Dawn

Chapter 19

Like cloud shadows drifting over the ground, the Clans trekked in silence across a meadow. Squirrelpaw was grateful that Brambleclaw walked close beside her, shielding her from the icy wind. The rain was easing now, but the clouds had been raked into tatters by a thorn-sharp breeze that promised colder weather. Shivering, she looked up and saw a Twoleg nest looming ahead, even bigger than the Great Rock.

Her paws were sore from the prickly stubble that seemed to cover all the fields they had passed through, and she longed for the softness of leaves underpaw. The air was filled with unfamiliar scents—Twolegs, the monsters that prowled the crisscrossing Thunderpaths, the fresh scent of dog drifting from a Twoleg nest, and the recent scent of rogues. Squirrelpaw felt the instinctive tension of any cat that strayed from its territory, even though she was surrounded by more Clan cats than she had seen before in her life. She scanned the hedgerow, and her heart seemed to stop beating altogether when she saw the brown beech leaves rustle madly, shaken by more than just the wind.

Ravenpaw stepped out from his hiding place like a shadow coming to life, and stared at the Clans in surprise. A second cat slipped out of the hedge behind him. Squirrelpaw recognized the black-and-white pelt of Barley, the cat who had allowed Ravenpaw to share his home in a Twoleg barn for many moons.

“Firestar! Is that you?” Ravenpaw’s ears twitched as he called out for his old friend. The Clan cats halted and stared at him. Every cat knew about the black-pelted ThunderClan apprentice who had been driven out by his mentor, Tigerstar.

Even if they hadn’t known him during his short time in the forest, many had met him on the journey to Highstones.

“Hello, Ravenpaw.” Tallstar dipped his head in greeting.

“Ravenpaw!” Firestar pushed through the other cats to greet his old friend.

“Firestar!” Ravenpaw touched noses with the ThunderClan leader. He looked around. “Where’s Graystripe?”

Firestar blinked. “Graystripe’s not with us.”

“Is he dead?” Ravenpaw’s pelt bristled in shock.

Firestar shook his head. “Twolegs captured him.”

“Twolegs?” Ravenpaw echoed. “Why?”

“They started trapping us.” Firestar’s mew was raw with grief. “We’ve been forced to leave the forest.”

“What?” Ravenpaw lifted his nose to scent the air. “Is that WindClan and RiverClan with you? And ShadowClan?”

“The Twolegs are destroying all our homes,” Firestar explained. “We would have been crushed by their monsters if we’d stayed, if we didn’t starve first.”

“You look half-starved already,” Barley remarked, coming forward.

“Hello, Barley,” Firestar greeted him. “How’s the hunting?”

“Better for me than for you, by the looks of it,” came the blunt reply.

“Where are you heading?” Ravenpaw asked.

“Highstones first, and then…” Firestar turned to look questioningly at Brambleclaw, but Brambleclaw just gazed back in silence.

“You’ll stay with us tonight, won’t you?” Ravenpaw asked.

“The hunting is good this moon. The barn is full of rats sheltering from the cold.”

“Wait, Ravenpaw,” warned Barley. “This many cats will never fit into the barn. The Twolegs would have a fit when they came to get straw for the cows.”

“That’s true,” Ravenpaw said. “But there must be a way to help.”

“I suppose they could stay at the broken nest,” Barley suggested.

“Of course!” Ravenpaw turned to Firestar. “You know the place—where you sheltered with Bluestar after the rat attack?”

Firestar glanced up at the reddening clouds. “I was hoping we’d make it to Highstones by tonight.”

“We can’t turn down the offer of food,” Blackstar argued.

Firestar dipped his head. “You’re right.” He turned back to Ravenpaw. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get you settled; then we can show the warriors the best places to hunt,” Ravenpaw mewed. “There’ll be plenty for every cat.”

Squirrelpaw heard murmurs of excitement ripple through the Clans, and the kits began to mewl their hunger out loud now that it seemed there was a chance they would be fed.

“We need a rest and a meal more than you can imagine,” Firestar meowed.

Ravenpaw gazed at his friend’s mud-stained pelt. “Oh, Firestar,” he murmured, “I think I can imagine.”

The broken Twoleg place had no roof, but now the rain had stopped, its stone walls were enough to shelter the cats from the wind.

“I recognize this,” whispered Ashfoot, a WindClan queen.

“We slept here when Firestar led us back home, after Brokenstar drove us out.”

“I didn’t think we’d ever see this place again,” Webfoot growled.

The kits and elders streamed gratefully into the nest, glad of the chance to lie down. Ravenpaw and Barley led the warriors away to hunt, while the apprentices, Squirrelpaw and Crowpaw among them, stayed to guard the others. Cinderpelt and Leafpaw padded among the cats to check that none had been hurt in the desperate scramble across the moor.

“Squirrelpaw?” Leafpaw called. “Can you fetch some of that rain-soaked moss from outside? Some of the queens and elders are too tired to walk that far.”

Squirrelpaw nodded and hurried away to pull pawfuls of sodden moss from the ancient stones that formed the walls of the shelter.

The cats took it from her eagerly, lapping at the water that they squeezed out with their forepaws. When the last WindClan elder had drunk her fill, Squirrelpaw decided she could settle down and rest her aching paws. As she made herself comfortable in a corner, the warriors returned, carrying fresh-kill. Warm, delicious scents filled the shelter, and Squirrelpaw felt a quiver of joy as Brambleclaw dropped a plump rat in front of her.

“Do you want to share?” she offered.

“No,” Brambleclaw mewed. “It’s all yours.”

Squirrelpaw’s belly ached by the time she had finished because she was unused to such a huge meal, but this sort of discomfort was far less frightening than hunger, and for the first time since returning to the forest, she felt warm and well fed.

“This is a good place to rest,” Tallpoppy purred. “I don’t think my kits could take another night in the open. They nearly froze in last night’s rain.”

“They’ll be warm enough tonight,” Ferncloud agreed.

It was dark when Brambleclaw returned. He settled down beside Squirrelpaw with a piece of fresh-kill as big as the one he’d given her.

Firestar was lying next to Sandstorm, their tails, pale ginger and dark red, curled together. “Will you rest with us tonight?” he mewed to Ravenpaw, who was watching the cats eat from the entrance to the nest.

“Yes, I’d like that.” He padded over to the corner where ThunderClan had gathered. ShadowClan huddled opposite, while RiverClan and WindClan settled in separate corners.

“I never thought I’d sleep among the Clan again,” Ravenpaw murmured.

“I just wish it weren’t under these circumstances.” Firestar sighed.

Ravenpaw’s eyes darkened. “How will you find a new home?”

“StarClan will tell us,” Squirrelpaw mewed. She glanced at Brambleclaw, but he didn’t look up. “Won’t they?” She looked at Leafpaw, uncertainty pricking at her paws. Leafpaw dipped her head, but said nothing.

When Squirrelpaw woke, cold sunlight streamed into the nest. She flexed her claws, wondering how late it was. She had slept soundly. Looking up, she saw her father standing on a fallen stone that made a natural platform in the center of the broken nest. All around him, cats were drowsily lifting their heads and blinking in the daylight.

“We’ve slept too long,” Firestar mewed. “It’s sunhigh. We must push on to Highstones. Wherever we’re going, we have a long journey ahead of us.”

Mudclaw got to his paws, a stubborn expression on his face.

“Why must we leave a place that has such good hunting?”

“My kits have fed well for the first time in moons!” Tallpoppy put in.

“This is a prey-rich place,” Tallstar agreed. The WindClan leader looked tired and drawn despite their long sleep.

“Ravenpaw only invited us to stay the night,” Firestar argued.

“So? What could he do if we decided to stay longer?”

Blackstar stared defiantly at Ravenpaw. “My Clan needs food and shelter, and they will take it by force if necessary.”

Brambleclaw stood up. “This is not the place for us,” he meowed. “I don’t know exactly where we’re going, but I know it’s not here.”

Squirrelpaw nodded. “Why would StarClan have made us journey all the way to the sun-drown-place if they only meant for us to make our homes here? We wouldn’t need a sign for that.”

Crowpaw twitched his ears. “We must finish the journey we’ve started,” he growled.

“I agree,” meowed Stormfur from the RiverClan corner.

“Me too.” Tawnypelt stretched, arching her back. “We must carry on.”

“I think they’re right,” Leopardstar meowed unexpectedly.

“There are too many Twolegs around here. What if one of their dogs got loose? We’d be trapped in a place like this.”

Blackstar narrowed his eyes. “Very well,” he muttered.

Tallpoppy reluctantly got to her paws, nudging her kits awake. “Come on, my dears,” she whispered. “We’re leaving.”

“But it’s warm here,” mewled one.

“And there’s fresh-kill,” squeaked another.

“We must go anyway,” Tallpoppy told them. Her voice was dull with tiredness, and Squirrelpaw felt a jolt of sympathy for the brave ShadowClan queen. She padded toward the entrance, and her kits followed, their fur sticking up in clumps where they had slept on it.

“I’ll come with you to Highstones,” Ravenpaw offered, brushing his tail against Firestar’s flank.

The cats filed silently away from the shelter, heading for the crags of Highstones that towered in the distance, dark against the clearing sky. Squirrelpaw shivered as the wind ruffled her fur. Sunhigh was already past. If they slowed their pace to match the elders and kits, they would not reach Highstones until the sun had dipped below the horizon.

“So who is ThunderClan’s deputy now?” she heard Ravenpaw ask Firestar.

Squirrelpaw glanced at Brambleclaw, but he kept his eyes fixed straight ahead.

“Graystripe is,” Firestar growled.

Ravenpaw stared at his friend in surprise. “But he’s gone.”

Firestar rounded on him, his eyes glittering with pain.

“Isn’t it enough that we’ve had to leave our home? Don’t ask me to give up on my friend as well. I know he would never give up on me.” He started to trudge on again. “ThunderClan has a deputy, and there is no need to choose a new one.”

Highstones was cast in blue-black shade as the sun sank low in the sky. The cats had seemed to take forever struggling up the steep, stony slope on paws already raw from the day’s traveling. Now they lay exhausted outside Mothermouth.

Squirrelpaw stared into the great black tunnel that led to the Moonstone. The Clan leaders and their medicine cats had disappeared into it as soon as they had arrived.

“I wish you’d gone with them,” Squirrelpaw muttered to her sister. “You could have told me what StarClan said.”

“Leopardstar said this wasn’t a time for apprentices, and Firestar agreed with her,” Leafpaw mewed.

“Do you think StarClan will tell them anything?”

“Who knows?” murmured Leafpaw.

There was the sound of loose stones crunching beneath paws, and Firestar padded out of the tunnel, followed by Tallstar, Leopardstar, and Blackstar. Their faces gave nothing away as they separated to join their Clans.

“I want to know what happened!” Squirrelpaw fretted.

“They can’t tell us anything about the ceremony,” Leafpaw reminded her.

Squirrelpaw felt a prickle of frustration. It was all right for Leafpaw; she had her own special connection with StarClan.

Couldn’t she help out the cats who didn’t?

“Squirrelpaw!’ Brambleclaw called. The tabby warrior was weaving his way toward her. “We’re meeting up there!” he whispered. He nodded to the crest of the ridge. “We have to decide where we’re going next.”

Squirrelpaw put her head on one side. “I thought we were going to the sun-drown-place to find Midnight.”

“This is our last chance to be sure it’s the right thing to do,” Brambleclaw replied. “After this, we’ll be taking our Clanmates into territory where they’ve never been before.

Come on.”

Squirrelpaw followed him up the steep slope, away from the rest of the Clans. She could see Stormfur hurrying to the top of the ridge from the RiverClan cats, his gray pelt glowing in the moonlight. Tawnypelt and Crowpaw already sat on top of the jagged spine of rocks, silhouetted against the star-clad indigo sky.

The shadowy world stretched away on the other side of Highstones, a huge black expanse that made Squirrelpaw’s breath catch in her throat. Out there were snowcapped mountains, strange cats, dangerous creatures, and the sun-drown-place, that endless stretch of water where Midnight lived.

Squirrelpaw shivered. Oh, StarClan, what are we doing?

“Does everyone agree we should head for the sun-drown-place and find Midnight?” Brambleclaw asked.

Tawnypelt’s eyes were round with worry. “I can’t think of what else we should do, but what if she’s not there any more?”

“It’s a long and dangerous journey,” Stormfur agreed.

“I was so sure we were going to lead them to a safe new home,” Squirrelpaw meowed, remembering her excitement as she carried Midnight’s message back from sun-drown-place. “We were going to save them.”

“And instead we might be leading them into unnecessary danger,” Brambleclaw murmured.

“Why couldn’t StarClan have chosen different cats to carry this message?” Stormfur sighed.

Squirrelpaw’s heart ached for him. He had lost so much.

His sister had died on the first journey, and now Twolegs had taken his father. She moved closer to him, pressing her flank against his.

“Do you think our ancestors have abandoned us?”

Tawnypelt mewed, voicing the fear that nagged at them all.

“Well, they haven’t sent the sign Midnight promised,” Brambleclaw admitted. “Have any of you seen a dying warrior?”

“Perhaps it was Mudfur?” Stormfur suggested.

“He was a medicine cat,” Squirrelpaw pointed out.

“Would Midnight know the difference?” murmured Tawnypelt.

The cats looked at one another in silence.

“But Mudfur died on RiverClan territory!” A sickening pang of doubt suddenly twisted Squirrelpaw’s belly. “If Mudfur’s death was the sign, then we’ve come the wrong way!”

The five cats stared at one another, their eyes filled with dread as they imagined telling their leaders that they had to take the Clans all the way back into the heart of the forest to face the monsters once more.

Oh, StarClan, have we gotten it all wrong? Squirrelpaw lifted her face to the sky and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, a flash of movement caught her attention. She gasped, and the other cats followed her gaze. Above them, a falling star blazed a silvery trail before disappearing in a flash of light.

“The dying warrior!’ Squirrelpaw breathed. It was the sign they had been waiting for, one of StarClan’s own warriors scorching into nothingness to show them the way to go. Faint as cobweb, the star’s fiery trail hung in the sky, stretching toward the horizon where the jagged peaks of the mountains jutted into the sky.

“Now we know which way to go,” Brambleclaw murmured.

“Over the mountains,” meowed Squirrelpaw.