by Erin Hunter
Frecklepaw was gradually drawing closer to the pigeon. Leafstar’s pelt prickled with excitement as she watched the apprentice’s agile progress through the branches. Ebonyclaw had taught her well. Even so, Leafstar wasn’t sure that Frecklepaw would be able to manage the kill on her own. The pigeon was large, and becoming more and more flustered as Frecklepaw drew closer. With every heartbeat Leafstar expected it to fly off.
“Spread out,” she whispered to the rest of the patrol. “Climb trees so that we’re surrounding the pigeon.”
Sharpclaw, Egg, and Ebonyclaw headed off in different directions. Leafstar chose the tree next to the one where the pigeon had finally settled on a branch. Frecklepaw was edging closer, prowling along another branch a tail-length higher.
Leafstar had just started to climb when a terrified yowl split the silence of the woods. “Watch out! Get away from there!”
The pigeon flew off, vanishing into a more distant clump of trees. “Mouse dung!” Frecklepaw exclaimed, staring after it indignantly.
Leafstar dropped to the ground again to see Egg hurtling across the forest floor, his voice still raised in a loud wail. He charged into Ebonyclaw as she braced herself to jump onto the trunk of a fallen tree, bundling her away from it. “There’s a fox! A fox!” he screeched.
“Get off me!” Ebonyclaw pushed Egg away and scrambled to her paws, spitting in fury.
Leafstar paused for a heartbeat to taste the air. She picked up the SkyClan border markings a few tail-lengths ahead, and sure enough, a strong scent of young fox.
“How did you know about that?” she asked Egg, padding over to where the new apprentice had crouched in the grass and was staring around fearfully.
Egg staggered to his paws, trying to force his bristling fur to lie flat. “My den is on the other side of that tree,” he explained. “At least, it was until the fox came.”
Leafstar nodded worriedly. “Thanks for warning us,” she meowed. “We don’t want a fox in our territory. We’ll have to organize a patrol to hunt it down, and chase it away if we have to.”
“No need,” Sharpclaw assured her, strolling over to her side. “The fox has gone now.”
“You knew about it?” Leafstar asked, baffled. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
Sharpclaw shrugged. “There was no point. I knew the trail led away from our territory.”
“That’s not what you told me!” To Leafstar’s amazement, Egg pushed himself between her and her deputy, gazing at his mentor with troubled blue eyes. “You said that the fox had come to live here permanently, and I wouldn’t be safe if I stayed here on my own.”
A thorn of suspicion stabbed Leafstar. “When did he say this?” she asked Egg.
“A few days ago, when he came to find me to warn me about the fox,” Egg replied, looking confused. “He was right, wasn’t he? I mean, foxes won’t hurt me, now that I live with the Clan.”
Leafstar’s suspicions hardened into certainty. Sharpclaw lied to me! And he lied to Egg about the danger from the fox, just to get him to join the Clan.
With an effort, she fought back her shock and anger. She didn’t want to let the others know what Sharpclaw had done.
“Foxes are very unlikely to attack the gorge,” she assured Egg. “And even if they do, we have plans in place to defend ourselves. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“That’s great!” Egg puffed with relief.
Leafstar glanced at Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw. The apprentice had clambered down from the branches and was sniffing around the fallen tree. “The fox scent is quite stale,” she reported to Ebonyclaw with a bewildered look.
Her mentor looked just as puzzled, while Sharpclaw was standing by with defiance in his green eyes, as if he was challenging Leafstar to say something about his plot.
“Ebonyclaw,” Leafstar meowed, “take Frecklepaw and Egg and see if you can find another pigeon. No, Sharpclaw,” she added, as her deputy was about to move off with the rest of the patrol, “you stay here. I want a word with you.”
She kept silent until the other three cats had disappeared among the trees. Sharpclaw gave his shoulder fur a couple of nonchalant licks as he waited for her to speak. Once she was sure they couldn’t be overheard, Leafstar turned on him angrily. “You can’t recruit Clan members with lies!”
Sharpclaw met her gaze steadily. “It wasn’t a lie. There was a fox here, and Egg will be much safer with the Clan. Look at him,” he added, waving his tail in the direction the cream-colored tom had taken. “Long legs, powerful haunches. He’s obviously one of us.”
“True.” Leafstar twitched her ears. She wondered what other secrets her deputy was keeping from her; suddenly she remembered what Billystorm had told her about Sharpclaw and Stick roaming through the Twolegplace at night. Can that possibly be true?
With a shock like a plunge into icy water, Leafstar realized that she no longer trusted her deputy.
“Is that all?” Sharpclaw interrupted her thoughts. He looked quite cheerful now, as if he was satisfied that he had explained himself successfully. “If so, I’ll go catch up with the others.”
He bounded off. Leafstar watched him, shaking her head sadly. He doesn’t even see that he’s done anything wrong. She resented his secrecy and the way he had manipulated Egg, yet she had to admit that the new apprentice would be a valuable addition to the Clan. He had natural talent, and seemed like a quick learner. Maybe it doesn’t matter how Egg was persuaded to join us. SkyClan is obviously where he’s meant to be.
The sun was starting to go down, filling the forest with red-gold light as the patrol made its way back to camp. Frecklepaw was delighted that she’d managed to catch another pigeon, and staggered along with it proudly. Ebonyclaw was carrying two mice, while Egg had caught a sparrow and Sharpclaw a blackbird.
When they were almost at the gorge, Leafstar set down her own prey, a couple of shrews. “Sharpclaw, can you manage to carry these back?” she asked. “I’ll go dig up Egg’s squirrel and follow you down.”
Sharpclaw gave her a brisk nod, and managed to get his jaws around the extra prey. Leafstar padded through the trees until she reached the spot where Sharpclaw had buried the squirrel, spotted the beech husk marker, and began to dig. As she was shaking damp earth off the fresh-kill she heard a rustle in the undergrowth, and Echosong came into view, with a bundle of herbs in her mouth. She looked tired; her pelt was ungroomed and its white patches were grubby.
A pang of sympathy shook Leafstar. “I’ll get you some help,” she promised when she had greeted Echosong. “Maybe Shrewtooth would like to take a break from his warrior duties.”
Echosong dropped her burden and stalked forward, tension in every line of her body. “Shrewtooth has never shown any interest in being a medicine cat,” she mewed bitterly. “But Frecklepaw obviously wants to change her apprenticeship!”
Leafstar sighed. “We’ve discussed this. We can’t have a daylight-warrior as our medicine cat.”
“We could find a way to make it work,” Echosong argued. “It’s not as if my bones are creaking with age. I plan on being around for a long time yet!”
Warmth flooded through Leafstar as she felt her old friendship with the medicine cat beginning to revive. “Good. I’m very glad,” she murmured, touching Echosong’s ear lightly with her nose.
Carrying the squirrel, she headed for the camp again. Echosong retrieved her bundle of herbs and padded by her side. Near the edge of the wood they came upon a sunlit tree trunk overgrown with grass and fern.
“Let’s rest for a bit,” Leafstar suggested, letting the squirrel fall.
Echosong put down her herbs next to the fresh-kill and joined Leafstar as she stretched out in the patch of warmth, enjoying the fresh green scent of the undergrowth.
“How’s Billystorm?” the medicine cat asked.
Leafstar felt her pads prickle at the cautious note in her friend’s voice. “He’s fine. Why do you ask?”
Echosong didn’t meet her gaze. “I think
you ought to know,” she began, patting at a grass stem with outstretched paw. “Cats are beginning to talk.”
“What about?” Leafstar meowed.
“You and Billystorm. You’re obviously very … close.”
“He’s a good warrior!” Leafstar pointed out. She felt a burst of excitement. It felt so good to be able to talk about Billystorm to a friend. “We … we have a real connection,” she confessed. “He seems to think the same way I do, and when he’s not here, I feel … empty.”
“Yes, he’s a great Clanmate,” Echosong agreed, still with her gaze fixed on the waving stem. “We’re lucky to have him. But… Leafstar, you need to be careful not to show favoritism toward the kitty … daylight-warriors.”
“This isn’t favoritism!” Leafstar protested. “I… I want Billystorm and me to become mates.”
Her heart beat faster as she spoke her most secret hope aloud; but it was the truth.
Echosong turned to her, her eyes wide with shock. “But you can’t! Not now, with things so tense between the full warriors and the daylight-warriors. At the very least, you and Billystorm ought to wait until things are easier.”
If they ever are, Leafstar thought. I don’t want to wait, she added to herself, aware that she sounded like a mutinous apprentice or an impatient kit.
“I can cope,” she replied shortly to the medicine cat. “That shouldn’t make any difference to me and Billystorm.”
“Besides,” Echosong went on as if Leafstar hadn’t spoken, “it could be difficult if you had kits. I know that you have a deputy and a medicine cat to help you look after the Clan, but what if there was a battle?”
“Who said anything about kits?” Leafstar asked. “You’re being mouse-brained. It’s far too early to be thinking about that.”
“No, it’s not.” Echosong rose to her paws so that she was standing over Leafstar. “You have to stop thinking about Billystorm in that way, right now! You have a different destiny, one that involves the future of the whole Clan.” Her voice softened and her deep green gaze glowed with sympathy. “And it is a path that you must walk alone.”
CHAPTER 26
The sun had dipped below the level of the gorge, casting long shadows over the rocks. Leafstar padded across to the fresh-kill pile and dropped her squirrel on top of the rest of the prey. Her belly was still churning after her conversation with Echosong; she felt as if every hair on her pelt were a pricking claw, reminding her of her duty as Clan leader.
As she turned away, Petalnose looked up from the vole she was gulping down. “Hi, Leafstar. Do you want to come and eat with me?”
“No, thanks,” Leafstar meowed. “I’m not hungry.”
She noticed a flicker of surprise in Petalnose’s eyes. “Is everything okay?” the gray she-cat asked.
Leafstar was in no mood for her Clanmate’s concern. “Everything’s fine,” she snapped. “Why wouldn’t it be?”
Stalking toward the trail that led up to her den, Leafstar was relieved that there was no sign of Billystorm in camp. I hope he’s gone back to his housefolk with Snookpaw.
But as she began to climb the trail, she heard the ginger-and-white tom’s voice. “If you twist like this as you leap, Snookpaw, you’ll throw your enemy off balance.”
Looking down, Leafstar spotted Billystorm a few fox-lengths farther up the gorge, demonstrating a battle move to Snookpaw and Tinycloud.
“That’s a great move,” the white she-cat meowed. “Can I give it a try?”
Leafstar didn’t stop to watch any more. Instead, she leaped up the last few paw steps to her den and bounded inside, letting out a breath of relief to be on her own at last. Her mind whirled with unwelcome thoughts. Part of her was angry with Echosong, but mostly she was afraid that the medicine cat was right. Would it really be wrong of me to become Billystorm’s mate?
Gazing out at the darkening sky, where the first warriors of StarClan glimmered over the trees, Leafstar remembered Firestar explaining how her ancestors had marked her out as the leader of the new Clan.
“You told me plenty about StarClan,” she growled softly. “But you never told me this.” Fury tore through her like a stab of lightning, and she scraped her claws across the floor of her den; if Firestar had been there, she might have raked them across his flame-colored pelt. “Why didn’t you tell me that I’d have to put the Clan first, before having a mate or kits? You have Sandstorm. Is it so different for she-cats? Why did you make me leader?”
But even as she spoke, she knew she was being unfair. It was StarClan who had chosen her to be leader, after they sent the sign of dappled leaf shadows to Echosong. They trusted me to be the best leader, she thought, sighing as her rage ebbed away. I can’t let them down.
Curling up in her mossy nest, Leafstar fell into an uneasy sleep. Mist surged around her, and she found herself stumbling over rocks, with looming cliffs of black stone on either side. She struggled against panic, knowing that this was a dream, but unable to shake off the feeling that she was trapped in an unfamiliar place.
“Is any cat there?” she called out.
There was no reply, nothing but the echoing sound of water dripping from the rocks.
“Leafstar! Are you okay?”
The voice cut through Leafstar’s dream. She struggled back to wakefulness to see Billystorm at the entrance to her den, outlined against the twilit sky.
I must have only slept for a few heartbeats, but it felt like seasons.
“I’m fine,” Leafstar replied, rising groggily to her paws and padding over to him.
“I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come with me to the Twolegplace tonight,” Billystorm went on. “We could look out for Sharpclaw and Stick leading one of their patrols.” When Leafstar didn’t reply right away, he added, “Besides, it would be nice to spend some time away from the Clan for a while.”
Oh, yes, it would… Leafstar yearned to agree, to run beside Billystorm along the mysterious paths of the Twolegplace. And it would be useful to discover whether Sharpclaw really was up to something.
But I can’t. I’m Clan leader. I can’t.
“No,” Leafstar replied, sounding harsher than she had intended. “I can’t go chasing around the Twolegplace. My Clanmates need me here.”
Even in the dim light, she could see the hurt in Billystorm’s eyes. “I’m your Clanmate, too,” he pointed out.
“But you have housefolk.” Every word felt like a thorn in her throat. “I’m sorry, Billystorm. Go home.”
Confusion tightened Billystorm’s expression. “But Leafstar—” he began, then broke off. “What about Sharpclaw and Stick?” he asked.
“Why are you so eager to accuse them?” Leafstar challenged. “You’re not showing much loyalty to your Clan deputy, are you? No other cats have mentioned Sharpclaw and Stick leaving the gorge at night. And I don’t believe that Sharpclaw would order a patrol without discussing it with me first.”
As she finished speaking, Billystorm backed away, his eyes cold. “I thought I meant something to you, more than just another Clanmate,” he meowed. “But you won’t let yourself get close to me, because you think I’m just a kittypet, don’t you?”
The accusation took Leafstar’s breath away, and she had no words to respond.
“You’re no better than Sharpclaw and Sparrowpelt,” Billystorm went on, the fur along his spine fluffing up with indignation. “They look down their noses at us because we stay loyal to our housefolk as well as to our Clan. I thought you were different, Leafstar, but I was wrong.”
Leafstar stared at him in dismay. That wasn’t what she thought at all! But if Billystorm is so quick to think badly of me, then maybe I’m better off without him.
Abruptly she turned away. “You don’t know everything, Billystorm,” she mewed.
For a heartbeat there was silence; then she heard Billystorm padding away, the sound of his paw steps fading as he climbed the trail. Part of her wanted to run after him and call him back; instead, she plodded across her de
n to her nest and settled herself back among the moss.
She had barely closed her eyes when she found the mist swirling around her once again, scudding across glistening black cliffs that trapped her on either side. But this time she could hear the sound of many cats in the gorge ahead of her. Padding forward, she rounded a spur of rock and found herself on the edge of a crowd.
Her heart beating faster, Leafstar tensed her muscles and slid out her claws in case the strange cats attacked her, but none of them even looked at her or seemed to scent her.
In the middle of the throng, a gray tom with white patches on his fur stood on top of a rock. Leafstar’s paws tingled as she recognized Cloudstar, who had been the leader of SkyClan when they were driven out of the forest and came to live in the gorge. But this was not the warrior of StarClan with starlight in his fur; this was a scrawny, exhausted cat who gazed at his Clanmates with desperation in his eyes.
“We’ll never find a home here,” a cat called to him. “We should have stayed in the forest and made the other Clans give us some of their territory.”
“You know they would never have done that,” Cloudstar retorted. “They wanted us gone. They don’t care if we starve out here.”
“We have to do something,” a gray she-cat rasped; she was sitting close to Leafstar, who could see that her belly was swollen even though every one of her ribs was visible through her pelt. “My kits will be born any day now. They need a nursery. And I need fresh-kill, or I’ll have no milk to give them.” Her voice rose to a wail. “My kits will die!”
“Don’t be afraid.” A light brown tabby she-cat leaped up onto the rock beside Cloudstar; it was Fawnstep, the Clan’s medicine cat. “Our warrior ancestors are watching over us, even here.”
Her voice faded as she spoke, and Leafstar opened her eyes, blinking as the pale light of a new day crept into her den. She had glimpsed the cats of that long-ago SkyClan as they struggled to find themselves a new home after they had been forced to leave the forest.
“They came here,” she whispered. “But in the end, they were driven away.”