The Stormfather

She could see Grayclaw snoring softly in his den beside the Spike-Rock. She could see the camp, exactly as it had been on the day she had left, gathered stars into her fur.

Gorsepelt regarded her former mate in a mix of love and confusion, not knowing why he cared so much about that medicine cat apprentice. He had heard his call earlier in the night, had felt the slight tug of their entwined spirits. She had snuck through the pool to visit him, knowing that not often would no other Starclan cats be around.

She found it strange being in StarClan with so many cats she didn't know. Apparently, DarkClan, FishClan, New ThunderClan and GustClan were technically actual clans, as she had gone to the place of the stars quickly after her death.

She still felt the ache in her chest from when the sickness had attacked her, the awful stench of greencough was always close to her jaws.

Gorsepelt looked up to the stars, pleading that Grayclaw would see her, know she was there, and she would be allowed to speak with the warrior. His dreams! I'll have to find a way into his dreams! She then stopped. How did she get to someone's dream? 

Suddenly she found herself thrown through a cloud of dark mist, then appeared in bushes beside a moonlit clearing. She spotted Grayclaw padding into the clearing, looking around. I did it! I've found his dream! She stayed back in the bushes, crouching behind them as her former mate walked into the center of the clearing, gazing up towards the stars.

"What are you doing?" A harsh whisper came from behind. She spun quickly, realizing that someone was behind her. Out walked a scraggly-furred, black she-cat. "You cannot give him a dream without learning, Gorsepelt!" Yellowfang spat. "You must learn how to walk into dreams, learn how to give signs and mostly, don't mess with the lives of the living without giving help!"

Grayclaw turned towards the bushes at the sound of her whisper.

Yellowfang lowered her voice. "Don't make this mistake. If you talk with him, he will stay in love with the past, never thinking forwards. You will find him again, to be certain, Gorsepelt. You will be with him once more eventually, but you must let him live his life!" She whispered.

Gorsepelt stepped away from her. "Why? Why can we not speak with them?"

"I have seen the heartbreak of losing someone a second time. Had she not spoken with, walked in his dreams so often and frequently, Firestar may have survived his final battle!"

Graycalw panted as he burst through the bushes into camp.

"Someone lured the fox here!" He shouted, drawing heads towards him. Wishfeather, clan deputy stepped up to him.

"Grayclaw, what do you mean someone lured it here?" He said with his typical disdain of the gray Warrior.

"I saw," Grayclaw panted from his run from the clearing. "A rogue. I tracked them, and they went into Twolegplace, near Carrionplace. I also found preyscent and a trail of feathers and bird blood along the exact path that the fox followed!" He blurted out, words tumbling over his tongue.

Wishfeather looked at him skeptically. "Who could possibly want to kill us? Who would do this, Grayclaw? Think." He spoke with disdain.

"I know it seems ridiculous, but why else would the fox have come right into our camp and attacked? It must have thought of the danger of coming into a camp full of cats, right?" Grayclaw responded, sounding a bit confused himself.

"Well, if may have been starving, and caught a trail of prey-scent that lead to camp." Wishfeather said back evenly.

"Then why was the scent on a trail that no one uses, and why was there a rogue on that specific trail? Come on, Wishfeather. You know its true. Someone tried to attack our Clan with a fox. Thankfully only two of us were wounded, and none of us died. But I don't think we're finished. Listen to me, please." Grayclaw now pleaded, knowing that if the deputy decided to say that he was lying, that the entire Clan would dismiss the danger.

"Maybe." Wishfeather admitted, padding over to the Spike-Rock and yowling. "All of you! I know that we just fought off a fox, and most of us may be trying to sleep, but what Grayclaw says must be listened to!" He yowled across camp.

Cats began to step out of dens to see what was going on, even the only DarkClan elder, Oakfall stepping slowly and with stiff legs out of the den woven into the side of the hawthorn bush.

"What is it, Wishfeather? Emberfur asked from the medicine-cat den, head poking out of the ferns that seperated it from the rest of camp.

"Grayclaw reported that a rogue was spotted on our land, who may have lured the fox to our camp to attack us." Wishfeather said, knowing that Grayclaw, who was still getting accustomed to not being a loner, wouldn't want to address the whole of DarkClan.

The gray cat stepped up beside Wishfeather, flicking his tail. "I saw a light-brown rogue in a clearing not far along the trail the fox followed, and they went into twolegplace."

There was a few whispers across camp.

"So, in order to try and find this danger, I have made a decision. For just a few days, we will be sending out a patrol at moonhigh along with the dawn and sunset patrols." Wishfeather said, which was met with immediate groans and sighs. "Just a few days! After that, we'll reassess the situation and see if whoever this is has made another attempt to attack us. Tomorrow, I will also be sending out a patrol to find out where that fox ended up."

Grayclaw dipped his head in thanks to Wishfeather before padding over to the warriors den on the side of the Spike-Rock, hearing Maplestar stir from the den on the other side. "Just Grayclaw." He murmured, knowing that the leader could hear him through the thin walls of bracken and woven brambles. It was odd, having two dens right beside each other but Maplestar had insisted, and, it made it much easier to construct them.

Grayclaw settled his head on his paws and drifted off into sleep.

Wishfeather, deputy of DarkClan, had always wondered if his being deputy was allowed. He hadn't had an apprentice, no, he had been the first to volunteer to join DarkClan, except for Maplestar, of course. Apparently, according to Graystripe, who was a real warrior who had been here about four moons ago, had explained the entire warrior code and part of it was that a deputy should be expereinced, and have trained at least one apprentice.

For most of the time when Wishfeather was in the clan, there hadn't been any apprentices, except Thymepaw, but she was Emberfur's apprentice.

He was sitting in his place beside the Spike-Rock where Maplestar usually adressed the clan, but for now, the leader was in his den, injured from the fight with the fox.

The fox! It had snuck into the camp and attacked, and it had been a bigger fox than Wishfeather had ever seen. he had only seen two other foxes before, and they had been significantly smaller than this one.

At least Maplestar had gotten it good in the face after it had bitten Thymepaw, making it drop her and leave. Maplestar was an amazing fighter, probably the best in the clan, maybe all of the clans, except for maybe Fangstar, or well, most people knew him as Honeysuckle, but he had renamed himself Fang, and had eventually become Fangstar with StarClan's blessing, and had apparently been given nine lives.

Wishfeather wasn't so sure. he assumed that StarClan could exist, since most everyone had stories about where cats went when they died, and he did believe msot of hte stories that Smudge told them, but he was always doubtful of the nine lives.

He'd believe it when he saw it.

At least for a few days he was acting leader under Maplestar recovered, and he could figure out how to actually lead the clan, as he would have to eventually, unless he died before Maplestar. Considering Maplestar's skills, he didn't doubt that possibility, but he had always wanted to be leader. He didn't want Maplestar to die, but might like a few days in power.

Wishstar...

He looked over his shoulder and saw Grayclaw burst out into the small clearing that held the camp.

"Someone lured the fox here!"

Grayclaw stalked through the undergrowth, low brambles, hawthorn and juniper bushes, and various herbs that Emberfur would probably want to find. Who is that? he thought, And why do they smell like twolegplace? He squinted in the faint moonlight, but he couldn't make out who was walking up there. Couldn't tell.

Soon, whoever he was following came to a small, moonlit clearing in the pines, close to the tree break before the small stretch of twolegplace, or, turning slightly to the side, HighStones. He stepped under a juniper bush on the edge of the clearing, the brighter moonlight not being blocked by the trees allowing him to see his quarry.

He could make out light brown fur, but whoever it was returned to the thick undergrowth and wet ground that was this side of DarkClan territory.

Soon, they arrived at the Thunderpath that bordered the woods, and quickly padded across it. Again, they were moving too quickly for Grayclaw to really pick out much information save for the glimpses of light brown, sandy colored fur.

"Rogue." He spat, realizing that they were returning to twolegplace since they probably lived there, and no kittypet would be out at night on Clan land.

So they hunted, got chased by a fox, gave the fox their prey, then dropped a bunch of blood and feathers randomly before sneaking away? What am I missing here? Wait... A trail of blood and feathers. Directly towards our camp. Wait a minute... Suddenly, Grayclaw's eyes widened.

They had intentionally lured a fox into our camp! This was a terrible act! They had... they had nearly killed Thymepaw!

Grayclaw turned around, not wanting to cross a Thunderpath in the dead of night, no matter how calm it was. Twolegplace had always spooked him, for it was too loud. The roar of monsters, the random twolegs, walking about, noises from inside their dens, the place had never been seen as a way to find food for him, for he never dared to enter the twolegplace. He accepted farms, didn't much like them, but he knew that they were always filled with mice, so he had been willing to go into farms before joining WarriorClan, and then DarkClan.

He glanced backwards towards the twolegplace, a snarl gathering in his throat, but he turned his head and kept walking towards camp, knowing that hanging around twolegplace was dangerous.

People still told the stories that Smudge had told them, of BloodClan, armies of rogues bigger than the Clans combined, and those stories had always sruck fear into Grayclaw. Stories of Tigerstar? No cat in the Clans would have joined them if they were going to be like that, hateful and vengeful, they would probably not even join, and no kits had been born to any of the Clans yet, although Thymepaw had joined fairly young.

Stories of rogues however, always seemed so plausible to Grayclaw. Always seemed like they could actually happen at any moment.

He quickly walked back to camp, realizing that the fox would probably still be prowling around the pinewood.

Grayclaw walked among a camp filled with blood, injured warriors, and death.

The fight against the fox had been awful. It had come right into their camp! It had walked right in, and nearly killed Thymepaw! The Clan wasn't ready to see death. They were mostly weak Kittypets! Grayclaw knew that even himself, one who had survived outside of the safety of a twoleg den, wasn't ready to cope with the death of a clanmate. No one ever was, but he knew that when Gorsepelt had died a part of himself had died as well, though, she had been his mate.

Never had kits, but that didn't matter, he supposed, not to him or Gorsepelt. To anyone else, they seemed closer than HighStones and the sky.

"Is she alive?" He managed to whisper to Emberfur, the DarkClan medicine cat. Thymepaw was her apprentice, a sign from the stars showing that she should carry on findng the messages from StarClan.

"She will, but..." Emberfur looked downwards at the stony ground.

"What?" Grayclaw snapped, the rage, the terror and the dispair fo the last few moments gathering up inside him.

"Her tail, I... I had to cut it." Emberfur replied, a slight sobbing in his voice. "At least... at least when the fox hit her face it didn't take out her eye. She'll live. It'll take a while to recover, but she's going to be fine, Grayclaw." The old medicine cat laid her tail on Grayclaw's shoulders.

He shook it off, walking out of camp.

"Grayclaw! Don't go out there at night!" Emberfur shouted after him, though he didn't hear her at all.

His mind was racing as he walked down the very path that the fox had walked in though. He could see its pawprints, could see the dinstictive shape of its claws. He had been taught by Fang, those moons ago in WarriorClan, before they had split up, the shape of Fox prints compared to Badger or StarClan forbid dog prints.

Then he spotted something. There was a faint set of cat prints here. Not on the path, but off to the side.

There were also scrapes in the ground, as if something had been dragged here.

"Must have been someone dragging in some prey." He murmured, spotting a bloody feather on the ground beside the dragging marks. He bent down and sniffed the pawprints, hoping to pick up a scent but he didn't smell anything other than fox.

His curiosity got the better of him, and he began to follow the prints and dragging marks through the pinewoods in which DarkClan made their home.

Every few pawsteps he tried to sniff out who had brought in the bird, but he could never pick up the scent. The cat's trail was the same trail that the fox had followed, even where it had cut through the underbrush.

Even few steps he saw more feathers, little bits of fresh-kill blood, he knew this by sniffing it, and eventually he found a small ditch wehre someone had clearly eaten a bird. Feathers and blood were scattered around.

The ditch reeked of fox.

"So a fox followed someone who was carrying prey, and they dropped the prey here in fear? But then why was there bloody feathers farther down the path?" Grayclaw shook his head in confusion.

A twig snapped out in the forest.

His head snapped towards the sound, and he faintly picked up on a scent.

He walked forwards silently, stalking towards the tiniest bit of prey-scent, the scent of mouse and bird blood. He spotted a figure through the bushes, and saw the glint of eyes in the moonlight before the cat, whoever it was stalked away.

But not before Grayclaw could pick up on their scent. Smells of prey, fox, and twolegplace.

So, thing #1. This takes places in the past. Radio exists, so do guns and cars, but no cell phones, only landlines.

Thing #2 : The characters should know each other but be relatively new to the town, not really important, but so that you don't already know the people of the town.

Thing #3 : The characters were there on the mountain the night the meteor struck, for whatever reason. A hike, camping, etc... They saw vaguely monstrous shapes in the darkness but didn't see anything specific, since the monsters are going to be surprises. (YAY!!)

Thing #4 : The characters should probably know each other or run into each other whilst being scared of the meteor strike and the monsters. (btw was a very small meteor. Like, really tiny. Like, a pebble once it hit earth. No crater or anything. Only monsters.)

Thing #5 : Here's what a character sheet should look like 

Thing #6 : Don't expect me to write out scary descriptions and stuff. This is not going to be horror at all. Its mostly a challenge to see if you can find the monsters, and if you can kill/trap/Drive off the monsters.

Thing #7 : Uh add in some random objects you'll be surprised how useful the most weirdest stuff can be in this type of scenario.