Dawn

Anyway, you’ll need to rest for your journey.” She glanced back toward Sunningrocks. “Thank Firestar for me.”

Leafpaw pressed her nose sadly against her new friend’s cheek. Cody closed her eyes and sighed. Then she straightened up. “I’ve said good-bye to Birchkit. Ferncloud is eating properly again, and he’ll be fine with her now.”

“Thanks for taking care of me when we were in the Twoleg nest,” Leafpaw whispered. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too. And I’ll keep an eye out for Graystripe,” Cody promised. “If I see him, I’ll tell him where you’ve gone and that his Clan is waiting for him.”

Leafpaw felt a warm tongue rasp her ear. “Bye, Leafpaw,” Cody murmured. “Good luck.”

“Good-bye, Cody.” With an aching heart, and half wishing she could have convinced Cody to stay, Leafpaw watched her friend vanish into the shadows of the forest.

A rustle in the bracken made her jump, and Sorreltail slipped out from the trees. “Has Cody gone home?”

“She said her Twolegs would be missing her,” Leafpaw explained.

“I heard.” Sorreltail nodded. “Are you okay?”

“Of course.” She braced herself for Sorreltail to make a sharp comment about how kittypets didn’t belong in the wild, but instead Sorreltail just blinked sympathetically.

“Let’s sleep out here tonight,” she suggested. “It is our last night in the forest, after all.”

The thought of never spending another night under these trees took Leafpaw’s breath away, and for a moment she wanted to lie down and bury her face in the leaf-mold and forget that all this was happening. How could they leave if they didn’t know where they were going? But she followed Sorreltail into the bracken, and together they flattened a patch into a nest big enough for the two of them. As she settled down, Leafpaw felt Sorreltail’s soft tail brush her nose.

“Your Clan is still here,” Sorreltail murmured.

“I know.” Leafpaw tried not to think of Cody hurrying home through the forest alone.

Before she closed her eyes, she looked up at the branches and gave thanks to StarClan for the shelter they had given ThunderClan in past moons. If only she could be sure there was a home as safe as this had once been waiting for them at the end of their journey.

Cold rain woke Leafpaw, spattering on her fur, and she opened her eyes to a watery, gray dawn. She stretched and shook the raindrops from her pelt. Her movement awoke Sorreltail.

“Brrr,” the tortoiseshell complained, hauling herself to her paws. “What a day for a journey!” She didn’t suggest that Firestar might delay leaving until the rain stopped. Leafpaw realized bleakly that all of the cats knew they could not stay in the forest a moment longer.

They left their sodden nest and padded to the bottom of Sunningrocks, where the two Clans were beginning to gather.

Tawnypelt was sharing tongues with a ShadowClan apprentice, stopping now and then to shake the rain from her ears.

“I wonder what it’s like for Tawnypelt, being back with ThunderClan?” Sorreltail whispered, following Leafpaw’s gaze.

“Strange, I guess,” she murmured.

“It’s going to be very wet underpaw.” Ashfur’s worried mew rose from the ThunderClan warriors and apprentices. The other cats looked anxiously at Brambleclaw, and Leafpaw knew it was not just the rain that was making their pelts bristle.

The whole Clan was nervous about the journey ahead.

“Mud or no mud, we will leave as soon as RiverClan comes,” Firestar insisted. “Can’t you hear the Twoleg monsters?”

Leafpaw listened, and sure enough, through the drum-ming of the rain, she heard monsters rumbling behind the trees. She had never heard them this close to Sunningrocks before, and the thought of them bearing down on their final refuge filled her with alarm.

“I want all warriors and apprentices to catch whatever they can before the journey,” Firestar meowed. “We’ll share whatever we find with ShadowClan.”

“ShadowClan will organize its own hunting patrols!”

Blackstar called across the rock.

Leafpaw saw her father’s face darken for a moment. “Very well. Our warriors will show you the best places to hunt.”

“We can find our own prey,” Blackstar growled.

Firestar curled his lip but said nothing. Instead he turned to Brambleclaw. The young warrior’s tail was twitching, and he kneaded the ground impatiently. “I want you to organize two hunting patrols, Brambleclaw, but don’t let any cat go near the Twolegs.”

“It sounds as if he’s talking to Graystripe!” Mousefur hissed in Leafpaw’s ear. “Why doesn’t he just name Brambleclaw deputy and be done with it?”

“Because that would be like admitting Graystripe is dead,” Dustpelt growled back, overhearing.

Firestar flicked the rain from his whiskers and turned to Cinderpelt. “Prepare traveling herbs for everyone,” he ordered.

“Will you have enough?”

“Oh, yes,” Cinderpelt answered. “I just hope that wherever we’re going has the plants I need to replenish my stocks.”

Leafpaw blinked. She hadn’t thought about that before.

Would their new home have marigold, yarrow, comfrey, and all the other precious plants she had learned to cure with?