again!-- Artimas Hunter Welcome to Bramblepath's Den 20:42, February 23, 2010 (UTC)

Chapter 7
Leopardpaw blinked, she was still tired and she was in shock at just how many cats there were. Bramblestar gave the signal and all the cats yowled as one and ran into the woods. A cat ran each contest and apprintices were everywhere. Warriors talked and play fought. Leopardpaw lost sight of her friends as everyone split into different directions. Leopardpaw decided to go try the diplomacy contest. She could see a ShadowClan apprintice and a WindClan apprintice sitting on eather side of a rock. She approached the crowd surronding them and heard Ashstar, the WindClan leader say, "Your 2 Clans have been arguing about prey theft and you 2 must sort it out. Begin now!" The WindClan apprintice who was considerably smaller stuttered, "My Clan did not steal your prey. we want peace!" the ShadowClan apprintice yowled, "SURE YOU DO!!!!" and leaped onto then WindClan apprintice. After the fight was broken up Ashstar called for next contestants. Leopardpaw sat on one side of the rock and her opponet, a RiverClan cat called Beetlepaw, sat opposite of her. shstar called to begin and Leopardpaw said, "We didn't steal your prey. thunderClan wants nothing more then to be RiverClan's friends and we don't want to hurt you." the RiverClan apprintice said, "Even if you did not steal our prey then something did! And ShadowClan has already said it was you!" Leopardpaw gulped, not sure what to do. Then she shook her head and said, "But can you trust the word of those cats?" ignoring the boos of the ShadowClan cats she went on, "thunderClan will help you find the culprits and stop them." she headed away from the rock and a minute later she caught a squirrel. She laid it on the rock. "This is a peace offering. We would not steal from noble RiverClan.  We want to stop whoever is.  We want to be your friends.  Let us help you.  Let us befriend you.  We are all cats and that is all that matters." this was greeted by silence and a minute later Beetlepaw said, "I agree!" Ashstar leaped up and a little choked up she called, "Leopardpaw is the winner!" Leopardpaw beamed proudly and nudged the squirrel over to Beetlepaw who took it, nodded thanks and ran off. Leopardpaw caught the eye of her mother and father who were in the crowd. Her father was beeming proudly and her mother was cheering. Leopardpaw had never felt better.

Chapter 8
Brightpaw was feeling slightly sick. he had just wona bet with a ShadowClan apprintice that he could eat more and his stomach was turning backflips. He decided to go to the hunting contest and maybe catch something to give to Bramblepaw. He headed in the direction of the contest and he was worried his lumbering might scare off the prey. He arrived just in time. Russetstar gave him the evil eye for being late for the contest but he didn't care. His opponet was a pretty gray WindClan cat with big blue eyes. Brightpaw forgot all about giving his prey to Bramblepaw and knew this pretty she-cat would get his catch But then trhe she-cat gave him a look and asked Russetstar, "Must I race this......thing???!!!  It's practically an insult to my skill!" the spectators laughed and even Russetstar managed a smal twitch of her whiskers. "I'm soory. You myst.  It's okay dear, you won't have any trouble winning!" she proceeded to explain the first cat to return with 5 peices of fresh kill would win. Then she called start and Brightpaw raced off.

A little while later he only need one more peice of prey and hefinally spotted and caught a mouse. He saw Mosspaw running through the trees with a piece of prey. He would have to hurry to beat her but if she was only carrying 1 piece of prey ata time...he glanced down at his pile with sudden insiration.

Brightpaw staggered back to the starting ground with 2 squirrels on his back, a rabbit in his mouth, a mice under his chin and a starling balenced on his head. Russetstar and the other members of the crowd were stnned as he dumped all 5 pieces of prey next to Mosspaw's pile of 4. Just then the gray apprintice burst through the trees holding a magpie. "Here's the last one! What's my prize?" she asked cheerfully, not noticing Brightpaw. russetstar choked out, "Brightpaw has already won!" everyone cheered and Brightpaw spotted his mother cheering and blinking away tears. He stood up straighter and Mosspaw meowed, "Well you aren't as bad as I thought'd you be." and with that she turned and stalked in the direction of the racing contest.

Brightpaw soked in his glory for a minute then, putting his prey on a large flat log the crowd had kindly pulled over his pulled his catch off to find a certain pretty tabby apprintice.

Chapter 9
Mosspaw stalked away from the hunting contest. She was MAD! The idiot tom had humiliated her, made her own jibed remarks seem foolish. NO ONE did that to Mosspaw. Well she thought grimly those fools at the race won't know what hit them.

Mosspaw wasn't a mean cat, not really. But Breezepelt was a horrible father and it was common knowledge her mother, Heathertail, hated him with all her heart.


 * I am NOT a supporter of HeatherxBreeze! But Mosspaw needs parents and a good excuse for being a jerk.  Now, back to the story.

When she got to the race path several cats were lined up. Among them were 2 ShadowClan apprintices, Blossompaw, and a fat Riverclan apprintice whose name was Heavypaw. There were also two small apprintices with kit fur still on their ears but Mosspaw knew that they were not important. but she was a feirce defender of the weak and if any of the older apprintices shovedf the smaller ones she would make sure they got what they deserved. not that she had been an apprintice for long. Only a day. What she didn't know was 5 other cats beside her were all apprinticed at the same time.

Mistystar yowled "GO!!!" and everyone raced foreword. the 2 younger apprintices immediatly fell behind and so did the chubby riverClan cat. But Blossompaw and the 2 ShadowClan cats were still running fast. One of the 2 ShadowClan cats was falling behind and the other was slowly stopping. But Blossompaw was pulling ahead of the speedy WindClan apprintice. Mosspaw grunted and ran faster then she had ever run before. She slowly pulled ahead and crossed the finish line. The crowd cheered and Mistystar yowled the news up to the sky.

Heathertail licked her daughters head proudly. She started to say something but then tensed. Mosspaw looked at her mother and followed her gaze. Then she saw what had made her mother so mad.

Breezepelt was flirting with another cat.

Chapter 10
Rainpaw was so mad. She could SCREAM!!!! That no good half-kittypet and WindClan filth had run past her. Stupid Talonpaw. if he hadn't tripped onto her she would have won. she stalked off towards the climbing contest. but then she heard raised voices.

"Mosspaw wait here!" "But, mom...." "NO!!! STAY HERE!!"

The first voice marched off and Rainpaw could here more noises. She crept closer and heard the noises again.

"-I didn't even WANT to be your mate and i love Mosspaw but how can you do this when we have a daughter?!!" A tom answered in a mumbly voice and there was the sound of a body hitting the floor and a muttered curse and ther she-cat stalked away. A minture later a bleeding tom and she-cat followed. Rainpaw got bored and left.

Rainpaw ran to the climbing contest and hurried as she heard Squirrelflight call "On your mark..." she arrived just in time but was tired. The apprintices surged up the trunk. Rainpaw ran up with them but stopped at the first branch. She caught her breath and watched thew other apprintices fall to the floor. the only cat besides Rainpaw left on the tree was the silver cat who had won the race. She didn't seem to be climbing. More like clawing the tree to shreds. as Rainpaw scrambled up the trunk she heard the she-cat mutter darkly, "-take that Breezepelt! i hate you so much.." But Rainpaw just sped up. Eventually she was at the top of the tree. She held her breath. It was amazing! she could see everything. And that was the moment that Rainpaw knew she wanted to feel so powerful all the time. she wanted to be leader.

And that would change the lives of our other 5 heros very much.

Rainpaw got down and Squirrleflight announced her win but there was no happy mom to cheer for her, only ridiculus looking Tigerheart. Her father. He never told her who her mother was but Rainpaw had a feeling it was a horrible secret. She yowled her victory and then slumped over to her father.

Chapter 11
Scarpaw happily padded over to the swimming contest. She looked around at her competition and laughed. It was all RiverClan cats! And EVERYONE in RiverClan knew that Scarpaw was the best swimmer. Out of the apprintices at any rate. But then 5 other cats came to join them 3 ThunderClan and 1 each from WindClan and ShadowClan. Scarpaw hardly paid attention to them. Reedwhisker, the deputy of RiverClan yowled for them to start. Without any more words Scarpaw dashed into the lake. She had to swim to the island and back. She had done it beofre in less then 5 minutes. The ShadowClan and WindClan apprintices along with 2 ThunderClan aprrintices and 3 out of the 4 RiverClan apprintices quickly fell behind. After a while it was just Scarpaw and 1 ThunderClan cat. Scarpaw turned around to see the other cat struggling, but making process. But the shores of the island weren't far. Scarpaw would win. Scarpaw felt elated and lost in her own thoughts she reached the island and turned to see where the other cat was. She didn't see anyone else and thought the Thunderclan cat must have turned back but then she saw bubbles and realized soemthing.

The other cat was drowning.

Scarpaw leapt into the water and pulled the young cat to shore. It was a brown tabby with a ringed tail and one black paw. Scarpaw recognized Bramblepaw, Bramblestar's daughter and apprintice. Luckily Bramblepaw awoke on the island and the 2 swam back to the shore. Scarpaws mother, Mistyfoot licked her and sang praises. Scarpaw looked around, trying to spot Bramblepaw but the apprintice was gone. She was headed for the last conest. the fighting contest. Scarpaw was disappointed her new friend had rushed off so fast but she pulled her mother in the direction of the last contest so she could watch her new friend.

Chapter 12
WHAM!!! Bramblepaws head was throbbing. The ShadowClan apprintice she was facing sure packed a mean punch. In the crowd she could here her mother and father screaming advice, Leopardpaw and Brightpaw were yelling, her new ginger friend had just arrived and was on her paws yowling. Bramblepaw was distracted and the other cat struck her again. Bramblestar, who was in charge of the contest looked like he was about to end the contest to save his daughter from many injuries. Bramblepaw sighed, she COULD take care of herself and she would show them!

Bramblepaw collapsed on the mossy ground as she was pinned down by the ShadowClan cat. She went limp and when the other cat loosened she exploded backwords, throwing him off. She spun around and tackled her opponet. The tom got up, shocked and Bramblepaw kept hitting his muzzle with her paws, backing him up until he tripped over a root. Then she pounced on him. He struggled to get up but she cuffed him over the ear. Bramblestar called the game and Bramblepaw hopped up, pleased as could be.

Her mother and father were congragulating her. Leopardpaw was licking her sister, Scarpaw, the RiverClan apprintice was meowing congratulations. And Brightpaw was looking at her warmly. Bramblestar said, "We need to get back to camp so the other cats can come and party with us!" Bramblepaw said good-bye to her new friend, Scarpaw and then raced back to her camp to help prepare, brightpaw and Leopardpaw running beside her.