Leafpool’s Wish

Chapter 1

“Keep still, Birchpaw! If you don’t stop wriggling, I’ll have Dustpelt sit on you!” Leafpool retrieved the fallen moss with a hiss and held it over the apprentice’s eye once more.

“It stings!” Birchpaw protested.

“What, worse than a badger’s claws?” Leafpool meowed skeptically. She squeezed the moss between her pads and a bead of green juice dropped into the center of Birchpaw’s half-closed eye. Birchpaw winced but Leafpool quickly placed her paw on top of his eyelid, keeping it closed while the juice treated the infection.

Inevitably, memories of the badger attack flooded back to her: the sight of her Clanmates battling for their lives when she and Crowfeather had stood, horrorstruck, at the entrance to the hollow; the sound of small furred bodies thudding into the ground, tossed by gigantic black-and-white paws; the snarls of the badgers rumbling beneath the shrieks of warriors. Birchpaw had been lucky to escape with nothing more serious than a clawed eye. Sootfur had been killed, and so had Cinderpelt the medicine cat, desperately protecting Sorreltail as she gave birth to her kits. Leafpool felt a fresh wave of grief, sharp as ever, when she thought of her mentor dying without her. Cinderpelt must have been terrified for the future of ThunderClan without a medicine cat, yet she still refused to leave Sorreltail’s side.

I came back, Cinderpelt, and I stayed, Leafpool whispered fiercely, hoping that her mentor could hear her in StarClan.

“Talking to yourself, eh?” Brackenfur mewed, appearing in the entrance to the den.

Leafpool shook the memories clear from her mind. “Just remembering something important,” she replied. “Is everything okay, Brackenfur?”

“Er, can I go now?” Birchpaw chirped, looking up at her with his injured eye closed and weeping with juice.

Leafpool nodded. “Of course, but you’re still not allowed out of the hollow! I don’t want any brambles poking you in that eye before it’s fully healed.”

Birchpaw trotted out, muttering under his breath. Brackenfur flicked the apprentice with his tail-tip as he passed. “Some cats need to remember how lucky they were to survive that battle,” he grunted.

Leafpool bowed her head. “And those who fell will not be forgotten.”

Brackenfur ducked to enter the den. Like most of Leafpool’s Clanmates, he glanced nervously up at the roof as if he was wondering how the weight of the cliffs above them was supported. “Sorreltail sent me,” he meowed. “Cinderkit’s picked up a couple of fleas and she wondered if you had anything that might soothe the bites.”

Leafpool pictured the tiny gray she-cat scratching at her fluffy pelt. “I’m sure I can help,” she purred. “Tell Sorreltail I’ll bring something over before sunhigh.”

Brackenfur narrowed his eyes. “There’s no rush. You look tired, Leafpool. Is there anything I can do?”

Leafpool shook her head. “I’m fine. It’s always busy after a battle, and a nursery full of kits doesn’t help!” She paused. “Not that I don’t rejoice at every kit born to ThunderClan,” she added.

Brackenfur’s gaze softened. “They are all precious,” he agreed. He padded out of the den and Leafpool followed him as far as the entrance, where she stood in a shaft of watery sunlight. On the opposite side of the clearing, her sister Squirrelflight was sharing a mouse with Brambleclaw, her dark ginger body curled into his. Leafpool felt a twist of concern in her belly. It looked like Squirrelflight had finally made her choice between their Clanmate Ashfur and the broad-shouldered dark tabby. Leafpool wouldn’t miss the tension between the warriors while Squirrelflight had been making up her mind, but she wished with all her heart that her sister had chosen differently. How could Leafpool tell her that she had dreamed of the Dark Forest and seen Tigerstar mentoring Brambleclaw in secret, training his son in the most terrible ways to kill and maim an enemy? However often Leafpool told herself that Brambleclaw was a loyal ThunderClan warrior, no cat could deny that his father was one of the most dangerous cats ever to live in the Clans.

And yet there had been the vision of stars over the lake, when Leafpool had been walking alone at sunset. Two starry shapes, unmistakeably Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, padding side by side across the sky, tails entwined. What could that mean except that these two warriors were destined to be together? Reluctantly, Leafpool had told her sister what she had seen; it was not the duty of a medicine cat to choose which omens and visions to keep secret. Leafpool knew that this had helped Squirrelflight decide between Brambleclaw and Ashfur. And when Leafpool treated Brambleclaw for injuries that could only have come from fighting in his dreams with his Dark Forest father, she said nothing to her sister. She just hoped that Brambleclaw would make his own decision to leave his connection with Tigerstar behind, and learn only from what his living Clanmates could teach him.

Cinderkit’s flea bites were easily treated with some soothing marigold leaves rubbed into her cobweb-soft fur. The tiny cat squirmed so much that Leafpool suspected her littermates would receive a good dose as well. Sorreltail blinked gratefully at her, happily worn out by nursing and keeping her little family in order. Leafpool breathed in the sweet, milky scent of the nursery and let it comfort her for a moment. She held on to the memory of it as she settled into her nest that night. The den still seemed too empty without Cinderpelt sleeping beside her, the shadows cold and thick against the rough stone walls. Leafpool tucked her nose under her tail and took a deep breath. Tonight she wanted to walk in the Dark Forest again. She needed to know if Brambleclaw was still being mentored by his father.

She woke in a dense green forest, dimly lit by an unseen moon and stirred by a whispering breeze. She felt the familiar shudder of horror at the thought of dead cats unwanted by StarClan hiding in the bushes, watching her with angry yellow eyes. But she forced herself to walk along the path that curved between the mossy trunks, convinced she could hear her heartbeat echoing among the trees.

Suddenly Leafpool stopped. Three cats stood a little way ahead with their backs to her. She recognized two of them at once—but these weren’t Dark Forest warriors. Their fur glittered with starlight, and silver beams pooled around their paws as if they were standing in water. One of them turned to face Leafpool, and she felt her heart lift with joy. Bluestar!

“Come out, Leafpool,” the StarClan cat meowed. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

Leafpool walked forward until she could smell the scent of wind and stars on the old leader’s pelt.

“You took your time,” grunted Yellowfang.

Leafpool didn’t know the third cat, a broad-shouldered golden tabby. He dipped his head to her. “Greetings, Leafpool. My name is Lionheart. I was with Bluestar when your father Firestar first came to the forest.”

“I’m honored to meet you,” Leafpool meowed. “But where am I? Why have you brought me here?” She hadn’t dreamed of this place before, yet it couldn’t be the Dark Forest, not if StarClan cats were here.

“Come,” Bluestar ordered, turning to follow the path deeper into the forest.

It led to a moonlit clearing, and the trees that had seemed so sinister before now looked graceful and welcoming, filled with the scents of prey. In the clear sky, three tiny stars gleamed more brightly than the others, throbbing with silver light.

“Bluestar, what’s that?” Leafpool whispered.

Bluestar didn’t reply. Instead, she walked into the center of the clearing and gestured with her tail for Leafpool to sit. Leafpool looked up once more, but the three stars had vanished.

“Do you have a sign for me?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” Bluestar answered. “But we wanted to tell you that the path of your life will twist in ways yet hidden to you.”

“Yes.” Yellowfang sounded tense, as if there was more she wanted to say but some unspoken promise prevented her. “You will tread a path that few medicine cats have before.”

Leafpool felt a stab of alarm. “What do you mean?”

“There are cats you have yet to meet,” Bluestar meowed. “But their paws will shape your future.”

What does that mean?

Lionheart rested his tail on her shoulder and his scent drifted around her, brave and reassuring. “We have come to give you strength,” he murmured.

“Whatever happens, remember that we are always with you,” Bluestar mewed.

Her blue eyes glittered with concern and kindness, but Leafpool still had no idea what any of this meant. Her life was set in stone now, like her den beneath the cliffs. She would be ThunderClan’s medicine cat until it was her turn to walk with these cats in StarClan. What she had with Crowfeather… all that was over, forgotten, a part of her life that would fade in time to nothing.

“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Can’t you tell me more?”

Bluestar shook her head. “Even StarClan can’t see everything that will happen. The path ahead of you vanishes into shadow—but we will walk with you every paw step of the way, I promise.”

Leafpool let herself be comforted by Bluestar’s words. If StarClan walked alongside her, nothing terrible could happen. When she had left her Clan to be with Crowfeather, she had felt as if her ancestors had abandoned her forever. But she had followed her heart back to ThunderClan, and now they were beside her again, protecting her, guiding her, keeping her safe.

I made the right decision—no, the only decision—when I came back to the hollow. Nothing will threaten my place in ThunderClan again.