by Erin Hunter
Surprised, Hollypaw turned and saw that Leafpool was staring at Squirrelflight. She wondered why there was sadness in both cats’ eyes.
Jaykit marched into the clearing and stood in front of Firestar. “What about me?”
“Surely he can’t become an apprentice?” Whitewing’s whispered comment hung in the still, damp air.
“Longtail moved to the elders’ den when he went blind,” Thornclaw murmured, as if he agreed that blind cats couldn’t be warriors.
“He wouldn’t be safe out in the forest,” Spiderleg put in.
“Poor mite,” breathed Sorreltail.
Hollypaw’s pelt bristled. Why shouldn’t her brother be given a chance like any other cat?
“I want to be an apprentice like Lionpaw and Hollypaw,” Jaykit spat defiantly.
“Of course you do,” Firestar agreed. “And your mentor will be Brightheart.”
CHAPTER 8
Brightheart?
Jaykit felt a rush of anger so strong it almost knocked him off his paws. Why had Firestar chosen one-eyed Brightheart when there were so many other warriors to choose from? As if he couldn’t guess!
He dug his claws into the earth, refusing to step forward to greet his mentor. He ignored her embarrassment, although he could sense it like holly leaves pricking his pelt. He ignored the encouraging murmurs of the other apprentices. He ignored Spiderleg’s angry, “Sshh!” which quieted them. And then he felt a muzzle gently but firmly pushing him forward.
Leafpool’s voice murmured in his ear. “Go on.”
Gritting his teeth, he padded toward Brightheart and Firestar.
“I know it must be hard for you,” Brightheart greeted him sympathetically. “But I promise I will teach you how to protect your Clan even without sight.”
She pitied him! He could hear it in her voice. His anger swelled up again, sending blood pounding through his ears. “Why bother if you think I’m so useless? Why don’t you just send me off to the elders’ den with Longtail?” he hissed.
Brightheart stiffened. “No cat has said that you’re useless. And Longtail won’t thank you for being rude about him!” She stepped back from Jaypaw and lifted her chin. “I’ve asked him to help with some of your training.”
Jaykit lashed his tail. Oh, great, he thought. Let’s lump all the useless cats together and hope a tree falls on them!
Firestar stepped between Jaykit and Brightheart. “From this day until you receive your warrior name, you will be Jaypaw.”
“Jaypaw! Jaypaw! Jaypaw!” Mousepaw’s and Berrypaw’s call rang around the hollow, and the other apprentices joined in loudly.
Jaypaw clawed the ground. You don’t have to try so hard! You’re only doing it because you feel sorry for me!
“Brightheart,” Firestar meowed, “you have never let what happened to you prevent you from being a fine warrior. I can think of no one better than you to teach Jaypaw how best to serve his Clan.”
“I will share with him all I have learned,” Brightheart vowed. Big deal, Jaypaw thought.
Reluctantly, he forced himself to touch muzzles with Brightheart, accepting her as his mentor. His whiskers brushed the side of her face that had been ravaged when she had been attacked by the dog pack. It felt strange to sense space where other cats had fur and flesh, and he had to suppress a shudder.
The whole Clan raised their voices to cheer the new apprentices. Not me, Jaypaw thought bitterly. There’s not a cat here that thinks I’ll become a great warrior.
When the calls died away Firestar spoke again. “ThunderClan is lucky to have so many apprentices. I hope they will train hard and serve their Clan well.”
“We will!” Lionpaw mewed.
“When can we start training?” Hollypaw asked.
“That’s up to your mentors,” Firestar told her.
“Come on, Lionpaw,” Ashfur meowed. “Let’s find you a nest in the apprentices’ den; then I’ll show you the forest.”
“Right now?” Lionpaw mewed excitedly.
“Why not?”
Hollypaw’s paws pattered on the ground around Leafpool. “Can we go with Lionpaw when Ashfur shows him our territory?”
“It’s a nice idea, Hollypaw,” Leafpool meowed. “But I need to show you the best herb-gathering places, and I’m sure Ashfur will want to show Lionpaw the boundary markers and the best places for hunting.”
“Oh.” Hollypaw sounded disappointed.
“But first, let’s look at the herb store,” Leafpool suggested, “so you get to know some of the leaves we’ll be looking at in the forest.”
“Okay,” Hollypaw mewed, sounding more cheerful.
As Lionpaw and Hollypaw padded after their mentors, Jaypaw sat down crossly. How come they get real mentors? He felt Brightheart’s tail touch his shoulder. “Come with me,” she meowed.
Sullenly he followed her to a clump of wilting grass that overflowed from a quiet alcove in the rocky camp wall.
“I think it’s best if we start…” Brightheart began.
Jaypaw did not listen to the rest. Instead he let his attention slip until her voice had blended with the sound of the wind swishing through the branches above the hollow. He could hear Lionpaw hurrying after Ashfur, eagerly following his mentor out of the camp and into the forest. Hollypaw’s scent was clear beyond the bramble-draped entrance to the medicine den; Jaypaw could taste the tang of the comfrey she was tearing and laying out to dry.
At least I’m not a medicine cat apprentice. He felt a flicker of gratitude that Hollypaw had taken that role.
He went on scanning the camp. With the sureness he had possessed since his first memory, he knew that Daisy was circling in her nest, preparing for a nap. Mousefur was guiding Longtail back to the elders’ den. He sensed the old she-cat’s longing to be out in the forest; she was in a hunting mood, though her movements were stiff with age. Longtail padded quietly beside her, his limbs still as supple as a warrior’s.
It’s not fair he should live in the elders’ den, Jaypaw thought. He’s not old yet.
Then, like a storm cloud shadowing the hollow, he sensed a darkness sweep over the camp. He pricked his ears, and heard claws scraping the rocky ledge outside Firestar’s den. He knew by the scent that it was not Firestar who sat up there, flexing his paws. It was Brambleclaw.
Jaypaw knew his father sat up there often, a good deputy keeping watch over his Clan. But now he could sense something cold and uncomfortable, like a murky fog, in Brambleclaw’s mind. He struggled to understand it, groping for the right word.
Suspicion!
Brambleclaw was suspicious of his Clanmates! He was not watching over them, but searching for a cat he feared might betray him. Jaypaw shivered, the fur on his spine lifting. Why would any cat betray Brambleclaw? He was a great deputy.
He blinked, and his thoughts jerked back to Brightheart. She had jumped to her paws and was obviously waiting for him to say something. He flicked his tail, wondering how he could cover up the fact that he hadn’t been paying attention. But she had already guessed that he had not been listening to a word.
She snorted impatiently. “We’re going to see Longtail, remember?”
Jaypaw’s heart sank. More pointless advice from a second-rate warrior. “Okay,” he mewed unenthusiastically.
Brightheart sighed. “Come on.”
Dragging his paws, he followed her across the clearing.
At the entrance to the elders’ den, Brightheart called through the spindly branches that brushed the ground around its edge, “It’s Brightheart and Jaypaw!”
“Come in, come in,” Longtail meowed.
Brightheart ducked down under the low branch entrance and padded into the space that ringed the trunk of the honeysuckle bush. Jaypaw followed, keeping his head low, uncertain for once about his surroundings. He had not been in this den before, but he knew by the scent that Longtail was alone. Mousefur must have gone out into the forest after all.
“Congratulations, Jaypaw!” Longtail purred. “You
’ve been given a great mentor.”
“Thank you, Longtail.” Jaypaw heard shyness and pride in Brightheart’s mew.
“Firestar has set you quite a challenge for your first apprentice, Brightheart,” Longtail remarked.
“Just because I’m blind doesn’t mean—” Jaypaw began hotly.
“I wasn’t referring to your blindness,” Longtail interrupted. “I meant your attitude.”
“What’s wrong with my attitude?”
“It’s not many cats who’d try foxhunting before they were even out of the nursery.” There was humor in Longtail’s mew.
Jaypaw bristled. I was only trying to help my Clan! But before he could point this out, Brightheart was issuing orders.
“First I want you to clean out the moss, get rid of any dusty or dirty pieces,” she instructed. “I’ll fetch some fresh for now, because you don’t know the best place to gather it.”
Cleaning out bedding! Jaypaw knew it was a routine apprentice task—he had heard Berrypaw and Hazelpaw complain about it often enough—but knowing that Lionpaw was already exploring the territory made him want to snarl.
“Then,” Brightheart went on, “check Longtail for fleas and ticks, and Mousefur too, if she’s back by then. While you’re busy, Longtail can tell you about using other senses rather than sight.”
Jaypaw wanted to wail with frustration. He and Longtail were totally different. Longtail had lost his sight after he had been a warrior. Blindness must have been devastating after relying on his sight for his whole life. But Jaypaw had never seen the world with any other senses apart from sound, scent, and touch. Being blind was totally natural for him. How could Longtail know what that was like? He could probably give Longtail more advice than the blind cat could give him—how to pick the freshest prey from the pile, how to tell where your denmates had been by the scents on their pelts….
“You might as well make a start, Jaypaw,” Brightheart suggested. Was that impatience he heard in her mew? You’ll be feeling more than impatience if you keep giving me rubbish tasks like this! he predicted mutinously.
As Brightheart nosed her way out of the den, he began sorting through the moss, feeling with his paws for pieces that had grown dry and scratchy and sniffing for pieces that were beginning to smell stale. “This apprenticeship is going to be so dull,” he hissed under his breath.
“What was that?” Mousefur had padded into the den, her pelt smelling of the forest. Her pawsteps were uneven, and she breathed in sharply as she sat down. “You’ve missed a bit over here,” she pointed out.
“He’s only just started,” Longtail defended him.
Mousefur snorted. “Does that mean we’ll have him scrabbling around the den until sunhigh? I was hoping to get some sleep.”
“It’s not my fault you’re stiff!” Jaypaw snapped. “You’re the one that went out into the forest when it’s damp.”
He felt Mousefur look closely at him. “How did you know I was stiff?”
“I could tell when you sat down,” Jaypaw replied, hooking out a wad of dry moss and flinging it toward the den entrance. “You moved slowly and made that noise.”
“What noise?”
“A sort of gasp, like it hurt.”
A purr of amusement suddenly rumbled in the old she-cat’s throat. “I see Brightheart is going to have her paws full,” she meowed.
Jaypaw felt a glimmer of hope. Perhaps they’ll stop underestimating me quite so much once they realize it doesn’t matter that I can’t see. He finished sorting through the moss, then padded over to Longtail and began nosing through his fur.
“I bet you can’t wait to start training in the forest,” Longtail meowed. “I remember my first time out like it was last moon.” A wistful edge entered his mew. “Of course, I wasn’t blind then. Everything seemed so green and fresh. But you’ll still love it, even though you’re blind. There are so many scents out there.”
I’d kind of noticed. Jaypaw felt the hard body of a flea in the warrior’s pelt.
“That’s the one thing I’ve noticed about being blind,” Longtail went on. “Scents become so much sharper and more important.”
Thanks for the information. Jaypaw cracked the flea between his teeth.
“And sounds, of course,” Longtail added. “I can sometimes hear the mice moving at the top of the hollow. I never would have noticed that before. You should make sure you listen really well, all the time.”
Jaypaw began to check the fur around Longtail’s scruff. A tick was lodged behind the warrior’s ear.
“When it comes to hunting, it’ll help to have sharp hearing and smell. Prey is always hard to see, but smelling it is easy. Even when I could see, it was usually the scent or sound of prey that told me where it was hiding.”
You’ll be telling me that a fresh mouse tastes juicier than a stale one next, Jaypaw thought, tugging at the tick harder than he needed to.
“Ow!” Longtail complained.
“How’s it going in here?” Brightheart’s voice sounded at the den entrance. “Have you finished?”
“I think so.” Jaypaw looked hopefully toward Mousefur. “You don’t have any ticks, do you?”
“Only one in my side, but I can reach it myself,” she replied.
Jaypaw turned to his mentor. “I’ve finished, then.”
Brightheart began bundling pawfuls of fresh moss into the den. “Good. Spread this out and then come with me,” she meowed. “I’m going to show you the territory around the camp.”
At last! Hollypaw and Lionpaw had been out for ages.
“Good luck!” Longtail called as Jaypaw followed Brightheart out of the den.
She led him out of the camp and up the steep slope that led lakeward. “This trail leads to the top of the ridge,” Brightheart explained. “It’s steep.”
“Okay.” Jaypaw decided not to tell her that he could already feel the slope beneath his paws. He followed his mentor as she weaved through the trees, feeling the damp leaves slippery underpaw.
“Watch out!” Brightheart called, but Jaypaw could smell the bark ahead of him and swerved just in time to avoid the tree, his whiskers grazing the trunk.
“The trees are thick here, but there’s not too much undergrowth.”
“Oh.” Jaypaw breathed in the scent of a mouse trail as the ground began to flatten out.
“We’re at the top of the ridge now,” Brightheart told him. “Follow my scent and I’ll lead you along the crest.”
“Right.” He could tell by the slope of the land that the forest fell away on either side; it felt as though they were climbing the spine of a great cat.
“If we go up this trail, we’ll be out of the trees soon.”
Jaypaw was beginning to feel out of breath, so he didn’t reply. He listened to the flies buzzing around him and shook his head when they tickled his ears.
“We’re out of the trees now, so don’t worry about bumping into anything,” Brightheart meowed. Jaypaw knew they had left the cover of the forest. A light, damp wind brushed his face.
“Stop here,” Brightheart meowed. But Jaypaw had already halted, feeling the land drop steeply away at his pawtips.
Scents flooded him—distant, strange smells he didn’t know yet—and he could hear water lapping far below. He knew that they were looking out over the forest and lake.
“We’ve followed the ridge out of the forest and right up to the end,” Brightheart explained. “The land slopes down steeply from here to the lake. RiverClan territory is across the water. Over where the sun sets is ShadowClan territory. And if you look back toward where the sun rises you’ll be able to see—” She broke off abruptly.
For the first time that day, Jaypaw felt sorry for his mentor. She must have hoped that her first apprentice would be a healthy kit she wouldn’t have to make special allowances for. If only she realized that he didn’t want any special allowances, that he didn’t need them.
“I might not be able to see what you see,” he told her, “but I can
tell a lot from what I can hear and smell and feel.” He lifted his nose. “I know ShadowClan is over there, not just because the stench of them is strong enough to scare a rabbit, but because the tang of the pines tells me there can’t be much undergrowth, so the cats who hunt there must be cunning and good at stalking.” He turned his head. “And over there I can smell the moorland. The wind comes in a great unbroken sweep, undisturbed by trees. The WindClan cats who live there must be fast and small to hunt in such open country.” Then he gazed at the lake in front of them. “I know RiverClan live across the lake, though I can’t smell their scent. It’s hidden by the scents from the lake, which are stronger today because of the wind. But I know that RiverClan will feel the coming rain first because the wind is driving the waves this way—I can hear them slapping against the shore.”
“You can tell all that without seeing it?”
“Yes, of course.”
Suddenly Brightheart stiffened. She was listening intently, ears pricked. “A patrol is coming,” she announced.
Jaypaw had heard it already. A ThunderClan patrol was climbing the ridge toward them, rustling though the bracken and heather. He knew from the scents that it was Dustpelt, Hazelpaw, Thornclaw, and Poppypaw, but he didn’t say so out loud. He was pleased he had impressed Brightheart with his description of what was around them, but he didn’t want her to think he was showing off.
“Hi!” Poppypaw bounded out from the bracken first. Thornclaw followed with Dustpelt and Hazelpaw close on his heels. “You’re out of the camp at last!” Poppypaw mewed.
“Isn’t it great being an apprentice?” Hazelpaw added. “I still remember my first day. I was so excited!”
I bet your first day as an apprentice was more exciting than this.
“We’ve just done a border patrol,” Hazelpaw went on.
“And now we’re going to do battle training in the mossy clearing!” Poppypaw finished.
“Great,” Jaypaw muttered.
“You can come with us!” Poppypaw suggested suddenly. She turned to her mentor, Thornclaw. “He can come, can’t he?”