A Warrior's Spirit Read online

  Chapter 8

  Pebbleshine opened her eyes to find herself lying on the hard surface of the Thunderpath. Harsh light surrounded her, and she could hear the sound of a monster, its roaring diminished to a throaty purr. When she tried to raise her head, every muscle in her body shrieked in agony.

  Twoleg voices sounded somewhere close by; Pebbleshine wanted to get up and run away, but her legs wouldn’t obey her. The next moment a Twoleg was standing over her. Pebbleshine renewed her weak struggles, but she couldn’t fight back when the Twoleg stooped and gently picked her up, then wrapped her in something soft and carried her toward the nearby monster.

  “No!” Pebbleshine yowled desperately. “I have to get back to my kits! Put me down! I have to get back to my kits!”

  But the Twoleg didn’t understand a word.

  Pebbleshine wanted to claw at the Twoleg’s restraining paws, but she was caught up in the soft wrapping, and she couldn’t control her legs. The Twoleg carried her into the monster’s belly; Pebbleshine made a last massive effort to struggle, but pain washed over her again and she had to give way to the darkness. This whole adventure started with a monster carrying me away, she realized. Then, it pulled me away from Hawkwing and my Clan; now, it’s my kits.

  Her last sensation was of the monster beginning to move off.

  Pebbleshine felt the warmth of sun on her fur. Her nose twitched at the scents of fresh growing things all around her. She wasn’t in pain anymore. It should have been a relief, but she couldn’t help feeling alarmed.

  This isn’t right. . . . What happened to me?

  Blinking her eyes open, Pebbleshine was dazzled by sunlight. When her vision cleared, she found that she was lying in lush meadow grass. A cat was bending over her; Pebbleshine let out a gasp as she recognized the pale yellow tom who had helped her give birth to her kits.

  “It’s you!” she exclaimed. “I thought I’d imagined you.”

  Amusement glimmered in the tom’s eyes. “No, I’m real,” he responded. “My name is Micah. I was the first SkyClan medicine cat. I’m glad I was able to help you when you needed it.”

  The first . . . Pebbleshine caught her breath in wonder. He came from so long ago . . . for me?

  “There are some friends waiting to greet you,” Micah told her.

  He moved aside. Sitting up, Pebbleshine saw a group of cats standing a few tail-lengths away from her. A handsome ginger-and-white tom stepped forward and dipped his head. “Welcome, Pebbleshine,” he mewed.

  “Billystorm!” Pebbleshine gasped out his name as she sprang to her paws. Her former mentor looked strong and healthy, not ripped apart by a badger’s claws as she had last seen him. “But you’re—”

  “Dead, yes.” Billystorm let out an affectionate purr. “This is the territory of StarClan.”

  For the first time Pebbleshine noticed the frosty glitter on Billystorm’s pelt, and the pelts of the other cats who still waited to greet her.

  “Then am I dead too?” she asked. Glancing down at her paws, she couldn’t see any trace of the glimmer of starshine there.

  “Yes,” a tom with a dark ginger pelt replied, his sharp green eyes focused on Pebbleshine. “But you haven’t yet entered StarClan. We’ve come to welcome you.”

  “Sharpclaw!” Pebbleshine whispered as she recognized the SkyClan deputy who had died fighting against Darktail and his rogues in the gorge. “And Duskpaw, you’re here too,” she added, turning to a young ginger tabby tom. “Oh, Duskpaw, you look great! I’m so sorry we couldn’t rescue you from the fire. And Bouncefire, and Snipkit . . . I thought I’d lost you all forever!”

  For a few heartbeats, Pebbleshine felt nothing but joy at seeing her dead Clanmates, safe and happy now in StarClan. But then the terrible sights and sounds crowded back into her mind: the badger’s blunt, destructive claws; the harsh light and acrid scents of the monsters on the Thunderpath; worst of all, the heartbreaking wails of her abandoned kits. Anxiety gnawed at her belly, sharp as a fox’s fangs.

  She turned back to Micah. “My kits!” she exclaimed. “I have to get back to my kits. They’re not safe alone.”

  “Your kits will be well,” Micah reassured her. “Come here, and I’ll show you.”

  “But—”

  Micah interrupted her with a wave of his tail. “Come.”

  Not sure if she believed the medicine cat’s reassurance, Pebbleshine followed Micah across the grass until they came to a dip with a pool at the bottom of it. Micah bounded down to the water’s edge and waved his tail once again, beckoning Pebbleshine to join him.

  “Look into the water,” he instructed Pebbleshine when she had reached his side.

  Pebbleshine gazed into the depths of the pool. At first all she could see was waterweed, and the silver flashes of tiny minnows darting to and fro among the fronds. Then her vision blurred, and when she could see clearly again, she found that she was gazing at the Thunderpath and the entrance to the tunnel where she had left her kits.

  The sun was shining. Every hair on Pebbleshine’s pelt bristled with apprehension at the thought that her kits had been alone for at least one night, and maybe more.

  For a moment she felt that she could leap into the pool and get back to her kits that way, but Micah extended his tail across her chest, blocking her.

  “No,” he mewed gently. “Watch.”

  As Pebbleshine gazed into the water, she spotted movement on the grassy slope that led down to the Thunderpath. Two young cats were padding slowly downward: one of them was a dark ginger tom, and the other a she-cat with a silver-gray pelt. Pebbleshine caught her breath in a gasp of relief as she recognized the thin, muscular bodies and familiar patrolling movements of Clan cats. She guessed from their age that they must be apprentices.

  “Who are they?” she asked. “They’re not SkyClan, but they are Clan cats, aren’t they?”

  Micah nodded. “Yes, they are. They will find your kits and take them to the Clans. One day, your daughters will be able to rejoin SkyClan, and they will meet their father, Hawkwing.”

  Pebbleshine was glad to hear that, though she felt that her heart would break as she realized for the first time that she would never make it back to Hawkwing.

  She tried to comfort herself with the thought that her kits would know their father, but she still wasn’t sure that she believed Micah was right. “I still have to watch over them,” she protested. “They have a special destiny, I was told in a dream. And they’re my kits. I’m not ready to trust strange cats to look after them.”

  Micah looked down at her, his eyes deep pools of understanding. “There is a way to go back,” he told her at last.

  “How?” Pebbleshine felt her fur bristling with eagerness. For a few heartbeats the medicine cat seemed reluctant to speak. “Tell me what I have to do! I’ll risk anything!”

  Micah blinked, still looking indecisive. “You’ll only be an observer,” he meowed at last. “Your kits won’t be able to see you, or know that you’re near them. And neither will any other cat you care about. It’s a lonely way to be. Are you sure that’s what you want?”

  Pebbleshine felt a sudden pang of desolation at the thought that she would never be able to nurse her kits again, never lick their soft fur or teach them the warrior code. And she shuddered at the thought that even if she saw her kits in danger, she wouldn’t be able to help them. But that wasn’t enough to make her change her mind.

  “Of course I’m sure!” she insisted, digging her claws into the ground with impatience. Maybe I will be able to help them somehow, like Micah when he brought me that stick. “Let’s get on with it!”

  “If you leave now, you might not be able to get back to StarClan for a long time,” Micah warned her. “Perhaps you should do what all your warrior ancestors have done, and watch over your kits from StarClan.”

  “I’m sure,” Pebbleshine repeated. “I’ve lived as a loner for many days now. I can stand it for as long as I need to, to take care of my daughters. And I don’t need to be in
StarClan to watch over them. Besides,” she added, “my warrior ancestors knew that their loved ones would be safe in their Clan—in SkyClan. But the other Clans drove SkyClan from the forest. Why should I trust those Clans now? I hope they’ll treat my kits fairly, but there’s no way I can know that. I want to stay at least until SkyClan finds them—until they reach the end of their journey to the lake.”

  Micah sighed, then nodded, accepting her decision at last. “You’re a brave cat, Pebbleshine,” he meowed.

  Pebbleshine dipped her head in thanks for his praise. She remembered watching Milo and Olive walk away, and then striking out on her own . . . she remembered hitting the window over and over in the tiny den, and the satisfaction she felt when her paws touched grass again. “If I’ve learned anything on this journey, it’s that I can rely on myself to do what has to be done. I hope my daughters can learn that lesson too—either on their own or because I’ll be watching over them. Being part of a Clan is a wonderful thing, but so is knowing that you can depend on yourself.”

  She straightened, head and tail erect. “So, Micah, what do I have to do?”

  Chapter 9

  Micah brushed his cheek against Pebbleshine’s. From behind him, Billystorm called out, “Good luck!” The rest of Pebbleshine’s former Clanmates echoed his good wishes, while Duskpaw bounded forward to twine his tail briefly with hers and give her ear an affectionate lick.

  “You’ll make it back here in the end,” he assured her. “I know you will.”

  Her friend’s promise warmed Pebbleshine’s heart, convincing her that she wasn’t doomed to loneliness between life and death forever. “Thanks, Duskpaw,” she murmured.

  As Duskpaw retreated to join his Clanmates, Micah gestured with his tail. “Step forward into the pool,” he meowed.

  Determinedly Pebbleshine slid from the grassy bank. For a heartbeat she shivered at the touch of cool water splashing around her paws, and then she began swimming through a whirl of green and silver. The colors faded before Pebbleshine could lose consciousness, and she spotted an exit and began swimming toward it. She left behind a blue sky covered by a thin drift of cloud. At the next moment she reached dry ground and climbed onto it. When she got out, she realized her paws weren’t even wet.

  Blinking, Pebbleshine looked around. She was standing on a grassy slope close to the Thunderpath, and not many fox-lengths away she could see the bank that held the dark gap of the tunnel entrance.

  Her paws itched to carry her down the slope and into the tunnel to find her kits, but before she could move, she began to hear the voices of two cats somewhere behind her, farther up the slope. They were too far away for Pebbleshine to make out the words, but they sounded as if they were having an argument.

  If only one of them were Hawkwing! she thought. Maybe my Clanmates have found me after all.

  Pebbleshine turned and swallowed a cry of disappointment as she recognized the ginger tom and the silver-gray she-cat Micah had shown her in the pool. They were coming down the slope toward her. She began to duck down behind a thick tussock of grass before she remembered that the living cats couldn’t see her. The two unfamiliar apprentices halted so close to her that if she had stretched out her tail she could have touched them. Pebbleshine found it hard to believe that she was so close to them and yet they had no idea that she was there.

  “Mouse-brain,” she muttered to herself, and pricked her ears to listen to what the cats were saying.

  “I don’t think Sandstorm meant a literal different path,” the ginger tom was meowing. “Just . . .”

  Excitement welled up inside Pebbleshine at hearing the name Sandstorm. That’s a warrior name! They really are Clan cats!

  Preoccupied by the discovery, she missed the ginger tom’s next few words, though she realized that the two cats still seemed to be in the middle of some kind of squabble. Pebbleshine could tell that the argument wasn’t serious. They looked like friends, so surely they would act together to rescue her kits.

  Pebbleshine let out a purr at the thought that help for her daughters was so close. A heartbeat later, every hair on her pelt tingled with shock as the gray she-cat turned toward her, a puzzled look on her face. Can she hear me? Pebbleshine asked herself. That’s not what Micah said!

  Pebbleshine padded closer to the silver-gray cat. “This way,” she whispered into her ear. “Down into the grassy dip, where you can see that dark hole.”

  At first the she-cat didn’t react. I have to get her attention! Pebbleshine thought, agonized. Somehow I have to lead her to my kits. Maybe if I just think hard enough . . .

  She concentrated on the tunnel, imagining herself slipping through the bars and padding along in the dim light until she found the nest. She called up an image in her mind of the two tiny kits, gray and black-and-white, huddled together and wailing for help.

  Come on! Pebbleshine directed her thoughts toward the gray she-cat. They need you!

  The she-cat gave her pelt a shake, looking as uncomfortable as if she felt ants crawling through her fur. She couldn’t see Pebbleshine, but clearly she was picking up something. Her paws shifted and she glanced down the slope.

  “Look!” she yowled. Without waiting for her companion to respond, she pelted downward to where the tunnel entrance gaped in the bank.

  “What are you doing?” the ginger tom called after her, fluffing up his pelt in irritation as he trailed along in her paw steps. “That looks dangerous.”

  Pebbleshine watched as the gray she-cat turned back, rolling her eyes at her friend. “Have you got bees in your brain, or what?” she demanded. “Look, we came over the Thunderpath, and now here’s a ‘different path’ that leads under it. Plus it’s all in shadow! We can go this way!”

  The ginger tom still looked reluctant. Pebbleshine wanted to give him a shove, but she knew that he wouldn’t feel anything if she tried. Fear cramped her belly as she wondered whether he would be able to persuade his friend not to enter the tunnel.

  But though the tom still argued, the she-cat wasn’t listening. Hope sprang up inside Pebbleshine as with a flip of her tail the silver-gray cat wriggled through the bars at the tunnel entrance and disappeared. The ginger tom hesitated, letting out a sigh, then followed.

  Pebbleshine raced down the slope and entered the tunnel after them. At first she couldn’t hear anything except for the voices of the two Clan cats, and renewed fear gripped her.

  Does time pass differently in StarClan? How long have I been away?

  Pebbleshine knew that her kits were too young to survive for long without their mother. They could be lying dead in the nest at this very moment, and all her struggles would have been for nothing.

  Then a vast relief swamped her as from somewhere up ahead Pebbleshine heard the soft cry of a kit. The she-cat had hurried past without noticing the nest, and it was the tom who heard the cry; he halted with his ears pricked. Then he set off again, padding forward until he reached the kits.

  “Oh, my darlings! You’re alive!” Pebbleshine whispered. But as she gazed over the tom’s shoulder, she saw how thin and frail her two daughters looked. Though their eyes still weren’t open, they seemed to sense the tom’s presence, and they stretched their necks toward him, letting out tiny wails of distress.

  The she-cat came bounding back down the tunnel to join her friend. “What’s the matter?” she asked. “Why are you—” She broke off, skidding to a halt as she spotted the nest. “They’re kits!” she exclaimed. “Where’s their mother?”

  Pebbleshine shivered. “I’m right here,” she mewed. “I wouldn’t leave them.”

  The gray she-cat glanced around, and for a heartbeat Pebbleshine thought she might have heard. But the she-cat’s gaze swept right over her. “Their eyes aren’t even open yet,” she continued. “They can only be a few days old.”

  “And they’re so thin,” the tom added. “I can tell they haven’t eaten in a while.”

  “I’ll go and look for their mother.” The gray she-cat bounded off along th
e tunnel and out the entrance at the far end. Pebbleshine could hear her calling outside.

  Once she was gone, the ginger tom bent over the two kits and examined them more closely, letting his paws run over their tiny bodies and bending his head to give them a thorough sniff. His paws were gentle and seemed to move with sure knowledge.

  He’s too young to be a medicine cat, Pebbleshine thought. But he seems experienced. . . . Maybe he’s a medicine-cat apprentice.

  Eventually the tom straightened up. “Hey, Needlepaw!” he yowled. “Forget their mother for now. These kits need to eat. Catch something, right away!”

  Thank StarClan! Pebbleshine was relieved that the young cat was intelligent enough to see what her kits needed and take care of them at once. There had been authority in his voice as he called out to his friend. My kits need another she-cat to nurse them, but they can’t have that until they reach the Clans. Some chewed-up prey will keep them going until then. Maybe everything will be all right.

  Pebbleshine padded past the tom and curled herself around her kits in their nest. Though she knew they couldn’t feel or scent her, they seemed to sense her presence in some way, because they stopped wailing and settled down. Pebbleshine bent her head and nuzzled them gently.

  If only Hawkwing were here to keep you warm . . .

  Beneath her anxiety about her kits, Puddleshine’s heart ached at the thought that she would never return to him, never be close to him again, never share tongues with him or feel the warmth of his fur.

  Even now she could picture Hawkwing still near the monster camp, vainly waiting for her to return with their kits, or frantically searching wide stretches of territory, through Twolegplaces and along Thunderpaths, still hoping that he might find her.

  She had always believed that she and Hawkwing would grow old together, proudly watching their kits grow up and raise kits of their own. Now she had to let go of that dream, or part of it, anyway. She would never again be with Hawkwing in the way that she wanted to, but nothing would stop her from watching over her newborns. She remembered what Micah had said, that she wasn’t following the path of her warrior ancestors . . . no, she was striking out on her own path, just as she had on the journey that began with the chicken monster. But now, as then, she knew she was on the right path: close to her kits, and close to these two young cats who must be deeply connected to her destiny and the destiny of her Clan.