Yellowfang’s Secret

Chapter 8

“Yellowpaw! Yellowpaw!”

Deerleap’s voice broke into a dream where Yellowpaw was searching through the forest, though she couldn’t remember what she was hunting for. It was a huge effort to open her eyes. When she tried to sit up, every muscle in her body shrieked with fatigue, and her paws were aching.

What’s the matter with me? Then the events of the night before came flooding back into her mind. She and Raggedpelt had visited the Twolegplace, and dawn wasn’t far off by the time they returned to their nests.

And it was a disaster!

“Yellowpaw!” Deerleap called again, sounding more impatient this time.

Yellowpaw heaved herself out of her bedding. The other apprentices were stirring around her, looking bright-eyed and energetic.

“Where did you go last night?” Rowanpaw hissed. “I woke up and you weren’t in your nest.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Yellowpaw muttered as she struggled out of the den.

Outside Stonetooth was surrounded by a larger group of cats than usual. Even though she was so tired, Yellowpaw felt a tingle of excitement.

“What’s happening?” she asked Deerleap.

“We’re going to raid the rats in the Carrionplace,” Deerleap replied. “Prey is scarce, so Cedarstar decided to send two patrols to hunt there. With any luck, we’ll catch enough to feed the whole Clan.”

Mingled fear and anticipation crept through Yellowpaw. She was proud, too, that she had been chosen to go on this special raid. She could sense hopeful tension in the camp, as if every cat was looking forward to being full-fed when the raid was over.

When she and Deerleap padded up to the crowd of cats, Stonetooth was organizing the patrols. “I’ll lead one, and Cedarstar the other,” he meowed. “Hollyflower, Archeye, Poolcloud, Ashheart, you come with me. And Deerleap and Amberleaf, with your apprentices. Raggedpelt, you too.”

As Stonetooth named the cats they stepped out of the crowd and bunched together at one side. Raggedpelt brushed past Yellowpaw as he joined the patrol, not even acknowledging that she was there.

“Did you guys have a fight?” Rowanpaw whispered to Yellowpaw. “Great StarClan, were you with him last night?”

“Can we have a bit of quiet at the back?” Finchflight hissed, before Yellowpaw could reply. “Yellowpaw, join your patrol if you’re coming on this raid.”

Yellowpaw shot a glare at her sister before padding off to stand with her mentor and the others. Meanwhile, Stonetooth named the cats for Cedarstar’s patrol, including Rowanpaw, Scorchpaw, and their mentors. Brightflower and Brackenfoot joined that patrol as well.

“What about us?” Foxpaw demanded, pattering up with her brother a mouse-length behind.

“You’re too young,” Stonetooth responded. “Rats are big enough to eat you.”

“So we get left behind again,” Wolfpaw growled, standing beside his sister and glaring as the patrols left.

As she followed Stonetooth through the forest, Yellowpaw hung back until she could walk beside Raggedpelt, who was walking near the rear of the patrol. “Are you okay?” she meowed. “I’m sorry if I did the wrong thing last night.”

Raggedpelt gave her a brief, cold glance. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he mewed. “As far as I’m concerned, I have no father.” Not giving Yellowpaw the chance to reply, he bounded ahead until he was walking just behind Stonetooth.

Yellowpaw looked sadly after him, her pelt pricking with feelings of guilt. I was only trying to help! Giving her fur a shake, she padded on, trying to put the encounter with the Twolegplace cats out of her mind. I’m a ShadowClan apprentice, and right now my job is to catch prey!

The breeze carried the scents of rat and crow-food to the patrols long before the Carrionplace came into sight. Yellowpaw hadn’t been this close since her first day as an apprentice, when Deerleap had shown her the territory. The heaps of Twoleg rubbish looked even more disgusting in daylight. Bulging black pelts were piled up, some of them with gaping holes that let the foul stuff inside spill out onto the ground. Mixed in with them were unfamiliar things made of wood, soft pelts in strange Twoleg colors, and more sharp-edged objects made of the shiny fence-stuff, all held together by the rotting crow-food. Beyond the fence the mounds stretched into the distance, more and more of them, as far as Yellowpaw could see.

Stonetooth reached the fence and turned to pad alongside it. A few fox-lengths farther on he halted, and Yellowpaw saw that the ground had been scraped away so that there was room for a cat to wriggle underneath.

“I’ll go first,” Cedarstar meowed. “Once inside, we’ll split up. Stonetooth, take your patrol that way”—he flicked his tail—“and we’ll go this way. Let’s see who can catch the most!”

Yellowpaw watched as Cedarstar squeezed his muscular body under the fence and rose to his paws on the far side. Brightflower followed with Rowanpaw close behind. Then Stonetooth began to lead his patrol through. When her turn came, Yellowpaw dived under the fence as quickly as she could, feeling it scrape along her back, then scrambled to her paws with claws extended in case a rat leaped out at her from the mounds.

When all the cats were in place, Stonetooth gathered his patrol around him; a few fox-lengths away Cedarstar was doing the same. Yellowpaw stood beside her mentor, her paws sinking into the soggy debris on the ground.

“Listen carefully,” the deputy meowed. “Especially you, apprentices—and Ashheart, this is your first rat raid, isn’t it?” The gray she-cat nodded, her blue eyes gleaming with anticipation. “Never tackle a rat alone,” the deputy warned. “Work in pairs and do not lose sight of your partner for a single heartbeat. Rats are vicious and cunning, and a rat bite can be very nasty, so do your best not to get bitten, and try to see to it that your partner doesn’t get bitten, either.”

Like he needs to tell us that! Yellowpaw thought.

Her heart began to beat faster, wondering if she would be partnered with Raggedpelt, but Stonetooth put the tabby tom with Nutpaw, and partnered Yellowpaw with Archeye.

“Hollyflower and I will keep watch,” Stonetooth finished. “If any cat is in trouble, we’ll be there to help.”

“Let’s show them!” Nutpaw whispered to Raggedpelt. “Let’s catch the biggest rat in the Carrionplace!”

Not if I can help it! Yellowpaw thought.

She and Archeye padded cautiously alongside the nearest of the heaps. At first everything was quiet and still. A flicker of movement caught Yellowpaw’s eye, but it was only Raggedpelt and Nutpaw slipping between two of the other mounds.

Archeye tapped Yellowpaw’s shoulder with his tail and angled his ears to a spot deeper within the Carrionplace, where a huge yellow Twoleg monster was crouching. “I think it’s asleep,” he murmured.

Yellowpaw nodded. The monsters on the Thunderpath made such a racket that there would be plenty of time to get out of its way if it decided to wake up. Her whiskers twitched with impatience as she padded on. Come on, rats! Show yourselves! She caught a glimpse of a wedge-shaped head poking out of one of the bulging black pelts, but as she turned to face it, it was gone.

“I think I saw one,” she told Archeye softly.

Before she finished speaking, the head appeared again, lower down the mound—or perhaps it was a different rat. Yellowpaw’s belly clenched as she looked at its long nose and quivering whiskers, and the hostility in its bright, birdlike eyes. She began to distinguish sounds, too: rustling and squeaking that came from deep within the mound.

This whole place is alive with rats!

Yellowpaw bounded toward the rat, but it drew its head back into the pile, and her claws sank instead into something wet and squishy inside the black pelt.

Oh, yuck!

Then she spun around at the sound of louder squeaking behind her. A rat was poking its nose out from a gap in the mound; Yellowpaw froze as it ventured farther into the open. Its whiskers twitched as it sniffed the air, and its tiny eyes glittered with malice.

“Get it!” Yellowpaw yowled to Archeye.

She landed on the rat with one huge leap, but slightly mistimed her attack, so that her claws fastened near its tail. The rat let out a high-pitched squeal and twisted around, sharp teeth snapping at Yellowpaw’s neck. Yellowpaw reared back, but refused to loosen her grip.

Before the rat could bite, Archeye flung himself on its shoulders, jaws parted to sink his teeth into its neck. The rat heaved up on its hind paws; Yellowpaw lost her hold as she staggered and fell to one side. Archeye was flung backward, and for a heartbeat the rat was free, diving for the shelter of the rubbish.

“No!” Yellowpaw screeched.

Leaping in pursuit, her paws slipped on slimy debris and she almost fell, but she scrambled after the rat and sank her claws into it again. This time she got a better grip on the back of its neck, and though it struggled it couldn’t shake her off. Archeye joined her, panting, and flung himself across the rat’s scrabbling back legs. As the rat twisted its head, vainly trying to bite Yellowpaw, she slashed her claws across its throat. Blood gushed out and the rat went limp.

Shakily Yellowpaw rose to her paws. “Thank you, StarClan, for this prey,” she mewed. “And thank you that neither of us got bitten.”

“You did well there,” Archeye panted. “I thought we’d lost it for sure.”

Yellowpaw looked down at the dead rat. She hadn’t quite realized until now how massive it was; maybe they had killed the biggest rat in Carrionplace, just like Nutpaw had hoped. “We both did it,” she meowed.

Paw steps sounded behind her, and Yellowpaw spun around, expecting to see another rat. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was Poolcloud and Ashheart, each of them carrying a rat.

But they’re not as big as ours! she thought proudly.

The rest of the patrol was gathering. Yellowpaw picked up her rat and went to join them, with Archeye at her side.

“Great StarClan, look at that!” Nutpaw exclaimed, his voice slightly envious. “I didn’t think there could be a rat as big as that.” He and Raggedpelt had caught a rat too, but Yellowpaw noticed that it was quite a lot smaller than hers.

“It’s an amazing catch,” Deerleap agreed; her gaze was warm as it rested on her apprentice. “Are you both okay?”

“Not a scratch on either of us,” Archeye meowed. “And it’s Yellowpaw’s rat, really. I didn’t do much.”

All the cats clustered around Yellowpaw, congratulating her.

“I’d have thought twice about tackling a rat that size,” Stonetooth purred. “You’re showing real warrior skills, Yellowpaw.”

Yellowpaw felt hot with pride and embarrassment. The Clan deputy thinks I did well! “Archeye helped,” she insisted.

Then she noticed that Raggedpelt was hanging back. She felt as though a cloud had passed over the sun. He was the only cat who hadn’t said anything to her; he wasn’t even looking at her.

“What’s going on?” Stonetooth glanced from Yellowpaw to Raggedpelt and back again. “Raggedpelt, it’s ungenerous not to praise Yellowpaw. That’s not how we do things in ShadowClan.”

Raggedpelt looked at his paws. “Yeah, great catch, Yellowpaw,” he muttered.

Stonetooth’s eyes narrowed, but he said nothing more to Raggedpelt. “It’s time we went back to camp,” he announced. “We’ve caught as much prey as we can carry. Let’s see if we can get there before Cedarstar’s patrol.”

Picking up her rat by its scruff, Yellowpaw set off full of pride, but before she had gone many paw steps she began to wonder if she could make it back to camp. The rat weighed more than any piece of prey she had carried before. Soon she was staggering with fatigue, her neck aching, but the sense of achievement buzzed through her like a whole colony of bees, and kept her going.

When she entered the camp she was aware of comments from the cats who had stayed behind, padding up to look as she and the rest of the patrol dropped their prey on the fresh-kill pile. For the first time she realized that Cedarstar’s patrol had followed them in; the Clan leader examined her rat, then turned to her, his eyes shining with approval.

“Yellowpaw,” he mewed, “you’re turning into an excellent ShadowClan warrior.”

“Th-thank you!” Yellowpaw stammered.

The Clan leader dipped his head to her and padded off to his den. Yellowpaw followed him with her gaze. I can’t believe the Clan leader said that to me!

Then she noticed that Sagewhisker was standing a couple of fox-lengths away. She was looking thoughtful. Yellowpaw wondered what was on her mind, but after a moment the medicine cat turned away without speaking.

Thank StarClan! Yellowpaw thought. She had been avoiding the medicine cat ever since Silverflame died; she still felt that Sagewhisker could have done more to help the sick elder. And the depth of Sagewhisker’s gaze made her feel uncomfortable.

“Yellowpaw!” Her mother’s voice distracted Yellowpaw from thinking about the medicine cat. “Stonetooth says you made a great catch.”

Yellowpaw ducked her head. “That’s my rat,” she mewed, pointing to it with her tail.

Brackenfoot dropped his own prey onto the pile. Yellowpaw noticed that her father’s rat was almost as big as hers, but not quite.

“Keep going like this, and you’ll be the best hunter in ShadowClan,” he praised her, his eyes warm.

Brightflower gave her a lick around the ears. “You’ve made us so proud.”

Yellowpaw gazed from one of her parents to the other, and felt as if her heart would burst with happiness.

“Are we joining a patrol today?” Yellowpaw asked Deerleap.

Two moons had passed since the raid on the Carrionplace, and the air was soft and mild, full of the scents of newleaf. Spikes of fresh green showed at the tips of the pine branches, ferns were uncoiling in the midst of clumps of dead bracken, and birdsong promised prey in the moons to come. Yellowpaw heaved a happy sigh. The forest is so beautiful!

“Not today,” Deerleap replied.

In the last moon she hadn’t been calling Yellowpaw quite so early in the morning; today the rays of the morning sun were already slanting into the camp, driving off the dawn chill. She seems to be slowing down, Yellowpaw thought, realizing with a pang that her mentor was growing old.

“So what are we going to do?” she asked.

“There’s one more task before you can begin your final warrior assessments,” Deerleap told her. “You have to travel to the Moonstone.”

“Yes!” Yellowpaw was so excited that she pushed off with all four paws and gave an enormous leap into the air. Rowanpaw and Nutpaw had already made their apprentice journeys to the Moonstone, and Yellowpaw had begun to fear that her turn would never come. She landed awkwardly from her leap, feeling a hot flush of embarrassment. Deerleap will think I’m behaving like a kit. “When do we leave?” she mewed.

“Right away,” her mentor announced. “Come with me. We need to visit Sagewhisker for traveling herbs.”

“What are they?” Yellowpaw asked as they padded toward the medicine cat’s den.

“Sorrel, daisy, chamomile, and burnet.” Deerleap listed each herb with a twitch of her tail. “They’ll give you strength and stop you from feeling hungry on the way. There won’t be time to hunt.”

When they slipped between the boulders into Sagewhisker’s den, the medicine cat was mixing herbs together with delicate motions of one forepaw. “Here you are,” she meowed, dividing the mixture into two small heaps. “Yellowpaw, the taste is bitter, but it won’t last long.”

Copying Deerleap, Yellowpaw licked up the herbs, chewed, and swallowed. The taste was just as bitter as Sagewhisker had warned her it would be, and she couldn’t help making a face.

“Listen carefully to what StarClan tells you in your dreams,” Sagewhisker prompted. “This could be the moment when you find out your destiny.”

“I already know my destiny,” Yellowpaw mewed. “It’s to be a great ShadowClan warrior!”

Sagewhisker made no comment, just looked at Yellowpaw for a moment longer before she nodded. “Have a safe journey, both of you. May StarClan light your path.”

Deerleap walked through the forest as far as the Thunderpath, then turned to follow it toward the edge of the territory. Yellowpaw wrinkled her nose as the acrid stink of monsters swamped the fresh smells of the forest. The scent of WindClan cats wafted across the Thunderpath from their territory on the far side.

I wonder what those prey-stealers are up to now? At least they haven’t dared to bother us again.

Yellowpaw trotted beside Deerleap as they crossed the ShadowClan border. They soon came to a smaller Thunderpath branching off the main one.

“Do we have to cross this?” she asked her mentor, trying to hide her nervousness. There didn’t seem to be a tunnel underneath like the one they used to get to Gatherings.

Deerleap nodded. “It seems scary when it’s your first time, but you’ll be fine as long as you remember—”

“Look, listen, and scent!” Yellowpaw interrupted, curling her tail up.

“Right.” Deerleap let out a small mrrow of amusement. “You can look for monsters just like you look for prey.”

A distant buzzing sound began as she spoke, growing quickly to a roar, and a glittering red monster swept past them and joined the main Thunderpath. Yellowpaw gagged at the stench that rolled off it in waves.

“Now,” Deerleap mewed when it had gone, “these are the rules for crossing a Thunderpath. Look both ways. Can you see a monster? Listen. Can you hear one? Scent. Is the smell stronger than usual? If the answer to all those questions is no, then it’s safe to cross.”

“I see,” Yellowpaw murmured, still feeling nervous.

“Right. So tell us when to go.”

Yellowpaw stared at her. Me? What if I get us both killed? But Deerleap just angled her ears toward the Thunderpath, clearly waiting.

Standing near the edge of the hard black surface, Yellowpaw worked her claws into the grassy verge. She looked carefully in both directions, noting that the black strip was empty. The only sounds she could hear were the breeze in the branches and the twittering of birds. The tang of the red monster had died away.

“Okay… I think,” she mewed.

“Then go!”

Yellowpaw bounded forward with Deerleap at her side, wincing as her paws landed on the harsh surface of the Thunderpath. Heartbeats later they had reached the safety of a clump of bushes on the other side. Another monster growled its way past as she stood there quivering and trying to get her breath.

“We made it.” Deerleap gave her a nod. “One more thing to remember—once you decide it’s safe, run as fast as you can and don’t look back.”

Yellowpaw was relieved when they left the Thunderpath behind. Beyond it, the land began to rise into moors that reminded her of WindClan territory, covered with the same short, tough grass. But the WindClan scents were fading behind them. With a tingle of excitement in her paws, Yellowpaw realized she was heading into unknown territory, where no Clan cats lived. She felt exposed in the open spaces, without the comforting shelter of pine branches.

Rabbits scampered temptingly across their path, and all Yellowpaw’s instincts yowled at her to give chase. But she knew Deerleap would be annoyed if she broke off their journey to hunt, and the traveling herbs were working so she didn’t feel hungry. This is your lucky day, rabbits, she thought.

Over to one side, beyond the big Thunderpath, she spotted a cluster of Twoleg dens.

“Do we have to go there?” she meowed, remembering what had happened when she went to the Twolegplace with Raggedpelt.

Deerleap shook her head. “We’re heading for those hills,” she replied, pointing with her tail. “Highstones, where the Moonstone is waiting for us.”

Looking ahead, Yellowpaw saw the ground slope upward to a row of crags outlined against the sky. They looked like jagged teeth pushing out of the ground. As the cats climbed higher, the grass underpaw gave way to bare soil strewn with stones, and the slope grew steeper.

My legs have never ached like this before, Yellowpaw complained silently as she toiled upward. What’s wrong with me?

As if her mentor had picked up her thoughts, Deerleap halted. “Let’s rest for a bit.”

She flopped down on a flat stone and Yellowpaw settled beside her, enjoying the sensation of sun-warmed rock on her pads and pelt. Ahead of them the sun was going down, washing the crags with an orange glow.

“I’m very proud of you, Yellowpaw,” Deerleap meowed after a while.

Yellowpaw pricked her ears in surprise; Deerleap hardly ever doled out praise.

“The moons are passing,” Deerleap went on, “and soon it will be my time to join the elders. You will be my last apprentice, and I know that you will become a great warrior.”

Yellowpaw rested her muzzle on the she-cat’s shoulder. “You’ve been a fantastic mentor,” she murmured. “I won’t let you down, I promise.”

Darkness had fallen and Silverpelt was glittering across the sky before Deerleap rose to her paws. “Come,” she meowed. “It’s time.”

The moon was still low in the sky and the rocks cast long shadows as Yellowpaw followed Deerleap up the last steep slope toward the crags. As they drew closer, she spotted a dark hole underneath a rough archway in the rock.

“Is that where we’re going?”

Deerleap nodded. “That’s Mothermouth. It leads to the Moonstone.”

A scramble up the final slope, with stones shifting under her paws, brought Yellowpaw to the threshold of Mothermouth. A tunnel led deep into the rock; it was so dark that Yellowpaw couldn’t make out anything beyond the first fox-length. She felt her heart begin to beat faster.

“Follow me,” Deerleap instructed. “You won’t see anything, but you’ll be able to pick up my scent. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I have walked this path many times.” She stepped forward into the tunnel and vanished from Yellowpaw’s sight.

Taking a deep breath, Yellowpaw plunged in after her. The light from the tunnel entrance died away behind her as she padded in her mentor’s paw steps, and she guided herself by her whiskers brushing the rock walls, and by the thin tendril of Deerleap’s scent. The rock beneath her paws was smooth and cold, and the damp air soaked into her pelt and reached deep inside her until she thought she would never be warm again. The tunnel sloped downward, and Yellowpaw tried not to think of the massive weight of rock above her head. It was too easy to imagine it collapsing on top of her, crushing her to nothing.

Then her nose twitched as she felt a fresher scent and the faint movement of air against her whiskers. Tasting the air, she picked up a faint tang of grass and rabbits. She realized that she had stepped out into a larger space.

“This is the cave of the Moonstone,” Deerleap meowed.

“What do we do now?”

“We wait.”

Yellowpaw shivered in the vast darkness. Above her head she could make out a single glimmering warrior of StarClan; she realized there must be a hole in the roof of the cave. But the light was too faint to reach so far into the depths of the earth.

Then, between one heartbeat and the next, a cold, white light flooded down, revealing walls of rock soaring upward for many fox-lengths. Yellowpaw couldn’t hold back a squeal of surprise. In the middle of the cave was a huge rock, many tail-lengths high. The moon was shining through the gap in the roof, making the rock glitter as if all of StarClan was gathered inside it.

“That’s the Moonstone?” she whispered.

Deerleap was a small, dark shape outlined against the light. She nodded. “Lie down and touch the stone with your muzzle,” she mewed.

Yellowpaw settled herself and stretched out her neck to touch her nose to the rough surface of the Moonstone, closing her eyes against the dazzling light.

Instantly claws of cold gripped her. Her lids were closed, but still she saw brilliant starlight whirling around her as she was swept away. She was surrounded by cats, though she couldn’t see any of their faces. Suddenly a voice echoed in her ears: “From this moment on, you will be known as Yellowfang.”

My warrior name! But Yellowpaw’s delight lasted no more than a single heartbeat. Pain surged through her belly, wave after wave of agony, and she realized that she was giving birth to kits. For a brief moment the whirling journey ceased; Yellowpaw curled herself around a throng of tiny bodies, and felt the joy of letting them suckle at her belly.

Then she was snatched away again. Stars fled past her, and she was overwhelmed by a feeling of loss and anger. More fury than she had ever known made her vision blur; she tried to screech out her desolation, but she couldn’t make a sound.

With a bump she found herself in a green glade, with sunlight filtering through the leaves. Home! she thought gratefully, but there were no scents she recognized. The landscape flickered around her, showing her a stream trickling through thick moss, a stretch of flat rocks with crevices between them and a strong prey-scent all around, a narrow ravine, the gnarled roots of an oak tree, the glitter of sunlight on a wide stretch of water. The torrent of images made Yellowpaw feel sick; she tried to break free, but she felt like a drowning kit, helpless to escape from the dream that had her in its grip.

Suddenly, with a jolt that made Yellowpaw feel that she had been hurled off the top of the big ash tree, the images stopped, leaving her in darkness. Opening her eyes, Yellowpaw saw that she was still in the cave of the Moonstone, lying on the floor in the shimmering white light.

Deerleap stood at her side, her claws fastened in Yellowpaw’s shoulder; Yellowpaw realized her mentor must have dragged her away from the stone.

“Wake up, Yellowpaw!” she was calling.

“I—I’m up.” Yellowpaw staggered to her paws, dazed and exhausted. She tried to remember her dream, but it was all a blur of pain, anguish, and confusion. The details were slipping away from her like water through her paws.

“Come. We have to leave,” Deerleap ordered.

Yellowpaw blinked at her mentor. Did I do something wrong? “It was… so weird,” she began. “I felt—”

“There’s no need to talk about it,” Deerleap interrupted. “Follow me quickly.”

She whisked into the mouth of the tunnel and Yellowpaw stumbled after her, emerging thankfully into the cold night air. She felt so exhausted that she didn’t think her paws would carry her all the way back to camp.

“We’ll go down the hill a little way,” Deerleap meowed, sounding more like herself. “Then we’ll rest and hunt before we go home.” As she led the way across the stony slope, she added, “You must never tell any cat what you saw in your dreams.”

I don’t want to! Something struck Yellowpaw. “Did… did you see what I dreamed?”

Deerleap didn’t look at her. “Only medicine cats share what StarClan tells them. Whatever you have seen of your future, use that knowledge wisely, Yellowpaw.”

Disappointment clung to Yellowpaw like mist on her fur, and she felt the first stirrings of fear. At least I know I’m going to be a warrior, right? And after that… She strained her memory but the images from her dream were tumbled together in a blaze of starlight. All she knew was that something was wrong; she didn’t feel excited and joyous the way she thought she would after visiting the Moonstone.

Yellowpaw looked up at the stars, but they seemed cold and remote. Oh, StarClan, what is going to happen to me?