Firestar’s Quest

The cat rounded on her. “No, Fawnstep!” he spat. “Our warrior ancestors have failed us. As far as we’re concerned, StarClan no longer exist.”

He must be the Clan leader! There was authority in his voice, and the small tabby—SkyClan’s medicine cat, Firestar guessed—bowed her head, and didn’t try to argue.

Firestar called out to the SkyClan cats again and made one last effort to catch up to them, but he was falling farther and farther behind. Mist swirled around him again, cutting him off from the fleeing Clan. At last his paws wouldn’t carry him any longer. He sank down, and opened his eyes to find himself in his own den.

Gradually he became aware of another cat sitting in the shadows. “Sandstorm?” he murmured, longing for the warmth and comfort of his mate’s presence.

The cat turned toward him, and the light from the den entrance fell onto a soft tortoiseshell pelt.

“Spottedleaf!”

The former ThunderClan medicine cat rose and came toward him, gently touching her nose to his. Firestar drank in her familiar sweet scent. He couldn’t think of her as one of the warrior ancestors who had betrayed him; no matter what the rest of StarClan might do, he would always trust Spottedleaf.

Gazing at the shape of her head and her slender, graceful body, he found himself thinking of the gray-and-white cat, the SkyClan leader he had seen in his dreams.

“Have you come to tell me about SkyClan?” he asked.

“Yes,” Spottedleaf replied gravely. “When I lived in ThunderClan, I never knew there had once been five Clans living in the forest. I learned their story after I joined StarClan.”

“I don’t understand.” Firestar scratched restlessly at a piece of moss. “How could StarClan allow a whole Clan to leave the forest?”

Spottedleaf crouched beside him. He could feel the vibra-tions of her soothing purr. “I know it is hard for you,” she mewed. “But StarClan do not control everything in the forest. We could not banish the dog pack that threatened you, or drive out Scourge and BloodClan.”

Firestar sighed; he knew that was true. But it didn’t explain why StarClan had lied, and pretended that SkyClan had never existed. “Have you met any of the SkyClan cats?”

Spottedleaf shook her head. “We do not walk the same skies.”

“I spoke to Bluestar,” Firestar meowed. “She told me my duty is to ThunderClan. She said there is nothing I can do for SkyClan. But if that’s true, why do I keep seeing them?”

“If the SkyClan leader has appeared to you in dreams,” Spottedleaf replied, touching his shoulder with her tail, “then he must believe you can help him.”

“But how?” Firestar persisted. “What can I do? It all happened so long ago.”

“The answer will be shown to you,” Spottedleaf promised.

“Rest now.”

She pressed closer to his side, and Firestar drifted more deeply into sleep, comforted by her warm scent. This time no dreams disturbed him.

Bright sunlight shone into his den when Firestar woke.

Spottedleaf was gone, though he caught a trace of her scent among his bedding. He rose and stretched, feeling new energy coursing through him.

Skirting the Highrock, he found Graystripe in the main clearing with several cats standing around him as he arranged hunting patrols. “Cloudtail, you can go with Thornclaw,” he was telling the white warrior. “Who do you want for a third?

Willowpelt?”

“I’ll go,” Firestar interrupted, bounding up to them. “I feel as if I haven’t had a good hunt for moons.”

“Thanks.” Graystripe nodded to him. “In that case, Willowpelt, you can come with Brackenfur and me. We’ll head toward Fourtrees and see if we can spot that fox.”

Once outside the camp, Firestar let Thornclaw take the lead. The tabby warrior took them down a trail that led to Twolegplace. Everything was quiet; even the prey seemed to be hiding. Firestar paused, gazing through the trees at the fence that edged the Twoleg nests, and wondered where SkyClan’s territory had been. The border must have been near here, if they had been driven out when the Twolegs built their nests. When they built his old Twoleg nest, Firestar realized with a jolt. His paws prickled at the thought that he might have once lived in part of SkyClan’s old territory!

Cloudtail and Thornclaw had vanished among the trees to search for prey. Firestar dragged his thoughts away from SkyClan. He had a Clan to feed. He opened his jaws; a strong scent of mouse flowed over his scent glands, and he spotted the creature scrabbling at the edge of a bramble thicket.

Dropping into the hunter’s crouch, he prowled forward, setting each paw down as lightly as a falling leaf.

But before he came within pouncing distance, a white blur appeared at the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around, furious with Cloudtail for creeping up on him. Go and catch your own prey! But the white blur had vanished, and a wisp of now-familiar scent told him that it hadn’t been Cloudtail after all. The SkyClan leader had crossed his path once more.