Lost Stars

Despair crept up on Bristlefrost like a hunter stalking its prey as she helped carry Bramblestar’s body back to the stone hollow. When the patrol maneuvered their burden through the thorn tunnel and emerged into the camp, every cat in the Clan was out in the clearing. Several of them broke into anguished wails at the sight of their leader’s ice-crusted body.

Bristlefrost glanced around to see Jayfeather and Alderheart crouched close together at the entrance to their den. The elders, whose task it would be to bear their leader away for burial, stood waiting by the fresh-kill pile. Squirrelflight had not moved since Bristlefrost had left the camp, with several warriors still clustered around her. Even the kits were aware that something was wrong, and they burrowed into their mothers’ fur with tiny whimpers of grief.

The assembled cats parted as Bristlefrost and her Clanmates paced forward and laid Bramblestar’s body down at the paws of the elders. With her task finished, Bristlefrost wasn’t sure what to do. Glancing around, she spotted her mother and father, Ivypool and Fernsong, watching with sorrowful expressions, and ran over to them with a low cry of relief.

Fernsong nuzzled her close. “Are you all right?” he asked.

Bristlefrost leaned into her father’s familiar embrace, thinking how lucky she was to have two parents who loved her. I should have remembered that when I was heartbroken over Stemleaf.

“I will be,” she replied to Fernsong. “But what happens to ThunderClan now?”

No cat could answer her question.

“I remember how much Bramblestar taught me when I was a kit and an apprentice,” Lionblaze meowed. “I believed he was my father then.” His voice caught in his throat, and it was a moment before he could go on. “He was the best father a cat could have.”

Darkness had fallen, and all the cats of ThunderClan had gathered to sit vigil for their dead leader. Alderheart sat closest, smoothing his father’s fur with one paw. Sparkpelt was beside him, and Squirrelflight on their leader’s other side, her head bowed. Lionblaze and Jayfeather sat nearby. Bristlefrost crouched in the circle of cats who surrounded them, listening to the tributes his Clanmates offered to Bramblestar.

“I remember when we made the journey to the sun-drown-place.” Squirrelflight’s voice was low, but clear enough to reach the ears of every cat. “Bramblestar—he was Brambleclaw then—was our leader. He was so brave and sensible. Without him we would never have made it there, much less survived to return to our Clans and give them Midnight’s message.”

A shiver passed through Bristlefrost as she heard Squirrelflight speak of that long-ago journey, the story Ivypool had told her when she was a kit in the nursery. Squirrelflight was actually there, she realized, and she and Bramblestar helped to bring the Clans to our home beside the lake.

“Don’t forget the Great Storm,” Graystripe put in. “Bramblestar was a new leader then, but he kept our Clan safe until we could return to our home here in the stone hollow.”

“And he guided us through the struggle with Darktail,” Alderheart added. “When the other Clans drew away, or gave in to evil, ThunderClan never did. And that was because of Bramblestar.” He bowed his head and his next words were choked out. “He was my father and I loved him.”

Sparkpelt pressed herself closer to her brother’s side. “We all loved him. Every cat in the Clan. And he was worthy of it.”

A desolate silence fell, broken after a few heartbeats by Jayfeather, who rose to his paws from where he sat near Bramblestar’s head. “Bramblestar was—” he began, then broke off, shaking his head helplessly as if the words wouldn’t come.

A moment later he rounded on Squirrelflight, his shoulder fur bristling and his neck stretched out. “Why did you let Shadowpaw kill him?” he hissed. “Where is ThunderClan now? We have no leader, and without a leader we have no future. Did you learn nothing from your time in StarClan?”

A murmur of protest arose from the surrounding cats at Jayfeather’s harshness toward a cat who was grieving. Bristlefrost didn’t understand how he could be so hostile to a cat he had once thought was his mother.

Bristlefrost could see the hurt in Squirrelflight’s eyes, but the deputy remained calm, raising her head to confront the angry medicine cat. “My time in StarClan is no cat’s business but my own,” she snapped. “And we weren’t much better off when Bramblestar was so ill. I believed he was going to die. I had to make a choice, and I made it. And I will continue to do so as acting leader of this Clan.”

“Acting leader?” Jayfeather sneered. “What good will that—”

“I believe that when this leaf-bare ends, we will hear from StarClan again,” Squirrelflight interrupted. “And they will tell us what to do to make all this right.”