Tallstar’s Revenge

Talltail hadn’t thought about the danger, only saving the kits. He swallowed, relieved that StarClan had been kind to him. Was it a sign that he was welcome home? He glanced at Heatherstar.

She flicked her tail toward the entrance. “Walk with me, Talltail.” She turned, pausing beside Reedfeather. “Organize the dusk patrol while we’re gone, please.”

Heatherstar didn’t speak as she led the way upslope. She weaved through the bushes, following an old rabbit trail. Talltail trotted after her, relishing the feel of familiar stems brushing his pelt, his tongue steeped in scents he’d known since he was a kit. As he emerged onto the moor-top, the wind buffeted his face. It promised rain. He opened his mouth and tasted the distant tang of Highstones. Gray clouds dragged along their peaks, hiding the mountains beyond. Heatherstar kept moving, head high, pelt smooth. She’s heading for Outlook Rock.

The familiar crop of stones jutted from the moor, pale gray against the dark gray sky. Talltail padded onto the ledge and felt the smooth stone underneath his paws. He’d spent so many moments here, dreaming of traveling farther than he could see. Now he’d been beyond the horizon that had once made him feel trapped and suffocated. And still he’d come back.

Heatherstar sat at the edge of the rock and stared across the valley. “Are you glad to be home?”

Talltail stopped a muzzle-length behind her. He opened his mouth and let the wind wash his tongue. He’d traveled far, far away, where every paw step was strange and new. Now he was walking on WindClan land once more. His kin had walked this moor since the dawn of the Clans. Sandgorse and countless others had tunneled beneath it. This was home. He belonged here. His Clan needed him. Even if they didn’t know it, he knew it, as surely as he knew that daylight would bathe the Highstones every sunrise.

“Yes, I’m glad to be back,” he murmured.

“Good.” She kept her eyes on the distant peaks. “You always loved it here.”

“I did.” Talltail had never felt more free than when he was sitting on the rock, the sky high above, the land far below.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Heatherstar’s question sounded casual, but Talltail guessed from the stiffness in her shoulders that she knew exactly what she was asking.

“No.”

“So Sparrow is alive.”

Talltail swallowed. “Yes.”

“Couldn’t you find him?” Heatherstar’s mew was soft.

“I found him,” Talltail replied. “But he told me that Sandgorse had given his life to save him in the tunnels. I couldn’t kill him then. Sandgorse would have died for nothing.”

“So you didn’t need to leave the Clan after all?” Heatherstar probed.

“That’s not true,” Talltail growled. “I didn’t leave just for revenge. I didn’t feel like I belonged here.”

“Sometimes we have to leave to find out where our heart truly lies,” Heatherstar whispered.

Talltail’s pelt pricked. Heatherstar had said the same thing when he’d left. Does she know something she’s not telling me? Right now, he didn’t care. She understood that he had needed to leave, and that was what mattered. Relief swamped him. “I learned a lot,” he told her. “Friendship and kinship matter more than adventure. Boundaries only exist in our minds. A heart can travel to the horizon without moving a paw step. And I made the best friend any cat ever had.”

Heatherstar glanced over her shoulder. “But your loyalty is with the Clan now, right?”

Talltail’s pelt pricked with irritation. “I came back, didn’t I?”

“For good?”

Talltail winced. She was right to question his loyalty. “Yes,” he meowed.

Heatherstar turned her muzzle toward the horizon once more. “I always knew you would leave.”

Talltail stiffened. “What do you mean?” He padded forward and stopped at her side.

“When I received my nine lives, Mothflight warned me a warrior would leave my Clan.” A purr edged Heatherstar’s mew. “I was headstrong then. I told Mothflight that no warrior of mine would dare abandon his Clan.” She dipped her head. “But Mothflight was right. Sometimes a cat needs to go a long way to find that his true home is right where he started.”

Talltail’s ear twitched. “How did you know that cat was me?”

“You were restless even as a kit. You were a tunneler’s kit who hated tunnels, and a moor runner who couldn’t grasp the importance of boundaries. I let you go, as Mothflight had told me I should, so that you’d come to understand that it’s not boundaries that tie us down. We are held by much deeper bonds.”

Grief stabbed Talltail’s chest. Jake. That was the deepest bond he’d ever known, and yet Talltail had left him to return to his Clan. He shifted his paws. “This friend that I made, he’s the one who told me to come back.”

Heatherstar nodded. “He sounds like a wise cat,” she murmured. “He knows you better than you know yourself.”

Talltail turned away, his heart aching.

Heatherstar called to him as he padded from the rock. “You’ll still have to earn the trust of your Clanmates.”

Talltail hesitated. “I know.”