The Main Plot

[Mercia]

No one is completely sure when HawkClan or the Tribe of Open Skies settled in this strange land; the true stories were lost many moons ago. Nowadays it hardly matters how Clan and Tribe met. All that matters is survival. Yet how hard can such a simple deed be? Well, guess what? Survival is a match of wits, a comparison of one's strength to another in the land they call home.

While the two groups of cats live in relative peace, feuds do spring up now and again. Nearly every one is either a debate about Starclan and The Tribe of Endless Hunting, which starry ancestors actually inhabit the skies above them. Although a relatively mild subject, petty fights between Clan and Tribe do happen, with each side complaining of how strange the other is.

There haven't been any great wars, thankfully. Most of the time both are too busy dealing with the danger in their own territories. Newleaf and Greenleaf brings battles between raptors stealing their prey, potentially carrying small kits and apprentices away. Leaffall, however, carries no significant threats, and this is where hot-headed energy rises only to evaporate the moment a cold chill comes. Leafbare brings with it sickness and famine, along with a shortness of herbs, prey and other necessary items to the cats. Yet throughout the seasons there are still large animals like bears, eagles, and buffalo to worry about.
the strange events begin
At the beginning of Newleaf, right when the Clan and Tribe are leaving the first Gathering of the season, a warrior bursts into the clearing. He leads the Clan and Tribe down to the Great River. Much to the leaders' confusion and fright, a buffalo calf is found floating, the life obviously gone already.

The news spread like wildfire around to all the cats, a nervous energy beginning to form in every cat. Both sides are perturbed, but neither are willing to admit it means anything. Is it a sign, a curse, or simply a coincidence? No one wanted to answer.

You see, buffalo pass through anywhere that is flat, and they aren't an odd sight at all in their territories. However, never has any cat, even the oldest elders, ever seen one anywhere near the Great River, much less a dead calf. The cats who thought themselves more sensible dismissed it as just being a stray that lost its mother; the more fretful were eased by this logic. But those close to their ancestors were beginning to wonder if this was a sign of worse to come.
a matter of survival
Moons pass without any new events, and soon the dead calf is nothing more than a distant story ingrained in the cats' minds. Everything was as it should be.

Suddenly, it happens again. This time, it wasn't any large herd animal, but the small scavengers of forest and moor; in other words, their former prey. As the cats continue their daily hunting parties and patrols, there is a slow yet increasing rate of rodents in the river. Prey becomes scarce even as Greenleaf approaches.

Then the mystery takes its first real victim. An Elder in HawkClan is found dead in his den; not even the medicine cat is able to figure out what happened to him. With the lack of food, water, and nutrition, who will ever know what sent him to StarClan? As illness worsens and tempers continue to rise, it's beginning to look like the cats won't be able to survive the season.