Night Whispers

Ivypaw looked from Jayfeather to Lionblaze. Their pelts were pricking with expectation. She took a deep breath and began. “I’ve been visiting the Dark Forest in my dreams.”

“Tell us something new,” Jayfeather grunted.

Ivypaw blinked. “Tigerstar’s been training me,” she went on, trying to squash the butterflies leaping in her belly. “And Hawkfrost. They told me they wanted me to be a great warrior so I could protect my Clan.”

“And you believed them?” Lionblaze snapped.

Dovepaw turned on him. “Let her tell you!” she snarled.

Ivypaw glanced gratefully at her sister. “Tigerstar said that he was loyal to ThunderClan. That he’d been born ThunderClan and he’d never stopped feeling like a ThunderClan cat.”

Jayfeather was nodding slowly. “Okay.”

“I just wanted to be as good as Dovepaw,” Ivypaw explained. “I wanted to be so good that everyone would notice me, too.”

She was relieved to see Lionblaze’s gaze soften. “You’re a good apprentice, Ivypaw, and you’re going to make a fine warrior. Don’t try competing with your sister.”

Why not? The old jealousy sparked beneath Ivypaw’s pelt. What’s so special about her? “It’s over now. I know the truth. Tigerstar and his warriors are planning to attack all the Clans. They want to destroy us. I’m never going back to the Dark Forest.” She felt bone tired as tension eased from her muscles.

“How will you stop?” Jayfeather’s mew took her by surprise.

“Stop what?”

“When you go to sleep, do you choose to dream about the Dark Forest?” Jayfeather pressed.

Ivypaw narrowed her eyes. “I… I guess not. I just wake up there,” she admitted.

Jayfeather sat up. “Good.”

What do you mean? What if I wake up there again, without wanting to? Ivypaw felt sick. “W-why is that good?”

“Because you’re going to spy for us,” Jayfeather declared.

Ivypaw started to tremble. “But I don’t want to go there again.”

“Too late.” Jayfeather shrugged. “You joined the Dark Forest. Do you think Tigerstar’s going to let you go after training you so hard?”

“But I don’t want to train anymore!”

Jayfeather wasn’t listening. His blind blue eyes seemed to be boring into hers. “They don’t know you’ve changed your mind, do they?”

Ivypaw shook her head, unable to speak.

“Then you must keep training with them and tell us everything you find out.”

Ivypaw’s chest throbbed. “You want me to spy on them?”

“Of course.” Jayfeather smoothed his whiskers with a paw. “You were ready to betray us. Why not betray them?”

Dovepaw sat up sharply. “She didn’t know she was betraying us—”

Jayfeather interrupted her. “She was training with Tigerstar,” he snapped. “How was that ever going to be good for ThunderClan?”

Lionblaze tucked his tail over his front paws. “I think it’s a good idea.”

Ivypaw felt as if she were caught in another terrible dream.

“But only,” Lionblaze went on, “if Ivypaw agrees.”

Ivypaw felt Mapleshade’s paws on her shoulders, pressing her down into the riverbed. “No!” She just wanted to be an ordinary apprentice again, fetching moss for Mousefur and Purdy, learning to hunt in a real forest with real cats. “I’m not going back.”

“You may not have the choice,” Jayfeather muttered.

Dovepaw’s tail was flicking. “Let me talk to her on my own. Please.” Lionblaze dipped his head and leaped up onto the trunk.

“Come on,” he called to Jayfeather. “Let’s leave this to Dovepaw.” Jayfeather gave a small sigh and followed his brother.

As their paw steps crunched away through the snow, Ivypaw looked at her sister. “What’s going on?”

Dovepaw settled back into a crouch. “There’s something that you still don’t know.”

“What?”

“Climb over the trunk and go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything.” Dovepaw blinked at her. “Throw a snowball; climb a tree. It doesn’t matter. Just make sure I can’t hear you or see you.”

Puzzled, Ivypaw scrambled onto the trunk and bounded away through the snow. She looked back and saw nothing, then headed farther away. Once she knew Dovepaw wouldn’t be able to hear her, she slid behind a tree and dug a hole in the snow. Then she filled it in and hurried back to her sister.

“Well?” she panted.

“You dug a hole, and then you filled it in,” Dovepaw told her.

Ivypaw felt dizzy. “Did you follow me?”

“Did you see my paw prints?”

Ivypaw shook her head. “Then how did you know?”

Her sister was silent for a moment, gazing at her with wet blue eyes. “I can hear everything,” she blurted out. “I can smell everything too, if I set my mind to it.”

Ivypaw snorted. “Shut up! You’re just showing off again! No cat can smell and hear everything.”

Dovepaw lashed her tail. “I’m not showing off. Sometimes I wish that I were. I have special powers. I’m part of a prophecy that says three cats will have more power than the stars in their paws. Jayfeather and Lionblaze are the other two cats. That’s why they listen to me. That’s why Firestar listens to me.”

“Firestar listened to me when I told him about my dream!” Ivypaw pointed out.