Path Of A Warrior

Gray Wing bent to touch his muzzle to hers. “Old friend, I want you to see something.” He gestured to Shadowstar with his tail. “You too.”

Shadowstar and Quick Water followed the two StarClan cats to a pool at the edge of the clearing. “Look,” Gray Wing said, nodding at the pool.

Gazing down, Shadowstar watched soft ripples cross the pool’s surface. Gradually, the reflections of the sun on the water began to change. She could see the Clan’s territories from above. There was ShadowClan’s pine forest, and Fourtrees… .

Beside her, Quick Water whimpered. “What’s happening?” In the pool, SkyClan’s territory was being torn apart. Twolegs and their yellow monsters were felling trees and digging great gaping holes into the earth. “Our territory is gone… .” She sounded dazed.

Their view changed. A group of cats was setting out from the ruined territory, heading not toward Highstones but off into strange lands. It really isn’t a good territory by Highstones, Shadowstar thought. I guess they couldn’t settle there. “But where is Skystar?” she asked. The tom leading the cats had Skystar’s pale gray fur, but it was splotched with cloud-like white spots. And he was small and lithe, not long-legged and broad like the SkyClan leader. But there was something familiar about his determined stride, and the tilt to his ears. “Is he … kin of Skystar?” she wondered.

“I don’t recognize any of those cats,” Quick Water said. “What’s going on? They’re not SkyClan.”

“They are SkyClan,” Gray Wing corrected her. “Generations on, but kin to the SkyClan you knew. The Twolegs won’t take your territory now, but they will someday, and SkyClan will have to find a new home.” His voice was sad. “The rest of the Clans will follow them, in time.”

Uncertainty ran through Shadowstar. “So every Clan will leave the forest?” she asked. “I thought I could save ShadowClan—but nothing I did mattered at all.”

Gray Wing raised his head to look at her, his golden eyes full of affection. “Of course it mattered,” he said warmly. “Even so many generations on, they remember you. ShadowClan survives. And all the Clans will uphold the warrior code, knowing it’s what makes them Clan cats.”

Quick Water swished her tail. “So what?” she yowled, sounding heartbroken. “I betrayed all the Clans to save SkyClan’s home, and they’re still going to have to leave! They’ll be lost without the other Clans.”

Shadowstar stroked her tail across Quick Water’s back, trying wordlessly to comfort her.

“No,” Gray Wing said. “Look.” The scene shifted. It was somewhere else now—a lake with open land around it—but there were cats there, hunting and patrolling their borders, sharing tongues and lazing in the sun together. There were thin black cats slinking through shadows, and broad-shouldered ginger cats climbing trees, and rangy thin brown cats chasing rabbits, and sleek gray cats swimming after fish. She didn’t know any of these cats, but she recognized them: Clan cats. Warriors.

And, coming toward them, walking wearily, but with the same proud tilt to their ears as Skystar had, and as the cat who had led SkyClan from the forest had: another Clan.

“They come back,” Shadowstar breathed.

Gray Wing nodded. “Even apart, the Clans survive. They remember the code, and they look after their Clanmates. And they’ll be united again.”

Another black cat was walking toward them. Moon Shadow. Shadowstar raised her tail to gesture to her brother, feeling suddenly light and free. All the fear she’d carried, fear of her own final death and of what it meant for ShadowClan, was gone now.

The Clans would survive. Their traditions would be passed down for generations of kin, StarClan watching over them all.

I did everything I could, she thought, and it meant something: ShadowClan will go on. My lives have been truly worthwhile.

Excerpt from Warriors: The Broken Code #1: Lost Stars

Chapter 1

Shadowpaw craned his neck over his back, straining to groom the hard-to-reach spot at the base of his tail. He had just managed to give his fur a few vigorous licks when he heard paw steps approaching. He looked up to see his father, Tigerstar, and his mother, Dovewing, their pelts brushing as they gazed down at him with pride and joy shining in their eyes.

“What is it?” he asked, sitting up and giving his pelt a shake.

“We just came to see you off,” Tigerstar responded, while Dovewing gave her son’s ears a quick, affectionate lick.

Shadowpaw’s fur prickled with embarrassment. Like I haven’t been to the Moonpool before, he thought. They’re still treating me as if I’m a kit in the nursery!