Long Shadows

by Erin Hunter

  Soft paw steps sounded behind Jaypaw; he spun around to see a ginger-and-white tom standing at the entrance to one of the tunnels. His green eyes looked haunted and somber, as if he couldn’t shake off the memory of drowning when rain flooded the tunnels.

  “Fallen Leaves!” Jaypaw exclaimed.

  “I didn’t think you would come back.” Aching loneliness vibrated in the ancient cat’s voice. “Are you going to stay with me this time?”

  Sympathy stabbed Jaypaw, sharp as a thorn in his pad. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be trapped down here, alone, for countless seasons. The last time he had seen Fallen Leaves, the ancient cat had saved his life, and the lives of his littermates and WindClan cats, when floodwaters had risen while they were looking for the lost kits.

  “What happened to your Clanmates?” Jaypaw asked. “Why did they leave the lake?”

  Fallen Leaves looked down at his paws. “I don’t know. I only knew that they had gone. Sharpclaws stopped coming into the tunnels, and the only sound from the moor was the wind. I have been on my own here for so long, I have lost count of the moons.” He raised his head, his green eyes pleading. “You and your friends were the first cats I had seen down here since…since I came in.”

  “I have to know why they left!” Jaypaw meowed; he couldn’t explain it, but he was certain that the fate of those long-ago cats was bound up with the prophecy. Meeting Rock, finding the stick, feeling the whispers of ancient cats around him when he went to the Moonpool: None of that had happened by chance, he was sure.

  He bounded toward the tunnel that led up into ThunderClan territory, brushing aside Fallen Leaves, who stared after him in dismay.

  “Wait!” Fallen Leaves called out. “I thought you were going to stay with me.”

  “I have to know what happened,” Jaypaw insisted with a last glance over his shoulder. The drowned cat was standing at the end of the tunnel, his eyes wide and distressed.

  Jaypaw forced anger to stifle his pity. “How can I stay with him?” he muttered as he padded forward into the thick blackness of the tunnel. “There are too many things I need to find out. I can’t spend all my time hanging out with a dead cat!”

  He expected to emerge in the woods above the hollow, awake and blind once more, or perhaps find himself on the lakeshore with the stick. Instead, daylight began to gleam on the walls ahead of him, growing stronger as he padded on. He could hear the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

  “I must be still dreaming,” he whispered.

  His paws tingling, Jaypaw headed for the light. Rounding a curve in the tunnel, he saw a circle of daylight ahead of him. Excited voices broke the silence.

  “Is it him?”

  “He’s later than I thought he’d be.”

  “Do you think he got lost?”

  Jaypaw slowed his pace. Even if he was coming up inside WindClan, he should have known some of the voices, but they were all strange to him. And he didn’t recognize any of the scents drifting toward him from the tunnel mouth. Where was he, and who was waiting for him?

  Then another voice reached him, making his paws freeze to the floor of the tunnel.

  “Jay’s Wing? Jay’s Wing, is that you?”

  CHAPTER 15

  Jaypaw forced his legs to carry him forward to the end of the tunnel. As he emerged, blinking, into brilliant sunlight, several cats crowded around him, mewing excitedly.

  “Jay’s Wing! It is you!”

  “Well done! You’re a sharpclaw now.”

  “Congratulations!”

  At first Jaypaw couldn’t make out individual cats among the press of furry bodies. Then a ginger-and-white she-cat thrust her way through the crowd. Her fur stood on end as she danced on restless paws.

  “You’re lucky Jay’s Wing survived the challenge!” she yowled. Her voice quivered with sorrow, and her amber eyes were full of bitterness. “Have you forgotten that Fallen Leaves never came out of the tunnels?”

  A small gray-and-white she-cat, her belly heavy with kits, padded up to her side and pressed her muzzle into her shoulder. “Come on, Broken Shadow,” she murmured. “Let’s go find a patch of sunshine to rest in.”

  “You don’t understand, Rising Moon!” Broken Shadow wailed, but she allowed the other she-cat to lead her away.

  Jaypaw stared around him, his mind racing. He recognized the way the ground sloped down toward the entrance to the tunnels, but the trees were smaller, letting through the bright sunlight that had dazzled him. The spaces between the trees were mostly clear of undergrowth. It was like his home, yet not like it.

  Where am I? And who are these strange cats? Has ThunderClan been invaded?

  He spun around, looking for his Clanmates. Looking? Jaypaw shivered. This feels too real to be a dream. He could feel the wind in his fur and hear the voices of the other cats like birdsong in his ears; his belly was rumbling and his paws dragged as though he had truly been awake all night, searching for a way out of the tunnels in order to become a sharpclaw.

  A pretty pale gray she-cat bounded up to him, her blue eyes sparkling with affection. She drew her tail down Jaypaw’s side.

  “You’re a sharpclaw! It’s so exciting!” she meowed, bouncing gently on her paws. Suddenly her tail drooped. “I wish our mother could see you.”

  Jaypaw stiffened. This she-cat was his sister?

  Who does she think I am?

  “Perhaps Falcon Swoop can see you.” A silver-furred she-cat padded up to Jaypaw. She was slender and graceful, with long legs and brilliant blue eyes.

  “Do you really think so, Whispering Breeze?” Jaypaw’s sister meowed hopefully.

  “Precious Dove’s Wing, you know how much Falcon Swoop loved you and Jay’s Wing while she was alive. I’m sure she still loves you, wherever she may be.”

  “I hope so,” Dove’s Wing murmured.

  Jaypaw didn’t understand. Don’t these cats go to StarClan when they die? And why do they all seem to know me?

  “Look, there’s been a mistake,” he began. “I’m not who you think I am. And where’s ThunderClan?”

  Whispering Breeze stretched out her neck to give him a sniff. “Are you okay?” she queried. “I think your brain got scrambled down in the tunnels.”

  “What’s ThunderClan?” Dove’s Wing asked, faintly anxious. “Did Rock tell you about it?”

  Rock? Jaypaw’s belly lurched. Did Dove’s Wing know the sightless cat who lived in the tunnels?

  He was about to ask her, when another cat loomed over him, a dark ginger tabby tom with muscular shoulders and amber eyes. “Don’t forget sharpclaws never talk about what goes on in the caves,” he warned. “That’s a secret they must keep for the rest of their lives.”

  “It’s okay, Furled Bracken,” Dove’s Wing assured him. “Jay’s Wing is just a bit confused.”

  Furled Bracken grunted. “Just so long as he remembers what he was told when he went into the tunnels two nights ago.”

  “I haven’t been in the tunnels for two nights!” Jaypaw protested. “I—”

  “We were so worried about you when you didn’t come out on the first sunrise,” Dove’s Wing interrupted. “We thought you’d been lost.”

  “Like Fallen Leaves,” a new voice broke in. Jaypaw turned and saw a hefty dark gray tabby tom with glittering ice-blue eyes. Sadness radiated from his pelt. Jaypaw picked up such a strong image of Fallen Leaves from his mind that he guessed this cat must be the drowned cat’s father.

  “Stone Song.” Furled Bracken touched the tabby tom’s ear with his nose. “I know how hard this is for you.”

  Stone Song sighed. “We waited a moon of sunrises for Fallen Leaves to emerge,” he murmured. “But he never came.” He glanced across at Broken Shadow, who was lying under a tree not far off. Rising Moon crouched beside her, grooming her gently like a mother with her kit. “It is time to give up waiting,” Stone Song finished quietly.

  Jaypaw stared at the dark gray tabby. How can it be only one moon since Fallen Leaves di
sappeared? If that’s true, it means this must be long ago! Somehow he had emerged from the tunnels during the time before the Clan cats came to the lake, maybe even as far back as when the ancient cats trod the path to the Moonpool.

  The stick! Jaypaw felt every hair on his pelt rise. I’m among the cats who are marked on the stick!

  He looked back at the mouth of the tunnel. It looked different now, because it was on exposed hillside rather than surrounded by thick undergrowth, but he had sensed its shape when he walked through it to find the WindClan kits, and he was sure it was the same tunnel. Turning, he looked down at the lake, its glinting surface clearly visible through the trees. The shape of the water was familiar, but when he looked across to the flank of WindClan territory, he spotted Twolegs swarming over a mound of pale brown earth, pushing it around with yellow monsters. Their roaring hung in the air like the buzzing of bumblebees.

  Jaypaw padded forward to the edge of the slope to take a closer look. A moment later, Furled Bracken joined him. “The Twolegs are still moving the earth,” he meowed worriedly. “Chasing Clouds and I went down there to check it out, but we still don’t know what they’re doing.”

  “They’re building nests,” Jaypaw replied without thinking.

  Furled Bracken gave him a sharp look. “What, nests for Twolegs to live in? There are a few in the woods on the other side of the lake, but Twolegs have never tried to live any closer than that.”

  “Yes, there’ll be four nests.” Jaypaw remembered Hollyleaf’s and Lionblaze’s description of the horseplace. “The Twolegs are going to keep horses there.”

  He realized that Furled Bracken was looking at him with a strange expression in his eyes. “How do you know that?” he gasped.

  Jaypaw gulped. Mouse-brain! Of course these cats had no way of knowing what the Twolegs were doing with their yellow monsters. Had he just made a prophecy that was going to come true?

  Furled Bracken twitched his ears; he was still waiting for an answer.

  Jaypaw shrugged. “I just figure that’s what Twolegs do when they dig holes in the ground.”

  The ginger tom was still giving him a doubtful look. And I can’t say I blame him. Jaypaw was relieved to see Dove’s Wing bounding toward them.

  “What are you doing, standing here?” she demanded as she gave him a shove back toward the deeper part of the forest. “You must be worn out and starving after being in the tunnels all that time. You need to rest. And I want Rising Moon to take a look at your pads. They’re bleeding from walking on stone for so long.”

  Jaypaw looked down and saw spots of blood smeared on the grass where he had put his paws. Pain suddenly swept over him, and his head spun from the hunger that snarled in his belly. Maybe he really had been in the tunnels for two nights. He was glad to follow Dove’s Wing into the trees, where the long shadows of early morning striped the grass.

  “Are we going to the camp?” he asked.

  Dove’s Wing turned back, her blue eyes puzzled. “What do you mean? Are you sure you’re feeling all right?”

  Okay, so these cats don’t have a camp, Jaypaw guessed. Think before you ask any more questions, stupid furball!

  Looking worried, Dove’s Wing nosed aside some tendrils of ivy hanging from an oak tree, to reveal a cozy scoop among the roots. The bottom was lined with moss and feathers; warm scent clung about it.

  This must be a den. Jaypaw bent his head to sniff, and felt every muscle in his body tense. That’s my own scent!

  Dove’s Wing nudged him forward. “Lie down. I’m going to fetch Rising Moon.”

  Rising Moon must be the medicine cat, Jaypaw thought, remembering how she had comforted Fallen Leaves’s mother. He watched Dove’s Wing as she trotted away, trying to spot more dens among the trees and scant undergrowth. He couldn’t see any, but the intensity of scent in the air suggested they were not far-off.

  Worn out, Jaypaw crawled into the den, curled up, and closed his eyes. Anxiety clawed through him. Will I ever get back to ThunderClan? But he was so exhausted that he fell into a shallow, uneasy sleep.

  “…these are good juicy dock leaves.” The voice roused Jaypaw from his doze. “Well done for finding that clump.”

  Relief flooded through him. He was back in his nest in the medicine cats’ den, with Leafpool talking about herbs close by.

  Then he opened his eyes and saw tangled brown roots and soft feathers around his head. He could still see. The voice he could hear wasn’t Leafpool’s, and when the ivy tendrils twitched to one side, Dove’s Wing and Rising Moon looked down at him, their eyes huge with concern. Dove’s Wing had a bunch of dock leaves in her jaws. Jaypaw gave himself a tiny shake. If he wasn’t going to wake up back in his own Clan, in his own time, then he must be here for a reason. Maybe this was another place where he’d find answers to his questions about the prophecy—answers that StarClan couldn’t give him.

  “Were you hurt while you were in the tunnels?” Rising Moon asked.

  Jaypaw shook his head. “N-no. I’m not injured. My pads are sore, that’s all.”

  “Were you scared down there?”

  “A bit.” Jaypaw wondered if Rising Moon thought he was losing his mind. Dove’s Wing must have told her about the peculiar things he’d said. “I’m really tired, though,” he added, hoping she would believe that was the reason for his odd behavior. “And hungry. I…I guess that’s made me confused.”

  He had to convince these cats that he really was Jay’s Wing. He wasn’t sure what they would do to him if they discovered he wasn’t. They certainly wouldn’t believe him if he told them the truth.

  He had waited for so long to find out about the ancient cats, and now here he was, living among them! No other cat in the Clans or the Tribe of Rushing Water knew as much as this about the cats who once lived beside the lake. Jaypaw had always been conscious of them, felt their pelts brush against his, heard their whispers by the lake, and trodden in their paw steps on his way to the Moonpool.

  And now I’m one of them!

  Rising Moon blinked thoughtfully. “I guess there’s nothing wrong that food and rest won’t cure. Let’s look at your pads.” She crawled down into the den to crouch beside Jaypaw. “Have you licked them clean?”

  “Uh…no.”

  Rising Moon waited while Jaypaw’s tongue rasped busily at his pads, scraping off the mud and grit. Dove’s Wing dropped the mouthful of dock leaves down to her.

  “Oh, are you using dock?” Jaypaw asked, looking up from his licking. “I always thought horsetail was best to stop bleeding.”

  Rising Moon’s eyes widened in surprise. “Horsetail? I’ve never heard of that. I don’t think it grows around here. Where did you hear about it?”

  Every hair on Jaypaw’s pelt tingled. He’d done it again!

  Think next time before you open your jaws, mouse-brain! “Er…I think one of the elders mentioned it,” he muttered, hoping that these cats had elders.

  “I’ll have a word with Running Horse later,” Rising Moon meowed. “He taught me so much about herbs, I’m sure he’ll know about it.”

  “I saw Dawn River using yarrow the other day,” Dove’s Wing added helpfully. “We could ask her advice, too.”

  So they don’t have a single medicine cat, Jaypaw thought as Rising Moon rubbed the cooling dock leaves on his pads. Just a few cats who share knowledge about herbs. And they don’t know as much as a Clan medicine cat.

  Jaypaw remembered how uncertain Dove’s Wing had been that her mother might be watching her. If these cats had no medicine cat, that could explain why they weren’t aware of their ancestors. What do they think happens when a cat dies?

  “There.” Rising Moon finished rubbing the last of Jaypaw’s pads. “Does that feel better?”

  “It feels great, thanks.” Even though he knew that horsetail would have worked better, Jaypaw was still grateful for the cooling juices on his pads.

  “You can rub your feet again later,” the she-cat went on, pushing the remaining dock leaves tog
ether into a pile. “But you’d better get some sleep now.”

  “I’ll bring you something to eat,” Dove’s Wing promised.

  Jaypaw’s jaws stretched in an enormous yawn. He was barely aware of Rising Moon scrambling out of the den. Closing his eyes, he let himself drift into sleep.

  CHAPTER 16

  Scent tickled Jaypaw’s nose. Mouse! His belly growled, and his eyes flew open to see that dusk had fallen. Dove’s Wing’s pale gray shape stood on the edge of the den, peering down at him. A mouse dangled from her jaws.

  “You’re awake!” she exclaimed, dropping the mouse at her paws. “Are you feeling better?”

  “I’m fine,” Jaypaw meowed, hauling himself out from underneath the tree roots.

  “Hey, Jay’s Wing!” A young brown tabby tom was standing just behind Dove’s Wing, his amber eyes alight with curiosity. “What was it like, down in the tunnels?”

  “Quiet, Fish Leap!” A white she-cat padded up on Dove’s Wing’s other side. “Don’t pester Jay’s Wing. He must be worn out already, without you asking questions.”

  “And don’t tell me what to do, Half Moon,” Fish Leap retorted. “You want to know everything as much as I do.”

  The white cat brushed her pelt against Jaypaw’s. Her green eyes shone up at him. “Of course I do,” she purred. “But I can wait while he eats.”

  The scent of the mouse was making Jaypaw’s mouth water. “Thanks,” he meowed to Dove’s Wing, and took a bite. He was aware of Fish Leap tearing impatiently at the grass beside him.

  “I don’t know why Furled Bracken is making us wait to go into the tunnels,” he grumbled. “We’re all ready to become sharpclaws. I want to get on with my challenge.”

  “Furled Bracken will let us go when he thinks we’re ready,” Dove’s Wing meowed.

  So they’re all apprentices, Jaypaw figured as he gulped down the mouse. If they call them apprentices here. It sounds as if Furled Bracken is their leader. But how can he have nine lives if they don’t know about StarClan?

  “Well, come on.” Fish Leap sounded irritated. “Tell us.”