Path Of A Warrior

“Pebble Heart!” Shadowstar shook him. “Pebble Heart, wake up!”

He blinked, and gradually his body relaxed and his eyes focused. “Shadowstar,” he murmured.

“What’s happening? Do you need some herbs?” Shadowstar looked doubtfully at the neatly sorted dried leaves and roots at the side of Pebble Heart’s den.

“No, I’m all right.” Pebble Heart sat up, still looking groggy. “It was just a dream.”

“A regular dream or a medicine-cat dream?” Shadowstar asked apprehensively. Even as a kit, before the Clan had had a medicine cat, Pebble Heart had been sent dreams by StarClan, warning of danger or pointing a path for the Clans to follow.

“I’m not sure,” Pebble Heart began slowly. “But it felt true.” He looked up at Shadowstar, his amber gaze apprehensive. “I dreamed that the trees around the camp were bending and swaying, like they were being attacked by a fierce wind. But there was no wind. And when the first tree fell, it …” He hesitated, his tail swishing across the floor of his den as Shadowstar felt a cold claw scrape at her chest fur. She knew what he was going to say.

“It knocked over the next tree… . Soon, every tree was falling down… .”

If ShadowClan falls apart, it could destroy all the Clans. That was what Gray Wing had said to her, the last time she was in StarClan. Could Pebble Heart’s vision be telling her the same thing?

“But we’ve just gotten rid of the threat,” Shadowstar meowed, staring at him. “And now we’re in danger again? StarClan, what’s going on?”

Chapter Six

Shadowstar and Pebble Heart decided not to tell any other cat, not even Raven Pelt, about Pebble Heart’s dream.

“If what you saw is a vision from StarClan, trouble will find us soon enough,” Shadowstar had told him grimly, “and if it was just a dream, there’s no reason to worry the Clan.” Pebble Heart had agreed, but Shadowstar knew that, like her, he was sure the dream had been a warning.

As she and Raven Pelt padded toward ThunderClan’s territory, she decided not to think about it. All she could do was try to protect her Clan, and she would do that with or without StarClan’s warning.

Instead, Shadowstar would help Raven Pelt learn how to be a Clan leader.

“We’ll talk to Thunderstar about the territory up near the Highstones,” she told him now. “If he thinks that SkyClan should consider moving there, it’ll help all the Clans to come to an agreement.”

Raven Pelt’s whiskers twitched in confusion. “But it’s not a very good territory.”

“No,” Shadowstar agreed with a sigh. “But it’s an option, and the other Clans will never give up territory. Not without blood being shed. If SkyClan does end up losing its own territory, surely it’s better for them to stay close instead of ending up with nowhere to go.”

Raven Pelt’s tail drooped. “I guess.”

“A leader has to think of their own Clan first,” Shadowstar told him gently. “But we should try to treat the other Clans as fairly as we can.”

As they came out of the pine forest near the Thunderpath, Shadowstar’s spine prickled, and she shivered. Something was wrong. She sniffed the air, and then looked around, half expecting to be attacked. Just like yesterday, she’d caught a familiar whiff of cat over the Thunderpath scent. A scent that smelled like …

Quick Water?

No, she decided. I must be imagining it. After all the danger she’d run into around Thunderpaths, she was seeing trouble where there wasn’t any. Quick Water had been exiled; she wouldn’t dare intrude on any Clan’s territory now.

Side by side, she and Raven Pelt crossed the Thunderpath. The sun was shining brightly, and a warm breeze rustled the leaves of the trees overhead.

The scent seemed stronger here. I am imagining it, Shadowstar told herself. Aren’t I?

Raven Pelt stopped suddenly and opened his mouth to scent the air. “Do you smell that?” he said. “I think it’s Quick Water’s scent. If she’s left Clan lands, shouldn’t it have faded by now?”

“It should have,” Shadowstar said grimly. So, she hadn’t been imagining it. Quick Water must be hanging around ThunderClan territory. Was she trespassing, unwilling to go off alone onto rogue lands? Or was ThunderClan sheltering the cat who had murdered Sun Shadow?

She began to hurry. “We need to talk to Thunderstar.”

Just across the ThunderClan border, Shadowstar caught sight of a black-and-white pelt through the underbrush. “Leaf!” she called, and the tom trotted out of the bushes, trailed by a smaller white-and-yellow she-cat.

“Hello, Shadowstar, Raven Pelt,” Leaf meowed, dipping his head respectfully. “What brings you onto ThunderClan territory?”

“We need to speak to Thunderstar,” Shadowstar told him. “Will you escort us to your camp?”