Mothflight scuffled her paws in the dirt. “I’m sorry, Windstar,” she meowed. “I felt like it was calling to me.”
“The feather?” Windstar meowed. “Calling you where?”
Mothflight nodded at a ridge of jagged stone peaks in the distance, far beyond any Clan territory.
“Very well then,” Windstar meowed. “Follow your feathers, stuff your head with clouds, eat nothing but berries as far as I care.
If you cannot devote yourself to the warrior code, we cannot trust you in our Clan. You must go.”
Mothflight’s face fell. “But I belong to WindClan!”
“This is your punishment, Mothflight.” Windstar’s eyes were cold as the north wind.
Heavy with sorrow, Mothflight left her home. She walked all day, crossing out of ShadowClan territory, toward the teethlike rocks. As she climbed higher, the grass below her paws became bare, rocky soil, and the trees were replaced by boulders as large as the Great Rock at Fourtrees. The sun sank behind the ridge, turning the rocks to sharp black fangs.
Mothflight was licking her scratched paws when a thrush burst out of a bush, flying low to the ground. She tore after it, then came skidding to a halt around a large boulder. Mothflight barely noticed as the bird escaped into the orange sky. She was staring at the mountain in front of her, where a large, square hole yawned in the rock face.
Cautiously she padded up to the opening. It was completely dark inside, black and silent like a gaping mouth. Outside, the shadows were lengthening. She would be an easy target for night predators. She sniffed the black air inside the tunnel; it did not smell of other animals.
Mothflight padded into the mouth of the cave, feeling the cold stone under her paws. She crept forward, feeling the tunnel narrow and wind downward. Sometimes she became aware of other passages going off in other directions, but something drew her on. In the cold black air she felt dizzy and light, as if she were made of clouds. Her tail brushed the roof of the tunnel. But she traveled deeper into the mountain, unafraid.
She didn’t know how long she had been walking when a new scent drifted into her nostrils. It smelled like fresh air and prey.
Mothflight stopped. A silvery light was trickling into the darkness in front of her, revealing a glittering cavern. High in the roof, she saw a triangle of night sky and then the climbing moon. It poured its bright silver light through the hole onto a stone at the center of the cave.
The stone was three tail-lengths high, and it glittered like raindrops on cobwebs. Mothflight crept forward, her fur tingling.
Following an instinct she didn’t understand, she lay down, closed her eyes, and pressed her nose against the cold surface of the stone. Then she opened her eyes. The cave was filled with shimmering cats.
“Welcome, Mothflight. You have found the Moonstone,” one of the spirits murmured. “It is a sacred place. You must take the knowledge of this place back to the forest cats.”
“But I can’t!” Mothflight blurted. “I’ve been exiled.” She hung her head.
“You were exiled precisely for the strengths we need,” meowed the spirit. “Your curiosity, your visions, your openness to the signs in the world. We choose you to be the first medicine cat.”
Mothflight’s heart filled with a strange, fierce joy. “What does that mean?”
“You will devote yourself to your Clan,” meowed another spirit.
“You will learn the ways of healing herbs. You will read the omens we send you to advise your leader on difficult questions and keep your Clan safe.”
Mothflight shook her head. “Windstar will never let me return.”
“Is that true, Windstar?”
Mothflight spun around to see the shadowy figure of her leader.
“You are dreaming, Windstar,” whispered the spirit. “Welcome your new medicine cat. She will return to you.”
Windstar’s ears twitched, and her fur flattened. She looked into Mothflight’s green eyes, nodded, and vanished into the air.
“These are the cats you must find,” another voice meowed. Three cats appeared before her, each of them curled in a sleeping ball.
“Dapplepelt, from RiverClan,” purred one starry cat, padding up to a delicate tortoiseshell.
“Pebbleheart, from ShadowClan,” whispered another, prodding a dark gray tabby until he snarled in his sleep.
“And Cloudspots, from ThunderClan.” The first spirit pointed his tail at a long-furred black cat with white ears, a white chest, and two white paws.
“Bring them here at the next half-moon,” the spirit-cats meowed, “and we will teach you all how to be medicine cats.”
As they faded away, leaving only the glitter of stars, Mothflight stretched and tucked herself into a comfortable ball. Tonight she would sleep beside the Moonstone. Tomorrow, she would return to the forest as the first medicine cat of the Clans.
The Moonpool
When the warrior Clans arrived at their new home by the lake, they knew they needed to find a replacement for the Moonstone. Highstones was too far to travel, and the cats needed guidance from StarClan. The ThunderClan medicine cat apprentice, Leafpaw, was the one who found the Moonpool. This small pool high in the hills above WindClan is surrounded by stone walls and fed by a trickling waterfall. Ancient pawprints in the stone suggest that other cats came to this sacred place once, a long time ago…
My name is Rock. Many generations past, my kin lived on the lakeshore. Now new cats have come here and walk in our pawprints. They have brought their own warrior ancestors with them.
Their fur brushes mine as they learn the sky paths I have trodden for seasons.
They live in four Clans, unlike our three Tribes that scattered so long ago. They have a separate medicine cat and leader, unlike our healers, who were both. And they have found the Moonpool, the place of the ancestors. The pool is as round as the full moon.
I used to travel to the Moonpool with the two other healers. Then we followed the stream up to its source, high in the hills, and onward to a deep claw-slice in the hills. At the far end, we climbed a steep, rocky slope to a stream beyond.
We followed the stream up to a barrier of thornbushes. Once inside, we would stand for a short while, looking down at the hollow and listening to the sound of the water bubbling out of the sheer cliff beyond.
In the center of the hollow is the Moonpool.
We knew the path that spiraled down to it like the scent of our own Tribes. Then we closed our eyes, drank from the water’s edge, and waited for the visions to appear. I remember the clear, cold taste of the water, like drinking silver moonlight.
It gives me joy to see new tribes traveling to the Moonpool. I hope it will bring them serenity, wisdom, and guidance for many moons to come.
The Island
In their new home by the lake, the Clans also needed a replacement for Fourtrees—a place to hold the peaceful monthly Gathering. At first they met by the Twoleg horseplace, but a better spot was soon found. The Island is just off the shore of RiverClan territory. It would be impossible for young cats and elders to swim to, but StarClan made a tree fall across the span of the water. Now the cats use the tree as a bridge to get to the Island every full moon. There they can meet in safety, on neutral, sacred ground.
When we first arrived at the lake, I remember looking down from the hill and seeing a dark shape on the near end, and I thought to myself, Dustpelt, that’s an island! I said so to Ferncloud, although she doesn’t remember it now.