Alderpaw had no idea what he would say to her. He didn’t know whether to apologize about treating her without asking advice, or to ask how she was doing, or just ignore the whole thing.
But when Cherryfall poked her head around the bramble screen, he had no chance to say anything. “Alderpaw!” she blurted out. “You have to come quickly—Sparkpaw’s hurt!”
Terror tore through Alderpaw like a massive claw. Remembering what had happened when he treated Cherryfall, he wondered whether he should get the other medicine cats.
No—it’s my sister! I have to help her now!
“Show me where,” he mewed to Cherryfall.
Racing out of the den, he followed the ginger she-cat toward the ShadowClan border. They pelted through the forest, dodging around bramble thickets and leaping over fallen branches. As they drew closer, Alderpaw could hear his sister’s agonized yowling. The sound grew louder as they barreled through a clump of ferns and emerged near the greenleaf Twolegplace.
Sparkpaw was lying in a heap at the foot of a tree. Hollytuft was crouched beside her, gently stroking her shoulder, while Ivypool was encouraging her to lap from a bunch of soaked moss. Both warriors stood up and took a pace back as Alderpaw bounded up to his littermate.
“What happened?” he panted.
“She was climbing on a thin branch, trying to catch a bird,” Cherryfall explained. “She fell right out of the tree, and now her foreleg . . .” She winced, her voice dying away.
“Oowwww!” Sparkpaw mewled; her whole body was twisted with agony.
Alderpaw started to shake at the sight of his sister—bright, capable Sparkpaw—in such pain and distress. I’ve never seen her like this! She’s always so confident and in control. Now that he was close enough, he could see her foreleg was pointing at an awkward angle, not natural at all.
His heart pounded as he remembered Purdy telling him a story about Cinderheart: how she had fallen from a tree and broken her leg, and how she had had to spend moons in the medicine cats’ den before she could use it again.
Please, StarClan, don’t let that happen to Sparkpaw.
Steadying himself, Alderpaw crouched down beside his sister. “I have to examine your leg,” he meowed. “It might hurt.”
Sparkpaw nodded. “Just do it,” she mewed through clenched teeth.
Alderpaw ran his paws over Sparkpaw’s leg and shoulder. At once relief washed over him like a warm tide. It’s not broken—only dislocated. And I know how to fix that!
Leafpool had taught him what to do, telling him of when the same thing had happened to Berrynose when he was out hunting and had fallen over the edge of a rocky bank. Suddenly Alderpaw felt much more confident.
“Don’t worry,” he reassured Sparkpaw. He tried to sound sure of himself, even though his paws were shaking. “You’re going to feel much better very quickly.”
As he spoke, he saw Ivypool lean closer to Hollytuft, and heard her whispering, “Does he really know what he’s doing?”
Hollytuft just shook her head uncertainly.
Alderpaw hesitated for a moment. Do I know?
Then Sparkpaw let out another yowl of pain, and he gave himself a mental shake. “Cherryfall,” he directed, “put your paw on her other shoulder, just there. Ivypool and Hollytuft, keep her hind legs still. Don’t worry, Sparkpaw,” he added. “It’ll all be over in the time it takes you to catch a mouse.”
Bending over Sparkpaw, Alderpaw took hold of her injured leg with one paw and her shoulder with the other. You can’t overthink it, he remembered Leafpool saying. Just do it quickly, with a forceful push.
Just as his mentor had told him, Alderpaw forced his sister’s leg back into its socket with a quick, sure motion. Sparkpaw convulsed under his paws and let out a shriek. But beneath her cry, Alderpaw heard the pop as her leg slipped back into position.
Did that do the trick? he wondered. He had heard gasps of horror from Ivypool and Hollytuft, as if they thought he had made things worse.
“You can let her go now,” he told the warriors. “Sparkpaw, try standing up.”
Sparkpaw blinked at him, then slowly staggered to her paws and began to pad back and forth. Alderpaw watched her, hardly daring to breathe. She still looked shaky, and she was limping a little, but she could put weight on the leg.
“That’s amazing!” Sparkpaw exclaimed, turning toward her brother. “It feels so much better. Thanks so much, Alderpaw. You’re turning out to be a great medicine cat.”
“You sure are,” Cherryfall agreed.
Hollytuft and Ivypool were looking impressed, too. Alderpaw licked his chest fur in embarrassment as they congratulated him, though he reveled in their looks of approval.
“I’d better get back to my herbs,” he mewed shyly. “Sparkpaw, you need to have Leafpool or Jayfeather check you out when you get back to camp.”
Alderpaw felt like his paws were hardly touching the ground as he padded back through the forest. I treated Sparkpaw’s injury! And she’s okay!
Then, as he passed the old Twoleg path, he realized with a start that he had left without permission. His pelt prickled with anxiety, though as he drew close to the camp, he tried to throw off his worries.
Maybe I can sneak back in without any cat noticing.
But as he rounded an old tree stump and came within sight of the thorn barrier, he spotted Bramblestar waiting for him beside the entrance to the tunnel.
Oh, no! Alderpaw thought. Am I in trouble again? I shouldn’t have left camp . . . and didn’t Jayfeather just tell me that I shouldn’t be doing anything without asking him or Leafpool?
“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!” he burst out as he bounded up to Bramblestar. “I won’t—”
“I don’t know what you’re apologizing for,” Bramblestar interrupted with a confused look. “I’m not here because you’re in trouble. I need to talk to you because Jayfeather and Leafpool have told me about your vision.”
Startled, Alderpaw stretched his eyes wide. In all the stress of helping Sparkpaw, he had forgotten that his mentors were discussing that with Bramblestar.
“Let’s sit over here.” Bramblestar pointed with his tail at a shady spot underneath an arching clump of ferns. When both cats were comfortably settled, he went on, “We think the vision means that you’ve been chosen for a very special quest.”
Alderpaw felt warm all over at the look of pride in his father’s eyes, so that at first he didn’t really take in what he was saying.
“So you must leave ThunderClan and go on this quest,” Bramblestar added.
Wait . . . a quest?
Every hair on Alderpaw’s pelt rose in shock at what his Clan leader was telling him. “But . . . but I can’t!” he gasped.
Bramblestar curled his tail around to rest it on Alderpaw’s shoulder. “StarClan wouldn’t have sent you the vision if you weren’t ready,” he meowed. “We believe the vision you had was about the prophecy. As Sandstorm told you, the cats you saw are from another Clan, called SkyClan. Since the prophecy mentioned the sky clearing, we think they may be in trouble. Jayfeather, Leafpool, and I agree that you must go on a quest to find them.”
Alderpaw realized that he was gaping like a blackbird chick waiting for food. He tried hard to speak calmly, and to ask sensible questions that would help him understand.
“Sandstorm told me that the cats I saw belong to SkyClan,” he began. “But I don’t see why they should need my help. And how am I ever going to find them?”
“It’s a long story.” Bramblestar sat erect, with his tail curled around his paws, and looked down at Alderpaw. “It began many, many seasons ago, in the old forest. SkyClan lived there, too, along with the four Clans that you know.”
“So there were five Clans?” Alderpaw breathed out.
“Yes. But SkyClan lost their territory because Twolegs took it to build their own nests. And the other four Clans refused to share the territory that was left. They drove SkyClan out of the forest.”
“That’s so unfa
ir!” Alderpaw exclaimed indignantly.
Bramblestar bowed his head. “The remaining Clans were ashamed of what they had done, and afterward they never spoke of SkyClan. Eventually, all memory of them was lost.”
“And what happened to SkyClan?”
“They traveled a long way and finally came to the gorge where you saw them. Their Clan thrived there for a while, but at last they were driven out and scattered.”
“So what I saw was a vision from the past?” Alderpaw asked. His pelt was growing hot with anger at what SkyClan had suffered, and he dug his claws hard into the ground.
Bramblestar shook his head. “Back in the old forest—it was about the time that I became a warrior—Firestar was visited by the spirit of the SkyClan leader who had led his Clan out of the forest. He charged Firestar with a quest to find the remnants of SkyClan and restore it.”
“Wow! And Firestar really did that?”
“Sandstorm went with him, and she can tell you everything that happened,” Bramblestar replied. “But in the end, yes, they restored SkyClan and left the cats living by the warrior code in the gorge.”
“So that’s how Sandstorm recognized the cats I saw!” Alderpaw meowed. “Their leader, Leafstar, and the deputy, Sharpclaw, and . . . what was the medicine cat’s name? Oh—Echosong!”
“That’s right,” Bramblestar responded. “I believe that SkyClan may need our help again. But listen, Alderpaw. What happened to SkyClan is such a secret that only three living cats know about it: Sandstorm and me, and now you. That means we can’t tell any cat what your quest is really about—not even Leafpool and Jayfeather.”
Alderpaw stared at him, so stunned for the moment that he couldn’t get any words out. “You—you mean,” he stammered at last, “you mean there’s a part of warrior history so secret that even the medicine cats don’t know about it?”
Bramblestar nodded. “Only you and I and Sandstorm know the truth.”
Alderpaw took a moment to think about that. “Why does it need to be a secret?” he asked. “Isn’t it sort of dishonest to lie about the quest?”
“You just need to have faith in me,” Bramblestar mewed gently. “Telling the truth now would do more harm than good. I know I’m trusting you with a huge responsibility,” he added. “But I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t think you were up to the task.”
Rising to his paws, he nuzzled the top of Alderpaw’s head briefly, then padded back toward the camp. Alderpaw watched him go, a flood of emotions surging through him. The secrecy worried him, while at the same time he felt an intense curiosity to know what was going on, and whether SkyClan really needed ThunderClan’s help. His anxiety that he might not be good enough to be entrusted with the task warred with the pride he felt that Bramblestar believed in him.
Maybe Sparkpaw is right, he thought. She’s always telling me that I overthink things. I’m just going to focus on my father’s faith in me, he decided at last, and hope that all the rest will fall into place.
CHAPTER 9
“I don’t care what you say!” Sandstorm hissed. “I’m going on this quest, and that’s final!”
“It’s out of the question!” Bramblestar snapped back at her. “I asked you here to tell Alderpaw all you know about SkyClan. I never intended for you to go with him.”
Alderpaw shifted nervously from paw to paw on the sandy floor of Bramblestar’s den. It was the day after his father had told him that he must go on the quest, but so far no decisions had been made about which cats would accompany him.
And it doesn’t look like I’ll be leaving anytime soon, not if Bramblestar and Sandstorm keep on arguing. He had always believed that the two cats got along well together. Now they looked furious enough to claw each other’s pelts off.
“Then you may be Clan leader, but you’re acting like a mouse-brained apprentice.” Sandstorm’s neck fur was bristling with anger. “I’m the only—”
“Enough!” Bramblestar lashed his tail. “Sandstorm, you’re an elder. You’ve made your contribution to our Clan, and it’s been a magnificent contribution. Now you deserve to have the rest of us take care of you. I want you safe in camp, not traipsing about in unknown territory.”
“That’s exactly the point.” Sandstorm’s voice grew quieter, the words forced out through clenched teeth. Alderpaw was glad she wasn’t glaring at him like she was glaring at Bramblestar. “I’m the only living cat who has any idea how to find SkyClan’s camp. And I’m the only one who has met the cats of SkyClan before. They’re more likely to accept me than cats they’ve never laid eyes on.”
As she spoke, the anger in Bramblestar’s face was fading, replaced with a thoughtful expression. “I understand,” he began uncertainly, “but elders just don’t—”
He broke off at the sound of a patter of paw steps approaching up the tumbled rocks. Alderpaw turned to see Squirrelflight at the entrance to the den. Bramblestar and Sandstorm exchanged a swift glance, and Alderpaw realized that Squirrelflight didn’t know about SkyClan either.
“All the hunting patrols have gone out,” she reported. “I wanted to ask which warriors you’ve chosen to go with Alderpaw. He’ll need a strong group of cats. I don’t know where his paws will lead him, but I do know there’ll be danger.”
“I will be going with him,” Sandstorm announced, before Bramblestar could reply.
Her green eyes flashed with triumph when Bramblestar reluctantly dipped his head in agreement, but Squirrelflight’s expression was horrified.
“Sandstorm, you can’t!” she exclaimed. “It’s bad enough having to let Alderpaw go. Do you think I want my kit and my mother off on a dangerous quest together? I couldn’t bear it!”
Dangerous? Alderpaw thought, feeling more nervous still.
“Squirrelflight, it will be fine,” Sandstorm meowed. “I may be old, but I’m still strong. And Alderpaw will be in a lot less danger if I go with him.”
“I hate to admit it, but she’s right,” Bramblestar agreed.
Squirrelflight glanced sharply from her mother to Bramblestar and back again, her green eyes glittering. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” she demanded.
“You have to trust me,” Bramblestar responded.
A few tense heartbeats passed while Squirrelflight held Bramblestar’s amber gaze. Then she sighed, her tail drooping. “I suppose I do.”
Without further argument, Bramblestar led the way out of the den and onto the Highledge. Squirrelflight stayed by his side, while Sandstorm and Alderpaw picked their way down the tumbled rocks to the floor of the camp.
“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highledge for a Clan meeting,” Bramblestar yowled.
All the cats in the clearing turned toward the Highledge. Leafpool and Jayfeather emerged from their den and sat side by side in front of the bramble screen. Lilyheart and Daisy appeared from the nursery and settled themselves near the entrance while Lilyheart’s kits play wrestled around their paws. Cloudtail, Brightheart, and Dovewing slid out from the warriors’ den and took their places at the foot of the rock wall.
Purdy broke off a story he was telling to Snowbush and Ambermoon. “I’ll finish the rest later,” he promised as he padded off to flop down beside Graystripe and Millie near the elders’ den.
Alderpaw looked around for Sparkpaw and spotted her emerging from the thorn tunnel with Cherryfall and Molewhisker. She’s hardly limping at all, he told himself with a burst of pride. I did a good job. All three cats were loaded with prey; they bounded across the camp to drop it on the fresh-kill pile, then joined their Clanmates to listen to Bramblestar.
“Cats of ThunderClan,” their leader began, “I have important news. Alderpaw has had a vision about the prophecy from StarClan. We think that it will help us find what will ‘clear the sky,’ and so he must go on a quest to find the place that he saw in his dream. Because Sandstorm knows about some of what he saw in the vision, she will be going with him.”
Murmurs of amazement ros
e from the assembled cats at Bramblestar’s words, and they exchanged glances alive with curiosity. Alderpaw thought that Graystripe and Millie looked especially shocked to hear that Sandstorm would be part of the quest.
“Why Alderpaw, and not one of the medicine cats?” Thornclaw asked, sounding faintly aggressive.
Leafpool spoke up from her place in front of her den. “Alderpaw is a medicine cat, Thornclaw, and you know that as well as I do. As for why StarClan chose him . . .” She shrugged. “I’m sure they knew what they were doing.”
“More important, why Sandstorm?” Brightheart asked, with an affectionate glance at the ginger she-cat. “She’s an elder; she’s earned her rest.”
“Because I was afraid she would claw my ears off if I forbade her from going,” Bramblestar responded drily.
“And I would have,” Sandstorm muttered.
“There are reasons why I believe Sandstorm is vital to the quest,” Bramblestar went on. “Now all that’s left is to choose warriors to join the group.”
Several enthusiastic yowls greeted his words.
“I’ll go!”
“Let me!”
Sparkpaw scampered up to Alderpaw and pressed herself against his side, her eyes shining. “I’ll come and help you!” she mewed.
“Oh, thank you!” Alderpaw responded, his relief at the thought of having his sister with him flooding over him.
Then he noticed that Bramblestar and Squirrelflight, up on the Highledge, were exchanging dubious glances. Cherryfall, who had followed her apprentice, shook her head sternly. “Bramblestar decides who will go,” she told Sparkpaw. “And he’s not likely to choose an apprentice for a quest like this.”
Shaken, Alderpaw gazed up at Bramblestar. “Please,” he begged desperately, “can’t Sparkpaw come?”
Bramblestar paused, clearly torn, while Squirrelflight leaned closer to him and murmured something into his ear. She looked horrified at the thought of both their kits risking themselves on this quest.
The Clan leader and his deputy spoke together quietly for a few heartbeats. Then Bramblestar turned back to the cats in the clearing. “Very well,” he meowed. “Sparkpaw may go with you. And in that case,” he added, raising his voice to be heard above Sparkpaw’s squeals of triumph, “Cherryfall and Molewhisker will join the group as well.”