The Forgotten Warrior

Jayfeather opened his jaws to reply, but in the same heartbeat Firestar raised his tail and beckoned. He headed out through the thorn tunnel with the rest of the cats streaming behind him.

As they made their way down to the lakeshore, Lionblaze found himself walking beside Graystripe and Millie. “What did you think of the session this morning?” he asked. All three of them had gone with Birchfall and Hazeltail for underground battle training with Hollyleaf. “I have to admit that I don’t like fighting in the dark. I’d rather see my enemy and know where I can strike without risking my paws on hard stone.”

Millie twitched her shoulders. “I wasn’t comfortable in the tunnels at all,” she confessed. “I couldn’t stop thinking about the amount of rock above my head!”

“But you were brilliant,” Graystripe meowed, resting his tail on his mate’s shoulder. “I think we all felt the same. Fighting underground isn’t natural, but neither is Sol. What kind of cat would keep trying to befriend a Clan, only to betray them?” The gray warrior ducked under a hawthorn bough, and went on, “Sol did it with Blackstar and ShadowClan, and now he’s turning WindClan against ThunderClan. If he has a reason, I’d like to know what it is.”

Whitewing caught up in time to hear the gray warrior’s last few words. “Sol knew that the sun was going to vanish,” she pointed out, suppressing a shiver. “That suggests he has more power than any of us.”

Lionblaze snorted. No cat has the power to challenge me when it comes to a battle! His paws itched to take on Sol in single combat. He made me help him to escape from ThunderClan all those moons ago. The memory surged up inside Lionblaze, making him feel as if flames were scorching his pelt. I’d like to punish him for that. And for bringing more trouble to the Clans now, when we should be thinking about the Dark Forest.

A sudden thought struck Lionblaze, briefly freezing his paws to the ground. Was Sol sent by the Dark Forest cats to stir up trouble? Is this the beginning of the end?

Forcing himself to move on, he spotted Jayfeather a couple of tail-lengths away, slipping unerringly through the undergrowth. “I just had a horrible idea,” Lionblaze hissed. “Do you think Sol is helping the Dark Forest?”

Jayfeather paused, then shrugged. “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised.”

In the clearing around the Great Oak, the air was filled with tension, as if a greenleaf storm was about to break. Lionblaze noticed that the medicine cats especially seemed hostile, sitting loosely in a group underneath a pine tree, but not acknowledging one another. Every Clan is going it alone, he thought, twitching his whiskers apprehensively. It’s really bad when even the medicine cats are enemies.

Only Mothwing was speaking to her fellow medicine cats, but they barely replied. Lionblaze saw her flex her claws in exasperation and finally give up, sitting down beside her apprentice, Willowshine.

The rest of the cats settled down within their own Clans, without any of the mingling and gossiping that used to be part of a Gathering. Lionblaze watched carefully for any signs that cats knew one another in the Dark Forest. Once alerted, he spotted plenty of indications: Redwillow exchanging a glance with Breezepelt; Icewing of RiverClan nodding to Ivypool; the twitch of a tail as Tigerheart’s gaze met Hollowflight’s.

They know each other, Lionblaze thought, chilled. Better than any warrior should know a cat from another Clan. Then he gave his pelt a shake. Don’t get carried away, he told himself. Not every cat is being trained by unseen enemies.

He was distracted from thoughts of the Dark Forest when he noticed Crowfeather among the WindClan cats. The gray-black warrior had just spotted Hollyleaf, and he was staring as if his eyes were about to leap out of his head. Beside him, his mate, Nightcloud, followed his gaze and drew back her lips in a snarl.

Lionblaze realized that Hollyleaf had seen them, but she turned her back on them, staying close to her own Clanmates. Surprised murmurs spread around the clearing as more cats realized that she was there. One or two younger cats sprang to their paws to get a better view of her.

“This feels kind of weird,” Hollyleaf muttered, picking her way over to sit beside Lionblaze.

Lionblaze touched her ear with his nose. “You must have known it wouldn’t be easy.”