Dawn

“You have somewhere in mind already, don’t you?”

Cinderpelt looked up from where she crouched beside Mudfur.

“We are going to live in Twolegplace where BloodClan used to rule,” he announced. “I still have one of their former warriors among my elders. He will show us the best places to find food and shelter. Now Scourge is dead, we’ll be the strongest cats there.”

“You can’t do that!” Firestar protested. “That will leave only three Clans in the forest!”

“Soon there won’t be a forest,” Blackstar pointed out grimly. “Only the bodies of dead cats. This is one battle in which I cannot see how it would help us to join with other Clans. It’s not a matter of fighting an enemy, but of finding enough prey to feed the mouths we already have. I’m sorry, but we go alone.”

He turned to leave, but Firestar stood in his way. Blackstar curled his lip to reveal sharp teeth.

“We can’t let them fight!” Squirrelpaw hissed to Brambleclaw.

“I know,” he agreed. He leaped over the logs to Firestar’s side. “Firestar, you have to persuade ShadowClan to come with us! That’s what StarClan wants. If there isn’t a sign, like Midnight said, then we should go back to the sun-drown-place and ask her if she knows where we should go.”

“You want us to go to a strange place just because you think StarClan sent you there?” Leopardstar snarled. “Since when do you make decisions for all the Clans?” Her gaze swept over Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, and Stormfur. “In fact, why should we trust any of you? You are all part ThunderClan!”

Tawnypelt unsheathed her claws. “Are you questioning my loyalty to my Clan?”

“My sister died on the journey to fetch this message!”

Stormfur hissed.

Squirrelpaw wondered if StarClan was watching them and thinking that these quarrelsome Clans didn’t deserve to be saved.

“Stop!” rasped a feeble voice, and Tallstar padded unevenly over. “If we fight, the sign will never come!”

“How many times do I have to tell you? We don’t need a sign,” growled Blackstar. “ShadowClan is going to leave the forest, and we already know where to go.”

Firestar didn’t argue with him. Instead, he turned to Leopardstar. “What do you plan to do?”

“RiverClan has no need to travel to some distant place on the word of a few dreaming warriors,” Leopardstar replied.

“The river is still full of fish. It would be stupid for us to leave.

The other Clans’ troubles are not ours to worry about.”

“But if our troubles are not yours as well, why was Feathertail sent by StarClan with the other cats?” Cinderpelt challenged quietly.

“Only Feathertail can answer that, and she is dead,” Leopardstar retorted.

Hawkfrost climbed up beside his leader. “If you can’t survive in the forest anymore, then I agree that you should leave,” he meowed, his gaze flicking around the cats to include Tallstar. “After all, what sort of leader would let his Clan starve?”

Squirrelpaw was rather taken aback by the bold way he addressed the other Clan leaders. After all, he wasn’t much older than her.

Brambleclaw glared at Hawkfrost. “You just want us to leave so you can steal our territory!”

“If you aren’t here, then you won’t need it anymore.”

Brambleclaw bristled. “You might feel differently if you were truly Clanborn.”

“Show some respect, Brambleclaw!” Firestar snapped.

“Hawkfrost is not responsible for his birth.”

Brambleclaw opened his mouth, ready to argue, then seemed to think better of it and looked down at his paws.

Squirrelpaw thought she saw Hawkfrost’s whiskers twitch with satisfaction and felt a surge of anger on Brambleclaw’s behalf. How dared he gloat?

“This is getting us nowhere,” Tallstar meowed fretfully.

“The four Clans must remain together,” Firestar insisted.

“We have lived beneath Silverpelt for as long as any cat remembers. We share the same ancestors. How could StarClan watch over us if we are separated?” But Blackstar had jumped down from the tree trunk and was padding away, signaling to Littlecloud, the ShadowClan medicine cat, to join him.

Tawnypelt looked uneasily at her friends. “I have to go,” she whispered to Squirrelpaw.

“What about the sign?” Squirrelpaw reminded her. She shivered, and not just from the cold. Where was the sign that was supposed to save them?

Doubt flickered in the ShadowClan warrior’s gaze. “I’m sorry; I can’t wait.” She hurried after Blackstar and Littlecloud.

The hollow felt even emptier and more exposed without the three ShadowClan cats.

“Good luck, Firestar,” Leopardstar meowed. She looked over to where Mothwing was crouched beside Mudfur. “Is he well enough to travel?”

“Of course I am!” Mudfur rasped, struggling to his paws.

“I made it here, didn’t I?”

“Then come,” Leopardstar ordered, and, turning away, she led her cats from the clearing.

Stormfur brushed against Squirrelpaw’s pelt as he passed.

“I’ll try to speak to you and Brambleclaw soon,” he whispered.

“What can we do without the sign?” Squirrelpaw hissed frantically.