Moth Flight’s Vision

Moth Flight shifted in her nest, realizing suddenly how stiff her legs were. Perhaps she should listen to the needs of her body. “I guess I could try.” She stood up and stretched. “I’ve never hunted in a pine forest before.”

“I know a stretch where there’s hardly any undergrowth,” Sun Shadow told her.

“Is that good?” Moth Flight wondered where the prey hid.

“There are plenty of ditches, which means we’re bound to find a frog or two.”

“No, thank you.” Moth Flight wrinkled her nose. “I’ve eaten toad.”

Sun Shadow snorted. “Frogs taste way better.” He leaned closer, eyes narrowing. “Why would you eat a toad?”

Moth Flight’s pelt pricked self-consciously. She hopped out of her nest and headed for the entrance. “It’s just something I tried once.” She sniffed as she ducked out of the den.

Outside, Tall Shadow was talking with Mouse Ear and Mud Paws in the clearing. The ShadowClan leader snapped her muzzle around as she caught sight of Moth Flight. “How are you?” she called cheerily.

Moth Flight blinked in the sunshine, feeling suddenly furless. Was everyone expecting her to act like she was okay now?

Sun Shadow brushed past her and nodded to Tall Shadow.

“Moth Flight’s agreed to go hunting with me. We won’t be gone long.” He nudged Moth Flight toward the camp entrance as Tall Shadow dipped her head silently.

Moth Flight slipped out of camp, relieved to be away from the curious gazes of ShadowClan. Juniper Branch had watched her pass, stretched on a soft patch of grass. Raven Pelt had been sorting through the prey pile, glancing up to see her duck through the entrance.

“This way.” Sun Shadow headed past a stretch of mossy ground and hopped over a fallen tree. One of the spindly twigs jutting from the trunk scratched Moth Flight’s belly as she leaped after him. She winced as she landed.

“Are you hurt?” Sun Shadow halted.

“Just a scratch.” Moth Flight didn’t care. Grazed flesh hurt far less than the loss of Micah.

“Get Pebble Heart to look at it when we get back.” Sun

Shadow started walking again.

“I might find some horsetail and dock while we’re out. That should stop it getting infected.” Moth Flight hesitated as Micah’s words flashed in her mind. If you chew dock leaves and horsetail stems into a paste, you can smear it deep into a wound. Fresh grief swept over her.

Sun Shadow paused at the top of a pine needle–strewn slope and glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”

Moth Flight shook out her fur. “I want to go back to my nest.”

“You can.” He disappeared over the rise. “After we’ve caught a frog.”

Moth Flight hurried after him.

Tall pines towered around her, shielding the sky. Sunlight glimmered between the branches, but the forest floor was cold and damp. She bounded down the other side of the slope and caught up with Sun Shadow as he reached a stretch of shady woodland rutted with ditches. He paused at the first and she stopped beside him.

“I know what it’s like to lose the cats you love.” He kept his gaze fixed ahead.

She jerked her muzzle toward him. “You do?”

“I came from the mountains to find my father.” Sun Shadow appeared to be scanning the ditches, his eyes narrowing as he searched for movement. “He was dead when I got here and the cat I traveled with—Quiet Rain—died shortly after we arrived.”

You didn’t lose your mate, though. Moth Flight shifted her paws.

He went on. “Suddenly I was alone, far from my home and from the cats I’d grown up with.”

“Tall Shadow’s kin, isn’t she?” He wasn’t entirely alone.

“She’s kin,” Sun Shadow conceded. “But she wasn’t like my kin back in the mountains. She’d become a forest cat.

Everything was so different here from what I’d known. Most of the cats couldn’t even imagine what it was like to hunt the peaks. Or to never be warm.” He turned and met Moth Flight’s gaze. “I felt like a stranger. Like no one knew how I felt. It was like being trapped beneath ice, mouthing words to cats who couldn’t hear what I said.”

Moth Flight blinked at him slowly. Did he actually understand the pain in her heart? “Do you still feel that way?”

“No.” Sun Shadow’s solemn gaze lit up. “It got better as time passed. I’ve grown to love it here. My Clanmates feel like kin now. We quarrel sometimes, but we look out for each other no matter what. And the hunting is good and, when newleaf comes, and the oak woods turn green and the wind from the moor brings the scent of heather blossom, I am glad I came.

And I feel I have gained more than I’ve lost.”

Moth Flight’s shoulders drooped. “I’ll never feel like I’ve gained more than I’ve lost.”

“Maybe not.” Sun Shadow leaped the ditch and padded forward. “But you will come to value what you still have, and what you may have in the future.”

Could that ever be true? Moth Flight followed him, the forest floor turning spongy beneath her paws as pine needles gave way to moss. Water squelched between her claws.