The black tom started with surprise that his leader had singled him out for praise, and Sparrowpelt, sitting beside him, gave him a friendly shove.
“Sharpclaw is the best deputy a Clan leader could wish for, and Echosong is a truly gifted medicine cat.” Leafstar paused and let her gaze sweep across the assembled Clan. “But there is no need for me to go on naming names. I am proud to have all of you as my Clanmates, and SkyClan would be diminished without a single one of you.”
The cats below her glanced at one another; she saw Lichenfur lean over and mutter something into Tangle’s ear.
“But Firestar chose me and Cherrytail first,” Sparrowpelt pointed out, “because we inherited our climbing and jumping skills from old SkyClan.”
“That’s right!” Cherrytail agreed, nodding.
“No, he didn’t!” Fallowfern argued, her neck fur beginning to bristle. “From what I heard, he chose you because you were nearest. You have no more right to be part of the Clan than my kits.”
Cherrytail sprang to her paws, only to sink down again when Leafstar raised her tail in warning.
“What Fallowfern said is exactly what I mean,” she went on, struggling to keep her voice even. “No cat has more claim to SkyClan than any other, no matter who their ancestors were. As Clan cats, StarClan is here for all of us.”
“Leafstar is right.” Sharpclaw rose to his paws to address the rest of the Clan. “A place in the Clan is earned by loyalty, duty, and courage.”
Leafstar had no time to feel warmed by her deputy’s support before she saw him cast a dark glance at Billystorm, Ebonyclaw, and the two daylight-warrior apprentices.
Before she could say anything else, she was interrupted by a yowl from Waspwhisker. “Intruders!”
The gray-and-white tom, still on watch halfway up the cliff, had sprung to his paws and was gazing across the gorge to the cliff on the other side. The rest of the Clan spun around, their neck fur bristling, and stared at the top of the rocks. Leafstar spotted a cat peering over the cliff, only its brown-furred head visible. Within a heartbeat it was joined by another, then a third and a fourth.
A low growl came from Sharpclaw’s throat. “How did they get so far inside the borders without us noticing?”
“We should have been on border patrol,” Bouncefire explained helpfully, “but Leafstar told us to hunt instead.”
Leafstar winced at the querying look Sharpclaw shot at her. What the young warrior said was true, but when so few strange cats ever came into the territory, she had thought it was more important to stock the fresh-kill pile.
This would happen the one time there’s no patrol!
Resentment stirred inside Leafstar at the thought of defending herself to her deputy, so she didn’t respond to what Bouncefire said. “Patchfoot,” she meowed instead, “fetch the strangers down here. Cherrytail and Sparrowpelt, go with him.”
The three cats ran a short way down the gorge and crossed the river by a line of stepping-stones. Patchfoot led the way back up the gorge and they vanished around a bend in the cliff. The four cat heads vanished, too, pulling back from the edge.
“You’re trespassing on SkyClan territory!” Leafstar heard Patchfoot’s voice raised in a stern yowl. “Come down and meet our leader!”
The SkyClan cats waited in tense silence, in which the sound of paw steps running down the cliff could be heard. A heartbeat later the patrol reappeared with Patchfoot in the lead, while Cherrytail and Sparrowpelt flanked the four intruders. The SkyClan cats escorted the newcomers across the river, all the way to the foot of the Rockpile. The other cats drew back to let them pass. Leafstar’s eyes narrowed as she saw her Clanmates’ bristling fur and extended claws. Let’s hope we can end this peacefully.
She jumped down from the Rockpile and confronted the four strange cats. The tallest of them, a long-legged brown tom with yellow eyes and a scraped pelt, let his gaze travel slowly around. To Leafstar’s surprise, he didn’t look scared at being surrounded by a Clan of hostile cats. Instead, he looked… satisfied.
Turning to Leafstar, he gave her a nod. “It looks like Firestar found you after all,” he meowed.
Chapter 6
Leafstar stiffened. “How do you know Firestar?” she demanded. “Are you from ThunderClan?”
The brown cat snorted. “No, we’re not from any Clan. But we met Firestar and his mate, Sandstorm, when they were on their way to find some cats who needed a new home. Is this it?”
He let his gaze travel around the gorge again, and Leafstar could tell he wasn’t impressed. She had to concentrate hard to keep her neck fur lying flat and her voice sounding proud and confident.
“Yes, Firestar found us and this is our home. I am Leafstar, the leader of SkyClan.”
“And what are your names?” Sharpclaw prompted, coming to stand beside Leafstar.
Leafstar realized that she should have asked that before she offered the strangers any information. But the mention of Firestar’s name had shaken her off balance.
“My name is Stick,” the skinny brown tom announced. He flicked his tail toward a black she-cat. “This is Cora.”
“I’m Shorty.” A brown tabby tom with the end of his tail missing took a step forward and dipped his head politely.
“Coal.” The last cat, a black tom, shouldered his way forward. “We come from a Twolegplace farther downstream. We helped Firestar and Sandstorm when they were separated by a flood.”
“Why are you here?” Leafstar asked. “Are you looking for Firestar? He and Sandstorm left us long ago.”
Stick glanced at his companions; his tail-tip twitched and Leafstar sensed he was ordering them to leave the talking to him. “We often talk about Firestar and Sandstorm,” he replied. “And we’ve always been interested in learning more about Clans.”
Sharpclaw’s gaze flicked from one cat to the next. “You took quite a risk coming in search of them,” he pointed out. “It doesn’t sound as if you knew much about Firestar’s plans.”
The scrawny brown tom shrugged. “The risk paid off.”
Sharpclaw exchanged a wary glance with Leafstar. She could tell that he was impressed by the strangers’ courage, though he still wasn’t inclined to trust them. Leafstar felt uneasy, too, and guessed from the hesitant glances they were sharing that her Clanmates felt the same. Creekkit looked up at her mother, Fallowfern, and asked in a penetrating whisper, “Who are those cats, and what are they doing here?”
Fallowfern gently covered the kit’s mouth with her tail, but Leafstar knew that the question had to be answered. “Yes, why are you here?” She addressed Stick, since he seemed to be the leader. “You’re welcome to visit, of course…”
Cora stepped forward; her eyes were gentle and unthreatening. “We believe we could learn a lot from you,” she explained. “How to hunt, how to guard our territory—”
“Yeah, we did a brilliant job of that today!” Cherrytail muttered.
“And how to protect our kin,” the black she-cat finished, untroubled by the interruption.
Leafstar was flattered by the respect in Cora’s tone. “We’re only just starting out ourselves,” she admitted. “We still have a lot to learn, too. We—”
“We’d be glad to teach you what you want to know,” Sharpclaw interrupted, his tail-tip twitching. Turning to Leafstar, he added, “We can always use extra help with hunting, right?”
Leafstar heard a gasp from one of her Clanmates, and noticed one or two uneasy looks at the deputy’s tone; it almost sounded as if he was telling his Clan leader what to do. But for now she had to make it clear to every cat, including the visitors, that she was in charge. I’ll have a word with him about that later.