Firestar’s Quest

“We’re all tired,” Firestar replied, though his anger was ebbing. Was he expecting too much of the SkyClan warriors, to prepare for the rat attack with every scrap of strength they had? “All right,” he went on with a sigh. “I have to be up here now, so you can go and catch up on your sleep in the warriors’ den. Who has the next watch?”

“Rainfur.”

“Okay, I’ll wake him when it’s time.”

Shortwhisker dipped his head and began pacing across the rock toward the cleft. Then he stopped and glanced back, his eyes filled with shame. “I really am sorry,” he repeated. “It won’t happen again.”

Firestar just nodded, and watched him walk off in silence, his head down and his tail dragging on the rock. He leaped the cleft and disappeared down the trail.

When he had gone, Echosong padded up to join Firestar; she looked thoughtful. “Are there herbs for strength?” she asked. “Or to help cats keep awake?”

“Strength… juniper berries, I think,” Firestar replied.

“Sandstorm might know. But I never heard of herbs to keep cats awake.”

“A real medicine cat would know.” There was a trace of bitterness in Echosong’s voice.

Firestar couldn’t help remembering the last time she had stood on the Skyrock in the light of the full moon, brimming with confidence as she was given her Clan name. Her confidence had waned with the moon, until it was no more than the tiny curved claw that shone above their heads.

“Try to sleep,” he suggested. “See if StarClan will speak to you here.”

Obediently the silver-gray tabby curled up in the shelter of one of the boulders. Soon her light, regular breathing told Firestar she was asleep. He sat beside her, watching the stars, while his ears were pricked and he kept tasting the air for the first signs of approaching rats.

The moon crept across the sky. There were no sounds except for the distant ripple of the river and the soft hissing of the wind. At last Echosong stirred, blinking and looking up at Firestar. He didn’t need to ask what her dreams had been; the desolation in her eyes told him enough.

“I think the starry cats have left me forever,” she mewed.

Firestar reached down to give the top of her head a comforting lick. “Did you dream at all?”

“Yes, I thought I was standing on a stretch of moorland.

There was mist all around me. I couldn’t see anything, but I could sense cats nearby, and I knew they were terribly frightened. And I knew one cat was calling out to me, but I couldn’t hear what he wanted to say. He was always out of reach.”

Firestar felt his neck fur bristle. “I think you dreamed of the first SkyClan fleeing the forest,” he explained. “I’ve had dreams like that too. The cat who was trying to call to you might have been their leader.”

Echosong brightened momentarily, but then the hope faded from her eyes. “It wasn’t a proper medicine cat dream, then.”

“All dreams can be medicine cat dreams,” Firestar told her.

“I’m not sure anymore that I’m meant to be a medicine cat.” Echosong shook her head, sighing. “Maybe it’s because I was born a kittypet.”

“I was born a kittypet too.” Echosong looked at him in astonishment, and he went on. “But StarClan still chose me to save my Clan and become its leader. Besides, all cats were wild once, even the ancestors of kittypets.”

“Truly?”

“Once there were three Clans of giant cats.” Firestar remembered the legends that he had learned when he first became an apprentice in ThunderClan. “LionClan, TigerClan, and LeopardClan. They roamed the forest freely and they were never owned by Twolegs. And a little of their wildness lives on in the heart of every cat.”

“Even in kittypets?”

“In every cat,” Firestar repeated. “Echosong, don’t give up.

You dreamed of SkyClan’s warrior ancestors before, and you’ll dream of them again. Dreams can’t be summoned.

They’re sent, and you’ll just have to be patient. SkyClan’s ancestors will come to you when they have something to say.”

Echosong murmured agreement, but Firestar wasn’t sure he had convinced her. Giving her a last reassuring lick, he rose to his paws and went to wake Rainfur for the next watch.

* * *

On the next night, for all his weariness, Firestar found it hard to sleep. After shifting around in his nest for what felt like several moons, he padded out of the warriors’ cave to sit on the ledge outside and watch pale dawn light growing over the gorge.

After a little while he smelled Sandstorm’s sweet scent and felt her tongue rasping warmly over his ear. “I couldn’t sleep either,” she murmured.

Firestar turned his head to gaze into her eyes. “If we’re going to attack the rats it has to be soon,” he mewed. “But is that the right thing to do? Was I right to tell SkyClan that this is their home and they should fight for it?”

Sandstorm’s whiskers twitched in surprise. “What else are they going to do? Scatter and live as rogues and kittypets again?”

“There is another alternative.” Firestar took a deep breath.

“We could take them back to the forest.”

“What, after everything we’ve done to help them make a home here?”