Chapter One

"Make sure your tail is still!" Vixentail hissed, Emberpaw stopped twitching his tail and cautiously slid forward onto the thin branch in front of him. The branch quivered under the extra weight of the young apprentice, but it held as he slowly crossed onto the tree. A low calling mockingbird carried across the small forest that he called home and Emberpaw stopped and listened. The mockingbird was only a few tail lengths away, but in another tree. He would have to leap farther than he ever had before, but he thought he could make it if he got a running start from the branch he was on now. He slowly backed away, feeling his mentor's eyes on his ginger pelt, and began to run toward the other branch. He could practically smell the mockingbird now.
"Stop!" A hoarse growl exploded from the tree tops as a large tabby tom jumped down and landed next to Emberpaw, his fur standing on end. The heard the mickingbird's wingbeats flutter away into the forest. "What do you think you're doing?" Emberpaw looked up at Oakstar's huge amber eyes trained on the apprentice.
"I was going to catch that mockingbird," Emberpaw replied indignantly, he could feel his mentor coming up behind him.
"Vixentail, do you know what your apprentice was about to do?" Oakstar prompted the pretty tabby she-cat.
Vixentail nodded,"He was going to catch that mockingbird like he said," She sighed.
"But he was going to jump at least a fox length in size to the next tree," Oakstar protested, tail twitching in agitation. He was at least three times the size of Emberpaw, the small apprentice had been an apprentice for barely two moons with his brother Sunpaw.
"Let me take care of my apprentice, Oakstar," Vixentail said softly, resting her tail on his shoulder soothingly. Oakstar looked at his mate quietly, their gaze locked for a few heartbeats.
"Just," He sighed,"Be careful, and don't do something risky," Oakstar licked Vixentail's shoulder and leaped up back to the tree limb he had descended from earlier. Emberpaw was always amazed at how far his leader could leap, easily three fox lengths upward. If he could jump like Oakstar, he could catch prey from anywhere.
"Come on Emberpaw, lets gather our prey and head back to camp," Vixentail murmured, nudging the apprentice towards the forest floor where the cats had buried their prey from earlier. Emberpaw felt unnatural on the ground, the sky was so far away, he wasn't even sure Starclan could see him from the dark forest floor. There was no birds here, except for maybe a pheasant, but those were harder to drag up the trees anyways.
He felt the peaty earth get snagged between his claws, the ferns brushing against his fur felt like leaves in the trees, but fuzzy. There was no where to jump to and the ground below him didn't sway like a branch. Just unnatural. The tree was only a few mouse lengths away, he could smell the blackbird he had caught earlier buried around the leaf mold. He padded up to Vixentail and dug it out with his snout. A small piece of moss got stuck in his nose and he sneazed repeatedly, leaves flickering slightly. A small white object peeked under a leaf. Emberpaw shuffled closer and flicked the leaf with his nose. He let out a startled gasp and backed away; slimy white maggots wriggled in his blackbird's chest. The foul scent of crowfood must've been covered by the scent of wet moss and leaves from the earlier rain.
"There's maggots in this one," Emberpaw complained, shifting his gaze to Vixentail. The she-cat had a small pigeon in her muzzle, she padded over and looked at the rotting prey.
"Is this the prey'f you'f caught f'earlier?" Vixentail mumbled with the prey still tucked in her jaws, Emberpaw nodded. Vixentail looked up to the tree, her sight flickering between the camp-tree and the vast sky the flickered between the leaves. "We should get Charcoalear'f, this may'f be a sign from Starclan," The young apprentice's eyes widened, Starclan! Sunpaw would be jealous once he found out his brother's prey was a sign from Starclan!