Long Shadows

Half Moon gave him a long look, overwhelming him once more with the intensity in her gaze. “I believe you,” she murmured.

Jaypaw shared the last of the vole with her and settled down to doze beside her, their tails curled around each other. Breathing in her sweet scent, he began to feel a little less homesick. A

little more as if this was where—when—he belonged.

A paw prodded him in the side. Blinking, he looked up into the face of Whispering Breeze. “It’s time,” she mewed.

Half Moon was already on her paws. Jaypaw followed her through the clearing and out onto the hillside. The sun had set, leaving only a few streaks of scarlet in the sky. Jaypaw looked up to see if any of the warriors of StarClan had appeared, before he remembered that his warrior ancestors wouldn’t be born for many seasons.

So are they just stars? he wondered, gazing up at the glittering points of light.

Cats were padding anxiously among the trees as if their paws itched to leave, while their hearts still drew them back to their familiar home. Jaypaw watched Owl Feather’s kits tumbling around her paws. “Are we really going all the way to the top of the hill?” one of them asked, his eyes huge as moons.

“That’s right,” Owl Feather replied. “And even farther than that.”

The tiny kit bounced with delight. “Wow!”

Running Horse and Cloudy Sun were standing together under a tree. Running Horse brushed his tail along his denmate’s side. “The stones are cast, so we have to go,” he meowed.

“We’ll get there,” Cloudy Sun replied bravely. “We’ll help each other.”

Admiring the elders’ courage, Jaypaw hoped she was right.

He was already planning the route to make it as easy as possible, hoping that now that he could see he could remember the way to the cave behind the waterfall.

“Are we ready?” Stone Song padded up, casting a glance at all the cats.

A murmur of agreement rose around him. Jaypaw noticed that Jagged Lightning and Shy Fawn were both looking unhappy, but they didn’t protest. Now that the decision had been made, every cat would stand by it. This was their code of honor, their version of the warrior code.

Stone Song flicked his ears at Jaypaw. “Ready, Jay’s Wing?”

Jaypaw nodded. Am I really doing this? Am I about to lead the Tribe of Rushing Water to their new home?

Stone Song set off up the hill, his cats following him in straggling groups. Jaypaw took his place near the back. When they reached the top of the ridge, the purple line of mountains had vanished in the gathering darkness; the land stretched flat and black in front of them as far as the horizon.

As they padded along the ridge, Half Moon hurried up, brushing against Jaypaw’s side. “Look, one of Owl Feather’s kits has fallen over,” she mewed. “I must go help her.”

She bounded on, then halted briefly and glanced over her shoulder. “Don’t look back,” she whispered. “It will only make it harder.”

Jaypaw watched her pale shape moving away from him in the dusk. Something swelled inside his chest as he realized how much courage she had—how much all the cats had—to set out on a journey like this on the strength of a dream. He just hoped he was right, for their sakes.

His paws slowed beneath him and he stopped to gaze down the hill at the black expanse of the lake, glittering here and there under the first stars to appear in the dark blue sky. As he watched, the moon slid out from behind a cloud, shedding its silver light over the water. The lake seemed so familiar, and yet it was not his home.

“Good-bye,” he whispered, wondering if he was saying good-bye to ThunderClan as well.

The rest of the cats had passed him, heading into what would become WindClan territory. As Jaypaw set out to catch up to them, he heard a cat calling his name.

“Jaypaw!”

His ThunderClan name.

He spun around. “Rock!”

The sightless cat stood close to a boulder on the hillside, his furless skin glowing in the moonlight.

“You do not belong with these cats,” he rasped. “You have done what you came here to do. It is time for you to go back to your Clan.”

The day before, Jaypaw would have been relieved. Now his first reaction was panic. “But—but what about Stone Song?” he stammered. “I promised him. And Half Moon…”

“Your time here is over,” Rock insisted.

Jaypaw knew he had to obey. His destiny lay here, by the lake, not in the mountains. Thanks to him, the Tribe of Rushing Water would find their new home, and the Tribe of Endless Hunting would be found.

Padding over to Rock, he cast one last glance at the plodding line of cats, straining his eyes to pick out Half Moon’s glimmering pelt. She’ll be so hurt that I left without saying good-bye.

But she was not his future. ThunderClan was, where he was a medicine cat.

He turned back to Rock. “Will the real Jay’s Wing come back now?”

Rock shook his head. “No. He disappeared at the start of their journey to the mountains.”