Firestar’s Quest

His head struck the hard floor of the barn, stunning him.

For a few heartbeats he scrabbled with his paws, trying to get up. Then sharp claws fastened themselves in his throat, and his whole body spasmed with the pain.

Evil rat eyes stared into his, glittering with malice. A voice rasped, “Die, cat!”

Firestar struggled to sink his claws into the body that was pinning him down. This must be the leader of the rats! Kill him, and the battle would be over.

But there was no strength in Firestar’s limbs, and the moonlight seemed to be fading, leaving him in a cave of echoing darkness. For a couple of heartbeats longer he was aware of those eyes, twin points of hatred. Then night closed down over him, and he knew nothing more.

Chapter 33

Firestar opened his eyes to see a pale light glimmering all around him. At first he thought he was still in the barn. But he couldn’t understand the silence, and the lack of any scent of rat.

After a moment’s struggle he managed to sit up, and realized that he was in the Whispering Cave, the mosses glowing eerily around him and the underground river sliding past on its way to the opening.

How did I get here? he wondered.

Then he saw that he was not alone. The ancient SkyClan leader was sitting at the other side of the cave. “Greetings,” he meowed.

Firestar began to understand. “Have I lost another life?” he rasped.

The SkyClan leader bowed his head. Now Firestar could make out the outline of a flame-colored cat just behind him in the shadows. His pelt and his green eyes glowed; Firestar recognized himself as the shape dipped his head slightly.

Firestar staggered to his paws. “Let me go back,” he begged the SkyClan cat. “I’ve got to help Rainfur. I’ve got to save 4 6 1

SkyClan—isn’t that what you want?”

The SkyClan ancestor rose and padded across the cave to Firestar. His scent was a mingling of frost and wind and the night sky. Breathing it, Firestar felt energy begin to flow back into his aching, exhausted limbs.

“Go now,” the SkyClan cat murmured. “And may my strength go with you.”

The pale light of the mosses faded, and for a heartbeat Firestar hung in a dark void. Then he felt a paw shaking his shoulder and heard Sandstorm’s voice. “Firestar! Firestar!”

He blinked awake to see his mate crouched over him, anguish in her green eyes. “Firestar!” she repeated. “Get up—the rats are coming.”

Firestar raised his head to find himself lying on the ground outside the barn. His chest was matted with blood that had flowed from the wound in his throat.

Rats were already swarming through the gap in the barn wall. Sandstorm shoved Firestar to his feet, and with Leafdapple supporting him on the other side, he managed to stagger as far as a stunted tree, several tail-lengths from the fence. The rest of the cats had already scrambled into its branches, all except Cherrypaw and Sparrowpaw, who waited at the bottom.

“Climb!” Cherrypaw urged as Firestar and the other she-cats limped up. “Don’t wait for us. We can leap up after.”

“No…” Firestar tried to hold back. “We’ll be trapped. We have to get out through the fence.”

Sparrowpaw waved his tail. “Have you seen it?”

Firestar’s heart sank. All along the line of the fence, clustering most thickly around the gap the cats had used to get in, were hordes of rats. Their eyes seemed to glitter with triumph. They had the cats trapped now, with all the time in the world to finish them off. The only possible safety, for a short while, was this tree.

Firestar clawed his way up the trunk and found a space to crouch on a broad branch. Looking around, he spotted Shortwhisker, Sharpclaw, Clovertail…

“Rainfur?” He gasped. “Where’s Rainfur?”

“I’m sorry.” Sandstorm clung to the branch beside him.

“Rainfur didn’t make it.”

Firestar’s gaze flew to the barn and he tensed his muscles, half prepared to spring down and battle his way back inside to help the warrior.

“It’s no use, Firestar.” Sandstorm rested her tail tip gently on his shoulder. “Rainfur is dead.” Pain throbbed through her voice as she added, “I could save only one of you, Firestar, and I had to choose you.”

Firestar remembered how he and Rainfur had rescued Petalnose, and how Rainfur had saved him from falling into the gorge when the rats attacked the camp the night before.

He remembered the great future he had foreseen for the gray warrior. Now he was dead, and the remnants of SkyClan were huddled in this tree while rats swarmed over the ground below, just waiting to finish them off. Firestar had failed: failed the Clan, and Skywatcher, and the SkyClan ancestor who had sent him here. The fifth forest Clan would be destroyed all over again. Sighing, Firestar rested his head against Sandstorm’s flank, too weary to move.