“Well?” Sharpclaw asked tensely.
“The Twolegs are here,” Leafstar reported. “They—”
She broke off as yowls of triumph erupted from the cliff.
“I knew we could do it!” Harveymoon exclaimed, pushing his shoulders through the barrier across the warriors’ den.
“Quiet!” Sharpclaw snarled. “And get back in there. Do you want the Twolegs to come looking for us?”
Harveymoon vanished abruptly, though Leafstar could still hear squeals and meows of excitement coming from the dens. Fallowfern’s kits were scrambling among the branches outside the nursery; Clovertail hauled herself up the trail and helped Fallowfern to round them up and take them back inside.
“I want to know what the Twolegs are doing,” Sharpclaw commented to Leafstar. “But I don’t think we can leave the camp. The whole Clan sounds as if it has bees in its brain.”
Leafstar could understand her cats’ need to celebrate their success, but she was relieved when the noise died down after a few moments. Choosing a small patrol—Sharpclaw, Cherrytail, Echosong, Billystorm, and Snookpaw—she crept back up the gorge and peered out from behind the rocks to watch the rescue of the Twoleg kit.
By the time they returned to the spot, the adult Twolegs had been joined by many, many more. They wore bright yellow pelts, and lowered themselves down into the gorge on long tendrils suspended from the top of the cliff.
“See, Twolegs aren’t bad all the time!” Snookpaw whispered, bouncing lightly on his paws. “They’ve all come to help the kit.”
“Maybe.” Sharpclaw’s green eyes were wary. “But I’m not happy about all these Twolegs in our territory. What if they decide to come back?”
Leafstar watched the Twolegs lower a flat, bulky object down the cliff face and lift the little Twoleg gently onto it. “I can’t see why they would do that,” she murmured.
“But they must know we’re here,” Cherrytail murmured, sounding uncharacteristically troubled. “We brought them here, after all.”
“And they’ve got what they came for,” Leafstar reassured her.
All the same, as the Twolegs fastened the kit onto the bulky object and started to haul her up the cliff on the tendrils, Leafstar admitted to herself that she shared her Clanmates’ concern. Clan cats and Twolegs lead separate lives, she thought. Have I brought them too close together by what I did today?
Echosong brushed against her shoulder. “You did the right thing,” she insisted, as if she had read her Clan leader’s thoughts.
But Leafstar could see a shadow behind the medicine cat’s gaze, telling her that Echosong was worried, too.
What have I done? she wondered. And what’s going to happen now?
Chapter 29
First thing next morning, Leafstar padded up the gorge to check out the spot where the Twoleg kit had been lying. Rain had fallen during the night; her paws splashed through puddles and she narrowed her eyes as the rising sun glittered on water dripping from the rocks. A stiff breeze sent small white clouds scudding across the sky.
Leafstar peered cautiously from behind the spur of rock, then padded forward, her jaws parted to taste the air. She could still pick up the mingled scents of many Twolegs, but they were faint and fading; the night’s rain had helped to wash them away. There were still many marks of the Twolegs’ heavy paws, but Leafstar guessed that they too would fade with time.
Maybe it’s all over, and we are safe.
When Leafstar returned to the camp, she found Sharpclaw arranging the morning’s patrols. At once she picked up the feelings of restlessness among her warriors; they roamed distractedly around the Rockpile, not really listening to Sharpclaw as he called their names.
“What are we going to do if the Twolegs come back?” Petalnose fretted. “Maybe we should leave and find ourselves somewhere else to live.”
“I’m not moving anywhere,” Clovertail retorted. “Not until my kits are born and fit to travel.”
“I’m sure we won’t have to.” Patchfoot brushed his pelt reassuringly against Clovertail’s side. “What can the Twolegs do, after all?”
Shrewtooth shuddered, but didn’t try to reply.
Looking around, Leafstar spotted Stick and the other cats from the Twolegplace huddled together, and she wondered what they were talking about. What if they decide to leave? Maybe they didn’t feel comfortable in a Clan that had too much to do with Twolegs.
A high-pitched squealing drew Leafstar’s attention to the edge of the river. Plumkit was lying on her back with her paws in the air.
“I’m an injured Twoleg!” she wailed. “Help meeeeeee!”
Her brothers frisked around her, darting forward now and then to give her a prod.
“We have to find her Twolegs!” Rabbitkit announced.
Leafstar suppressed a mrrow of laughter. At least Fallowfern’s kits weren’t worried about the possible threat from Twolegs. She wished she could say the same about the rest of the Clan. Even the apprentices were looking subdued, and she spotted Tinycloud and Bouncefire facing each other with bristling fur, as if the tensions had to break out somehow.
“This is no good,” Leafstar muttered. “I have to do something.”
A yowl of greeting rang out from the top of the cliff; Leafstar looked up to see all the daylight-warriors arriving together: Harveymoon and Macgyver in the lead, followed by Billystorm and Ebonyclaw with their apprentices.
That’s it! Leafstar thought. I know what will pull the Clan together and make them feel better.
Leaping up to the top of the Rockpile, she yowled, “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Rockpile for a Clan meeting.”
The gaze of every cat was turned on her. Leafstar waited for the daylight-warriors to reach the bottom of the gorge, and for Echosong to emerge from her den. Tangle and Lichenfur appeared too, stretching out in a sunny spot near the edge of the river.
“Cats of SkyClan, one of the most important ceremonies for any Clan is the making of a new warrior,” Leafstar began when every cat was listening. “And that is why I have called you together today.”
The apprentices brightened up, gazing at one another with excitement sparkling in their eyes, as they wondered which of them their Clan leader meant.
“Yesterday Snookpaw helped his Clan by finding the injured Twoleg’s nest,” Leafstar went on. “Without him, the little Twoleg would still be lying in the gorge. She might even have died. Snookpaw, you acted as a warrior and you deserve your warrior name.”
The apprentice’s jaws gaped open. “But… but Leafstar,” he protested, “I didn’t do anything!”
“You did what no other Clan cat could have done,” Leafstar assured him. “Billystorm, has your apprentice, Snookpaw, learned the skills of a warrior?”
Billystorm’s amber eyes were glowing with pride. “He has.”
Leafstar’s heart wrenched at the thought that his warm look wasn’t for her. “And does he understand the meaning of the warrior code?”
“He does.”
Leafstar leaped down from the Rockpile and stood in front of Snookpaw, who still looked as if some cat had hit him over the head with a dead pigeon.
“I, Leafstar, call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice,” she declared. “He has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn. Snookpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?”
Snookpaw was shivering as he replied, “I do.”
“Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Snookpaw, from this moment you will be known as Snookthorn. StarClan honors your courage and your intelligence, and we welcome you as a full member of SkyClan.”