Skyclan’s Destiny

Chapter 26

The sun had dipped below the level of the gorge, casting long shadows over the rocks. Leafstar padded across to the fresh-kill pile and dropped her squirrel on top of the rest of the prey. Her belly was still churning after her conversation with Echosong; she felt as if every hair on her pelt were a pricking claw, reminding her of her duty as Clan leader.

As she turned away, Petalnose looked up from the vole she was gulping down. “Hi, Leafstar. Do you want to come and eat with me?”

“No, thanks,” Leafstar meowed. “I’m not hungry.”

She noticed a flicker of surprise in Petalnose’s eyes. “Is everything okay?” the gray she-cat asked.

Leafstar was in no mood for her Clanmate’s concern. “Everything’s fine,” she snapped. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

Stalking toward the trail that led up to her den, Leafstar was relieved that there was no sign of Billystorm in camp. I hope he’s gone back to his housefolk with Snookpaw.

But as she began to climb the trail, she heard the ginger-and-white tom’s voice. “If you twist like this as you leap, Snookpaw, you’ll throw your enemy off balance.”

Looking down, Leafstar spotted Billystorm a few fox-lengths farther up the gorge, demonstrating a battle move to Snookpaw and Tinycloud.

“That’s a great move,” the white she-cat meowed. “Can I give it a try?”

Leafstar didn’t stop to watch any more. Instead, she leaped up the last few paw steps to her den and bounded inside, letting out a breath of relief to be on her own at last. Her mind whirled with unwelcome thoughts. Part of her was angry with Echosong, but mostly she was afraid that the medicine cat was right. Would it really be wrong of me to become Billystorm’s mate?

Gazing out at the darkening sky, where the first warriors of StarClan glimmered over the trees, Leafstar remembered Firestar explaining how her ancestors had marked her out as the leader of the new Clan.

“You told me plenty about StarClan,” she growled softly. “But you never told me this.” Fury tore through her like a stab of lightning, and she scraped her claws across the floor of her den; if Firestar had been there, she might have raked them across his flame-colored pelt. “Why didn’t you tell me that I’d have to put the Clan first, before having a mate or kits? You have Sandstorm. Is it so different for she-cats? Why did you make me leader?”

But even as she spoke, she knew she was being unfair. It was StarClan who had chosen her to be leader, after they sent the sign of dappled leaf shadows to Echosong. They trusted me to be the best leader, she thought, sighing as her rage ebbed away. I can’t let them down.

Curling up in her mossy nest, Leafstar fell into an uneasy sleep. Mist surged around her, and she found herself stumbling over rocks, with looming cliffs of black stone on either side. She struggled against panic, knowing that this was a dream, but unable to shake off the feeling that she was trapped in an unfamiliar place.

“Is any cat there?” she called out.

There was no reply, nothing but the echoing sound of water dripping from the rocks.

“Leafstar! Are you okay?”

The voice cut through Leafstar’s dream. She struggled back to wakefulness to see Billystorm at the entrance to her den, outlined against the twilit sky.

I must have only slept for a few heartbeats, but it felt like seasons.

“I’m fine,” Leafstar replied, rising groggily to her paws and padding over to him.

“I wanted to ask you if you’d like to come with me to the Twolegplace tonight,” Billystorm went on. “We could look out for Sharpclaw and Stick leading one of their patrols.” When Leafstar didn’t reply right away, he added, “Besides, it would be nice to spend some time away from the Clan for a while.”

Oh, yes, it would… Leafstar yearned to agree, to run beside Billystorm along the mysterious paths of the Twolegplace. And it would be useful to discover whether Sharpclaw really was up to something.

But I can’t. I’m Clan leader. I can’t.

“No,” Leafstar replied, sounding harsher than she had intended. “I can’t go chasing around the Twolegplace. My Clanmates need me here.”

Even in the dim light, she could see the hurt in Billystorm’s eyes. “I’m your Clanmate, too,” he pointed out.

“But you have housefolk.” Every word felt like a thorn in her throat. “I’m sorry, Billystorm. Go home.”

Confusion tightened Billystorm’s expression. “But Leafstar—” he began, then broke off. “What about Sharpclaw and Stick?” he asked.

“Why are you so eager to accuse them?” Leafstar challenged. “You’re not showing much loyalty to your Clan deputy, are you? No other cats have mentioned Sharpclaw and Stick leaving the gorge at night. And I don’t believe that Sharpclaw would order a patrol without discussing it with me first.”

As she finished speaking, Billystorm backed away, his eyes cold. “I thought I meant something to you, more than just another Clanmate,” he meowed. “But you won’t let yourself get close to me, because you think I’m just a kittypet, don’t you?”

The accusation took Leafstar’s breath away, and she had no words to respond.

“You’re no better than Sharpclaw and Sparrowpelt,” Billystorm went on, the fur along his spine fluffing up with indignation. “They look down their noses at us because we stay loyal to our housefolk as well as to our Clan. I thought you were different, Leafstar, but I was wrong.”

Leafstar stared at him in dismay. That wasn’t what she thought at all! But if Billystorm is so quick to think badly of me, then maybe I’m better off without him.

Abruptly she turned away. “You don’t know everything, Billystorm,” she mewed.

For a heartbeat there was silence; then she heard Billystorm padding away, the sound of his paw steps fading as he climbed the trail. Part of her wanted to run after him and call him back; instead, she plodded across her den to her nest and settled herself back among the moss.

She had barely closed her eyes when she found the mist swirling around her once again, scudding across glistening black cliffs that trapped her on either side. But this time she could hear the sound of many cats in the gorge ahead of her. Padding forward, she rounded a spur of rock and found herself on the edge of a crowd.

Her heart beating faster, Leafstar tensed her muscles and slid out her claws in case the strange cats attacked her, but none of them even looked at her or seemed to scent her.

In the middle of the throng, a gray tom with white patches on his fur stood on top of a rock. Leafstar’s paws tingled as she recognized Cloudstar, who had been the leader of SkyClan when they were driven out of the forest and came to live in the gorge. But this was not the warrior of StarClan with starlight in his fur; this was a scrawny, exhausted cat who gazed at his Clanmates with desperation in his eyes.

“We’ll never find a home here,” a cat called to him. “We should have stayed in the forest and made the other Clans give us some of their territory.”

“You know they would never have done that,” Cloudstar retorted. “They wanted us gone. They don’t care if we starve out here.”

“We have to do something,” a gray she-cat rasped; she was sitting close to Leafstar, who could see that her belly was swollen even though every one of her ribs was visible through her pelt. “My kits will be born any day now. They need a nursery. And I need fresh-kill, or I’ll have no milk to give them.” Her voice rose to a wail. “My kits will die!”

“Don’t be afraid.” A light brown tabby she-cat leaped up onto the rock beside Cloudstar; it was Fawnstep, the Clan’s medicine cat. “Our warrior ancestors are watching over us, even here.”

Her voice faded as she spoke, and Leafstar opened her eyes, blinking as the pale light of a new day crept into her den. She had glimpsed the cats of that long-ago SkyClan as they struggled to find themselves a new home after they had been forced to leave the forest.

“They came here,” she whispered. “But in the end, they were driven away.”

She remembered the pale brown tom she had seen in her dream, and the words he had spoken as he left the gorge forever. “This is the leaf-bare of my Clan. Greenleaf will come, but it will bring even greater storms than these. SkyClan will need deeper roots if it is to survive.”

I must be one of those roots, Leafstar decided. I must tether SkyClan to its home for all the moons to come.

Yawning and stretching, she remembered her other dream, when she had raced through the forest with Spottedleaf and other cats of StarClan. “Seize the moment!” Spottedleaf had told her.

This is one of those moments, Leafstar decided. I can’t be with Billystorm. I have to stay apart from him, for the good of my Clan.

For the next few days, Leafstar managed to avoid Billystorm. She spotted him once heading to the training area with Snookpaw, and later joining a hunting patrol with Sharpclaw, Stick, and Egg. When the Clan settled down to eat beside the fresh-kill pile, Leafstar carried her prey back to her den so she didn’t have to talk to him.

On the third sunrise after their quarrel, Leafstar padded down from her den to find Sharpclaw organizing the morning’s patrols. Billystorm shouldered his way through the cats toward the deputy, who was standing beside Stick at the foot of the Rockpile.

“Can I join your patrol today, Sharpclaw?” Leafstar heard him ask. “It might be a good idea to go into the Twolegplace and see if we can persuade any more cats to join the Clan.”

Is that really what he wants to do? Leafstar wondered. Or is he trying to spy on Sharpclaw, to find out what he’s doing in the Twolegplace?

But Sharpclaw shook his head. “We’re hunting today. I doubt we’d find many squirrels in the Twolegplace. Besides, we don’t need any more cats. The Clan is full enough.”

You didn’t say that when you persuaded Egg to join, Leafstar thought. Her suspicions of her deputy were reviving, and she wished she could discuss the problem with Billystorm. She realized that she had lost not only a potential mate but also a wise friend whom she could rely on for advice.

“I’m putting you in charge of a training patrol,” Sharpclaw went on to Billystorm. “Take Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw, and you can have Patchfoot, too. See if you can find any prey near the rat pile; no cat has hunted there for a while.”

Billystorm dipped his head in agreement, though he looked dissatisfied.

Unexpectedly, Sharpclaw turned to Leafstar. “Do you want to join Billystorm’s patrol?”

Leafstar couldn’t meet Billystorm’s eyes. “Uh… I don’t think so,” she stammered. “Cherrytail brought back a really fat squirrel from the far border yesterday, so I thought I’d take a patrol up there and see if there are any more.”

There was a spark of surprise in Sharpclaw’s eyes. Leafstar felt uncomfortably hot, wondering if he realized she was making an excuse.

“Fine,” he mewed at last. “Which cats do you want to take with you?”

Leafstar remembered with a pang how Billystorm had accused her of being biased against the daylight-warriors. That wasn’t fair, and I’ll prove it to you!

“I’ll take Harveymoon and Macgyver,” she replied. “And may I have Egg? I’d like to see how he’s getting on.”

“Sure,” her deputy replied, turning away to call to Sparrowpelt and Bouncefire.

Billystorm collected his patrol and headed for the trail up the cliff, while Leafstar looked around for Harveymoon and Macgyver. They seemed surprised and pleased to be chosen for a patrol by their Clan leader.

Maybe if I paid them a bit more attention, they wouldn’t be such pains in the tail.

With the daylight-warriors hard on her paws and Egg bounding along excitedly in the rear, Leafstar led the way toward the Rockpile, ready to cross to the other side of the gorge. Before she reached it, she saw Echosong urgently waving her tail, and halted for the medicine cat to catch up.

“You’re going into the woods on the other side?” Echosong called, setting down some wilted leaves she was carrying. When Leafstar nodded, she mewed, “Can you look for borage while you’re there? I need some to help Clovertail’s milk come when she has her kits.”

“Of course,” Leafstar replied.

Echosong patted the leaves. “This is borage. It’s the last I have, and you can see it’s past its best.”

Leafstar studied the herbs and gave them a good sniff, then ordered her patrol to do the same. “Remember the shape of the leaves and the scent,” she instructed them, and added to Echosong, “We’ll bring you back a good supply, don’t worry.”

Echosong slid closer to her Clan leader as the rest of the patrol sniffed the leaves. “You’ve made the right decision about Billystorm,” she whispered. “I know it wasn’t easy, but StarClan will thank you for putting the Clan first.”

Leafstar felt her fur start to bristle, and struggled to hide her reaction from the medicine cat. She has no idea how hard it is to have Billystorm as an enemy! “Are you ready?” she asked her patrol, waving her tail to move them on again.

“Thank you for looking out for the borage,” Echosong meowed, and added in a lower voice, “and good luck with Harveymoon and Macgyver. Maybe they’ll even catch something this time.”

This time Leafstar didn’t try to conceal her indignation. “I’m sure they’ll be fine!” she snapped.

Echosong blinked in surprise, and Leafstar felt slightly guilty, though she said nothing more as she led the patrol away.

On the way back to camp, Leafstar had to admit that Echosong had been right about the daylight-warriors. Harveymoon and Macgyver had managed to catch only one small sparrow between them, and let a perfectly good rabbit escape because they were messing around. Egg, however, had hunted brilliantly, catching two squirrels and a young pigeon.

“You’ve picked up the SkyClan hunting techniques really quickly,” Leafstar told him, managing to speak around her own prey, a blackbird. “Are you glad you joined the Clan?”

Egg nodded eagerly. “It’s great, bringing prey for the fresh-kill pile,” he mumbled around the feathers that filled his jaws. “And Sharpclaw’s a really good teacher. I’ve learned so many battle moves! If that fox comes back, it’d better watch out!”

“That’s good to hear,” Leafstar replied. “But don’t even think of tackling a fox on your own.”

It was sunhigh when the patrol returned to camp. As she crossed the Rockpile, Leafstar realized that almost all the Clan were out in the open, circling anxiously at the foot of the boulders.

“What’s going on?” she asked after she dropped her fresh-kill on the pile.

Fallowfern pressed up close to her, with her kits around her paws; for once they weren’t jumping about and getting in every cat’s way. “Nettlekit and Plumkit heard a strange noise,” she explained, “and we’ve all heard it now.”

“It’s really weird!” Plumkit squeaked, her eyes wide with curiosity.

Leafstar’s pads began to tingle. “Where’s Sharpclaw?”

“His patrol isn’t back yet,” Cherrytail replied.

“What do you think the noise could be?” Clovertail fretted. “Do you think it’s a fox?”

Tangle flicked his ears dismissively. “I’ve never heard a fox that sounded like that.”

“It might be some sort of bird,” Waspwhisker suggested.

“Or maybe it’s the Twoleg’s dog?” Shrewtooth’s black pelt was fluffed up and his eyes were wide with fear.

“I don’t think so.” Billystorm let his tail rest on the young cat’s shoulders.

“Then it’s rats!” Tinycloud’s tail lashed. “Why are we standing here? Let’s go fight them!”

“Please, everyone be quiet!” Leafstar waved her tail to quiet the excited suggestions. “Let me hear this noise for myself.”

Gradually the chatter died away. As silence fell, Leafstar heard a drawn-out, eerie wail coming from farther up the gorge, on the far side of the spur of rock that sheltered the training area.

The whole Clan stood frozen as the sound went on and on. Just as it died away there was a flurry of paw steps, and Sharpclaw arrived with Stick and Sparrowpelt.

“What’s that?” he demanded, his gaze raking the Clan.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Leafstar explained. “We don’t know what can be making that noise.”

Sharpclaw tipped his head to one side. “It sounds like a Twoleg to me.”

“It’s that horrible old Twoleg!” Rabbitkit squealed.

“Yes, he’s come to punish us!” Plumkit bounced up and down in a mixture of fear and excitement.

Shrewtooth gazed in horror at the kits and his fur bristled even more until he looked twice his size.

“That’s nonsense,” Clovertail mewed sternly to the kits. “Stop trying to frighten every cat. If that is a Twoleg, it sounds like a young one, and it’s in trouble.”

“We need to investigate,” Leafstar decided. “Clovertail, Fallowfern, stay here and look after the kits. Cora, Shrewtooth, and Ebonyclaw, guard the camp. The rest of you, follow me, but quietly.”

With Leafstar in the lead, the SkyClan cats crept up the gorge, past the training area, and around the next corner. The wailing sound started up again, louder now as they came closer.

Peeking around a boulder, Leafstar saw the source of the noise. A young Twoleg kit—a female—was lying among the rocks. She was small, about half the size of a full-grown Twoleg, with brown head-fur and brightly colored pelts covering everything except her smooth, pink front paws and face. As Leafstar padded closer she saw that the kit’s face was streaked with mud and moisture, and there was earth smeared on her pelts; up above were raw gashes on the rock face. Even worse, one of her hind legs was splayed at an awkward angle beside her, and from the way the kit’s muscles were tensed, it was clear she was in agony.

“She fell over the cliff,” Leafstar murmured, raising her tail to halt her Clanmates who were following her. “Poor kit, she’s badly hurt.”

She had halted a few tail-lengths away, but even at this distance the kit’s pain and fear-scents were almost overwhelming. “Keep back,” Leafstar warned her Clan. “She’s so scared, she might lash out at us. Echosong, come with me.”

“Hang on a moment.” Sparrowpelt pushed his way to the front of the crowd. “I don’t think we should have anything to do with this. It might be a trap.”

“That’s right,” Shorty mewed. “There could be bigger Twolegs hiding, ready to trap us.”

“They do that sort of thing,” Coal agreed.

Petalnose was nodding, too, and some of the other cats looked uncertain. And they might be right, Leafstar thought. She pricked her ears and tasted the air, but the scents of the young Twoleg, and the noise she was making, drowned out everything else.

“That’s nonsense.” Echosong padded forward with a flick of her tail. “This is an injured kit, for StarClan’s sake. Look at her leg! No Twoleg would put one of their own in that much pain just to trap us.”

Without waiting for Leafstar’s order, she padded past and approached the little Twoleg. Leafstar heard her purring loudly; her tail was straight up in the air and her fur fluffed up in a way that made her look soft and pretty. She must have been such a popular kittypet! Leafstar thought suddenly.

The Twoleg kit stopped wailing as Echosong trotted up to her and reached out feebly with one paw to stroke her. Echosong purred even louder, and pushed her head up against the kit. “I don’t want to frighten her,” she mewed apologetically, with a glance back at Leafstar.

Leafstar gestured with her tail for the rest of the Clan to back off and hide among the rocks. She was conscious of their gleaming eyes peering out as she padded cautiously forward. Now I have to behave like a kittypet, with all the Clan watching me, she thought, wincing. I’ll never hear the last of it!

She wasn’t sure exactly how kittypets behaved, but she tried to copy Echosong, who was brushing her pelt against the Twoleg kit and making affectionate trilling sounds. Leafstar flinched as the kit stretched out to touch her, but she felt a purr rising in her throat at the feeling of the Twoleg paw stroking along her back. It’s kind of… nice.

She let the kit stroke her while Echosong gave the injured leg a good sniff. “It’s broken,” the medicine cat reported. “But it’s too big for me to treat with a splint. And I’m not sure that Clan medicines would be any good for Twolegs.”

“If we can’t help her, we shouldn’t waste any more time with her.” Leafstar jumped at the sound of Sparrowpelt’s voice, and glanced over her shoulder to see that the brown tabby tom had approached without her noticing. “There are patrols to get on with,” he reminded them.

Leafstar was uneasy about leaving the kit, yet she didn’t see what else they could do. But as she stepped back out of reach, the little Twoleg started wailing again and her pink paws scrabbled on the stones.

“We have to do something!” Echosong protested.

“Like what?” Sharpclaw growled, emerging from behind a rock and padding up to stand beside Sparrowpelt. His voice was harsh and unsympathetic.

“We have to find her family,” Echosong insisted, her neck fur bristling at the deputy’s tone. “We can’t help her, so we must find Twolegs who can.”

Cocking his head to one side, Sharpclaw fixed Leafstar with his brilliant green gaze; he was waiting for her order, but it was clear what he wanted her to say.

Leafstar felt uneasy. She wanted to help the Twoleg kit, but she wasn’t sure if that was the sort of thing that Clan cats were supposed to do. Should we work alongside Twolegs to help them? She couldn’t imagine that Firestar would get involved in something like this. Not that the ThunderClan leader wouldn’t care that a Twoleg was hurt, but his life seemed so completely separate from the affairs of Twolegs.

But I’m not Firestar, and this isn’t his Clan.

Suddenly Leafstar was aware of the presence of Spottedleaf close beside her. She seemed to hear the tortoiseshell she-cat’s voice: Seize the moment! Leafstar felt as though Spottedleaf was telling her that this could be very important for the future of SkyClan.

“Echosong is right,” she announced. “SkyClan will help the injured Twoleg.”