Prologue
“Gather around kits” said Whisperbreeze, RainClan’s wisest elder. Whisper was known for her great stories throughout all three clans. Even some nights when she went to a gathering, the new apprentices from other clans would huddle around to hear her mystifying stories. “This is the legend of a warrior named KrazyFlakes”. She explained.
“KrazyFlakes! What kind of a name is that” Bursted Sandykit, a little yellow she-cat with brown spots all over.
“Hush, you’ll see in a second.” Whisperbreeze replied. “This story takes place back to the time when there were four clans-”
“But that’s impossible! There have always been three clans!” Squeaked Icekit, daughter of the great Sunstar, the current leader of RainClan.
“Not always, young one.” Whisperbreeze smiled. “When I was young, like you there were four clans, RainClan, LightningClan, CloudClan and StormClan.”
“Wow! I think I remember Flowerdawn telling me about them.” Bumblekit squealed with joy. “She said how clever and brave they were! What ever happened?” Whisper sighed.
“If you’d all just let me finish you would know.”
“Sorry” squeaked the kits. Whisperbreeze smiled.
“As I was saying,” She began “Long ago, there were four clans, but they didn’t live here. They lived far away in a different forest.” The kits all leaned closer in awe. “RainClan was lead by the brave, newly appointed Echostar. Oh, she was fantastic, but that’s a different story. A beautiful she-cat who led CloudClan at the time was named Rootstar, a powerful she-cat with a huge heart was Dapplestar, leader of LightningClan. Lastly, the legendary Goldstar lead StormClan.”
“Whoa! Isn’t that the great leader that is said to have fallen from a shooting star!” Snowkit asked in bewilderment.
“Yes, but the tale of Goldstar is a different story, maybe tomorrow night. Now, where was I?” She asked herself. “Ah, now I remember.
The seasons had recently changed to new-leaf. Every cat was out enjoying the luscious new green grass and gathering fresh-kill for their clan. It was an easier leaf-bare than usual, but still any leaf-bare in hard enough to endure. Even Goldstar herself was scanning the territory. But she wandered too far, she had drifted out of clan territory and was now in an uncharted land, little did she realize of course. Her mind was too preoccupied to notice how far she had come.”
Chapter 1 ~Goldstar~
Come and gone, leaf-bare had. It was a short one this year, and I have StarClan to thank for that. Never-the-less leaf-bare had come with it’s dreaded disease of greencough, and the even deadlier whitecough. Although my clan had it easy this year, we still lost one beloved apprentice. I had to be out here looking for enough food to regain strength for my clan. A strong leader is not just there to sit back and relax while everyone else gathers food, that is why I must be out here.
I spotted a squirrel, it was a plump grey headed creature with a black body. How it had managed to gain so much fat after leaf-bare had just ended didn’t matter to me. It was meaty and that’s all I cared about. I started chasing it down and caught it going up a tree, I then buried it right beside that same tree, so that I would remember where it was. My glance then caught a thrush, I set my pawsteps, very carefully, onto the soft, wet ground, cautious to not step on a twig or leaf. I was almost ready to pounce when I a massive brown blur flew down from the trees above me and landed spot onto the bird. The thrush didn’t even see it coming, and neither did I. The appreared-to-be-she-cat quickly regained her balance and walked away, dead thrush in mouth, as if I wasn’t even there. I couldn’t stand it, a kittypet was taking food from my territory! I had to stop her, who ever she was. I creeped behind her, hoping my bright yellow pelt would’t give me away. I saw her climb a giant oak tree and drop the thrush in an opening, I guess she wasn’t kittypet after all, but instead, just a loner. She exited the hole and jumped on branches, scanning the nearby territory for prey. I quickly realized my fur would give me away from above, so I slid over to the other side of another massive oak tree and climbed up, making sure to climb higher than her.
Stalking the loner, as if she was my prey, I gathered information about her. She was not like any cat I had ever seen, she must have been some sort of kittypet crossbreed and somehow made it to my forest. From the way she walked, I could tell she was taller than me, but had smaller claws, probably trimmed off by the cutter. That would explain the aerial attack. Her pelt made no sense, she was a light shade of brown with spots of nearly every natural colour, but they didn’t blend into one another. She jumped down to a lower branch, and as I was still wondering why, she had already launched herself at a squirrel. She was better at spotting animals than I thought, no, I couldn’t let myself think a kittypet was better than me. I was just stalking her, that’s all.
I followed her technique of jumping onto lower branches until I was right overtop her. I have never jumped from this high up before, but if a loner could do it, so could I. I leaped from the tree and landed on her lower flank, not exactly where I wanted, but good enough. The she-cat let out a startled yowl and dropped her squirrel. I staggered a bit to find my balance, and when I turned around I saw the she-cat in attack position.
“What are you doing?!” The loner gasped and yelled at me. “Is this squirrel really that important to you? Here.” And she threw it at me. I moved away from her toss-line and let the prey bounce on the grass.
“What are you doing in StormClan territory?” I snarled. I wasn’t about to let this loner think that giving back the squirrel would make up for taking it in the first place. How much other StormClan prey did she take? I was about to give her a reason to never come back to my home.
“I don’t understand,” She stared. “I’ve been hunting here for 6 moons now and not once have I seen another cat.” Her comment made me take notice of my surroundings, could I have really been the one in another cats territory? No, I couldn’t be. I was a leader, I would have noticed.
“Where’s the river”? I asked, still maintaining my fierceness. The river was the thing that divided the clan territories. A giant river separated StormClan and LightningClan. A regular sized stream passed in between LightningClans territory and CloudClans territory, as well as StormClans territory and RainClans. However rapids were the border between RainClan and CloudClan. Knowing this, any clan cat could figure out which territory they were in or nearby.
“I am so sorry,” She began “But there is no river around here, there is only a small pool of water, but that’s far that way” She pointed behind me. Oh boy, I was in deep trouble. She must have meant the Moonpool, and even that was far from StormClan territory.
“But what do you need all that prey for?” I demanded, still trying to sound tough.
“Oh, the prey? I bring it for my friends in those houses over th--”
“So you are a kittypet?!” I hollered.
“A kitty what? I do not live with the pink-furs if that is what you mean. I just have friends there, and they always love getting a taste of real meat, not the brown pellets they feed you. It’s starting to get dark, why don’t you come with me to my den.”
“Come with a loner! Are you crazy? I am the leader of a noble clan, and I will not be nursed by a kittypet!” I was outraged, how could this she-cat, whoever she was think she was the boss of me! I was the leader.
“Alright, suit yourself. You can keep the squirrel if you want though.” She said as she turned away, not even caring that I rejected her offer. I picked up the squirrel and started back towards my clan, in the direction she showed. I was walking for a good few minutes when I heard the howl of a dog.
Chapter 2 ~Peanut~
What a strange day I had, first I was minding my own business, trying to catch prey for Spotty, Alex and Princess Sunshine and next thing I know, I have a scratch on the left side of my flank. Goodness that cat had sharp claws. What did it even want anyways, with it’s StormClan and whatnots. Even if she was particularly rude, I should have warned her about the dogs, they come out every night at this time. Maybe I should stalk her. Yes, I liked that idea. I climbed the tree using my special technique of using my tail to help hold onto the bark of the tree, since I had little claws. When I was just a kit, my owner got all of my claws cut off, along with my littermates. As much as I hated him, I was sad when he died, I wish I still knew where my other littermates were though, I hardly even remember them. But that wasn’t important, what was, was saving the clan cat from the pack.
As I climbed to the top of the tree, I quickly spotted the StormClan cat, she was easy to see with her bright yellow pelt, meaning it wouldn’t be too long until the dogs found her as well. I swiftly ran from branch to branch, careful not to fall. Luckily she was headed back in the direction of the pine trees, where the branches would be lower. Just then we heard the low pitched growl of the pack leader, there were already loose. Panicking, she started running, bad move girl. I’m not sure what kind of dogs you might encounter down where ever you’re from, but that is definitely not how you handle the pack down here. The more you move and the more terrified you are, the faster then seem to get. I started running after her along the tree line. She might be faster on the ground, but I had the advantage of the trees. Swiftly I ran along the branches, trying to remember if she had told me her name.
“Hey,” I started “hey ‘Yellow-fur’!” The golden pelted cats ears twitched, but she didn’t look back.
“It’s Goldstar you dimwit” She snorted back. Ugh, this cat was more of a princess than Princess Sunshine.
“Fine, whatever.” I shouted back, finally catching up to her. “Just run over here, the branches are low enough for you to jump on”
“Are you insane! I have dogs on my tail!”
“There’s still at least a few minutes away. But they’re much faster than you, they’ll catch you if you don’t listen to me.” This cat was going to be hard to save, what did she think she had? Nine lives? Yeah right.
“Why should I listen to you?! You’re just a dirty loner!” She screamed, oblivious to my help. I was hoping this next trick would work, I’d only ever tried on Princess’ kits. I ran ahead, just far enough until I found a good branch and was still a fair distance from Gold-whatever.
I tightly wrapped my tail around the branch, crossed my arms across my belly, closed my eyes and let myself fall, knowing my tail would hold me, I hoped.
Once completely upsidedown, I stretched out my arms, upwards to me, downwards to the rest of the earth. I saw Goldmoon or whatever come running towards me with a confused expression across her face, at least I thought it was confused, it’s quite hard to tell when you’re 180 degrees flipped to the rest of cat-kind. As soon as she was right under me I extended my tail just a bit to grab her and pulled up right away. My ‘rescue’ would have been faster if she weighed less.
“Drop the squirrel and climb up” I said, looking down on her.
“How?” She questioned, still startled.
“Hmm, lets see” I stared, not amused, the dogs would be here soon, and we were dangling like a treat their owners give to them. “You climb me like a tree, just don’t use your claws, I’d like to live too, thanks.” Almost immediately she starting climbing me, still holding the squirrel. “Seriously, I have more food in my den, just drop it.” Being her rebellious self, she still held it until she was on the branch. I then started to swing my self back and forth until I eventually made it so I was able to grab the branch with my paws, from there I hoisted myself up and brushed myself off.
“How’d you learn to do that?” Goldstar or something asked.
“When you live in the trees long enough, it just sort of comes.” I replied, pleased she was finally gracious.
“I’m sorry, but I left without asking your name.” She quietly said.
“Peanut, I’m Peanut” I smiled, walking home.
Chapter 3 ~Goldstar~
I can’t believe I’m following a kittypet, I thought. And I was a new leader too, I had only received my nine lives from StarClan a moon ago, and here I was, getting help from a loner. I followed her through the trees, although she wasn’t that much taller than me, it was impossible to see where she was leading me. And I didn’t want to ask how much longer either, I was a clan leader, I couldn’t whine like a kit. Speaking of my clan, I hope they would be alright with me gone. Oh, I should have just paid attention to where my paws were taking me. I didn’t even know how far away I was. I looked up to the stars, StarClan, protect them, I prayed.
“This next one is a bit of a leap” Peanut called from in front of me. She hunched over, ready to pounce to a branch that looked seemingly impossible to jump. Never the less, she jumped anyways, but mid-air she turned so that her head was facing downwards. I watched as she extended her tail, to then speedily twirl it around the branch. Using the force from the swing, she hurled herself upwards and landed spot on the branch.
“Yeah, I’m not doing that.” I replied. Sure, I had nine lives, but how would StarClan ever forgive me if I wasted one trying to jump to another branch.
“Understandable” Was all Peanut replied with, as she wrapped her tail around the branch once again to hang upsidedown. “Just like earlier, if you fall, I will catch you.”
And just like that, I put one of my nine lives in the paws of a loner. I jumped. And landed right on her face. Her only reply was a mumble. I quickly climbed up top to the branch and watched her use the same trick as before to get hoist herself up.
“Shall we get going?” She smiled, and jumped down to a lower branch.
“Why don’t we just walk along the group?” I asked. All this tree climbing was tiring.
“Do you want the dogs to eat you?” She retorted, this was the first time I had seen her rude.
“I’m sorry, I ju--”
“We’re here” She said dully as she leaped onto the ground.
“I thought you said to stay in the trees.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, my den tree doesn’t have any lower branches. So, unlike you I don’t have claws, so I can’t climb down all that well. You can try and get into my den from above, but I won’t be there with you if you fall.” Knowing that, I immediately jumped down to the ground and followed her. She climbed the tree using a technique I’d never seen before. She hardly used her paws at all, instead she grabbed the small new branches, impossible to stand on, and dug her nearly useless claws into the cracks between the bark. For a approach so different than anything I’d ever seen, she was amazing quick at it. Realizing the dogs were still wandering this forest, I scaled the trunk as fast I could.
I was expecting the den to be quite small, as just a little hole with a dip just a little lower than the opening, to keep out wind. Instead I found the that opening was the same level as the entrance, and had a level above that covered half of the space, obviously meant to be jumped on. Once up there I saw a crevice in the wood, I reached in and found some fresh-kill. I pulled out a bird and looked up to see another half level. I took the bird and jumped onto it to find Peanut enjoying a plump thrush. She scotched aside and swept her paw across the smooth oak platform.
“This hole was once home to a family of owls, I chased them out and make the layers smoother. I also dug out a little hole in the second level as a place to store food. This den design is perfect for keeping out winds on the top level, and directing all the cold night air right into to crevice to keep the prey fresh for longer.” Peanut conversed, trying to start up a good night’s interlocution. I didn’t really have anything to respond to that statement, so instead all I did was nod my head. “So tell me about about where you’re from.” She asked, noticing my inability to contribute to her last form of a conversation.
“Well, umm, there’s four different clans, and we all live in a forest, surrounded by rivers,” I began, Peanut looked quite interested. I couldn’t tell if she was just trying to be friendly or she was legitimately curious about my home. “Each clan has a ranks. The lowest are the newborns with the suffix ‘kit’. The next are the apprentices, they earn a mentor the leader picks out and the suffix ‘paw’. When your mentor and clan leader believe you are ready, you earn your warrior name, your suffix can be anything and is also picked out by the leader. Any warrior could be bestowed with the honour of being the deputy, this is the clans leaders right paw cat and helps with big decisions. If the clan leader is to pass away during a battle or something then the deputy is to take over. When you’re a leader you earn the suffix ‘star’ and earn nine lives from StarClan. You can also take the path of a medicine cat. You help heal cats from battles using many herbs, you also receive dreams and omens from StarClan and are the leaders left pawed cat.” Peanuts eyes were as wide as a kit hearing they are soon to become an apprentice.
“Wow, I just don’t know where to begin,” She stuttered. “I mean, I have so many questions. Okay, okay. Here I go. What do you mean by suffixes and stuff? Do you get prefixes too? Yeah, you must, but what is the suffix and prefix and stuff? How do you earn a prefix? And what is this about battles, do you fight other cats for fun or something? And what is StarClan, is that another one of the four clans you mentioned? And wow! Nine lives, that’s crazy!” She rambled on. “And what are you in the clan?” Proudly, I announced to her that I was in fact the clan leader of the great StormClan. She was bewildered that I was the highest ranking cat in my clan, and for the rest of the night she would ask me questions about my life and I would answer them. I don’t really know why I told her everything, but I guess I just sort of felt a bond with her I couldn’t really explain.
Chapter 3.5 ~ StarClan~
“Ah, the moon rises yet again, Stormstar, and shall come the dreamers soon into our land.” A tall dim-yellow she-cat with a grey muzzle and black tipped tail remarked as she settled down next to a dark grey she-cat with bright yellow eyes.
“And so welcome then, we shall, Lightningstar” Stormstar replied.
“Conversing about the living, are we dears?” Questioned a fluffy pure white she-cat with glowing blue eyes as she walked out of the shadows.
“Ah, welcome Cloudstar. Is Rainstar coming tonight?” Lightningstar counter-questioned.
“No, I don’t believe so. Too busy with someone else I hear.” Cloudstar responded.
“Goldstar has found herself in quite an interesting situation, hasn’t she Storm.” Lightningstar observed as she looked down into a pool of water beneath her front paws they let her view the world below the stars.
“Yes, but it was destined to happen.” The dark grey she-cat said looking up to the sky. “Have you forgotten the prophecy already dear Lightning?”
“Now you can’t really believe it true Storm.” Cloudstar expressed with empathy.
“And why not Cloudstar?” They dark grey she-cat snarled. “You saw the signs as well, of a great tall outcast that is honoured with powerful wisdom. Do you deny what your eyes have seen?”
“But bringing a loner into a clan is unheard of! She will bestow great sham to StormClan if she does.” Countered the fluffy she-cat.
“Then so be it, just you wait when StormClan becomes the most powerful clan there has ever been.” Stormstar raged. “And here she comes now,” She bragged as she stood up to go greet Goldstar who had recently appeared at the bottom of the hill the starry leaders sat upon.
“Ah, but dear Storm has been so blind about the power the outcast posses that she’s forgotten the horrifying curse that ends it all.” A dark blue she-cat calmly expressed as she stepped out of the shadows. “There will be one, a tall outcast with star-given knowledge that will bestow great power to the clan of the omened warrior. But with her she brings a deadly curse that will forever change the forest.”
Subject: The Legend of the Three Krazy Kits 
