✩₊˚.⋆ ------------------------------------------------------------- ⋆.˚₊✩ 600 moons ago (50 years) Three brothers, Cliff, Cedar, and Cave, lived together in a pine forest. One greenleaf day, a loner entered their territory. He spent his first few days there telling stories of the four great warrior Clans of the forest. The littermates thought this was a great idea, especially Cave, who had a mate who was expecting kits and loved the idea of the protection of a Clan. They divided the land around them into three territories and gave themselves names—CliffClan to the southeast, with the meadow and the seacliffs, CedarClan to the west in a forest mostly full of cedar and ash trees, and PineClan to the north in the pine forest where it all started. The loner stayed with Cave for a half moon, teaching him all he knew about the Clans—which, admittedly, wasn't much. He taught him about the warrior code and how a leader is given nine lives by StarClan, their warrior ancestors, among many other things. He made Cave promise to tell his brothers, then left, continuing his travels. Meanwhile Cliff had made his camp in a hollow near the edge of the seacliff, claiming a comfy abandoned rabbit hole for his den. Cedar found a sandy ravine in the forest and chose that as his camp, picking an abandoned badger den as his den. Cave searched the pine forest for a good place to call home for PineClan with no success. He and his mate, Fern, took temporary shelter under a holly bush while they searched for a good camp. One night they were woken by three foxes nearby. They ran, but the foxes chased them until they finally climbed a tree. They stayed there until dawn, making sure the foxes were gone before they returned to the ground. Over the next quarter moon (week), Cave and Fern began to see more and more foxes, forcing them to hide every few minutes to avoid being killed. Then Cave saw his namesake: a large cave mouth hidden by trees and undergrowth so well he almost missed it. They decided to take shelter in it. A quick search revealed it wasn't just a cave--it was a whole network of tunnels. After a day or so in the cave they realized they hadn't seen a fox since they'd gotten there. Cave ventured out into the forest to investigate, and realized that the foxes stayed far from the cave (to this day the Clan still doesn't know why). A few days after this Cave and Fern went to meet up with Cedar and Cliff. They found them in their camps, killed by foxes. Cliff and his group of five hadn't survived. Cedar had also died, but his group of seven had survived by hiding in the trees. They joined Cedar and Fern in living in the caves. Cave decided they would be known as CaveClan, to honor the caves that protected them. He named himself Cavestar, even though he didn't yet have nine lives. Fern took the name Fernshadow, and the rest of his cats were given Clan names as well. 587 moons ago (49 years) Three of their cats, Mousefoot, Foxleap, and Leafriver, died of old age. That night, Mousefoot visited Cavestar in his dreams. He told Cavestar to follow the river and visit the Mooncave, a cave on the beach at the base of the cliffs where CliffClan had lived all those moons ago. Cavestar journeyed there and entered a large cave. The ceiling was so high he couldn't see it, and the walls were covered in glowworms. The river that led him there fed into a pool of water in the center, with a glowing stone in the middle of the water. He crouched and touched his nose to the water, and dreamed of Mousefoot, Foxleap, and Leafriver, along with Cliff, Cedar, his parents Tree and River, a small kit, and the loner. Each cat gave Cavestar a life. The kit went last, introducing herself as his young sister and officially making him the leader of CaveClan. ✩₊˚.⋆ ------------------------------------------------------------- ⋆.˚₊✩
