“It sounds as if it was making for ShadowClan territory,” Firestar commented.
Graystripe let out a faint growl of satisfaction. “ShadowClan are welcome to it.”
“But if any of our cats spot one of their border patrols, we should pass on a warning,” Firestar pointed out.
His deputy flicked an ear. “That’s just like you, Firestar.
You want to help every Clan, not just your own. Okay, I’ll tell the next patrols when they go out.”
“And what’s all this about wanting to go into the forest to talk to us?” Sandstorm’s whiskers twitched irritably. “Why couldn’t you tell us in the camp?”
Firestar let his gaze travel over her sleek ginger pelt and luminous green eyes. He knew he had a lot to explain, but he couldn’t work out why she was so upset now, before he had said a word.
“I wanted to talk somewhere we wouldn’t be interrupted,” he meowed. “You’ll understand soon.”
He padded on, not saying any more until the four cats came to a glade hidden deep among the trees. The ground was covered with sweet-smelling grass and soft mounds of moss. Firestar found a place to sit among the knotted roots of an oak tree, and his friends settled around him in the sun-dappled shade. The only sounds were the rustle of wind in the branches and the high piping of birds.
Firestar looked at the three cats who meant more to him than any others in the Clan. “I’ve been having a lot of dreams recently,” he meowed, feeling as if he were about to plunge over the edge of a bottomless gorge. “For a long time they confused me, but I think I know their meaning now. And I’ve had to make a very hard decision…”
“But what about us?” Sandstorm blurted out, her claws tearing at the moss. “How can you go off and leave us?”
Firestar stared at her. How could she possibly have guessed that he meant to leave ThunderClan? “You’ll be fine, honestly—”
“No, we won’t!” Sandstorm spat back at him. “We need you. ThunderClan needs you as their leader! How can you even think of abandoning us like this?”
Firestar glanced from his mate to Cinderpelt and Graystripe. The medicine cat’s eyes were blank with shock, but Graystripe’s gaze was full of sorrow and compassion.
“I don’t understand,” Firestar mewed. “How did you know? And what makes you think I’ll never come back?”
“Because you spent the night with your old Twolegs,” Graystripe rasped. He turned his head away as if he couldn’t bear to go on looking at his old friend. “Do you really care for them more than you care for us?”
“What?” Firestar’s eyes stretched wide with dismay. “You think I’d abandon my Clan to go and be a kittypet?”
“Isn’t that what you’ve brought us here to tell us?”
Sandstorm challenged him.
“No! It’s not that at all. This is my home. StarClan are my warrior ancestors just as much as yours. I couldn’t live anywhere else but the forest.”
“So perhaps you’ll tell us what you are going to do,” Cinderpelt meowed tartly.
“It’s true that I have to leave—but only for a while.”
Firestar took a deep breath and told his friends how he had been visited by an unknown cat, and dreamed of a wailing, fleeing Clan. He explained how he had met Bluestar when he visited the Moonstone, and what she had told him about SkyClan.
“You mean there were once five Clans in the forest?”
Sandstorm gasped.
“Yes. A long time ago, before Twolegplace was built.”
“But Twolegplace has always been there!” Graystripe protested.
“Not according to Bluestar,” Firestar told him. Not wanting to shake his friends’ faith, he skirted around how StarClan had lied, and hurried on to the next part of his story.
“That’s why I spent the night in Twolegplace. I wasn’t with my old Twolegs. I slept in Smudge’s garden—Graystripe, do you remember my friend Smudge?”
Graystripe nodded. “That fat black-and-white kittypet.”
“I thought his garden was a likely place for SkyClan to have made their camp, and I was right. The SkyClan leader spoke to me in a dream. He told me it was my destiny to go and find the scattered cats of SkyClan and bring them together again.”
Graystripe snorted. “And if he had told you it was your destiny to fly to the moon, would you have believed him?”
Firestar reached out with his tail and touched his deputy gently on the shoulder. “I know it seems impossible. But I’ve decided that’s what I must do. I must go on a journey to find SkyClan and repair the damage done by the other Clans.”
Graystripe stared at him, his eyes stunned with shock.
Sandstorm’s gaze was fixed on him too, anger and grief flickering in her eyes like minnows in a deep green pool. Only Cinderpelt remained calm.
“I can tell how much this means to you,” she mewed. “And if it is really your destiny, then you must go wherever your paws lead you. But be careful—StarClan may not be able to watch over you. Our warrior ancestors do not walk in all skies.”
“I don’t know how you can even think of doing this!”
Sandstorm sprang to her paws before Firestar could reply to the medicine cat. “What about ThunderClan? What about your friends?” She paused, then added shakily, “What about me?”
Firestar felt her pain as if it were his own, like a sharp stone that would pierce his pads on every pawstep of the journey. Glancing from Graystripe to Cinderpelt, he rose and beckoned Sandstorm with his tail.
“Come.”
He padded a few tail-lengths from the others to a sun-warmed spot near the center of the clearing. Sandstorm followed reluctantly.
“I know you never really wanted me for your mate,” she mewed as soon as they were out of earshot of the other cats.
“You’ve always been in love with Spottedleaf.”
Firestar thanked StarClan that he had not mentioned his dream encounter with the former ThunderClan medicine cat. “I loved Spottedleaf,” he admitted. “But even if she had lived, what could I have done? She was a medicine cat. She would never have chosen a mate.”
“So I was second-best?” Sandstorm spoke bitterly, not looking at him.
“Sandstorm…” Firestar pressed against her side, curling his tail around her as she tried to move away. “You’re not second-best to any cat.”
“But you can still go off and leave me.”
“No.” Firestar had spent a long time thinking about this.
Meeting Sandstorm’s gaze steadily, he went on. “I never meant to abandon you. Graystripe and Cinderpelt must stay here to look after the Clan, but I don’t want to make the journey alone. Sandstorm, there’s no other cat I’d rather have with me than you. Will you come with me?”
As he spoke, the grief and anger faded from Sandstorm’s eyes. Her green gaze shone, and the sun warmed her ginger pelt to the brilliance of flame. “You really want me to come?”
“I really do.” Firestar pressed his muzzle to her shoulder. “I don’t think I can do it without you, Sandstorm. Please.”
“Of course I will! I—” Sandstorm broke off. “No, I can’t, Firestar. What about Sorrelpaw? I’m her mentor.”
Firestar hesitated. Sandstorm had desperately wanted an apprentice, and he knew how seriously she took the little tortoiseshell’s training. “It won’t do Sorrelpaw any harm to have another mentor for a while,” he meowed. “It won’t be the first time an apprentice has had to change—Sootpaw will have a new mentor now, because of Longtail’s bad eyes.”
Sandstorm nodded slowly. “The experience could be good for her,” she murmured.