The Blazing Star

Chapter One

Sun Shadow slipped out from beneath a scrubby bush rooted in the shallow soil between two boulders. As he halted to sniff the cold mountain air he saw that the sun was already going down, flooding the gray rock walls with scarlet light.

Maybe I should head home, he thought. The rest of the Tribe would already be gathering to share the day’s prey in the cave behind the waterfall. Sharp Hail will claw my fur off if I’m late!

Curiosity had led Sun Shadow’s paws farther down the mountain than he had ever ventured before. But he knew that his mother’s new mate, Sharp Hail, would never understand his urge to explore.

My real father wouldn’t be so strict, he told himself sadly as he hurried along a winding path between sharp, jutting stones. I wish I could have known him.

The path curved around a massive outcrop; following it, Sun Shadow found himself facing an almost sheer cliff. Squinting through the fading light of sunset, he spotted a narrow crevasse gaping open in the rock face ahead.

Instantly Sun Shadow forgot the need for haste. His ears twitched curiously and his pads itched with the compulsion to find out what lay beyond the dark gap. It felt like the crevasse was tugging at him.

It might lead into a cave, like the one where we live. And it won’t take long to check it out…

Sun Shadow’s pelt prickled with excitement as he padded cautiously forward. Ever since he was a kit, he had loved to explore. He’d always yearned to know what lay beyond the mountain peaks that surrounded his home.

Not that I get much chance to find out, with Sharp Hail always looking over my shoulder. Sun

Shadow’s mother’s new mate was always finding chores to keep Sun Shadow close to the cave. But all I want to do is get out and see the world, he thought resentfully.

Envy bit into him like thorns when he thought of how his real father, Moon Shadow, had left before Sun Shadow was even born to follow the Sun Trail and find a new home. Several cats had left with him, and without so many mouths to feed, the Tribe was doing better—or so Sun Shadow’s mother, Dewy Leaf, said. Hunting had improved, and no cat was in danger of starving anymore.

So why is Sharp Hail so obsessed with keeping every cat safe? Sun Shadow asked himself. If I’d been born when my father left, I’d have gone with him.

Reaching the rock face, Sun Shadow stretched one paw out into the cleft and tentatively patted the ground. It felt solid, though when he tried to peer down the narrow passage he could see nothing beyond the first tail-length. When he tasted the air he picked up a strange scent, musty like earth, but it seemed a long way away.

Sun Shadow stepped into the opening, feeling his pelt brush against the walls on either side, and glanced over his shoulder at the dimming sunlight.

Just a quick look… It won’t hurt any cat.

As he slowly padded forward, Sun Shadow’s own body blocked out the last of the light, leaving him with only his whiskers and his sense of smell to guide him. He sensed that he was heading along a tall, narrow tunnel that sloped gently downward. From somewhere farther ahead he could hear the sound of dripping water, each drop waking a flurry of sharp echoes.

Maybe the tunnel opens into a larger cave, Sun Shadow thought. His heart thudded with excitement; he couldn’t wait to find out what lay ahead of him.

Then a sound from farther down the tunnel brought Sun Shadow to an abrupt halt. What is that? he wondered. He had never heard the high-pitched chittering before, or the oddly loud flapping, like many wings rustling together. It sounded like it was moving…

Panic froze Sun Shadow, fixing his paws to the ground. It’s coming right toward me! he thought.

Could it be an eagle?

The sounds grew louder. Whatever was making them was just a short distance away now. Sun

Shadow crouched low, his shoulder fur bristling in terror, and let out a yowl as a whole flock of hideous creatures swept over his head, screeching and beating their wings. He choked as a musty smell filled the air.

In the darkness Sun Shadow couldn’t tell what the creatures were, and he didn’t care; he only knew he had to get away from them. Terrified, he tried to run back the way he’d come, only to crash face-first into a craggy rock wall.

“Ow!” Sun Shadow staggered back, letting out a yowl of pain. The scent and harsh taste of blood flowed over him.

The horrible creatures were still passing above his head. Sun Shadow stumbled forward, desperate to get out of the tunnel. He panted hard with relief as he burst into the open and saw twilight glimmering in the sky.

Sun Shadow’s whole face ached, and when he raised a paw, hesitantly touching his nose, it came back covered in blood. Oh, haredung… that hurts!

Looking up, he saw a blur of brown, mouselike creatures disappearing into the sky, darting here and there on tough, featherless wings. Bats! Sun Shadow had seen a dead bat before, but never a whole group of them in flight.

And I don’t care if I never see them again.

Sun Shadow stood watching the ugly creatures for a few moments more, until his racing heart gradually slowed and his shoulder fur lay flat again. I’m glad no other cat saw me, he thought, beginning to feel stupid. Those things are disgusting, but they couldn’t hurt me.

“Sun Shadow! Sun Shadow!”

The young cat’s heart lurched again as he recognized the distant voice calling his name. “Sharp

Hail!” he muttered. “Now I’ll have to put up with one of his lectures.” His head and tail drooped as he set off toward the cave. “But what choice do I have?”

Sun Shadow’s paws tingled with apprehension as he followed Sharp Hail back into the cave. By now darkness had fallen and moonlight glimmered on the waterfall, sending silver light dancing around the cavern walls.

Once inside, Sharp Hail swung around and thrust out his muzzle toward Sun Shadow. “Why did I have to go looking for you among the rocks again?” he demanded, narrowing his ice-blue eyes.

“When will you learn to come back to the cave by sunset? And what in the world has happened to your face?”

Sun Shadow extended his tongue and licked toward his nose, tasting blood again. His pelt grew hot with embarrassment at the thought of confessing how he had fled from the bats. “I… uh… I ran into a hawk,” he mumbled.

Sharp Hail lashed his tail in frustration. “You expect me to believe that?” he snarled. “A scrawny thing like you would never stand a chance against a hawk. Besides, that injury is a bump, not a scratch—like you crashed into something.”

He waited, flexing his claws impatiently, but Sun Shadow had nothing more to say. He blinked miserably as he stared at the cave floor.

“We just want you to be safe.” Dewy Leaf spoke gently behind him. “Don’t you understand? After all that’s happened to us, here in the mountains…”

“Nothing has happened to us!” Sun Shadow blurted out, whipping around to face Dewy Leaf. “Not in my lifetime. I wish something would happen! Then living here might not be so boring.”

A look of horror flashed into Dewy Leaf’s eyes. At the same moment, Sun Shadow felt a stinging blow across his ears, and turned to see Sharp Hail glaring at him with one paw raised.

“That’s enough!” Sharp Hail yowled. “I’ve had it up to here with you whining about being safe and having enough to eat. You’re just like your father! Moon Shadow was always too restless to appreciate what he had.”

Sun Shadow had heard that accusation before, if not exactly in those words, and the truth of it stabbed him like a thorn in his pad. I am restless! And if I were with my father, at least I’d be around someone who understands me!

He had been too young to remember how his sister, Crow Muzzle, had died during her birth, and he had only a vague memory of his brother, Dancing Leaf, falling sick and dying a moon later. He had grown up alone. There had never been any cat who would listen to his dreams of life beyond the mountain.

“You need to be taught a lesson,” Sharp Hail went on, his voice cold. “To make up for worrying your mother tonight, you’ll spend the next half moon caring for Stoneteller.”

Sun Shadow nodded, feeling slightly bewildered. He liked Stoneteller, and admired how her wisdom guided the Tribe and how she cared for each of them as if they were her own kits. Ordinarily caring for her would have been an honor, not a punishment. But in the last few days Stoneteller had fallen ill with some kind of vomiting sickness. Sun Shadow had overheard the older cats reassuring one another that she would get better soon. They all believed she had many more seasons in her, and couldn’t imagine life without her.

I hope they’re right, Sun Shadow thought. But meanwhile, cleaning up after her will be pretty yucky.

“Well?” Sharp Hail’s voice broke into Sun Shadow’s thoughts. “Are you going to stand there all night? Get on with it!”

His belly still churning with resentment, Sun Shadow padded toward the back of the cave and the tunnel that led to Stoneteller’s den. He had never been allowed there before, and at the end of the passage he halted, his eyes wide with wonder.

The tunnel opened into a smaller cave, lit by starlight from a jagged hole in the roof. Reflections glinted from pools on the cave floor. Most astonishing of all, stone pinnacles rose from the cave floor, rising to meet spikes of stone that hung from the roof. Some of them were joined in the middle, so that Sun Shadow felt that he was gazing into a forest made of stone.

Hardly daring to breathe, Sun Shadow padded forward. “Stoneteller?” he called softly.

There was no reply. But a moment later Sun Shadow spotted the old white she-cat curled up beside one of the pools, her tail wrapped over her nose. Her body rose and fell gently with the rhythm of her breathing. She looked perfectly fine; there was no scent of vomit around her.

Sun Shadow retreated quietly and returned to the main cave. He crouched at the end of Stoneteller’s tunnel, trying to ignore the rumbling of his belly.

All the prey had been shared by the time I got back. And I’m not going to ask Sharp Hail if there’s any left!

A few tail-lengths away, Sun Shadow spotted Quiet Rain sitting beside her sleeping hollow and nibbling daintily on a mouse. As he watched her, his jaws watering, Quiet Rain glanced his way, then picked up her prey and padded over to him.

“You look like you could use some kindness,” she murmured, blinking sympathetically at his injured face. “Here.” She tore the mouse in two and pushed half of it toward him.

“Thank you!” Sun Shadow meowed, tearing hungrily into the prey.

“You look so much like your father,” Quiet Rain went on. “The same slender build and black pelt.

It’s a pity he never saw you.”

Sun Shadow looked up, gulping down the last mouthful. “My father is a hero,” he declared. “He left the mountains and risked the dangerous journey down the Sun Trail to find new hunting grounds and save all the cats who stayed in the mountains.”

To his surprise, Quiet Rain seemed not to share his admiration. “That’s true, but to do that, he left your mother on her own, even though she was expecting kits,” she pointed out.

A pulse of anger shot through Sun Shadow. “It was a sacrifice he had to make!” But his anger died as he met Quiet Rain’s steady gaze, and he remembered that she too had been left behind. “Your kits—Clear Sky, Gray Wing, and Jagged Peak—were heroes too,” he went on. “Do you ever wonder about them?”

Quiet Rain did not reply, though her eyes misted over, as if she was gazing into the far distance.

Sun Shadow found himself questioning whether the she-cat was lonely. She never took another mate, or had another litter. All her kits are gone.

“Do you ever think about what life is like at the end of the Sun Trail?” Sun Shadow asked her.

“Beyond this mountain?”

Quiet Rain remained silent for a few heartbeats, and Sun Shadow hoped he hadn’t upset her. But when she met his gaze again, her expression was resolute.

“I often wonder how my kits are faring,” she replied. “I would like to see them once more before I die. But my place is here, on this mountain, with these cats.” She paused, running the tip of her tail along Sun Shadow’s back. “Perhaps every cat wonders about life beyond the mountain,” she mewed.

“But you must find your place in the group here, where you belong.”

Without waiting for a reply, she padded back to her sleeping hollow and curled up inside it.

Sun Shadow watched her, impressed by her wisdom. But before he could think more about what she had said, he heard the sound of Stoneteller’s voice coming from her den at the end of the tunnel. It was too far away for him to make out the words, but there was an urgency in her tone that made him spring to his paws and race down the tunnel toward her.

Maybe she’s ill! I have to help her!

But when Sun Shadow erupted into Stoneteller’s cave, he saw her standing erect on her paws, her head raised and her gaze fixed on the jagged gap in the roof. Her green eyes shone brilliantly, as if what she saw there filled her with mingled joy and sorrow. Sun Shadow didn’t dare speak; he could only watch and listen in wonder.

“Fluttering Bird… Shaded Moss… Bright Stream… Turtle Tail…” She breathed out. “Oh, my dear friends! I thought I would never see you again. How is it that you’re here now, with me?”

Stoneteller paused, as if she was listening to an answer, though Sun Shadow couldn’t hear or see anything.

Then Stoneteller bowed her head. “Now I understand,” she murmured. “I am not ready yet, but if that is what you wish…”

Fear gripped Sun Shadow, piercing his body like claws of ice as he realized what the old she-cat meant. Fluttering Bird was Quiet Rain’s kit who died of hunger. If Stoneteller’s talking about joining her, she must be talking about dying… But she can’t! His heart thumped and his chest felt tight with panic. What will we do without our leader?

Chapter Two

Stoneteller’s vision seemed to fade, and at last she turned with slow paw steps toward her nest at the far end of the cave. Sun Shadow followed her, ready to offer help if she seemed to need it, but she curled up among the moss and fell asleep almost at once.

Sun Shadow crouched in the shelter of one of the stone trees, reluctant to leave his leader yet knowing there was nothing he could do for her. Though his body ached with exhaustion, his horror at what he had overheard kept him awake.

We need Stoneteller! Every cat said she had many seasons left. What are we going to do when she’s gone?

Eventually Sun Shadow rose to his paws, stretched cramped limbs, and slipped back through the tunnel into the main cave. The sky beyond the screen of falling water at the entrance was dim gray, telling Sun Shadow that a new day was dawning.

Wearily Sun Shadow headed toward his family’s sleeping hollows at the side of the cave. His half brothers and sister, Falling Dusk, Morning Star, and Melting Ice, were already awake, wrestling together and trying to see who could jump the highest. Dewy Leaf sat beside her hollow, grooming herself and watching the kits play.

“Are you okay?” she asked as Sun Shadow approached. “Does your face still hurt?”

“No, it’s fine,” Sun Shadow replied, settling down beside her.

Dewy Leaf gave him a sideways glance. “You don’t have to tell me how you got injured,” she meowed after a few moments. “I just want you to be safe—do you understand?”

I don’t want to be safe. But she’ll only get angry if I tell her that. Sun Shadow didn’t know how to reply, so he said nothing.

Dewy Leaf shifted uncomfortably, pausing as she drew her paw over one ear. “I’m sorry Sharp

Hail is so hard on you sometimes,” she went on. “It’s just… oh, you really worry me, Sun Shadow!

You’re so much like your father! Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you.”

Sun Shadow pricked up his ears at the mention of Moon Shadow. “How am I like my father?” he asked, his voice cracking with his need for an answer.

Dewy Leaf gazed at him affectionately. “You’re curious and brave,” she replied. “And sometimes reckless and selfish. And smart and cunning… Maybe I’m afraid that you’ll leave, like Moon Shadow did,” she finished quietly. “Maybe that’s why I hold you so close.”

Sun Shadow felt an ache in his heart at his mother’s words. He wanted to reassure her, but he couldn’t. Maybe she’s right. Maybe someday I will leave.

Suddenly he didn’t want to go on talking about his father. And there was something more urgent pressing on his mind. “Dewy Leaf,” he began, “what would happen to us if Stoneteller died?”

Fear flashed into Dewy Leaf’s eyes. “Why are you asking?” she meowed. “Is Stoneteller…?”

“She’s fine,” Sun Shadow replied abruptly, staring at his paws, as if Dewy Leaf could read in his face his weird experience in Stoneteller’s den. “But what if…?”

Daring to look up, he saw confusion in his mother’s face. “We’d go on as we always have,” she told him. “Some other cat would step up to lead us.”

She glanced toward the other side of the sleeping hollows. Sharp Hail had appeared and was teaching the young kits how to pounce.

Sun Shadow felt something shrivel inside him. Sharp Hail could never be our leader. He just couldn’t!

“But none of the other cats have visions like Stoneteller,” he objected.

“Not all leaders have visions,” Dewy Leaf told him. “In fact, Stoneteller was the first. There are other ways to lead.”

Sun Shadow nodded, aware that he knew exactly how Sharp Hail would lead. Even the bit of freedom I’ve got would be taken away from me.

“I should get back to Stoneteller,” he meowed, rising to his paws and heading for the back of the cavern.

“Don’t you want something to eat?” Dewy Leaf called after him, but Sun Shadow didn’t reply, increasing his pace until he could plunge out of sight down the tunnel.

When Sun Shadow emerged into the old cat’s den, he found Stoneteller awake, sitting beside one of the pools and watching the reflections of the clouds scudding across the sky. He padded up to her and dipped his head respectfully.

“Sharp Hail sent me to look after you,” he meowed.

Stoneteller looked up to meet his gaze. In spite of her age, her green eyes were sharp and full of wisdom. “That was kind,” she responded.

Kind? Sharp Hail? Sun Shadow bit back the words. “Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked.

Stoneteller thought for a moment. “You might freshen up the bedding in my sleeping hollow,” she mewed.

“Of course.” Sun Shadow padded over to the leader’s nest and began to stir up the moss and feathers that lined the hollow, wondering whether he would need to go out and find more. He noticed that one of the hunters had brought prey for Stoneteller: a small bird whose limp body lay beside the nest. There was no sign that Stoneteller had even touched it.

A sharp cry from behind him made Sun Shadow whirl around, to see Stoneteller had moved a few paw steps away from the pool. She had collapsed on her side with a look of agony in her eyes.

Swiftly Sun Shadow ran to her. “What is it?” he asked, fear and anxiety swelling inside him.

“How can I help?”

Stoneteller let out a long, shaken breath. “Please… bring me some water.”

Sun Shadow grabbed a mouthful of moss from the nest and went to soak it in the pool. It seemed so little that he could do for the old she-cat. I’ll do anything I can to protect her… but what can any cat do? He wished he didn’t have so much faith in Stoneteller’s predictions. If her visions tell her that she’s going to die, then she’ll die.

“Thank you,” Stoneteller murmured as Sun Shadow laid the soaking moss down beside her. She sighed as she stretched out her tongue to lap. “That tastes so good.”

Sun Shadow watched her for a moment, then went back to the nest and fetched the bird. “Look, some cat has left this for you,” he meowed.

Stoneteller shook her head. “I’m not hungry,” she responded. “I haven’t been able to keep food down for days.”

Even more worried, Sun Shadow pushed the bird a little closer to her. “You should at least try,” he coaxed her.

Once more Stoneteller raised her head and fixed him with her brilliant green gaze. “You cannot save me,” she declared.

Sun Shadow felt his lower jaw beginning to tremble. “You—you are going to die, then,” he stammered.

“Yes, it’s my time.” Stoneteller reached out her tail and laid it reassuringly on Sun Shadow’s shoulder. “And my death will bring a time of great change for the mountain cats. But all will be well,” she went on at Sun Shadow’s gasp of apprehension. “A new leader will be chosen, and every cat will survive.”

Sun Shadow nodded, feeling his fears recede a little.

“But you will not be part of the Tribe by the time the new leader is named,” Stoneteller went on.

A bolt of understanding, fierce as lightning, passed through Sun Shadow at Stoneteller’s words.

He stared at her in surprise.

“You knew that—didn’t you?” Stoneteller asked gently.

Sun Shadow felt as if his throat was as dry as a sun-baked rock. “Where—where will I go?” he rasped.

“That is for you to decide,” Stoneteller replied, though Sun Shadow sensed she could have said more if she had wished to.

“I could try to find my father,” he mewed eagerly, his heart beginning to pound with excitement at the thought of meeting Moon Shadow.

Stoneteller didn’t respond. Her jaws gaped wide in a yawn. “I’m tired,” she murmured. “I need to sleep.”

She staggered to her paws and Sun Shadow let her lean on his shoulder until she reached her nest.

She sank down into the moss and feathers with a sigh and closed her eyes. Almost at once her regular breathing told Sun Shadow that she was asleep.

Once he was certain she was resting, Sun Shadow turned away and padded out of the cave. He tried not to think about how still and lifeless Stoneteller’s small, curled form looked, sunk among the bedding.

It’s too much like she’s…

Sun Shadow cut off the thought. He bounded across the floor of the main cavern, then padded along the narrow path that led behind the waterfall, until he emerged onto the rocks that overlooked the pool. Finding a flat boulder to sit on, he gazed around him at the mountain peaks that surrounded his home.

At first he hoped that he could make out some kind of destination to aim for when he was ready to leave. But everything looked so vast and frightening: a huge expanse of gray rock and scree, with only the occasional scrubby bush to break the monotony, or narrow streams winding their way down steep valleys.

How will I ever find my father in such a big, wide—messy—world?

Before Sun Shadow could find an answer to his own question, he felt a shadow fall on him.

Looking up, he felt claws of terror gripping his chest. A hawk was hovering over him, its wide wingspan blocking out the sunlight. Frozen by panic, Sun Shadow watched as the bird swooped down, its talons extended to clutch and tear.

No! A horrible realization swept over Sun Shadow. Is this what Stoneteller meant? Is this why I won’t be part of the Tribe any longer?

Sharp Hail’s contemptuous words came back into Sun Shadow’s mind. A scrawny thing like you would never stand a chance against a hawk. Sun Shadow let out a whimper of fear. Is this my end? he wondered. Why?

The huge bird was almost upon him, letting out a harsh screech of triumph. The sound woke some deep instinct within Sun Shadow. I have to try to fight it!

He scrambled clear of the reaching talons, half jumping, half falling off the flat rock, and lashed out at the hawk with claws extended. But his blow missed the huge bird and instead he struck at the rock wall, letting out a yowl of pain.

There was no time to check if he had lost a claw. The hawk had mounted into the sky for a few wingbeats, then aimed for him again in a lethal dive.

Sun Shadow’s heart was pounding, and his whole body shook from ears to tail-tip. He bunched his muscles against the tremors and reared up, bringing his forepaws together to strike out at the hawk again.

This time his blow landed, catching the hawk and slamming it down on the ground. He caught a glimpse of its yellow, glaring eyes as it tried to slash at him with its beak. Sun Shadow dug his claws in harder, but the bird tore itself away with a frightened shriek. Kicking and flapping, it struggled back into the sky and flew off; a few feathers drifted down onto the rock beside Sun Shadow.

Panting hard, Sun Shadow watched the hawk until it faded to a dot in the distance. Triumph was gushing through him. I drove the hawk away!

Feeling more confident, Sun Shadow surveyed the landscape again. But then he remembered that he was supposed to be looking after Stoneteller.

What if she wakes up and needs me, and I’m not there? What if…?

Sun Shadow ran quickly back along the path behind the waterfall and bounded across the cave.

“Hey, Sun Shadow!” Melting Ice called out. “Come and play with me!”

“Later!” Sun Shadow called back, waving his tail at his young half sister. I haven’t got time to play now.

He plunged into the tunnel that led to Stoneteller’s den, and found her facing the entrance, sitting with her tail curled around her paws. She was watching him with a clear gaze, as if she had been expecting him to appear.

“You know now, don’t you?” she mewed. “You’re ready.”

Sun Shadow instantly understood. “Yes, I’m ready to leave,” he replied. “I drove off a hawk out there, and that means I’ve proved myself.” Then sadness flooded over him as he realized where his paws were leading him. “I can’t leave you, Stoneteller,” he added. “Not like this!”

Stoneteller dipped her head gently. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve lived a long life, and soon I’ll be among friends. It’s time for you to find your own life, your own friends who will greet you when at last you make the journey to the stars.”

Sun Shadow blinked and dared to touch his nose to the old she-cat’s. “Thank you,” he purred.

That night, when his Tribemates had settled down to sleep and the cavern was quiet, Sun Shadow slid out of his sleeping hollow. He hesitated for a few heartbeats, looking down at his family. Sharp

Hail, sleeping a little to one side. The three kits, nestled cozily within the curve of Dewy Leaf’s body.

Dewy Leaf…

Sun Shadow’s heart came near to breaking at the thought of leaving his mother. He knew how sad she would be when she realized that he was truly gone.

But I know her life is here, with Sharp Hail and my half brothers and half sister.

Sun Shadow bent over his sleeping mother and gently touched his nose to hers, not wanting to wake her. “I’ll be okay,” he promised in a whisper.

He drew back silently and padded across the cavern floor toward the waterfall. But before he reached the opening that led out onto the mountain, a meow sounded from behind him.

“Where are you going?”

Gulping, Sun Shadow whirled around to see Quiet Rain watching him from the top of a rock beside the cave wall, her eyes wide with alarm.

“Just—just out for some air,” he stammered.

Quiet Rain blinked. “Please, Sun Shadow. I’m not stupid. You were saying good-bye back there.”

Claws of desperation gripped Sun Shadow’s heart. “Don’t tell them!” he begged, padding up to Quiet Rain. “Don’t try to stop me. I need to do this.”

Quiet Rain jumped down from her perch, landing neatly on all four paws beside Sun Shadow.

Though she didn’t speak, there was determination in her gaze.

She’s going to tell Sharp Hail! Sun Shadow thought, anguished.

He opened his jaws to beg Quiet Rain once more to let him go, but before he could speak a piercing cry came from the tunnel leading to Stoneteller’s den. Quiet Rain turned toward the sound, and while she was distracted Sun Shadow slipped out onto the path that led behind the waterfall.

Stoneteller is dying!

His paws were tugging at him to go back and do what he could to ease the old cat’s last moments, but he knew that if he did that, he would never get away.

I’m doing what she wanted…

Sun Shadow emerged from the end of the path and began to scramble down the rocks, his paws sliding where the surface was slick from the spray of the waterfall. Down and down into the darkness

… Sun Shadow’s heart was pounding, and he had no idea where he was going, only that he had to get away from the cave as fast as he could. Sharp stones poked into his pads, and once he almost hurled himself over a precipice because he didn’t see the curve in the path in time.

Sun Shadow drew back, shivering against the rock wall, trying to block out his glimpse of the dizzying depths. As he was gathering himself to go on, he heard paw steps approaching him from farther up the rocks.

Springing up, Sun Shadow tried to pick up the pace, to escape from the cat who was pursuing him.

“Wait!” a voice yowled from behind him.

Sun Shadow realized that the sound came from a she-cat. He halted in surprise and turned. Has my mother followed me to say good-bye? Then he spotted Quiet Rain only a few tail-lengths behind him on the path.

“I’m not going back!” he blurted out, his shoulder fur bristling.

“Of course you’re not,” Quiet Rain replied. “But we’d better hurry. Stoneteller has died, and Sharp Hail is waking all the cats.”

Even though he had known what was happening, Sun Shadow felt a pain gripping at his heart when he heard the news of Stoneteller’s death. Then as he fought with his grief, he realized what Quiet Rain had said.

“We?” he repeated.

“I’m coming with you,” Quiet Rain hissed, squeezing past him on the narrow path. “Now let’s hurry. The Sun Trail is long, and we don’t know what dangers we’ll face…”