The Tribe Of StarGazer

Ruler: StarGazer

Assistant Ruler: Blaze 

Healer: HoneyBee

Assistant Healer: TwigSnap

Soldiers: Autumn, SeedPod, StillWaters, Ash, 

AppleTwig, BirdFlight, Amber

Assistant Soldiers: SnakeBite, Fish

Mothers: Leaf, AntLeg

Senior Soldiers: Tulip

                             The Tribe Of SandStorm

Ruler: SandStorm

Assistant Ruler: Biscuit 

Healer: FawnFallow

Assistant Healer: Dawn

Soldiers: Tan, Cream, SeedSnap,

GreenFern, Flame

Assistant Soldiers: Dusk 

Mothers: None!!

Senior Soldiers: SnowStorm

                                                  The Tribe Of SnowFlake

Ruler: SnowFlake

Assistant Ruler: Cloud

Healer: IvoryShiner

Assistant Healer: PaleFur

Solders: Onyx, DireMoon, Web, 

StripeNose, BirdClaw, White

Assistant Soldiers: Frost

Mothers: Moon, ClearShatter

Senior Soldiers: FrozenLake

                                                              Chapter I

TwigSnap stopped, breathed in the scent of Growth, and buried his muzzle deep in the moist earth. 

    "There's not a single herb in this dirt," he mumbled. Leaping over a log, he bounded over to a stream and thrust his muzzle in. He gasped as cold water sizzled at his nose. Stepping away, he shook his head and headed back to his home. 

As TwigSnap ducked through the fern base, he could sense something was wrong. Hurrying over to a group of Soldiers, he saw his ruler leap down from the quarry and padded toward the shade where the Mothers sleep. 

    "What's going on?" He asked BirdFlight and Ash. 

    "Nothing's wrong," Ash said, with a worried glance at the Mother's Den.

    "AntLeg is having her pups!!" BirdFlight chirped. At the words, TwigSnap bolted to the den where he heard moaning and grunting. As he ducked inside, he waited a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. When they did he could see Antleg splayed out on her nest and Autumn and SeedPod on the far side of the den. HoneyBee was crouched over the Soon-To-Be-Mother with StarGazer sitting beside him, while Leaf was laying by AntLeg's head, murmuring to her things she said so quietly TwigSnap couldn't hear her. TwigSnap could see ripples passing through AntLeg's belly while the Mother squinted in pain. Finally, HoneyBee sat up and said, "fetch a stick and borage." TwigSnap hurried out of the shadows and heard hushed mutters as he crossed the camp and made for the Healer's Den. He rolled a leaf up with the herbs inside and headed for the Mother's Den again.

TwigSnap ducked into the Mothers Den. Unrolling the leaf wrap, he said to HoneyBee, 

    "here, and is she going to be okay?" HoneyBee glared at him and nodded to StarGazer, who's eyes were wide with fear.

    "Here, eat these up," TwigSnap said to AntLeg, ignoring the nip in the side of his tail from HoneyBee. He's always been grouchy, ever since he was stung by a bee. He sighed deeply when AntLeg pushed the herbs away. Please eat them, he begged. You need to. Just then the fern opening rustled and Ash padded in. 

    "Is--" he started, but HoneyBee thrust him out of the den. TwigSnap realized that AntLeg had eaten most of the herbs and was breathing hard. 

    "Okay, you're okay," HoneyBee crouched by her while TwigSnap moved Leaf and StarGazer away. 

    "She needs room," he explained. "Leave her be."

    "She's my mate!!"

    "I know."

    "Let me to her!!"

    "No!!!" TwigSnap growled. He shoved his ruler harder until he fully pushed him out the den. He stopped as he heard grunts and whimpers at the far side of the Mother's nesting place. 

    "Is she having her pups?" He asked HoneyBee, who was crouched beside AntLeg.

    "Its taking longer than usual..." his mentor murmured.

    "What was that?" StarGazer yowled, sticking his head in the den. Both foxes ignored him. TwigSnap heard pacing coming from the outside of the fern archway. TwigSnap poked his head out. 

    "Stop pacing!! You're making her worse."

    "How?"

    "Just by--" he was cut off when HoneyBee said,

    "TwigSnap, get back in here!!" As he ducked back into the shadows, he felt StarGazer's glare following him like a hawk.

Twigsnap gazed at the two new pups. 

    "They're beautiful," he said distractedly. "Shall I get borage to help AntLeg's milk arrive?" 

    "Yes, go," HoneyBee answered, muttering to AntLeg. He was squashed when StarGazer thrust his way through. 

    "Toughen up," he said. As TwigSnap quickly padded toward the cliff where the Healers sleep, he saw BirdFlight hurrying after him.

    "Can I help?" she asked.

    "I just need borage, but sure." He showed her the purple leaves and rolled them up

in two bigger oak leaves. 

    "You carry one and I'll carry one," he suggested. BirdFlight grabbed one and TwigSnap grabbed the other, and they made their way back to where the Mothers sleep. 

                                                             Chapter II

Onyx arched her back in a long stretch, ignoring her little brother, Frost, and kept on scratching the itchy spot in her neck.

    "Please! I want to be a Soldier, just like you!! But I can't unless I don't know battle moves, right?"

    "Huh..?" Onyx open her left eye and stared sleepily at her brother.

    "Battle moves!!" Frost growled. Onyx stared at Frost, and then said,

    "If you want to be a good fighter, then jump on a rock when your opponent's attacking you."

    "Then, you want to jump on his back-" she demonstrated on her brother, who yelped in pain- "and then just-- you know what? Go hunt. Practice on your prey, okay?" 

    "Fine," Frost muttered, walking away.

    "Make sure you don't slip on the ice!!" she joked. Her brother glared at her and disappeared behind the trees.

Onyx padded along the icy cliff. Keeping hold of the rocks, she crept toward the pine trees. Maybe I can find a snow hare or something underground, she thought, pushing her nose into the snow. There!! She sensed movement underground. A snow mouse, but its better than nothing. She pounced on the underground hole. As a mouse shot out of it, she gave chase. Leaping onto the mouse, she killed it with a clean bite. No! She slipped on the ice. Are those.. air bubbles? Onyx froze. She had

gone too far. A cut went through the ice like lightning. As it grew, Onyx felt panic grip her heart. As she dashed back to the shore, the ice gave way.

    Onyx went plummeting to the cold water below.

                                                            Chapter IV

Biscuit trotted alongside his mate, Cream, looking for something tasty. 

    "Look, Cream, there's a bird nest on that saguaro."

    "I'll see if there are any eggs in it." Cream padded up to the tree and sniffed around. 

    "I see some," she said as she put one paw on a low-hanging branch and heaved herself up. Biscuit and Cream had a good thing going. Cream was lighter, so she could easily slide around thorns that he might get stuck on. Then she would lower the eggs down the tree and Biscuit would grab them. It was easy, for fennec foxes, because they were the smallest foxes, and best to do this. As Cream lowered the 

first egg down, Biscuit saw the huge black and white birds - vultures - circling something nearby.

    "We'd better go," he said. "Get the last egg and hurry."

    "Why?"

    "Vultures, hurry!!" He yowled the command, grabbed the egg, and took off as Cream touched the sand and hurried toward him.

    "Vultures!!" he screeched over his shoulder. He ducked behind a thorn bush, Cream at his tail.

    "We should stay here for a while, right?"

    "No, we should go. Our camp is not far, and those birds are far enough they won't hurt us," he muttered around the egg. He crept forward, Cream at his tail, and dashed toward the camp.

Biscuit chewed the last bit of a snake and got up, while Cream was still slurping up her egg. She finished and tossed the eggshells toward the pile of cracked eggs, rattles of rattlesnakes, and stingers of scorpions. 

    "I think I'm going to go rest," she murmured, glancing toward the Soldier's hollow.

    "Okay, that's fine. I'll.. just go.. for a walk, maybe." Cream nodded agreement and padded toward the den, and slipped inside.

    Biscuit sighed, it wasn't fun without Cream. But a walk alone in the desert did seem nice, so he leaped over the thorn bushes that lined the camp and padded toward a cactus, scooped up some sand, and lied down in the cooler sand underneath. The shade of the cactus felt peaceful, and he slowly drifted into a doze.

Biscuit woke in a dark, damp rainforest. Growling sounded around him, and there

was an eerie yowling that kept repeating,

    "The end... the end is near..." 

    Panic gripped Biscuit like claws as he realized what that meant. The voice was howling, "Biscuit, Biscuit!!" suddenly Biscuit couldn't feel the damp humidity around him anymore. The forest dropped, and Biscuit was standing in in an unfamiliar realm, darkness swallowing him.

    "Biscuit, get up!!" Suddenly Cream showed up, shaking him and kept yowling, "the camp is on fire, Biscuit!"

Cream's distressed look on her face made Biscuit even more panicked. Darkness swallowed him once more. Biscuit swung his head up once more. He was under the cactus, and the camp, a few snake-lengths away, was, in fact, not on fire. He was alone, with no fox to be seen. Shaking sand from his fur, he leaped over the thorn base that edged the camp. His distressing dream was fresh in his mind, the sight

of the flames destroying his home made him shiver, and the voice kept ringing in his head.

    "The end... the end is near..."

                                     Chapter V

This can't be the end!! I've been a Soldier for two moons!! Onyx thrashed wildly as freezing water filled her ears and nose. She let out a silent screech, and in the blur of her sight felt life fading away from her. Her senses grew numb and felt the bottom of the lake. I'm here already? she thought. I didn't know I sunk that far... lungs screaming for air, she thrust her way up, only to notice that she couldn't see. She gave up as darkness closed around her. 

Onyx woke in a deep, dark forest. What am I doing here? Aren't I dead? The eerie 

forest was filled with pine trees, pools of stagnant water, and moss dangling from the moist trees.

    "Where am I?" she yowled. There was no response. She yowled out again. Silence. Onyx shivered. Gathering all her bravery, she padded forward, thorns pulling at her fur. 

    "The end is near.."

    Suddenly she heard a deep growling coming from behind. She whipped around- nothing. She narrowed her eyes and crept forward once again. 

    Ambush!!

    Claws hit her. She reared up to face her attacker. Nobody. 

    "Who's there?" she growled, fear gripping her as she waited for a response. 

    But the forest was silent, and Onyx was alone.