Sign Of The Moon

“Of course we’re not,” Ivypool told her.

“But what if we do? Do you think Millie will miss me?”

Pity rushed through Ivypool from ears to tail-tip. “Of course!” she assured Blossomfall. “Millie loves you just as much as Briarlight.”

As she reassured her Clanmate, Ivypool guessed that this was how Hawkfrost had won Blossomfall over: by giving her the chance to get as much attention as her sister, Briarlight.

Just as he did with Dovewing and me.

She felt sad that Blossomfall was so jealous of her sister for the amount of time her mother and her Clanmates spent with her. Briarlight had lost the use of her legs!

But then, Ivypool thought, I don’t suppose Dovewing’s gift is always so much fun, either. Maybe we should both be grateful for what we have…

Blossomfall hesitated, then shrugged. “Maybe Millie loves me, when she remembers that she has more than one kit.” Stretching out one forepaw, she scraped it against the hard stone of the tunnel floor, so violently that Ivypool was surprised she didn’t wrench her claws out. “I hate myself for feeling jealous of Briarlight,” Blossomfall confessed, not looking at Ivypool. “I can’t bear seeing her suffer and I know Briarlight would give anything to be better and whole again. It’s all so unfair!” Scoring her claws across the rock again, she added, “But I can’t help what I feel, and that proves I’m not a good cat.”

“Of course you are!” Ivypool exclaimed, shocked.

“No. A good cat wouldn’t be jealous of an injured littermate. So that’s why I’ve ended up in the Dark Forest.” She gave Ivypool a sidelong glance. “I’m not stupid. I know it’s where cats go if they’re not allowed into StarClan. But I guess I won’t get into StarClan either, because I hate my sister for being injured. So the Dark Forest is where I fit in, and I’m getting good training, better than anything we get here.” She took in a long, shaking breath and looked around. “Will Hawkfrost come to get us, do you think?”

“I told you, we’re not going to die!” Ivypool put every scrap of conviction she could muster into the words. But what if we do? She couldn’t bear the thought of being trapped in the Dark Forest forever. “Blossomfall, do you think you could try again to get up?”

“Maybe.” Blossomfall gathered her legs under her and managed to stand, though she still looked shaky.

As Ivypool was wondering how far her Clanmate would be able to go, she heard the soft pad of paw steps approaching from behind. Every hair on her pelt rose; she felt as though icy water was creeping over her entire body. It took all the courage she had to turn around.

A strange cat padded out of the shadows, a scrawny tom with ginger fur and wide, haunted eyes. “Oh!” he gasped. “I was expecting the other one.”

“What other one?” Ivypool demanded, her voice cracking.

The stranger ignored her question; he was examining her and Blossomfall with puzzled eyes. “Two of you?” he meowed. “Are you all right?”

“No.” Ivypool was too scared to waste time wondering who this strange cat was, or what he was doing here. “We need to get out. My Clanmate is hurt!”

“But if I show you the way out,” the strange cat told her, “I’ll be on my own again. You always promise to come back, but you never do.”

Ivypool stared at him. “We’ve never been here before!” she meowed. “Please, you have to get us out of here.”

The ginger tom flicked his ears crossly. “There’s no need to shout. You shouldn’t have come down here if you didn’t want to stay. It’s not safe, not unless you know what you’re doing.”

“Well, we don’t,” Ivypool replied, wondering what she could do to make him listen to her pleading. “We just want to go home.”

The stranger came nearer, his eyes narrowed in suspicion; Ivypool tensed as he sniffed her, then Blossomfall. His scent spooked her: He smelled of earth and water and cold ancient stone.

“You’re right, you don’t belong down here,” he murmured, and added more briskly, “All right. Go down this tunnel and take the turn after the rock shaped like a mushroom. Follow that passage for ten fox-lengths, and you’ll see that the tunnel splits into three. Take the middle one. That should start leading upward, and you’ll come to a heap of stones. There’s enough space at the top for you to squeeze through, and from there you can see the way out.”

Ivypool’s mind buzzed like a hollow tree full of bees as she tried to remember the directions. “Can you show us?”

“No.” The ginger tom was already backing away. “You must go on your own.”

Before Ivypool could protest, he had vanished into the shadows. “Mange-pelt!” she muttered, lashing her tail. For a couple of heartbeats she stared down the tunnel where he had disappeared, then turned back to Blossomfall. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”

Sending Blossomfall in front, in case the tortoiseshell warrior collapsed again, Ivypool headed along the tunnel. They found the mushroom-shaped rock the ginger tom had mentioned, but the tunnel they had to turn into was completely dark, and there was no way to tell where they were.