Long Shadows

“Sharp hills of stone that stretch up into the sky,” Jaypaw replied, his mind filled with memories of the journey he had taken to the mountains. “Huge birds, bigger than badgers, that have to be dragged out of the sky by many cats at once.

Tumbling water, filling the air with spray even when there aren’t any clouds…”

“You sound as if you’ve been there already,” a new voice meowed.

Jaypaw stiffened and turned his head to see the hefty gray figure of Stone Song standing behind them. His piercing blue eyes were fixed on Jaypaw.

“I… er… I had a dream,” Jaypaw stammered.

Stone Song’s ears flicked up, his interest intensifying.

“Really? Did you dream anything else?”

“No.” Jaypaw could have told him a lot more, but he didn’t want to get any more tangled up in the gap between what he knew and what these cats thought he should know.

“But you think cats could live there?” Stone Song persisted.

“It wouldn’t be easy,” Jaypaw warned, thinking of the harsh life of the Tribe. “But maybe.”

Stone Song began to pace to and fro along the ridge, the tip of his tail twitching. When he began to speak, Jaypaw could hardly hear him above the roar of the monsters on WindClan territory, which had just begun to move their piles of earth again. He could even feel them in his paws, thrumming through the ground.

“We can’t stay here!” Stone Song growled. “Listen to those monsters! What if they come here and tear up this place, too?”

Jaypaw wanted to say, They won’t, but he remembered in time that he wasn’t supposed to know that.

“It’s wrong,” Stone Song continued, his blue eyes clouded.

“Cats are being lost and prey is disappearing. There must be a better place to live.” He stopped pacing and sat down facing the purple line of the distant mountains, the wind flattening his pelt against his sides. “Maybe that place is in the stone hills you speak of. When I was kitted, my mother said the wind cried over the stones like a birdcall, giving me my name. Perhaps this means I must find a place where the wind sings over stones, and that will be our home.” Sorrow crept into his voice. “My son is never coming back. I cannot wait in this place anymore.”

Half Moon glanced toward him, compassion in her eyes.

Then she looked at Jaypaw with her head tipped on one side.

“Did you really dream of the stone hills?” she meowed. “You seem to see them so clearly.”

Jaypaw shuffled his paws. “There must be lots of different places out there.”

Half Moon’s shining green gaze was still fixed on him.

“You would go, wouldn’t you? To find a new home for us, with plenty of food and no Twolegs?”

“Well…” Jaypaw began.

“If you went, I’d come with you,” Half Moon mewed. “You know that.”

Jaypaw felt overwhelmed by the strength of her gaze; he wasn’t used to looking another cat right in the eyes. The emotion flowing from her pelt threatened to sweep him away. He had never felt it before, not like this, but he knew exactly what it was. She loves me—at least, she loves the cat she thinks I am!

For some reason a picture flickered into his mind of Lionblaze and Heatherpaw. Was this how they had felt? He had never understood before how much they had lost when Lionblaze decided they couldn’t see each other anymore.

Do I love Half Moon? he wondered. No… but maybe I could love her. I like the way she makes me feel.

Half Moon took a pace toward Jaypaw, who found himself taking a step back. We can’t do this! I’m a medicine cat! he wanted to wail aloud. I don’t belong here. You think I’m some other cat!

To his relief, whatever Half Moon wanted to say was interrupted by a big black tom who leaped up to the top of the ridge and halted beside Stone Song. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

Stone Song turned toward him, blinking as if he had to drag himself back from some distant place. “Oh, it’s you, Dark

Whiskers. Jay’s Wing has had a dream about stone hills and falling water, where there are huge birds to be plucked from the sky, and where Twolegs cannot go. It sounds like a place where we could live safely, with prey and shelter and nothing to harm us.”

Dark Whiskers’s ears flicked up. “Do you believe him?”

Stone Song nodded.

“Then we must go!” Dark Whiskers exclaimed.

Rising to his paws, Stone Song turned to Jaypaw. “If we leave, will you guide us to this place? Will your dreams show you the way?”

Jaypaw was bewildered by how quickly everything was happening. How long had they been planning to move? Surely they couldn’t leave just like that? What about Furled Bracken?

A decision like this was for their leader to make.

Before he could reply, a small, dusty-brown she-cat appeared on the ridge, padding in Dark Whiskers’s paw steps.

“You aren’t talking about leaving again, are you?” she spat.

“But this is our home! Why can’t you understand that?”

Stone Song and Dark Whiskers exchanged a glance. “Shy