It is AD 2008.

The Clans had lived in peace for many moons. Small battles had resulted, given, but nothing had changed their lives too much. Everything was as it should be, taken for granted by the majority of the cats.

And all this would be no more.

Medicine cats had reported seeing the StarClan cats walking in their dreams, telling them of the future. No cat could remember distinctly what they said, at least not until now.

Now is when the evil spirits of traitors and rogues stalk their nights, haunting, yowling, shadowing. They, too, howl the future to the living cats, but this they talk of is not a peaceful one. Each Clan's medicine cat has remembered receiving a sentence that speaks of the future, and together they pieced it into a riddle --

The Blue Beast has risen
Death rises with it.
Shadow and light must be united
To find the Path of the Wing.

Cryptic and foreboding, this message is of little help to the Clans. The cats are no longer as laid-back as before. An undercurrent of panic races through the Clans. What, now?

And on the other paw...

The Guild had been a well-known, well-feared, and well-respected group. Tight-knit as a family unit, the Guild members have placed almost complete trust in each other. That is, until the same day the Clan cats received the message.

Traitors have been found and executed, but now distrust is in every cat's heart. A whisper might mean the start of a rebellion; a stalking shadow might not be one of their own. And in the midst of this ordered chaos, a patrol scouting the Twolegs has reported a large solid-sand wall that was blocking the water's passage.

Day by day, the four Legends watch as the water level rises, slowly but surely, towards where they currently reside. The Chosen has not been seen for several moons, and some of the members have begun to believe that the Chosen is but a myth.

Something must be done. The cats have to take action, or their lives would be in danger.

But what?

--- --- ---

In other words, this plot takes place in contemporary times. It is, but may not always be, set in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei, China, involving the Three Gorges and the Three Gorges Dam. The Yangtze River (Changjiang) is the Tumbling River, the Valley of the Wing one of the smaller valleys around the Dam, and the Shattered Temple a cultural site about to be destroyed by the rising waters.

This plot ties in with the construction of the Dam in China and its effects on the environment. I came upon this idea in a History class, no surprise, and then I started to think: if the Warriors were faced with such a problem, what would they do? And as I pondered (un)philosophically about this matter, I realised that other cats, not necessarily Clan cats, might have different views on this, to the cats, disaster.

And then I started thinking of what would happen if the Guild cats find out something, and so do the Clans, but their discoveries are different, and won't be any help to the situation, unless they pieced their knowledge together. Thus, this plot is born.

The prophecy, only given to the Clan cats, can be interpreted in any way. The "Blue Beast" is, obviously, the rising water, and the second line is clear as well. The third line requires little imagination, but the fourth line must be interpreted based on your own thoughts. It would not be explained what the Path of the Wing is, and the cats must work that out IC.

Have fun in your RPing journey!