PART ONE of Sea Clan
   The she-cat rolls into her nest, waiting for sleep to take her over. Soft moss lines her nest as it presses against her fur. A stale taste of mouse lingers between her teeth plus her tongue. The same taste sticks to her mouth's scent gland. Hopefully, I dream of a fat mouse since White-berry is arriving. Her body weight is stone. Heaviness takes her eyelids over. Her eyes iris out from the den to black fog.

   There is a calico kitten wailing in the ending rain. The one-moon-old sits on a small stone that stands as tall as the grass. "Waahhh!" the she-cub cries. She woke up all alone, cold and wet.
   Then a nose touches hers. She stops crying and looks forward. A tall tabby she-cat is looking at her with big orange eyes. All the kitten can see is the white fur with ginger stripes on her face. Her fur is long and soft.
   When she speaks, her voice is quiet and high, "Hello sweety. My name is Berryheart. What's yours?"
   "I don't remember," the kitten sniffles. "Do you know where my mommy is?"
   The she-cat shakes her head sadly, "No I don't. Does she belong to a clan?"
   "Clan?" the kitten asks with grief in her eyes.
   A pink tongue from Berryheart touches the kitten's cheek. "I guess not. What does she look like? Do you have any litter mates?"
   "I don't remember!" the kitten wails.
   "That's okay," Berryheart meows comfortingly. "Would you like to come to my clan? My friends can look for your mother in the morning."
   The calico kitten nods with the rain drops on her fur glistening like stars. "Can I call you Starkit?" the she-cat asks pulling her off the rock. Again, the kitten nods as it curls between Berryheart's front legs and chest fur.
   Berryheart licks the kitten's head before picking her up by the scruff. Quickly the she-cat runs through the cold rain. In a few fallen leaves, the two cats come to a river with a large tree branch leaning across the water. The kitten squeals as Berryheart's steady paws carefully walk over the branch to the river's other side.
   Berryheart trots into a clearing. There's a log with long branches sticking out. Holes are hidden behind groups of flowers before disappearing deep into the ground. Dead squirrels and mice sit inside the widest branch, which is open. A pale ginger cat licks his face clean as he sits on top of the log. Below that cat is a small hole that is only covered up by small willow branches. Then Berryheart turns through a small arch of made of low stone walls and twirled vine decoration.
   Inside the den a thin, fluffy cat sleeps in a bracken nest with a moss lining. Berryheart softly drops her on short grass before walking up to the sleeping cat. She nudges the cat's shoulder with her nose. "Sapphiretear," she whispers. "I need your help."
   The she-cat's head pops up from underneath the bushy tail. Most of her fur is a dark cream with a black face and legs. Her eyes are a stunning blue. When those eyes meet Starkit's, she jumps up immediately. Later on, Starkit will learn this is their clan mender. "Who's this?" she asks Berryheart.
   "This is Starkit. Her mother is missing or gone and she was by herself. I thought I'd bring her into the clan until we find her mother. But first I was wondering if you could check her - make sure she's okay."
   "Of course." The cat called Sapphiretear responds. She sniffs Starkit over. "Well, she may have a fever or cold tomorrow from all the rain exposure, but for the most part she'll be okay. You now, need to go and rest for your unborn cubs. Have one of the other cats bring her in to me after sunrise."
   Berryheart nods as she takes the kitten away from the stone area. The she-cat travels to where some bright pink lily flowers stand. They walk through them into a dim den. Every nest is shaped by bracken, but there are multiple coverings. One layer is of moss, a second of leaves and a third of flower petals.
   She crawls into a tiny nest of moss and petals. Trying to recall her last memories, she finds them vague. She remembers falling asleep in a dim den with a feather nest. There's a large, furry body with warm milk in her stomach. Two other kittens - siblings maybe - lay to her right, so she's the farthest from the she-cats head. A large kitten sleeps next to her, it's a tom. Then the young tom sits upwards and grooms his chest fur. Starkit peaks up before shutting her eyes, pretending to sleep. She believes that the same kitten snuck a peak at her. Against the back of her head, she feels a powerful blow, which knocks her out. Next comes the memory of waking up in the wet grass next to the stone.
   After that, no cat found her mother or any other cat that knew where they were. Henceforth, Starkit grew up in the clan with Berryheart acting as a surrogate mom. Amazingly enough, Berryheart has her own litter of kittens. But that night, Berryheart had a dream about a kitten lost in the area she was found. That's why Berryheart, a darling with cubs, came all that way to find her.

   Starheather awakes to an abrupt stab in the shoulder. It causes her head to bolt up-right after a small whimper of surprise. She sits up in her nest. There was a rose thorn caught in her fur. What a nuisance, she tells herself while grooming the twig out.
   "Are you okay?" Spidertail pads into the den from his guarding shift.
   "Yea," she purrs, trying to seem okay. "How is the camp?"
   Spidertail curls into his own nest. "Everything's as good as it can be." The grey and black tom plops his head onto his front paws. He looks at her, grief bubbling in his eyes. "I don't like it."

   Snakestripe limps in the darkness of Fieldstar's den. In this place, it is safe for him to show his weak side. He wants to cringe by his belly searing in pain, but he needs to talk to the leader. After what feels like an entire season, he reaches Fieldstar's den. Once he sees the yellow tabby, he lets himself fall onto the floor outside of his leader's nest.
   His friend and leader leaps over to him. "Are you okay?"
   "No," Snakestripe murmurs flatly. "It's getting worse - I'm getting worse."
   "You are my best friend and the best commander Sea Clan has ever had. It'll suck to lose you." Fieldstar lays down across from him so their noses touch. "How much time do you have left?"
   He places his head on top of his paws. "Tawnyeye says she doubts I'll make it for another moon."
   "What about the Moon Bash tonight?" Fieldstar wonders aloud. "If it's your last Moon Bash, I'd like for you to come."
   "I could go if I really wanted to." Snakestripe meows, "But I'm afraid of giving off a weak image if the other cats seem me barely fighting off the pain. Some of the other cats are starting to wonder if I'm okay. Berryheart..." he pauses after saying his mate's name. "Berryheart is more worried about me than her own kittens."
   He feels the leader's tail touch gingerly on his shoulder. "What can I do to help?"
   "Let me stay home tonight with Berryheart. Maybe... maybe," Snakestripe starts. "Boy I hate to say this.... Maybe Berryheart and I should become conquerors. I'm eleven red-leafs old and we could tell the cats that my joints are too sore to keep going."
   He feels the leader's tail twitch. "What does Berryheart think of becoming a conqueror?"
   Snakestripe closes his eyes for a moment. "When we talked about it earlier, she was upset at first, but she decided to do it for me. She's older than I am and it wouldn't look good having a younger cat become a conqueror. Also, she hopes to spend my last suns together, spend her grieving suns, after I pass, in peace and help around the camp from time to time after grieving."
   "I'd hate to do that for you two, but I will because you may live longer." Fieldstar meows as he pushes himself onto his front paws. "Go sleep in your defenders nest one more time."
   "Thank you, Fieldstar. I'm sorry." Snakestripe slowly pulls himself to his paws, but it hurts enough to take the breath out of him.
   Fieldstar turns to alert mode. "Hey, hey, hey!" he meows. "We're not done here. We still have one last thing to discuss."
   "What is it?" Snakestripe meows.

Torrentmoon overlooks his territory. The beach shore below is scattered with dried blood spills. Mounds of sand exist for every dead cat's burial. Ocean Clan, his clan, were attacked two moons ago by a group of hateful cats - Blizzard Clan.
   Every single cat of his were taken down and murdered by these blood-thirsty cats. Only toms in Blizzard Clan fought while everyone in Ocean Clan fought that night. Even with the extra members, there were two Blizzard Clan toms fighting each Ocean Clan cat. All of the kittens were slashed over their throats. Most of the defenders and novices were murdered. All of the conquerors and darlings bled to death.
   He has waited for any of his cats to return for two moons - for the ones that weren't dead. As Torrentmoon buried his cats, he made not which bodies he had and those bodies he did not have. Four defenders escaped as well as two litter mate novices. Mousetail is a white tom with gray patches and lime green eyes. Daisyfur is Mousetail's mate with long white and ginger fur. Urchinclaw, a long-haired gray tom is a very powerful senior defender. Urchinclaw's mate is a red-cream tabby she-cat with hazel eyes named Sandcrystal. Weedpaw is a white tom with ginger tabby patches on his back, head and tail. Lastly is Marshpaw, a dark gray tom with black splotches and stunning yellow eyes.
   It had been two moons, and Torrentmoon is ready to leave this territory forever.