It was dark.

There were nearly no stars out that night, for the moon was full, illuminating the naked trees below. Light winds blew gently on the cold, sweet-scented grass, and a lone cat sitting up on a hill gazed down onto the scenery, his watchful eye on the forest. His multi-colored pelt almost looked gray under the light of the moon.

Among the other night creatures, he was fully awake and observant. All night he had been like this, unable to sleep due to an uneasy churning in his stomach and an endless thought in his head that something was not right. The forest's whispers sent chills down his spine, and his paws tingled with anticipation as he watched, unable to move from his spot.

Perhaps I'm waiting for nothing, he thought with a feeling of restlessness. His old eye burned with an aching for sleep, but the rest of his body couldn't shut down just yet. Despite his refusal to sleep, he badly wanted to go into a rest.

The bushes began to rattle, and several birds popped out of the treetops, soaring through the sky with illuminated black feathers and fearful screeches. The old tom pressed his belly to the cold ground and stared at the line of trees, wondering if what he was waiting for was finally happening.

Before the creature emerged from the cover of the forest, he could already tell it was a cat. No fox or badger had the lightness and grace to carry themselves like a cat—with paws that touched the ground as lightly as a feather—and certainly no fox or badger would be roaming the night like this if not for food. He stared at the silhouette as it emerged from the forest, soon followed by three more.

Those cats were strangers to him, but their scents and the identities associated with those scents were awfully familiar—cats of the trees.

"Forest!" hollered the tom leading the other three.

The old onlooker stared at them, unmoving and silent.

"We know you are here, Forest!" called a she-cat with her voice laced with fury. "Show yourself—we tracked you all the way down here!"

Forest watched them. The leading tom was tall, his shoulders were broad, and his brown-tabby pelt was dark against the shadows. The moment he slipped under the moonlight, he looked up at the top of the hill, spotting Forest with light green eyes.

"There you are!" the tabby tom called. "Come down here at once!"

There's no point in waiting them out, thought Forest as he stood up. I guess it won't harm me to talk to them.

Slowly, he padded down the hilltop, watching his step as the four cats stared at him, their gazes hostile. The she-cat behind the tabby tom emerged from the shadows as well, and her white pelt illuminated against the moonlight, almost looking silver. The other two smaller ones were obviously younger—their ears pricked to every sound of the forest, their eyes round with curiosity.

Forest stopped walking at the foot of the hill as he finished observing the party of cats. "What do you want?" he questioned, eyeing the tabby tom specifically. "What is it now, Rowan?"

Rowan's tail flicked with anger. "I've had a dream, and I need you to tell me what it meant."

"What are you talking about?" Forest asked calmly as he sat down, wrapping his tail around his paws. "You know that I can't get in your head."

The she-cat hissed. "Stop playing around, Forest!"

"I'm simply stating the obvious," he replied with the same tone. "Now, Rowan, what do you really want to know?"

Rowan's eyes darkened as he stared at Forest. "You know the dream I speak of. I can see the glint in your eye," he stated, "and you, who looks after the forest, always knows the fate it is about to become."

There was a silence after Rowan had finished speaking. All four of them stared intently at the older tom, who calmly remained seated at the foot of the hill. The sky became darker as clouds overhead shifted to cover the illuminating light of the moon. Forest looked at the sky, and his calico pelt was becoming its usual color once more.

Finally, he looked at Rowan once more. There was a long pause before he spoke. "The dream you had—the one of the two brothers fighting; the death of the white-furred one; the despair of the gray-furred one . . . these are all events that have happened not long ago."

"And who are these cats that I've seen?" demanded Rowan.

Forest's single eye closed and he took a deep breath. "They were two brothers bound to a fate where one would lead, and the other would destroy. The one who had survived was the one who was destined to destroy, and it seems that his fate is soon going to be tied with you."

"You mean the forest is in danger?" Rowan snarled in response. The white she-cat and their two younger friends became worried as well, glancing at one another with fearful expressions. "Tell me Forest, how can I prevent this cat from destroying us? How can I stop what's yet to come?"

"What you think may not always be what it seems," Forest stated simply, his single his green eye looking beyond the trees.

Rowan's expression filled with disdain, ears flattening back slightly as he narrowed his eyes. "You're just going to let us get destroyed? Tell me what to do so I can save us all!"

Forest didn't respond—he simply stood up, giving a long stretch, before he walked past Rowan and his three friends towards the tree-line.

"Where are you going?" demanded Rowan, whirling around to see Forest's rear. "You haven't answered my questions!"

Without turning around, Forest called, "I'm going to my den; I expect no cat to follow me." Rowan opened his mouth to protest, but Forest continued to talk, cutting him off. "And there is no answer to what you ask. The cat who destroyed is coming, and there's nothing that's going to stop the new fate of the forest!"

With those final words, he disappeared in the cover of the trees, his tail becoming the last visible thing before he was gone. The four cats stood there with disbelief as the moon in the sky became visible once more, flashing down its bright light onto the cats of the forest.

a/n: just a reminder; you must read the first book, Icetail's Enemy, before proceeding on with this one!