Empty Spaces

Prouloge
Mistpaw sat at the banks of the river, looking down into the waters. She sighed. All the others had decided that RiverClan was the best, since they were in it. But really, what was the difference? If they'd beeen ThunderClan, they would've proclaimed that the best Clan too. Mistpaw couldn't understand it.

Actually, she could. The others said that because they wanted to be the best. She sighed. Being here, she might as well catch a fish or something. Didn't want the best Clan to starve. Even the leader had said it. But Mistpaw knew better. Crouching at the edge of the river, paw outstretched, she could't help but be wrapped up in her thoughts. She saw a fish and snapped it up. It was a trout. She sighed, picked up the huge fish, and walked back to camp. On her way she heard a noise. A soft moaning. She stopped, her heartbeat quickening. ''What was that?! ''she thought. "Hello?" she called.

A soft snap. A tiny rustle. Then a terrorfying sound- slithering. And pawsteps, both heading toward her. Soft hissing. "Bring it back. With this as our sacrifice."

Mistpaw shot away. Too late. A sharp, fierce pain... and she was sitting up in her nest, gasping for breath. She froze, pupils like slits, whan she felt a muzzle brush her ear and a voice.

"It is time."

Chapter One- Gingerkit
"Take that ShadowClan!" I shouted. My brother, Slickkit, flattened his ears.

"Gingerkit, don't fight them! Just yell at them like that and they'll run away screaming!" he yowled.

"Ha, ha. Very funny." I rolled my eyes. Couldn't he just play along?

Just then, I heard a rustle at the entrance. My mother Blazestar was back from hunting! Happily I tore across the camp to see if she brought me and my brother anything.

She purred. "Here's a mouse." She tossed us the fattest mouse I'd ever seen.

"Wow! Thanks mom!" I scampered across the camp to share with my brother.

"All right I'll share," he grumbled. I purr.

"Come on, let's go explore," I said. He sighed and nodded his head. We finished the mouse, and I happily leapt into the air with joy, then shot out of camp with him on my tail. Amazingly, no one spotted us. I scampered about, casting for scents, when I find one.

I felt a tremor in my fur when I realise it's cat. I follow the scent, realising too late that it could be a rouge willing to kill a kit- I'm already determinded to find the scource. I scamper forward when suddenly I stopped, unsure. The smell was fading, mostly because it was nearly overwhelmed with another scent- a scent that sent my fur rising and my claws unsheathed. I whipped around to look at my brother, who was sniffing the air.

"Well?" I asked when nothing else happened for a while.

He was frowning. "I don't know. It isn't any prey I've smelled. And from the scent on Mother's pelt from when she fights other animals, it isn't predetor either."

i dropped my nose to the smell. He was right. The scent was new to me. I was about to follow it but I felt a tug on my tail.

"Ow," I hissed, whipping around to look at my brother, who had my orange tail in my mouth.

"We're far enough. Shouldn't we get back and tell this to Mother? She'll find it and-"

"-And punish us," I finished. "Come on! Let's see what it is and then tell her."

I scampered forward, carefully to make sure I was upwind. Soon I saw it.

It was pitch black, didn't look furry at all, and was snarling as a young blue-gray she-cat cowering before her. It suddenly sniffed the air.

Silently the two siblings ran, ran, ran, back to safety, back the way they came, all they way thinking, We've got to help her.