Firestar’s Quest

Chapter 6

Wind swept across the moorland, shredding the mist, and Firestar saw the fleeing cats clearly for the first time. They were following a river; the familiar tang of water in the air told him this was the forest river he knew, though here, beyond WindClan territory, it flowed more swiftly through the hills.

“Wait!” Firestar called to them. “Cats of SkyClan, wait for me! I’ve come to help you.”

He raced across the springy turf, but the SkyClan cats sped away from him as if they had not heard his cries.

Suddenly a kit tumbled into the river, its mother letting out a yowl of dismay as the current swept it away. Then a young apprentice, straying away from the main group, was picked off by a fox. Firestar heard its squeals of terror cut off abruptly as the fox bounded away, outpacing a couple of warriors who tried to chase it. An elder lagged farther and farther behind; she kept limping after her Clan, though her paws left smears of blood on the grass. Another staggered to a halt, then fell on one side and didn’t get up again.

At the head of the journeying Clan Firestar spotted the gray-and-white cat. Thin, hungry-looking warriors clustered around him. Even though Firestar still couldn’t catch up to them, their voices came clearly to him.

“Where are we going?” one of them meowed. “We can’t live here… there’s no prey, and nowhere to camp.”

“I don’t know where we’re going,” the gray-and-white cat replied. “We just have to keep on until we find somewhere.”

“But how long?” one of the other warriors asked. No cat replied.

Firestar saw a small, light brown tabby she-cat shouldering her way through the warriors until she reached the gray-and-white cat. “Let me speak to StarClan,” she begged. “They might know of a place for us.”

The cat rounded on her. “No, Fawnstep!” he spat. “Our warrior ancestors have failed us. As far as we’re concerned, StarClan no longer exist.”

He must be the Clan leader! There was authority in his voice, and the small tabby—SkyClan’s medicine cat, Firestar guessed—bowed her head, and didn’t try to argue.

Firestar called out to the SkyClan cats again and made one last effort to catch up to them, but he was falling farther and farther behind. Mist swirled around him again, cutting him off from the fleeing Clan. At last his paws wouldn’t carry him any longer. He sank down, and opened his eyes to find himself in his own den.

Gradually he became aware of another cat sitting in the shadows. “Sandstorm?” he murmured, longing for the warmth and comfort of his mate’s presence.

The cat turned toward him, and the light from the den entrance fell onto a soft tortoiseshell pelt.

“Spottedleaf!”

The former ThunderClan medicine cat rose and came toward him, gently touching her nose to his. Firestar drank in her familiar sweet scent. He couldn’t think of her as one of the warrior ancestors who had betrayed him; no matter what the rest of StarClan might do, he would always trust Spottedleaf.

Gazing at the shape of her head and her slender, graceful body, he found himself thinking of the gray-and-white cat, the SkyClan leader he had seen in his dreams.

“Have you come to tell me about SkyClan?” he asked.

“Yes,” Spottedleaf replied gravely. “When I lived in ThunderClan, I never knew there had once been five Clans living in the forest. I learned their story after I joined StarClan.”

“I don’t understand.” Firestar scratched restlessly at a piece of moss. “How could StarClan allow a whole Clan to leave the forest?”

Spottedleaf crouched beside him. He could feel the vibra-tions of her soothing purr. “I know it is hard for you,” she mewed. “But StarClan do not control everything in the forest. We could not banish the dog pack that threatened you, or drive out Scourge and BloodClan.”

Firestar sighed; he knew that was true. But it didn’t explain why StarClan had lied, and pretended that SkyClan had never existed. “Have you met any of the SkyClan cats?”

Spottedleaf shook her head. “We do not walk the same skies.”

“I spoke to Bluestar,” Firestar meowed. “She told me my duty is to ThunderClan. She said there is nothing I can do for SkyClan. But if that’s true, why do I keep seeing them?”

“If the SkyClan leader has appeared to you in dreams,” Spottedleaf replied, touching his shoulder with her tail, “then he must believe you can help him.”

“But how?” Firestar persisted. “What can I do? It all happened so long ago.”

“The answer will be shown to you,” Spottedleaf promised.

“Rest now.”

She pressed closer to his side, and Firestar drifted more deeply into sleep, comforted by her warm scent. This time no dreams disturbed him.

Bright sunlight shone into his den when Firestar woke.

Spottedleaf was gone, though he caught a trace of her scent among his bedding. He rose and stretched, feeling new energy coursing through him.

Skirting the Highrock, he found Graystripe in the main clearing with several cats standing around him as he arranged hunting patrols. “Cloudtail, you can go with Thornclaw,” he was telling the white warrior. “Who do you want for a third?

Willowpelt?”

“I’ll go,” Firestar interrupted, bounding up to them. “I feel as if I haven’t had a good hunt for moons.”

“Thanks.” Graystripe nodded to him. “In that case, Willowpelt, you can come with Brackenfur and me. We’ll head toward Fourtrees and see if we can spot that fox.”

Once outside the camp, Firestar let Thornclaw take the lead. The tabby warrior took them down a trail that led to Twolegplace. Everything was quiet; even the prey seemed to be hiding. Firestar paused, gazing through the trees at the fence that edged the Twoleg nests, and wondered where SkyClan’s territory had been. The border must have been near here, if they had been driven out when the Twolegs built their nests. When they built his old Twoleg nest, Firestar realized with a jolt. His paws prickled at the thought that he might have once lived in part of SkyClan’s old territory!

Cloudtail and Thornclaw had vanished among the trees to search for prey. Firestar dragged his thoughts away from SkyClan. He had a Clan to feed. He opened his jaws; a strong scent of mouse flowed over his scent glands, and he spotted the creature scrabbling at the edge of a bramble thicket.

Dropping into the hunter’s crouch, he prowled forward, setting each paw down as lightly as a falling leaf.

But before he came within pouncing distance, a white blur appeared at the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around, furious with Cloudtail for creeping up on him. Go and catch your own prey! But the white blur had vanished, and a wisp of now-familiar scent told him that it hadn’t been Cloudtail after all. The SkyClan leader had crossed his path once more.

Firestar stood still, his tail flicking back and forth. “Are you there?” he called softly. “What do you want? Come and talk to me!”

There was no reply.

By now the mouse had vanished. Firestar opened his mouth and breathed in, trying to track down more prey. His ears strained to pick up the least sound of tiny paws; instead, all he could hear was a furious yowling and scuffling that broke out somewhere ahead, near the Twoleg fence. Was something—maybe a Twoleg dog—attacking his warriors?

He raced through the trees until he came to the edge of the wood. Ashfur and Brambleclaw were scuffling with an unfamiliar black-and-white cat. Brambleclaw had climbed onto the cat’s back, clawing at its neck fur, while Ashfur bit down hard on the end of its tail.

The black-and-white cat was writhing on the ground, his flailing paws barely touching his attackers. “Get off me!” he yowled. “I need to see Rusty—I mean Firestar!”

Firestar suddenly recognized the disheveled bundle of black-and-white fur. It was Smudge, the kittypet who had been his friend before Firestar left his Twolegs to live in the forest.

“Stop!” He ran over to the wrestling cats, lowering his head to butt Brambleclaw hard in his flank. Brambleclaw slid off Smudge’s back, glaring up with a furious hiss that broke off when he realized who had interrupted the fight.

“Leave him alone,” Firestar ordered.

“But he’s an intruder,” Brambleclaw protested, scrambling to his paws and shaking dust from his pelt.

“A kittypet intruder,” added Ashfur, reluctantly letting go of Smudge’s tail.

“No, he’s not,” Firestar corrected them. “He’s a friend.

What are you two doing here, anyway?”

“We’re the border patrol,” Brambleclaw told him. “With Dustpelt and Mousefur. Look, here they come.”

Following the direction of his pointing tail, Firestar spotted the two older warriors bounding rapidly through the trees.

“In StarClan’s name, what’s going on?” Dustpelt demanded. “I thought a fox must have gotten you from all that noise.”

“No, just a kittypet,” Firestar mewed, faintly amused at Brambleclaw’s and Ashfur’s outraged expressions. “Okay, carry on with your patrol,” he added.

“But what about the kittypet?” Ashfur asked.

“I think I can handle him,” Firestar mewed. “You’re doing fine, but just remember that not everything you haven’t seen before is a threat.”

Brambleclaw and Ashfur fell in behind Dustpelt and Mousefur as they continued their patrol; Brambleclaw cast a threatening glance back at Smudge and hissed, “Stay off our territory in the future!”

Smudge heaved himself to his paws, glaring at his attackers. His fur was covered in dust and stuck out in all direc-tions, but he didn’t seem to be hurt.

“You’re lucky I was here to save your pelt,” Firestar remarked as the patrol vanished among the trees.

His old friend let out a furious snort. “I’ll never understand you, Firestar. You actually want to live with these violent ruffians?”

Firestar hid his amusement. There was no point trying to explain that these violent ruffians were warriors who had risked their lives at his side time and time again.

“It’s good to see you again, Smudge,” he meowed. “Why did you come so far into the forest? You know it’s dangerous for you.”

Smudge looked away, scuffling the ground with his forepaws.

“Well?” Firestar prompted, when Smudge had been silent for several heartbeats.

The kittypet blinked. “I… I think,” he began haltingly, “that is, I’m afraid I might have to come and live in the forest with you.”

“Great StarClan! What’s happened? It’s not BloodClan, is it?” Firestar asked fearfully.

Smudge looked up for a moment. “Who?”

“Never mind. Your Twolegs, then—they haven’t thrown you out, have they?”

“No! My housefolk have always been very good to me.”

Smudge cast a longing look over his shoulder toward the red stone nest where he lived. “It’s just… well, I’ve been having these weird dreams, and I remember you told me that you had dreams before you went to join the forest cats.” Horror gleamed in his eyes, and Firestar, for all his sympathy, found himself hiding a purr of amusement that his old friend couldn’t imagine anything worse than having to live in a Clan. “I thought my dreams must mean I’d have to leave my housefolk.”

Firestar swept his tail around to touch his old friend on the shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry. Dreams have many meanings, and sometimes a dream is just a dream. I’m sure you won’t have to eat bones just yet.”

Smudge didn’t look reassured. “But these dreams are terrible!” he mewed. “I keep seeing lots of cats—they’re running away, but I never get to see what’s chasing them. They’re wailing and shrieking as if they’re scared or in pain. And sometimes I see a gray-and-white cat on his own. He keeps opening and closing his mouth as if he’s trying to tell me something, but I can’t hear what he’s saying.”

Every hair on Firestar’s pelt bristled. Smudge was having the same dreams as him! But why? Surely SkyClan didn’t think that a kittypet could help them?

“What do you think?” Smudge asked nervously. “Do I have to come and live in the forest?”

Firestar knew he had to decide how much to tell his friend.

Though his faith in StarClan had been badly shaken, he still felt some loyalty toward them. At least, he didn’t think he could tell Smudge how StarClan had allowed SkyClan to be driven from the forest, and then lied about it afterward.

Besides, if he tried to explain, how much would Smudge understand? He had no idea about the warrior code, or what it was like to live in a Clan.

“Don’t worry about it,” he meowed at last. “There’s no reason for you to leave your Twolegs.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. I know a bit about these dreams already, and I’m trying to sort everything out.”

Smudge looked puzzled but relieved as well. “I guess I’ll let you handle it, then.”

Firestar was glad he didn’t think to ask how a forest cat—even a Clan leader—could know about another cat’s dreams.

“I’ll come back with you to your Twoleg nest,” he mewed.

“Just in case any of those violent ruffians are still hanging about.”

Smudge looked down at his messy fur and gave it a few swift licks. Then he and Firestar padded side by side through the trees. As the Twoleg fence came into sight, Firestar spotted a vole pattering through the long grass. He made a swift pounce, and straightened up with the limp body hanging from his jaws; he tried to push down a stirring of pride that he had been able to show off his hunting skills in front of Smudge.

His friend’s eyes were wide, but not with admiration.

“Don’t you ever get tired of having to catch your own food?”

Firestar dropped his fresh-kill and scraped leaves over it so that he could collect it later. “No, never. That’s what warriors do.”

Smudge shrugged, and went on toward his nest. Catching up with him, Firestar spotted another cat, a pretty brown tabby, jumping down from the fence around the Twoleg nest where he had once lived. He remembered seeing her before when he had been showing the territory to his new apprentice, Bramblepaw.

“Hi,” she meowed. Her amber eyes examined Firestar without a trace of fear. “Who’s this, Smudge? I’ve never seen him before.”

Smudge twitched one ear. “His name’s Firestar. He lives in the forest.”

“I’m called Hattie,” the tabby introduced herself. “I’ve never met a forest cat before. How do you know Smudge?”

“I’ve known him since I was a kit,” Firestar explained. “I used to live here, in this Twoleg nest.”

“Really? But this is my home now!” The tabby’s eyes stretched wide. “Why did you leave?”

“It’s a long story.” Firestar didn’t expect any kittypet, even this lively tabby, to understand what had called him out of his safe life with Twolegs to the danger and excitement of the forest.

“I’ve got time to listen,” Hattie meowed.

Firestar was aware of Smudge close beside him, quivering with tension. “Sorry,” he meowed. “Maybe another time.”

Hattie looked disappointed. “Don’t you want to see where you used to live?” she mewed persuasively. “My Twolegs dug up a bush that was so old its roots stretched nearly the whole way across the garden, and planted some new trees that are great for scratching.”

Firestar opened his jaws to refuse, but the words didn’t come. He stood silent, gazing at the fence. An old bush… how old? Suppose it had been here before the Twoleg nests were built? Did that mean it had been here when SkyClan lived in the forest? Were there any other remnants of SkyClan’s former territory that might have survived?