The Fourth Apprentice

Chapter 10

As soon as Jayfeather woke on the morning after the Gathering, he could feel excitement buzzing around the camp like bees disturbed from their nest. Yawning and trying to shake off the dark dreams that had troubled his sleep, he pulled himself to his paws and swiped at a frond of fern that was clinging to his nose.

Don’t they realize that the cats who go on the journey might never come back?

He stumbled drowsily out into the clearing and scented Firestar emerging from his den onto the Highledge. The Clan was gathering around to listen even before their leader yowled the words that would call a meeting. Jayfeather felt Mousewhisker brush against his pelt, and he heard the thump of paws as Blossompaw, Briarpaw, and Bumblepaw rushed past him. Padding forward, he found a place for himself close to Lionblaze and Dovepaw.

“Cats of ThunderClan,” Firestar began when the excited murmuring had died into silence. “At the Gathering last night, all four Clans decided to send two cats to explore the stream and find out if it really is blocked. I’ve decided that Lionblaze and Dovepaw will go to represent ThunderClan.”

Even before Firestar had finished speaking, yowls of indignation rose into the still morning air.

“She’s an apprentice!” Thornclaw protested. “We should send a strong warrior who can cope with the danger.”

“Yeah, what’s so special about her?” Berrynose added.

But all the disapproving voices were drowned out by Ivypaw’s distraught wail. “Why do you get to go when I can’t? Why doesn’t Firestar send another warrior?”

“It’s not because Firestar likes me better, or anything,” Dovepaw reassured her sister. Jayfeather heard her pad over to Ivypaw and try to give her ear a comforting lick, but Ivypaw jerked away from her. “It’s just that I was the first cat to think about something blocking the stream.”

Jayfeather felt guilt flowing over her as she remembered that she was keeping her special senses, and everything she knew about the prophecy, a secret from her sister. She’ll have to get used to it, that’s all.

“I know,” Ivypaw mewed wretchedly. “But I thought we would always do everything together.”

“I wish we could, but we can’t,” Dovepaw replied.

“That’s enough!” Squirrelflight’s voice rose above the clamor of the protesting cats. “Firestar has made his decision. It’s not for us to question it.”

“That’s right,” Graystripe agreed. “Do you trust your leader or not?”

Gradually the noise died down, and Firestar spoke again. “Lionblaze and Dovepaw will leave at the next sunrise. The meeting is over.”

The crowd of cats broke up into groups, muttering together among themselves. For a few heartbeats Jayfeather lost track of Dovepaw, then located her near the fresh-kill pile with Icecloud and Foxleap. Picking up a surge of anxiety from the apprentice, he padded over to join them.

“How come you get chosen to go?” Foxleap was asking as Jayfeather approached. “How did you know about the stream, anyway?”

“Did you have a dream from StarClan?” Icecloud added eagerly. “What did they say to you?”

Jayfeather could tell that Dovepaw was beginning to panic. “So what, if she did have a dream?” he snapped, flicking his tail in Icecloud’s direction. “That’s between her and Firestar. Now, if you’ve nothing better to do, you can go down to the lake and get some water for the elders.”

He heard an annoyed hiss from Foxleap, but the two young warriors turned and padded off without arguing.

“He talks to us as if he was our mentor,” Icecloud complained in a whisper as they headed for the thorn tunnel.

“Jayfeather, I don’t know what to tell them!” Dovepaw meowed as soon as the warriors were out of earshot. “I didn’t have a dream, you know I didn’t! I can hear those brown animals, sense them, just like I knew what Lionblaze was doing by the lake.”

Jayfeather twitched his whiskers. “I know,” he replied. “But only Lionblaze and I will understand that. As far as the other cats are concerned, this was a dream. Understand?”

Dovepaw hesitated. “I don’t like lying to them,” she meowed.

Jayfeather could feel her bewilderment, and he understood that her supersharp senses were perfectly natural to her. But she was being way too stubborn and narrow-minded. Frustration stabbed at him, sharp as a thorn. “Don’t you want to be special?” he demanded. “Don’t you like being chosen for a destiny greater than your Clanmates?”

“No, I don’t!” Dovepaw spat back at him, then seemed to remember who she was talking to. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I don’t like keeping secrets from my Clanmates, that’s all.”

“Then don’t talk about it,” Jayfeather advised. He sensed that the apprentice was about to go on arguing, when he scented Brightheart approaching. Dovepaw took the chance to scamper away across the clearing to where her sister was sitting outside the apprentices’ den.

“Hi, Jayfeather,” the she-cat called. “Do you want me to go and collect some traveling herbs for the journey?”

“Thanks, Brightheart, that would be great,” Jayfeather replied. His mind began to race. He knew Brightheart was waiting for him to tell her what herbs she needed to look for.

Mouse dung! I’m not sure I can remember.

This would be the first time he had prepared the traveling-herbs mixture on his own. He tried to think what Leafpool had done when Brambleclaw and the rest left to search for Sol, but he was distracted by another, deeper worry. I wish Lionblaze and Dovepaw weren’t both going on the quest. What if they don’t come back? The prophecy will never be fulfilled if I’m the only one left!

He scented Leafpool as she padded past on her way to the fresh-kill pile. His pelt burned to ask her about the traveling herbs, but he forced his mouth to stay shut. She’s not a medicine cat anymore! She turned her back on that when she let herself fall in love with Crowfeather.

“Sorry,” he mumbled to Brightheart. “Just give me a couple of moments.”

He could always ask Cinderheart, to see if her half-buried Cinderpelt memories would be able to tell her the list of herbs. But that might cause more problems than it solves. Cinderheart has no idea that she was once ThunderClan’s medicine cat.

“It’s okay,” Brightheart mewed cheerfully. “I think I can remember the mixture, from when I ate the traveling herbs before I went to the Moonstone, back in the old forest. Let me see…there’s sorrel in it, isn’t there, and daisy? I remember that because I hate the taste!”

“That’s right.” To Jayfeather’s relief, his memory was coming back. “And chamomile’s another…”

“And burnet!” Brightheart finished triumphantly. “That’s all, isn’t it? I’ll get onto it right away.”

“Thanks, Brightheart.” Jayfeather dipped his head. “The best place for sorrel is beside the old Twoleg path. And you’ll probably find chamomile in the garden behind the Twoleg nest.”

“Great!” The she-cat whisked away. “Hazeltail! Blossompaw!” she called. “Do you want to come with me and look for herbs?”

When the three cats had vanished into the thorn tunnel, Jayfeather sensed Leafpool still crouched beside the fresh-kill pile. A surge of emotion jolted him, so powerful that it almost carried him off his paws. Before he could stop himself, he was flung into Leafpool’s memories.

He was looking through her eyes as she hurried through long grass and undergrowth, her heart pounding. The pungent taste of traveling herbs was in her mouth. The scents around her were strange to Jayfeather, and he realized that this memory must belong to the old forest, before the Clans were driven out. Leafpool was struggling with an agony of fear; Jayfeather sensed that she was completely focused on her sister. There was something that she didn’t want Squirrelflight to do…

Then Leafpool pushed her way through the branches of a bush and confronted Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight. Jayfeather was surprised by how much smaller and younger the cats looked. This was before the Great Journey. Leafpool and Squirrelflight must have still been apprentices.

Leafpool padded forward and laid her mouthful of leaves down in front of her sister and Brambleclaw. “I brought you some traveling herbs,” she murmured. “You’re going to need them where you’re going.”

Brambleclaw’s eyes widened with outrage, and he began to accuse Squirrelflight of giving away their secret to her sister. What secret? Jayfeather wondered.

“She didn’t need to tell me anything,” Leafpool promised. “I just knew, that’s all.”

Jayfeather flinched. Leafpool and Squirrelflight had a connection he had never appreciated before—and now Leafpool was terrified that her sister was going away, and that they might never see each other again. This is the beginning of the quest! Jayfeather realized. When the six cats went to find Midnight and learn the message StarClan had given her.

He listened through Leafpool’s ears as Squirrelflight poured out the whole story of Brambleclaw’s dreams, and of the meeting with cats of other Clans. He was aware of Leafpool’s deepening dismay, a chaos of feeling he could not penetrate, as if even in her memories there was something she was hiding. Leafpool tried hard to persuade Squirrelflight not to go, but Jayfeather could tell that she knew she had no hope of changing her sister’s mind. Squirrelflight hasn’t changed much, then! At last, sadly, Leafpool had to accept that Squirrelflight was leaving.

“You won’t tell any cat where we’ve gone?” Squirrelflight insisted.

“I don’t know where you’re going—and neither do you,” Leafpool pointed out. “But no, I won’t say anything.”

She watched as Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw licked up the traveling herbs, then in a sudden rush of anxiety tried to teach her sister everything she had learned from Cinderpelt, so that they could find the right herbs to help them while they were on their journey.

“We will come back,” Squirrelflight promised.

Then the memory dissolved, and Jayfeather was sightless again, back in the clearing. As the rush of Leafpool’s emotion died away, he sensed her watching him from the fresh-kill pile. She had deliberately given him this memory.

I know how you feel. I felt like this, too.

No, you didn’t! Jayfeather flashed back angrily. You and Squirrelflight weren’t part of a prophecy. If she hadn’t come back, perhaps it would have been better for every cat.

She rose to her paws and padded away, toward the warriors’ den. The air as she left was sharp with sadness. For a couple of heartbeats Jayfeather was almost betrayed into sympathy. The memory had been so clear, and Leafpool’s emotions so raw. He shook his head, trying to toss the weakness away.

If you’d told the truth in the beginning, you could have helped us with the prophecy. Hollyleaf might still be here. But she’s gone now, and we have to do it on our own.

The sun was well above the trees by now, its rays burning down into the hollow as if the air had turned to flame. Jayfeather’s paws itched to be doing something, but with Brightheart out collecting herbs he couldn’t justify leaving the hollow.

I’ll check the edges of the hollow for snakes. With every cat so excited, they’ll never remember to keep a lookout.

As he padded across the clearing, he remembered the dreadful day when Honeyfern had been bitten by a snake that slipped out of one of the holes at the bottom of the cliff. There was nothing he or Leafpool could do to save her from the poison. Later, as the young cat’s kin grieved for her, he and Leafpool had stuffed a mouse with deathberries and pushed it into the hole in the hope that the snake would eat it and die. But the venomous creature hadn’t taken their bait. Jayfeather suspected it was lurking around, waiting for another chance to strike.

As he worked his way along the rock wall, checking that all the holes were still securely blocked with stones, Jayfeather picked up Purdy’s scent and realized that the old loner was stretched out on the flat-topped rock, near where the snake had appeared. He could hear the old cat’s rhythmic snoring, which ended abruptly in a snort as if Jayfeather’s paw steps had disturbed his nap.

“You want to be careful up there,” Jayfeather meowed, halting beside the rock. “You know the snake—”

“I know all about the snake, young ’un,” Purdy interrupted. “And there’s no sign of slippery creatures around here. I’ve been watchin’.”

“That’s great, Purdy.” Jayfeather bit back a comment about how clever Purdy was to keep watch for snakes in his sleep. “But I’ve still got to check.”

“I’ll help you.” Purdy flopped down from the rock, staggered to find his balance, and padded to Jayfeather’s side. “I reckon you youngsters need some cat wi’ a bit o’ experience to show you what’s what.”

Oh, sure, Jayfeather thought as he went on checking the snake holes, pulling out bits of stone to give each opening a good sniff before he pushed the stone back and checked that the blockage was secure.

Purdy padded alongside him, offering helpful comments like, “You missed a gap there,” just as Jayfeather was feeling around for a stone that would fit the space, or, “Are you sure you gave that hole a proper sniff?”

Jayfeather gritted his teeth. “Quite sure, Purdy, thanks.” StarClan help me not to claw his ears off!

“You’ll miss your brother, I’m guessin‘,” Purdy went on. “But he’ll be back before you know it, mark my words. It was just the same, y’know, when Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw went off to find Midnight.”

“Squirrelflight,” Jayfeather corrected the old loner. Don’t you start as well! I’ve just had enough of that from Leafpool!

“I remember the first time I met them,” Purdy rambled on. “They were so young and so brave! I reckoned they all had bees in their brain, travelin’ so far. But see how wrong I was? They found this place to live, after the Upwalkers wrecked their old home.”

Jayfeather, flat on his belly in front of a suspicious-smelling hole, just grunted in agreement.

“Not that I ever had no trouble wi’ Upwalkers,” Purdy continued. “My Upwalker was right friendly. I’d got him well trained, see. He was ’specially good when the weather turned cold and huntin’ was difficult. Always somethin’ tasty to eat, an’ a fire to sit beside…”

Jayfeather let the old loner’s voice fade into the background of creaking branches and buzzing insects. He wished that the older cats would stop going on about the quest to find Midnight. He wanted to yowl out the words of his own prophecy so that every cat could hear it.

This is more important than anything that happened in the past!

“Okay, Purdy,” he mewed, interrupting a long and convoluted story about a fox. “We’re done here. Thanks for your help.”

“Any time, young ’un.” Jayfeather heard Purdy clambering back onto the flat-topped rock and settling himself in the sun. “You don’t get foxes now like the ones when I was young…” he murmured drowsily.

As Jayfeather padded back toward his den, he heard Lionblaze and Dovepaw practicing battle moves beside the thorn barrier. He stopped, listening to Dovepaw leaping at Lionblaze and slicing her claws through the air, barely a whisker from his fur. Suddenly the quest was real. Lionblaze and Dovepaw would be gone the next morning, and the thought terrified Jayfeather more than he would have thought possible.

Just find these animals, and come back, he begged. Whatever we have to do for the prophecy to come true, I can’t do it on my own.