“What are you doing here?” he hissed.
“Visiting you.”
Briarlight paused. “What did you say?”
“Nothing,” Jayfeather meowed hurriedly. “I—I’ve got to go out for a while. Keep matching the leaves. I’ll be back soon.” He followed Yellowfang’s scent out of the den and across the clearing.
“Couldn’t you have waited till tonight?” he snapped once they were clear of the hollow.
“Do you think I wanted to leave StarClan and come to this freezing place?”
A faint outline shimmered in front of Jayfeather’s eyes. He could see Yellowfang’s ragged pelt now, and the fuzzy outlines of trees behind her.
“Then why did you come?” Jayfeather’s paws ached from the snow.
“You needed to know this before you met with the others at the Moonpool!”
“Okay, okay,” Jayfeather muttered. “Just tell me, and we can both go home.”
“I saw Lionblaze fight the fox,” Yellowfang rasped.
“And?”
“It was a sign.”
“A sign of what? That he’s a mouse-brain?”
“He fought it alone.”
“Yeah. I know. He’s a mouse-brain,” Jayfeather repeated. His teeth were starting to chatter. “Can you get to the point?”
Yellowfang’s stinking breath billowed around his muzzle as she leaned close. “Stop complaining and start listening,” she hissed. “Like Lionblaze, ThunderClan must fight alone.”
“When?”
“When the Dark Forest rises, ThunderClan must face its greatest enemy alone.”
Jayfeather blinked. “But the Dark Forest threatens every Clan.”
“Only one Clan will survive,” Yellowfang growled. “Yesterday four patrols could not drive the fox from your territory. Today Lionblaze sent it fleeing for its life. In the great battle that is coming, ThunderClan must fight alone.”
“But the Dark Forest warriors are training cats from every Clan,” Jayfeather reminded her.
“So every Clan might betray you!”
“But we’re all in danger. Surely we have to fight together?”
“Why do the Three belong to ThunderClan and no other Clan?” Yellowfang’s amber eyes burned. “It must be ThunderClan’s destiny to survive while others perish.”
What? There have to be four Clans! Around them, the cold wind whipped the snow into drifts. “Yellowfang!”
The old cat was fading, and with her his dream-vision. Jayfeather was plunged once more into blackness.
As the dusk patrol returned and settled down to share tongues, Jayfeather slipped out of the medicine den.
“Good luck!” Millie called as he padded softly around the clearing.
“Take care,” Briarlight added.
The young warrior was sharing a scrawny robin with her littermates, and Jayfeather could sense the relief washing over Millie’s pelt. He hadn’t told her why Briarlight had refused to eat, but Millie hadn’t asked. When the gray warrior had come to the medicine den to check on her kit and found her gulping down the mouse, paws stained with herbs, she’d been delighted.
“Keep her busy,” Jayfeather had advised. “She still has two paws, and they’ll get restless if they’re given nothing to do.”
Lionblaze and Dovepaw were yet again describing the miraculous defeat of the fox to their Clanmates. No one seemed to notice that the story changed a tiny bit in every telling. Rosepetal and Foxleap were begging for every detail.
“What was your winning move?”
“How did you avoid its teeth?”
Jayfeather hadn’t told them about his vision. He wanted to visit the Moonpool first. He wanted to see if the rest of StarClan agreed with Yellowfang. He slipped through the barrier of thorns, leaving the voices of his Clanmates behind.
As he broke from the trees, the moorland wind pierced his fur. Flattening his ears against it, he bounded along the slope to the dip where the medicine cats met before traveling together to the Moonpool. His paws sank deep into snow. It reached his belly where it had drifted, and he was breathless by the time he scented Kestrelflight and Willowshine.
“Not good traveling weather,” he called to them.
“At least it’s stopped snowing,” Kestrelflight responded.
Willowshine shook out her fish-scented fur. “Can we go now? It’s freezing.”
“Where are Littlecloud and Flametail?” Jayfeather tasted the air but there was no scent of the ShadowClan medicine cats.
“They’ll have to catch up.” Willowshine was already heading away. “It’s too cold to sit still.”
Snow crunched as Kestrelflight fell into step beside the RiverClan medicine cat. “Hopefully our tracks will make their path easier.”
Their tracks certainly helped Jayfeather. He followed the furrow the others carved in the snow, but even so, keeping his balance on the rocky shores of the stream took all his concentration. He had no chance to focus on the thoughts of his companions. By the time he’d scrambled up the cliff and hauled himself into the hollow, he was panting.
Willowshine was standing on the lip of the hollow. “No sign of Littlecloud or Flametail,” she declared. “I hope there’s no trouble in ShadowClan.”
“We’ll find out soon enough if there is,” Kestrelflight answered.
“Should we wait?” Willowshine wondered.
Jayfeather was already following the path that spiraled down to the Moonpool. “If you can’t see them on the trail by now, they’re not coming.” Snow covered the dimples in the rock where countless paw steps had passed before him.
“Is the Moonpool frozen?” Kestrelflight hurried after him.
Jayfeather touched it with a paw, relieved to feel it ripple softly against his fur. “No.” The hollow must have sheltered the water from the coldest winds. He sank down in the snow and waited for Kestrelflight and Willowshine to settle beside the pool.
“I hope Littlecloud and Flametail are all right,” Willowshine fretted. Her fur brushed against the snow as she rested her chin on her paws and touched her nose to the water. Kestrelflight’s breathing had already slowed. They would both be in trances before long.
Jayfeather waited. There was no need for him to walk in his own dreams tonight. Yellowfang had already spoken to him. Focusing on Kestrelflight, he let his mind flow into the young WindClan cat’s dreams.
Wind tugged his fur, warm and playful. Jayfeather looked around, blinking at the sweep of sky and land before him. He was standing on the arching spine of a rocky hilltop. Forested slopes fell away in front of his paws. Far away the trees darkened toward a shadowy horizon. Is that the Dark Forest?
Voices sounded below the crest of the slope, and Jayfeather quickly scooted behind a boulder. As the voices grew nearer, Jayfeather peered around the side. Kestrelflight was walking beside Barkface. The raddled old WindClan medicine cat hung his head and dragged his tail as though the sky weighed heavily on his back. Another WindClan cat walked beside them. Jayfeather squinted. He didn’t recognize the light brown she-cat with ginger patches and eyes bluer than the lake in greenleaf.
“Explain it to him, Daisytail,” Barkface meowed gruffly. “I knew he wouldn’t believe me alone.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you,” Kestrelflight objected. “It’s just hard to take in.”
The she-cat spoke, her voice as spirited as the wind lifting Jayfeather’s pelt. “I stood up for my Clanmates once so that I could protect their future. I led the queens against a leader who believed kits should be trained before they were six moons.” Her eyes clouded, and Jayfeather felt pride and grief battling in her heart. “There comes a time when we must stand and fight.”
“But I’m a medicine cat,” Kestrelflight reminded her. “I follow a different code than a warrior.”