Chapter 24

“Snookpaw!” Leafstar rose to her paws to greet the apprentice as he padded down the trail behind Billystorm. “It’s good to see you again.”

A few sunrises had passed since the raid on the Twoleg nest, but Leafstar was still sharply aware of tension within the Clan. The cats were milling around her now, where she stood at the foot of the Rockpile while Sharpclaw set the patrols. Morning mist still lay over the river, and the air was damp, promising rain later.

“Ebonyclaw, I want you to lead a hunting patrol,” Sharpclaw meowed. “Take Frecklepaw, of course, and… let’s see… Bouncefire and Sparrowpelt.”

Leafstar was agreeably surprised to hear Sharpclaw putting a daylight-warrior at the head of a patrol. Then she wondered whether her deputy had a hidden motive. Sparrowpelt was one of the best hunters in the Clan, and he had been loud in his criticisms of the kittypets. Does Sharpclaw hope Ebonyclaw will fail, and Sparrowpelt will have to take over? Leafstar let her gaze rest on her deputy, his gleaming ginger pelt and sharp green eyes. I know he’s a strong deputy—but I can’t help wondering whether he’s trying to stir things up!

“It’s great to be back,” Snookpaw meowed as he reached the bottom of the trail and padded over to Leafstar. “I’ve really missed the Clan.”

Leafstar dipped her head. “We’ve missed you, too. Are you all right now?”

“I’m fine. I—” Snookpaw broke off to cough, and Leafstar looked at him in alarm. “No, I’m really fine,” he assured her when he had got his breath back. “I can’t wait to start training again. But I can’t stay all day,” he added, stifling another cough. “My housefolk would be really worried.”

His love and respect for his Twolegs shone in his eyes. Leafstar felt a sudden pang, wondering what it would be like to live with housefolk. The Clan cats who accused the daylight-warriors of choosing a life of comfort were wrong. There could be real affection between a kittypet and their Twolegs. Are we wrong to expect them to give that up?

Snookpaw trotted away to join Billystorm, who was waiting for Sharpclaw to give him an assignment. As she watched the patrols beginning to move off, Leafstar’s ears twitched at the sound of excited squeaking. She turned to see Fallowfern’s kits stalking up to Clovertail, who lay dozing on a rock near the stream with one paw lying protectively over her swollen belly.

“That’s a huge Twoleg!” Nettlekit squealed. “We have to scare him off, or he’ll attack the camp.”

“I’m going to be Sharpclaw!” Plumkit announced. “I’ll lead the attack!”

“But I want to be Sharpclaw!” Rabbitkit charged into his sister, pushing her over in a flurry of paws and tail. “Anyway, you’re a she-cat, mouse-brain. You can’t be Sharpclaw.”

“Can too,” Plumkit muttered, then changed her mind with a whisk of her tail. “Okay, I’ll be Cora.”

“And I’ll be Stick!” Creekkit announced. “He’s a great warrior. What about you, Nettlekit?”

“I’m going to be Billystorm,” Nettlekit mewed. “He knows everything about fighting.”

“You can’t be Billystorm.” Plumkit stared scornfully at her brother. “He’s not a real warrior.”

“Yeah, he’s a kittypet,” Rabbitkit agreed with a contemptuous flick of his tail.

“He wasn’t even at the raid,” Creekkit pointed out. “So you can’t be him.”

Leafstar listened in growing alarm. Have the kits forgotten the way Billystorm taught them? Have even the kits picked up this tension between the daylight-warriors and the full Clan cats?

“I don’t care!” Nettlekit defended himself stoutly. “I still want to be Billystorm.”

“Then you can go and be him by yourself,” Plumkit meowed, giving her littermate a push. “You’re not playing with us if you want to be a kittypet.”

She turned her back on Nettlekit and pattered over the rocks toward Rabbitkit and Creekkit, who had crouched down and were starting to creep up on Clovertail once more.

Nettlekit watched for a heartbeat, then flicked his ears. “Okay, I’ll be Sparrowpelt.” He ran to join his littermates and dropped into a crouch beside Creekkit.

As Leafstar watched, she became aware of a cat standing beside her, and turned to see Billystorm. Embarrassment flooded over her when she realized that he must have heard every word of the kits’ game. “I—I’m so sorry…” she stammered.

Billystorm shrugged. “What they say is true,” he murmured. “I wasn’t part of the raid.”

Leafstar winced at the edge beneath his calm voice. She didn’t want to quarrel with Billystorm.

To her relief, the ginger-and-white tom said nothing else about the raid. “I’m leading a hunting patrol,” he told her. “Sharpclaw thought you might like to join us. Snookpaw and Cherrytail are coming, too.”

“That would be great.” Leafstar felt a tingle in her paws at the thought of hunting with Billystorm and the others. I spend too much time in camp, she thought. It makes me see too many problems.

There was a startled screech from Clovertail as the tiny raiding party pounced. Leaving Fallowfern to rescue her denmate from the kits, Leafstar followed Billystorm up the trail that led into the woods. Snookpaw and Cherrytail brought up the rear.

“You can’t hunt birds in the same way as squirrels, mouse-brain,” Cherrytail was telling the apprentice. “They have wings!”

“Well, they both hide in trees,” Snookpaw argued. “So leaping up and stalking them along the branches will work for both.”

“Maybe…” Cherrytail admitted reluctantly. Leafstar was pleased to hear that while she sounded as bossy as usual when she was talking to an apprentice, she wasn’t being unfair on her daylight-Clanmate. “You have to be really careful when you jump on them, though.”

Leafstar left them to their debate and picked up her pace until she was padding beside Billystorm. “I’m truly sorry about the raid,” she mewed quietly. “We should have waited for you. I promise you, it won’t happen again. In the future we—”

“I understand why you did it,” Billystorm interrupted. “I don’t bear you any ill will.” He paused for a heartbeat to taste the air for prey, then added, “I know we’re in an odd position, living with a paw in both worlds. Maybe the time is coming for us all to make a choice.”

Leafstar found that her heart was suddenly beating faster. What if he decides to go back to his housefolk? “Which would you choose?” she whispered.

“It’s so hard,” Billystorm responded with a sigh. His amber gaze was fixed on a tiny beetle as it climbed up a grass stem a mouse-length from his nose. “I love my housefolk, and they’re kind to me. I know they make my life much easier than it would be if I lived in the Clan all the time.” He took a deep breath, swinging his head around so that his warm gaze fell on Leafstar. “But I could never leave you,” he murmured.

Leafstar’s heart beat faster still, and the forest blurred around her into a chaos of green and gold. “I would never want you to,” she breathed.

Her muzzle touched Billystorm’s, and she felt her tail twining with his.

“Stop!”

At Cherrytail’s yowl, Leafstar leaped back. Billystorm sprang away from her, his eyes startled and his fur beginning to fluff up defensively. But when Leafstar spotted Cherrytail among the long grasses, the tortoiseshell she-cat had her back to them. She was talking to a cream-colored tom who looked vaguely familiar. It was the cat they had watched hunting near the border! He was crouched in the shade of a straggly bush, much closer to the camp than when Leafstar had seen him before.

“Why are you in our territory?” Snookpaw demanded, shouldering his way through the ferns to confront the loner. “Didn’t you smell our border scent marks?”

The tom flattened his ears to his head and showed the whites of his eyes.

“Back off a bit, Snookpaw,” Leafstar ordered. “But he’s right,” she added to the tom. “You were given the chance to join SkyClan and you turned it down. So now you have to stay out of our territory.”

The loner ducked his head awkwardly. “I know,” he meowed. “But I’ve changed my mind. I’d like to join your Clan, if you’ll still have me. My name’s Egg.”

“What made you change your mind?” Billystorm padded up beside Leafstar, suspicion glinting in his amber eyes. “It’s a bit sudden, isn’t it?”

Egg blinked rapidly, as if he wasn’t sure how to answer Billystorm’s question. Leafstar’s paws tingled; she didn’t want to put off a possible new warrior by interrogating him. After all, she’d seen this cat move through the trees, and he clearly had natural hunting skills.

“The offer still stands if you can prove your loyalty to SkyClan,” she told him.

“Sure. Of course I can.” Egg’s blue eyes lit up with eagerness. “Can I start now?”

Leafstar turned to Billystorm. “Can you take the hunting patrol from here, while I take Egg back to the camp?”

Billystorm looked undecided, with another uneasy glance toward Egg. “I’ll come with you if you want.”

Warmth spread through Leafstar at the thought that Billystorm wanted to protect her, even while her paws prickled in protest. I’m Clan leader; I don’t need protecting!

“I’ll be fine,” she mewed briskly, then added more gently, “I’ll see you later. Maybe we could go hunting together another time?”

As she spoke, she spotted Cherrytail and Snookpaw staring at her in wide-eyed amazement. Her embarrassment flooding back, she didn’t wait for Billystorm to reply. “Come on,” she ordered Egg, with a whisk of her tail. “It’s this way.”

As they headed back to the gorge, Leafstar noticed how jumpy he was, leaping into the air at every rustle from the undergrowth. He was almost as spooked as Shrewtooth. Maybe he’s been hurt by a Twoleg, too?

“Why did you change your mind about joining us?” she asked, trying to make her tone unthreatening.

“Well… er… it just made sense,” Egg stammered, still sounding as if the question bothered him.

At that moment they arrived at the top of the trail, and there was no chance for Leafstar to question him any more. Egg followed her down the trail; glancing back over her shoulder from time to time, Leafstar saw his eyes stretch with interest as he saw the activity in the camp: Lichenfur and Tangle washing themselves on a rock; Tinycloud and Rockshade dropping prey on the fresh-kill pile; other cats crowding around Sharpclaw as he sorted out more patrols.

By the time Leafstar and Egg reached the bottom of the gorge, Sharpclaw was heading toward the training area with Petalnose, Waspwhisker, and their apprentices. He paused, his ears pricked, as Leafstar padded up to him.

“This is Egg,” Leafstar announced. “He’s decided that he wants to join SkyClan. Egg, this is Sharpclaw, the Clan deputy.”

Egg dipped his head politely.

“We’re glad to have you!” Sharpclaw’s green eyes glowed. “We’re just going for some battle training. Do you want to come with us?”

Egg’s tail shot right up in the air. “Great!”

“Come on, then.” Sharpclaw led the way up the gorge.

Leafstar was about to follow when her deputy looked back and gave his whiskers a dismissive twitch. “We’ll be fine, thanks.”

At first Leafstar began to bristle, her claws flexing in annoyance. Am I Clan leader, or has Sharpclaw taken over? Then she figured that her deputy probably didn’t want her breathing down his neck the whole time. He was perfectly capable of handling a training session.

I think I’ll ask Sharpclaw to mentor Egg, she thought as she turned back toward her den. I know Egg is more than six moons old, but he’ll need to go through an apprenticeship to learn all the ways of the Clan.

In spite of a spatter of rain in the air, she felt warm as she padded back to her den. She was happy to have such a promising new addition to the Clan, especially when he had inherited the powerful legs and jumping skills of the old SkyClan. Letting her gaze travel around the camp, Leafstar watched Lichenfur and Tangle fluff up their fur against the rain and snatch a piece of fresh-kill before plodding back to their den; Echosong was returning with a mouthful of herbs; Fallowfern’s kits protested loudly as their mother tried to herd them back to the nursery.

And Billystorm will be back soon… Everything would be perfect if he decided to live here all the time.

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