But before she could speak, Cora looked up from where she was sunning herself with the other visiting cats. “What’s the Skyrock?” she meowed.
“That, up there.” Rockshade raised his tail to point at the flat ledge jutting out over the gorge. “The whole Clan meets there when the moon is full.”
“Why?” Coal asked, getting up to join the younger warriors. “Can’t you meet down here in the gorge?”
“It has to be a special place,” Tinycloud explained. “And up there we’re closer to StarClan—that’s the spirits of our warrior ancestors.”
Coal exchanged a mystified glance with Shorty. “Warrior ancestors? What are you meowing about?”
Leafstar stopped to listen but stayed in the background, interested to know what the visiting cats would think about the idea that the spirits of their ancestors watched over them. Or do they? Maybe it’s only Clan cats who go to StarClan when they die.
“Every moon we hold a Gathering on the Skyrock,” Tinycloud began. “We tell StarClan what has been happening in the Clan, and we discuss stuff.”
“Er… sounds interesting,” Stick mewed, looking mystified.
“Back in the forest where Firestar lives,” Rockshade went on, “there are four Clans. They meet at the full moon, too, and exchange their news, and there’s a truce so they’re not allowed to fight one another.”
“We can’t do all of that, because we’re only one Clan,” his littermate meowed, sounding rather disappointed. “But we still Gather. It’s what Clan cats do.”
The Twolegplace cats were silent for a moment.
“So… you go up to the top of the cliff to talk to dead cats?” Shorty meowed at last.
“No, that’s not exactly what we do,” Tinycloud objected, with a glance at Rockshade; she sounded confused, as if she wasn’t sure what else she could say to make the visitors understand what a Gathering was.
“I guess you have to be there…” Rockshade began.
Leafstar padded forward, deciding that it was time to intervene. “Tinycloud, Rockshade, go find Sharpclaw. He’ll be organizing the hunting patrols. Off you go.”
The warriors bounded off at once, looking distinctly relieved.
“You’ll find out all about the Gathering later,” Leafstar reassured the other cats.
“Oh, are we invited?” Cora asked, sounding pleased.
“Every cat comes,” Leafstar told her. And if you’re going to join this Clan, she added to herself, you’ll have to learn about StarClan sooner or later.
Leafstar padded in the paw steps of the two young warriors, toward the center of the camp. She glanced over her shoulder as she heard Billystorm call her name.
“Leafstar, could you give me a couple of moments, please?”
Billystorm was padding down the trail with his apprentice Snookpaw just behind. “I… er… I want you to check out the hunting move I’ve been teaching Snookpaw,” he explained. “I’m not sure he’s got it quite right. Could we go to the training area?”
“Sure.” Leafstar felt faintly uneasy. Billystorm looked as if he had more on his mind than a hunting move. More trouble between the daylight-warriors and the Clan cats? she wondered.
When they reached the training area, Billystorm waved Snookpaw into the middle of the empty space. “I’ve been showing Snookpaw how to leap onto a rabbit’s back and roll it over before it can run. Snookpaw, show Leafstar.”
The apprentice dropped into the hunter’s crouch and crept up on his imaginary rabbit. Leafstar watched approvingly as he waggled his haunches and leaped into the air, coming down on all four paws and flipping himself onto his back as if he was gripping the rabbit in his claws.
“That looks fine to me,” she meowed. “Snookpaw, you might want to keep your legs tighter to your body as you roll. That way, you’ll keep a firmer hold on the rabbit.”
“Thanks, Leafstar.” Snookpaw scrambled to his paws and shook sand from his black-and-white pelt.
“Why don’t you practice that a few times?” Billystorm suggested. “We’ll watch you.”
The apprentice nodded and crouched down again, creeping low across the open space.
“You’ve taught him well,” Leafstar commented. “Now, what is this really about?”
Billystorm looked guilty. “I wanted to know,” he began, “whether the visitors have said anything to you about their plans.”
That was the last question Leafstar had expected him to ask, yet on reflection she realized she shouldn’t be surprised. The whole Clan must be speculating about what the Twolegplace cats want.
“No,” she meowed, annoyed that she sounded defensive. “They haven’t told me anything.”
“Maybe you should ask them.” Billystorm hesitated, and then went on, “I’ve seen them leading patrols of SkyClan cats in Twolegplace.”
Leafstar’s belly lurched and she felt her neck fur beginning to bristle. “That’s not possible. No patrols go hunting in Twolegplace.”
“I saw them.” Billystorm leaned closer toward her, his amber eyes full of concern. “Last night I was sitting on the wall around my housefolk’s garden, in the shade of a thick bush. No cat could have seen me from below, and the flowers on the bush hid my scent. They walked right past me: Stick and Sharpclaw, Mintpaw and Rockshade.”
Leafstar met his worried gaze. “You must have been mistaken,” she meowed, trying to sound calm.
Billystorm shook his head, but he didn’t seem inclined to argue. Inside, Leafstar felt puzzled and unsure. She could imagine some of the younger warriors setting off to explore Twolegplace, imagining it would be an adventure. But Sharpclaw is Clan deputy! What was he doing there? She didn’t like the fact, either, that he had taken Mintpaw, whom he was mentoring while Waspwhisker recovered from his wound. The Twolegplace is no place for an apprentice.
As she watched Snookpaw practice his move, possibilities drifted through her mind like clouds. Had Sharpclaw and the others been chasing off a dog? If so, why hadn’t he reported it?
“You can stop now, Snookpaw,” she called as the apprentice leaped and rolled once again. “You’ve got the move down.”
Snookpaw scrambled up and bounced over to his mentor at the edge of the training area. “Can we go and try it for real?” he puffed.
“Tomorrow,” Billystorm promised. He added, “You would catch even more rabbits if you were a bit thinner.” He gave his apprentice a gentle prod in the side.
“Aw, but I have to eat two lots of food every day!” Snookpaw protested. “My housefolk get really upset if I don’t eat theirs. And they’ve made it extra tasty lately.”
“You poor thing, I feel so sorry for you,” Billystorm murmured. He caught Leafstar’s eye, and they shared an amused purr at the way Snookpaw seemed genuinely downcast. Leafstar shoved the thought of Sharpclaw leading a patrol into Twolegplace to the back of her mind. SkyClan was strong and contented now, with the rats safely defeated. There was no need to go looking for trouble by challenging her deputy on something that might have a perfectly innocent explanation.
As the last scarlet traces of sunlight faded from the sky, Leafstar kept casting glances toward the top of the gorge. This was the time when Harveymoon and Macgyver were allowed to come back to the Clan.
But will they want to? Surely they should be here by now.
All the other daylight-warriors had stayed late in the gorge so they could attend the Gathering. Snookpaw and Frecklepaw were part of an excited huddle with their fellow apprentices, while Billystorm and Ebonyclaw waited with Patchfoot and Petalnose for the signal to climb the trail.
“I wonder if I was too harsh with Harveymoon and Macgyver,” Leafstar murmured to herself. As Echosong padded past with a bunch of yarrow leaves, she meowed out loud, “Echosong, do you think I should have banished those two daylight-warriors?”