Firestar’s Quest

Firestar exchanged a glance with Cinderpelt. The fact that the medicine cat didn’t protest showed him that Longtail was probably right.

“We’ll worry about that when it happens,” he meowed.

“Right now, we need to find Sootpaw another mentor. Do you think Thornclaw would be a good choice?”

“Yes, he’s very keen. It’s time he had an apprentice.”

Longtail suppressed a sigh. “Sootpaw will do fine with him.”

“That’s settled, then. Thanks, Longtail.” He hesitated, knowing he had to tell Cinderpelt about his decision to leave, but not knowing how to begin.

Her eyes narrowed. “I can tell you’ve something on your mind, Firestar,” she meowed. “Spit it out.”

“I need to talk with you,” he began. “Will you come for a walk with me in the forest?”

Cinderpelt looked startled. “What, now?” She flicked her tail toward the sleeping apprentices. “I’ve got my paws full with those three.”

“No, after sunhigh,” Firestar replied. “I need to talk to Graystripe and Sandstorm, too. We’ll go once the afternoon patrols have been sorted out.”

Cinderpelt’s blue eyes still looked puzzled, as if she was wondering what Firestar had to tell her that couldn’t be said in her own den. “Okay, I’ll take Sootpaw, Sorrelpaw, and Rainpaw to the nursery. Ferncloud and Brightheart can look after them. It’ll do them no harm to be treated like kits for a day or two, so soon after losing their mother.”

“Great,” Firestar mewed. “I’ll meet you by the fresh-kill pile.”

But as he brushed back through the fern tunnel, a cold stone seemed to weigh in his belly as he wondered how his friends would react to his decision.

Firestar led the way out of the gorse tunnel with Graystripe, Sandstorm, and Cinderpelt following close behind; his claws flexed nervously as the time came closer when he would have to tell them about SkyClan.

“Cloudtail reported to me just before sunhigh,” Graystripe meowed as they climbed up through the ravine. “He and his patrol tracked the badger as far as the stream, and then they lost the scent in a patch of boggy ground.”

“It sounds as if it was making for ShadowClan territory,” Firestar commented.

Graystripe let out a faint growl of satisfaction. “ShadowClan are welcome to it.”

“But if any of our cats spot one of their border patrols, we should pass on a warning,” Firestar pointed out.

His deputy flicked an ear. “That’s just like you, Firestar.

You want to help every Clan, not just your own. Okay, I’ll tell the next patrols when they go out.”

“And what’s all this about wanting to go into the forest to talk to us?” Sandstorm’s whiskers twitched irritably. “Why couldn’t you tell us in the camp?”

Firestar let his gaze travel over her sleek ginger pelt and luminous green eyes. He knew he had a lot to explain, but he couldn’t work out why she was so upset now, before he had said a word.

“I wanted to talk somewhere we wouldn’t be interrupted,” he meowed. “You’ll understand soon.”

He padded on, not saying any more until the four cats came to a glade hidden deep among the trees. The ground was covered with sweet-smelling grass and soft mounds of moss. Firestar found a place to sit among the knotted roots of an oak tree, and his friends settled around him in the sun-dappled shade. The only sounds were the rustle of wind in the branches and the high piping of birds.

Firestar looked at the three cats who meant more to him than any others in the Clan. “I’ve been having a lot of dreams recently,” he meowed, feeling as if he were about to plunge over the edge of a bottomless gorge. “For a long time they confused me, but I think I know their meaning now. And I’ve had to make a very hard decision…”

“But what about us?” Sandstorm blurted out, her claws tearing at the moss. “How can you go off and leave us?”

Firestar stared at her. How could she possibly have guessed that he meant to leave ThunderClan? “You’ll be fine, honestly—”

“No, we won’t!” Sandstorm spat back at him. “We need you. ThunderClan needs you as their leader! How can you even think of abandoning us like this?”

Firestar glanced from his mate to Cinderpelt and Graystripe. The medicine cat’s eyes were blank with shock, but Graystripe’s gaze was full of sorrow and compassion.

“I don’t understand,” Firestar mewed. “How did you know? And what makes you think I’ll never come back?”

“Because you spent the night with your old Twolegs,” Graystripe rasped. He turned his head away as if he couldn’t bear to go on looking at his old friend. “Do you really care for them more than you care for us?”

“What?” Firestar’s eyes stretched wide with dismay. “You think I’d abandon my Clan to go and be a kittypet?”

“Isn’t that what you’ve brought us here to tell us?”

Sandstorm challenged him.

“No! It’s not that at all. This is my home. StarClan are my warrior ancestors just as much as yours. I couldn’t live anywhere else but the forest.”

“So perhaps you’ll tell us what you are going to do,” Cinderpelt meowed tartly.

“It’s true that I have to leave—but only for a while.”