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  Hollypaw sighed. They were only apprentices; surely it was too early to think about taking a mate? She wanted to prove herself as a warrior first, to show courage in defending her Clan and skill in hunting to feed her Clanmates. She wanted to take responsibility for how her Clan was run, to make ThunderClan great for season after season….

  Hollypaw stood rigid, paws frozen to the ground. Yes! she thought. I’d much rather be Clan leader than a nursing queen.

  For a heartbeat the strength of her ambition frightened her. Then she calmed down. There was nothing wrong with wanting to be Clan leader, if it meant she would serve her Clan with every muscle in her body and every hair on her pelt. Turning away from the fresh-kill pile, fed up with the sight of Honeypaw hanging adoringly around Berrynose, she saw her mother, Squirrelflight, emerging from the warriors’ den.

  Hollypaw bounded over to her. “Squirrelflight, can I ask you something?”

  Her mother’s ears twitched. “Sure.”

  “You had kits,” Hollypaw meowed, “but you manage to be a warrior as well. How do you do it?”

  Squirrelflight narrowed her eyes, and for a moment Hollypaw thought she saw something flash in their green depths, some emotion she couldn’t understand. But her mother’s voice was even as she asked, “Why do you want to know that?”

  “I was just wondering….” Hollypaw felt awkward. “I just feel like every cat expects she-cats to have kits, and I’m not sure I want that. I want to be a warrior.”

  To her annoyance, Squirrelflight’s tail curled up in amusement. “Don’t try to plan so far ahead!” her mother meowed. “StarClan already has your path marked out, and there’ll be twists and turns in it that you can’t possibly expect.”

  “But—”

  “Look around you,” Squirrelflight went on. “Plenty of she-cats have kits and then return to the warriors’ den.”

  But do they become Clan leader?

  “Don’t worry about it,” Squirrelflight finished, resting her tail tip on her daughter’s shoulder. “Just concentrate on your training.”

  That doesn’t help, Hollypaw thought frustratedly. That doesn’t help me at all.

  Hollypaw returned from hunting to find the Clan beginning to gather in the middle of the clearing. Firestar was standing on the Highledge, his flame-colored pelt blazing in a ray of sunlight.

  Hollypaw carried her prey across to the fresh-kill pile. “What’s going on?” she asked Cloudtail, who was sharing a thrush with his mate, Brightheart.

  “Icekit and Foxkit are going to be apprenticed,” Brightheart replied.

  “And about time, too,” Cloudtail muttered. “They frightened my fur off the other day, yowling that ShadowClan was attacking us.”

  His mate gave him a gentle prod with one forepaw. “Kits are kits, Cloudtail. You know they’ll be good warriors one day.”

  His only reply was a snort.

  Hollypaw looked around for the other apprentices. Honeypaw was sitting close to Berrynose, who was ignoring her and talking to Birchfall instead. Jaypaw appeared from behind the bramble screen at the entrance to the medicine cats’ den, and a heartbeat later Leafpool joined him. Hollypaw took a paw step toward them, but she felt awkward about joining them in case they were discussing medicine cat business.

  Poppypaw and Cinderpaw were sitting near Sandstorm and Graystripe, and as Hollypaw glanced around she spotted Lionpaw emerging from the apprentices’ den to find a place next to them. Hollypaw bounded across.

  Ferncloud emerged from the nursery with Foxkit and Icekit. Dustpelt followed; the brown tabby warrior looked ready to burst with pride.

  The kits’ eyes were bright with excitement, and their glossy pelts shone in the sunlight. Both of them were trying hard to be dignified, but halfway across the clearing Icekit gave a little bounce; her father caught up to her and flicked her over the ear with his tail. After that she managed to walk calmly until she and her brother reached the front.

  Firestar bounded down the tumbled rocks from the Highledge and called both kits to stand in front of him. “Squirrelflight,” he began, “your time for an apprentice is long overdue. You will be mentor to Foxpaw.”

  Squirrelflight stepped out of the crowd, her head and tail held high. As she padded toward Firestar, Foxkit ran up to meet her.

  “Squirrelflight, the whole Clan knows your courage and loyalty,” Firestar continued. “Do your best to pass these qualities on to Foxpaw.”

  Foxpaw reached up to touch noses with Squirrelflight, and the two cats withdrew to the side of the hollow.

  Squirrelflight’s a mentor now, Hollypaw told herself. And she had kits. It is possible to do both.

  Firestar’s gaze rested on a young white she-cat. “Whitewing, you too are ready for your first apprentice. You will be mentor to Icepaw.”

  Eyes glowing with happiness, Whitewing padded over to her apprentice. They touched noses and followed the other new apprentice and his mentor to the side of the clearing. The rest of the Clan began to crowd around, congratulating them and calling the apprentices by their new names.

  Hollypaw noticed that Berrynose and Birchfall stayed where they were.

  “Huh!” Birchfall exclaimed, loud enough for the cats around him to hear. “I don’t know why Firestar picked Whitewing. I’d be just as good as her at mentoring.”

  “Firestar picks the best cat for the job,” Sandstorm told him as she walked past. “Whitewing is older than you. And don’t forget she could have been made a warrior much sooner, but she asked to put it off so you wouldn’t be the only apprentice.”

  Birchfall muttered something Hollypaw didn’t catch.

  “You’ll have an apprentice soon,” Sandstorm assured him. “For once the Clan has plenty of kits.”

  Birchfall didn’t dare complain any more, but he still looked discontented. Berrynose whispered something in his ear, and the two young toms moved away with their heads close together.

  Hollypaw sighed. She didn’t know what had gotten into Birchfall lately. He used to be good fun; he had been made a warrior so recently that he still remembered what it was like to be an apprentice. Now he’s being as much of a pain in the tail as Berrynose, she thought.

  By the time Hollypaw got close enough to congratulate the apprentices, the cats were drifting away to get on with their duties. Hollypaw felt a touch on her shoulder and turned to see her mentor, Brackenfur.

  “Firestar wants us to do the evening patrol with him,” the golden tabby tom mewed. “Are you ready?”

  “Sure.”

  Hollypaw’s heart began to race and she felt every hair on her pelt rise with excitement. Apprentices didn’t often go on patrol with the Clan leader. This was her chance to show Firestar what she had learned! Twisting her neck, she gave her shoulders a few swift licks. She would have liked to give herself a thorough grooming, but there wasn’t enough time. As Firestar padded over to join her and Brackenfur, she just hoped her fur wasn’t sticking up and she hadn’t collected any burrs in her pelt.

  “Let’s go,” the Clan leader meowed. “We need to renew the scent markers along the ShadowClan border.”

  The sun was going down as Hollypaw followed the two toms through the thorn tunnel and into the forest. Scarlet light washed over the ground, barred with the long shadows of trees. Only the wind rustling in the branches broke the silence, along with the faint scuffling of prey in the undergrowth.

  Hollypaw ignored the enticing prey-scents; this wasn’t a hunting patrol. She concentrated on looking and listening, and when she tasted the air it was to make sure that there were no unusual scents—especially not the scent of ShadowClan warriors on ThunderClan territory.

  Firestar halted. “Listen!”

  Hollypaw froze, ears straining. Her neck fur bristled when she heard, faint in the distance, the yowls and shrieks of fighting cats.

  “That way!” Firestar mewed, sweeping his tail around to point. “Come on!”

  He bounded off through the ferns with Brackenfur hard on his paws. H
ollypaw raced after them. Grass brushed her belly fur and brambles clawed at her pelt as she sped past. The noise of squalling and spitting grew louder.

  For a heartbeat she lost sight of her leader as the cats rounded a hazel thicket. She heard Firestar yowl, “Stop!” Bursting into the open, she halted at the top of a bank. Below, in a hollow lined with bracken, five cats writhed viciously. Powerful scents of ShadowClan and ThunderClan flooded over her. Horrified, Hollypaw spotted Berrynose’s cream-colored pelt and Birchfall’s tabby one. The two ThunderClan warriors were clearly outmatched by the three hefty ShadowClan cats.

  Hollypaw sprang forward, eager to help her Clanmates, only to find Firestar’s tail barring her way.

  “No,” he mewed. “That’s ShadowClan territory.”

  Hollypaw dug her claws into the ground as she stared down at her Clanmates. What were Berrynose and Birchfall doing in another Clan’s territory? Opening her jaws to draw in air, she picked out both ThunderClan and ShadowClan scent markings, faint and mingled together. She realized she was standing right on the border.

  Raising his voice again, Firestar repeated, “Stop!”

  To Hollypaw’s relief, the cats sprang apart. She recognized Russetfur, the ShadowClan deputy, with warriors Oakfur and Rowanclaw, who gave Birchfall a last cuff around the ear before facing Firestar.

  “What’s going on here?” Firestar demanded.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” Russetfur retorted. “Why are your warriors trespassing on our territory?”

  “We know why,” Oakfur added, with a lash of his tail. “ThunderClan never cared about boundaries.”

  “That’s not—” Hollypaw began to protest, but Brackenfur slapped his tail across her mouth to keep her quiet.

  Firestar’s gaze raked over Berrynose and Birchfall. Though his voice was quiet, it was cold as the lake in leaf-bare, and Hollypaw realized that he was furious. “Well?” he asked.

  Berrynose scrambled to his paws and gave his pelt a shake. He was bleeding from one ear, and several clumps of his fur had been clawed out. “We didn’t know it was ShadowClan territory,” he defended himself. “You should tell these warriors to renew their scent markers.”

  “I don’t tell warriors of another Clan to do anything,” Firestar responded, while Russetfur bristled with rage. “Berrynose, Birchfall, if you had checked carefully, you would have noticed the scent markers up here.”

  Berrynose looked furious; he couldn’t excuse himself by contradicting his Clan leader.

  “We’re sorry, Firestar,” Birchfall meowed, hanging his head.

  “The markers are faint,” Firestar acknowledged. He glanced at the other cats. “Ours and ShadowClan’s.”

  “We’re the evening patrol,” Oakfur put in. “We’re here to renew the scent markers.”

  “And then we found ThunderClan warriors on this side of the border,” Rowanclaw added. “They were stealing prey.”

  “Is that true?” Firestar demanded.

  Birchfall nodded; Hollypaw was glad to see he looked thoroughly ashamed of himself.

  But Berrynose didn’t seem to realize how much trouble he was in. “I was stalking a mouse,” he explained, “until they came along and frightened it off.”

  “A good thing they did,” Firestar commented. “Russetfur, I’m very sorry this has happened. They are inexperienced warriors, and I’m sure they’ll be more careful from now on.”

  “I hope you’ll punish them,” Rowanclaw mewed sharply.

  “Of course I will,” Firestar replied.

  “I’m glad to hear it.”

  Hollypaw jumped as another voice joined the conversation. A few fox-lengths deeper into ShadowClan territory, fronds of bracken parted to let Blackstar push his way into the open. The powerful white tom stalked past the trespassing warriors and up the bank to confront Firestar. His neck fur bristled and one of his huge black forepaws tore at the grass.

  “Greetings, Blackstar.” Firestar dipped his head. “I’ll make sure my warriors understand they must never cross your border again.”

  “It was a mistake!” Berrynose protested.

  A low growl came from deep in Blackstar’s throat. Hollypaw half expected him to attack Firestar.

  But when he spoke, he sounded tired and despondent rather than hostile. “We never should have come here, Firestar. StarClan were wrong to bring us, when it’s so hard to tell where one territory ends and the next begins. It was a lot simpler back in the forest.”

  Firestar’s eyes clouded. “But the forest is gone, Blackstar,” he meowed softly, and suddenly they were like two old friends sharing memories rather than leaders of rival Clans. “I miss it as much as any cat, but we have to make our life here now. Besides, StarClan brought cats to the old forest, just as they brought us to the lake.”

  “No, they didn’t!” Blackstar’s neck fur, which had begun to lie flat, bristled up again. Hollypaw wondered what was making him so edgy; it seemed like something more than finding another Clan’s cats on his territory. “All the cats of StarClan once lived in the forest, so there must have been a group of ancient cats living there before they divided up into Clans.”

  Ancient cats! Hollypaw’s paws began to tingle. Where had those cats come from, to settle in the forest? And what about the cats who settled here by the lake? Cats whose paw prints had left marks at the Moonpool and who had something to do with the underground tunnels where they found the WindClan kits. She knew that Jaypaw hadn’t told them everything when they escaped from the flooding river. She shivered, suddenly aware of seasons beyond seasons leading up to this moment, raining down like leaves in leaf-fall and stretching back into an unfathomable darkness.

  “Are you okay?” Brackenfur murmured into her ear. “This is going to end without any more clawed fur, don’t worry.”

  Hollypaw straightened up. “I’m fine!”

  Blackstar stepped back with a curt nod to Firestar. “Take your warriors away,” he growled. “And don’t think they’ll get off so lightly if we catch them on our territory again.”

  “Believe me, they’re not getting off lightly.” Firestar’s voice was grim. He beckoned with his tail for Birchfall and Berrynose to climb the slope. Berrynose stalked across the border, his eyes narrowed in fury, but Birchfall paused and dipped his head respectfully to Blackstar.

  “We’re very sorry,” he meowed. “I promise we won’t do it again.”

  “See that you don’t,” the ShadowClan leader retorted. He turned to his own warriors. “Carry on with your patrol,” he snapped, before vanishing back into the bracken.

  While the ShadowClan cats renewed their scent markers, Firestar led the two young warriors a couple of tail-lengths from the border.

  “Go back to camp. Wait for me underneath the Highledge.”

  “Yes, Firestar,” Birchfall mewed.

  He and Berrynose disappeared around the hazel thicket. Berrynose cast an angry glance back at his Clan leader, but Firestar had turned away and didn’t see.

  “Let’s finish this patrol,” Firestar meowed. “And make sure the scent markers are clear this time.”

  Hollypaw followed as he led the way into the bracken along the top of the hollow. She thought of the strange, almost nostalgic mood between the two leaders when they had talked about the forest. Blackstar felt they didn’t belong here because it wasn’t where their ancestors had lived. But some cats had lived here, a long time ago—so where were they now?

  CHAPTER 4

  Hollypaw slipped out under the brambles that sheltered the apprentice den. Gray clouds moved sluggishly across the sky and she could scent rain on the breeze. Shivering, she sat down, licking one paw and rubbing it over her face.

  The dawn patrol was just leaving; Dustpelt was in the lead, with Mousewhisker, Sandstorm, and Honeypaw. Ferncloud popped her head out of the nursery, sniffed the air, and disappeared inside again. A heartbeat later, Birchfall and Berrynose appeared from the elders’ den, each carrying a huge wad of moss.

  Hollypaw�
��s tail curled up in amusement. Good! Firestar put them back on apprentice duties. She watched them cross the camp and vanish into the thorn tunnel. “Make sure you squeeze all the water out of the fresh moss!” she called mischievously. “Mousefur will claw you if her pelt gets damp!” Berrynose lashed his tail as he entered the tunnel, but neither of them stopped to reply.

  A thin drizzle set in as the rest of the camp began to stir. Lionpaw scrabbled out of the apprentice den behind Hollypaw, still looking half asleep, and blundered across the camp to the dirtplace tunnel. Brackenfur and Stormfur emerged from the warriors’ den and headed for the fresh-kill pile.

  Hollypaw jumped up and bounded over to her mentor. “Are we going hunting?”

  Brackenfur shook his head. “All the prey will be in their holes. Maybe later.”

  But Hollypaw’s paws were itching to be doing something. She didn’t want to spend the morning hanging around the camp. “Can I go out by myself, then?” she asked.

  “If you want,” her mentor replied. “Stay away from the borders, though. We don’t want any more trouble like yesterday.”

  “I’ll be careful,” Hollypaw promised.

  “And be back by sunhigh,” her mentor added. “We’ll have a training session.”

  “Sure.” Hollypaw dashed off.

  As she prowled away from the stone hollow, senses straining for any sign of prey, the rain grew steadily heavier, pattering on the leaves, filling every dip in the ground with water. Each branch and tussock of grass was loaded with droplets that soaked Hollypaw’s fur as she brushed past. She started to think that Brackenfur had been right, and she wouldn’t catch anything, but for once that didn’t bother her too much. She wanted to be out of the camp, and she wanted to think.

  Everything seemed to be getting much more complicated. She needed to concentrate on her training, but her mind was continually tugging her one way or the other—to the future and wondering if she could ever be Clan leader, or to the past and the traces of those ancient cats. She saw herself standing on the Highledge, calling a summons to her Clan….