CHAPTER 19
“Can you see any cat?” Hawkwing called, craning his neck to make out Pebblepaw’s speckled pelt among the leaves of the beech tree.
“Not a whisker!” Pebblepaw replied.
She reappeared, carefully sliding down from branch to branch, then leaped to the ground and landed with a thump at Hawkwing’s side.
Two sunrises had passed since the remains of SkyClan had gathered at Ebonyclaw’s nest. Since then, many more cats had made their way there, but some were still missing.
Blossomheart is back, but there’s been no sign of Cherrytail or Cloudmist, Hawkwing thought, his heart aching. Plumwillow’s mate, Sandynose, isn’t back yet, and neither are Frecklewish and Fallowfern. He knew that every cat was beginning to lose hope of ever seeing them again.
And there had been more sad news to add to the survivors’ grief. Rileypaw had seen Stormheart struck down at the foot of the Rockpile when the battle had barely begun. Tinycloud had found Snipkit washed up on the riverbank, and carried the tiny limp body back to her Clan for burial.
Laying the tiny body in the earth, seeing Snipkit’s life cut off when she was so young, was one of the most painful experiences of Hawkwing’s life. Her littermates, Curlykit and Fidgetkit, had whimpered all through it, and ever since, Hawkwing had noticed that they wandered around in a daze, all their high spirits gone.
I wonder if they’ll ever get over losing her.
Every time another cat found their way to Ebonyclaw’s nest, Hawkwing hardly dared speak to them, in case they brought news of Cherrytail’s or Cloudmist’s death. It was harder still to go out on patrol.
I’m almost afraid to go on looking, Hawkwing thought, in case I find something else terrible.
Now he and Pebblepaw were searching the forest on the opposite side of the gorge from the camp. Pebblepaw had suggested climbing the tree to see if she could spot any cat, but she had seen nothing.
“This is hopeless,” Hawkwing muttered. “Our missing Clanmates must be dead by now.”
“You don’t know that,” Pebblepaw insisted, twining her tail affectionately with Hawkwing’s. “Good things do happen, remember? Blossomheart made it back to camp soon after we did, and you heard from Harveymoon how he found Firefern trapped in a Twoleg den. He had to brave the Twolegs’ dog, but he got Firefern out.”
“That’s true,” Hawkwing responded, “but . . .”
“And Darktail’s rogues haven’t bothered us,” Pebblepaw added. “That has to be good.”
Hawkwing twitched his whiskers. I wonder what Darktail is up to, now that he has what he wanted. Will we ever see the gorge again? “Since we haven’t tried to take back the gorge,” he mewed dryly, “Darktail probably thinks we aren’t a threat.”
But though his words were somber, Hawkwing rubbed his cheek against Pebblepaw’s, grateful for her hopeful spirit. We’re both young, and she’s still an apprentice—but I know she’ll be my mate someday. And I know she feels the same.
The two cats continued through the forest, stopping every few fox-lengths to yowl for their missing Clanmates. Hawkwing was ready to give up, convinced that their efforts were pointless, when they heard an answering, distant yowl.
Delight sprang into Pebblepaw’s eyes. “This way!” she exclaimed.
Hawkwing followed her as she raced around a bramble thicket and up a fern-covered slope on the other side. At the top of the rise a steeper slope fell away into a clearing covered with low-growing bushes.
Hawkwing let out another yowl as he and Pebblepaw scrambled down. To his amazement the undergrowth parted and his sister Cloudmist emerged.
“Hawkwing!” she called. “Oh, it’s so good to see you!”
Hawkwing skidded to a halt in front of his sister, touching noses with her and drinking in her sweet, familiar scent. “I’d given up hope of finding you,” he choked out.
“And I’m not alone,” Cloudmist purred, her eyes shining. “Cherrytail is here too. Come and see.”
Turning, she led the way into a clear space among the bushes, where Hawkwing found his mother lying stretched out on a bed of ferns. Cobweb was plastered over her tortoiseshell fur all along one side.
“You’re hurt!” Hawkwing meowed.
Cherrytail’s eyes were shining as she stretched upward to press her muzzle against Hawkwing’s shoulder. “I’ll be fine,” she murmured.
“She was wounded in the battle,” Cloudmist explained. “We managed to hide here, but I was afraid to leave her to get help. Darktail and his rogues might have found her.”
Hawkwing’s chest swelled, and he couldn’t help give a sigh of relief.
Cherrytail cocked her head. “What’s wrong?”
Hawkwing hesitated. He was relieved to find his kin, but he had just lost his father—something his mother and sister didn’t know.
When he told them, Cherrytail sent an anguished yowl to the sky. “What about Blossomheart?” she asked anxiously. “Have you seen her?”
“Yes, she’s safe,” Hawkwing reassured her.
“We’ve made a temporary camp in the garden of Ebonyclaw’s Twoleg den,” Pebblepaw mewed, as Cherrytail relaxed with a sigh of relief. “We’ll help you to get there now.”
It was a long way; eventually the cats had to cross the river by the stepping-stones where Snipkit had slipped.
“We need to be very careful,” Hawkwing warned his mother and sister. “Birdwing’s kits tried crossing here just after the battle, and . . .” His voice quivered and he had to start again. “Snipkit slipped into the water and drowned.”
“No!” Cherrytail’s eyes stretched wide with horror. “Poor little one!”
“I’d like to drown Darktail!” Cloudmist declared, sliding out her claws as if the vicious rogue was standing in front of her.
“One day he’ll get what’s coming to him,” Pebblepaw meowed. “But for now we have to keep going. The river’s quieter now, so it shouldn’t be too hard.”
With the younger cats’ help Cherrytail was able to limp across and hobble up one of the trails leading to the top of the gorge and across open ground to the Twolegplace. Hawkwing kept a wary eye out for rogue patrols, but he saw nothing of Darktail or his cats.
“Just as well . . . for them,” he growled to himself, flexing his claws.
The rest of the SkyClan cats gathered around Cherrytail and Cloudmist when they arrived at Ebonyclaw’s Twoleg nest, enthusiastically welcoming them. Hawkwing supported his mother as far as a sheltered spot under a holly bush where Echosong had made herself a den, with a collection of whatever herbs the Clan cats had been able to find. Cloudmist followed and a moment later Blossomheart joined them.
The medicine cat sniffed Cherrytail’s wound carefully as she peeled away the covering of cobweb. Hawkwing winced when he saw the wound, a long gash down his mother’s side, the edges looking red and inflamed.
“There’s some infection there,” Echosong murmured, “but don’t worry. It doesn’t look too bad. Fidgetkit, can you clean that up for me, please.”
The little black-and-white tom crouched down and began lapping gently at Cherrytail’s wound. Ever since he had arrived in the camp with Echosong he had stayed by her side, working tirelessly to help the medicine cat while she patched up her Clanmates’ injuries.
Maybe he has the makings of a medicine cat, Hawkwing thought as he watched. It would be good for Echosong to take another apprentice, especially if we never find Frecklewish.
When Echosong had treated the wound with a poultice of marigold, she and Fidgetkit slipped away, leaving Cherrytail to rest with her kits around her.
“I’m so glad we’re all together again,” Blossomheart mewed, covering her mother’s ears with gentle licks. “Hawkwing and I have been so worried.”
But we’re not all together, Hawkwing thought. We never will be again, because Sharpclaw is dead. He felt as though he had an uncomfortable piece of fresh-kill lodged in his throat.
“What’s the matter?” Cherrytail asked gent
ly.
Swallowing hard, Hawkwing meowed, “I’m so sorry. I should never have trusted Darktail. If I’d known what kind of cat he is . . . I never imagined he would do something like killing Sharpclaw.” His voice broke and he couldn’t go on.
“I know, I know,” Cherrytail breathed out. Her green eyes were full of sorrow, but there was love and understanding there too.
“We all know,” Cloudmist added reassuringly. “It’s not your fault, Hawkwing. There’s nothing to forgive.”
Blossomheart merely blinked at him affectionately, and Hawkwing felt the pangs in his heart ease a little.
At least they don’t blame me, but I’ll never stop blaming myself. From now on, I’m going to make Sharpclaw proud, and never let my kin or my Clan down like that again.
When Hawkwing emerged into the camp again, leaving his mother to sleep, he found Leafstar standing on the edge of the bushes, with Pebblepaw, Harveymoon, and Firefern beside her. She beckoned Hawkwing to join them with a whisk of her tail.
“I’m going to lead a patrol back to the gorge,” Leafstar announced. “I must be certain of the will of StarClan, and I intend to review every option. If the rogues look weak, or if some of them have left, then maybe that’s a sign that StarClan wants us to stay. Do you want to come with us?”
Hawkwing was torn. There was some sense in his leader’s decision, but they could also be walking right into more trouble. And the thought of seeing Darktail again, and revisiting the place where his father was killed, made his belly cramp with nausea.
I’ve been homesick for the gorge—but for the gorge as it used to be. I don’t want to see what Darktail has made it now.
“There’s no need, if you don’t want to,” Pebblepaw put in, clearly understanding how he felt. “I don’t mind going, Leafstar.”
The Clan leader dipped her head. “That’s fine, then. Hawkwing, stay alert and guard the camp while we’re away.”
She and the rest of the patrol headed off, squeezing under the Twoleg fence. As soon as they had disappeared, Hawkwing began to wish he had gone with them. What if the rogues attack them and Pebblepaw is injured? He imagined her, cornered by Darktail, hurt and afraid. I might never see her again!
He spent his time prowling restlessly around the borders of the camp, while the sun rose to sunhigh and began to slip down the sky. He tensed, afraid that he and his Clanmates had been discovered, when a Twoleg appeared from the den and brought out a small, growling monster. But all the Twoleg did was to push the monster up and down across the stretch of grass. Neither the Twoleg nor the monster seemed aware that there were cats hiding in the bushes.
Waspwhisker had gone out with a hunting patrol, and the rest of the Clan was gathering around to share the fresh-kill when Leafstar and her Clanmates returned.
Hawkwing bounded over to meet them, touching noses with Pebblepaw. “What happened?” he asked, overwhelmed by relief to see that none of the patrol were injured.
Leafstar’s expression was grim, but she didn’t reply until she had padded over to address every cat beside the fresh-kill pile. “I’m sorry to tell you,” she announced, “that the gorge is lost to us. Darktail has moved in so many rogues that the place is crawling with them. We’re badly outnumbered.” Her voice shook on the last few words, but after a brief pause she went on firmly, “Our best chance of survival now is to forget the gorge. It is not the home we made there, not anymore. We must find new territory. We must find ThunderClan.”
Hawkwing glanced nervously at his mother. Cherrytail had slept well, and emerged from Echosong’s den to eat, but her eyes looked glazed and her body gave off a dry heat, as if her infection was worsening in spite of the medicine cat’s treatment. Hawkwing worried that she might be too weak to travel.
As the SkyClan cats exchanged anxious looks at Leafstar’s decision, Echosong slipped out of her den and dipped her head to her Clan leader. “I heard what you said,” she meowed. “While you were away, I slept, and StarClan sent me another vision.”
At her words Hawkwing felt his heart begin to beat faster. This is what we’ve been waiting for! He could see that the rest of his Clanmates felt the same, their ears flicking up and their whiskers quivering.
“Leafstar, you’re right,” the medicine cat went on. “StarClan has told me that our future does not lie in the gorge. I dreamed of SkyClan happy and safe together, in a place beside a large body of water.”
“The river?” Rabbitleap asked. “But—”
“Not the river,” Echosong interrupted. “This was much wider and calmer. It is a place I’ve never seen before, not even in dreams.”
Leafstar had listened to the medicine cat with a look of deep seriousness. “This confirms my plan,” she meowed. “StarClan wants us to leave this place. When we find ThunderClan, somewhere near this wide stretch of water, we will find our new home.”
“But we don’t know where to look!” Blossomheart protested.
“We know where to start. Bellapaw and Rileypaw will lead us back to where they used to live,” Leafstar told her. “We leave in two sunrises.”
As the Clan leader announced her decision, the whole of SkyClan erupted into debate, a chorus of protests and questions swirling around her.
“We can’t leave!” Plumwillow exclaimed. “Not without knowing what happened to our other Clanmates.”
“Yes!” Rabbitleap jumped to his paws. “What about Frecklewish, or Mistfeather? Where are they?”
“And my kits are too young to travel so far,” Mintfur added, gathering the four tiny cats closer to her with a sweep of her tail.
Hawkwing noticed that Harveymoon and Ebonyclaw, at the edge of the group of cats, were exchanging a few quiet words with each other. Then Harveymoon spoke up.
“I can’t leave here,” he mewed, his voice soft but decisive. “I’m loyal to SkyClan, but I’m loyal to my Twolegs, too. I’m not going to leave them behind.”
“That goes for me, too,” Ebonyclaw added.
Hawkwing’s pelt bristled with shock at the black she-cat’s words. Ebonyclaw was my mentor—and no cat could have had a better one. She’s one of our best warriors. How can she give all that up to stay with Twolegs?
He noticed that most of the cats who had not added their voices to the debate were looking just like he felt: hesitant and confused. But Pebblepaw was watching Leafstar closely, her eyes shining. Hawkwing realized that she was excited. She wants to go with Leafstar!
Moving closer to Pebblepaw, Hawkwing brushed his pelt against hers. I can’t imagine being without her, he thought. If she goes, I’m going too.
Leafstar’s voice rang out again, silencing the tumult. “This is not up for discussion,” she meowed. “I am leaving. I will follow the vision StarClan has sent us.”
“And I’m going too,” Echosong added.
“Any cat who feels they can’t leave here may stay behind,” the Clan leader continued. “No cat will blame you. But first, before we go, we need to become a Clan again.”
That’s true, Hawkwing thought. But how does Leafstar mean to do it?
CHAPTER 20
At sunrise on the following day, Leafstar called the Clan together. A gentle breeze was blowing, carrying the scents of the forest even into the heart of the Twolegplace. Hawkwing’s pelt itched with restlessness, and he had the sense that something momentous was about to happen.
When her Clan was gathered around her, Leafstar beckoned with her tail to Bellapaw, Rileypaw, Pebblepaw, and Parsleypaw. The four young cats stepped out of the crowd, exchanging glances that were half excited, half bewildered.
“We must become a Clan again,” Leafstar announced, repeating her words from the day before. “Our journey will be hard, and there are dark times ahead. We will need every one of our warriors. And so this is the right time to make some new ones.”
“What, us? Now?” Pebblepaw squeaked, then slapped her tail over her mouth in embarrassment.
“Yes, you, now,” Leafstar confirmed, amusement glimmering in he
r amber eyes. “Come closer.”
The four apprentices padded up to their leader, their eyes shining as they gazed at her. Hawkwing thought that his heart would burst with pride and affection as he watched Pebblepaw take her place.
She’s going to be such a fine warrior!
“Rabbitleap,” Leafstar began, addressing Parsleypaw’s mentor, “has your apprentice trained well, and does he understand what it means to be a warrior?”
“He has, and he does,” Rabbitleap replied solemnly.
“Pebblepaw,” Leafstar went on, “your first mentor, Billystorm, was killed by the badgers on your first quest. And no cat knows what happened to his replacement, Sandynose.”
At her words, Hawkwing saw Sandynose’s mate, Plumwillow, close her eyes in pain. It must be so hard for her, he reflected. She’s expecting kits, and she has no idea where their father is.
“But I have watched you, Pebblepaw,” Leafstar continued, “and I know that you have earned your warrior name.”
Pebblepaw glowed at her Clan leader’s praise, and Hawkwing kneaded the ground in front of him, purring. If any cat deserves this, it’s Pebblepaw!
“Tinycloud.” Leafstar turned to Bellapaw’s mentor. “Are you satisfied that your apprentice has earned her warrior name?”
“Without a doubt,” Tinycloud responded, while Bellapaw shivered in excitement.
“And so has Rileypaw,” Nettlesplash added, without waiting to be asked.
The Clan leader dipped her head in acknowledgment. “I, Leafstar, leader of SkyClan,” she continued, “call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn.”
Leafstar’s gaze rested on Parsleypaw, who straightened up, his whiskers quivering. “Parsleypaw,” Leafstar meowed, “do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?”
“I do,” Parsleypaw replied firmly.
“Then by the powers of StarClan,” Leafstar declared, “I give you your warrior name. Parsleypaw, from this moment you will be known as Parsleyseed. StarClan honors your loyalty and your courage, and we welcome you as a full warrior of SkyClan.”