Ravenpaw's Farewell (8 page)

“Warriors, to me!” yowled Leafstar, her cream patches glowing in the half-light. At last a more or less orderly line of cats formed up, and they charged at the intruders, hissing and spitting. With a chorus of mocking screeches, the kittypets whirled around and scrambled back up the cliff.

“We'll be back!” Pasha yowled, so close to Ravenpaw that he almost stepped on him.

Ravenpaw and his companions crouched in the grass without breathing until the kittypets had thundered away. Below, the SkyClan camp fell silent apart from the whimpering of kits as they were ushered back to their nest, and the angry muttering from elders who had been disturbed from sleep.

“Three nights in a row!” hissed one of them.

Leafstar spoke soothingly. “We'll find a way to stop them, I promise. Go back to your dens and get some rest.”

“Whoa!” breathed Bella. “Those kittypets are giving SkyClan a lot of trouble!”

Ravenpaw backed away from the edge of the cliff. His pelt smelled strongly of SkyClan, and he realized he had been lying on top of a border mark.

“Imagine having to put up with that every night!” Barley remarked.

They started to walk back down the slope to the stream.

“I don't understand why they let those kittypets get into their camp,” Riley mewed. “SkyClan cats are warriors! They should be able to defend themselves!”

Ravenpaw shook his head. “I don't think the kittypets were there for any real purpose. They just wanted to wake everyone up and cause trouble.”

“Thankfully, it's their trouble, not ours,” meowed Barley. “Look, here's the cave. Come on, you two, get some sleep. We'll start for home tomorrow. Leafstar has made it clear that there's nothing to keep us here.” He shooed Riley and Bella inside and curled around them.

Ravenpaw lay down near the entrance, his chin on his paws. Barley was right; if Leafstar wanted them to go, there was no reason to stay here any longer. But he couldn't forget the image of the warriors shrieking in dismay as their camp was invaded. Surely there was something SkyClan could do to stop it?

Ravenpaw opened his eyes to find
that he was lying on smooth stone beside a still, star-filled pool. He sat up and looked around. Behind him, a pock-marked slope spiraled up to the top of the hollow. The stone beneath him was cool, but his fur felt warm. He padded to the edge of the pool and drank, feeling the water surge through him like light. He became aware of a cat standing beside him with her tail resting lightly on his back.

“Come sit with me, Ravenpaw,” Silverstream purred. She positioned herself neatly on the rock with her tail folded over her paws and waited while Ravenpaw settled himself more slowly, wincing at the ache in his belly.

Ravenpaw noticed her watching him with concern. “I'm getting old!” he joked.

Silverstream just looked at him with huge blue eyes.

Ravenpaw felt a chill creep over his pelt. “I . . . I'm not going to see my home again, am I?”

“No,” Silverstream admitted. “But you must not be afraid of dying somewhere else.” There was a catch in her voice. “All that matters is that you are not alone, and that you know you
are loved.”

Ravenpaw felt a painful lump rise in his throat. “I'm afraid for Barley,” he whispered.

“Barley knows that you don't want to leave him. He understands, and he will not love you less if he cannot see you.”

Two more cats approached the edge of the pool: one dark gray tom with glowing blue eyes, the other a broad-shouldered tom with gray-and-white fur. Silverstream stood up and nodded to them, then padded away up the spiraling path.

The dark gray tom spoke first. “My name is Skywatcher,” he meowed. “I was the last of the SkyClan warriors, until Firestar and Sandstorm came to save my Clan. There is a place for Riley and Bella in SkyClan, I promise. Be patient and you will help them find it.”

“And I am Cloudstar, leader of SkyClan when we first came to the gorge,” rasped the gray and white cat. “And before, when we lived in the forest with the other Clans.”

Ravenpaw dipped his head. “I am honored to meet you both.”

“I made the same journey as Firestar and Sandstorm, and now you and your friends,” Cloudstar meowed. “I am grateful to you for bringing new warriors to my Clan.”

“But they don't want them!” Ravenpaw burst out. “Leafstar wouldn't even let us cross the border!”

“Give them a chance to see what these cats can bring to the Clan,” Cloudstar countered. “SkyClan needs your help. You saw that tonight.”

Ravenpaw lashed his tail. “But SkyClan has its own strong
warriors! Leafstar was quick to make that clear. What can we do that they can't?”

Without speaking, Skywatcher moved to the edge of the pool and flicked a pebble into the water. It landed with a splash and sent starry ripples out in circles, rolling all the way to the sides of the hollow.

“Look,” Skywatcher ordered. “The stone reaches much farther than you might expect. Do you see?”

Ravenpaw watched the trembling waves and pictured SkyClan, scared and defensive inside the gorge, waiting for the kittypets to storm across the empty ground and invade their camp again. His mind cleared and he nodded. “I see,” he replied.

Cloudstar rested his muzzle on top of Ravenpaw's head. “Please help us,” he murmured. “In the name of the Clans, and the warrior code.”

“I will,” Ravenpaw promised.

He woke as the first gray light of dawn spilled into the cave. Outside, the air was cool and scented with leaves. Ravenpaw nudged Barley. “Wake up!”

“Is it time to go home?” Bella mewed sleepily. Beside her, Riley yawned.

“We're not going home,” Ravenpaw announced. “We're going back to SkyClan.”

Barley stopped mid-stretch. “What? They wouldn't even let us across the border yesterday.” He narrowed his eyes. “And you need to get back to the barn for some rest.”

“I'm okay,” Ravenpaw told him. “I dreamed of StarClan last night, and I saw something that can help deal with the kittypets.”

“Let's go!” mewed Riley, running to the mouth of the cave. “Those fox-brained kittypets need to respect SkyClan!”

Ravenpaw felt a flash of pride at Riley's loyalty to a Clan that had treated him like a trespasser.

Bella nodded. “If there's anything we can do to help, then we have to go back.”

Barley sighed. “I can see I'm outnumbered,” he mewed. He brushed the tip of his tail along Ravenpaw's spine. “But if you need to stop and rest, tell me, okay? I know something's hurting you.”

“I will.”

Ravenpaw led them up the stream once more. They paused among the trees to hunt; Barley made Ravenpaw lie on some comfy moss while he and the young cats cornered a pigeon that was pecking at the foot of a beech tree. As soon as they had eaten and cleaned their muzzles, they continued to the edge of the woods.

In daylight, Ravenpaw could clearly see the huge, gray-brown boulder that hung over the stream. The water vanished beneath the rock, and sun-dappled ripples cast patterns of light onto the bottom of the stone. They had hardly gone past the holly bush when several figures appeared, running toward them. Plumwillow was in the lead.

“We told you to stay away!” she growled.

A ginger tom bounded beside her, his hackles raised. “Get
out of here!”

“Plumwillow, Bouncefire, wait!” A silver tabby she-cat with clear green eyes sprang down from a path near the foot of the cliff and blocked their way. “Enough! These cats mean no harm.”

“We don't know that,” Bouncefire muttered, but he stayed where he was and watched as the silver-gray cat approached Ravenpaw and his companions. Ravenpaw picked up the clean scent of herbs on her pelt and spotted a scrap of cobweb clinging to her ear.

“My name is Echosong,” she meowed. “I am SkyClan's medicine cat. Leafstar told me about you.”

Her voice was gentle, and Ravenpaw let the fur on his spine relax. “I need to speak with Leafstar. Please, it's important.”

Echosong studied him for a moment, then turned, her fluffy silver tail straight up. “Follow me.” She led them past Plumwillow and Bouncefire, who hissed under his breath, and up one of the narrow paths. She paused and looked back. “I'm sorry,” she mewed. “There isn't much room in Leafstar's den. I can take Ravenpaw to her, but would the rest of you mind staying down here?”

Barley glanced at the warriors who had started to emerge from dens and behind rocks at the bottom of the valley.

“Don't worry, you're quite safe,” Echosong told him. “Hawkpaw will look after you.”

A sturdy little cat with sleek gray fur and piercing yellow eyes who had just come out of a den nodded. “Absolutely,” he promised.

“Thank you,” Echosong meowed. “Let me know if Ebonyclaw arrives and needs you to do something else.” She went on to Ravenpaw, “Ebonyclaw is a daylight warrior, so she's not here yet. Hawkpaw is her apprentice.”

“He seems very committed,” Ravenpaw remarked.

Echosong nodded. “He is. As long as we keep him away from Billystorm's apprentice, Pebblepaw. The two of them do not get along!”

They left Barley, Riley, and Bella standing rather awkwardly with the gray apprentice and continued up the path. It led past several small caves—warrior dens, Ravenpaw guessed from the scents that wafted out—to a ledge where three cats sat: Leafstar, a ginger-and-white tom with a broad, handsome face, and a dark ginger tom whose gaze raked Ravenpaw's pelt as he approached.

Leafstar dipped her head. “Ravenpaw. I wasn't expecting to see you again.” She indicated the cats beside her, the scowling dark ginger tom first. “This is Sharpclaw, my deputy. And this is Billystorm. Whatever you have to tell me, you can say in front of them.”

Ravenpaw took a deep breath and hoped the warriors couldn't hear his heart pounding. “I want to help you with the kittypet, er . . . problem. We saw what happened last night, and I think there's a way you could stop it.”

Sharpclaw stood up, hackles raised. “So you were trespassing?” he growled.

“We were on the cliff top, on the other side of your border marks,” Ravenpaw replied, trying not to let his paws shake.

“Sit down, Sharpclaw,” Leafstar mewed.

The ginger tom slowly folded his hind legs beneath him. “Those kittypets are a nuisance, nothing more,” he rasped. “We're not afraid of them.”

“But they must be taught to respect your boundaries,” Ravenpaw meowed. “You cannot let them come into the heart of your camp!”

“We're hardly welcoming them in!” Billystorm pointed out.

Leafstar raised one paw. “Do you think you know a way to keep them out of the camp, Ravenpaw?” Her tone was light, as if she was prepared to listen to him out of politeness.

Ravenpaw stood up and unsheathed his front claws to mark a shape on the sandy ledge. With a few swift lines he made a circle with ripples spreading outward, just like the pattern in the moonlit pool in his dream.

“This is your camp,” he explained, pointing to the circle in the center. “But the boundaries need to be much farther out, to keep trespassers at a safe distance.” He rested his paw on the outermost ripple. “This is the point that you need to defend, halfway across the empty ground between your camp and the Twoleg dens. If you make that your boundary, and prove to the kittypets that you will not let them cross, then your home will be safe.”

“Who are you to tell us about boundaries?” Sharpclaw huffed. “You're not even a Clan cat.”

But Leafstar nodded, staring down at the marks in the sand. “You mean we should move our boundary back from the edge of the gorge? Yes, I can see there is sense in that. It will
be harder to patrol because there are so few points to place markers out there, but it would certainly protect the gorge.” She looked up at Ravenpaw. “How would you teach the kittypets to stay away from the new boundary?”

Ravenpaw gulped. Memories of his time in ThunderClan whirled in his head: patrols, checking border marks, training with Tigerclaw . . . “Constant patrols along the new border, all night, until the kittypets learn exactly where it lies,” he meowed. “Your warriors will need to rest during the day, but perhaps the daylight cats can take over duties then? You might only need a constant patrol for one night, if you fight hard enough.”

“We always fight hard enough!” Sharpclaw snarled.

Ravenpaw blinked. “Before sunhigh today, you must set markers along the new boundary. Build places to mark, if you must, from branches or piles of stones. Then rest until dusk, when every warrior and apprentice must take their place along the border. The kittypets must not be allowed to set one paw across the line.” He stopped, panting. His belly was gripped by a spasm, and he tried hard not to curl into a ball to ease it.

Leafstar studied Ravenpaw with a thoughtful gleam in her eyes. “Once again, ThunderClan comes to help us,” she mewed.

“Oh, I'm not ThunderClan anymore,” Ravenpaw replied.

Leafstar didn't say anything. Instead she stood up and padded down the path to the bottom of the gorge, then leaped gracefully onto the boulder. “SkyClan, gather here!” she yowled.

Ravenpaw limped down behind Sharpclaw and Billystorm to join Barley. The black-and-white cat regarded him with concern, but Ravenpaw just nodded toward Leafstar, who was explaining the plan to expand the Clan's boundaries. Her Clanmates listened in silence, with frequent glances at the visitors. When Leafstar had finished, she beckoned to Ravenpaw with her tail. Ravenpaw gulped.

“Go on!” Bella squeaked, bouncing on her paws with excitement.

Ravenpaw stayed where he was—he didn't think he could jump anywhere with this pain in his belly—and turned to face the crowd of cats. “You are stronger than you realize,” he began, raising his voice in spite of the throbbing inside him.

There were a few indignant murmurs.

“You know nothing about how strong we are!”