Leafpaw beckoned Sorreltail with her tail. “Quick!
Spottedleaf’s here!”
The tortoiseshell warrior joined Leafpaw in a couple of bounds and looked around. “Where?”
“There!” Leafpaw gestured to the starlit shape standing a couple of tail-lengths away on the edge of the stream.
“I can’t see her,” Sorreltail meowed. She looked worriedly at Leafpaw. “Is that a problem?”
Leafpaw gently drew her tail over Sorreltail’s eyes. “No, of course not. She can see that you are here, and that’s all that matters. Trust me, she is with us.”
Spottedleaf turned away and began to follow the stream upward. Leafpaw scrambled eagerly after her. The ground sloped more steeply than before, and the starlit stream vanished among a barrier of thornbushes that swallowed Spottedleaf like a fish diving into water.
Leafpaw stopped and put her head to one side as she studied the bushes. She had to follow Spottedleaf, but she’d be clawed to pieces by thorns if she tried to push her way through. Then she spotted a tiny gap and ducked between the prickly stems; there was just enough room to squeeze through without losing half her fur, though the thorns still tugged at her pelt. Behind her she could hear Sorreltail following, her breath rasping with the effort of running up the last stretch of rock.
A heartbeat later Leafpaw emerged on the edge of a steep-sided hollow. The ground fell sharply away on the other side of the thornbushes, and Leafpaw swayed for a moment as she struggled to keep her balance. It was much smaller than the hollow where ThunderClan had made their camp, clear of gorse and bramble and with sides that sloped more gently, lined with moss-covered rocks. Only on the far side did the ground rise into a sheer cliff, shaggy with moss and fern.
Water bubbled out from a cleft about halfway up and splashed into a pool in the center of the hollow. The surface of the pool danced and glittered with reflected starlight. It was the most beautiful place Leafpaw had ever seen.
Spottedleaf was standing at the edge of the water. “Come,” she meowed, beckoning with her tail.
Just beside Leafpaw’s paws a narrow path curved around the side of the hollow, spiraling steadily down until it reached the pool below.
She heard Sorreltail push her way out of the thorns behind her. “Wow!” she breathed. “Is this it?”
“I think so,” Leafpaw replied. “Spottedleaf wants me to go down to the pool.”
“Shall I come too?” Sorreltail offered.
Leafpaw shook her head. “I think I should go alone the first time.”
Leaving Sorreltail on the edge of the hollow, she stepped carefully down the path. The rock was dimpled with ancient pawprints, too many to count, and with each step she felt her paws slip into the marks left by cats many, many moons before. They were long gone, but Leafpaw’s fur tingled just to know they once had been here.
At last she stood beside Spottedleaf at the edge of the pool.
“Look at the water, Leafpaw,” the ghostly cat murmured.
Puzzled, Leafpaw looked down, and felt the stone beneath her paws lurch. Instead of stars she saw the reflections of many, many cats, their moonlit pelts shimmering. Countless pairs of eyes gleamed expectantly at her, as if they had known she would come.
Hardly daring to breathe, Leafpaw looked up. All around her sat the shining warriors of StarClan, lining the hollow’s sloping sides. Their eyes glowed like tiny moons, and their fur was tipped with the glitter of frost.
“Don’t be afraid,” Spottedleaf murmured. “We have been waiting for you to find your way to us.”
Leafpaw wasn’t afraid. She was conscious of nothing but warmth and goodwill in the starry gazes fixed on her. Most of the warriors were unfamiliar to her, but in one of the front rows she saw Dappletail, the ThunderClan elder who had died from eating a rabbit poisoned by the Twolegs. The she-cat looked graceful and beautiful, not thin and desperate as she had been when Leafpaw last saw her. Her eyes glowed with welcome, and she nodded toward two small shapes near the water’s edge, tumbling together as they chased a shaft of moonlight. As their play brought them close to her Leafpaw drank in their sweet kit scent. With a stab of joy, she recognized Hollykit and Larchkit, who had starved when Twolegs destroyed the forest. A half-grown cat reached out with a paw to nudge the starry kits away from the water’s edge: it was their brother Shrewpaw, the apprentice struck by a Twoleg monster as he tried to hunt for their Clan.
I must tell Ferncloud, thought Leafpaw, knowing how happy their mother would be to know that her three kits were safe in the ranks of StarClan.
Then she realized that one cat was missing. She ran her gaze quickly around the hollow to make sure. There was no sign of Graystripe. Leafpaw’s heart leaped. Did that mean that Firestar was right when he insisted that his friend was still alive?
Across the pool, a blue-gray warrior rose to her paws. She reminded Leafpaw of some cat… Of course, she’s the image of Mistyfoot! This must be Bluestar, Mistyfoot’s mother, and ThunderClan’s leader before Firestar.
“Welcome, Leafpaw,” Bluestar meowed. “We are delighted to welcome you here. This is where medicine cats must come to share tongues with StarClan, and where your leaders will receive their nine lives and their names.”
“It’s beautiful, Bluestar,” Leafpaw whispered. “Thank you for sending Spottedleaf to help me find it.”
“You must go back and tell all the Clans,” Bluestar continued. “But first there is a friend who wants to speak to you.”
A beautiful silver-gray cat left the ranks of cats and padded around the pool toward Leafpaw.
“Feathertail!”
The radiant warrior came to a halt in front of her. She touched noses with her, a caress light as a breeze whispering against Leafpaw’s muzzle.
“I thought we left you with the Tribe of Endless Hunting,” Leafpaw meowed.
Feathertail shook her head. “I walk in two skies now, with the Tribe’s ancestors as well as my own. But wherever I am, I shall never forget the Clans.” She hesitated for a moment, then added, “Especially Crowfeather.”
“He misses you very much. He chose his warrior name for you.”
“Yes, I was watching,” Feathertail purred. “I was so proud.
He will make a great warrior.” She bent close to Leafpaw again, her warm breath stirring the apprentice’s fur. “Tell him not to grieve. I will always love him, but there will be many, many moons before we meet again. For now, he must live with his Clanmates in their new home. He cannot be blind to the cats who are around him for all that time.”
“I’ll tell him,” Leafpaw promised.
Feathertail dipped her head and turned away, starlight dappling her silver pelt. The warriors began to fade until they were little more than a starry sheen around the slopes of the hollow, and then they were gone. Leafpaw caught one more breath of Spottedleaf’s scent before that faded too.
She looked up and saw that the sky was growing brighter.
Sorreltail was standing at the top of the hollow, looking down at her.
Leafpaw ran up the path to join her. “Did you see them?” she asked excitedly.
Sorreltail tipped her head on one side. “See who?”
“StarClan! They were here, all around the hollow! I spoke to Bluestar, and Feathertail!” Leafpaw trailed off when she saw that Sorreltail was looking bewildered, and a little wary.
“I saw a bright mist rising from the pool,” she mewed hesitantly.
“That must have been them,” Leafpaw told her. She gazed around the hollow with the sound of tumbling starlit water filling her ears. “This is the place.”
“Are you sure?”
At that moment the rays of the moon caught the surface of the water, and a pure white light flooded the hollow.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Leafpaw mewed. “We no longer have the Moonstone—but we have the Moonpool. This is the place where StarClan will share tongues with us.” She turned to Sorreltail, feeling her fur glitter with starlight.