Firestar’s Quest

The strange cat spoke as though he had been the leader of his Clan. But before Firestar could ask him if this was true, the pale-furred warrior straightened up and looked around.

“Once we roamed over all this territory, patrolled our borders, and caught as much prey as we wanted. But then the Twolegs came.” The throbbing note of sadness returned to his voice, raising every hair on Firestar’s pelt. “This was once our camp,” he went on, indicating Smudge’s garden with a sweep of his tail. “Where we are standing used to be the warriors’ den. The Twoleg nest stands where our nursery was.

Our apprentices’ den was beneath ferns along the line of the fence, and under those bushes over there was where our elders slept.” He sighed. “It was all so long ago…”

“Where is the SkyClan camp now?”

The gray-and-white cat stared at his paws. “SkyClan have no camp,” he mewed quietly. “My Clan has broken apart and scattered.”

Firestar was puzzled. “Then there’s no SkyClan anymore?”

The SkyClan warrior’s neck fur bristled and he drew back his lips in the beginning of a snarl. “I did not say that. I said that our home has gone and my Clanmates have scattered.

Some became rogues, and some went to live with Twolegs as kittypets. But SkyClan still lives, although the cats have forgotten their heritage and the warrior code.”

Bewildered, Firestar wondered how the other cat could insist SkyClan survived without any territory, if it had broken up and no cat knew the warrior code. What made a Clan if their home and heritage were gone?

“So why have you come to me?” he asked.

“Because you’re the only cat who can help us,” the warrior replied. He padded forward until he stood within a tail-length of Firestar, and his faint, fugitive scent wreathed around the ThunderClan leader. “You must rebuild SkyClan before it is lost forever.”

Firestar stared at him. How could he rebuild a scattered Clan, when he had no idea how to find its cats, and he had a Clan of his own to lead? “But I—”

The SkyClan warrior ignored him. “You must follow the river to its source,” he commanded. “We fled upstream, and that is where you will find the remnants of the Clan, and a place where they can live.”

Firestar’s mind whirled. “But… but why me?”

The gray cat fixed his gaze on Firestar, his eyes glowing with sorrow. “I have waited long for you to come, a strong cat, a leader, and one who bears no taint of our betrayal in his blood. You are not descended from the cats that drove us out, and yet you are a true Clan warrior. It is your destiny to restore SkyClan.”

Mist swirled around him and his pelt seemed to fade into it, leaving Firestar gazing at the patch of grass where he had stood. Only his scent lingered.

Firestar sat down and wrapped his tail over his paws. He still had not moved when the first traces of dawn appeared in the sky.

The faint wailing of a cat roused him. He sprang to his paws, fur bristling. Was the camp being attacked? Then he remembered where he was; besides, the wailing sounded more impatient than terrified.

Suddenly the door of the Twoleg nest opened and Smudge shot out.

“Honestly!” he panted, hurtling over the grass.

“Sometimes I think my Twolegs are stupid! I asked and asked to come out, but would they get up and open the door?”

“Well, you’re here now,” Firestar meowed, glad that he didn’t have to depend on Twolegs for his freedom.

“Well? Did you dream about my cats?” Smudge demanded.

Firestar nodded. “I spoke to the gray-and-white cat, and I know what I have to do now.”

“What you have to do? But what about me? Why did I get the dreams as well?”

Firestar raised his tail to silence Smudge’s anxious questions. “The cats you saw left the forest a long time ago,” he explained. “Now they’re asking for help. You dreamed about them because this is where they used to live.”

“Here?” Smudge gazed around his garden as if he expected the long-lost cats to emerge from the bushes right then. “So you’re going to help them?”

“Yes, if I can.”

When Firestar saw the relief in Smudge’s eyes, he wondered if that was exactly true. He would have to leave his Clanmates and go on a long journey without knowing where it led. He would have to find a scattered Clan that had long since been abandoned by StarClan. Why should it be his destiny to save them, whether or not ThunderClan’s ancestors carried the guilt of driving them out? His duty lay with ThunderClan, and with the warrior code he had known ever since he came into the forest.

“I’d better go,” he mewed to Smudge. “I’ll tell the patrols to keep a lookout for you—and not to jump on you.”

“Thanks,” Smudge replied. “I’m really grateful, Firestar.

You’re a good friend, but I’m glad I don’t have to come and live with you in the forest!”

“I’m glad too.” Firestar gave Smudge a friendly flick on the ear with the tip of his tail. “I know you wouldn’t like it.”

“Good-bye, then. I’ll see you around sometime.” Smudge began retreating toward the door of the nest, glancing over his shoulder to add, “Let’s hope they can be a bit quicker letting me in.”