Leafpool’s Wish

Inevitably, memories of the badger attack flooded back to her: the sight of her Clanmates battling for their lives when she and Crowfeather had stood, horrorstruck, at the entrance to the hollow; the sound of small furred bodies thudding into the ground, tossed by gigantic black-and-white paws; the snarls of the badgers rumbling beneath the shrieks of warriors. Birchpaw had been lucky to escape with nothing more serious than a clawed eye. Sootfur had been killed, and so had Cinderpelt the medicine cat, desperately protecting Sorreltail as she gave birth to her kits. Leafpool felt a fresh wave of grief, sharp as ever, when she thought of her mentor dying without her. Cinderpelt must have been terrified for the future of ThunderClan without a medicine cat, yet she still refused to leave Sorreltail’s side.

I came back, Cinderpelt, and I stayed, Leafpool whispered fiercely, hoping that her mentor could hear her in StarClan.

“Talking to yourself, eh?” Brackenfur mewed, appearing in the entrance to the den.

Leafpool shook the memories clear from her mind. “Just remembering something important,” she replied. “Is everything okay, Brackenfur?”

“Er, can I go now?” Birchpaw chirped, looking up at her with his injured eye closed and weeping with juice.

Leafpool nodded. “Of course, but you’re still not allowed out of the hollow! I don’t want any brambles poking you in that eye before it’s fully healed.”

Birchpaw trotted out, muttering under his breath. Brackenfur flicked the apprentice with his tail-tip as he passed. “Some cats need to remember how lucky they were to survive that battle,” he grunted.

Leafpool bowed her head. “And those who fell will not be forgotten.”

Brackenfur ducked to enter the den. Like most of Leafpool’s Clanmates, he glanced nervously up at the roof as if he was wondering how the weight of the cliffs above them was supported. “Sorreltail sent me,” he meowed. “Cinderkit’s picked up a couple of fleas and she wondered if you had anything that might soothe the bites.”

Leafpool pictured the tiny gray she-cat scratching at her fluffy pelt. “I’m sure I can help,” she purred. “Tell Sorreltail I’ll bring something over before sunhigh.”

Brackenfur narrowed his eyes. “There’s no rush. You look tired, Leafpool. Is there anything I can do?”

Leafpool shook her head. “I’m fine. It’s always busy after a battle, and a nursery full of kits doesn’t help!” She paused. “Not that I don’t rejoice at every kit born to ThunderClan,” she added.

Brackenfur’s gaze softened. “They are all precious,” he agreed. He padded out of the den and Leafpool followed him as far as the entrance, where she stood in a shaft of watery sunlight. On the opposite side of the clearing, her sister Squirrelflight was sharing a mouse with Brambleclaw, her dark ginger body curled into his. Leafpool felt a twist of concern in her belly. It looked like Squirrelflight had finally made her choice between their Clanmate Ashfur and the broad-shouldered dark tabby. Leafpool wouldn’t miss the tension between the warriors while Squirrelflight had been making up her mind, but she wished with all her heart that her sister had chosen differently. How could Leafpool tell her that she had dreamed of the Dark Forest and seen Tigerstar mentoring Brambleclaw in secret, training his son in the most terrible ways to kill and maim an enemy? However often Leafpool told herself that Brambleclaw was a loyal ThunderClan warrior, no cat could deny that his father was one of the most dangerous cats ever to live in the Clans.

And yet there had been the vision of stars over the lake, when Leafpool had been walking alone at sunset. Two starry shapes, unmistakeably Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw, padding side by side across the sky, tails entwined. What could that mean except that these two warriors were destined to be together? Reluctantly, Leafpool had told her sister what she had seen; it was not the duty of a medicine cat to choose which omens and visions to keep secret. Leafpool knew that this had helped Squirrelflight decide between Brambleclaw and Ashfur. And when Leafpool treated Brambleclaw for injuries that could only have come from fighting in his dreams with his Dark Forest father, she said nothing to her sister. She just hoped that Brambleclaw would make his own decision to leave his connection with Tigerstar behind, and learn only from what his living Clanmates could teach him.