As he and Echosong gazed at it, for a moment too startled to move, the raccoon darted forward toward Echosong. The medicine cat started back, but she didn’t move fast enough. She let out a screech of shock and pain as the raccoon sank its teeth into her shoulder.
At first Hawkwing wasn’t sure what to do. He had never seen a raccoon before. What can these creatures do? How do I fight it?
In his moment’s hesitation, Pebblepaw leaped at the raccoon, slashing her claws through its thick fur. With a hideous tearing sound the raccoon let Echosong go, and the medicine cat slumped to the ground with a dull thud. Then the creature turned on Pebblepaw, hissing ferociously.
Terrified for her, Hawkwing barreled into its side, thrusting it away, and lashed at its muzzle with one forepaw. With a grunt of pain the raccoon spun around, scattering drops of blood from its injured muzzle, and vanished once more into the undergrowth.
“Thank StarClan!” Pebblepaw exclaimed. “They were much fiercer than that when they attacked us in the gorge.”
“Maybe they’re not so brave when they’re alone,” Hawkwing responded, grateful that the encounter had been no worse. “It seemed just as surprised as we were when we came across each other. I don’t think it was looking for a fight.”
Though he and Pebblepaw were both bruised and exhausted, the raccoon hadn’t injured them. The kits were fine, too, crouching under a bush with bristling fur and eyes stretched wide with a mixture of fear and excitement.
So all we need to worry about is the bite on Echosong’s shoulder, Hawkwing thought, relieved.
“Echosong, are you badly hurt?” Pebblepaw asked.
The medicine cat shook her head. “It’s not too bad,” she replied. “It just needs cleaning out, and cobweb to stop the bleeding.”
“I’ll clean it up,” Pebblepaw offered at once. “Echosong, come and lie down here in the shelter of this bush.”
Echosong padded over into the shade of a hazel bush and sank down with a sigh of relief. Pebblepaw crouched beside her and began to clean the wound with strong, rapid rasps of her tongue.
“Come on, kits,” Hawkwing directed. “We’ll go and look for cobwebs.”
The kits sprang up instantly, obviously pleased to be able to help. “We’ll find lots!” Curlykit boasted.
Hawkwing kept an eye on the kits as they all headed into the bushes, and tried to imagine how they felt. They’ve lost their home and a littermate, all at once. I’m scared, so they must be terrified.
“You’re doing really well,” he told them as they peered under branches to find the cobwebs Echosong needed.
By the time Hawkwing and the kits returned with pawfuls of cobweb, Pebblepaw had finished cleaning Echosong’s wound. Already the bleeding had almost stopped, but she still showed Hawkwing how to plaster the cobweb over the bite. Fidgetkit patted it carefully all around to seal the edges.
“You should rest now,” Hawkwing told Echosong when the cobweb was in place. “Keep the kits with you, and Pebblepaw and I will hunt.”
“But shouldn’t we go on looking for Snipkit?” Curlykit objected.
“No,” Echosong replied, curling her tail around to draw the little gray she-cat closer to her. “We need to eat to keep up our strength. We can’t help Snipkit by making ourselves ill.”
Fidgetkit nodded seriously. “We’ll look after you, Echosong,” he mewed. “Are you comfortable there? If you stretch out more it should be better. And can we find you any herbs to help with the pain?”
“Not right now,” Echosong replied, blinking affectionately at the little tom. “It’s more important for us to stay together.”
When Hawkwing was satisfied that Echosong and the two kits would be safe for a while, he headed farther downstream with Pebblepaw at his side. Though they still kept a lookout for Snipkit, their main purpose was to find some prey. Hawkwing hadn’t realized until then how hungry he was.
“We’d better watch out for raccoons, too,” Pebblepaw murmured, tasting the air. “It’s weird that they started coming onto our territory so often, when we’d never seen them before.”
Hawkwing nodded agreement, then halted as a sudden realization struck him. “You know,” he began slowly, thinking aloud, “I saw Darktail scattering Twoleg food scraps near the camp. Suppose he was trying to lure other animals—foxes, maybe, and these raccoons—onto our territory to cause trouble for us and put us in danger. How long have Darktail and Rain been working against us? From the very beginning?”
Pebblepaw listened in silence, her eyes widening as Hawkwing explained his suspicions. “I saw Darktail leaving half-eaten pieces of prey outside camp once,” she meowed when he had finished. “But that was a long time ago. I didn’t know what to think about it, and I didn’t want to confront Darktail.” Her head drooped in regret. “I should have shared my suspicions with some cat.”
Hawkwing shook his head. “It’s not your fault. I could have spoken up too, but I thought of Darktail as a friend. I still can’t really believe what he did. I felt so close to him. The cat I thought he was just wasn’t the same as the cat who did these dreadful things and spent so much time planning how to destroy us. The quests, too,” he added. “I don’t think he ever knew where we could find Firestar’s kin. He just wanted to distract us and weaken us.”
“Then he succeeded,” Pebblepaw mewed solemnly. “We followed his directions and we lost Billystorm.”
“It’s my fault,” Hawkwing continued, fighting with a renewed onset of guilt. “I saw him leave the food scraps, and I should have reported it. If I’d told Leafstar or Sharpclaw, the attack last night might never have happened.”
Pebblepaw huffed out a breath. “Don’t deceive yourself. Darktail is clever and sneaky. He would have thought up some excuse. And you couldn’t possibly have known just how evil he is.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Hawkwing sighed. Pebblepaw’s words comforted him, even though he couldn’t entirely get rid of his guilty feelings. “At any rate, once we find our Clanmates I’ll protect them from now on—even with my last breath!”
Pebblepaw pressed her muzzle against his shoulder. “We’ll make things better,” she purred. “We’ll work together, and save SkyClan any way we can. And now let’s hunt,” she added. “My belly thinks my throat’s been clawed out!”
Sunhigh was approaching by the time Hawkwing and Pebblepaw returned with a mouse and a couple of voles. Echosong was asleep, with the two kits nestling against her flank, but all three of them roused as Hawkwing and Pebblepaw padded up and dropped their prey beside them.
Curlykit and Fidgetkit blinked sleepily, then sprang to their paws and looked around hopefully. Only for a heartbeat; then their tails drooped in disappointment.
“You didn’t find Snipkit,” Curlykit mewed.
“No, but we found fresh-kill,” Pebblepaw told her, pushing the plumpest vole toward her. “Come and eat.”
“So can we go and look for Snipkit now?” Fidgetkit asked when every cat had gulped down the last mouthfuls of prey.
Hawkwing glanced at Echosong. We know that Snipkit is dead, he thought. Maybe this is the time to tell the kits.
Echosong shook her head sadly. “No,” she responded to Fidgetkit’s question. “If Snipkit had made it to shore, we would have found her by now.”
Curlykit and Fidgetkit gazed at each other in dismay, and Curlykit let out a miserable wail.
“That doesn’t mean she’s dead,” Fidgetkit meowed. “She could be on the opposite bank.”
Hawkwing exchanged a doubtful look with Echosong, while Pebblepaw studied her paws and wouldn’t meet the kits’ gaze.
“You could be right,” Echosong agreed at last. “I think if Snipkit did swim to shore, she would try to find the rest of the Clan. And so should we. Hawkwing, where do you think the others would have gone?”
Hawkwing wasn’t sure. “Maybe near the gorge?” he suggested. “Watching the rogues and getting ready to attack?”
“I doubt it,” Pebblepaw meowed. “The
y’ll be injured and exhausted—in no fit state to fight. Not yet, at least. I think they’d try to find a place where they’re sure to find other Clanmates.”
“And there’s only one place like that,” Echosong stated. “In the Twolegplace, with the daylight warriors.”
Hawkwing’s pelt began to bristle with nervousness as he and his Clanmates approached the Twolegplace. This was only the fourth time he had been there: once with Ebonyclaw, who was a daylight warrior and thoroughly familiar with the hard Thunderpaths separating the huge stone dens; once with Billystorm and the rest of the patrol on the first quest; and once when he followed Darktail. He had hoped that he would never have to go there again, and when the first of the dens loomed over them he felt lost and uncertain.
The two kits had never been there before, and were staring around in wonder.
“It’s so big!” Curlykit exclaimed.
“Will we see Twolegs?” Fidgetkit asked. “What will they do to us?”
“Probably nothing bad,” Echosong mewed briskly. “Follow me.”
Hawkwing stared at the medicine cat as she took the lead so confidently. “Have you been here before?” he asked.
Echosong glanced at him over her shoulder. “Of course,” she replied. “Didn’t you know that I was once a kittypet?”
Hawkwing exchanged a surprised glance with Pebblepaw. “No,” he meowed, shocked that a kittypet could become a medicine cat with such a strong connection to StarClan. “You really lived with Twolegs in one of these dens?”
“I really did,” Echosong told him. “Firestar found me, and explained why I was dreaming of cats with stars in their fur. But that was a long time ago,” she added dismissively. “I hardly think about it anymore.”
Echosong led her Clanmates along the edge of Thunderpaths, down alleyways, and past so many Twoleg dens that Hawkwing became quite bewildered. “If I was on my own, I’d never find my way out of here,” he murmured to Pebblepaw.
At last Echosong squeezed under a Twoleg fence and beckoned with her tail for the others to follow. Hawkwing brought up the rear, and heard the two kits squeaking with excitement as he pressed his belly to the ground and crawled through the gap with the bottom of the fence scraping his spine.
Rising to his paws on the other side, Hawkwing found himself in a Twoleg garden. The powerful scent of cats caught him in the throat. Looking around eagerly, he saw that a long stretch of grass led up to a Twoleg den at the far side. Close by, crouching in the shelter of some bushes with glossy dark leaves, was Leafstar, surrounded by several of their Clanmates.
Relief filled Hawkwing like rain filling an upturned leaf. Some of us have survived! There’s hope after all!
But within a couple of heartbeats Hawkwing’s feelings of relief began to give way to dismay as he realized how many of his Clanmates were missing. Something cold gathered heavily inside him as he looked in vain for his mother, Cherrytail, and his sisters, Cloudmist and Blossomheart.
Have I lost all my kin?
Ebonyclaw was with the others; when she spotted the newcomers she bounded over to them and dipped her head. “You’re alive!” she exclaimed. “Oh, it’s so good to see you. Welcome to my nest.”
In spite of his anxiety about his family, Hawkwing couldn’t wait to rejoin his Clanmates. They looked exhausted and their pelts were ragged, but their eyes were bright as they clustered around, eagerly welcoming.
“There’s Parsleypaw!” Pebblepaw exclaimed, running to touch noses with her brother. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re safe!”
Sparrowpelt and Tinycloud were there, too, hurrying up to greet their daughter and brushing their pelts against hers.
Birdwing sprang up and bounded up to Curlykit and Fidgetkit, closely followed by their father, Sagenose. “Thank StarClan you’re safe!” she mewed, relief shining in her eyes. Then she paused, her gaze traveling over the newcomers. “But where’s Snipkit?”
“She’s not with you?” Fidgetkit asked anxiously.
Sagenose shook his head. “We haven’t seen her since last night.”
The two kits launched into their story, of how Snipkit had fallen into the river. Hawkwing could see growing dismay in Birdwing’s and Sagenose’s eyes, and Birdwing let out a wail of pain when Curlykit told how their search had failed. She drew her two remaining kits close to her, and Sagenose buried his muzzle in her shoulder fur.
Giving them space to grieve, Hawkwing looked around to see who else was there. He spotted Mintfur with all four of her kits, as well as her mate, Nettlesplash. Plumwillow and Waspwhisker had made it, too. But his relief at seeing they had survived couldn’t wipe out his desolation that his mother and sisters were missing.
Then after a moment Pebblepaw left her family and came to sit beside him, offering silent support with understanding in her eyes. Hawkwing leaned toward her, grateful for her warmth.
“It’s been a while since any kittypets were attacked by raccoons,” Ebonyclaw was explaining to Leafstar. “So my Twolegs have started letting me out again, though only in the daytime.”
“What about the others?” Leafstar asked.
“I haven’t seen them,” the black she-cat replied. “But I reckon they’ll be free again soon. Twolegs like to do things at the same time as each other. If only Darktail hadn’t made his move while all of us daylight warriors were shut up,” she added. “Maybe we would have been able to turn the tide in the battle. I’ll never forgive myself for not being there!”
“Don’t blame yourself. I’m sure Darktail took all that into account when he was making his plans,” Leafstar meowed grimly.
No cat looked angrily at Hawkwing when the evil rogue was mentioned, but he felt another painful pang of guilt. I never want to hear Darktail’s name again!
“Well,” Sparrowpelt began, sounding determinedly cheerful, “now that we have the daylight warriors again, we can gather up the rest of the Clan, attack the rogues, and take back our territory.”
An enthusiastic murmur rose from the group of cats. “We’ll teach those rogues!” Tinycloud called out.
“Yes, rip their pelts off!” Nettlesplash growled.
Hawkwing flexed his claws eagerly, relieved that he could put the past behind him and prove himself anew.
But Leafstar raised her tail for silence. “You’re right that we need to find our missing Clanmates,” she meowed. “But simply attacking the rogues might not be the smartest course of action right now.”
Hawkwing’s jaws gaped in shock. How could we not fight back? How could we not avenge my father’s death, and so many others?
Several of his Clanmates leaped to their paws, their fur bristling in outrage.
“You can’t mean that!” Waspwhisker protested. “They’re in our home!”
“But we’re not the Clan we used to be,” Sparrowpelt pointed out. “We’ve suffered so much. It might be moons before we can take on those rogues.”
“Could . . . ?” Pebblepaw’s voice was a soft mew, but somehow it caught the attention of every cat. Hawkwing could tell from the way she looked at the ground that she was uncomfortable asking her question. “Could this be StarClan’s plan? Could they be punishing us for something?”
The gathered warriors passed uneasy glances back and forth, no cat sure how to respond. Some of them looked worried.
“I don’t know.” Leafstar’s sigh was weary. “The important thing now is to follow the prophecy. Our Clan is on the verge of being destroyed. If we want to save SkyClan, we must find the spark that remains. Then we will see what the future holds for us.”
Hawkwing’s belly lurched and he felt as if he would vomit. We’ve already tried twice to find ThunderClan, and both times it ended in disaster. He reflected that it was Darktail who had led them into trouble on the previous quests, but even so, SkyClan knew no more now than they had then. How can we possibly succeed?
“It’s clear that StarClan is testing us in many ways,” Leafstar continued. “We lost our deputy, Sharpclaw.”
As he hea
rd some cats gasp, others sigh, Hawkwing felt as though clouds had gathered to cover the sun. He knew that SkyClan now needed a new deputy, but everything in him refused to accept it. Sharpclaw is our deputy. Replacing him just made it clear that Sharpclaw was truly dead.
In his mind’s eye Hawkwing could see Rain creeping up on his father, and Darktail’s murderous blow that had ended Sharpclaw’s life. Repressing a shudder, he met Pebblepaw’s steady gaze, and immediately felt a little stronger. She stretched her tail across his shoulders, wordlessly comforting him.
“Cats of SkyClan,” Leafstar began, her gaze traveling over the remnants of her Clan. “Yesterday Sharpclaw died honorably in battle, killed by the most treacherous cat I have ever known. We will never forget him. But the Clan must go on, and I must appoint a new deputy.”
Hawkwing’s grief eased just a little as Leafstar praised his father. She’s right; we’ll never forget you, he thought. I’m proud to be your son.
“I say these words before StarClan,” Leafstar continued, “that the spirits of our ancestors may hear and approve my choice. Waspwhisker will be the new deputy of SkyClan.”
A murmur of appreciation rose from the cats clustered around their leader, while Waspwhisker’s eyes widened in surprise, and a pleased expression spread over his face.
“Leafstar, I never expected this honor,” he meowed. “I can never be as noble a cat as Sharpclaw was, but I swear by StarClan that I will be a loyal and faithful deputy.”
“Waspwhisker! Waspwhisker!” the SkyClan cats chanted.
Hawkwing joined in; a mixture of pride, happiness, and grief warmed his pelt at the words Waspwhisker had spoken about his father. Though he was still troubled that Sharpclaw would no longer be deputy, he knew what a good choice Leafstar had made. Waspwhisker was a strong, brave warrior, but he was wise as well, and he would support his leader and his Clan through the dark days that were to come.
Every cat respects him, Hawkwing thought. If any cat can help lead us out of these dark times, it’s Waspwhisker.