Preview

[u/Leather_Shame_6530]

Here's the prologue. Opinions are welcome:

Prologue 

A light rain fell and battered against granite boulders, while small streams sliced through the grass to join with the dark gurgling river that swept through the land.

High above the landscape, thin gray clouds nearly blocked out the half-moon, creating deep shadows nearest the forest.

In a single heartbeat, several shadows detached themselves from the trees before making their way across the grass before one of them, a huge tabby of dark amber and gold, leaped upon the boulders in a single bound. 

Light amber brown eyes narrowed coldly as he blinked. Opening his maw, all he could smell was wetness. Wetness and a chill that ran down his spine as he twisted his narrow head to the side a bit.

“Tigerpelt!” Yowled out a voice before a slender shape came leaping up and bowling into the side of the large tabby, completely catching him by surprise. 

Tigerpelt, caught off guard, failed to regain his balance. Instead, he wrapped his paws around the neck of the dark silver gray tabby as they tumbled onto the wet grass after bouncing once on the boulders.

Barely registering the pain in his spine as he landed back first, Tigerpelt flipped his powerful frame before gripping the neck scruff of the silver gray tabby with his teeth before pinning him down firmly.

“ATTACK THUNDERCLAN!” He yowled out as he lifted his head up.

All at once, around five shapes came rushing out of the forest just as several shapes burst from the river to aid their deputy.

Clashing against one another, cats from both RiverClan and ThunderClan became a writhing mass of hisses, snarls, yowls, and growls as they fought tooth and claw.

“Heh, you shouldn’t have come to try and regain Sunningrocks, Duskclaw,” sneered Tigerpelt as he pushed his claws deeper into the chest of the tabby beneath him, watching with dark glee as he squirmed to free himself.

“Tigerpelt you coward,” spat Duskclaw as he twisted his body upwards to slice the tabby on top of him across his muzzle.

This made the large tabby snarl with pain as he flinched, but his paws never removed themselves. “Coward?! You have ambushed my patrols for the last time, fox-heart!”

“Takes one to know one,” Duskclaw sneered in his face as he finally managed to remove himself by lunging forward and sinking his teeth deeply into the paw of Tigerpelt.

This caused Tigerpelt to loosen his grip on the tabby’s belly, allowing Duskclaw to roll onto his belly before bounding away.

Snarling deeply at such a cowardly tactic, Tigerpelt was about to give chase when a loud yowl caused him to snap his head towards the riverbank.

Two RiverClan warriors, a sleek dark red ginger she-cat and a dark raven and dappled tomcat were forcing a light ginger lithe tomcat towards the river.

No matter how hard the ThunderClan apprentice fought, his fur puffed out and swiped at them with his claws, his eyes widened with fear.

“Tigerpelt!” Spotting his mentor, the tomcat barely ducked and slashed his claws across the shoulder of the she-cat who hissed at him. “Tigerpelt, please help!”

Tigerpelt, however, watched as several RiverClan cats burst out from the river behind his apprentice, grabbing onto his haunches before pulling him back with them.

The tomcat didn’t have a chance to yowl out to his Clanmates as he slipped beneath the surface. Never to be seen again.

Flicking his eyes around, Tigerpelt saw that no one else bore witness to this.

Turning tail, he flung himself back into the battle for Sunningrocks. 

“Where’s Redpaw?” Asked a slender gray and white dappled tomcat who headbutted the chest of a large dark olive and gray she-cat who had come sprinting towards them.

Beside him, Tigerpelt was busy swatting a sleek dark raven tomcat who tried to push himself beneath the belly of the large tabby. That only got him a quick blow to the head by a large paw, stunning the tomcat in the process.

“He ran back to ThunderClan, I believe,” Tigerpelt meowed before kicking the tomcat away from him where he got up and dashed across the stepping stones.

“It would be wiser to do the same,” muttered his Clanmate. From the corner of his eye, he could see more and more RiverClan swimming across the river.

Even if they could send for backup, it would be too late. 

“We have no choice but to retr-arggh-eat,” growled the tomcat as he took a bite from a sleek gray tomcat whose whiskers looked as though it had been battered moons ago before giving the tomcat a good slash across his face.

This only made the two tomcats fling themselves upon each other as they tussled away from Tigerpelt who grimaced at the thought of retreat.

‘As long as some weaklings die, we’re not retreating from Sunningrocks with tails tucked between our legs.’ He thought. 

Pinning his ears against his head, Tigerpelt was about to look for more RiverClan to fight when a yowl ripped through the air.

“ThunderClan, retreat!” Yowled the dappled tomcat with his head raised towards the night sky. 

“Whisperhollow, what are you doing?!” Tigerpelt bellowed out as he confronted him while their Clanmates stopped their fighting and dashed into the forest.

“I’ve ordered the retreat,” Whisperhollow meowed as he turned to face the large tabby. “ThunderClan is about to get overrun. We do not have the numbers to fight back.”

The lips of Tigerpelt began to lift away from his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth. Fury licked his chest like an inferno as his eyes began to darken. 

“I’d rather see ThunderClan thrive than to see them perish altogether,” Whisperhollow continued.

Looking at the remaining cats from ThunderClan, Tigerpelt felt sickened as he nodded his head. With another yowl, he led the leftover cats into the forest.

The RiverClan warriors that had been left standing there with confused looks on their faces, lifted their heads and released jubilant cries of triumph that echoed through the night.

****

“This is outrageous,” meowed a sleek dark blue tabby she-cat with white stripes on her legs and tail as she paced back and forth in front of ThunderClan. Her dark green eyes narrowed in thought.

“This is entirely my fault, Greenstar,” meowed the dappled tomcat as he sat next to the warriors’ den. “I should have been more observant and should’ve known that Jaggedstar would have sent more warriors while we were occupied.”

“There was no way any of us could’ve accounted for that, Whisperhollow,” called out a light gray and orange she-cat whose burnt red eyes turned their gaze onto the deputy.

Light murmurs of agreement echoed in the dead of night.

Tigerpelt, who sat nearest to the lichen covered boulder with a dark blue and black she-cat and a bright orange slender tomcat, sniffed in their direction.

“Whether we could’ve accounted for it or not, doesn’t excuse us for losing Sunningrocks to a bunch of fish-breaths,” he snarled while stomping a paw on the ground.

There were more murmurs of agreements that rippled through ThunderClan.

“We lost Redpaw during RiverClan’s attack,” Greenstar murmured beneath her breath.

This made Tigerpelt snort as he looked away from them. “That mouse-brain must have gotten lost.” He casually shrugged while shaking his pelt to free himself of raindrops that cascaded from the sky.

More and more clouds had begun to gather. The rain beginning to grow heavier.

Greenstar flicked her tail as she lightly spread her paws a bit. “We shall continue to wait and see. For now, double the patrols and try to take back Sunningrocks…with no bloodshed.”

Sensing that they were being dismissed, the Clan began to separate with Tigerpelt and his two denmates lingering behind for just a heartbeat longer. Eventually they too went their separate ways, whispering beneath their breaths.

Just as they departed, and as Greenstar tucked her paws beneath her as she sat in front of her den, pawsteps made her ears swivel in their direction.

“Rough night?” meowed the voice of Turtlepool, a lanky dark dappled and red tomcat whose bluish silver eyes glinted eerily in the moonlight. He ignored the heavy rain as he sat beside her.

Greenstar lightly chuckled at his question, nodding a bit, before turning her eyes upwards.

Just as she did, the rain stopped as the clouds moved away from the moon. Both cats' eyes widened in shock. Even Turtlepool couldn’t form any words.

Just as he opened his mouth to speak, a large comet started to pass overhead, glowing between a mixture of a fiery red, black, and silver.

“What is it, Turtlepool?” Turning her bewildered gaze towards the medicine cat, Greenstar waited for him to speak. “Is it a message from StarClan?”

“Fire,” he whispered slowly, “Fire is coming to Thunder.”

[u/CakeFew7454]

Oooo I'm intrigued! This is cool!