A Warrior's Spirit Read online

  For a moment, Tree let himself picture it. A whole group of cats—like the Sisters, but toms and she-cats together—working and living as a group. Always some cat to hunt with, some cat’s soft fur to curl up beside.

  No.

  Stream had died. The Sisters had cast him out. Root had died, saving Tree.

  Getting attached to other cats just led to heartache. It was better not to care for any cat.

  “Living in a Clan sounds nice,” he admitted. “But I think I’m just a loner.”

  Pebbleshine flicked her tail dismissively. “You can’t have been alone your whole life,” she meowed. “Surely you lived with your mother and littermates when you were a kit.”

  Tree paused. He half wanted to tell her about Moonlight and the other Sisters. Surely a mother so determined that her kits would be welcomed and loved would see how terrible it was to drive out a kit just because he was a tom.

  But, suddenly, he didn’t want to go over that ground again. There wasn’t any point to holding on to that old resentment. He was grown now, and he could look after himself.

  Root had said Tree could be any cat he wanted to be. Why would he want to remember the Sisters? Why give them that power over him?

  “I grew up almost alone,” he lied. “Just my mother and my sister and me. But when I was very young, my mother left me.” He thought of Ice and how sick she’d been, and added, “My sister was sick, and my mother thought a Twopaw might help her, but that the chances were better if it was just the two of them.”

  “That’s awful!” Pebbleshine meowed indignantly “They left you?”

  Tree fluffed out his fur, comforted by her outrage. “I guess I was lucky not to be eaten by badgers or something, but I was all right.”

  “It doesn’t sound like a good start in life.” Pebbleshine’s gaze was sympathetic. “You must be angry at your mother.”

  Tree shrugged. “I was,” he told her. “But not anymore. This is just how things turned out. I’m used to being alone.” It felt strangely true. He might never see Moonlight and the Sisters again, and he felt like maybe he could forgive them.

  Pebbleshine laid her tail across his back. It had been a long time since another cat had touched him, Tree realized. It felt comforting. “I don’t think you’ll be alone forever,” she meowed. “You’re a good cat, Tree.”

  She sounded so sincere that Tree almost believed her. The idea of not being alone forever gave him a funny pain, like an empty space in his chest. It was so hard to imagine.

  Licking her chops, Pebbleshine pushed away the remnants of the rat carcass and got to her paws. “I’ll start searching for SkyClan again in the morning,” she announced. “Do you know anywhere safe to spend the night?”

  It was beginning to get dark, and there weren’t any good climbing trees near the Twopaw trash place, so Tree led the way to a nearby thornbush that they could shelter beneath. It felt so familiar and comforting to have another cat beside him, their fur brushing. There was a continuous growl coming from a Thunderpath not far away, but he listened instead to Pebbleshine’s steady breathing as he drifted into sleep.

  When his eyes opened onto pitch darkness, he could tell that it was much later, long past moonhigh. Pebbleshine was still sleeping. Tree didn’t know what had awakened him, and he blinked into the night, feeling confused and sleepy. Then a familiar voice spoke, close beside him.

  “Tree! You have to wake up!”

  Tree’s breath caught in his throat, and, without thinking, he sprang to his paws. Thorns tore at his pelt, but he barely noticed. He knew that voice.

  “Root?”

  Chapter 10

  His father was glowing ever so slightly, like the light of a faraway star, and he seemed not quite solid. But his face and his voice were the same, and he looked desperately worried.

  “You have to get up,” he meowed urgently. “You and this pregnant cat, you have to run.”

  Tree couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. “How . . . how am I seeing you?”

  Root slashed his tail impatiently. “There’s no time for that. Both of you need to get out of here. You’re in danger.”

  Blinking, Tree forced himself into action. He wasn’t going to let another cat get hurt if he could prevent it. Gently, he shook Pebbleshine awake. “We have to go—it’s not safe here.”

  Groggily, Pebbleshine blinked up at him. “What’s wrong?”

  “We have to go,” Tree repeated, more urgently. He couldn’t answer her question, but Pebbleshine struggled to her paws anyway, her large belly making her awkward, and followed him out of the bush.

  A light rain had begun to fall, misting their whiskers, and they both hunched their shoulders against it.

  “Where should we go?” Pebbleshine asked, and Tree began to answer—out into the forest, maybe—but then paused, the scents of the night rushing over him. Cutting through the smell of rain and of the Twopaw trash was a rank scent he recognized. He’d scented it for the first time the day his father had died.

  Fox!

  Tree’s heart pounded. Suddenly his mouth was dry. He couldn’t fight a fox. The last time a fox had attacked him, he had frozen, and Root had died. He couldn’t let that happen to Pebbleshine. They had to get out of here.

  “Come on,” he meowed, glancing back at Pebbleshine. Her green eyes were wide with fear, their sleepiness gone; she had scented the fox now too. If they got to the forest on the other side of the Thunderpath, they could climb a tree.

  He peered at the Thunderpath through the rain, which was coming down harder now. A lone monster, its eyes glowing, roared past. The hard black stuff the Thunderpath was made of would be slippery underfoot because of the rain. Would Pebbleshine be able to move fast enough?

  The fox scent was getting stronger. With the rain falling all around them, he couldn’t tell what direction it was coming from.

  “Let’s cross the Thunderpath,” he decided. It’ll be safer than here.

  “Good idea,” Pebbleshine meowed, and led the way, Tree close behind her.

  As they walked, Tree kept scenting the air, all his senses on alert the way Root had shown him. Root. I saw Root. Emotion washed over him like a river.

  I never thought I could do it. I never thought I’d see him, or anyone I lost, ever again. How? Did he come back just to save us?

  Tree had thought that he was broken. But Root had come back. Maybe the Sisters were right. Maybe none of the dead are ever lost, he thought, and it comforted him for the first time since the terrible day when Stream had died.

  A snarl came from his left as they approached the Thunderpath. Before he could do more than turn his head, the fox shot out of the bracken, coming straight toward them.

  No, Tree thought. Not again.

  Baring his teeth, he puffed out his tail and screeched, making himself as big and fierce as possible, then charged at the fox. “Go!” he yowled to Pebbleshine.

  The fox slowed, then started forward again.

  “I’m not leaving you to fight alone!” Pebbleshine yowled back. He could hear her coming behind him as he leaped to slash at the fox’s eyes, just as Root had. The fox flinched backward, and Tree’s swipe missed.

  The ground was already muddy from the rain. Tree’s paw slipped and he fell hard. Did the land still hate him? He had fallen when he and Root had been fighting for their lives, too. Looking up at the advancing fox, he was struck by a wave of memory. This is how it happened. He was going to freeze and the fox would kill them both.

  No! he thought. Scrambling to his paws, he launched himself at the fox. He caught its nose with his claws this time, leaving a long scratch, and the fox yelped in pain. Pebbleshine came up beside him, faster than she looked despite her rounded belly, and slashed at the fox’s ear.

  As Tree swiped at the fox’s eyes again, his claw catching near the edge of its eye, the fox had had enough. Shaking Pebbleshine off as she raked her claws along its side, it backed away, then turned and ran.

  Panting, Tree and Pebbleshi
ne looked at each other. “We’d better get across the Thunderpath while we can,” she meowed, and Tree nodded. As they headed that way, he glanced back over his shoulder. There was no pale-star glimmer behind them, nothing that looked like it could be a ghost. Maybe his father had come just that once, to save them.

  Thank you, Root.

  By dawn, the rain had stopped. Tree leaped down from the low branch where they had slept, watching with concern as Pebbleshine awkwardly—but safely—sprang after him.

  The grass was wet, raindrops glittering on its stalks. Only a few tail-lengths away, monsters streamed along the Thunderpath, so close that they were almost nose to tail. One screamed its harsh howl, and both cats winced.

  “I didn’t say it last night, but thank you,” Pebbleshine told him. “If you hadn’t woken me, and fought the fox with me, I could have been killed.”

  An embarrassed warmth spread through Tree at her praise. “It’s okay,” he replied. “I’m just glad I could help save you.”

  Pebbleshine purred. “You saved more than one cat,” she meowed. Tree realized she was talking about her kits, and he felt warmer still. We saved a family, Root.

  “Speaking of which,” Pebbleshine added, “I’d better be going. I want to find my Clan before the kits are born. Are you sure you won’t come with me? I think you’d make a wonderful SkyClan warrior.”

  “I don’t think it’s for me. But I’m grateful to be asked,” Tree answered. Part of him yearned to live with other cats again. It had been good to share a den with Pebbleshine and to fight beside her. But were all cats meant to live in big groups like SkyClan or the Sisters? The happiest part of his life so far had been with just Root beside him.

  Pebbleshine looked around, examining the sky and the Thunderpath as if making up her mind which way to go.

  “How will you ever find them?” Tree asked, unable to stop himself. “Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay here?”

  Pebbleshine flicked her tail. “I know I’ll find SkyClan eventually. My kits . . .”

  “Have a destiny,” Tree chimed in. Who knew? Maybe they did. That’s SkyClan’s business.

  Pebbleshine twined her tail with Tree’s and stood beside him for a moment. “You’ll always be welcome in SkyClan,” she told him.

  Tree watched her walk out of sight, her tail held straight up behind her. She looked determined, like she was setting out on an adventure, like she knew where she was going. I hope she finds her Clan, he thought. But I guess I’ll never know.

  Tree spent the day wandering through the woods. He caught a few mice and basked in the sunlight for a while, but he felt strangely unsettled. As if he was waiting for something.

  He crossed beneath a beech tree, and a pale light up among the tree’s branches caught his eye. Could it be? Was Root nearby?

  With a leap, Tree began to climb the beech, his paws slipping on the still-wet bark. Halfway up, he found Root sitting on a branch, his tail dangling, a mischievous gleam in his eye.

  “You’re real,” Tree meowed breathlessly, clambering onto the branch beside him.

  “Of course I’m real,” Root replied. “I’ve got to keep an eye on you, kit.”

  “Yeah.” Tree worked his claws against the branch, suddenly feeling shy. “I’m so sorry,” he blurted out at last. “You died saving me. I never wanted that to happen.”

  Root twitched his ear dismissively. “Don’t worry about it,” he meowed. “I wouldn’t say I wanted it to happen, either, but it was definitely worth it. I don’t want you feeling guilty or apologizing or any of that.”

  “But . . . ,” Tree began.

  Root sat up straighter and stared directly into Tree’s eyes. When he spoke, his voice had lost its teasing edge. “I was so grateful for you,” he told him. “I thought I was a happy loner, that doing whatever I wanted, wherever and whenever I wanted, was what it meant to have a good life. I was wrong. Dying to save you was the best thing I ever did.”

  “But we only had a couple of moons together,” Tree argued, his voice shaking. “It was so short.” We lost so much time.

  Root leaned forward and pressed his cheek to Tree’s for a heartbeat. It felt like nothing, except for a faint coolness, but Tree was comforted. “I could be angry about that,” his father told him softly, “but I’m just happy we got to know each other at all. You showed me I was more than just a loner. I want you to know how proud of you I am.”

  Tree’s tail drooped. “Proud of what?” he asked. “I’m a loner, too. I saved Pebbleshine, but that was because of you.”

  “It was because of you,” Root corrected him. “I only woke you. You saved her yourself.” He looked away across the forest, his tail swinging steadily. The sky was still cloudy from the earlier rain, but patches of sun shone through. “If there’s one piece of fatherly advice I can give you, it’s this: a friendship you choose is sometimes stronger than kinship. You can find some cat to care for.” He looked back at Tree, his eyes affectionate. “Don’t spend your life alone, Tree. Even if you lose a cat you love, it’s better than never having had them beside you.”

  “Maybe so,” Tree meowed. He thought of Stream and of his sisters. Of Root himself, and of Pebbleshine, even though he had known her only for a day. Losing all of them had hurt, but they had been worth that pain.

  Root was beginning to fade, his edges blurry and faint.

  “Don’t leave me!” Tree yowled, alarmed. Had Root returned only to leave again?

  But the other cat purred, amused. “Don’t worry about that,” he meowed. “You might not be able to see me all the time, but we’ll speak again. I’ll wander with you from now on.”

  Gradually, Root faded, his form growing paler and paler until Tree was alone. He didn’t feel lonely, though: he knew that Root would travel beside him.

  Like Root had a few moments before, Tree gazed out over the trees. The sun was low on the horizon, shining a pale, clear violet through what remained of the storm clouds. Something about the beauty of the scene made Tree’s heart lift in hope.

  A friendship you choose is sometimes stronger than kinship, Root had said. Surely, somewhere there was another cat who could touch Tree’s heart. Some cat who would make caring worth the risk.

  For the first time since Root’s death, Tree’s heart began to fill with excitement. There was a whole future out there, toward the horizon, and he could go anywhere he liked.

  And, someday, maybe another cat would walk beside him.

  Dedication

  Special thanks to Clarissa Hutton

  Allegiances

  RIVERCLAN

  LEADER LEOPARDSTAR—unusually spotted golden tabby she-cat

  DEPUTY MISTYFOOT—gray she-cat with blue eyes

  MEDICINE CAT MUDFUR—long-haired light brown tom

  WARRIORS (toms and she-cats without kits)

  BLACKCLAW—smoky black tom

  HEAVYSTEP—thickset tabby tom

  STORMFUR—dark gray tom with amber eyes

  FEATHERTAIL—light gray she-cat with blue eyes

  MOSSPELT—tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat

  APPRENTICE, SWALLOWPAW (dark brown tabby she-cat with green eyes)

  HAWKFROST—broad-shouldered dark brown tom

  MOTHWING—beautiful golden tabby she-cat with amber eyes

  QUEENS (she-cats expecting or nursing kits)

  DAWNFLOWER—pale gray she-cat

  SKYHEART—pale brown tabby she-cat

  ELDERS (former warriors and queens, now retired)

  SHADEPELT—very dark gray she-cat

  LOUDBELLY—dark brown tom

  THUNDERCLAN

  LEADER FIRESTAR—ginger tom with a flame-colored pelt

  DEPUTY GRAYSTRIPE—long-haired gray tom

  MEDICINE CAT CINDERPELT—dark gray she-cat

  APPRENTICE, LEAFPAW (light brown tabby she-cat)

  WARRIORS MOUSEFUR—small dusky brown she-cat

  APPRENTICE, SPIDERPAW (black tom with amber eyes)

  DUSTPELT—dark brown
tabby tom

  APPRENTICE, SQUIRRELPAW (dark ginger she-cat with green eyes)

  SANDSTORM—pale ginger she-cat

  APPRENTICE, SORRELPAW (tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with amber eyes)

  CLOUDTAIL—long-haired white tom

  BRACKENFUR—golden-brown tabby tom

  APPRENTICE, WHITEPAW (white she-cat with green eyes)

  THORNCLAW—golden-brown tabby tom

  APPRENTICE, SHREWPAW (small dark brown tom with amber eyes)

  BRIGHTHEART—white she-cat with ginger patches

  BRAMBLECLAW—dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

  ASHFUR—pale gray tom with dark blue eyes

  RAINWHISKER—dark gray tom with blue eyes

  SOOTFUR—lighter gray tom with amber eyes

  QUEENS GOLDENFLOWER—pale ginger she-cat with yellow eyes

  FERNCLOUD—pale gray she-cat with green eyes

  ELDERS FROSTFUR—beautiful white she-cat with blue eyes

  DAPPLETAIL—tortoiseshell she-cat, the oldest cat in ThunderClan

  SPECKLETAIL—pale tabby she-cat

  LONGTAIL—pale tabby tom with dark black stripes, retired early due to failing sight

  SHADOWCLAN

  LEADER BLACKSTAR—large white tom with huge jet-black paws

  DEPUTY RUSSETFUR—dark ginger she-cat

  MEDICINE CAT LITTLECLOUD—very small tabby tom

  WARRIORS OAKFUR—small brown tom

  APPRENTICE, SMOKEPAW (dark gray tom)

  TAWNYPELT—tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

  CEDARHEART—dark gray tom

  ROWANCLAW—ginger tom

  APPRENTICE, TALONPAW (pale gray tom)

  TALLPOPPY—long-legged light brown tabby she-cat

  ELDERS RUNNINGNOSE—small gray-and-white tom, formerly the medicine cat