Cora hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Would you mind if I came with you?”
“Not at all.” Leafstar tried to hide her surprise. Cora was the most reserved of the visitors, keeping her thoughts to herself, although she was always polite and joined in with Clan activities when she was asked to.
The black she-cat fell in behind Leafstar as they climbed to the top of the cliff, then padded beside her as they headed deeper into the woods.
“This must be different from hunting in the Twolegplace,” Leafstar remarked. “Are there any trees there?”
“A few,” Cora responded. “Trees and bushes, in Twoleg gardens.”
“What kind of prey do you hunt?”
“Birds, mostly.”
Leafstar pressed on, determined to make some sort of conversation. “Stick says you eat rats.”
Cora nodded. “They don’t taste that good, but they’re food.”
Leafstar gave up. The two she-cats padded on in silence until Leafstar heard the flutter of wings above her head and caught the scent of thrush. Looking up, she spotted the bird sitting on a low branch in a nearby tree.
If I try to climb the tree, it’ll see me before I get close…
Signaling with her tail for Cora to stay where she was, Leafstar crept through the long grass until she reached the next tree, a beech whose branches interlaced with the ash where the thrush was perching. Bunching her muscles, she jumped and clawed her way up the trunk until she reached a spot where she could look down on her prey. As lightly as she could, imagining she was stalking a mouse, she crept along a branch of the beech tree until she was a tail-length above the thrush.
Suddenly the bird realized it was being hunted. As it spread its wings, Leafstar let herself drop down with her front paws outstretched. The thrush tried to fly away, but Leafstar snagged her claws into one of its wings before it was fully spread. The bird fluttered in panic, its free wing beating frantically. Leafstar sprang on top of it and took its life with a bite to the throat.
“That was impressive!” Cora commented as Leafstar leaped down to the ground with her fresh-kill in her jaws.
“It’s not that hard,” Leafstar meowed. “I could teach you if you like, for when you’re next on hunting patrol.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think it’s worth it,” Cora replied.
“What?” Shock prickled through Leafstar’s pelt. “Are you thinking of leaving?”
Cora didn’t meet her gaze, just lowered her head to give her chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks.
She said something she wasn’t supposed to, Leafstar guessed.
“I… er… I’m not sure. It’s not up to me,” Cora mumbled.
“You’re welcome to stay as long as you want, you know,” Leafstar told her impulsively. A little startled at herself, she realized that was true. The newcomers fit well into Clan life, and the gorge seemed happier and busier now. “Was there … was there some trouble that made you leave your Twolegplace? Are you waiting for something to happen before you can go back?”
Cora blinked, looking almost panic-stricken. “Well, we—” she began awkwardly, then broke off. “Look! A mouse!”
Leafstar hadn’t seen the prey, and wondered for a heartbeat whether Cora had invented it. Then she spotted the little brown creature nibbling on a seed underneath the roots of an oak tree.
Cora ran toward it without thinking about whether the mouse would sense her paw steps. The mouse heard the crack as she stepped on a dry twig, so it darted away, but Cora picked up speed and slammed one paw down on it before it could escape.
“Well done,” Leafstar mewed as the visiting she-cat carried her prey back. If I caught an apprentice hunting like that, I’d wonder what his mentor had been teaching him! “You might want to watch where you’re putting your paws,” she added tactfully. “Then you won’t tread on twigs or dead leaves. And keep your tail still so that you don’t brush it against crackly undergrowth.”
“Thanks, Leafstar,” Cora panted, dropping the mouse beside Leafstar’s thrush. “There’s so much to remember!”
“Well, you might as well learn it, even if you’re not here long enough to hunt in the trees,” Leafstar meowed. “You never know, the skills might be useful in your Twolegplace.”
“I’m sure they will,” Cora answered, with a warmth in her voice that hadn’t been there before.
I could be friends with this cat, Leafstar realized. I hope she stays.
As she was scratching earth over their prey to hide it until they were ready to collect it, she noticed a squirrel crossing a patch of open ground a few fox-lengths farther into the wood. It paused at the foot of an ivy-covered tree and scuffled around in the debris between the roots. Leafstar touched Cora lightly on the shoulder with her tail-tip and angled her ears toward the prey.
“Can we catch it?” Cora whispered. “It’ll climb the tree.”
“Let it,” Leafstar murmured. “I’m going to climb the tree first, then you chase the squirrel so it runs straight up into my claws.”
Cora’s eyes shone. “Right!”
Leafstar approached the tree in a wide half circle so that she didn’t alert the squirrel. She clawed her way up the trunk on the far side, and crouched on a fork in the trunk in the middle of a clump of ivy. The squirrel was still scuffling among the roots below. Leafstar waved her tail to show Cora she was in position. The black she-cat let out a fearsome screech and pelted toward the tree. The squirrel looked up, froze for a moment in terror, then raced up the trunk.
Leafstar scrambled out of the concealing ivy, her lips drawn back in a snarl. The squirrel let out a squeal of panic and made for the ground again. But Cora was ready for it. Leafstar watched as the she-cat sprang on the squirrel and raked her claws across its throat. It twitched once and then went limp.
Leafstar jumped down to the ground and padded up to Cora, who was standing proudly over her prey. “Great catch!”
“It was yours, really,” Cora replied.
“No, it was both of us,” Leafstar told her. “We worked well together.”
Cora was even quieter as they returned to camp, laden with fresh-kill. Leafstar hoped she was reconsidering what she had said about leaving.
I need to find out what’s going on. What is it that Stick and his friends want from us?
Dropping her prey on the fresh-kill pile, Leafstar heard voices raised in anger. She turned and spotted Ebonyclaw and her apprentice, Frecklepaw, standing at the edge of the pool, facing each other with their fur fluffed out and their eyes blazing. Both she-cats were normally so even tempered that Leafstar padded over to find out what was going on.
“I don’t come to the gorge to sit around grooming my tail while I wait for you!” Ebonyclaw hissed. “You missed a whole training session!”
“I was busy!” Frecklepaw retorted. “Echosong needed me to go fetch herbs because Rabbitkit had a pain in his belly.”
“That’s not your responsibility.” Ebonyclaw lashed her tail. “Echosong isn’t your mentor.”
“I wish she was!” Frecklepaw flashed back.
Before Ebonyclaw could reply, Leafstar stepped forward. “Frecklepaw, you never speak to your mentor like that,” she scolded. “You need to be respectful to Ebonyclaw. Apologize at once.”
Frecklepaw’s eyes widened with dismay as she realized that her Clan leader had heard the quarrel. “Sorry, Ebonyclaw,” she muttered.
Ebonyclaw gave her a curt nod, her neck fur beginning to lie flat again.
“In the future,” Leafstar went on, “you must check with Ebonyclaw before you do anything for Echosong.”
“But—” Frecklepaw opened her jaws to protest, then clearly thought better of it. “All right, Leafstar, I will.”
“Good. Ebonyclaw, there’s still time for some training before you and Frecklepaw have to go home.”
“Right.” Ebonyclaw summoned her apprentice with a twitch of her tail, and stalked off toward the training area.
Frecklepaw followed, h
er head down and her paws dragging.
When the two she-cats had gone, Leafstar headed for Echosong’s den, but the medicine cat emerged before she reached it, meeting her at the entrance.
“I heard that,” Echosong meowed. “I’m sorry, Leafstar. I didn’t know Ebonyclaw was waiting for Frecklepaw.”
“That’s not the point,” Leafstar began, thinking Echosong didn’t sound all that sorry. “You shouldn’t give tasks to an apprentice unless you ask her mentor first.”
“But I do think Ebonyclaw was too harsh on Frecklepaw,” Echosong went on, as if Leafstar hadn’t spoken. “Anyone would think she’d done something really wrong.”
Leafstar bit back an irritated comment; Echosong clearly wasn’t getting it. “You have to remember that Frecklepaw is here to be a warrior,” she reminded the medicine cat.
“I thought she was here to be a member of SkyClan,” Echosong retorted.
Leafstar’s belly churned with tension. I don’t want to quarrel with Echosong! To her relief, she spotted Sharpclaw returning down the trail with his patrol: Stick, Shorty, and Sparrowpelt. As he saw Leafstar he called her name and quickened his pace.
“We’ll talk about this again later,” Leafstar muttered to Echosong, and bounded off toward her deputy, meeting him at the bottom of the trail.
“Is everything okay?”
“Fine,” Sharpclaw replied.
He didn’t tell Leafstar where they had been, and they weren’t carrying any prey. But they went out to hunt, Leafstar thought uneasily.
As Sharpclaw padded closer to her she caught a whiff of a Thunderpath, and her pelt prickled. Have they been to the Twolegplace?
She almost asked Sharpclaw straight out, then shook her head. There was no need to interrogate her deputy; if Sharpclaw had been there, he would tell her.
Almost as if he had picked up her thought, Sharpclaw murmured, “May I have a word in private? Maybe up there?”
Without waiting for a reply he turned back to the trail and started to climb. Leafstar followed, her belly lurching with apprehension. Is he going to tell me about some sort of trouble in the Twolegplace?
“What’s all this about?” she prompted as they reached the cliff top.
Sharpclaw stood looking down into the gorge, his expression thoughtful. “It’s about the visitors,” he meowed. “I’d like them to be made full warriors of SkyClan.”
Leafstar wasn’t surprised by the request. Her deputy had obviously been thinking along those lines for some time now. “Is that what they want?” she asked.
“I haven’t asked them,” Sharpclaw admitted, “but they must. They carry out all the warrior duties, and they never talk about leaving.”
Oh, no? Leafstar remembered her conversation with Cora earlier that day. The black she-cat obviously didn’t believe that the visitors were going to stay permanently. But what she had said was so vague that Leafstar didn’t feel she could tell Sharpclaw about it.
Standing beside Sharpclaw and looking down into the camp, Leafstar watched Stick and Coal settle down to eat near the fresh-kill pile with Sparrowpelt and Cherrytail. Shorty was playing some sort of game with the apprentices, trying to jump on one another’s tail, while Cora sat outside Echosong’s den talking to the medicine cat. No cat who looked at them would think they were any different from the rest of the Clan.
I didn’t want Cora to tell me they were going to leave, Leafstar remembered. This would be a good way of making them part of SkyClan for good.
“You’re right,” she meowed to Sharpclaw. “It’s time we honored them by making them warriors.”
Sharpclaw’s eyes glowed with approval. “I’m glad you agree. Would you like me to talk to Stick about it?”
“I don’t think that’s necessary, do you? It’s a huge honor we’re giving them, and I want the entire Clan there to witness it. It might not make them stay, but how else can we thank them?”
For a moment Sharpclaw didn’t reply; then he gave a brisk nod. “Right. When do you want to do it?”
Leafstar stretched out her front paws and flattened her back, feeling the tension ease from the muscles in her shoulders. “I think now would be a good time.”
With Sharpclaw following her, Leafstar padded down into the gorge. Glancing around, she saw Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw returning from their battle training. She was glad to notice that even though their session had been short, they looked more at ease with each other. Petalnose and Sagepaw followed close behind them. Cherrytail, Macgyver, and Patchfoot were getting ready to go on the final border patrol of the day. Echosong and Cora still sat outside the medicine cat’s den. Shorty had joined Stick and Coal near the fresh-kill pile. The two elders were sunning themselves beside the river in the last of the sunlight, while Fallowfern was rounding up her kits, ready to return to the nursery. There was no sign of Billystorm; Leafstar guessed that he had gone back to the Twolegplace to check on Snookpaw.
Bunching her muscles, Leafstar bounded up to the top of the Rockpile. “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Rockpile for a Clan meeting!”
The cats in the gorge looked up at her in surprise. Mintpaw shot out of the apprentices’ den and scrambled down to join her fellow apprentices. Shrewtooth popped his head out of the warriors’ den, staring wide-eyed as if he expected to see a horde of attacking badgers charging down the gorge. Waspwhisker followed him out, giving him a shove from behind to get him started down the trail.
Rockshade, Bouncefire, and Tinycloud all appeared at a run from somewhere downstream; Tinycloud had a vole in her jaws, which she tossed onto the fresh-kill pile before sitting down with her brothers. Clovertail poked her head out of the new birthing den, but stayed where she was.
“This is an important time in the life of a Clan, the naming of new warriors,” Leafstar announced.
She saw Mintpaw and Sagepaw give each other a startled look; then Mintpaw shook her head and shrugged. The apprentices couldn’t possibly think it was their turn yet, but clearly no cat expected Leafstar to name the visitors.
“Stick, Coal, Cora, and Shorty, come forward, please.”
A murmur of surprise passed through the Clan as the four cats padded hesitantly forward to stand below the Rockpile. They looked puzzled—but only Cora looked wary, as if she was worried that Leafstar was going to say something about their plans to leave.
Leafstar steadied her paws on the warm stone. “Though these cats were not born and brought up in a Clan, they know the skills they need as warriors and they are ready to become full members of SkyClan.” She gazed up at the sky, reddening with the streaks of sunset. “I, Leafstar, leader of SkyClan, call upon—”
“Hang on,” Stick interrupted. “You’re making us warriors?”
There was a gasp from more than one cat behind him. No cat interrupted a warrior ceremony, least of all one of the cats who was being named!
“Yes—yes, I am,” Leafstar stammered, suddenly afraid that he was going to refuse. She gazed down at Stick, trying to read his reaction in his face, but he was completely closed to her. I don’t know this cat at all, she realized with something like panic.
Catching Sharpclaw’s gaze, Leafstar figured her deputy looked as alarmed and unsettled as she felt. You were right. I should have let you talk to Stick first.
The visiting cats had drawn together into a huddle, meowing quietly to one another. They kept casting swift glances at Leafstar. Finally they broke apart and faced her.
“That’s okay,” Stick mewed. “You can go ahead.”
He and his companions looked interested, and mildly pleased, but they obviously had no idea what the ceremony represented. They’re not Clan cats, Leafstar realized. This isn’t an honor for them.
It was too late to back down. Taking a deep breath, Leafstar continued. “I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these four cats. In the time they have spent with us they have come to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors.”
Jumping down to stand in front of them, she meowed, “Stick, Cora, Coal, and Shorty, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and to protect and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your own lives?”
“I do,” all four cats replied.
Was Cora a bit hesitant there? Leafstar wondered. Or am I imagining things?
“Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your warrior names,” she continued. “Stick, from this moment—”
Stick raised his tail. “Wait.”
“Yes?” Leafstar asked, trying not to sound impatient. That’s the second time he’s interrupted. They really don’t understand what this ceremony means.
“We’ll keep our own names,” Stick meowed.
Leafstar stared at him. Was this something StarClan would allow? Even the kittypet warriors had taken warrior names, more or less.
“We don’t feel the need to change who we are by name,” Coal explained. “We haven’t acted differently by becoming part of the Clan.”
Leafstar could see the point of that, and she spotted Sharpclaw nodding as if he agreed. “Very well,” she mewed, rapidly revising the words with which she would conclude the warrior ceremony. “StarClan honors your courage and skill, and we welcome you as—”
“What’s going on?” The outraged yowl came from behind Leafstar. She turned to see Harveymoon pelting down the gorge from the direction of the training area. He skidded to a halt beside her.
“Why are you making them warriors?” he demanded.
CHAPTER 16
Every cat turned to gaze at the kittypet. Harveymoon’s eyes were glaring and his fur was fluffed up in anger so that he looked twice his size. “Well, why are you?” he repeated.
“I don’t know,” Sparrowpelt replied with biting sarcasm. “Could it be because they’re brave and loyal and good at hunting, or is that just crazy?”
“But they haven’t had any proper training,” Ebonyclaw pointed out.
“They didn’t need any,” Patchfoot retorted.
Frecklepaw eased herself closer to her mentor, backing her up. “I bet they don’t even know the warrior code!”