The Apprentice's Quest (6 page)

“It really did,” Bramblestar confirmed. “It was an awful first try at hunting, but I soon got much better, and I'm sure you will too.”

Gazing up into his father's gentle eyes, Alderpaw felt as
though a heavy weight were lifting off his back, and he began to look forward to going out with his mentor again.
I
will
get better,
he promised himself.
And one day I
will
be a warrior and make my Clan proud of me!

The sun had gone down, and
the outlines of the forest trees above the stone hollow had begun to fade into the twilight. Alderpaw sat outside the apprentices' den, giving himself a thorough grooming.

This is a special night. I have to look my best.

He and Sparkpaw had been apprentices for almost a half-moon. Looking back, Alderpaw felt that he hadn't done too badly. Molewhisker had praised him for being responsible about helping the elders and doing his share of the chores, like collecting moss to make every cat's nest comfortable, along with all the other tasks apprentices had to do. He had gone out on a border patrol, paid attention to the leader, and done everything he was supposed to.

Even though I haven't caught any prey yet, I
almost
caught a bird yesterday, and Molewhisker told me birds are especially hard to catch.

But Alderpaw had to admit that even though he was doing well, Sparkpaw was doing better. She never came back from hunting empty-pawed, and she seemed to find it so easy to learn battle moves.

But just because she's brilliant at everything doesn't mean that I'm awful,
Alderpaw told himself, trying hard to believe it.
I wonder what it would be like if I weren't an apprentice at the same time as Sparkpaw. Then I wouldn't have to compare myself with her all the time.
But the thought felt disloyal to his littermate, and he thrust it away, his pelt hot with guilt.
She's my sister! Of course I want to be with her!

At that moment Sparkpaw appeared out of the gloom. “Are you ready?” she asked, bouncing on her paws with excitement. “Bramblestar is gathering the Clan by the thorn tunnel.”

Alderpaw sprang up, pushing away his worries. Anticipation tingled through him from ears to tail-tip. “This is going to be so great!” he meowed. “Our first full-moon Gathering!”

“And we get to be introduced to the other Clans,” Sparkpaw added as she and her brother scampered across the clearing side by side. “I can't wait!”

Joining the crowd of cats who clustered around the tunnel entrance, Alderpaw wondered what the other Clans would be like. Apart from glimpses across the border when he was on patrol, he'd only seen cats from another Clan once, when he was still a kit and two medicine cats from RiverClan had come to talk to Jayfeather and Leafpool. They had looked just like normal cats, except that their pelts were especially thick and sleek, and they had left a funny, fishy smell behind them. And while they were in the camp, all the ThunderClan cats had been tense, casting sidelong glances at them, with their neck fur bristling.

Anyway, medicine cats are different from real warriors,
Alderpaw told himself. It was hard for him to imagine whole other Clans full of cats.

At last Bramblestar raised his tail to lead the cats who had been chosen to go to the Gathering. As Alderpaw padded through the tunnel near the back of the group, his excitement began to ebb.
I hope I don't do something stupid in front of all those strange cats.

By now Alderpaw was becoming used to the forest in daylight, but he realized when he slid out through the thorn tunnel that it looked quite different in twilight. The trees seemed thicker and more mysterious; the air was cooler and carried different scents. The darkness was full of new sounds, and it was hard to work out where they were coming from.

By the time he and his Clanmates emerged onto the lakeshore, Alderpaw's heart was pounding. He had barely left the shelter of the trees when he heard a hooting sound above his head. Flinching, he whipped around to stare up into the darkness. A pale wing swept across his vision, and then the owl was gone.

Suppressing a shiver, Alderpaw turned to Squirrelflight, who was padding along beside him. “I've heard stories about huge owls,” he began nervously, “big enough to snatch up a cat. Is it true?”

Squirrelflight's green eyes glinted in the dusk with a mixture of kindness and amusement. “The owls in these woods aren't big enough to attack a cat,” she replied.

Alderpaw mulled over her answer. He was only partly comforted: Did his mother mean that somewhere else there
were
owls big enough to take cats as their prey? And if there were, couldn't they come to the forest one day?

Molewhisker, who was walking on Alderpaw's other side, flicked his apprentice's ear with his tail. “Someday Cherryfall and I will take you and Sparkpaw hunting at night,” he meowed. “There's a lot of prey that's out of its nest at night instead of during the day.”

“That's . . . er . . . great,” Alderpaw responded weakly.

Just then he heard a shocked, excited sound from Sparkpaw, who was just behind him along with Cherryfall. Glancing back, Alderpaw spotted little lights flickering on and off in the darkness, as if little scraps of sunlight were dancing in the air.

“What are those?” Sparkpaw asked, staring at the lights as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

“They're called fireflies,” Cherryfall explained. “Insects that light up just like the stars. Isn't that cool?”

“It's fantastic!” Alderpaw mewed.

Sparkpaw shot off toward the lights, and Alderpaw hesitated less than a moment before he followed her. Excitement filled him as he leaped up, batting at the fireflies with his paws as if he could catch the little sparks of sunlight. Beside him his sister was leaping up too, twisting in the air, but the tiny glints of light were always just out of reach.

“Sparkpaw! Alderpaw!” Squirrelflight's stern voice rang out after a few heartbeats. “Come back here right now.”

Alderpaw and Sparkpaw dropped to their paws and padded back to the group of cats, panting and disheveled.

“What do you think you're doing?” Squirrelflight asked as they rejoined her. “When you're on your way to a full-moon
Gathering, you're representing ThunderClan, and when you meet the other Clans you had better behave
perfectly
.”

Alderpaw dipped his head. “We will. I'm sorry.”

“Sorry,” Sparkpaw echoed.

“I should think so!” Squirrelflight stalked on ahead.

The two apprentices followed, but as soon as Squirrelflight was out of earshot, Sparkpaw leaned closer to Alderpaw. “Wasn't that
amazing
?” she whispered. “We never saw stuff like that when we were stuck in camp all the time!”

The ThunderClan cats skirted the lake, keeping close to the edge as they passed through WindClan territory. On the way, they watched the moon emerge from behind thick clouds, shedding a cold silver light over the surface of the water.

“Good,” Molewhisker meowed. “If StarClan is angry, they cover the moon. This means the Gathering can go ahead.”

At the far side of WindClan territory, Alderpaw spotted a cluster of Twoleg dens in the frosty moonlight. “That must be the horseplace,” he murmured to Sparkpaw. “Remember Daisy telling us about it in the nursery?”

Sparkpaw paused a moment, scanning the ground beyond the Twoleg fence. “I can't see any horses,” she mewed, sounding disappointed. “Maybe they go into their dens when—”

She broke off as Squirrelflight gave her a prod. “Keep moving. We're almost there.”

Alderpaw's excitement mounted as they crossed a stretch of marshy ground and the tree-bridge leading to the Gathering island came into view. Another group of cats was milling around the shore near the end of the fallen tree.

“That's WindClan,” Cherryfall told the two apprentices. “Take a good sniff so you can learn their scent.”

Alderpaw had encountered the WindClan scent on their border with ThunderClan, but it was much stronger here: a scent that suggested cool air and tough, scraggly plants. There was a hint of rabbit, too, he decided. The WindClan cats looked fairly ordinary, though they were thinner than most of his Clanmates, with long legs and wiry, muscular bodies.

Bramblestar paced forward through the crowd of cats and dipped his head politely to a brown tabby tom whose graying muzzle told of his age.

“Greetings, Onestar,” Bramblestar meowed. “How's the prey running in WindClan?”

“Well enough, I suppose,” the WindClan leader replied gruffly. “I hope your warriors kept close to the lake when you passed through our territory.”

“Of course.” Bramblestar's tone was calm. “ThunderClan would never dream of trespassing.”

Onestar's only response was a grunt.

Bramblestar signaled to his cats to stay back while the WindClan cats crossed the tree-bridge to the island. Alderpaw's paws prickled with nervousness as he watched them balancing along the trunk and leaping to the ground at the far end.

I wonder if any cat has ever fallen into the lake,
he thought.
That would be so embarrassing!

As Bramblestar began to lead the ThunderClan cats across, Alderpaw kept his head high. When it came to Sparkpaw's
turn she raced across and hurled herself onto the shore of the island with a yowl of triumph.

Cherryfall, who was next, rolled her eyes. “I'll have to say something to her about taking risks,” she muttered.

Alderpaw clambered onto the tree trunk and was relieved to find that it was much wider and steadier than he expected. He didn't like the sight of the dark water just below him, or the sucking sound it made as it lapped against the tree, but he kept his gaze fixed on the island ahead of him and was massively relieved when he reached the tree roots. He jumped down beside Sparkpaw, who had waited for him.

“Come on, slow mole!” she urged him. “We're missing all the fun!”

Alderpaw saw that the ThunderClan warriors were pushing their way through a thick line of bushes at the top of a slope that led up from the beach. With Sparkpaw beside him, he raced up the slope and thrust himself into the bushes after his Clanmates. As the thorns raked through his pelt he reflected that he hadn't needed to spend so much time grooming himself.

On the other side of the bushes Alderpaw found himself at the edge of a wide circle of grass. A huge, gnarled oak tree stood in the center, its roots as thick as a cat's body. All around it cats were milling around; some were talking together in clusters, while others found comfortable spots and settled down facing the oak tree. Their mingled scents caught Alderpaw in the throat so that he almost choked.

“It looks like all the other Clans are already here,” Sparkpaw
murmured into his ear. “I've never seen so many cats!”

Alderpaw nodded in agreement. He was especially astonished to see a crowd of young cats—
probably apprentices like us,
he thought—yowling and tussling together in the shelter of the bushes.
I thought you were supposed to behave
perfectly
at a Gathering,
he thought, remembering what Squirrelflight had told him.
But maybe other Clans have different rules.

“Well, what do you think?” Molewhisker asked; he had padded up unnoticed while Alderpaw was staring at the rowdy young cats.

“It's amazing!” Alderpaw breathed out.

“It sure is,” Cherryfall agreed, emerging from the bushes and giving her pelt a shake. “Especially your first time.”

“Look,” Molewhisker meowed, pointing with his tail. “That's Rowanstar, the ShadowClan leader, climbing into the Great Oak.”

Alderpaw blinked as he looked up at the powerful ginger tom who settled himself in the fork between two branches and gazed around commandingly.
He looks like a cat I wouldn't want to cross.

“You've already seen Onestar, there on the branch just above Rowanstar,” Molewhisker went on, indicating the brown tabby tom. “And here comes Mistystar, the RiverClan leader.”

Alderpaw saw a gray-blue she-cat leap gracefully into the tree; several leaves fluttered down as she found a spot on a lower branch. He noticed that Bramblestar too was heading for the tree, and felt a thrill of pride to see his father ready to
take his place with the other leaders.
He's so important!