The Apprentice's Quest (14 page)

“I'm not sure I understand,” he mewed.

“Maybe you will in time,” Sandstorm responded.

Alderpaw dipped his head respectfully. “Thank you, Sandstorm. I'm glad you're coming with us.”

“Cats of ThunderClan!” Bramblestar called from the Highledge. “Alderpaw has had an important vision—and this vision is to set him off on a quest that, I predict, will prove as important to our Clan as the one that Dovewing undertook as an apprentice, when the drought came and she saved our lake.” Dovewing raised her tail proudly.

Alderpaw was aware of every cat turning to stare at him. He was startled to see the respect and admiration in their eyes. He ducked his head in embarrassment and stared at his paws.
I really don't deserve this.

“The medicine cats' prophecy told us that unless we embrace what we find in the shadows, the sky will never clear. Alderpaw's vision gives us hope that the cats of ThunderClan can find what lies in the shadows, and if so, then our Clan will prosper.”

The whole of ThunderClan erupted into enthusiastic yowling. “Alderpaw! Alderpaw!”

Alderpaw froze, almost wishing that a big owl would swoop down and carry him off. Then Sparkpaw gave him a nudge. “Come on, slow mole!” she meowed, giving him an affectionate glance. “It's time to go.”

Alderpaw straightened, bracing himself. “I'm glad you're with me, Sparkpaw,” he murmured.

To his relief, Sandstorm took the lead as he and the other questing cats headed for the thorn tunnel. The rest of ThunderClan padded along with them, calling out their good wishes.

“Best of luck, Alderpaw!”

“Keep safe!”

“May StarClan light your path!”

At the last moment, before Alderpaw and Sparkpaw stepped into the tunnel, Squirrelflight bounded up to them. Alderpaw saw fear in her eyes, but her voice was brisk as she meowed, “Don't you dare get yourselves killed! I want to hear all about it when you get back.”

“We'll be careful,” Alderpaw promised.

“I'll look after him,” Sparkpaw added with an impudent glance at her littermate.

Squirrelflight touched noses with each of her kits, then took a pace back. Alderpaw was aware of her gaze on him until he headed into the tunnel.

This is it! The quest has really begun!

The sun was rising as Alderpaw's group headed through the forest toward the lake, strong rays of sunlight striking
through the trees and making patterns on the forest floor. Alderpaw remembered how vast and frightening the territory had seemed when he first left the camp. Now he found it familiar and safe.

“How long will this quest take?” Sparkpaw asked, bouncing along at his side. “Where's the place you saw? I want to know more about your dream—no, wait, your
vision
.”

“I have no idea where the place is, or how far it is,” Alderpaw replied, feeling a prickle in his pelt at his littermate's questions. “And I can't really talk about it. It's medicine-cat stuff.”

“Oh, come on, you can tell
me
. Were there cats in your vision? What did they look like? What did they say?” she persisted, her eyes sparkling eagerly.

Alderpaw's nervousness increased under the flood of questions, until he felt like he had rats gnawing at his belly. He wished he could tell the truth to the other cats; it felt really awkward having to lie.
Especially to Sparkpaw. I've never kept secrets from her before.

He staggered sideways as Sparkpaw gave him a hard prod in his side. “What's wrong with you?” she asked crossly. “I'm only trying to help. I want to find what lies in the shadows and save ThunderClan. So how do you know your vision's got something to do with the prophecy? Huh?”

“Sparkpaw, stop nagging your brother,” Sandstorm meowed tartly, pausing to let the younger cats come up with her. “You heard him. It's medicine-cat business.”

Sparkpaw glared for a couple of heartbeats, then shrugged, relaxing. “Okay. I'll find out soon enough, anyway.” She
bounded over to Cherryfall, who had moved into the lead. “What do you think?” she asked. “What does Alderpaw's vision mean?”

Alderpaw let out a sigh of relief. He was secretly pleased that Sparkpaw hadn't been cowed by the rebuke. He felt bad enough for hiding things from her without getting her into trouble as well.

“I'd answer that better if I knew what the vision was,” Cherryfall replied patiently.

“Wouldn't we all?” Sparkpaw responded, flicking a glance at her brother. “But you must have some ideas, Cherryfall. What do you think we'll find at the end of the quest?”

“What we need to, I guess,” Cherryfall mewed.

“Something that will help clear the sky,” Molewhisker added. Then he muttered, “Whatever that means.”

“
I
think it might mean we find some new hunting grounds,” Sparkpaw announced. “I hope it does. Then we—”

She broke off as they came to the edge of a clearing where a squirrel was sitting upright among the grass, nibbling at something held in its front paws. Instantly Sparkpaw darted off, her tail flowing out behind her.

But the squirrel was too fast even for her. Spotting her at once, it raced for the nearest tree, swarmed up the trunk, and vanished into the branches. A few leaves drifted down around Sparkpaw, who stood looking up with a frustrated expression on her face.

“We all know you're a quick learner,” Cherryfall mewed teasingly as Sparkpaw returned to the group with her tail
drooping. “But do you really need a
new
hunting ground already? It seems like you still have something to learn on the one we have.” She suppressed a
mrrow
of laughter.

Sparkpaw didn't respond, only giving her chest fur a few furious licks to cover up her embarrassment.

For a moment Alderpaw felt bad for her. He knew exactly how it felt to lose prey.

“Well, I think we should stop and hunt for a while,” Sparkpaw meowed. “There's a lot of prey here, and who knows how much there'll be once we've left our territory?”

“No, I think we should keep going and hunt later,” Alderpaw objected. He guessed that Sparkpaw just wanted another chance to prove what an awesome hunter she was. “We have a long way to go.”

“And Thunderpaths to cross,” Sandstorm added. “Graystripe helped me work out a route so that we don't have to cross the mountains, but it means more danger from Twolegs and monsters.”

“Huh, Thunderpaths!” Sparkpaw sniffed dismissively. “Purdy told me all about them. They're no big deal.”

“No big deal?” Sandstorm's neck fur began to bristle. “Are you mouse-brained? Cats have
died
on Thunderpaths.”

“Well, I still think we ought to hunt now,” Sparkpaw retorted, bristling in turn. “Last time I checked, we can't fill up on herbs and bits of chewed-up bark!”

Alderpaw lashed his tail in frustration.
I'm supposed to be in charge, but Sparkpaw still thinks she can boss me around. And she's arguing with an elder!

He drew his lips back in the beginning of a snarl, ready to snap at his sister. But Sandstorm forestalled him, her neck fur lying flat again and her voice calm.

“Sparkpaw, even though you're both young cats in training, this is
Alderpaw's
quest, and
his
vision. You need to listen to him. He's right. We should continue on, not stop to hunt before we've even left our own territory.”

Sparkpaw ducked her head, her tail drooping. “Fine,” she muttered. “Sorry.”

Alderpaw puffed out his chest, pleased that Sandstorm had backed him up and announced that he was the leader. All the same, he didn't like to see his sister miserable. As they set out again, he brushed his tail along her side. “It's okay,” he whispered.

They emerged from the trees on the lakeshore not far from the stream that marked the border with WindClan. Alderpaw had been this way before, when they'd gone to the Gathering, and he felt quite confident as he splashed through the shallow water and led the way alongside the lake.

With his Clanmates clustered closely around him, Alderpaw glanced up to see if any of the leggy WindClan warriors were in sight, but nothing moved on the bare hillside.

“Good,” Molewhisker murmured. “I'd just as soon get away without WindClan knowing we're gone. StarClan knows what rumors would start if any cat saw us.”

Sandstorm nodded. “They might even follow us. Come on, Alderpaw, pick the pace up a bit.”

Alderpaw sped up into a fast lope along the pebbly
lakeshore, and his Clanmates followed him until they reached the WindClan border near the horseplace. Now and again he cast swift glances at the moor, and once he thought he saw a flicker of movement among some gorse bushes, but no cat emerged to challenge them.

When they crossed the border and stood near the horseplace, Alderpaw halted. He felt a fluttering in his belly. “You'd better lead now, Sandstorm,” he meowed. “You're the only one of us who has been this way before.”

Sandstorm nodded. “We have to climb the ridge,” she responded, pointing upward with her tail to where a steep hill, dotted here and there with thickets of trees, led to a bare ridge many fox-lengths above their head. “I'll never forget the night we arrived here,” she murmured, her green eyes deep with memory. “We climbed that ridge from the other side, and we had no idea where StarClan was leading us. Then we reached the top and saw the lake, and the spirits of our warrior ancestors reflected in the water.” She sighed. “It was one of the most wonderful nights of my life.”

She paused for a moment, then gave her pelt a shake. “Let's go.”

Alderpaw and the others followed Sandstorm on the tough climb up to the ridge. She led them past the clustered Twoleg dens of the horseplace, then alongside a fence made of some shiny Twoleg stuff.

“Look!” Sparkpaw whispered excitedly to Alderpaw. “Horses!”

Alderpaw recognized the huge animals from how Daisy
had described them in the nursery. There were two of them—one dark brown and one mottled gray—standing together in the shade of a tree, gently whisking their tails to and fro.

“They're not dangerous unless you bother them,” Sandstorm mewed briskly. “And they won't come on this side of the fence.”

All the same, Alderpaw was relieved when they left the horses behind and scrambled up the last few tail-lengths to the top of the ridge. Reaching it, he halted, his paws frozen to the ground.

“Wow!” Sparkpaw breathed out, coming to stand beside him. “I didn't know the world was so big!”

Gazing out in front of him, Alderpaw saw that the ground fell away sharply, sweeping down into a wide valley with stretches of woodland and what looked like a hard black snake winding across it. Beyond it were masses of trees, the huddled dens of an enormous Twolegplace—far bigger than the one by the lake where they had gone to collect catmint—and fields and hills stretching away on every side until they became hazy with distance.

A shiver passed through Alderpaw, as if he were being stabbed by masses of icicles, all at once. Glancing back, he could still see the lake with the Clan territories around it, the only place he had known all his life. Ahead, everything was unknown. It was even more frightening than his journey to the Moonpool, because then he had been following a path the other medicine cats had traveled before him. Now he was taking his Clanmates where there were no familiar paths.

“Can you see the place in your vision?” Sparkpaw asked him. Her eyes were bright with excitement as she took in the vast landscape.

Alderpaw peered around, trying to make out the rocks of the gorge, but it was Sandstorm who replied.

“Of course not. That place is much too far away.”

“Great StarClan!” Sparkpaw squeaked. “You mean there's
more
of it?”

“Much more,” Sandstorm told her. “And the sooner we get going, the sooner we'll arrive. Come on: I'd like to cross the Thunderpath down there before nightfall.”

Alderpaw realized she meant the black snake-thing. It was so different from the little Thunderpath that ended at the lake, separating ShadowClan territory from RiverClan. Glittering objects, which looked like tiny beetles at this distance, were speeding back and forth along its length.

“When we get there,” Sandstorm went on, “you will
not
cross before I tell you to. Is that quite clear?” she added, with a hard look at Sparkpaw.

Sparkpaw nodded, as cheerful as ever after her earlier scolding. “Sure, Sandstorm.”

With Sandstorm in the lead, the five cats headed down the slope and soon came to a wide stretch of woodland. Even though it wasn't as thick as the forest, Alderpaw was grateful to be back under the shade of trees, enjoying the warm scents and the long grass underpaw.

Gradually he became aware of voices from somewhere up ahead. But as they grew louder, he realized they were not
the voices of cats, or of any other animal he had come across before. The hairs on his pelt began to rise.

Sandstorm halted, raising her tail as a sign for the others to do the same. “Twolegs!” she hissed.

“Really?” Sparkpaw's eyes were alight with interest. “Can we go and see?”

Sandstorm hesitated. “It's not a bad idea for you to get an idea of what they're like,” she replied at last. “But we're not here to gawk at Twolegs, and don't you forget it.”

More cautiously she led the way forward.

Alderpaw had to admit that he was just as curious as his sister. So far he had only glimpsed Twolegs now and again, mostly near the greenleaf Twolegplaces, and always from a distance. He had never heard their raucous voices, or gotten close enough to discover what they were really like.

Skirting a bramble thicket, Sandstorm stood screened behind a clump of ferns and beckoned with her tail. “Okay, come and look, but don't let them know you're here.”

Alderpaw crept forward, with Sparkpaw by his side, and peered through the ferns. A group of five Twolegs, all different sizes, were sitting in a clearing. Just beyond them was a stretch of ground covered by the black Thunderpath stuff, with one of the glittering things—this one bright red—crouching under a tree.