Fading Echoes

Leafpool blinked as Dustpelt blindsided her. Rolling over onto her side, the pale tabby warrior scrabbled to escape, but Dustpelt held her down and she could do nothing but lash her tail.

“I give up!” Leafpool yowled.

“You’ve lost anyway!” Cinderheart was standing beside the hazel bush. “I claim this bush for CinderClan!”

Birchfall was scrambling to his paws. He dipped his head to Ivypaw. “Good moves for an apprentice.”

Leafpool struggled out from under Dustpelt and padded across the clearing. “Yes,” she agreed. “Very nice moves. Where did you learn them?”

Ivypaw wasn’t going to give her secret away. “I k-kind of worked them out for myself.” Why shouldn’t her Clanmates think she was as talented as Dovepaw?

“That last one looked like a RiverClan move,” Dustpelt commented, padding over.

Ivypaw shrugged, making her eyes as round and innocent as she could. Dustpelt was wrong. It was a StarClan move!

“Whatever it looked like,” Birchfall meowed warmly, “it was a good one. I’ll remember to look out for it in the future.”

Leafpool was still staring at her quizzically. “Do it again,” she suggested. “We could all learn it.”

Ivypaw opened her mouth. “I—I don’t remember exactly what I did.” She didn’t want to share her secret moves with any cat. Nor did she want Dustpelt analyzing it any more. Leafpool already looked suspicious. They both might have known Hawkfrost when he was alive, and recognized his special technique.

Dustpelt flicked his tail. “Too bad.” He turned and called to Cinderheart, who was still proudly guarding her captured ferns. “Are you going to give us a chance to make it even?”

“Okay,” Cinderheart agreed. “But this time we start from the bracken. Your patrol on one side, ours on the other.”

Relieved that the attention had slipped away from her, Ivypaw followed Blossomfall, Leafpool, and Dustpelt into the bracken on one side of the clearing. She crouched among the brittle branches and peeped out into the clearing.

The bracken opposite trembled as Cinderheart’s patrol prepared for the attack.

“Blossomfall,” Dustpelt hissed. “You’re fast. I want you to race for the ferns while the rest of us stop them from reaching the hazel.”

Blossomfall dropped into a crouch with her haunches bunched underneath her.

“Ready?” Dustpelt whispered.

Before any of them could answer, the bracken on the far side of the clearing crashed apart and Cinderheart’s patrol pelted out.

“Go!” Dustpelt yowled.

Blossomfall dashed toward the ferns while Ivypaw hurtled out beside Dustpelt and Leafpool and raced to block the path to the hazel. Birchfall and Bumblestripe were already charging for it while Cinderheart and Hazeltail rushed to stop Blossomfall from reaching the ferns.

Blossomfall tried to zigzag out of their way, but Cinderheart and Hazeltail brought her down.

“Help her!” Dustpelt yowled to Leafpool. As Leafpool veered away, Ivypaw pelted beside Dustpelt, stretching her stride to match the warrior’s bound for bound. Bumblestripe was almost at the hazel.

You’re not winning again! Ivypaw sprang forward, stretching her forepaws to grasp Bumblestripe’s tail. She tugged it and he stumbled. She hauled herself close enough to nip his hind legs.

“Ow!” He flicked his haunches up out of the way, then spun and swung a clumsy paw at Ivypaw’s muzzle.

She ducked and swerved, hooking a forepaw around his and sending him crashing onto his side.

“Too easy!” she crowed, leaping on top of him.

He didn’t even struggle, but gazed up at her, his eyes dark with sadness.

“What’s up?” Surprised, she sat back on her haunches and let him clamber to his paws.

A yowl sounded behind them. Dustpelt was wrestling with Birchfall. But the battle could wait. Something was wrong with Bumblestripe.

“Are you okay?” Ivypaw prompted.

The warrior was staring sadly at the hazel bush. Was he just trying to trick her? Was he about to make a sudden dash for it? Ivypaw narrowed her eyes, tensing.

“Briarlight would have loved this,” Bumblestripe mewed quietly. Anger flashed in his gaze. “It’s just not fair!” he growled. “She was trying to help Longtail. Why did StarClan have to punish her?”

Ivypaw wished she had an answer. “Sometimes bad things happen.” The words felt lame on her tongue.

“Then what’s the point of StarClan?” Bumblestripe looked utterly defeated.

Ivypaw padded to his side and pressed her head against his shoulder. “Briarlight won’t let this beat her,” she murmured.

“No.” Bumblestripe sighed. “But it didn’t have to happen.”

Feeling her Clanmate’s grief in every shaking breath, Ivypaw imagined Dovepaw dragging herself around the hollow like half-dead fresh-kill. She understood Bumblestripe’s fury. It was so unfair.

“We won!”

Leafpool had captured the ferns. She pressed a frond beneath her paws while Hazeltail circled her, snorting. Cinderheart dipped her head in gracious defeat, then glanced over to Bumblestripe. Her eyes narrowed in puzzlement. She was clearly trying to guess why the two young cats were sitting so close.

Then she blinked and nodded.

She understood.