Long Shadows

Lionblaze laid his tail across her shoulders. “He’s madder than a fox in a fit, but that’s not the point.” Suddenly he remembered the fight he had once had with Ashfur when the gray warrior was his mentor. Ashfur’s blue eyes had blazed with battle fury. Was he trying to kill me then, to hurt Squirrelflight?

“Somehow we have to come up with a plan to keep him quiet.

Squirrelflight will be in big trouble if this gets out.”

Hollyleaf flicked her ears dismissively. “That’s Squirrelflight’s problem, not ours.”

“It’s a problem for all of us.” Lionblaze couldn’t help a pang of sympathy for Squirrelflight. True, she had lied to them, but she had always done her best for them, as if she really was their mother. “As long as Ashfur knows our secret, he has power over all of us.” Every hair on his pelt tingled as he tried to imagine what that might mean.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Hollyleaf snapped. Her gaze burned with green fire. “Don’t you realize—we might not be Clan cats!”

Lionblaze opened his jaws to reply, but said nothing, too taken aback by what Hollyleaf was implying.

“We might have been born outside the Clan—outside the warrior code.” She sounded as if she couldn’t think of anything worse. “What if Squirrelflight took pity on a passing loner or a kittypet?”

“But—but we’re the three,” Lionblaze stammered. “The prophecy is about us. We have the power to be greater than the stars. How can we not be Clan cats?”

“I think you’re both forgetting something,” Jayfeather broke in, speaking for the first time; his voice was cool and detached. “The prophecy told Firestar that ‘There will be three, kin of your kin…’ If Squirrelflight isn’t our mother, then we’re not Firestar’s kin, are we?”

Lionblaze and Hollyleaf stared at their brother. The small tabby was sitting calmly with his tail wrapped around his paws. “Well, are we?” he repeated.

“Cloudtail’s Firestar’s kin…” Lionblaze began confusedly, but Hollyleaf’s shriek drowned his words.

“I knew it! There’s nothing special about us! You’re just really good at fighting, and as for Jayfeather—well, he’s a medicine cat, of course he’s going to have dreams!”

Lionblaze felt the blood chill and slow in his veins.

Could it be true? But what about the way I feel in battle? I know I can never be hurt. I know I could take on a whole Clan of enemies single-pawed! He couldn’t even consider the thought that he might not be part of the prophecy. Because if I’m not, then I owe my fighting skills to Tigerstar, and he was right all along about my stupid dreams.

Then another thought invaded his mind, even more worrying than the first. If Brambleclaw isn’t my father, then I’m no kin to Tigerstar. What will he do to me if he ever finds out?

Days slipped by. The repairs to the camp were finished and at last Millie and Briarkit returned from the Twoleg nest, with Graystripe pacing proudly alongside them. Briarkit bounced ahead; Lionblaze could hardly believe she was the same kit who had been carried out of the camp, so limp that she looked as if she were dead. Millie was still thin and shaky on her paws, but her tail twined lovingly with Graystripe’s and her eyes shone with returning health. Daisy welcomed her back into the nursery while the other kits leaped on Briarkit and wrestled with her joyfully.

Winds swept the forest, carrying the bite of approaching leaf-bare. The last of the leaves spiraled down from the trees.

Prey became harder to catch, but the Clan was back to full strength again, able to keep the fresh-kill pile well-stocked.

Squirrelflight returned to light warrior duties, and even the warriors who had been injured in the storm left the medicine cats’ den.

Lionblaze noticed that Whitewing was growing plump, and Birchfall went around with a proud expression on his face.

So there would be more kits for ThunderClan! Outwardly, everything was going well.

But Lionblaze no longer enjoyed patroling with his Clanmates. Ashfur’s knowledge hung over him like a storm cloud.

While Hollyleaf still fretted over who their true parents were, Lionblaze worried constantly about how they could persuade Ashfur not to reveal the secret. Often he caught Ashfur looking at him, a dark promise in his blue eyes. What was the gray warrior waiting for? Lionblaze couldn’t believe that he had thought better of his threat to tell every cat what Squirrelflight had done.