Drake woke up with the same things the previous morning. He started by eating the berries he knocked away and watched some twolegs pass by the path next to his hiding place. They always looked so happy and content, no worries in the world.

With the rising sun, Drake pondered what he would do. Would he say no and continue a loner or hope to be with another twoleg, or should he join the ranks of the clans to become brave and help them? The choice might have been clear the first time he thought of it, but when he thought of the risk of getting killed, it made him shiver. BloodClan was infamous and cruel, and they also wanted him to face a cat named Sol who sounded just as dangerous as BloodClan. Drake slid out of the bush and shook the leaves off his fur. He looked at the huge stones on the horizon and saw the closest one. That must be Highstones, he thought. With a quick start, he followed the path laid out in front of him.

Around him was a big field with high grass. The sky was cloudy with scattered black clouds all over. The sun tried to shine through the cracks between the clouds. Far in front of him, sharp pine trees rose high beyond a small thunderpath. The monsters roared across the path like fire. They could kill cats instantly, even worse than BloodClan. Drake felt instant horror. He had been taught how to cross thunderpaths, but he was with Henry. Now, he had no one to guide him, so how could he cross?

He still followed the path as it twisted and turned, making him waver a bit. The thunderpath was getting closer. What would he do? He scanned the area around the thunderpath to find another way across, but he didn't see any. The only way across was to avoid the monsters. Drake kept thinking, be brave be brave. He was taught how to cross them. Don't let fear erase those memories.

He was at the edge of the reeking ground of the thunderpath. The monsters roared by every moment he lifted a paw to try and cross. He scoped the other side of the thunderpath into the shade of the pines. Something was rustling the bushes on the other side. Drake narrowed his eyes. What was it? Suddenly, a shadow came out of the bush.

A rabbit. Oh, Drake thought it was some kind of cat like-

"Boo!"

Drake jumped from a voice behind him. He ran into the nearby tall grass and looked behind him. It was a small black she-cat with strange white patches on her chest. Her eyes were an amber and she had small, stubby ears. She laughed, clumsily falling onto her back. "Oh, you must be Drake, the one who gets scared everytime he hears a voice."

She didn't seem dangerous, so Drake stopped running and started to walk back to the path. Drake hit his head with one paw and shook his head. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

The black she-cat got back to her feet and licked her paws. "No, but I know you. StarClan sent me here from the farm up ahead to fetch you. They said that you were like a mouse who scurries away everytime he hears something. They were right." She snickered. "I've been watching you try to cross the thunderpath for a while now. Too scared, are you?"

"No." Drake reacted immediately. "No, I just didn't see a time to cross yet."

She walked to the edge of the path and looked both ways. "If you couldn't find a time then, you'll be here all day." She motioned her tail for him to come up to her. "Come on and I'll tell you when to cross."

Drake walked next to her and held his breath. The smell of the horrid ground rose to his nose. It smelled as horrible as mouse dung. The she-cat kept looking both ways as monsters drove across. She tensed her legs and started to cross. She ran like the wind, arriving on the other side, unscathed, in a matter of moments. The monsters started driving across again.

"See, nothing to it. Now I want you to step forward one-whisker from the thunderpath and look both ways for an opening and I'll tell you when to cross." She made her way next to a tree and sat there. Drake steadied himself. He waited for the she-cat's signal to cross.

After a monster passed for the third time, she yelled, "Now!" Drake ran like he did when Darkstripe was chasing him. He crossed the middle line of the thunderpath as he started to hear another monster. Drake started to slow down. The she-cat yelled again, "Don't give up! Keep going!"

Drake gained a burst of speed and jumped into the bushes. The roar of the monster passed by. Drake was panting as he came out of the bush next to the she-cat. She laughed and said, "You were definitely not meant to be a WindClan cat. Follow me through RiverClan." He watched as she stood up and made her way through the pines. "Oh, and my name is Dawnpaw."

They traveled through a bunch of small twoleg's pelted dens. They avoided any twolegs by hiding in the tall grass around them. All of the twolegs were either playing in the streams of water nearby with barely any pelts on or throwing some kind of twoleg thing into the water to catch fish. Weird twolegs. There were also some she-twolegs folding some kind of big pelt she took out of the small dens. Twolegs were just too strange for him, even though he lived with one for 8 moons.

Dawnpaw was skipping happily while Drake walked timidly. She seemed so excited to meet a new cat, Drake thought. She looks like she hadn't talked to a cat for a long time. But her happy skip didn't last for long.

The sun was rising high when they approached some kind of high cattails. Dawnpaw's walk stopped being cheerful and went back to normal. She looked at Drake and sighed, "I want to show you where RiverClan lived many moons ago, but it looked much better than it does now, so don't judge them by this." She went into the cattails as he followed. Dawnpaw was ahead by one tail-length.

Then, they came upon an opening and entered what used to be RiverClan's camp. Threaded cattails were shaped to what looked like dens. In the clearing, a pile of bones showed what used to be prey. One burrow looked like another den, but it was caved in so he couldn't look inside. Another path was on the other side of the camp that seemed to lead to the nearby river. RiverClan seemed to be located in a dip in the ground.  A big den that was also caved in a bit seemed to be where a lot of cats used to sleep.

Dawnpaw led Drake through quickly, like she was ashamed to even look at the old camp. Drake caught up to her and laid his shoulder on her to comfort her. She finally told him what was bothering her. "My grandfather helped the last of the RiverClan cats here. He fetched them prey and gave them medicine until they died. He prayed to StarClan to remember him when the Clans left, and they answered his prayers finally."

"How did he know?"

"He's in StarClan now, and of course you're here."

They reached a big bridge over the river below. It didn't take them long to cross. But instead of being in tall grass, they were on hilly plains with short grass now. Drake could smell the faint traces of rabbit all over. He looked at Dawnpaw and asked, "Why did the clans leave? This place seems fine."

Dawnpaw pointed her head. Far away across the river, a jumble of gigantic monsters and twoleg dens scattered across a plain full of cut trees. They roared even louder that the ones on the thunderpath. They ravaged the land of animals, trees, and any life at all and replaced it with twoleg dens. Drake looked back at Dawnpaw and replied, "I see. There must have been many cats in the clans to take up such amounts of territory."

She nodded.

The sun was getting lower. It fell behind them as they were halfway across the plains. Drake could see a huge twoleg den up ahead of them. Drake's paws were getting worn. He asked, "Hey, can we take a break for a minute. My pads are sore."  Dawnpaw looked down at his paws and saw how they were part torn.

She stopped Drake and dashed away toward some bushes nearby. "Just a sec. I'll be right back."

After a while, she came back. Dawnpaw was holding some kind of plant in her mouth. She was also chewing it up to a pulp. When she spat it out, she looked at Drake. "Here, rub this on your paws and then we can get going again.

Drake did what she said. As he rubbed the pulp on his pads, they felt cooler. "How did you do that?"

Dawnpaw smiled. "I was taught to heal. I know all the berries and leaves that can heal pads, belly aches, even whitecough."

"How did you learn all that?"

"My grandfather wasn't the only one reassured StarClan was watching him. StarClan gifted me the wisdom." Dawnpaw continued to walk. Drake followed. They still had a long way to go. Dawnpaw sped up her pace. She spoke up, "Drake, we need to hurry. You need to get to highstones by moonhigh, or you'll miss your deadline."

Drake quickened his pace as well.

They arrived at the big twoleg den in no time after they went a bit faster, but the sun was starting to set. Around the den was very tall yellow grass. Drake could smell various scents of juicy mice. He licked his lips. By the twoleg den was another, which was smaller, but looked like it housed twolegs. He could see many twoleg things scattered outside it. Dawnpaw walked to the bigger den though. Strange scents hit Drake's nose as he approached it. Drake asked, "What is this place?"

Dawnpaw licked her paws again. "This is my home. The barn I mentioned earlier." She made her way towards the big wooden den.

"Really, you're a kittypet?"

She motioned for Drake to follow. "No, I'm kinda half loner, half warrior cat. But I'm all dangerous, as you can see." She swayed her tail, as she went around the barn and pushed herself inside through a small hole in the side of the wall. Drake could hear her say, "Mom, I'm home." He didn't know if he should go inside as well, but he made his way inside anyways.

Inside the den were more dens housing some kind of big animals with white pelts and black spots. Other dens were habited with gigantic animals with brown pelts and long mussels. They looked dangerous and weird. Why would twolegs keep these animals here. Drake saw Dawnpaw climb some kind of twoleg steps to a higher place above the lower dens. He could hear her talk to another cat.

"Hey mom, I'm finally back."

"Oh, hey Dawnpaw. Did your vision come true?"

"Yeah, the cat StarClan led me to is right down there."

Drake saw a cat look down at him. It was a she-cat with a brown pelt and black spots all over. Her ears were small like Dawnpaw's and she had a black mussel. She smiled at me as she looked back at Dawnpaw. "Ooh,  he's cute honey."

"Mom! Don't say that in front of him!"

"Okay, okay."

The brown she-cat came down the steps across the clearing from Drake. As she got closer to Drake, she introduced herself. "My name is Gingerpaw. Nice to meet you."

Drake bowed his head, "Are you the daughter of the warrior who lived here when the clans lived here?"

"No, that's my mate's father. He should be getting mice from the fields by now. He'll come back shortly. Will you join us for a snack?"

Dawnpaw interrupted, "No, mom. We have to get to Highstones now or he won't be able to see StarClan." She jumped down as well.

Gingerpaw leaped back towards the steps, "Oh, yes. You must be going quickly. The sun's already down." As she passed Dawnpaw, she licked her behind the ear.

"Mom! I'm not a kit!"

"Well, you're my daughter, and I'll never stop calling you my little Dawnkit."

"Ugh, mom."

Dawnpaw led him out of the barn through the small hole again. After Drake slid out, she was already halfway across the clearing yelling, "Come on, keep up Drake!" He sprinted, but it still took him a couple seconds to catch up. He could finally tell someone this.

"I'm not the fastest of my litter, so don't go too fast."

Dawnpaw slowed down. "Well, you could have told me that in the first place."

They had to pass another thunderpath, but Drake was able to cross it easier than the last one with Dawnpaw. The moon was rising when they arrived at a big dip in the ground that led to an entrance to Highstones. It was a huge cavern that looked pitch-black inside. Dawnpaw went over to a patch of grass and soft soil. "We can rest for right now until the moon rises higher."

Drake rubbed his empty belly. "Hey, can I find some food?"

Dawnpaw lifted her head. "No, sorry it's tradition. Anybody who goes to the moonstone munt not eat anything until after the meeting. You can't probably catch anything anyways."

"Yes I can!" No he couldn't. Henry had showed him how to catch mice, but he failed every time. Henry had to catch the mice for him.

Time passed quickly. Dawnpaw sat up and announced, "It's time Drake. Lets go inside." Dawnpaw slowly closed in on the entrance to the cave. "Follow close behind and try to follow my scent. Do not say anything while we journey to moonstone."

Drake ran up next to her. "Is it that special?"

"Shh!"

They made their way inside the dark cavern. Drake couldn't tell where the walls were. He accidently bumped his head one time. He tried to follow Dawnpaw's scent, but it was hard to find with his nose crashing into another wall and dust falling onto him. This cavern must have been really old. Finally, he found her scent and followed until he didn't need to. A light lit up the whole cave deeper inside. Drake could see Dawnpaw gazing toward the light source. He ran up to her and looked with her.

A single moon beam of light fell upon a huge glowing rock three tail-lengths. It shone like StarClan's sky itself. Dawnpaw led him into the cavern next to the rock. She guided him to the foot of the rock, then, she touched her nose to it. Drake did the same and touched it. It was cool, but warm. He felt the sensation he felt in StarClan. He closed his eyes, drifting away.

When Drake opened his eyes, he found himself in the StarClan forest again, except he couldn't smell, hear, or see any animals at all. No prey was hiding in the brush or digging burrows in the ground. Even worse, there were less trees. The StarClan he was standing in was desolate, and had some of that mist from the Dark Forest in it. He looked around trying to find any cat at all.

"Dawnpaw? Firestar? Bluestar? Ferncloud? I'm here! I have made my decision." He kept searching for some kind of indication a cat was around. He couldn't find any scent, no footprints in the ground either.

"So, you're the pathetic mouse-brain loner wanting to join the clans?"

A shadow passed in front of Drake like lightning. Drake backed away next to a tree. What was that? Drake yelled, "Who are you?"

"What's your decision, eh?" It passed by him again. He couldn't make out if the shadow was even a cat.

Drake crouched as he replied, "I want to join the clans, to learn how to be brave."

"I'm sorry, but you have to be brave to even get to join the clans." This time, when the shadow passed by him, it scratched him across his flank. Drake recoiled with the injury. He wasn't sure if he was in StarClan or the Dark Forest anymore. It was kind of a mix of both.

"If you're not brave, you don't deserve to become a clan cat. You don't have clan blood in your veins. You don't even have a hint of courage." The shadow appeared in front of him, and Drake was finally able to make it out.

It was a huge tom with pale silver fur and black stripes. Drake would have believed it to be Darkstripe until he saw the tom's incredibly long tail and a big nick on his ear. His eyes glowed like they hadn't been used in moons.

"Only if you knew how good it was to receive your vision again after a long life. It feels so good that I can't let anything ruin the moment, like a pathetic used-to-be kittypet joining the clans again."

Drake couldn't find a way around the tom. "W-who are you?"

The tom cackled a laugh. "I am Longtail, and I will be your challenger. You can't join the clans without going through me."

Drake swallowed hard. He was going to face a full grown warrior cat. Alone.