The Apprentice's Quest (7 page)

“The deputies sit on the roots,” Cherryfall told the apprentices. “The brown-and-white tom is WindClan's deputy, Harespring, and the black tom next to him is Reedwhisker from RiverClan. The cat just joining them is Crowfrost from ShadowClan.”

“And I'd better get my tail over there, too,” Squirrelflight meowed as she padded past. Pausing briefly, she added to the apprentices, “This is your chance to get to know cats in other Clans. Go and introduce yourselves.”

Alderpaw saw that the older ThunderClan cats were mixing with the other Clans already, settling down with their friends and eagerly exchanging gossip. Squirrelflight joined the other deputies, while Bramblestar swarmed up the tree and sat on a branch near Mistystar.

Alderpaw looked around nervously, not knowing which of this milling crowd of cats he dared approach.
I'd rather just stick with Sparkpaw,
he told himself.

“I'll introduce you to a few cats, if you like,” Cherryfall offered.

Alderpaw was about to accept gratefully when Sparkpaw's ears twitched. “We don't need help, thanks,” she mewed. “We'll manage just fine on our own.”

“Okay.” Cherryfall dipped her head. “See you later.” She padded off and plopped herself down beside a rangy tabby she-cat who looked as if she belonged to WindClan.

Alderpaw turned to glare at his littermate. “Why did you say that?” he demanded. “I'd much rather be introduced by
Cherryfall than walk up to a strange cat and have to introduce myself.”

Sparkpaw returned his glare. “I'm not going to hide behind an older cat like I'm some kind of
kit
,” she hissed. “What would the cats from the other Clans think of me then?”

“Fine,” Alderpaw retorted. “But who are we going to talk to?”

Sparkpaw let her head and tail droop a little, as if she was only just now thinking that through. Then she raised her chin high again and looked around.

Almost at once Alderpaw spotted another cat gesturing to them with her tail. She seemed to be an apprentice by her size, a sleek silver-gray she-cat with white chest fur. Her bold green eyes sparkled as she called out, “Hey! Over here!”

Relieved that another cat had made the first move, Alderpaw trotted over with Sparkpaw by his side. He picked up the weird reek that was familiar from the ShadowClan border, but was too polite to wrinkle his nose.

“I'm Needlepaw,” the silver she-cat announced. “This is Sleekpaw, and that's Beepaw.”

The two apprentices she was with nodded in greeting. Sleekpaw was a yellow she-cat, and Beepaw a plump white she-cat with black ears.

“Hi,” Beepaw meowed, shifting to make room for the two ThunderClan apprentices under the bush where they were crouching. “We're from ShadowClan.”

“Is this your first Gathering?” Needlepaw asked. “It's my second—I've been an apprentice for three moons.”

“Yes, it's our first,” Alderpaw responded. “I'm Alderpaw, and this is Sparkpaw.”

“We're from ThunderClan,” Sparkpaw added.

“Are you really?” Needlepaw's brilliant green eyes widened. “Does that mean you want to boss all the other cats in the forest around?”

“No, it does
not
!” Sparkpaw exclaimed with a lash of her tail, while Alderpaw's neck fur bristled. “What are you even talking about?” Sparkpaw went on. “Why would you insult us like that?”

“All right, keep your fur on,” Needlepaw meowed, with an amused glance at her Clanmates. “I was only teasing. All the Clans have reputations with the others. ThunderClan cats are bossy, WindClan cats get scared and run away, and RiverClan cats are too fat and lazy to hunt properly.”

Alderpaw narrowly stopped himself from gaping, exchanging a scandalized glance with Sparkpaw.
Who does she think she is, talking about other Clans like that?

“Well,
I
think it's stupid,” Sleekpaw added, licking one paw and drawing it over her ear. “What Clan you're in doesn't decide what you're like. It's just where you're born. Some of the cats in ShadowClan are every bit as bossy as ThunderClan cats.”

Sparkpaw's ears pricked forward in shock at Sleekpaw's idea, though Alderpaw had the feeling that she might be right.

Before Sparkpaw could argue, a cat's voice rang out across the clearing. “Cats of all Clans!” It was Rowanstar, standing tall and proud on his branch. “Welcome to the Gathering.
Mistystar, would you like to speak first?”

The gray-blue she-cat dipped her head as she rose to her paws. “RiverClan is doing well,” she began. “The lake is full of fish . . .”

“RiverClan cats eat fish!” exclaimed Beepaw. “Can you imagine? No wonder they're so smelly.”

Alderpaw glanced around to see if any ShadowClan warriors would correct Beepaw's behavior, but there were none within earshot. He hoped furiously that Mistystar hadn't heard the comment, but if she had, she ignored it.

“A new litter of four kits has been born to Lakeheart,” she announced, then dipped her head again to Rowanstar before resuming her seat.

“Onestar?” Rowanstar gestured to the WindClan leader.

“Hunting has been good on the moor,” Onestar announced.

“I bet
he
hasn't done much hunting,” Needlepaw muttered. “Creaky old mange-pelt!”

“Yeah, my mentor said he couldn't catch a blind hedgehog, never mind a rabbit,” Sleekpaw responded.

They're talking about a Clan leader!
Alderpaw couldn't help but be amused, and he heard a suppressed snort of laughter from Sparkpaw. But he was shocked by their comments, and even more shocked that ShadowClan warriors would talk like that in front of apprentices.

“Some rogues passed through the edges of our territory,” Onestar continued. “Crowfeather led a patrol to keep an eye on them, and the rogues left without making any trouble. They'll be a long way away by now.”

“I'd have clawed their ears off if they'd come to ShadowClan,” Beepaw murmured, sliding out her claws. “That'd teach them not to trespass on our territory.”

“WindClan has always been weak,” Needlepaw added. “That's what I heard Tawnypelt telling Crowfrost, anyway.”

Sleekpaw bent forward to mutter something into Needlepaw's ear, but Alderpaw stopped listening, as Bramblestar had just risen to make his report.

“The prey is running well in ThunderClan,” the tabby tom meowed. “And two new apprentices, Alderpaw and Sparkpaw, have begun training with their mentors, Molewhisker and Cherryfall.”

Alderpaw was aware of every cat turning to look at him and his littermate. Some of them yowled out their names. “Alderpaw! Sparkpaw!” Utterly embarrassed, he lowered his head to lick his chest fur.
It was bad enough being the center of attention when it was just my own Clan!

Sparkpaw, however, was preening, thoroughly enjoying the welcoming yowls of the other cats.

Bramblestar had taken his seat on the branch again, and Rowanstar stepped forward.

“Prey is plentiful in ShadowClan,” he reported.

“Honestly!” Needlepaw whispered. “Does any cat expect him to say anything else? If we were all starving, he'd say just the same. He must think we're all mouse-brained.”

Alderpaw was shocked all over again at the disrespectful way Needlepaw spoke.
Don't these cats even respect their
own
leader? I would
never
talk about Bramblestar like that!
He was sure that
Rowanstar wasn't lying. These sleek she-cats obviously had all the prey they could eat.

“Twolegs are still using the greenleaf Twolegplace on our territory,” Rowanstar went on. “But they haven't caused much trouble, and as the weather gets colder over the next couple of moons, we don't expect to see much of them.”

“And it can't be soon enough for me,” Needlepaw muttered.

“Two of our apprentices have been made warriors.” Rowanstar glanced down proudly, sweeping his tail around to indicate a white tom and a yellow she-cat, who stood close together near the Great Oak. “Stonewing and Wasptail.”

The two new warriors stood up straighter, their eyes gleaming, as their Clanmates yowled their names enthusiastically. Most of the other cats joined in.

“Also,” Rowanstar continued when the clamor had died down, “four kits have been made apprentices. Beepaw is apprenticed to Dawnpelt, Sleekpaw to Tigerheart, Juniperpaw to Stonewing, and Strikepaw to Wasptail.”

Instead of yowling to acclaim the new apprentices, a murmur of surprise arose from all the cats. Onestar looked sharply at the ginger tom. “Is ShadowClan really giving apprentices to brand-new warriors now?” he asked disapprovingly.

“By the time ShadowClan cats are warriors,” Rowanstar retorted, the faintest suggestion of a growl in his voice, “they're ready for anything. Other Clans need to stay out of ShadowClan business.”

Alderpaw noticed that the ShadowClan apprentices sitting beside him were looking a bit smug.

“ShadowClan has
lots
of apprentices,” Needlepaw informed him loftily. “Rowanstar doesn't know what to do with us all.”

“That's nice for you,” Sparkpaw mewed pertly.

Alderpaw felt even more strongly that it was weird, both the way the ShadowClan apprentices talked about their leader and the fact that an apprentice would be so casual about sharing her Clan's weaknesses with others.

He was distracted from his thoughts when he noticed that the four Clan leaders had drawn closer together in the branches of the oak tree and were speaking to one another in low tones.

A moment later Rowanstar stepped forward again. “The medicine cats have something to say to all the Clans,” he announced. “Something important that they have only discussed with their leaders so far.”

A tense silence fell among the Clans as the medicine cats gathered together in front of the Great Oak. As well as Leafpool and Jayfeather, Alderpaw recognized Mothwing and her apprentice, Willowshine, from when they had visited the ThunderClan camp.

“That old tom must be Littlecloud from ShadowClan,” he murmured to Sparkpaw.

“So the cat with the splotchy gray fur is Kestrelflight from WindClan,” Sparkpaw responded.

The medicine cats conferred together rapidly before Kestrelflight leaped up onto one of the oak roots beside the deputies.

“All of us have shared a vision,” he began. “We received a
prophecy that is vital to all our Clans.”

Meows of shock and confusion rose from the cats around him as he finished speaking.

“Why would StarClan give you a
shared
vision?” some cat called out.

“Which cat spoke to you all?”

“It's been
seasons
since we had a prophecy!”

The clamor grew louder and louder until Jayfeather stood up, lashing his tail. “For StarClan's sake, shut up and listen!” he snapped.

Gradually the noise died down, until Kestrelflight could make himself heard again. “Firestar spoke to us first,” he reported.

“Oh, yeah, it
would
be Firestar!” Needlepaw muttered. “He has his tail in every cat's business, even now he's dead.”

“He said, ‘Embrace what you find in the shadows, for only they can clear the sky.'”

“And what did he mean by that?” Harespring, the WindClan deputy, asked.

“We don't know,” Kestrelflight replied.

Harespring sniffed. “Well, great.”

As he listened to Kestrelflight, Alderpaw couldn't shake off the feeling that all this was somehow familiar. He could almost picture a large cat with a flame-colored pelt—a cat he had never seen—speaking the words.
Could that have been Firestar?
But everything was vague, like a half-remembered dream; he tried to push the shadowy memory away and focus on what was being said.

When Kestrelflight fell silent, agitated voices rose all around him.

“What does it mean?”

“What would we find ‘in the shadows'?”

“And how are we supposed to find it if we don't know what it is?”

“Maybe it's ShadowClan?”

“If you ask me,” a scarred ShadowClan elder hissed, “what should be
embraced
is a bit more respect for senior warriors.”

Beepaw and Needlepaw shared a quiet purr of laughter. “Ratscar's always saying that!” Beepaw murmured.

A pretty RiverClan apprentice raised her tail. “I found some really beautiful blue feathers that I decorated my nest with in a shady glen,” she meowed. “Do you think they could be important?”

An older RiverClan tabby—her mentor, Alderpaw guessed—gave her a sharp cuff over the ear. “Stupid furball!”

“Our old territory, back in the forest, was filled with shadows,” Onestar murmured. He looked old and frail, his eyes full of memories. “So much was lost to us when we left.”

“But how could we possibly find our old territory?” Mistystar asked. Her voice was warm and sympathetic, and she stretched out her tail to draw the tip down the WindClan leader's flank. “It's gone.”

“I've got a question.” Cloudtail rose from where he was sitting beside Brightheart and Whitewing and faced the medicine cats. “Do we think this prophecy applies to all the Clans? Or was it meant for Jayfeather specifically?”

“Good question,” Littlecloud responded.

“Firestar prefaced it with ‘a time of great change is coming for all the Clans,'” Jayfeather replied. “Which would seem to mean, yes, this is meant for all of us.”

A new swell of voices, confused and angry, rose from all four Clans.

“Is StarClan saying that we
all
must embrace what we find in the shadows—whatever that is?” Crowfrost demanded.

Alderpaw could feel the tension in the clearing, as if a covering of cold, dark fog had suddenly descended. Cats were sharing uneasy glances and muttering to one another in low voices.

“This is so exciting!” Sparkpaw whispered. “Maybe
we'll
find the shadowy thing and save ThunderClan.”