The Fourth Apprentice

Chapter 7

Jayfeather winced at Dovepaw’s dismay as she learned that she was different from all the other cats in her Clan, with a destiny greater even than StarClan. Not that we know what our destiny is…He heard Lionblaze sigh as she begged him to tell her it wasn’t real.

“I can’t tell you that, Dovepaw,” his brother meowed. “Because it is true. I often wish it wasn’t, believe me.”

“Lionblaze and I both have special powers,” Jayfeather put in. “He can’t be beaten in battle, and I…well, I have more skills than other medicine cats.” No way am I telling her what they are! Not yet, anyway.

“And you have especially strong senses,” Lionblaze told her. “You can tell what’s going on very far away. I started to wonder that day we went to RiverClan, when you told me there was a very sick cat in the camp. I didn’t sense anything like that. You’re a better hunter than you should be, with less than a moon’s training. And no other cat knows anything about these animals you say are blocking the river. The way you could tell exactly what I did just now makes me think you could be right about them.”

Dovepaw was silent for a few heartbeats; Jayfeather could hear her claws tearing at the grass. “This is mouse-brained!” she burst out at last. “I don’t believe you. I don’t want to be different!”

“What you want isn’t—” Jayfeather began, then broke off as he heard the swishing sound of cats pushing their way through bracken. Sandstorm was in the lead, with more cats behind her, their scents almost drowned in the dank smell of mud.

“I’m sick of this,” Sandstorm complained, her voice muffled so that Jayfeather could picture the soaked moss she held in her jaws. “RiverClan is behaving as if we have to ask their permission every time we want to go near the water.”

“And I’m covered in mud,” Briarpaw protested.

“We’re all covered.” Leafpool’s voice was tired. “Once we take the water to our Clanmates, we can have a rest and lick it off.”

“Yuck!” Bumblepaw exclaimed.

The sounds of the patrol faded as they headed into the thorn tunnel.

“We can’t talk here,” Jayfeather meowed. “We might as well announce everything to the Clan and be done with it.”

“Then let’s go farther into the forest where no cat can overhear us,” Lionblaze suggested.

Jayfeather led the way along the old Twoleg path as far as the abandoned nest. The scent of catmint greeted him, soothing his worries and filling him with a deep sense of satisfaction. If ThunderClan ever suffers from greencough again, we’ll be well prepared.

“Your catmint is flourishing,” Lionblaze remarked as the three cats padded into the overgrown Twoleg garden. “It’s weird that it grows so well in a drought.”

“If it did, that would be weird,” Jayfeather agreed. “I’ve been fetching soaked moss to water the roots. We can’t afford to let it die.”

Distracted for the moment from the problem of Dovepaw, Jayfeather moved confidently from plant to plant, guided by the strong scent of catmint, and gave each root a careful sniff to make sure that the fragile shoots were thriving.

“You must understand how I can tell what’s going on all over the forest.” Dovepaw padded up behind him, a challenge in her voice. “You know where every one of those plants is, even though you can’t see them.”

Jayfeather flicked up his ears, startled, while Lionblaze began, “Dovepaw, that’s different—”

“It’s okay,” Jayfeather interrupted. It was refreshing to meet a cat who didn’t tie herself into knots trying not to mention his blindness to his face. “Dovepaw has a good point. I know other cats are surprised when I know where things are. I’ve developed very good senses of smell and hearing,” he went on to Dovepaw. “I suppose that’s to make up for not being able to see. But I can’t tell what’s going on at the other side of the forest.” A flicker of resentment crossed his mind. “Your powers are much greater than my senses.”

“But I don’t understand!” Jayfeather could tell that Dovepaw was trying very hard to keep her voice steady. “Why do I have these powers? What does the prophecy mean?”

“We’re not sure,” Lionblaze replied. “We felt just like you, at first. And we’ve struggled hard to understand it, but—”

“What’s the matter with you?” Jayfeather cut in. “How can you not want to be more powerful than your Clanmates? To have a greater destiny, a mystery to solve? How can you not want to be one of the Three?”

“But we’re not three, we’re four!” Dovepaw spun around to face him. “What about Ivypaw? What are her special powers? What does the prophecy say about her?”

“Nothing,” Jayfeather told her. “At first we didn’t know whether the prophecy meant you or your sister. But you’ve made it pretty clear that you’re the One.”

“You just told us Ivypaw can’t sense things at a distance, the way you do,” Lionblaze pointed out.

“Not yet. But how do we know she won’t?” Jayfeather dug his claws into the ground at the apprentice’s stubborn tone. “Besides, she’s my sister. I’m not going to do anything without her.”

“You don’t have any choice,” Jayfeather snapped.

“Do you think we asked for this?” Lionblaze heaved a deep sigh. “I wish every day that I could just be an ordinary warrior, doing my best to help my Clan.”

“But we’ve had to accept it,” Jayfeather mewed.

He heard a scuffling sound from Dovepaw, as if the apprentice was flexing her claws in and out of the soil. “I don’t have to accept it,” she muttered mutinously.

“You do. Because of what you did today,” Lionblaze meowed. Jayfeather could tell that he felt a strong sympathy for his apprentice. “You couldn’t have made it clearer if you’d gone and yowled it from the Highledge.”

Now Dovepaw was silent, and Jayfeather could sense her anger fading, replaced by uncertainty and fear. He let out a sigh, knowing what he had to tell her, even though he had hoped there would be no need. “You must have heard that we once had a sister,” he began. “Hollyleaf. We—we thought that she was part of the prophecy, one of the Three.”

“But she wasn’t.” To Jayfeather’s relief, Lionblaze took up the story. “She tried so hard to figure out her special power, and how she could use it to help her Clan.”

“So what made you realize that she wasn’t one of the Three?” Dovepaw asked.

Grief and shame swept over Jayfeather, as sharp as when he first discovered that he wasn’t the son of Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw. He could sense that his brother felt the same. What could they possibly tell this apprentice without tearing open the wounds that had threatened to destroy their Clan?

“How much do you know about Hollyleaf?” he asked Dovepaw.

“Not much.” The young cat’s voice was curious now. “I know she was your sister and she died in an accident in the tunnels. Ivypaw and I used to hear cats talking about her sometimes, but when they saw us listening they always changed the subject.”

I’m not surprised, Jayfeather thought.

“We just realized that the prophecy didn’t include her,” Lionblaze stated flatly, in a tone that warned Dovepaw not to ask any more questions.

“So you made a mistake!” Dovepaw retorted. “How do you know that you’re not making the same mistake again? Firestar has loads of kin in ThunderClan, not just Cloudtail and Whitewing!”

“Because—” Jayfeather began.

“I don’t want to listen!” Dovepaw’s voice was angry, and Jayfeather could picture her glaring at him with her neck fur bristling. He sensed deep fear within her, which she was trying to bury under her anger. “I don’t care about special powers, unless they can help me to be a loyal warrior to ThunderClan. I don’t want any part of any prophecy, especially one that’s so vague you can’t even be sure which cat it refers to!”

“Listen, you stupid furball!” Jayfeather spat. “Do you think we wanted things to be like this?” All his anger and frustration came spilling out, like a storm breaking over the forest, and he didn’t even try to stop it. “We didn’t choose to be part of the prophecy! We lost our sister because of it!”

His paws were shaking so much that he had to sit down. Who sent the prophecy? he wondered, yet again. And why should we listen to it, when it causes so much pain?

“I—I’m sorry,” Dovepaw stammered. “But if it’s so hard, why don’t you ask Firestar about it?”

“Firestar has never spoken to us about it,” Lionblaze replied. “He doesn’t even know that we know he received the prophecy in the first place.”

“Then how…?” Dovepaw’s voice was bewildered.

“I walked in his dreams,” Jayfeather explained reluctantly. He could tell how his intensity was scaring the young she-cat, and how hard she would find it to accept the darkness within his powers. But something was urging him on, an inner voice that seemed to warn him there was no time to wait for her to understand. “We don’t know what the prophecy requires us to do,” he went on, trying to keep his voice calm, “but we need to be ready. And that means having the courage to face up to our powers, whatever they are.”

Dovepaw hesitated; Jayfeather could feel uncertainty coming off her in waves. “Wouldn’t StarClan want me to learn to be a warrior first?” she meowed at last.

“I don’t know. I’m not even sure that the prophecy comes from StarClan.” Jayfeather hated to admit that, but it was true; no StarClan warrior had ever confirmed the prophecy for him.

“But you’re right, Dovepaw.” Lionblaze’s voice was warm with approval. “The best thing you can do is get on with your warrior training. Let’s go and get some more hunting practice, before the other cats send out a search party for us.”

“Yes!” Dovepaw immediately sounded more cheerful. Jayfeather knew she was trying to push the prophecy to the back of her mind.

“Carry on,” he mewed. “I’ll stay here and take care of my plants. There are a few dead leaves that could do with pulling off.” He heard Lionblaze’s paw steps retreating, with Dovepaw following him; at the edge of the garden she halted and turned back.

“Jayfeather,” she began hesitantly, “I had a dream. This StarClan cat took me down to the lake, and it was full of water again.”

“What was the cat like?” Lionblaze asked.

“Scary! She had messy gray fur and yellow eyes. And her teeth were all snaggly.”

“That was Yellowfang,” Jayfeather told her. “She used to be ThunderClan’s medicine cat when the Clan lived in the old forest.”

“Firestar talks about her sometimes,” Lionblaze reassured his apprentice. “He says she’s not as scary as she looks.”

“Did she say why she came to you?” Jayfeather prompted.

“No…” Dovepaw sounded uncertain again. “If she did, I can’t remember.”

“And is this the only dream you’ve had?”

“The only one from StarClan. Do you think it’s important?” Dovepaw mewed.

“Yes, but I don’t know why.” Jayfeather scraped his paw over the damp scented soil. “Let me know if you have any more, okay? Oh, and welcome to the Three.”