Yellowfang! The name seared Jaypaw’s ears. Yellowfang had been ThunderClan’s medicine cat before Cinderpelt. She was with StarClan now, and it seemed to Jaypaw that her main duty was to butt into his dreams. He could picture her, yellow eyes sparking, matted pelt bristling with impatience…
“Come and see!” Cinderpaw’s mew interrupted his thoughts.
An eerie feeling pricked his tail as she led him through a narrow tunnel to a much smaller clearing. A rock towered at the far end, split down the middle by a cleft big enough for a den.
Cinderpaw gazed wistfully into the shadowy cave.
“Yellowfang kept her herbs in there.”
“Yellowfang’s dead,” Jaypaw mewed. “She’s in StarClan now.”
Cinderpaw looked at him. “Of course she is! Where else would she be?”
“I don’t understand. Why are you acting as if you lived here too?”
“Because I did. Many moons ago, before we left the forest.”
“But you never lived in the forest!”
“Once I did.” Cinderpaw’s blue eyes sparkled with starlight. “But I have returned to tread a different path, the path of a warrior.” She looked warmly at him, and when she spoke her voice seemed deeper, more wise, as if she’d aged in front of him. “Tell Leafpool that she has nothing to fear. I will recover this time. And tell her that I am proud of her. She has learned more than I could ever have taught her.”
Jaypaw’s pelt bristled. Vivid images were thronging in his mind: a young gray cat running through an unfamiliar forest, a monster screeching off a Thunderpath, agony piercing her hind leg, blood and the wails of her Clanmates; memories of learning herbs, limping after Yellowfang, of kits born in a river of blood, of fear and the forest being ripped apart by monsters, of a long hard journey through snow and ice and of snarling, vicious black-and-white creatures, jaws snapping, hungry for revenge and for death…
Jaypaw took a gulp of air, his paws unsteady beneath him.
“You’re Cinderpelt, aren’t you?”
He awoke with a gasp, his pads wet, his tail fluffed out. He jerked his head up, darkness filling his vision once more.
“Jaypaw?” Leafpool’s breath stirred his fur. “Were you dreaming?”
Jaypaw struggled to his paws and leaned over the injured apprentice lying next to him. Cinderpaw’s breathing was light and steady.
“Jaypaw?” Leafpool prompted. “You were dreaming, weren’t you?”
“Yes.” Jaypaw tried to catch his breath. The violent visions he had seen still flickered in his mind, red with blood and pain and fear.
“Will she get better?” Leafpool asked quietly.
“Yes.”
Leafpool let out a relieved purr.
“She has been here before,” Jaypaw whispered.
Leafpool touched his flank gently with her tail. “I thought so,” she breathed. “She’s Cinderpelt, isn’t she?”
“She led me to the old ThunderClan camp,” Jaypaw explained. “She seemed so happy to be there.” He paused, suddenly aware of Cinderpaw’s body resting beside them.
“Do you think she knows?”
“No, not in her waking world,” Leafpool murmured. “And we shouldn’t tell her.”
“Why not?”
“It’s enough that StarClan have let her come back and tread the warrior’s path she always dreamed of following.”
Jaypaw pricked his ears. “Didn’t she want to be a medicine cat?” Then I am not the only one.
“She only became a medicine cat after a monster crippled her. After the accident, there was no chance she could be a true warrior, so she served her Clan in a different way.”
“But wouldn’t she be happy to know that she is fulfilling her dream now?”
“If StarClan wants her to know, they will tell her.” Leafpool’s mew grew serious. “We should not try to shape her destiny.”
“Do you think telling her would change it?” Jaypaw’s mind began to race. Did Leafpool believe that destinies could be changed like that? Did that mean he was right to keep the secret of Firestar’s prophecy from Lionpaw and Hollypaw? If he told them, would it make them act differently?
“Leafpool?” Cinderpaw stirred beside them. Her voice was hoarse.
“I’ll fetch you some water,” Jaypaw offered. He found a wad of moss and soaked it in the shallow pool at the side of the den.
“Here.” He offered it, dripping, to Cinderpaw. She lapped at it eagerly, then murmured something he couldn’t make out.
He leaned closer.
“I’m hungry,” she croaked.
He heard Leafpool purr with amusement. “That’s more like the old Cinderpel—” She corrected herself. “Cinder paw. I’ll fetch her something from the fresh-kill pile.”
As Leafpool padded out of the den, Jaypaw heard Cinderpaw trying to stretch beside him. “Ow, my leg.”
“It’ll get better. You need to rest now.”
“Where am I?” she murmured groggily.
“You’re exactly where you belong.” Jaypaw ran his tail along her flank. “In ThunderClan.”
Chapter 8
“I name you Lionclaw, warrior of DarkClan!”
Lionpaw flexed his claws as Heatherpaw called down to him from the highest ledge in the cave. Moonlight, streaming through the gap in the roof, fell silver on her pelt.
She leaped down and touched her nose to his. “Congratulations.”
Lionpaw’s fur tingled.
“But first”—Heatherpaw’s blue eyes flashed in the half-light—“you have to prove yourself a warrior by outrunning me.”
“That’s not fair!” Lionpaw flicked his tail. “WindClan cats are really fast; everyone knows that.”
“If you want to be a DarkClan warrior, you’ve got to be as fast as me.”
“In that case”—Lionpaw launched himself at her, stretching his paws around her to soften her fall, but pinning her to the ground—“you’ve got to prove you’re as strong as me!”
“Hey! That’s cheating! You didn’t warn me!” she mewed.
“The leader of DarkClan must be prepared for anything.”
“Like this?” She slithered from his grasp, darted behind him as fast as a blink, and grabbed his tail gently but firmly between her teeth.
“Hey!” he yelped, trying to reach around and swipe her away. She dodged and he found himself swiping at thin air, his tail still held firm. He twisted the other way, trying to reach her, but she dodged again. He could hear a rumbling in her throat and her whiskers were twitching.
She let go. “You looked so funny flapping your paws around! Like a fledgling just out of the nest!”
Lionpaw stared at her, happiness welling in his chest. Just the sight of her blue eyes and soft fur made warmth surge beneath his pelt. “I wish you were in ThunderClan.”
She shuddered. “Under all those trees and closed in by stone walls? No, thanks! Besides,” she went on, “we don’t need to live in the same Clan when we’ve got this cave all to ourselves.” She reached out a paw and batted something from the fur behind his ear. “Just a burr.” She flicked it onto the ground.
“Thanks.”
Heatherpaw was right about the cave. Lionpaw knew he wouldn’t want to live on the moorland any more than she’d want to live in the forest. This cave was the perfect solution.
They’d been meeting here for half a moon now, and none of his Clanmates suspected a thing. Not even his nosy sister.
“I wonder where some of these other tunnels lead?”