Firestar’s Quest

Leafdapple had stretched forward eagerly to receive this life, and Firestar could see she was unprepared for the piercing agony that came with it. Her limbs went rigid and she dug her claws into the ground, clenching her teeth on a screech of pain. He had experienced the same anguish when Brindleface had given him a life; he had not realized how fierce was a mother’s love for her kits, how willing a she-cat was to die to protect her children.

As Leafdapple’s pain ebbed, her mother covered her face and ears with loving licks.

“Don’t go,” Leafdapple whispered.

“Don’t be afraid, dear one,” her mother reassured her. “I will walk with you many times in dreams, I promise.”

As she stepped back, a fourth cat was already walking forward. Firestar caught his breath at a familiar scent, but one he had never expected to smell here. The shape of the cat’s head reminded him of the SkyClan ancestor. Then as she emerged fully from the mist he recognized the slender tortoiseshell.

“Spottedleaf!”

She bounded forward and touched noses with him.

“Thank you, Firestar,” she mewed. “I’m so proud of you! SkyClan owes everything to you. I never told you how much it means to me to see the Clan restored.”

Firestar breathed in her sweet scent. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Spottedleaf.”

The medicine cat dipped her head to him. “I have been given the privilege to walk these skies to give Leafdapple her fourth life.” Approaching the tabby she-cat, she went on. “I give you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry.

Use it well for all cats troubled in spirit.”

This time Firestar could see that there was no pain as the life flowed into Leafdapple. The she-cat let out a blissful purr, her eyes narrowed; for a few heartbeats she looked like a kit in the nursery, safe inside the curve of her mother’s paws and belly.

“Thank you, Spottedleaf,” she mewed when it was over.

“Firestar has told me so much about you. I’m honored to meet you at last.”

The medicine cat brushed her tail softly along Leafdapple’s pelt, then withdrew once more to the edge of the circle.

Firestar could see that the mist was growing thinner. More of the moorland was opening up, and the moonlight grew stronger, though the moon itself remained hidden. More and more cats were revealed, stretching into the distance. A shiver ran through Firestar, as if his paws splashed into icy water.

As if she felt it too, Echosong pressed against him for a moment. “They’re coming home,” she whispered. “All the ancestors of SkyClan. I can hear them.”

Before Firestar could reply, the cats in the front rank parted to allow four new cats into the center of the circle. He gazed at them, puzzled. They looked vaguely familiar, yet they didn’t remind him of SkyClan. They looked nothing like any of the other cats who had given lives. They walked with head and tail high, with all the authority of leaders, yet he had never seen them before, and didn’t understand why they should come now to give a life to Leafdapple.

Instead of approaching the she-cat, the newcomers padded over to the SkyClan ancestor, who was staring at them with wide eyes. As the first cat, a muscular bracken-colored tom, drew closer, he gasped. “Redstar!”

To Firestar’s astonishment, the bracken-colored cat stood in front of the SkyClan ancestor with his head bowed. “I was wrong all those moons ago,” he meowed. “All of ThunderClan joins with me to tell you we’re sorry for what we did.”

Firestar stared: this cat must have been the ThunderClan leader when SkyClan was driven out of the forest.

The next cat, a brown tabby she-cat, crouched beside Redstar. She reminded Firestar of the RiverClan warrior Heavystep, and she had the look of Clovertail too.

“Birchstar?” The SkyClan ancestor’s voice was guarded.

“RiverClan says the same. We should never have driven you out. I felt compassion for you, but I did nothing—and that makes my actions worse. I am sorry.”

The third cat, an older tom with a gray-black pelt and a long, twitching tail, remained on his paws, but he bowed his head as he meowed, “I am Swiftstar of WindClan, and when I walked the forest I never told any cat I was sorry. But I say it to you now: what we did was wrong.”

The fourth cat’s creamy brown fur glimmered in the moonlight as she slipped up beside Swiftstar and fixed brilliant green eyes on the SkyClan leader. “ShadowClan is sorry too,” she mewed. “We had good reasons for what we did, but I regret that we caused so much suffering to you and your Clanmates.”

“Thank you, Dawnstar,” the SkyClan cat replied. “Thank you, all of you.”

“Nothing can make up for what we did,” Redstar went on.

“But we have each come here to give a life to the new leader of SkyClan, if we may.”

The gray-and-white cat dipped his head, giving his permission.

Redstar stepped forward to touch noses with Leafdapple.

“With this life I give you wisdom. Use it well when you have the hardest decisions of all to make.”

Leafdapple quivered as the fifth life flowed into her.