The Darkest Hour

Firestar shrugged. “StarClan knows. Personally, I wouldn’t care if Tigerstar never showed up.”

He signaled with his tail and led his warriors as they raced down through the bushes and into the clearing at the center of the hollow. As Graystripe had said, only WindClan cats were there. Firestar spotted their leader, Tallstar, seated with his deputy, Deadfoot, near the base of the Great Rock.

“Greetings, Firestar,” Tallstar mewed, dipping his head courteously as Firestar approached. “Tornear told me he met you on your way to Highstones. We grieve for Bluestar.”

“So do her own Clan,” Firestar responded, bowing his head in turn. “She was a noble leader.”

“But you will be a worthy successor,” meowed the black-and-white tom, surprising Firestar by the warmth of his tone. “You’ve served your Clan well.”

“I-I hope to serve it even better in future,” Firestar stammered.

Tallstar nodded once more in response, and sprang up to the top of the rock. Before following him, Firestar glanced around at his own cats. They were already circling am o n g the WindClan warriors and beginning to exchange their news. Firestar was pleased to see that the two Clans seem e d friendly toward each other, in spite of the recent clash over missing prey. Worried as he was about ShadowClan and RiverClan, it was good to think that he might find allies in WindClan.

Waving with his tail toward Onewhisker and his apprentice, Gorsepaw, who were settling down to talk with Sandstorm, Firestar jumped up to stand beside Tallstar on the top of the Great Rock.

He had stood here once before, when he took Bluestar’s place while she was ill after the fire, but he was still not used to looking down on his cats from such a great height, nor seeing their eyes gleam pale from reflected moonlight as they stared up at him. Firestar’s tension increased as he thought about what was to come, and the confrontation with Tigerstar that would surely happen before moonset.

“ShadowClan and RiverClan are late,” he remarked.

Tallstar twitched his ears in agreement. “Clouds threaten the moon,” he pointed out. A trace of anxiety crossed his face. “Perhaps StarClan is angry.”

Looking up, Firestar saw that the clouds he had noticed earlier were spreading farther across the sky.

The air tasted damp, and his fur prickled with expectation. What would it mean, Firestar wondered, if StarClan veiled the moon and Tigerstar was left to plot in secret until the next Gathering?

“Tallstar,” he began, deciding that the time had come to confide in the WindClan leader and ask for his advice. “I’m worried about what Tigerstar might be planning—”

He never finished. A triumphant yowling from the top of the hollow interrupted him, and a heartbeat later more cats raced into the clearing as ShadowClan and RiverClan arrived together, their cats fanning out below him. Tigerstar reached the top of the Great Rock in a single bound, and Leopardstar scrambled up beside him.

“Cats of all Clans!” Tigerstar declared, not waiting to greet Tallstar and Firestar or discuss which of the leaders should speak first. “I have news for you. Listen well, for great change is coming to the forest.”

Firestar stared at the ShadowClan leader in confusion. When Tigerstar first mentioned news, he had thought for a moment he was referring to Mistyfoot and Stonefur’s half-Clan heritage. Yet that would not merit such a spectacular arrival or make Tigerstar talk about great change.

Below them in the clearing there was dead silence. Al l the cats stared up at the Great Rock, their eyes wide as they waited for Tigerstar to explain. Every hair on Firestar’s pelt began to bristle, and he did not know whether it was due to the tension of the assembled warriors or the threatening rain clouds.

“Great change,” Tigerstar repeated. “And StarClan has shown me that it is ShadowClan’s task to prepare every cat in the forest to meet it.”

“Every cat?” Firestar heard the quiet mutter from Tallstar. The WindClan leader took a step forward. “Tigerstar—”

“ShadowClan has the favor of StarClan,” Tigerstar swept on, ignoring the interruption. “We are blessed because we survived the sickness, and I have received the blessing of our warrior ancestors most of all because it was my task to restore the Clan and make it great again.”

Oh, yes? Firestar thought. He refused to believe that StarClan were showing favor to Tigerstar after all that he had done to his birth Clan. Glancing down into the clearing, he looked for Runningnose. The ShadowClan medicine cat had done his best to support his Clan during Nightstar’s ill-fated leadership, and Firestar had an idea that he was not entirely happy with Tigerstar as the old tom’s replacement. He wondered what Runningnose thought of the announcement Tigerstar had just made, but though his gaze searched the clearing carefully he could see no sign of the medicine cat.

Left at home, Firestar asked himself, so he can’t deny what Ti g e r s tar claims?