Книга - STARLIGHT

STARLIGHT
Erin Hunter


In the exciting second Warriors story arc, the wild cats of the forest have lived in peace and harmony for many moons—but new prophecies from their warrior ancestors speak of a mysterious destiny and grave danger for the clans. The fourth of six titles in this thrilling feline fantasy adventure.Before there is peace, blood will spill blood, and the lake will run red…The gripping adventure that began with a small housecat in Into the Wild continues with Book Four of the thrilling Warriors spin-off series The New Prophecy. These cats' devoted fans have catapulted them onto national bestseller lists, and the support for the series grows stronger with every book.Now the warrior Clans have finally reached their new home, but their troubles are far from over. Don't miss the next adventure of Brambleclaw, Firestar, and ThunderClan in Starlight, featuring new maps of the Clans' unfamiliar territory at the front.









Warriors

The New Prophecy

STARLIGHT

ERIN

HUNTER

















COPYRIGHT (#ulink_e525da7e-8367-54c8-ad24-97204dd4f448)


This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

HarperCollins Children’s Books An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)warriorcats.com (http://warriorcats.com/)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2011

First published in the USA by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2006

Copyright © Working Partners Limited 2005

Series created by Working Partners Limited.

Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007419258

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2014 ISBN: 9780007550104

Version: 2017-08-23




CONTENTS


Cover (#ub64a5829-b5db-591d-bb6a-1583fd9e11b4)

Title Page (#u7a5efc2e-7209-566e-a952-e4eaa8e3ee69)

Copyright (#ulink_41023e87-1c99-5d74-9519-077f8c4b5e95)

Allegiances (#ulink_3ada0cce-2be1-5548-9fed-3b775e365dac)

Maps (#ulink_8ae10b95-a67e-5b08-8ba7-c1071fccccd4)

Prologue (#ulink_78aaad39-8d10-5a73-80a6-a0b6e948dc6f)

Chapter 1 (#ulink_bfb68af6-d50c-58e0-a0c3-61ae6747e74f)

Chapter 2 (#ulink_f3a00416-802e-5e45-9564-a29077961a1f)

Chapter 3 (#ulink_06fc94dd-59ac-5d2b-ba5a-730dcdd9b462)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)




ALLEGIANCES (#ulink_c3f51551-f6d8-58e5-b837-d4d2e263a8e4)








MAPS (#ulink_6e0c9eaa-b21c-5147-8a22-95df0e3e4d13)















PROLOGUE (#ulink_6f990f4b-8251-5858-b7eb-4ab7267225c1)


Moonlight washed over the hillside, casting heavy shadows around a thick wall of thornbushes. The bushes surrounded a hollow with rocky sides that sloped down steeply to a pool in the shape of a full moon. Halfway up the side of the hollow, a trickle of water bubbled up between two moss-covered stones, glimmering like liquid starshine as it fell into the pool below.

The branches rustled and parted as cats emerged at the top of the hollow and began to pick their way down to the water’s edge. Their pelts shone with a soft, pale light, and their pawsteps left a frosty glitter on the moss behind them.

A tortoiseshell she-cat was the first to reach the pool. She looked around with glowing eyes. “Yes,” she purred. “This is the place.”

“You’re right, Spottedleaf. When we chose the four cats to lead the Clans out of the forest, we chose well.” The reply came from a blue-grey warrior who was approaching from the other side of the hollow. She leaped down from a jutting rock to face the tortoiseshell across the moonlit water. “But the Clans still have a hard task ahead of them.”

Spottedleaf dipped her head in agreement. “Yes, Bluestar. Their courage and faith will be tried to their limits. But they have come this far—they will not give up.”

More starry warriors joined them, clustering around the water until the hollow was lined with their sleek, shining shapes.

“Our journey was hard, too,” one cat meowed.

“We felt the pain of leaving the paths we had walked for so long,” added another.

“Now we must learn to walk in new skies.” Spottedleaf’s voice was full of confidence. She sat on a rock near the tumbling stream and wrapped her tail around her paws. “We must guide our Clans to this new meeting place, where we can speak to the leaders and medicine cats. Then this will truly be home for all five Clans.”

A murmur of agreement rose, and a gleam of hope shone in the eyes of the cats around her.

“They will catch fish from the lake,” one cat meowed.

“And prey is running in the hills and beside the water,” another put in. “All the Clans will find food, even in leaf-bare.”

The blue-grey warrior still seemed uneasy. “There’s more to life than fresh-kill,” she mewed.

A bracken-coloured tom thrust his way to the front of the crowd. “They’re not kits,” he pointed out impatiently. “They know how to avoid Twolegs and their dogs. Foxes and badgers, too.”

“Not all trouble comes from Twolegs,” Bluestar snapped. She swiveled her head to glare into the tom’s eyes. “And not from foxes or badgers either, Oakheart. You know that as well as I do. The Clans bring trouble within themselves.”

The warriors glanced uneasily at one another, but Oakheart dipped his head. “Of course. And they always will. That is part of what it means to be a warrior.”

“Trouble from within greatest danger brings.” A new voice spoke, deep and gravelly.

Bluestar whipped around, her neck fur rising, and stared at the newcomer standing at the top of the hollow. It was too big and solid to be a cat. Instead, it seemed as if a clot of darkness had entered the circle of thornbushes, in which the watching cats could just make out broad, muscular limbs and the gleam of small, bright eyes.

After a few heartbeats Bluestar relaxed. “Welcome, friend,” she meowed. “StarClan owes you thanks. You have done well.”

“By me is little done,” the newcomer replied. “These cats their destiny have faced with courage.”

“The Clans have travelled far and suffered a great deal of sadness that we were powerless to ease,” Spottedleaf agreed. “They kept going even when we lost sight and hearing of them among the mountains, when they walked the paths of a different Tribe. Now they must learn to be four Clans again.” She looked solemn. “There will be much pain, especially for those who travelled together to the sun-drown-water. They won’t find it easy to forget their friendship.”

“They must mark out their new territories as soon as they can.” Oakheart’s voice rumbled in his throat. “There’ll be trouble there.”

“Every loyal warrior will want the best for their Clan,” meowed Bluestar.

“So long as it is their Clan that they fight for,” returned Oakheart, “and not themselves.”

“That’s where the danger lies,” murmured an anxious voice. A tomcat with a glossy black coat was gazing down into the silvery water as if he could see danger rising to the surface like a giant fish. “I see one cat, hungry for power that is not deserved . . .”

“Not deserved?” A lean tom with a crooked jaw sprang to his paws on the other side of the pool, the fur on his shoulders bristling in fury. “Nightstar, how dare you say ‘not deserved’?”

The black tom’s pelt rippled in the moonlight as he looked up. “Very well, Crookedstar, not deserved yet,” he meowed. “This cat needs to learn the virtue of patience. Power is not a piece of prey to be grabbed before it escapes.”

The cat with the crooked jaw sat down again, though the anger stayed in his eyes. “Would you have all our warriors as timid as mice?” he muttered.

Nightstar’s eyes narrowed and his tail-tip twitched, but before he could spit out a reply another cat padded forward: a thick-furred grey she-cat with a broad face and a fierce gleam in her eyes. She stood beside Spottedleaf at the mossy edge of the pool and gazed down into the water. After a few moments, ripples began to spread in circles from the middle of the pool and wash against the bank.

The grey she-cat lifted her head. “I have seen what will come,” she growled. “There are dark times ahead.”

A stir of anxiety passed through the cats like wind rippling through reeds, but no cat dared to question her out loud.

“Well?” Bluestar demanded when the silence had stretched out for several heartbeats. “Tell us what you mean, Yellowfang.”

The grey she-cat hesitated. “I am not certain what I have seen,” she rasped at last. “And you won’t like what I have to tell you.” She closed her eyes, and when she spoke her voice was deeper and quieter than before, so that every cat had to strain to listen: “‘Before there is peace, blood will spill blood, and the lake will run red.’”

Bluestar stiffened, and she bent her head to look into the water. A red stain was spreading across the surface, rippling outward until the water flamed scarlet. It seemed to reflect the fire of sunset, yet above the hollow the moon still floated in thin drifts of cloud.

A gasp of horror rose from the cats. Spottedleaf padded forward, trembling, and stared desperately into the water as if she were searching for something that would challenge Yellowfang’s ominous words.

“Are you trying to find out what will happen to Firestar?” Bluestar asked her gently. “Don’t search too hard, Spottedleaf. You of all cats should know that sometimes there is nothing we can do.”

Spottedleaf raised her head, and there was a fiercely determined light in her eyes. “I would do anything to help Firestar,” she hissed. “I will protect him with all the power of StarClan.”

“But even that may not be enough,” Bluestar warned her.

Around them, the warriors of StarClan began to pad away from the pool, climbing the slope and slipping back through the thornbushes until the shimmer of their pelts vanished and the only light in the hollow came from the reflection of the moon in the water.

The creature in the shadows remained a moment longer, watching in silence until the last cat had gone. Then she stirred, and a shaft of moonlight struck her powerful shoulders.

“Midnight, this not your place,” she growled to herself. “Is no more to do.” She paused and added, “Once more, maybe, with Clans I will meet. Clouded is time to come.”

As she turned to push her way back through the thorns, the moonlight caught the broad white stripe down the badger’s head; then Midnight was gone, and the hollow was left empty.




CHAPTER 1 (#ulink_1c8ffd6e-0613-5b5f-9639-b48f3998981c)


Brambleclaw stood at the top of the slope, gazing at the clawpricks of silver fire reflected in the lake below. The Clans had finally found their new home, just as Midnight had promised. StarClan was waiting for them, and they were safe from the Twoleg monsters at last.

Around him warriors from all four Clans murmured to each other, staring uneasily at the dark, unfamiliar space at the foot of the hill.

“It’s impossible to tell what’s down there in this light.” Brightheart, a ginger-and-white ThunderClan warrior, swung around so that her one good eye could take in the whole of the landscape.

Her mate, Cloudtail, twitched his tail. “How bad can it be? Think what we’ve come through to get here. We can fight off anything on four legs.”

“And what about Twolegs?” demanded Russetfur, the ShadowClan deputy.

“The journey has left us all tired and weak,” Blackclaw of WindClan added. “Foxes and badgers could track us down easily when we’re all out in the open like this.”

For a moment Brambleclaw felt a tremor of fear. Then he braced his shoulders. StarClan would not have brought them here if they did not believe the Clans could survive in their new territories.

“What are we waiting for?” a new voice spoke up. “Are we going to stand here all night?”

Stifling a mrrow of laughter, Brambleclaw turned to see his Clanmate Squirrelpaw standing behind him. The ginger apprentice was tearing the tough, springy grass with her front paws, her green eyes glowing with anticipation.

“Brambleclaw, look!” she purred. “We did it! We found our new home!”

She tucked her hindlegs under her, ready to dash down the hill, but before she could take off, Firestar pushed through the cats and stood in her way.

“Wait.” The ThunderClan leader touched his daughter’s shoulder affectionately with the tip of his tail. “We’ll go together, and keep a sharp lookout for trouble. This may be the place that StarClan wished us to find, but they would not expect us to leave our wits in the forest.”

Squirrelpaw dipped her head respectfully and stepped back, but when she shot a sideways glance at Brambleclaw, he saw that her eyes still gleamed with excitement. For Squirrelpaw, their journey’s end could not possibly be scary.

Firestar padded over to join Blackstar and Leopardstar, the leaders of ShadowClan and RiverClan. “I suggest we send a patrol ahead,” he meowed. “Just a couple of cats, to find out what it’s like down there.”

“Good idea—but we can’t just stand here and wait for them to return,” Leopardstar objected. “It’s much too exposed.”

Blackstar grunted in agreement. “If a fox came along now, it could pick off the weaker cats with no trouble at all.”

“But we need to rest.” Mudclaw of WindClan came up to join the discussion. His leader, Tallstar, lay on the ground a little way off, with the medicine cat Barkface crouching over him. “Tallstar can’t go much further.”

“Then let’s send the patrol right away,” Firestar suggested, “and the rest of us will follow more slowly until we find somewhere more sheltered. Yes, Mudclaw,” he added, as the WindClan deputy opened his mouth to argue, “we’re all tired, but we’ll sleep more easily if we’re not stuck out on the open hillside like this.”

Blackstar called Russetfur over to him, while Leopardstar signalled with her tail for her deputy, Mistyfoot.

“I want you to go as far as the lake, then come straight back,” Leopardstar ordered. “Find out what you can, but be quick, and stay out of sight.”

The two cats flicked their ears, then whirled and raced away, loping along with their bellies close to the ground; within a couple of heartbeats they had vanished into the darkness.

Firestar watched them go before letting out a yowl to call the rest of the cats around him. Mudclaw went back to Tallstar and nudged the old leader to his paws. Their Clans clustered together behind the leaders of ThunderClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan and began to follow them down the slope towards the lake.

“What’s the matter?” Squirrelpaw demanded, noticing that Brambleclaw wasn’t moving. “Why are you standing there like a frozen rabbit?”

“I want . . .” Brambleclaw glanced around and spotted his sister Tawnypelt padding past a little way off; he summoned her with a jerk of his head. “I want all of us to go down together,” he explained when the tortoiseshell she-cat joined them. “All the cats who made the first journey.”

Four cats remained from the six who had left the forest in search of a new home many moons ago. They had gained something very precious on that journey, as well as a safe place for their Clans to live: a strong bond of friendship had been forged between them, stronger than rock and deeper than the endless water that washed against the cliffs where Midnight the badger lived.

Now Brambleclaw wanted to travel with his friends one more time before their duties to their separate Clans forced them apart.

Tawnypelt let out a purr of approval. Meeting her green gaze, Brambleclaw knew that, like him, she understood they would soon be rivals again; that the next time they met could be in battle. The pain of parting swelled in his heart, and he pressed his muzzle to his sister’s, feeling her breath warm against his whiskers.

“Where’s Crowfeather?” she asked.

Brambleclaw looked up and spotted the young WindClan warrior a few tail-lengths away, anxiously pacing beside Tallstar. The WindClan leader looked so exhausted he could hardly put one paw in front of the other; his long tail dragged on the ground and he was leaning heavily on the brown tabby warrior Onewhisker. The WindClan medicine cat, Barkface, walked close behind, a worried look on his face.

“Hey, Crowfeather!” Squirrelpaw called.

The WindClan cat bounded across. “What do you want?”

Brambleclaw ignored his unwelcoming tone. Crowfeather’s tongue was sharp enough to slice your ears off, but if danger threatened he would fight to his last breath to defend his friends.

“Travel down to the lake with us,” he urged. “I want us to finish the journey how we started—together.”

Crowfeather bowed his head. “There’s no point,” he murmured. “We’ll never be together again. Stormfur lives in the mountains now, and Feathertail is dead.”

Brambleclaw ran his tail lightly over the young warrior’s shoulder. He shared his grief for the beautiful RiverClan cat who had sacrificed her life to save Crowfeather and the Tribe cats from the terrible lion-cat known as Sharptooth. Then Feathertail’s brother Stormfur had stayed with the Tribe of Rushing Water because of his love for the prey-hunter Brook. Brambleclaw missed him bitterly, but knew that pain was nothing compared to the agony Crowfeather felt over Feathertail’s death.

“Feathertail is with us now,” Squirrelpaw insisted, coming to join them. Her eyes shone with the strength of her belief. “If you don’t know that, Crowfeather, you’re even more mousebrained than I thought. And we’ll see Stormfur again, I’m sure. We’re closer to the mountains here than we were in the forest.”

Crowfeather let out a long sigh. “OK,” he meowed. “Let’s go.”

Most of the cats had gone past them already, moving cautiously across the unfamiliar territory, keeping close to each other as they had done throughout the long and dangerous journey to get here. A little way ahead, Brambleclaw saw Mothwing, the RiverClan medicine cat, walking beside a group of apprentices from all four Clans. On the far side of a patch of gorse, the ground fell away into a grassy hollow. Tallpoppy, a ShadowClan queen, was struggling to guide her kits down the steep slope; Cloudtail and Brightheart from ThunderClan darted over to help, each picking up a kit in their jaws. Further down the slope, Cedarheart, a grey ShadowClan tom, prowled along the edge of a thorn thicket, his gaze flicking back and forth as he kept watch for foxes and badgers that might be looking for easy prey.

If he had not known these cats all his life, Brambleclaw would not have been able to distinguish one Clan from another; they walked side by side, helping one another. He wondered grimly how long it would be before they were divided again, and how painful that separation would be.

At an impatient exclamation from Squirrelpaw—“Come on, Brambleclaw, or we’ll leave you to make a den for yourself here!”—he headed down the slope, pausing every so often to draw in the night air. The scent of cat was strongest, but beneath it he could detect the scents of mouse and vole and rabbit. He couldn’t remember when he had last eaten; surely the leaders would allow them to hunt soon?

He was imagining the delicious taste of fresh-kill when he was startled by a hiss from Tawnypelt, who was a couple of tail-lengths ahead of him. “Look at that,” spat the Shadow Clan warrior, pointing with her tail.

Brambleclaw’s ears pricked when he saw the thin mesh of a Twoleg fence shining like a huge cobweb in the pale dawn light. Two or three of the other cats had paused to stare apprehensively at it as well.

“I knew we’d come across Twolegs sooner or later!” Squirrelpaw meowed with a disgusted twitch of her tail.

Brambleclaw tasted the air again. He could pick up the scent of Twolegs, but it was faint and stale. There was another, less familiar scent too, and he had to think hard before he remembered what it was.

“Horses.” Crowfeather confirmed his guess. “There’s one over there.”

He gestured with his tail, and Brambleclaw noticed a large, dark shape standing under a clump of trees some way inside the fence. He thought there was another one beside it, though it was hard to tell in the shadows cast by the branches.

“What are horses?” Whitepaw mewed worriedly as she peered through the fence.

“Nothing to worry about,” Tornear from WindClan reassured her, touching the apprentice’s shoulder with the tip of his tail. “They used to run across our territory sometimes, with Twolegs on their backs.”

Whitetail blinked as if she couldn’t quite believe him.

“We saw some of them on our journey to the sun-drown-water,” Brambleclaw added. “They didn’t take any notice of us when we crossed their field. It’s the Twolegs looking after them that we need to watch out for.”

“I can’t see any Twoleg nests,” Tawnypelt pointed out. “Maybe these horse things look after themselves.”

“Let’s hope so,” meowed Brambleclaw. “Horses alone shouldn’t bother us.”

“Provided we stay away from their clumsy feet,” added Squirrelpaw.

The cats followed the Twoleg fence until they came to a thicket of trees where the other cats were gathering. Glancing around, Brambleclaw spotted Cinderpelt, the ThunderClan medicine cat, and her apprentice, Leafpaw, Squirrelpaw’s sister.

“What’s going on?” Squirrelpaw demanded. “Why are we stopping?”

“The patrol the leaders sent has just come back,” Cinderpelt explained.

Following her gaze, Brambleclaw saw the leaders of the four Clans and the WindClan deputy, Mudclaw, standing close together beside a tree stump. Mistyfoot and Russetfur, who had been sent on the patrol, faced them. The other cats had sunk down on the short, springy grass around the tree stump, glad of the chance to rest.

With the others behind him, Brambleclaw weaved through the cats until he was close enough to hear what the Clan leaders were saying.

Mistyfoot was just giving her report: “The ground’s very boggy by the lake. There’s no point going any further until daylight. We don’t want to lose any cats in the mud.”

“ShadowClan is used to wet ground underpaw,” Blackstar reminded her, before any of the other leaders could comment. “But we’ll stay with the rest of you if that’s what you want.” There was an edge to his tone, as if ShadowClan were granting them a huge favour by not going ahead to explore on their own.

Brambleclaw narrowed his eyes. It seemed too soon for the Clans to begin competing with one another over who claimed which part of the new territory. He had grown used to having all four Clans around him, ignoring the differences that had kept them apart for more seasons than any cat could remember. He was also afraid that some cats were weaker and more exhausted than others, which might make any clashes more damaging than they needed to be.

He hoped the leaders would decide to stay where they were for the rest of the night. The hills were still close enough to cut down the force of the wind, and the trees provided even more welcome shelter. A strong scent of prey drifted from the shadows, and his paws itched to hunt.

“I think we should stay here,” Firestar meowed, to Brambleclaw’s relief. “We all need to rest, and it sounds pretty uncomfortable by the lake.”

Leopardstar murmured agreement. Before Firestar had finished speaking, Tallstar collapsed onto his side and lay there panting, as if he couldn’t manage a single pawstep more. Mudclaw stalked up to him, sniffed him briefly, and spoke a word or two in his ear.

“Tallstar looks exhausted,” Brambleclaw murmured to Crowfeather. “This is his last life, isn’t it?”

Crowfeather nodded, his face somber. “He’ll be fine now that we’re here,” he meowed, though Brambleclaw suspected that he was trying to convince himself as much as any other cat.

Blackstar leaped up to the top of the tree stump. The powerful white tom stood with tail held high, his huge black paws planted on the rough wood. He let out a commanding yowl, and the faces of all the cats turned towards him to listen.

“Cats of all Clans!” he called as the last stragglers came up. “We have reached the place StarClan meant us to find, but we are all tired and hungry. We will make camp here until we have rested.”

“Who asked him to speak for the leaders?” Squirrelpaw muttered. Her green eyes flashed indignantly as Brambleclaw, spotting a couple of ShadowClan warriors within earshot, silenced her with a flick of his tail across her mouth.

“What about fresh-kill?” a cat called from the back.

“We will wait until sunrise,” Blackstar replied. “Then the prey will be running and there’ll be enough for us all.”

“Meanwhile we ought to keep watch,” Firestar added, leaping up beside Blackstar so that the ShadowClan leader had to step back a pace. “Deputies, find two or three warriors who can stay awake for a while longer. We don’t want foxes sneaking up on us while we’re asleep.”

Mudclaw, who seemed to be speaking for WindClan since Tallstar was so weak, meowed his agreement, followed by the RiverClan leader, Leopardstar. The brief meeting broke up and the cats began looking for places to sleep. Barkface nudged Tallstar to his feet and helped him to a clump of long grass, where the frail WindClan leader lay down again, trembling from nose to tail. Onewhisker sat close to him and began to lick his fur gently.

“I guess I’ll be needed,” Crowfeather mewed, and he loped away to join the other WindClan cats.

Tawnypelt touched noses with her brother. “I’d better check in with Russetfur,” she meowed. “See you later, Brambleclaw.” Whisking around, she headed for a group of her Clanmates who were clustered around the ShadowClan deputy.

Brambleclaw wondered if he ought to volunteer to keep watch. Even though he had been a warrior for fewer than four seasons, ThunderClan needed every cat to help feed and protect their Clanmates—especially since they had lost their deputy just before leaving the forest. Shivering, Brambleclaw remembered how Greystripe had been trapped by Twolegs and carried away inside a Twoleg monster. He glanced at Firestar to see his leader giving orders to Sorreltail and Brackenfur. He guessed he wouldn’t be needed right away, so he looked around to see if any of the other ThunderClan cats could use his help.

Dustpelt stood in the shadows beneath the trees with his mate, Ferncloud, and their son Birchkit, the only one of their latest litter to survive the lack of prey back in the forest. Ferncloud was crouched over Longtail, nosing him anxiously as he lay in the grass. Longtail was not many seasons older than Dustpelt, but he had been forced to join the elders when his eyesight failed; the journey from the forest had been particularly hard for him. Goldenflower, Brambleclaw’s mother, lay close to his flank on the other side. She was the oldest ThunderClan queen, and Brambleclaw realised with a pang of sympathy that she looked too weary to do anything more than press her warm fur against Longtail.

Dustpelt nudged the pale tabby tom’s shoulder. “Come on, Longtail,” he meowed. “Not far now.”

As Squirrelpaw bounded over to help, Brambleclaw spotted a sheltered place where the ground fell away a couple of tail-lengths beyond the clump of trees; grass grew thickly there, and a few bushes with low-growing branches.

“What about making a den over there?” he suggested, pointing with his tail.

“Good idea,” meowed Dustpelt. He nosed Longtail again. “It’s all right, Longtail; you can sleep as long as you want once we get you to a more sheltered place.”

Longtail heaved himself to his paws; Squirrelpaw padded beside him with her tail curled around his neck to guide him. Brambleclaw let Goldenflower lean on his shoulder, while Ferncloud encouraged Birchkit to follow.

“This had better be the place we’re looking for,” Dustpelt remarked, looking around at the exhausted cats. “None of us have the strength to travel any further.”

Brambleclaw didn’t reply. He knew Dustpelt was right—but he couldn’t tell him for sure that this was the place StarClan had meant them to find. He watched the others slide between the branches and settle into the piles of dry leaves under the bushes. Catching a glimpse of Leafpaw padding past with a mouthful of moss for bedding, he recalled the medicine cat apprentice’s unquestioning faith that their warrior ancestors had made the journey with them. He wished he could feel the same certainty. All along he had clung to the belief that their troubles would be over when they reached their new territory. Now, daunted by the strangeness of everything around him, he could see they were only just beginning.

Squirrelpaw’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Dustpelt, do you want us to hunt for you?”

Her mentor flicked her ear with his tail. “No, we’ll all hunt later. Look at you; you’re asleep on your paws. Go with Brambleclaw and get some rest.”

“OK.” Squirrelpaw’s jaws split into an enormous yawn.

“What about under that gorse bush?” Brambleclaw led the way to the spot he had pointed out a few tail-lengths up the slope, and crawled under the lowest boughs.

Squirrelpaw followed him and curled into a tight ball with her tail over her nose. “Good night,” she murmured indistinctly.

Brambleclaw scrabbled in the debris underneath the bush until he had made a comfortable nest. Curling up close to Squirrelpaw, he breathed in her warm, familiar scent. He was glad that they had not made a proper camp yet, where warriors and apprentices would have their separate dens. He would miss sleeping next to Squirrelpaw, he realised with the last flicker of conscious thought. Then sleep covered him like the lapping of a soft black wave.

Brambleclaw’s dreams were dark and confused. He was searching for something in the middle of a thick forest, but he could not remember what he was looking for, and every path he took ended abruptly in tangles of briar or impassable walls of thorn. In desperation, he tried to force his way through, but a branch poked him painfully in the side.

“Wake up, Brambleclaw! You’ve been asleep forever—what do you think you are, a hedgehog?”

Brambleclaw’s eyes flew open to see Squirrelpaw prodding him with her forepaw. Watery yellow daylight was seeping through the branches of the gorse bush.

“It’s morning,” Squirrelpaw went on. “Let’s go and see if we can hunt. If you can stop hibernating, that is.”

Blinking sleep from his eyes, Brambleclaw staggered to his paws, shook scraps of dead leaves from his pelt, and followed Squirrelpaw into the open.

The confusion of his dream slipped away when he remembered where he was. But it was replaced with a renewed feeling of anxiety as he looked at the landscape in daylight for the first time. He wondered if this vast, unfamiliar place would ever seem like home.

A cold breeze blew, ridging the surface of the lake and rattling through the reeds that edged the shore. The shining grey water stretched in front of Brambleclaw for almost as far as he could see; above the hills that rose on one side, a glow in the sky showed where the sun would shortly rise. Back the way they had come, the land sloped up more gently to bare moorland. The Twoleg fence stretched across it, and in the growing light Brambleclaw could just make out a couple of Twoleg nests in the distance. He let out a faint sound of approval; such small nests couldn’t hold many Twolegs, and being so far away they were unlikely to interfere with the Clans.

Further around the lake, below the hills, was a smudge that looked like grey-green mist; Brambleclaw realised it was a mass of leafless branches, stretching along the shore and up to the crest of the ridge. His heart lifted to think that soon he could be underneath trees again, however strange they might be.

At the far end of the lake the grey smudge of trees darkened, and Brambleclaw guessed that they were pines, still green in the depths of leaf-bare. They covered the ground like a gently rippling pelt as the wind stirred them.

The glow on the horizon grew too bright to look at as the sun edged up; the last stars were fading, and the sky was a clear, pale blue.

“Time to hunt,” Brambleclaw meowed to Squirrelpaw, who was standing beside him.

He looked around for Firestar or one of the senior warriors, to find out if any patrols were being sent out. His leader was emerging from a nearby gorse thicket with Leopardstar, Blackstar, and Mudclaw. The leaders must have been holding a meeting, Brambleclaw guessed, and he felt a twinge of apprehension to see Mudclaw in Tallstar’s place, representing WindClan.

“I wonder if Tallstar went to join StarClan during the night,” he muttered, his belly clenching with grief at the thought.

Squirrelpaw shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she mewed. “Or they would have brought his body out so his Clan could pay their respects.”

Brambleclaw hoped she was right. Before he could say anything else, Firestar leaped onto the tree stump where the leaders had addressed the Clans yesterday. Blackstar jumped up beside him, and Mudclaw scrambled up on the other side. There was barely room for all three cats to stand together on the flat top of the stump, so Leopardstar did not try to join them, but sat on a twisted root at the base.

“We’ll need a new place to hold Gatherings,” Squirrelpaw remarked.

Firestar’s yowl, calling the Clans together, interrupted her. Stems of grass and fern parted, and the branches of bushes shook as the cats emerged from their sleeping places. They all looked thin and worn, easy prey for any hostile creatures the territory might conceal, and they glanced around nervously, as if they could feel hungry eyes burning into their pelts on every side.

Brambleclaw bounded down the slope towards the stump, with Squirrelpaw close behind. Halfway down he spotted Tallstar’s black-and-white shape curled in the grass where he had gone to sleep the night before. The WindClan medicine cat, Barkface, was sitting beside him, sniffing anxiously at his fur. Neither cat made any attempt to join the others gathered around the tree stump; it was obvious Tallstar wasn’t well enough to take part in the meeting.

“Cats of all Clans,” Firestar was announcing as Brambleclaw reached his Clanmates. “Today there are decisions to be made and tasks to be carried out—”

“Hunting patrols will go out right away,” Mudclaw interrupted, shouldering Firestar aside. “WindClan will take the hills and RiverClan can fish in the lake. ThunderClan–”

His Clanmate Onewhisker sprang to his paws with a hiss of anger. “Mudclaw, what are you doing, giving orders like this?” he growled. “The last time I looked, Tallstar was still leader of WindClan.”

“Not for much longer.”

Brambleclaw blinked in surprise at the deputy’s cold voice. He hoped Tallstar hadn’t heard, and, craning his neck, he was relieved to see that the old cat was still asleep in his grassy nest with Barkface beside him.

“Some cat has to take charge,” Mudclaw went on. “Or do you want the other Clans to divide the territory among themselves and leave WindClan out?”

“As if we would!” Squirrelpaw mewed indignantly.

Onewhisker glared at Mudclaw, his fur bristling and his eyes blazing with fury. “Show a bit of respect!” he spat. “Tallstar was the leader of our Clan when you were a kit mewling in the nursery.”

“I’m not a kit now,” Mudclaw retorted. “I’m the deputy. And Tallstar hasn’t done much to lead us since we left the forest.”

“That’s enough.” Firestar silenced the WindClan deputy with a wave of his tail. “Onewhisker, I know you’re worried about Tallstar. Mudclaw is only doing his duty.”

“He needn’t act like he’s leader already,” Onewhisker growled. He sat down with a sharp glance from side to side, as if he were challenging any other cat to make a comment.

“Onewhisker has a fair point,” Firestar went on to Mudclaw. “It’s difficult for a deputy to stand in for their leader—difficult for the rest of the Clan as well as for the deputy.”

Mudclaw, who had raised his head arrogantly when Firestar seemed to be backing him up, looked furious. His jaws parted, but before he could speak he was forestalled by Blackstar.

“If WindClan has a problem over their leadership, let them discuss it in private. We’re wasting time.”

Mudclaw let out an angry hiss and pointedly turned his back. Brambleclaw flexed his claws, ready to spring if the WindClan deputy caused more trouble. Mudclaw was one of the most aggressive cats in all four Clans, and he had never liked Firestar or ThunderClan. Brambleclaw could foresee trouble when he became WindClan’s leader, especially now, when new Clan boundaries had to be established.

Firestar’s voice interrupted his troubled thoughts. “I would like to start ThunderClan’s life here by honouring a new warrior. Squirrelpaw, where are you?”

“What? Me!” In her astonishment, Squirrelpaw squeaked like a kit. She sprang to her paws, her ears pricked and her tail standing straight up.

“Yes, you.” Brambleclaw saw a gleam of amusement in Firestar’s eyes as he beckoned to his daughter. “ThunderClan owes you more than I can say for making the journey to sun-drown-place, and helping lead the Clans to this new home. Dustpelt and I agree that if ever an apprentice deserved her warrior name, you do.”

Brambleclaw stretched out and gently touched his muzzle against the tip of Squirrelpaw’s ear. “Go on,” he murmured. “Firestar is right. You deserve to become a warrior after everything you’ve done for the Clan.”

She blinked at him, too shocked to speak, then turned and picked her way to the tree stump where Firestar was waiting. Before she reached it, her mother, Sandstorm, stepped forward. Squirrelpaw stopped in front of her. Sandstorm’s eyes glowed with pride as she gave her daughter a few swift licks to smooth her fur. Brambleclaw watched Leafpaw come over as well to press her muzzle against her sister’s side.

Squirrelpaw’s mentor, Dustpelt, padded up to lead her the rest of the way to the stump, and he stood beside her as they waited for Firestar to speak.

Firestar leaped down and blinked encouragingly at Squirrelpaw before lifting his head to address the gathered cats. “This is the first time any cat has spoken these words in our new home,” he began. “I Firestar, leader of ThunderClan, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn.”

There was a burning intensity in his eyes, and Brambleclaw understood how much this moment meant to Firestar, not just for ThunderClan but for all four Clans that had journeyed here from their home far away. By calling upon StarClan to make a new warrior, they were claiming this unfamiliar place as their own. There had been many, many times on the journey when they had feared they had left their warrior ancestors behind, but Firestar addressed them now as confidently as if their starry spirits glowed overhead. Brambleclaw felt his fur prickle with guilt, wishing he could be so certain that StarClan had made the journey with them. Still, he told himself, they had reached somewhere that looked as if it would make a safe home for the Clans; perhaps his leader was right to feel confident. He shook his head, forcing his concerns away, and listened to the warrior ceremony.

“Squirrelpaw,” the ThunderClan leader was saying, “do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend your Clan, even at the cost of your life?”

Squirrelpaw’s reply rang out clearly. “I do.”

“Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Squirrelpaw, from this moment you will be known as Squirrelflight. StarClan honours your courage and your determination, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan.”

Firestar rested his muzzle on Squirrelflight’s head, and she gave his shoulder a respectful lick. Determination was an unusual virtue to mention in the warrior ceremony; in Squirrelflight, it sometimes showed as stubbornness, and had led her close to trouble more than once. Brambleclaw wondered if father and daughter were remembering all the times they had clashed, when Squirrelflight’s fierce independence had brought her into conflict with her leader and the warrior code. But then, Brambleclaw reflected, there had been times on their journey when her determination and will to succeed had put fresh heart into all her companions. Pride flooded him as he remembered her tireless courage, her refusal to think they would ever fail to reach their journey’s end.

When she stepped away from Firestar, Leafpaw bounded up to her, greeting her by her new name. “Squirrelflight! Squirrelflight!”

Her call was taken up by the cats around them. Squirrelflight looked around, her green eyes shining with pride. All four Clans seemed pleased that she had been given her warrior name—but then, all four Clans had had plenty of opportunity to see how much she deserved it. As Brambleclaw thrust his way to her side he saw Tawnypelt and Crowfeather heading towards her, too. Those who had made the journey to Midnight’s cave would always have the most special bond with Squirrelflight.

“Congratulations,” Tawnypelt meowed, while Crowfeather nodded and rested his tail-tip on her shoulder for a moment.

Brambleclaw pressed his muzzle to hers. “Well done, Squirrelflight,” he murmured. “Mind you,” he added teasingly, “you’ll still have to pay attention to senior warriors.”

Squirrelflight’s eyes gleamed with wicked amusement. “You can’t order me around now—I’m not an apprentice anymore!”

“I can’t see that it will make much difference,” Dustpelt put in, overhearing her. “You never did as you were told anyway.”

Squirrelflight let out a mrrow of laughter and affectionately butted her former mentor on his shoulder. “I must have listened to something,” she meowed. She blinked, and added, “Really, thanks for everything, Dustpelt.”

The meows of welcome died down as Blackstar stepped forward and signalled with his tail for silence. “This is all very touching, but now we must find out about this new place so that we can start establishing our new territories. We’re going to send a patrol with one cat from each Clan to explore the lakeshore and the land around it.”

Brambleclaw’s ears pricked, and he felt Squirrelflight tense beside him, her pelt just brushing his. He caught Tawnypelt’s eye, and saw an answering gleam of anticipation.

“We decided to send three of the cats who made the first journey together,” Firestar went on. “Brambleclaw from ThunderClan, Crowfeather from WindClan, and Tawnypelt from ShadowClan.”

Excitement thrilled through Brambleclaw from ears to tail-tip. It felt right that the cats who had made the first journey should be chosen.

Blackstar curled his lip as Firestar named each cat, but didn’t argue.

“Huh!” Tawnypelt muttered. “It’s the first time he’s ever let me represent ShadowClan.”

Brambleclaw swept his tail soothingly over her shoulder. He knew that Blackstar was unlikely to forget that Tawnypelt had been born in ThunderClan, however hard she tried to prove she was a loyal warrior of ShadowClan.

“Mistyfoot will go for RiverClan,” meowed Leopardstar, speaking for the first time, and reminding Brambleclaw painfully that neither of the RiverClan cats who had made the journey was still with their Clan. A hollow place yawned inside him as he thought of Feathertail and Stormfur.

“But what about me?” Squirrelflight protested. “I went on the journey too. Why can’t I go on the patrol?”

“Because that would make two cats from ThunderClan,” Blackstar replied crushingly. Brambleclaw knew the ShadowClan leader was wrong if he thought that would silence Squirrelflight.

“A patrol of four cats isn’t enough to go into unknown territory,” she objected.

Blackstar opened his mouth to disagree, but Firestar spoke first. “She could be right,” he pointed out. “I think we should let her go. It could be her first warrior task. She can’t sit vigil tonight like other new warriors, as we have no proper camp.”

Blackstar glanced at Leopardstar, who twitched her tail, giving nothing away, and then at Mudclaw, who dipped his head. “WindClan has no objection,” he meowed.

“Very well,” Blackstar growled. “But don’t think for one moment that will give ThunderClan any extra rights over the territory.”

Brambleclaw exchanged an exasperated glance with Crowfeather. Trust Blackclaw to think that other Clans were trying to steal an advantage before the new territories had been divided up!

“Of course not,” Firestar replied evenly. “Squirrelflight, you may go with the patrol.”

Squirrelflight’s tail curled up in delight.

“Go all the way around the lake, and explore as much of the surrounding land as you can,” Firestar instructed. “We need to know what kind of territory it is, and where the best hunting places will be. Think about the different sorts of hunting each Clan will require, because it might help with setting boundaries later on. It would be good to get an idea of how the territory could be split up, and where might be good places for camps. And keep a close watch for Twolegs, or anything else that might be dangerous.”

“Is that all?” Crowfeather muttered.

“I reckon you’ll need two days to travel all the way around the lake,” Firestar went on. He lifted his head and narrowed his eyes as he peered across the water, trying to judge the distance. “Try not to spend too much time exploring. We’re exposed to danger while we stay here, so we need to get all the Clans settled as soon as we can.”

“We’ll do our best, Firestar,” a new voice called out. Brambleclaw glanced over his shoulder to see Mistyfoot, the RiverClan deputy, padding over to join them.

“Hi, there,” he mewed, moving up to make room for her. Mistyfoot looked wary about joining the close band of cats that had made the first journey.

“Good luck,” called Leopardstar, and Firestar added, “May StarClan go with you all.”

By now the sun had risen well above the hills. His paws itching to be off, Brambleclaw dipped his head towards Firestar and the other leaders, and raised his tail to signal the others to follow him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tawnypelt wince, and he heard a hissing intake of breath from Crowfeather. His fur prickled with embarrassment as he realised that Mistyfoot ought to be in charge of the patrol, since she was the deputy of her Clan. He stopped and took a pace back; Mistyfoot gave him a long, cool look, then nodded briefly to him as she took the lead.

“Mousebrain!” Squirrelflight whispered.

They headed for the edge of the lake, with Blackstar’s voice drifting behind them on the breeze as he began to arrange the hunting patrols.

“Squirrelflight! Wait!” Brambleclaw looked back to see Leafpaw bounding after her sister. “Be careful, won’t you?” she begged.

Squirrelflight touched noses with the young medicine cat. “Don’t worry about us,” she meowed. “We can look after ourselves.”

“But you’re as tired as the rest of us from the journey,” Leafpaw warned. “Hunt as soon as you can, and don’t stray too far from the lake or you might get lost.”

Squirrelflight brushed her tail across Leafpaw’s mouth to stop her. “We’ll be fine,” she insisted. She lifted her head and pointed with her nose to the gleaming stretch of water below them. “Look, you can see exactly where we’re going. We’ll be back before you know it.” She paused for a moment, then added quietly, “Have you had a sign from StarClan? Is that why you’re so worried?”

Leafpaw shook her head. “No, nothing like that, I promise. It’s just hard to let you go again. It feels too much like the first time you left, when you went to sun-drown-place.”

Brambleclaw went over and rested his muzzle against Leafpaw’s shoulder to comfort her. “And we came safely home, didn’t we? Trust me, Leafpaw, I’ll look after her.”

Squirrelflight jerked away in mock indignation. “I don’t need looking after! It’s more likely to be me watching out for your battered old fur!”

Leafpaw gave a purr of amusement, letting them lighten the mood. “Well, just take care, all of you. And if you have a chance to look out for any herbs, that would be great. Our medicine supplies will need refilling very soon.”

Squirrelflight licked her ear. “Sure. I’ll keep my eyes open—when I’m not looking for foxes, badgers, Twolegs, Thunderpaths. . .”

“Are we going or not?” growled Crowfeather. “We don’t have much daylight, and we need to get at least halfway around the lake before nightfall.”

Leafpaw ignored him. “StarClan go with you,” she murmured to Squirrelflight, before whisking around and bounding back up the slope.

Brambleclaw tasted the air and listened to the lapping of waves on the shore. The grey water was flooded with colour as the sun rose higher over the hills. It stretched ahead so far that the trees on the distant shore were nothing more than a greenish blur, and curved hungrily around the marshy land in front of them. Something about the stillness of the water, the silence that hung over it like mist, told Brambleclaw that it was much, much deeper than the river in the forest, even when it flooded. He gave Mistyfoot a swift sidelong glance. She looked daunted too, though like all RiverClan cats she was an excellent swimmer.

As if aware that his eyes were on her, the RiverClan deputy gave herself a shake. “Right,” she meowed, gazing around at the patrol. “This is it. Let’s see where StarClan has brought us.”




CHAPTER 2 (#ulink_d2c8a605-1b22-5c94-8954-3efc838d30a4)


Leafpaw stopped halfway up the slope and turned to watch her sister and the rest of the patrol make their way down to the lake. From the tingling of her own fur, she could tell how excited Squirrelflight was, not just at the prospect of exploring the new territory, but because she was with the friends she had made on the journey to sun-drown-place once more. For a few heartbeats Leafpaw felt almost breathless with envy, wishing that she could have a bond that strong, based on that depth of trust and that many shared experiences, with another cat.

Her gaze was drawn to the lean, grey-black shape of Crowfeather. Of all the others, he was the hardest to understand. Leafpaw wished she knew him better. He seemed the least willing to trust cats from another Clan, yet during the long journey through the mountains she had seen him put himself in danger over and over to help cats who weren’t from WindClan. Leafpaw’s pelt prickled, making her shiver from nose to tail. Something told her Crowfeather had an important path laid out by StarClan, but she had no idea where it might lead—nor was there any reason for StarClan to let her know the destiny of a cat from another Clan.

She jumped as something brushed against her shoulder, and turned to see Cinderpelt gazing at her with wise blue eyes.

“Do you wish you were going with them?” the medicine cat asked.

Leafpaw hesitated. She was a medicine cat, not a warrior—her duties lay with her weak and exhausted Clan. So why did she feel a tug in her paws to follow the little patrol that was padding away along the line of the shore? Her mind flooded with an image of bounding after them to walk alongside Crowfeather, who was bringing up the rear; she drew in her breath sharply, almost able to feel his dark grey pelt brush against hers as they picked their way over the tufts of boggy grass.

“Are you all right?” mewed Cinderpelt, looking at her closely.

Leafpaw blinked. “Yes, I’m fine. Of course I don’t want to go with the patrol. There’s enough work for me here.”

“That’s true,” Cinderpelt meowed. “We have four Clans of exhausted cats to look after, and our stock of healing herbs barely amounts to a couple of leaves and a pawful of crushed berries.”

Leafpaw gulped, suddenly wondering if she should have gone with the patrol after all to look for new supplies of medicine.

“We’re going to meet with the other medicine cats,” Cinderpelt went on. “We need to discuss what to do about finding new herbs, and how we are going to share tongues with our warrior ancestors when we are so far from Highstones.” She gazed up at the sky, where the half-moon drifted behind wisps of cloud, and her voice dropped to barely a whisper. “I hope we find another Moonstone place soon.”

She gestured with her tail, and Leafpaw saw her friend Mothwing, the RiverClan medicine cat, sitting in the shelter of a bramble thicket with Littlecloud, the medicine cat from ShadowClan. Around them, warriors and apprentices from all four Clans were dividing into groups as the hunting patrols prepared to leave.

Cinderpelt waited until most of the patrols had gone before joining the other medicine cats. Leafpaw bounded over to touch noses with Mothwing.

Mothwing blinked nervously at her. “I feel so helpless!” she murmured into Leafpaw’s ear. “I have no supplies, and the cats are so tired and weak.”

Leafpaw wasn’t surprised that her friend was anxious. Although Mothwing had trained as a warrior and received her warrior name several seasons ago, she had not been a medicine cat apprentice for as long as Leafpaw. The death of Mudfur before they left the forest meant that she had to take on all the responsibilities of a medicine cat before she had finished her training. Leafpaw felt a wave of gratitude that Cinderpelt was still alive, and young and strong enough to live for many, many more moons. She was in no hurry to lose her mentor, and she didn’t envy Mothwing at all. But she reminded herself that Mothwing had been taught well, and she would be able to ask the other medicine cats for advice if she needed to. Besides, in this new place they would all have things to learn.

She gave Mothwing’s ear a quick lick. “You’ll be fine,” she promised. “We’ll all help you.”

Cinderpelt glanced around. “Where’s Barkface?”

“Still with Tallstar, I guess,” Littlecloud replied. He let out a sigh. “I’m not sure there’s much any cat can do for him now.”

Leafpaw flinched. It didn’t seem fair that StarClan should summon the WindClan leader to join them when he hadn’t even seen his Clan’s new home.

“Here he comes now.” Cinderpelt twitched her ears to where Barkface was approaching with his head bowed and his tail trailing.

“How is Tallstar?” Littlecloud demanded.

Barkface heaved a sigh from the depths of his belly as he flopped down under the brambles beside the other medicine cats. “Sleeping,” he replied. “He is very weak. The journey has been too much for him, and it is clear that StarClan is waiting for him to join them.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do?” Leafpaw meowed.

Barkface shook his head. “We may have travelled all the way from the forest, but Tallstar has a longer journey than all of us ahead of him. He has been a noble leader, but he cannot go on forever.”

“All the Clans will honour him,” Cinderpelt murmured. She bowed her head for a moment and then straightened up, giving her fur a shake. “Meanwhile there are tasks that we must do.”

“We need to look for herbs,” Mothwing meowed. “Disease could spread easily when we’re all tired and hungry.”

“True,” replied Cinderpelt. “Soon we’ll go and search, and hope that StarClan leads us to what we need. But before that.. . .” Her voice trailed off, and she scratched at the ground with her forepaw before she went on. “There may be a patrol out looking for new camps for each Clan, but we need more than that if this is to be our home. Where are the Clans going to gather at full moon? What about the Moon stone? It’s many days’ journey from here to Mothermouth.”

Leafpaw’s paws ached at the thought of retracing her steps along all the weary paths they had followed since they left Highstones. Surely it would be impossible to travel there every half moon to meet with StarClan? But where would new leaders go now to receive their names and their nine lives?

There was a long pause. None of the cats had the answer—or knew where to suggest looking.

“Are we sure this is the right place?” Littlecloud mewed at last. “Without the Moonstone, the only way we can reach StarClan is through dreams and signs, and I’ve seen nothing to reassure me that this is where we are supposed to be.”

“It must be right,” Leafpaw pleaded. She struggled to think how she could make the other medicine cats believe her, when they were so much more experienced than she was. “Stoneteller met with his Tribe’s warrior ancestors in the Cave of Pointed Stones,” she added, remembering their visit to the Tribe of Rushing Water. “So maybe there are other places like the Moonstone.”

“I believe that StarClan sent us a sign when we saw their reflections shining in the lake,” Cinderpelt mewed, and Leafpaw felt the fur on her shoulders lie down in her relief. “But we still need a place where we can share tongues with them.”

“Maybe they’ll send us a sign to tell us where we can find another Moonstone,” Barkface suggested.

“Maybe.” Littlecloud sounded dubious. “I just hope it’s soon, that’s all.”

“But does it really matter?” Mothwing asked. “I mean, there’s nothing to stop us from finding the right herbs, and. . .”

Her voice died away as the other medicine cats stared at her in astonishment. Leafpaw winced; how could Mothwing believe that the only task of a medicine cat was to heal?

Mothwing’s gaze flicked from one cat to the next, uncertainty and embarrassment in her eyes.

“Mothwing means we can carry on looking after our Clanmates while we wait for StarClan to speak to us,” Leafpaw meowed helpfully.

Mothwing turned to her in relief. “Yes—yes, that’s right.”

Cinderpelt’s ears twitched.

“I suppose we could start restocking our supplies,” meowed Littlecloud.

Barkface heaved himself to his paws. “If you don’t mind, I ought to stay with Tallstar. But I’d be grateful for some coltsfoot, if you can find it. He’s having trouble breathing.”

“There’ll be no coltsfoot leaves until newleaf,” Mothwing pointed out anxiously. “Would juniper berries do as well?”

Barkface nodded. “Quite right. Thanks, Mothwing.”

“We’ll bring you some,” Cinderpelt promised.

With a brief grunt of thanks, Barkface padded to the clump of grass where Tallstar lay, an unmoving heap of black and white fur. Leafpaw saw him exchange a word or two with Onewhisker, who was keeping vigil beside his dying leader. Then he settled down with his flank touching Tallstar’s, letting the old cat know that he would not be alone as he began his long, dark journey.

“Well done, Mothwing!” Leafpaw mewed. “I didn’t think of using juniper berries instead.”

Mothwing turned her head to give Leafpaw’s ear a quick lick. “Where shall we go first?”

Cinderpelt stood up stiffly, favouring the leg she had injured long ago on the Thunderpath. “If we go that way,” she began, gesturing with her tail, “we’ll end up in the Twoleg horseplace. I think we should head the opposite way, closer to the lake.”

“Firestar says it’s boggy there,” Leafpaw reminded her.

“There’s all sorts of good stuff growing in bogs,” meowed Mothwing. She gave Leafpaw a gentle flick around the ear with her tail. “If you were a RiverClan cat, you wouldn’t mind getting your paws wet!”

“And I wouldn’t mind catching a frog or a toad to eat,” mewed Littlecloud. When the other cats glanced at him in surprise, he added defensively, “They don’t taste that bad! There were always plenty in ShadowClan’s territory, even when the rest of the prey was scarce.”

As they drew nearer to the lake the tough moorland grass gave way to sedge and moss. The ground was spongy, and water oozed up around Leafpaw’s paws at every step.

“I hope it’s not all like this,” she muttered to herself, pausing to shake droplets of water from each paw. Looking ahead, she saw that although this stretch of marshland reached right down to the lake, trees were growing on the bank further around, and in the distance a wooded tongue of land stretched out into the water. That might be a good place for a camp, she thought.

She broke into a run to catch up the others, and found them standing beside a large clump of horsetail; further away were more clumps of the big, healthy plants. Leafpaw’s spirits rose.

“This is excellent,” Cinderpelt meowed. “It never grew as well as this in our old territory. We’ll collect some on our way back. Leafpaw, what is it used for?”

Leafpaw wasn’t sure she liked being questioned in front of the other medicine cats as if she had barely started her training, but at least she knew the answer. “Infected wounds,” she answered promptly.

“That’s right,” meowed Littlecloud. “And we’re going to need it. The cats have picked up all kinds of scratches and scrapes on the journey.”

Cinderpelt nodded. “We must remember where to find it.”

She set off again, and the other cats followed. Leafpaw was pleased when she was the first to spot a clump of water mint, one of the best cures for bellyache.

“But we’re never going to find Barkface’s juniper berries down here,” Mothwing pointed out, leaping over a tiny stream. “It’s much too wet.”

“Why don’t you and Leafpaw head away from the shore?” Cinderpelt suggested. “I can see bushes over there. Some of them might be juniper.”

“Sure.” Mothwing swerved away from the water, heading towards the ridge they had crossed on the previous night. Leafpaw followed close behind, relieved to feel drier, harder ground under her paws.

When they reached the higher ground, they pushed their way into a sheltered thicket of trees. Leafpaw quickly recognised the spiky dark leaves and purple berries of juniper bushes among the undergrowth.

“Just what we need,” she mewed happily, beginning to bite off some of the stems.

When they had collected as much juniper as they could carry, they turned back towards the lake. Emerging from the trees, Leafpaw spotted the tiny, indistinct figures of Cinderpelt and Littlecloud in the distance, following the water’s edge. From up here, she realised that what she had thought was a wooded spur of land stretching out into the lake was actually an island, separated from the shore by a narrow channel of water.

“Look!” she meowed to Mothwing. “There’s an island in the lake.”

The young medicine cat’s eyes shone. “That would make a great place for a Gathering!” she exclaimed. “It’s big enough for all the Clans, and nothing would disturb us there. Let’s go down and tell the others.” Snatching up her collection of juniper stems, she bounded off towards Cinderpelt and Little cloud.

Leafpaw picked up her own stems and followed more slowly. Mothwing hadn’t given her the chance to point out that only RiverClan cats felt confident about swimming, and none of the other Clans would be able to reach the island. It was a pity, because Mothwing was right: the island would be a perfect place for all the Clans to meet, safe from predators and Twolegs.

When she reached the others, Mothwing was excitedly telling them about the island. All four cats padded down to the edge of the lake to have a closer look. The ground was drier here, falling away into a rocky shore with a few tough thorns rooted in cracks.

“It looks safe enough,” meowed Cinderpelt, “but how would we get there? Do you fancy telling the elders that they have to swim every time they want to go to a Gathering?”

Littlecloud gave a snort of amusement, and Mothwing looked wounded.

“Maybe it’s shallow enough to wade,” Leafpaw suggested diplomatically, though she wasn’t keen on finding out.

“I could swim over there and have a look,” Mothwing offered.

Cinderpelt nodded. “If you want to.”

Mothwing didn’t need any more encouragement to launch herself down the rocks towards the water.

“Be careful!” Leafpaw called after her.

Her friend waved her tail in acknowledgment before wading out into the lake. Soon the water reached her belly fur and she had to swim, pushing through the water with strong, confident strokes. So it wasn’t possible to wade all the way to the island, Leafpaw thought. She narrowed her eyes against the sunlight reflected in the water as she tracked the small dark head bobbing through the waves.

Behind her Littlecloud meowed, “Why don’t we hunt while we’re waiting? I’m so hungry I could eat a badger!”

His words made Leafpaw conscious of her own grumbling belly, but she did not move until she had seen Mothwing reach the shore of the island; she pulled herself out of the water and waved her tail cheerfully at Leafpaw before vanishing among the bushes.

Leafpaw turned away just in time to see Littlecloud pounce on a vole and crouch down to devour it in swift bites. She couldn’t help feeling relieved that he hadn’t found a frog or a toad after all, in case he had offered her some. It would have been rude to say no, but Leafpaw didn’t think she was quite hungry enough to eat something that looked so tough and unappetizing.

A little way off, Cinderpelt was stalking something in the long grass that grew at the foot of the rocks. A heartbeat later she made her kill and beckoned to Leafpaw with her tail. “Come on. Mothwing will be fine. There’s plenty of prey over there.”

Leafpaw cast another glance back at the island, but there was no sign of the RiverClan medicine cat, and nothing Leafpaw could do to help her. Padding softly up to the nearest tumble of rocks, she heard the scuffling of a tiny creature and froze. A grass stem twitched aside to reveal another vole scrabbling among the fallen seeds underneath. Leafpaw crept forward, hardly lifting her paws from the rough ground. Once she was in range she leaped, and dispatched her prey with one swift bite to the neck.

Leafpaw couldn’t remember when she had last seen such a plump vole. The prey that remained in the forest after the Twolegs started to tear it up had been scrawny and terrified, and opportunities for hunting on the journey here had been limited.

She was just finishing the last, satisfying bite when Littlecloud called, “Mothwing’s coming back!”

Leafpaw swallowed her mouthful and dashed down to the water’s edge. Mothwing was swimming strongly towards the shore, and soon she waded out to stand on dry ground and shake the water from her pelt.

“Well?” Cinderpelt demanded. “What did you find?”

Mothwing let out a gusty sigh. “It’s perfect! Trees and bushes grow all around the edge, but in the middle there’s an open stretch of grass. There’d be room for all the Clans to gather there.”

Littlecloud shook his head. “RiverClan maybe, but you’d never get the other three Clans to join you.” His tone was worried as he added, “Some cats with more courage than sense would drown if they tried.”

“And right in the middle of the open space,” Mothwing went on enthusiastically, as if Littlecloud hadn’t spoken, “there’s this huge oak tree. As big as the oaks at Fourtrees, but it has low-growing branches, so the leaders could climb up there to address the Clans.” Her blue eyes shone. “I wish we could use it!”

“Well, we can’t,” Cinderpelt said regretfully. “Although you’re right, Mothwing; it sounds ideal. Thanks for checking it out.”

“There’s prey, too.” Mothwing swiped her tongue over her jaws.

Leafpaw wanted to ask Mothwing if she had noticed anything unusual about the island, like a strange-shaped rock or a twisted tree, anything that would suggest the presence of StarClan. Perhaps the island wasn’t meant for Gatherings, but there might be a new Moonstone there.

But once it was clear that the other medicine cats wouldn’t agree that the island could be used for Gatherings, Mothwing had turned away. She was padding up the beach with her tail drooping, tired out from her swim. Leafpaw decided she would ask her another time about the possibility of a Moonstone on the island.

The rest of the medicine cats began to make their way back to the temporary camp as well. Leafpaw followed last of all, with a regretful glance over her shoulder at the island. The Clans needed a place to gather and a new Moonstone as much as they needed safe, sheltered camps with plenty of prey. The gathering place and the Moonstone would be the home of the fifth Clan that had been forced to leave the forest—StarClan.

Leafpaw shivered, even though reeds sheltered her from the cold breeze coming off the lake. Unless they found these places quickly, the Clans’ future in their new territory was filled with shadows of doubt.




CHAPTER 3 (#ulink_aa4d1359-3f29-57a1-a7ef-135b534223b5)


Mistyfoot led the patrol across the marshy shore at a steady trot. Brambleclaw breathed deeply, tasting the prey-scented air and basking in the warmth of the pale winter sun on his fur. His paws itched to bound ahead, but he forced himself to keep to the pace Mistyfoot had set, knowing they had a long way to go.

“This is no good,” Squirrelflight grumbled as she slipped into yet another boggy hollow. She stopped and flicked water from her hindpaw with a disgusted expression on her face. “We’ll all end up with webbed feet if we live here.”

“It might not be so bad for RiverClan,” Mistyfoot replied. “But there won’t be much prey on ground like this, so it wouldn’t be much use.”

“We don’t have to use all the territory around the lake,” Tawnypelt pointed out. “There’s plenty of space, so it doesn’t matter if no cat wants this bit.”

“As long as there’s something better up ahead,” Crowfeather added.

Brambleclaw paused to scan the land around them. On one side the land rose steeply to a ridge of hills. The Twoleg fence and the horses were behind them now, and beyond that the grassland sloped up until it vanished beneath a thick growth of gorse and other bushes. Ahead, the swampy ground stretched along the lakeshore. In the distance Brambleclaw could see a wooded spur of ground jutting out into the lake, and more trees right ahead.

“It looks as if we’ll be out of the marshes soon,” he meowed.

“Can’t we climb the hill, Brambleclaw?” Squirrelflight asked. “Please. I’m sick of wet feet.”

“There’ll be prey up there, too,” Tawnypelt mewed longingly. “What do you say, Brambleclaw? We need to hunt.”

“We’re supposed to be patrolling the lake,” Brambleclaw replied.

“And the territory around it,” Crowfeather reminded him.

“I suppose we could make a few forays away from the lake,” Brambleclaw meowed thoughtfully. “We won’t learn much if we stick to the shore the whole time. Let’s start by heading up to the ridge. We’ll hunt on the way, and—”

A quiet cough interrupted him, and Brambleclaw felt his fur prickle as he met Mistyfoot’s level stare. “S-sorry, Mistyfoot,” he stammered. “I mean, if that’s OK with you.”

Amusement glimmered in the RiverClan deputy’s eyes. “Look, Brambleclaw, maybe it’s best if you lead. These cats are obviously used to taking orders from you.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Brambleclaw felt even more embarrassed. “We discussed things, mostly, when we were on our journey.”

“He means we argued,” Tawnypelt meowed dryly. “At least, some of us argued.” She gave a hard look at Squirrelflight and Crowfeather.

“What, us?” Squirrelflight’s eyes opened wide and her tail curled up. “Never!”

Stifling a mrrow of laughter, Brambleclaw led the way up the slope to the drier ground. He thanked StarClan that Mistyfoot understood that they had fallen into a habit of organising themselves on their journey, without the typical Clan hierarchy of leaders and deputies and senior warriors. It felt good to be travelling with his friends again, though he felt Stormfur’s absence like a thorn pricking his flank. He wondered what it would be like when the Clans separated and he lost his easy friendship with Crowfeather and Tawnypelt. Would the empty place inside him go on growing forever?

There was prey among the bushes further up the slope, and it did not take long for all five cats to hunt successfully and settle down to a good meal.

“Mmm . . .” Squirrelflight murmured, lying on her side and splaying out her paws in a luxurious stretch. “That was the tastiest mouse I’ve eaten in moons. Now I could do with a good, long sleep.”

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Brambleclaw prodded her with his paw. “We’ve got a long way to go, and we need to get as far around the lake as we can in daylight.”

“All right, keep your fur on.” Squirrelflight scrambled up, her green eyes teasing. “You’re such a bossy old furball. Don’t forget I’m a warrior now!” She whisked around him, flicking him with her tail.

“You don’t give me the chance to forget,” Brambleclaw retorted, though he couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice. How long had it been, he asked himself, since any of them had had the time or the strength to play?

He gathered the others together—Mistyfoot watched him give the order without saying anything, the expression in her blue eyes impossible to read—and they set off once more, taking a slanting route down to the lake. As he looked back towards the temporary camp, Brambleclaw saw that the spur of land he had spotted earlier was actually an island; three tiny, fuzzy shapes were standing on the shore looking out at it.

“There’s Leafpaw!” Squirrelflight meowed.

Brambleclaw didn’t ask how she could recognise her sister from so far away; he knew there was some sort of special connection between them, so that each of them always had a good idea where the other one was and how she was feeling. A flicker of jealousy stirred within him, but he pushed it away.

They headed down from the ridge towards a point on the lakeshore further along from the island. To Brambleclaw’s relief, the marshy places and small reed-fringed pools thinned out; instead the ground was covered with long grass that felt cool and comfortable under his pads.

“This is more like it!” muttered Crowfeather. WindClan cats were the least used to wet ground, coming from the well-drained sandy moorland above the woods where the other Clans had lived.

Sunhigh came and went as the five cats travelled along the edge of the lake. A stretch of smooth round pebbles ran down to the water, reminding Brambleclaw of the banks of the river in the forest. A little way from the shore, he spotted the spreading ripples where a fish had just risen.

“Plenty of prey for RiverClan,” he pointed out to Mistyfoot.

She nodded. “Mind you,” she meowed, “we might need to work out new ways of fishing. We’re used to standing on the bank or on stepping stones and scooping them out with our paws. What would we do if all the fish went to hide in the middle of the lake?”

There was an amused snort from Squirrelflight, but Brambleclaw silenced her with a glare. Mistyfoot hadn’t been joking—her Clan could starve next to a lake full of prey if they didn’t have the right hunting techniques. He narrowed his eyes and stared across the lake to the greenish smudge that might be the sort of trees ThunderClan had lived among before. Surely hunting mice and squirrels would be the same here as it had been in the forest?

The pebbles beneath their paws grew larger and more slippery, and they slowed down to pick their way carefully, without getting their feet trapped between the stones. The lake bulged into the land ahead of them, and Brambleclaw stopped to look at the opposite shore. Pine trees surrounded a grassy area at the edge of the water, where a wooden structure stuck out into the lake. It looked a bit like the Twoleg bridge in the old territory, but it didn’t seem to lead anywhere.

“What’s that?” Brambleclaw asked, signaling with his tail.

“Some Twoleg thing.” Crowfeather was disdainful.

“I hope that doesn’t mean Twolegs swarming all over the place,” meowed Tawnypelt.

“I don’t think so,” Mistyfoot replied. “I can’t see any Twolegs there now. Maybe they come only in greenleaf, like they used to in our old territory. Their kits like to play in the water.”

“I always thought Twolegs were mousebrained.” Crowfeather sniffed.

Squirrelflight was staring across at the bridge thing, her jaws parted to drink in any scent carried on the breeze. “I can’t smell anything but forest scents and prey,” she reported at last.

“We’re too far away to pick up all the scent trails,” Brambleclaw meowed. “We’ll check it out when we get over there. Like Mistyfoot said, there aren’t any Twolegs around now.”

He signaled for the patrol to move on again. They walked in silence, as if the Twoleg half-bridge had reminded them of their old enemies, and made them warier. Before long Brambleclaw heard another sound above the gentle lapping of waves on the shore: the gurgle of running water. The ground underpaw grew wetter, and just ahead he could see a thick line of reeds winding away from the lake.

“A stream!” Mistyfoot exclaimed, bounding forward.

The rest of the patrol picked up their pace until they joined her on the bank. Pushing through the reeds, Brambleclaw saw that the stream flowed out of the lake; it was wider than the streams they had crossed previously, too broad to jump across, with deep channels curving around pebbly shallows and small, stony islands. The water looked green and cool, shaded by reeds and the occasional tree that grew along the banks. Clumps of brown, dry bracken all around promised more lush vegetation in greenleaf.

Mistyfoot looked around, the tip of her tail twitching. “RiverClan would like a place like this.”

Brambleclaw noticed that she did not make an instant claim to this territory on behalf of her Clan, but he saw the longing in her eyes as she surveyed the stream. He agreed it would be a good place for RiverClan, but it wasn’t their decision to make. Their duty was to report back to the rest of the cats when they had explored all the land around the lake, and the leaders would decide how to divide it up.

“Hey!” Squirrelflight mewed. “I just saw a fish!”

A heartbeat later Brambleclaw spotted one, too, a silver flash that sent ripples spiralling out as it touched the surface of the water.

“Perfect!” mewed Mistyfoot. “Shall I catch some for us?”

“We know how to catch our own, you know.” Tawnypelt spoke politely, but with an edge to her voice.

Mistyfoot gave her a curious look. “Where did you learn that?”

“On our journey,” Crowfeather meowed abruptly. “Feathertail taught us.” He turned away and stalked a few paces downstream, where he sat close to the water, staring into the depths with one paw raised, ready to strike.

Brambleclaw’s heart ached for him. None of them would ever forget the brave and gentle RiverClan cat who had done so much to help Crowfeather feel at ease in the group, and in the end had given her life to save him from Sharptooth. Brambleclaw wondered whether Crowfeather’s pain would ever be healed. Sometimes he seemed as prickly and self-contained as he had been at the start of their journey, before he had learned to trust his companions, and before he had fallen in love with Feathertail.

Mistyfoot gave a sympathetic murmur; Brambleclaw saw grief in her eyes too, and remembered that she had been Feathertail’s mentor. But the RiverClan deputy didn’t attempt to go over to the WindClan warrior and comfort him. Perhaps she knew he wouldn’t welcome any cat intruding on his sad memories. Instead she crouched down where she was to wait for a fish. Tawnypelt and Squirrelflight joined her, but Brambleclaw stayed close to the reeds, all his senses alert for danger. They still didn’t know what this new territory might conceal, and four cats intent on hunting would make easy prey for a hungry fox.

There was no scent of predators or Twolegs, and by the time his friends had hooked several fish out of the stream there had been no sound to disturb them.

“Aren’t you hungry, Brambleclaw?” Squirrelflight asked, padding up to him and setting down the plump silver fish she carried in her jaws. “Or have you forgotten how to fish?”

“I was keeping watch,” he protested. He broke off when he spotted the gleam in her green eyes.

“Mousebrain,” she purred, patting the fish towards him with one forepaw. “I know exactly what you were doing, and I caught enough for both of us. Come and share.”

Tawnypelt shot Brambleclaw a look from narrowed eyes as he sat down beside Squirrelflight. “You seem pretty close,” she remarked quietly. “No need to ask StarClan what your future holds!”

Brambleclaw squirmed in embarrassment, uncomfortable at the thought of other cats gossiping about who he chose to spend time with. Then he relaxed. He had no reason to be secretive about his feelings for Squirrelflight, especially with his own sister. “Then that makes one less thing for StarClan to worry about,” he retorted lightly.

When the meal was over, he stood up, swiping his tongue around his jaws. “Where now?” he asked. “Back to the lake, or shall we have a look downstream?”

“I’d like to explore downstream,” meowed Mistyfoot. “We could see if there are any good places for a camp.”

Brambleclaw nodded, and the cats padded in single file along the bank of the stream, away from the lake. Brambleclaw let Mistyfoot take the lead, because she had the best idea of what she’d be looking out for to make a good RiverClan camp. As far as he could see, there were plenty of places where her Clanmates would feel at home: reed beds, clumps of bramble thickets for fresh-kill that wasn’t fish, with the gurgling of the stream always in their ears. Before very long, they came to a small trickle of water that fell down a slope thickly covered with fern and moss to join the main stream. The land between the two streams was sheltered by clumps of hazel and brambles.

“That’s perfect!” Mistyfoot’s eyes shone; she crossed the main stream, leaping from one pebbly island to the next, then paused as if she had almost forgotten that they needed to watch out for danger. She lifted her head to taste the air before vanishing into the undergrowth.

“It looks as if RiverClan are settled,” Tawnypelt commented.

“Nothing is settled,” Crowfeather reminded her sharply. “It’s for the leaders to decide how the territories are divided up.”

“Well, don’t tell me WindClan want to live by a stream, because I won’t believe you,” Squirrelflight retorted.

“Crowfeather’s right, but there’s no need to argue.” Brambleclaw tried to sound neutral, but he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of envy. This place was perfect for RiverClan, but it would suit ThunderClan very well, too. OK, so they had never hunted for fish back in the forest, but they could learn, and there were enough trees growing here to provide them with fur-clad prey as well. Brambleclaw wasn’t going to say anything now because it might upset Mistyfoot, but no final decisions could be made before they had seen everything. “With any luck, we’ll find somewhere right for all of us,” he meowed firmly.

Mistyfoot soon came back, her tail in the air and her eyes gleaming with satisfaction. “I’ve seen enough for now,” she mewed. “We could definitely make a camp here. Let’s keep going, and see if we can find somewhere for your Clans, too.”

Trying not to feel irritated by the trace of smugness in her tone, as if she was doing them a big favour by accompanying them when RiverClan seemed to have found their perfect home, Brambleclaw led the way to join her on the other side of the main stream. They headed back towards the lake, past the place where they had stopped to fish, and emerged from the trees into an open space stretching down to the shore. Not far ahead was the Twoleg half-bridge, and now that they were closer, Brambleclaw caught a faint but familiar tang in the air.

“There’s a Thunderpath nearby!” he hissed. The hair on his shoulders lifted and his blood turned to ice as he remembered the Twoleg monsters gouging through the forest, ripping the trees out of the ground and leaving an unrecognisable landscape of mud and ruts. Would Twolegs and their monsters drive them away from this place too?

Beside him, Squirrelflight stood with her paws braced against the ground and her fur fluffed up, as if she too was watching their home being destroyed all over again.

“I haven’t heard any monsters,” Mistyfoot meowed calmly. “Let’s go and look.”

She took a pace forward, glancing back when she realised that none of the others had followed her. “Look,” she went on, “we lived near the old Thunderpaths for seasons and seasons, and they never did any cat any harm, so long as we were careful. This one is quieter already—we haven’t heard a single monster today. There’s no need to lose your fur over it. Now come on.”

Brambleclaw gave himself a shake. He felt a bit cross that he had frozen at the first hint of danger, leaving Mistyfoot to take charge of the patrol. He padded forward warily with the others bunched around him. The scent of the Thunderpath strengthened and soon he spotted the hard, black surface, winding through the grass like a flattened snake. It was much narrower than the old Thunderpath, and as Mistyfoot had pointed out there were no monsters charging back and forth on it.

“What’s it for?” Crowfeather wondered, walking right up to the edge. “Look—it just goes down to the lake and stops.”

Brambleclaw realised he was right. The Thunderpath ended beside the lake in a wide area covered with the same hard, black stuff. At one side was a small Twoleg nest made of wood.

“The Twoleg scent is faint and stale,” Tawnypelt remarked. “I’d guess they haven’t been here for moons.”

“Look what I’ve found!”

Brambleclaw spun around and froze when he saw that Squirrelflight had ventured right out onto the half-bridge, and was gazing down into the water.

“Be careful!” he called, bounding over to her. His paws made a soft thudding sound on the planks of wood, and every few paces one of them rattled ominously. He tried not to think what it would feel like to plunge through into the icy grey water.

“Look!” Squirrelflight leaned over the edge and pricked her ears.

Following where she pointed, Brambleclaw saw another Twoleg object floating on the water. It looked like an upturned leaf, but it was much bigger and was made of wood. It was partly hidden by the half-bridge, so they hadn’t seen it from the shore.

“What is it?”

“Twolegs call it a boat,” Mistyfoot told them, padding up. Her fur lay flat on her shoulders, and she obviously wasn’t bothered by the rattling half-bridge. “They used to bring them onto our river sometimes—did you never see one? Sometimes they used them for fishing.”

Brambleclaw tried to picture a Twoleg crouching in this boat, waiting to hook out a fish with its big clumsy paws. He found it hard to believe they’d be quick enough to catch anything, but if Mistyfoot said so, it must be true.

“I think this must be a place where the Twolegs come in greenleaf, like the river,” Mistyfoot went on. “That means we don’t have to worry about them now.”

“We’ll need to worry in greenleaf, though,” Squirrelflight meowed.

Mistyfoot shrugged. “We’ll think about that when the time comes. There’ll be thicker growth everywhere by then. We can keep out of the Twolegs’ way, just as we did before.” She lifted her head to look squarely at Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight, and her gaze took in Crowfeather and Tawnypelt, who were waiting anxiously where the half-bridge joined with the shore. “Of course there will be dangers in our new home, wherever we end up,” she meowed, “but we mustn’t forget that we had enemies back in the forest, even before the Twolegs brought their monsters. If StarClan brought us here, it was not because there were no dangers here at all, but because we could learn to live among them, just as we did before.”

Squirrelflight nodded, chastened, but Brambleclaw curled his lip. He didn’t like the way Mistyfoot was treating them all like anxious apprentices. She had no idea of the dangers they had faced on the first journey to sun-drown-place! More Thunderpaths than she had crossed in her entire life, as well as dogs, hostile kittypets, Twolegs who wanted to trap them, hungry foxes . . .

“Are you going to stay here forever?” Squirrelflight had padded past him and was looking over her shoulder with her tail raised questioningly. Mistyfoot was already back on the shore with the others.

“No, I’m coming,” Brambleclaw muttered. He followed Squirrelflight off the half-bridge and tried not to feel mutinous when Mistyfoot led the way out of the clearing, away from the Thunderpath.

“She’s the deputy of her Clan,” Squirrelflight murmured, dropping back to walk close beside him. “You can’t blame her for having more experience than us.”

Brambleclaw was about to reply fiercely that their journey to sun-drown-place made them more experienced than any other forest cat when he saw that Squirrelflight was looking at him with sympathy in her green eyes. It wasn’t fair to take out his temper on her. If he was honest with himself, he was mostly feeling embarrassed because he had frozen with fear at the sight of the Thunderpath, afraid that what had driven them out of the forest was going to happen all over again.

He stretched his head forward to lick Squirrelflight’s ear. “I know,” he meowed. “And everything she says is true. Come on, let’s not get left behind.”

They broke into a run, and Brambleclaw felt a jolt of relief as they left the Twolegplace and the half-bridge behind and headed into the next part of the territory.

They were approaching the dark green smudge that he had seen across the lake from their temporary camp. As he had guessed, it was a pinewood, like the part of the forest in ThunderClan’s old territory that had surrounded Treecutplace. He sniffed the air, but there was no sign of the bitter stench left by tree-cutting monsters, and the ground was smooth and flat, unscarred by the ruts that monsters left behind.

The sun had started to go down, and a red light shone through the trees, casting dark shadows across their path. Tawnypelt’s tortoiseshell fur smouldered as the light glanced across her shoulders, and her eyes gleamed.

Brambleclaw realised that it wasn’t just the woods around Treecutplace that were like this; ShadowClan’s old territory had also had lots of pine trees, giving way to sticky, marshy ground where only a few stunted trees grew.

“Do you think ShadowClan would like to settle here?” he asked his sister.

“Maybe.” Tawnypelt’s tail twitched. “But back in the forest there were more trees with lower branches. We’d have trouble climbing most of these.”

Brambleclaw saw that she was right. The pines around them grew straight up, with smooth, slippery trunks, and the lowest branches began well above a cat’s head. An energetic warrior could claw his way up the trunk, but elders or queens and their kits would have trouble. If foxes or badgers attacked, the weakest cats in the Clan would find it hard to escape.

“But you won’t camp in the trees,” Crowfeather meowed. “If you make this your territory, you’ll need somewhere easy to defend for your camp.”

Tawnypelt nodded and looked around. The old ShadowClan camp had been in the shelter of a clump of bramble bushes, dense enough to keep the cats hidden and prickly enough to discourage even the most curious foxes. “I can’t see anywhere here,” she commented.

The ground sloped gently upwards from the lake, which was just visible through the trees as a glimmer of silver. As far as Brambleclaw could see the forest floor was smooth and clear, with little undergrowth where prey might be found. When he tasted the air, the strongest scent except for their own was squirrel—but a Clan could not survive by waiting for squirrels to come down from the trees.

A pang of sympathy for his sister tore through him like a claw. In the forest they had left, ShadowClan’s territory had been dreary and unwelcoming: partly bog, partly scrubby forest with few tall trees. He had always wondered if the darkness in the hearts of some of the ShadowClan cats came from their gloomy surroundings. This wasn’t quite as forbidding, but it still wasn’t right for cats.

“It might be different further on,” he mewed encouragingly. “Let’s head away from the lake.”

Tawnypelt took the lead as they moved warily up the slope. The thick covering of brittle pine needles muffled their pawsteps; everything was so quiet that their meows sounded too loud, and gradually every cat fell silent. Brambleclaw nearly jumped out of his fur when a bird shot up with a loud alarm call.

Squirrelflight sniffed at a clump of yellowish fungi and drew back with her lip curled in disgust. “I wouldn’t want to live here,” she muttered to Brambleclaw. “Do you think there’s any point in going further?”

“It’s up to Tawnypelt,” he replied. “This is more like ShadowClan territory than anything we’ve seen so far.”

They padded on, but before they had gone many more pawsteps Mistyfoot stopped. “This is no good,” she meowed. “We’re getting further and further away from the lake, and it’s going to get dark soon.”

“I need to find somewhere for a ShadowClan camp,” Tawnypelt insisted stubbornly.

“But the Clans sent us to patrol the whole lake.” Mistyfoot’s tail twitched. “We can’t waste time exploring one place more than anywhere else. You’ve already said that these trees remind you of your old home, so maybe this should be ShadowClan territory.”

“And what do you think I’m going to say to Blackstar about where we’ll actually live?” Tawnypelt’s voice had grown sharper, and her neck fur began to rise. “You needn’t think ShadowClan are going to take the worst territory. If there’s nowhere to camp, then forget it!”

Mistyfoot’s neck fur bristled too. “Trust ShadowClan to be difficult!”

“It’s all right for you, isn’t it? RiverClan’s got everything sorted out. You were pretty quick to stake a claim when we found that stream!”

Mistyfoot let out a furious hiss, unsheathing her claws, and Brambleclaw quickly stepped forward to push himself between the quarrelling she-cats. Much as he sympathised with Tawnypelt, it would be a disaster if she got into a fight with the RiverClan deputy. There was no way they could deal with injuries out here, with no medicine cats and no healing herbs; and how would they ever finish their mission if they were quarrelling among themselves?

“Stop! Tawnypelt, no cat will force ShadowClan to settle in a place they don’t want.”

“Huh!” Tawnypelt shot a last glare at Mistyfoot before turning away.

“I think we should go on a bit further,” Brambleclaw mewed to Mistyfoot. “We need to find somewhere to spend the night.”

“I know.” Mistyfoot still sounded out of temper. “I just think we should head back to the lake.”

“But—” Brambleclaw broke off. A faint breeze had sprung up, bringing with it an unexpected scent. He tasted the air, just to be sure. “More cats!” he exclaimed.

“What?” Squirrelflight bounded over. “Where?”

Brambleclaw angled his ears in the direction they had been going. “Up ahead.”

“They must be rogues or loners.” Crowfeather sounded concerned. “Or maybe some other Clan has already staked a claim here.”

The suggestion worried Brambleclaw for a moment; then he comforted himself with the memory of stars shining in the lake. If StarClan had brought them here, then there could be no other warrior ancestors watching over this territory. StarClan had been silent and invisible while the Clans travelled through the mountains, where the Tribe of Endless Hunting watched over their former home.

“Maybe they’re just passing through,” he meowed. “But we ought to check it out.”

“I don’t think it’s important now.” Mistyfoot waved her tail as Brambleclaw opened his jaws to protest. “All right, all right. But you can tell the leaders why it took us so long to get back.”

“Fine,” Brambleclaw agreed, before heading through the trees in the direction of the scent. Soon they came to a low wall of rough grey stone with a Twoleg nest beyond it.

“Twolegs!” Tawnypelt sounded disgusted. “Those must be kittypets we can smell.”

Squirrelflight rolled her eyes. “All this fuss about kitty pets!”

“You stay here,” Brambleclaw mewed softly. “I’m going to take a closer look.”

“What for?” Mistyfoot’s tail twitched impatiently, but she didn’t say anything else when Brambleclaw crept forward.

With his belly close to the ground, he got as close to the wall as he could before leaping to the top. The sunlight was almost gone by now, and shadows were gathering in the Twoleg garden. Nothing stirred. Brambleclaw was about to jump down for a closer look when he heard the sound of claws on the stone beside him, and Squirrelflight’s voice exclaimed, “Catmint!”

“I thought I told you to stay back there,” Brambleclaw hissed.

Squirrelflight gave him an innocent look. “Did you? Sorry. Anyway, the medicine cats will be interested to hear that we’ve found a supply of catmint.”

“That was well scented,” Brambleclaw admitted grudgingly. “Now if you must come, stay with me, and for StarClan’s sake keep quiet!”

He dropped into the garden behind a clump of whiskery Twoleg plants. Squirrelflight landed softly beside him, and together they crept closer to the Twoleg nest. The scent of kittypets was very strong: two of them, Brambleclaw thought. He was about to suggest going back when a light flashed on in the nest and he found himself blinking in the yellow glow. Instinctively he slid to one side, back into the shadows, and watched as a Twoleg appeared and began to pull pelts across to hide the light.

“Squirrelflight?” he whispered. “Where are you? Let’s get out of here.”

Squirrelflight’s voice came from the other side of the patch of light. “Er . . . Brambleclaw, you might want to rethink that.”

At first Brambleclaw couldn’t see her in the fast-gathering darkness. Then as the Twoleg hid the last of the light he spotted her, close to the wall of the nest. Her back was arched and her fur fluffed out so she looked almost twice her size. Two angry kittypets faced her, trapping her against the wall.

Brambleclaw stared in disbelief. In spite of their hostile encounter with a kittypet at the start of their journey, he still expected most kittypets to be small and soft—no danger to a trained warrior. But these two looked lean and dangerous, their muscles sharply etched beneath sleek pelts. The nearest to him, a big black-and-white tom, had one ear that was torn jaggedly, proving he was no stranger to fights.

In the moment that Brambleclaw stood frozen, the tom lashed out at Squirrelflight. She shrank back with a furious hiss. “Leave me alone, kittypet!”





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