“No!” Thunder yowled. “Don’t leave us! Stay and explain!”
But it was too late. Turtle Tail and Rainswept Flower seemed to dissolve until they were no more than wisps of mist above the rock; then they were gone.
Thunder threw back his head and let out another long caterwaul to the stars that blazed down from an empty sky. Then before his eyes the stars seemed to shift, blotted out as darkness swirled in front of his eyes. He lashed out with one paw and felt the soft touch of moss against his pads. His eyes flew open and he realized that he was back in his own den.
Thunder’s heart was racing, and shivers ran through him as if he had just struggled out of icy water. He lay still in his nest for several heartbeats, going over in his mind what the spirit-cats had said.
After a few moments the moonlight that washed into his den was suddenly cut off as another cat slipped through the entrance. Gray Wing’s scent wreathed around him.
“Well done,” Gray Wing muttered, sounding unusually irritable. “You called the dream to a halt.”
“They were leaving anyway,” Thunder retorted, sitting up and shaking scraps of moss from his pelt.
Gray Wing padded farther into the den, letting the light flow back, and sat down beside Thunder.
“We have to work out what the message means,” he meowed.
Thunder rolled his eyes. “Good luck with that.” He was still frustrated by the spirit-cats’ riddling talk, and by the way they had vanished instead of explaining themselves.
“I have an idea,” Gray Wing continued, sounding more like his calm self. “But we need to discuss it with the others.”
Thankful to have something he could do, Thunder leaped to his paws. “Do you want me to fetch
Clear Sky, River Ripple, and Wind Runner?”
“Wait.” Gray Wing stretched out a paw to stop Thunder from leaving the den. “Let’s talk to Tall Shadow first just to see whether she had the dream too.”
Thunder nodded. “Good plan!”
Gray Wing rose to his paws and padded out of the den. When Thunder followed him into the open he saw that the moon had already set. The stars were fading and pink streaks stretched across the sky where the sun would rise. The air was damp and misty, with dew clinging to every rock and blade of grass.
The rest of the cats were beginning to stir. Tiny squeaks came from the den where Holly and Jagged Peak were caring for their kits, and as Thunder watched, Pebble Heart emerged from his own den and slipped in to join them. The sound of their cheerful greetings told Thunder that Holly was doing well.
Shattered Ice slid out of the tunnel where he slept and sat down to scratch one ear vigorously with his hind paw, while Dappled Pelt sat at the mouth of her den, giving herself a thorough grooming.
His glance sweeping across the camp, Thunder spotted the small, dark shape of Tall Shadow sitting at the foot of the lookout rock. As soon as she saw Gray Wing and Thunder she leaped up and bounded across the hollow toward them.
“Did you have a dream?” she demanded when she reached them.
Gray Wing dipped his head. “So you had it too?”
“Yes,” Tall Shadow confirmed. “What are we going to do about it?”
“We need to discuss it with the other leaders,” Thunder meowed. “I’ll go fetch them.”
“Wait.” Once again Gray Wing stretched out a paw. “I can feel a kind of tingling in my pads. It reminds me of what the spirit-cats said… I think we should go back to the four trees.”
Tall Shadow twitched her ears in surprise. “If that’s what you want.”
With Gray Wing in the lead, the three cats left the hollow and set out across the moor. Mist still wreathed around them, but above their heads the sky was clear. Thunder enjoyed the cool touch of the dewy grass on his paws, reviving him from his interrupted sleep and sending new energy through his limbs.
By the time they crossed into the forest the sun was peering over the horizon; every drop of moisture glittered in its rays, though ragged scraps of mist still remained under the shadow of the trees.
When they reached the top of the slope that led down into the clearing, Thunder spotted Clear Sky, Wind Runner, and River Ripple perched among the bare branches of one of the great oaks.
“There you are!” River Ripple called out to them, leaping down to join them as they bounded rapidly down the slope. “I wondered how long it would take the three of you to turn up.”
“You were expecting us?” Gray Wing asked, as Clear Sky and Wind Runner also jumped down and padded up to them.
For answer, River Ripple simply dipped his head.
“Did you see the same thing, then?” Clear Sky asked, tearing at the ground in agitation. “The meeting with the spirit-cats? What did you make of their message?”
“We all saw it,” Wind Runner responded. “And my encounters with death have colored everything for me. ‘Unite or die,’ they told us. All I can take from that is that we have to face more death and grief.”
“But I think their message tonight was more hopeful than that,” River Ripple told her quietly, brushing his plumy tail sympathetically against Wind Runner’s shoulder. “Besides, shouldn’t we all feel grateful? How lucky we are, to be…” He paused, struggling to find the right word.
“The chosen ones?” Thunder asked.
River Ripple tilted his head, looking both surprised and impressed. “Yes, maybe that’s what we are. We’re lucky that the spirit-cats want to speak with all of us and allow us to meet with them in our dreams.” His habitual amusement glimmered in his eyes. “Think how terrifying it would be if you received these messages and you were the only one.”
“We’ve been told to grow and spread. But are we still being told to unite or die?” Thunder asked, remembering what he had said in the dream. “I think we would all have died if we hadn’t united against One Eye. So is that part of the message over and done with now?”
“You want to go back to fighting among ourselves?” Tall Shadow asked. “Having another battle, maybe?”
“No, of course not—” Thunder began to protest.
“Then I think both messages are important. We just have to figure out what the second message means. Grow and spread…”
“I hope the spirits aren’t blaming me for leaving the hollow,” Wind Runner interrupted waspishly.
“Well, it can’t mean that we all have to live together,” Gray Wing meowed. “That never worked, right from the beginning.”
“Only because some cats argued about where to live,” Tall Shadow pointed out.
Clear Sky’s neck fur began to bristle. “Are you saying we have no right to make that decision?”
Thunder could see that the meeting was going to break down in squabbling if he didn’t do something. Bunching his muscles, he leaped up onto the top of the Great Rock.
“Stop!” he yowled. When silence fell, with all the others gazing up at him, he went on, “We mustn’t fight among ourselves. We need to work together to find the exact meaning of their most recent message.”
Murmurs of agreement came from the other cats, except for Clear Sky, who barely seemed to be listening. Instead he seemed to be carefully scanning the area.
Choosing new boundaries? Thunder wondered, feeling his belly tense at the thought of more confrontation with his father. I hope not. I’ve had enough of boundaries to last me a lifetime.
The other four leaders jumped up to join Thunder on top of the rock, and after a pause, much to Thunder’s relief, Clear Sky followed them.
By now the morning sun was rising high in the sky, casting its slanting rays between the branches of the oaks and burning off the last of the dawn mist. The creak and rustle of the trees was all around them. Thunder felt peace like dew soaking through his pelt, and as the others relaxed he realized that they felt it too.