Firestar’s Quest

Shaking off the premonition of disaster, Firestar let his gaze follow the twisting line of the river, glittering silver in the starlight. He wanted to leap to the top of the rocks and yowl the words that drew his own Clan to a meeting. But the familiar summons would mean nothing here, and he was not sure there would be any other cats to hear it.

Suppose no cat comes to the meeting? What will I do then?

“You’ll be okay.” Sandstorm touched his shoulder with the tip of her tail. “It’s hard when you’re not these cats’ leader, but 3 1 2

you still have to shape them into a Clan.”

“Some of them,” Firestar corrected her. Even at his most optimistic, he couldn’t believe that all the cats he had spoken to would agree to join the new Clan. The last thing he wanted was to force any cat; it was important that they joined because they wanted to, and were willing to live by the warrior code.

Am I afraid they won’t do what I want? No, it was more than that.

The cats who joined SkyClan would have to be determined enough to survive after he and Sandstorm had returned to the forest. And they would succeed only if they were committed to the warrior code to the last claw and whisker.

“Go on.” Sandstorm nudged him toward the Rockpile.

“It’s time.”

Firestar met her brilliant gaze for a couple of heartbeats, and drank in her sweet scent. New strength seemed to flow into him; he sprang upward and reached the top of the Rockpile in a few vigorous bounds. From this vantage point he could see farther downstream and up the gorge in the other direction, but there was still no sign of any cats, except for Sandstorm sitting patiently at the foot of the rocks. The half-moon floated higher in the sky.

Where are you? Firestar thought desperately.

Then he caught sight of a flicker of movement in the shadows near the cliff face. He heard the scrape of claws on rock, and Sky pulled himself onto the topmost boulder to stand beside him.

“Greetings,” he meowed. “I see I’m in time for the meeting.”

“You know about that?” Firestar asked, surprised.

Sky dismissed the question with a flick of his ears. His gray pelt was silver in the moonlight, and his pale eyes shone.

Firestar wondered if Sky had ways of knowing things that other cats couldn’t understand.

“Do you want to speak to them first?” he suggested.

“You’re a descendant of SkyClan; they’ll listen to you.”

“Listen to me? The crazy rogue who sits looking at the moon?” A rusty purr of amusement came from the old cat.

“No, you must speak to them. More than anything, they need a leader to follow, and you can walk that path more easily than I.”

“But I am not their leader…” Firestar started to protest.

Sky looked deep into his eyes. “You can go back to your own Clan soon,” he promised. “But my Clan needs you now.”

Firestar bowed his head. “I will try,” he whispered.

Straightening up, he saw with a start of surprise that cats had begun to appear in the gorge. He spotted Scratch sitting at the foot of the rocks, half-hidden in shadows. Clover was guiding her kits down the stony trail and thrust them gently toward a niche in the Rockpile itself. All three kits were squeaking with excitement.

“Hush,” Clover murmured. “We have to listen to Firestar.

He’s going to tell us something very important.”

An excited yowl drowned out the kits’ reply, and Firestar looked up to see Cherry and Boris slip over the edge of the cliff and pad rapidly down the trail until they reached the Rockpile.

“Where are they all?” Boris asked, gazing around indignantly. “I thought they’d be here by now.”

“I told you we should have gone to fetch Hutch,” Cherry meowed. “He’s probably curled up somewhere with his Twolegs. The fat, lazy—”

“Quiet,” Sandstorm interrupted. “Look, some cat is coming now.”

Firestar had already spotted the slender shape approaching from downstream: it was Lichen, a mottled brown she-cat he and Scratch had met the day before in the woods below the gorge. She halted, clearly nervous at seeing so many other cats waiting, and sat on a stone at the very edge of the river.

Leaf and Rainfur arrived next, padding side by side as if they already knew each other; they spotted Scratch and went to join him at the base of the cliff. At the same time, Firestar glimpsed movement farther up the rock face; Hutch was picking his way cautiously down to join Cherry and Boris, and to Firestar’s surprise Oscar was close behind. The black kittypet halted on a ledge a couple of tail-lengths from the ground, and crouched there with his paws tucked under him.

Last came Patch, bounding up the path beside the river as if he were afraid of being late; he gave a wary nod to Lichen, and sat near her at the edge of the gathering.