Author Note: Well hello there! So glad you decided to read my very first story! It's just the general libretto of Les Misérables, but changed a bit to fit the Warriors universe and to sound like spoken dialogue. It's going to be reeeally long (the musical is over 3 hours) so I hope you stick with this until the end. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Prologue/Work Song

The cloak of night lifted, revealing a silent cluster of ragged bodies led by a large, lean figure. They halted at a fallen tree blocking the entrance to a cave. Following a curt yowl from their supervisor, the convicts set to work.

"Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye," they chanted, grunting as they struggled to lift the tree. "Look down, look down, you're here until you die."

"The sun is so strong!" wailed a small white tom. "It's burning the fur right off of me!"

"Look down, look down, you've twenty moons to go," recited the rest.

"I've done no wrong! Great StarClan, hear my prayer!" meowed a mangy ginger cat.

"Look down, look down, great StarClan doesn't care," the convicts repeated in response.

"I know she'll wait," a weary tabby tom murmured wistfully. "I know that she'll be true."

"Look down, look down, they've all forgotten you."

"When I get free, you won't see me here for dust!" yowled a black and white tom.

"Look down, look down, don't look 'em in the eye," muttered the convicts.

"How long, oh StarClan, before you let me die?" cried a scrawny gray cat.

"Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave. Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave," they droned on.

When at last the tree was out of the way, the prisoners shuffled into a disorganized line. They were all here for a different reason – eating before kits and elders were fed, hunting on another Clan's territory, or perhaps disobeying the Clan leader, Kestrelstar.

No doubt, he was the cruelest leader ThunderClan had ever known.

In order to ensure his own health, he set up the policy that all the fresh-kill caught immediately went to himself, the medicine cat, and his deputy, Stoneheart, forcing the warriors and apprentices to hunt for themselves the elders, and the kits when they could. He had Stoneheart gather the group of cats who had made the most serious offenses to the Warrior Code and lead them on never ending journeys of the hardest work that he himself didn't want to do.

Today it was removing a fallen tree that was blocking the entrance to the Mothermouth.

"Prisoner 24601!" roared Stoneheart.

The cluster of convicts parted to reveal a muscular, gaunt brown tabby tom with coarse, patchy fur. He padded forward and dipped his head in submission.

"Your time is up and your parole's begun," mewed Stoneheart. "Do you know what that means?"

The prisoner's face lit up. "Yes, it means I'm free!" he purred.

"NO!" snapped Stoneheart. "It means you get your ticket of leave. You're a thief, for StarClan's sake!"

"I stole a single mouse," grumbled 24601.

"You robbed Kestrelstar's den!" shot back the tabby deputy.

"I only tore his moss bedding!" cried 24601. "My sister's kit was close to death, and we were starving!"

"You will starve again unless you know the meaning of the Warrior Code!"

"I know the meaning of those nineteen moons…a slave of Kestrelstar."

"Five moons for what you did, and the rest because you tried to run! Yes, 24601 – "

"My name is Thrushclaw," spat the convict.

"And I'm Stoneheart. Do not forget my name. Do not forget me, 24601!"

With that, Stoneheart flicked his tail, motioning for Thrushclaw to turn to the side. The deputy dabbed his paw in a patch of mud from last night's rain and smeared an "x" on Thrushclaw's shoulder.

"Return in one moon," Stoneheart meowed. "If the mud is gone from your shoulder…" he paused. "Remember Nettlefang?"

Thrushclaw gulped.

"Off with you," hissed the tabby deputy.

"Look down, look down, you'll always be a slave," chanted the convicts as Thrushclaw bounded away. "Look down, look down, you're standing in your grave…"

Their haunting words echoed in Thrushclaw's torn ears even as he stopped for a drink at a pool far from Highstones.

"Freedom is mine," he whispered. "The forest is still. I breathe again. And the sky clears, the world is waiting." He took a sip of the cool, refreshing water and wondered when it had last tasted this delicious.

"Never forget the seasons, the waste," he murmured. "Nor forgive them, for what they've done to me. They are the guilty, every cat. The day begins and now let's see what this new world will do for me."

Suddenly, it hit him. Thrushclaw had nowhere to go. He obviously couldn't go back to ThunderClan, Stoneheart would imprison him again. Thrushclaw decided to head to WindClan.

Two cats were patrolling the borders, a gray tabby tom and a white she-cat.

"You'll have to go, but here's a bit of rabbit for the day," meowed the tom after Thrushclaw requested shelter. "Collect the bits and pieces there and be on your way."

"You've given me half what another helpless cat would get! This pile of crow-food isn't worth my sweat!" growled Thrushclaw.

"You broke the Warrior Code, it's there for us to see," the she-cat mewed, motioning with her tail to the mark on Thrushclaw's shoulder. "Why should you get the same as an honest warrior like me?"

Dejected, Thrushclaw bounded away and found himself nearing ThunderClan territory.

"Now every cat has looks down on me," grumbled the convict. "Another taunt, another sneer, another scorning insult. For when I come to any cat, they look me over and they find my mark of shame. In their eyes, I see their fear… 'We do not want you here…'"

Thrushclaw sighed in dismay and was about to give up when he spotted a Twoleg barn. He proceeded to stride in but saw that it was already swarming with cats, and two of them were gobbling mice that the others hunted in return for a night in the barn.

As the covict gazed at this scene in awe, a longhaired tortioseshell-and-white she-cat trotted hastily over to him.

"Our barn is full," she snapped, "and we've no fresh-kill to spare." A brown she-cat bounded to her and dropped a vole at her paws. "We'd like to help you, and we want to be fair," the longhaired she-cat snickered.

"I-I will pay in advance!" sputtered Thrushclaw. "I can sleep anywhere! Do you see how dark it is outside? I'm not some kind of mangy rat!"

As he spoke, a lean silver tabby tom settled down next to the she-cat. The silver tabby had barely touched noses with the she-cat when he noticed Thrushclaw. His pale eyes instantly narrowed, looking Thrushclaw up and down.

"You leave this barn," he hissed, "or feel the pain of my claws. We wouldn't hide a fugitive, and I don't give a whisker what anyone thinks." The tabby promptly shoved Thrushclaw out the door.

Angrily shaking the dust off of his pelt , Thrushclaw continued on against the setting sun.

"Now I know how freedom feels," growled the convict. "'It is the law!' they say. The mud on my fur makes me cursed throughout the forest! 'It is the law!'" Thrushclaw turned away from ThunderClan. "Like a rogue, I roam the forest...then ground beneath my claws…"

Thrushclaw sat down to rest when a longhaired moon-gray tom passed him, a mouse in his mouth. He put it down and prodded Thrushclaw with his paw.

"Follow me, for you are weary," he mewed. "And the night is cold out here. Though my life is very humble, what I have, I have to share." The tom led the disbelieving Thrushclaw to a small clearing.

"There is water to revive you," the loner told the convict, pointing to a small stream. "Here's a mouse to make you strong," the silver tom continued, dropping his catch in front of a rather incredulous Thrushclaw, who quickly gobbled it up. "You can rest here till morning, rest from pain, and rest from wrong."

Thrushclaw thanked the silver tom, who nodded and scampered off to hunt again.

He let me eat my fill, Thrushclaw thought as the loner's tail swished out of sight. I ate like all of LionClan!

The silver tom returned later with more fresh-kill, which he placed neatly under a bush. The loner then snuggled comfortably nearby and was fast asleep in a heartbeat.

That fresh-kill over there is twice what I had eaten in all my years slaving away for Kestrelstar! That lifetime of despair...the mud on my shoulder...and yet he trusted me. The old loner trusted me!

Thrushclaw silently stalked over to the bush, being careful not to wake the old tom. I played the grateful mouse-brain and thanked him like I should, but when the forest is still, I'll get up in the night, take the fresh-kill…

Thrushclaw, as his paw shook unsteadily, dragged out a mouse and a vole.

Take my FLIGHT!

The weary, jaded convict bolted away from the clearing as fast as his paws could take him, leaving his shame, his pain and his savior far behind him as he dived deeper and deeper into the endless forest.

Author Note: Hope you liked the first chapter. Also, watch out for the two cats running the barn hotel. They'll be back...