Firestar’s Quest

As they drew closer to the cliff top, Sky slackened his pace.

Firestar guessed he was walking the paths of memory, lost among the shadows of his scattered kin and Clan. He slowed down too, letting the old cat draw ahead; Sandstorm kept pace with Firestar.

“He’s so lonely and sad. I wish we could help him,” she murmured.

“So do I,” mewed Firestar, “but what can we do? He spends too much time caught up in his ancestors’ past, like a fly in a cobweb, but those days will never come again.”

Sandstorm halted, her green eyes sparking. “Why won’t they? We’ve proved that this is a place where cats can live.

And there are plenty of cats around—kittypets and loners—to build up the Clan again. Some of them even have SkyClan blood.”

Firestar stared at her. “And who’s going to tell the kittypets and loners that they have to come here and live in caves? A Clan isn’t just cats, Sandstorm. A Clan belongs together and lives by the warrior code.”

“Then you’re just giving up?” Sandstorm drew her lips back in the beginning of a snarl.

“What else can I do? SkyClan lived here once, but then something terrible happened—something so terrible that Sky won’t even talk about it—and they scattered. They’re gone. I would stay if I thought I could help, but I can’t.

There’s nothing to work with.”

His voice shook, but he couldn’t see any other way. All that was left of the once-proud Clan was one old cat, clinging to the fading echoes of Clan life. It wasn’t enough. SkyClan was lost forever.

* * *

The haze had cleared away and the sun beat down from a deep blue sky. Firestar was thankful for the shade of the warriors’ cave when he and Sandstorm joined Sky there. The old warrior was crouched in the entrance, his paws tucked under him, his gaze fixed on the cliffs opposite.

Firestar dipped his head. “Thank you for showing us the territory. We’ll rest until it starts to get cooler, and then we’ll have to leave.”

Sky rose to his paws and looked from Firestar to Sandstorm and back again, his eyes narrowed. Suddenly he seemed to have grown taller and his gaze was sharper. He seemed less like a lonely elder and more like a true Clan warrior.

“Leave?” he echoed. “What do you mean? What I want to know is, will you do it?”

Firestar stared at him, bewildered, while Sandstorm, who clearly understood more, let out a small mew of satisfaction.

“Do what?” Firestar asked. “Our journey is over. We’ve found the place where SkyClan used to live, but the Clan is gone.”

“That’s not why you were sent here,” Sky spat. “You told me that a SkyClan ancestor visited you in your dreams. He must have known his Clan was long gone, forced out of the gorge by something even more terrible than their reason for leaving the forest. Yet still he asked you to come.”

Firestar remembered his vision of the SkyClan leader in Smudge’s garden. The cat had told him that it was his destiny to restore SkyClan. But then, Firestar had imagined that he would find at least the remnants of a Clan surviving in their new home. Not one old warrior, surrounded by rogues and kittypets who had never heard of the warrior code.

“Oh, no,” he meowed. “You can’t ask me to—”

“You must right the wrongs your Clan’s ancestors did all those seasons ago,” Sky insisted. His pale gaze burned into Firestar’s eyes like sunlight on water. “You must rebuild SkyClan.”

Chapter 21

“I know it seems impossible,” Sky continued, “but I know too that you have the strength to do this. Have faith in yourself, Firestar. We will meet again soon.”

With great dignity he dipped his head and padded down the stony trail, away from the warriors’ cave.

“Well?” Sandstorm prompted softly. “Are you going to follow him and tell him you can’t do it? Or just leave, and let him discover for himself that all his hopes have come to nothing?”

Firestar shook his head helplessly. The idea of rebuilding SkyClan was so huge that he couldn’t even think about it.

“I’m going hunting,” he announced. “I’m sorry, Sandstorm. I just need to be alone for a while.”

Sandstorm pressed her muzzle against his; her eyes glowed with her love for him. “I understand.”

Not wanting to catch up to Sky, Firestar headed in the opposite direction, downstream toward the trees near the old boundary of SkyClan territory. His mind was whirling. He was leader of ThunderClan; that was where he belonged. Yet Sky was asking him to take responsibility for another Clan as 2 5 8

well. Surely it couldn’t be the will of StarClan for one cat to lead two Clans, especially when their territories were nearly a moon’s journey apart?

He remembered how Tigerstar had made himself leader of ShadowClan and RiverClan, and tried to take over the other two Clans as well. His bloodthirsty ambitions would be remembered in the forest for many seasons.

“I won’t be another Tigerstar.” Firestar spoke aloud, halting by the edge of the river. “My loyalty is to ThunderClan.”

But was he right? Should he be loyal to the warrior code, rather than to any individual Clan?