Blood and Dreams

Prologue
Leaf quitely made her way to the elders' den, on the other side of camp. She hid in the shadows of the setting sun, with her three other companions. Storm, Sky, and Angel all crouched low, follong the older kit to the elders' den.

The softclaws were all sharing tounges and boasting about their adventures with their mentors. The sharpclaws were speaking about important stuff, things even Leaf didn't understand, and she was almost eight moons old. The milj-givers were dozing, which gave the kits enough time to sneak out of the den.

At this time, as the sun was setting, everyone in the Tribe fretted about the kits being outside. Owls and other birds of prey were posing a great threat to the cats of the Tribe of Endless Skies.

The leader, Shriveled Bracken, made a new rule: keeping all cats younger than eight moons old inside when the sun begins to set.

But Leaf and the others were bored. It was Angel, actually, who gave the idea to go to the elders' den. Sun Dancer, the only elder in the Tribe, was an excellent story-teller, and was very popular among the five Tribes. After all, she was the one who saved them all.

"Quickly! I hear Broken Twig coming!" alerted Sky, the youngest kit in the nusery. She was a small, beautiful, gray tabby she-cat, with bright, curious eyes that always seemed to warm the coldest of hearts. Her father, Hoping Bird, had recently died. An owl was hunting a patrol of sharpclaws and a softclaw when Hoping Bird appeared. He fought the bird off, but both died.

The Tribe began to spoil her, but she never became a snotty brat like Leaf thought she would become. No, Sky was still her cheerful, bubbly self.

"Shh. Keep low," says Leaf and crouches really low to the ground. Leaf, having light brown fur, didn't really blend in with the mountain landscape. The rocks were gray or black, but light brown, never.

Broken Twig appeared, passing the kits by, not noticing them, and joined Shriveled Bracken.