Firestar’s Quest

Then cold claws seemed to grip his heart. That sense of anger and hatred he had felt in the undergrowth downstream washed over him again. He raised his head to scan the bushes on the cliff top, and was sure he could spot glittering eyes among the branches.

Chapter 25

The following day dawned clear and cool. Firestar stepped out onto the ledge outside the warriors’ cave to see Patch and Leaf scrambling over the spur of rock on their way upstream.

After the meeting, all the new Clan cats had returned to their own homes; one of the first tasks would be to collect more bedding and sort out the dens so that the caves in the gorge could become a real Clan camp.

Sandstorm joined him, yawning and giving one ear a vigorous scratch with her hind paw. “We’ll have to move Clover down to the nursery,” she mewed, flicking her ears toward where the mother cat and her kits were sleeping against the far wall of the cave. “There won’t be room in here once the warriors arrive.”

“We need a den for the apprentices, too,” Firestar pointed out. “And the elders, the leader, the medicine cat…”

“Well, we’ll have one elder, when Sky moves in with us.”

Sandstorm blinked thoughtfully. “But there’s no leader yet, apart from you.”

“No! I’m leader of ThunderClan. StarClan will show us which cat is meant to be leader of SkyClan.”

“And a medicine cat,” Sandstorm added. “You can’t have a Clan without a medicine cat.”

Firestar murmured agreement. He suspected that finding a medicine cat could be even harder than finding a leader, and he hadn’t begun to tackle that problem yet. Until the night before, he hadn’t been certain that there would be a Clan at all.

He had to push his worries to the back of his mind as Leaf and Patch came into view a little way down the stony trail, calling out a greeting. Patch looked nervous, but Leaf’s ears were pricked with anticipation. A heartbeat or two later Firestar heard pawsteps from up above, and Cherry, Boris, and Hutch appeared from the cliff top.

“We’re ready for our hunting lesson,” Boris meowed, his eyes shining.

“That’s good.” Sandstorm twitched her tail approvingly.

“We’ll be able to take out two full patrols.”

“Can we lead them?” Cherry bounced forward to stand in front of Firestar. “Please! We know all the good places for prey.”

“No, you’re not warriors yet.” Firestar didn’t want to dampen the young cats’ enthusiasm, but they had to get used to the way things were done in a Clan. “Don’t worry,” he added when Cherry flattened her ears in disappointment.

“You’ll be leading patrols before you know it.”

“Boris and Leaf, you come with me,” Sandstorm mewed.

“We’ll pick up Scratch on the way, and see what we can find in the bushes downstream. Is that okay with you, Firestar?”

“Fine. The rest of us can hunt on the cliff top.”

When Sandstorm had left with her patrol, Firestar led Cherry, Hutch, and Patch up the trail and through the bushes on the edge of the cliff. The sky was bright where the sun would rise, but there was still no sign of movement from the Twolegplace.

“Let’s head that way,” Firestar suggested, waving his tail toward the huge Twoleg barn. “I haven’t tried hunting there yet.”

Not much later he was starting to think he had made the wrong decision. The trees and bushes near the fence of the huge nest were oddly lacking in prey. The scent of crow-food and rats from the fence made it almost impossible to taste anything else on the air.

“Sandstorm’s patrol will catch much more,” Cherry muttered. “And Boris will never let me hear the end of it!”

Almost ready to give up and go somewhere else, Firestar stopped trying to track down prey to give Hutch and Patch their first lesson in the hunter’s crouch and the right way to stalk. Hutch concentrated very hard, but found it difficult to get his haunches into the proper position, while Patch had it almost right the first time. Of course, the rogue cats had been hunting for themselves since they were kits; they would need to learn only the skills of hunting in a group before they were as good as any forest warrior.

“Okay,” Firestar meowed. “I want you to imagine that there’s prey under that gorse bush over there.” He waved his tail to show them which bush he meant. “Let me see you stalk up to it.”

All three cats set off. Watching them critically, Firestar admired Cherry’s graceful, controlled prowl; she had learned a lot since she first tracked him in the undergrowth downstream. Patch was slinking along with his belly fur brushing the ground, and even Hutch seemed to have gotten his paws under control.

“Keep going; you’re doing great,” Firestar encouraged them.

Suddenly Patch sprang up with a hiss of astonishment.

One paw flashed out, and Firestar spotted a small brown shape as it was tossed in the air. Patch grabbed it as it fell to the ground again. He turned back to Firestar with a mouse dangling limply from his jaws.

“Well done!” Firestar meowed. “First catch to you.”