Long Shadows

At last Stone Song stepped forward from where he had been standing at the side of the clearing beside Dark Whiskers. “We wish to cast the stones,” he meowed.

“About leaving?” Furled Bracken asked.

Stone Song nodded. “Yes.”

With a resigned look, Furled Bracken rose to his paws. “I wish it hadn’t come to this,” he sighed, “but I know there is only one way to decide. Before we cast the stones, I want to remind you all that this has been our home for as long as any cat can remember.”

Any living cat, Jaypaw corrected him. But where have all the dead cats gone? Are they here now, watching us without being able to speak?

“Yes,” Furled Bracken went on with a sad glance around the clearing, “prey is scarcer this greenleaf than it has ever been before, and yes, the Twolegs are coming closer. But are we really going to turn and flee like mice? We have found a way to survive alongside the badgers, and they have caused us far more trouble in the past than Twolegs. We should stay together and accept that we have to share the lake.”

Jaypaw was almost convinced by the deep emotion behind

Furled Bracken’s speech. Several other cats were nodding in agreement, including Rising Moon and the frail old she-cat.

Half Moon nudged him. “Look, Jagged Lightning wants to stay.” She flicked her ears toward a long-legged black-and-white tom, whose amber eyes were glowing with approval of Furled Bracken’s plea. “Owl Feather won’t like that.”

A soft murmur of anticipation ran around the glade as Stone Song stepped forward. “What you say is true, Furled Bracken,” he began, dipping his head respectfully, “but it leaves out too much. What about the cats we have lost? Falcon Swoop died under the paws of a Twoleg monster.”

Jaypaw spotted Dove’s Wing with head and tail drooping miserably at the mention of their mother’s death; quickly he bent his own head.

“Then her mate Falling Rain left us, and no cat knows where he’s gone. And a moon ago”—his voice shook—“Fallen

Leaves went into the tunnels and never came out.”

Broken Shadow let out a soft wail at the mention of their son, and Stone Song glanced at her for a heartbeat, his eyes full of love and pain.

“The trial in the caves isn’t supposed to take sharpclaws away from us,” he went on. “It’s supposed to be the making of them, the sign that they’re fully grown and the equal of any other cat. And that’s not all. Prey is disappearing, scared off by Twolegs or taken by foxes and badgers. Even the ground is being torn up by Twolegs, with endless noise and quaking. This isn’t our home now; it’s a place that doesn’t want us anymore.”

More nods and murmurs of agreement followed Stone

Song’s speech. A black-and-white cat called out, “But where can we go?”

Jaypaw’s heart sank when he saw Stone Song turn toward him. He could guess what was coming next.

“Jay’s Wing has had a dream,” the tabby tom announced.

“He saw a place where we can live: stone hills teeming with prey and shelter, and free from any enemies.”

Jaypaw bit back a protest. He hadn’t made the mountains sound as wonderful as that! But Stone Song had a point; the Clans had made the Great Journey when Twolegs made the forest impossible to live in. And cats had settled in the mountains, long, long ago. If these cats were the ancestors of the Tribe, then perhaps it was Jaypaw’s responsibility to encourage them to go there.

“It sounds a lot better than here,” Dark Whiskers commented.

Rising Moon nodded. “I don’t want to lose my kits down those dreadful tunnels.”

“And we’d be far away from Twoleg monsters,” Whispering Breeze added. “We wouldn’t lose any more cats like my sister was lost.”

Jaypaw saw that Dove’s Wing and Fish Leap were gazing at him expectantly; their glances scorched his fur. They were waiting for him to lead them! Then he realized that all the cats were looking at him in the same way. For a heartbeat his head spun. I can’t do this! I want to go home to ThunderClan!

When his head cleared, Jaypaw saw that the cats had formed into a ragged line, leading up to Furled Bracken. Their gaze was fixed on the ground in front of the line. Jaypaw padded forward to see what they were looking at.

At Furled Bracken’s paws was a circular patch of bare ground, about the size of a tree stump. Beside it was a pile of small, round pebbles that looked as if they came from the lakeshore. Furled Bracken stretched out his claws and drew a line in the earth across the bare patch, dividing it into two halves. Then he pushed one of the stones into the center of one half.

“This side wishes to stay,” he announced. He stepped back to let the next cat choose.

Stone Song padded up. He pushed his stone into the opposite half of the bare patch. “This side wishes to leave.”

Jaypaw stared at the circle of ground in astonishment.