Bluestar's Prophecy

Bluepaw lifted her chin, hoping Sunfall couldn’t sense her relief. “Where are the others?” she asked.

“I sent them back to camp,” Sunfall told her. “It’s getting late.”

Bluepaw turned her paws toward home.

“Wait!” Sunfall’s mew halted her. He was beckoning her with his tail toward the root of the birch. “I want to talk to you.” He swept the snow from the root with a paw, then jumped up and cleared another space beside him. “We’re not going back to camp till you tell me what’s going on.”

Bluepaw scraped her claws mutinously along the bark, silvery and smooth amid the fluffy snow. She didn’t want to talk to Sunfall. She didn’t want to talk to anyone. She just wanted to go home and curl up in her nest, away from the snow and the cold and her Clanmates.

“There’s nothing wrong,” she mewed tightly. “I’m just cold and hungry.”

“We’re all cold and hungry.” Sunfall’s amber gaze didn’t stray from hers. “It doesn’t give us the right to be rude or reckless.”

“I wasn’t being reckless!”

“You were staring into a fox den!” Sunfall’s meow hardened to anger. His gaze burned so fiercely that Bluepaw studied her feet, her ears suddenly hot despite the freezing air.

“How would Snowpaw have felt if you’d been ripped to shreds?” Sunfall went on. “She’s only just recovering from Moonflower’s death. She doesn’t need you to die as well!”

Anger flashed through Bluepaw and she scowled at him. “I wasn’t going to die!”

“What were you going to do?” Sunfall challenged. “Catch a fox and bring it home for supper?”

Bluepaw looked away with a shrug.

“Now, sit down and tell me what’s wrong!”

Reluctantly Bluepaw clambered up beside him. The exposed root felt cold and damp as she sat down. “I’m just having a bad day, that’s all.”

“It seems like every day’s a bad day with you.”

Shut up! Shut up!

“It’s leaf-bare,” Sunfall began.

Duh!

“We each have to do our best to provide for the Clan. But as far as I can tell, you’re not even trying. You act like everything’s a chore; you scrape through your assessments, though I know you can do better. Sometimes I feel like I’m wasting my time trying to teach you. You’re so bad-tempered with your Clanmates, they’re starting to avoid you. And now, when every cat needs to try their hardest, you hunt as though your mind’s filled with starling feathers and your paws are made of stone.”

His words stung like nettles, and Bluepaw found herself shrinking inside her pelt as he went on.

“Why should your Clanmates look after you if you won’t do the same for them?”

Her eyes began to prick. “I—I…” Her voice choked and she finished weakly, “Everything’s gone wrong.” There was a heavy pause. She looked up when she felt Sunfall’s tail stroke her flank.

“You miss Moonflower,” he meowed. “Of course you do. But she died defending her Clan.”

“Defending?” Bluepaw bristled. “We were attacking, not defending!”

“Only to save our territory.”

“Are you sure?” Bluepaw glared at him. Had StarClan really wanted them to fight?

Sunfall met her gaze, unblinking. “Did you believe we were defending ThunderClan territory as we headed for battle?” he asked.

Bluepaw paused, remembering, then nodded.

“So did every cat on that patrol.” Sunfall glanced at the ground. “We thought we were doing as StarClan wanted. We may have been right. We may have been wrong. But fighting for our Clan is part of the warrior code. Whatever doubts we have, we must not doubt the warrior code. The forest and our Clanmates may change around us, but the warrior code remains the same.”

Bluepaw breathed out slowly as Sunfall continued.

“Moonflower knew that. She fought bravely and died bravely.” Sunfall flicked his gaze back to Bluepaw. “Warriors die in battle. It’s a fact. But they do not leave us. They join StarClan, where they find old friends and kin, and there they watch over us.”

Bluepaw glanced through the branches at the darkening sky. Silverpelt would be out soon. Was Moonflower really there, watching? Her heart ached with wanting to believe it was true.

“Moonflower wants you to be brave, like she was,” Sunfall meowed. “To do your duty, just as she did.”

How do you know? A flash of fury washed over Bluepaw. “You think she wants us to die like she did? For nothing?”

Sunfall thrashed his tail, sweeping the snow from behind him. “Dying for your Clan is not nothing!”

Bluepaw dug her claws into the bark as Sunfall took a breath. “I wish Moonflower were still alive, too,” he murmured, with a sadness that took Bluepaw by surprise. Then he stood up and shook the snow from his tail. “But she’s not, and you can’t grieve forever. Your Clan needs you. Concentrate more on your training.” His mew was brisk as he leaped down from the tree root. “It’ll give you something else to think about.”