How can that be? I was only at the Moonpool for a few heartbeats.
Twigpaw went on more slowly, trying to stop her legs from trembling. The whole experience had shaken her to the depths.
What did that vision of the ruined camp mean? And what did Yellowfang mean when she said I didn’t belong there? Did she mean I didn’t belong at the Moonpool? Or . . . did she mean I shouldn’t be in ThunderClan?
Horror almost overwhelmed Twigpaw as she considered it might be her own presence in ThunderClan that would bring about their destruction. Is it because my kin are in SkyClan, so I belong there? Or do I not belong in ThunderClan because I abandoned it before? That might have been why Yellowfang showed her the vision of the camp destroyed.
Is it possible that the ThunderClan cats who didn’t want me back were right? Maybe I really don’t belong there. . . .
Determinedly Twigpaw shook off the thought. She wouldn’t believe it. She had needed some time to figure it out, but now she knew that ThunderClan was her true home.
I’m sure I belong in ThunderClan. I just have to convince the others, too.
And she knew she had to do it right away, while the terrifying vision was still fresh in her mind.
Picking up the pace again, Twigpaw raced back to camp, barely pausing to take a breath. She was relieved to see it looking just as she’d left it, not like the terrible ruined camp of her vision. As soon as she emerged from the thorn tunnel, she spotted Bramblestar and Alderheart, standing just outside the medicine-cat den, deep in conversation. Hoping neither cat would see her, she crept close enough to overhear. “So what do you suggest we do?” Bramblestar was asking.
“I suppose we must wait and see,” Alderheart replied. “But it worries me that there’s no right answer about ShadowClan. I don’t want to see the Clan disappear, but if they manage to revive it, it will really test SkyClan’s patience.”
“It will all become clear soon,” Bramblestar responded, resting his tail-tip reassuringly on Alderheart’s shoulder. “StarClan clearly has a plan. You need to focus on your duties here. Several of our cats are still sick.”
Alderheart murmured agreement. “I think Leafpool may be coming down with it. She vomited on our way back from the Moonpool.”
Bramblestar sighed. “There you are, then. ThunderClan needs your skills.”
Though Alderheart nodded warily, Twigpaw thought he still looked worried. I hate seeing him like this.
Trembling shook Twigpaw’s limbs as she remembered her terrifying vision at the Moonpool. Alderheart’s wrong that there’s no right answer about ShadowClan. They must be revived, or the storm will destroy us.
She couldn’t tell Bramblestar and Alderheart what she’d seen at the Moonpool. The Moonpool was a place only for medicine cats. She couldn’t let them know she’d trespassed there, not when some cats didn’t even think she belonged in ThunderClan.
Twigpaw almost despaired. She knew she was only a ThunderClan apprentice. She had no idea how she could affect what happened in ShadowClan.
Then a thought struck her. Maybe I should reach out to my sister. She might be a SkyClan warrior these days, but she used to be in ShadowClan. They’re the same Clan now; she’s Clanmates with all the ShadowClan cats again. And she won’t tell anyone I went to the Moonpool. But a fresh chill of fear coursed through her as she considered the idea. What if Violetshine turns me away?
CHAPTER 8
“You have to do something.”
This wasn’t the first time Violetshine had heard those words from her Clan leader. A quarter moon had passed since Leafstar had turned Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf away from SkyClan, and Tree still hadn’t decided what his place in the Clan should be. The Clan leader was losing patience; she had asked Violetshine to bring Tree to her den, and now her tail-tip twitched to and fro as she confronted the yellow tom.
“If you don’t want to be a medicine cat, you must train to be a warrior. You can’t just sleep in the sun all day.”
Like we’ve had much sun lately, Violetshine thought as she listened to the argument. But she could see Leafstar’s point. No Clan cat had the right to sit around and do nothing.
“But it’s not right for me to be a medicine cat or a warrior,” Tree objected. “Why do I have to fit into a specific position?”
“Because that’s how Clans work,” Leafstar retorted, her voice tense and her neck fur beginning to bristle. “If you don’t want to be part of the Clan—”
“No,” Tree interrupted. “I do want to stay here. I just haven’t found my place. . . .”
“Then it’s time you did,” Leafstar snapped, “and stop all this dithering around. We’re not going to keep you here if you don’t contribute.”
A pang of fear shook Violetshine like a gust of icy wind. She mustn’t send Tree away. . . .
“Tree, why don’t you come hunting with me?” she suggested desperately. “While you try to figure it all out, you might as well learn some warrior skills, right?”
Tree blinked, hesitating, then reluctantly mewed, “Okay.”
“Well, thank StarClan for that!” Leafstar exclaimed, still looking irritated. “And thank you, Violetshine. Maybe if Tree tries the warrior way of hunting, he’ll get to like it.”
And maybe hedgehogs fly, Violetshine thought. She knew that she had to find a place for Tree, but she couldn’t imagine what that would be.
As Violetshine led the way across the camp to the fern tunnel, she spotted the group of former ShadowClan cats, all of them glaring after Leafstar as she returned to her den. Scorchfur muttered something to Snowbird with a hostile lash of his tail.
Violetshine suppressed a sigh, reflecting how much tension there had been in the Clan since Leafstar had turned Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker away. Juniperclaw, Scorchfur, and Snowbird had been all but ignoring orders from the leader and deputy, or being as slow and uncooperative as they could. Every one of them had been criticizing Leafstar, loudly and openly where the whole Clan could hear them. Only rebukes from Rowanclaw and Tawnypelt had kept them from outright defiance; they were listening to Rowanclaw as if he were their leader still.
I’m not sure how I would feel if Leafstar had turned my kin away, Violetshine thought. But she wasn’t sure either if she trusted Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker. Perhaps Leafstar is right, and this is a time for caution. But then, Tree wondered if they might be good cats . . . .
“Let me show you the hunter’s crouch,” Violetshine mewed when she and Tree were out in the forest. “It’s like this. Keep your paws well tucked in, and your tail close to your side so you don’t alert the prey.”
“Like this?” Tree asked.
Staring at him, Violetshine had to let out a loud mrrow of laughter. Tree had taken up an almost perfect hunter’s crouch, except that he was lying on his back, with his paws in the air.
“What do you expect to catch like that?” she asked. “Low-flying blackbirds?”
Tree rolled over and sprang to his paws. “Well, it’s a bit different from how I usually hunt,” he remarked.
“It’s how we do things out here in the wild.” Violetshine was glad that Leafstar couldn’t see Tree messing around. “Now try it the right way up.”
Tree crouched down, impressing Violetshine this time with how quickly he had mastered the position.