Firestar’s Quest

young cats could easily have been ThunderClan apprentices, begging to be taken out on a hunting patrol.

“We can take one each,” Sandstorm suggested with another yawn. “We’ll split up; too many cats together will scare off all the prey.”

“True,” Firestar agreed. “Especially here, where there’s so little cover. You take Boris, and I’ll have Cherry.”

The young tortoiseshell gave an excited little bounce. “I bet we catch more prey than you!” she boasted to her brother.

With Boris following her, Sandstorm left the cave and took the trail that led to the thickets at the top of the cliff.

Firestar led Cherry in the other direction, down to the river.

The sun had risen into a blue sky dotted with white clouds.

Sunlight sparkled on the surface of the water, but the day was still cool. A fresh breeze rippled Firestar’s fur.

“Are we going back to where we hunted yesterday?”

Cherry asked excitedly.

Firestar paused halfway down the trail. They would find plenty of prey downstream, but he couldn’t forget the sense of cold malice that he had felt there the day before. Even though he knew they couldn’t afford to abandon a good hunting ground, he wasn’t in any hurry to meet what lay behind those invisible watching eyes.

“No,” he decided. “We’ll go upstream instead today.”

For a heartbeat Cherry looked as if she might argue, then obviously thought better of it. Firestar picked his way down to the tumbled rocks where the river welled out into the light.

As he leaped the last tail-length to the ground, he set one paw on a sharp chip of rock; pain stabbed through his pad like a claw. Letting out a hiss of anger, he paused to give the injured pad a quick lick. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was sore enough to make him limp.

Cherry had bounded ahead, but when she realized Firestar wasn’t with her, she came running back. “What’s the matter?”

Firestar looked at her. “Aren’t your pads sore?”

Cherry shook her head, and lifted one paw to show him.

Her pads were tougher than his, with hard gray skin good for walking on rocks. Ruefully Firestar showed Cherry his own pads, the soft black skin scarred and rubbed raw from the rough ground.

Cherry blinked in surprise. “I never thought a cat’s pads could get like that!”

“Remember, I don’t come from around here,” Firestar explained. “I’m more used to walking on soft forest ground.”

He wondered if this was the opportunity he had been waiting for. Should he tell Cherry about her ancestry? She would need to know if she was ever to become a SkyClan warrior.

He took a deep breath. “You remember that I told you how you inherited your ability to jump from your ancestors?

Well, you inherited your strong paws from them too. Your ancestors were able to settle here because they had the right kind of bodies and the right skills.”

The young tortoiseshell stared at him, her eyes stretched wide. “Do you mean that? You’re not just telling a story?”

“No, it’s true.”

“How do you know so much about my ancestors?”

With a wave of his tail, Firestar led her into a patch of shade cast by a scrubby thorn tree at the foot of the cliff.

When they were sitting side by side, their pelts brushing, he told her about the forest where he came from, and how four Clans of cats lived there.

“Once there were five Clans, but the fifth Clan, SkyClan, was sent away a long, long time ago. The cats came here and settled in the caves, but then they broke up and scattered.

There’s no SkyClan anymore, but some cats—like you and Boris—are descended from the original Clan.”

Cherry’s whiskers quivered with excitement. “Wow!”

“Look.” Firestar pointed with his tail to the caves in the cliff face and the stony trails that connected them. “This was the SkyClan camp. The warriors lived in the cave where Sandstorm and I sleep. That cave there with the boulder at the entrance was the nursery—”

“Yes, I can see there’s room for lots of cats,” Cherry interrupted. “But why are you telling me all this?”

“Because Sky believes—”

The young tortoiseshell blinked. “Sky? Who’s Sky?”

“The cat you call Moony,” Firestar meowed. “Yes, the one you were so rude to. His real name is Sky. He is the last warrior of SkyClan—and he’s your kin.”

Cherry’s fur fluffed up and her eyes stretched wider than ever. “Our kin? But we’re kittypets!”

“You and Sky are all descended from the cats of SkyClan.

And that’s why I have come here—to find the scattered Clan and rebuild it.”

“Starting with me and Boris?” Cherry’s voice was a squeak of surprise.

Firestar suppressed a mrrow of amusement. “You’ll have to make your own minds up about that,” he replied. “I’ll show you as much of Clan life and the warrior code as I can, and then you must decide.”

For once Cherry was silent. Her gaze traveled up the cliff face where the caves were. Firestar wondered if she was trying to imagine what it would be like to live there with a whole Clan of cats.

And he realized that somehow, without consciously making the decision, he had accepted that he must stay.