The three warriors raced away, tails down, hackles up.
The blue-eyed tabby watched them leave, her claws kneading the grass. “Can I go too?”
“Calm down, Heathertail,” Onestar ordered. “They’ll call if they need backup.”
Dovepaw’s heart was racing. “We came alone.” She wrapped her tail around Ivypaw and tried to keep her chin high.
Onestar’s gaze was stern. “Why did you come?” he demanded. “Did Firestar send you?”
Dovepaw shook her head.
Sedgewhisker looked at her Clanmates. “She knew about the dog. She knew it chased us.” She flashed a look at Dovepaw. “Though it was nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Onestar widened his eyes. “How did you know?”
Dovepaw was ready for the question. “I heard it from the forest, while I was training.”
Heathertail growled. “How could you tell it was chasing our warriors?”
Dovepaw struggled for words. “I just…er…guessed,” she mewed at last.
“You guessed?” The WindClan leader sounded unconvinced. His Clanmates exchanged doubtful glances.
Breezepelt slid around his leader and glared at the two ThunderClan apprentices. “What else have you guessed about us?”
A small white she-cat appeared over the rise. Whitetail! She bristled when she spotted Dovepaw.
Dovepaw stared at the ground. She didn’t want Whitetail’s disapproval as well as Sedgewhisker’s. What had happened to the friendships they’d made?
Whitetail approached the two ThunderClan apprentices. “The quest is over,” she told Dovepaw. “You must respect boundaries. Your loyalty should be with your own Clan.” There was gentleness in her mew, as if she, at least, understood Dovepaw’s disappointment.
“Don’t they teach ThunderClan ’paws about scent markers?” A young WindClan apprentice was pacing angrily behind Whitetail, his lip curled.
“Of course they do,” Ivypaw replied hotly.
Onestar swept his tail over the heather. “Go back to your dens,” he ordered his Clanmates. “Heathertail and Breezepelt will take these foolish apprentices back where they belong.”
Dovepaw’s pelt flashed with heat. “We’re not foolish!”
Onestar gazed at her. “Then why are you here instead of tucked up in your nest?”
Dovepaw couldn’t meet his gaze. I thought my friends were in trouble! Anger and sadness squirmed in her belly. It was her stupid power’s fault that she’d heard the dog attack Sedgewhisker! She was only trying to be a good warrior. And a good friend. But it seemed friendship counted for nothing. She hung her head as Heathertail nudged her down the flank of the hill.
“Let’s get you home,” the blue-eyed warrior mewed.
Dovepaw shrugged her away and stomped through the heather. Ivypaw padded beside her. “At least they didn’t shred us,” she whispered.
Remorse stripped Dovepaw’s anger away. “I’m sorry I made you come.”
“You didn’t make me do anything!” Ivypaw answered indignantly.
The two WindClan warriors flanked them as they crossed the moor. No one spoke, but a low growl rumbled occasionally in Breezepelt’s throat.
Heathertail swung her head and glared at her Clanmate. “Will you stop making that noise!” she growled.
“Do you want to make them feel welcome?” Breezepelt snapped back.
“I think they got the message from Onestar,” Heathertail pointed out. “They don’t need you snarling at them all the way to the hollow. They’re just apprentices.”
“It’ll teach them not to do it again.”
“Just shut up!” Heathertail snorted. “No one died and made you leader.”
Breezepelt let out a hiss, then was quiet.
The four cats swished through the heather to the ThunderClan scent line, where the stream chattered through the gully dividing the two territories.
“We know the way from here,” Dovepaw told the WindClan warriors.
Heathertail gazed steadily at her. “We’re taking you back to your camp.”
“You can’t do that!” Ivypaw objected.
What would Firestar say if they brought WindClan cats to the heart of their territory? Dovepaw’s fur ruffled along her spine. But the WindClan cats looked determined. She and Ivypaw couldn’t fight them, and she wasn’t going to make this situation more humiliating by begging them not to come.
Breezepelt had already leaped the stream. Reluctantly, Dovepaw led her sister down the bank and jumped the gully. Heathertail bounded after them. With heavy paws, Dovepaw headed toward camp.
“Firestar’s going to kill us,” Ivypaw whispered in her ear.
Dovepaw didn’t want to think about it. She couldn’t explain why she had taken Ivypaw to the WindClan camp without revealing her power. The whole Clan was going to think they were mouse-brained and reckless.
The WindClan cats padded ahead of them, weaving along tracks and through bushes as though they knew the forest well. Heathertail veered along a fox track that led them around a wide swath of brambles.
Ivypaw flicked her tail. “How do you know where you’re going?”
Without glancing over her shoulder, Heathertail replied, “We’ve been here before.”
“But—” Ivypaw began to protest.
“She said, we’ve been here before,” Breezepelt growled in a voice that put an abrupt end to the conversation.
As they neared the thorn barrier, Dovepaw scented Rosepetal bounding toward them. “What are you doing here?” she challenged the WindClan warriors, hackles raised.
Breezepelt halted. “This isn’t an attack.”
Heathertail stepped aside. “We’re just returning a couple of strays.”
Rosepetal stared at Ivypaw and Dovepaw in disbelief. “What are you doing out of the hollow? And with them?” She flicked her tail to the WindClan cats.
A cloud crossed the moon. Dovepaw was relieved by the sudden shadow. She stared at her paws, not knowing how to explain.
“We found them outside our camp,” Heathertail told the startled ThunderClan warrior.
Shifting her paws, Rosepetal stared levelly back at Heathertail. “Thank you for bringing them home,” she meowed. “I’ll take them back to their den.”
Breezepelt stepped forward. “We’re coming with them,” he told her. “I want to speak with Firestar.”
Rosepetal bristled. “He’s asleep.”
“So was WindClan before this pair woke us!” Heathertail growled.
Dovepaw felt herself shrivel inside her pelt.
Ivypaw’s tail drooped. “I didn’t think it could get worse.”
Breezepelt glared at her. “I don’t want any accusations that we took ThunderClan apprentices prisoner.”
Ivypaw bristled. “We wouldn’t lie!”
Rosepetal sighed and dipped her head. “Very well.” She turned and led the WindClan cats through the thorns.
Dovepaw trailed after, her heart quickening as she heard Rosepetal’s paws on the rock pile. She’s gone to wake Firestar.
Cats were stirring in their nests, den walls trembling as they got to their paws and slid out to see what was happening. The nursery shivered and tiny pawsteps pattered across the clearing. “What’s going on?” squeaked Cherrykit.
Poppyfrost’s nest rustled and the queen’s fur scraped the brambles as she followed her kit out of the nursery.
Dovepaw tried not to hear what any of the cats were saying. Her Clanmates were gathering to witness her humiliation. How could she explain? With a rush of frustration that tightened her throat, she wished fiercely that there were no such thing as the prophecy, and that she didn’t have any powers at all.