Prologue

Rain fell endlessly on the ThunderPath, red-pelted monster stormed noisily past splashing a foot high wall of filthy water. Branches whipped wildly above a stone-gray tom's head as he sheltered under the tangled roots; he bristled as another monster stomped by. The tom shivered as he waited in the darkness for something that might not even come back. He sheathed and unsheathed his claws as rain chilled the miserable cat's skin, he sneezed. Lighting flashed above, lighting the small field in front of him with a dazzling white light for a split second. He blinked his one eye.

There stood what the gray and black tom has been waiting for. A figure lone was limping hastily forward, a jet black tom barely visible in the dark night. Thunder roared as the gray cat dashed forward to help the other cat.

"Stay away from me," the black cat snarled fiercely, bearing his teeth at his son. The gray tom recoiled as claws missed only mouse-lengths from his ruffled pelt. The tom gave a satisfied grunt as the gray tom backed away, and he continued limping toward the tree. When they settled down the black tom stared out into the rain, senses alert.

In the distance, far off, an angry caterwaul erupted almost as loud as thunder it's self. The jet black tom gave a snort, and sat down, flicking his tail for the other tom to be silent. The two tom's eyes were wide and alert, piercing through the stormy night to see their enemies dash forward. They held their breath as a rush of pawsteps sped by their hiding spot. Once the cats disappeared they relaxed.

"Stonestar," the gray tom murmured. The black tom straightened up. "What happened?"

"I told you what was going to happened," Stonestar growled as he twisted around to clean his wounded leg. Claw marks showed on every part of his pelt from the battle he just fought and his amber eyes never looked colder as he thought about what had just happened. "I was going to kill that traitor, Blueclaw!" His eyes narrowed in anger as he looked at the trembling cat in front of him. With a spit he meowed darkly, "He beat me."

The gray tom stood speechless. Stonestar continued to lick his swollen paw and said nothing more. Thunder rumbled for a few heartbeats before the gray tom spoke, "Then how are we going to kill Bigpaw and Petalflower?"

Stonestar curled his lip back into a fearsome snarl, fighting the Tribe leader, fighting loners; even fighting Bigpaw had made him a darker and more dangerous opponent. Being starved and weak made him train harder and now... He shook the thought away from his loss. "Be quiet, Riverstone!" Stonestar spat. "Blueclaw is getting old; I already killed his little hunter…"

"Wind?" Riverstone asked eyes still wide and confused.

Stonestar narrowed his cold amber eyes and looked up into Riverstone's face. "How do you know his name?"

A flicker of fear struck through Riverstone's eyes but he blinked it away and quickly changed the subject, "What's that going do?"

"Wind was the main hunter of BloodClan remember?" Riverstone stared at the injured cat blankly. "Without him, it makes BloodClan weaker."

Riverstone's lip curled in delight as he snarled, "So when you kill Blueclaw that makes BloodClan weak and out of control."

Lighting crashed over head; Riverstone opened his injured eye in shock. He shook his head as he saw nothing but darkness, it was strange still, even after a year and a couple of moons have already have passed. He growled in frustration and yowled pointlessly, "If only I would have killed him when he did this to me! I thought for sure he would have died."

Stonestar said nothing as he stopped licking his scratches, there was a cat outside. They could barely see the cat as he stood outside the den entrance. Riverstone arched his back and let out a low, rumbling growl. Gathering his strength he prepared to leap. Suddenly, the cat jumped in through the roots and landed on top of Riverstone. Riverstone yowled and trashed as Stonestar could only watch. His injuries held him back from his burning desire to claw the cats pelt out.

When Riverstone knocked the cat off it quickly stood to his paws. "Stop," the cat yowled, by his voice Stonestar figured it was another tom. The tom's voice was strange too, kind of dark and maybe wolfish. "I want to talk…"

Riverstone paused and when the tom laid down he relaxed again. "You want to talk then why did you attack me?" Riverstone challenged, claws still unsheathed.

"I merely attacked before you did," the tom meowed. Stonestar whiskers twitched, this cat wasn't even trying to put up a fight! "I heard of you're plans, and I have my own." The tom stood back up and for the first time Stonestar saw what he looked like. He was moon-silver with strange black streaks, his mouth was white and his ears were black. The tom was big, mouse-lengths taller then Stonestar.

The cat was strong too, if needed, Stonestar would what help from this cat. "Okay," Stonestar purred. "What his you're name?"

The silver and black tom narrowed his icy blue eyes and meowed, "My name is Steel."

Okay, R&R! I'll try to have the first chapter by next week; updates might be slow for a while…