Long Shadows

Kestrelpaw gave his chest fur a couple of quick licks. “That’s what WindClan cats are best at.”

“So what about herbs?” Jaypaw went on, his belly churning as he asked the question that really mattered. “It looks pretty bleak up here. Not the right place for growing most kinds of plants.”

“Wrong again. We’ve got good stocks tucked away along the streams, and in that bit of woodland next to the ThunderClan border.”

“That must be good for water mint,” Jaypaw remarked.

“What about catmint?”

“Oh, yes, we’ve got plenty of that.” Kestrelpaw pointed with his nose toward a spot where the moor dipped down sharply to a tumble of rocks. “Down there.”

“Really?” Jaypaw forced himself to sound mildly interested, when what he really wanted to do was bounce up and down caterwauling in triumph.

“Yes, there’s—”

Just in front of the two apprentices, a rabbit started up out of a gorse thicket and streaked away across the moor. Kestrelpaw broke off what he was saying and raced after it, his belly fur brushing the coarse grass.

“Thanks, rabbit,” Jaypaw murmured.

He waited until the WindClan apprentice had disappeared, then scrambled down the slope to the rocks. Sniffing the air, he picked up the scent of water and a strong smell of catmint. A few heartbeats later he found it: a spring welling up between two of the rocks, with thick clumps of catmint growing all around it.

For a moment Jaypaw stood still, breathing in the scent of the precious herb. He wished desperately that he could tear off a bundle of the stalks and carry them back to his Clan, but he was still dreaming. Some cat would have to come here in the waking world, and steal some of the herb from WindClan.

It’s not really stealing, he told himself. Not when we need it so badly.

And WindClan has plenty.

Gradually Jaypaw realized that the catmint was not all he could smell. A familiar scent clung around the rocks, the scent of caves and earth and deeply buried water. Scrambling among the stones, he tried to find where the scent was strongest.

Finally he found it: a narrow gap between the rocks, leading down into darkness.

This must be an entrance to the underground tunnels! Maybe this is the way WindClan came when they raided our territory.

In the mud in front of the gap he could see the traces of several paw prints. Taking a quick glance around, he padded forward and squeezed himself through the gap. The passage quickly grew wider, and Jaypaw could make out the scent of WindClan cats clinging to the stones.

“Jaypaw! Jaypaw!”

Jaypaw stiffened; had Kestrelpaw spotted him going into the tunnel and become suspicious?

“Jaypaw!” A paw prodded him sharply in the side. “Jaypaw, Millie’s fever is worse. Can you fetch her some moss soaked with water?”

Jaypaw opened his eyes on darkness and scrambled out of his nest, shaking himself to dislodge scraps of moss and bracken from his pelt. The chill of early dawn filled the den, together with Leafpool’s fear scent; at the other side he could hear Millie’s harsh breathing and Briarkit mewling pitifully.

“She’s going to die, isn’t she?” The little kit sounded terrified. “And I’ll never see her again, ’cause I don’t know the way to StarClan.”

“We’re doing all we can.” Leafpool moved away, and Jaypaw pictured her bending her head to comfort the frightened kit. “And even if she does die, you’ll see her again one day.

When she’s in StarClan, she’ll know the right time to come and fetch you.”

“Are you sure?” Briarkit still sounded uncertain.

“I promise you,” Leafpool reassured her.

Jaypaw’s legs started to shake with fear. Leafpool was acting as if she was resigned to watching every one of her Clanmates die. We have to get that catmint now! “I’ll fetch the moss,” he mewed, and whisked out of the den.

As soon as he had delivered the dripping moss to Millie, he slipped out again and crept through the branches into the warriors’ den. The air was full of the warm scent of sleeping cats; it was so early that hardly any of them were stirring.

Jaypaw located Lionblaze by his scent, and woke him with a sharp prod in the shoulder.

“Uhhh…?” Lionblaze’s muscles flexed and he raised his head. “Jaypaw? Is something wrong?”

Jaypaw bent his head to whisper in his brother’s ear. “I know where there’s a supply of catmint.”

“Really?” Jaypaw could sense Lionblaze’s excitement.

“Where?”

“In WindClan, near the entrance to a tunnel. You have to go and fetch some.”

The excitement Jaypaw could feel in Lionblaze changed abruptly to horror and disgust. “No,” he mewed hoarsely. “I’ll never go to WindClan. Never!”

Chapter 13

Lionblaze felt cool grass brushing his belly fur as he crept forward.