Dawn

Cinderpelt leaned down and rested her muzzle on Mudfur’s pelt. As Leafpaw crouched to bury her nose in his fur, her throat filled with the unmistakeable scent of death.

Forcing herself not to draw away, she closed her eyes. At least you can be sure StarClan is waiting for you, she thought.

With a shuddering gasp, Mudfur drew his last desperate breath; his flank heaved once, then fell still forever as his spirit joined his warrior ancestors.

“He is with StarClan now,” Mothwing murmured.

Leafpaw blinked sadly at the unmoving heap of fur. This was one cat who would never see their new home, wherever it lay. How many more cats would not make it to the end of their journey?

Chapter 17

“How will I manage without him?” gasped Mothwing, her eyes huge and scared.

“You’ll be fine,” Cinderpelt assured her. “And there will be time to grieve, but not now.”

Mothwing looked at her for a moment, then nodded and left the medicine clearing to tell her Clan that Mudfur was dead. Leafpaw waited until the RiverClan cats began to pad through the tunnel to pay their final respects, then hurried out into the main clearing.

Mothwing was sitting in the rain with her head bowed, water streaming from her whiskers. “I can’t believe he’s gone,” she mewed.

“He hasn’t gone far,” Leafpaw comforted her. “He’s with StarClan.”

“I hope so,” Mothwing murmured.

Leopardstar emerged from the medicine clearing and padded over to Firestar. “Shadepelt and Loudbelly will remain here with your elders,” she meowed. “They are too old to travel and wish to sit in vigil for Mudfur.”

Firestar nodded. “We will wait until RiverClan is ready to travel,” he murmured.

Hawkfrost and Stormfur padded toward Leafpaw and Mothwing. For once, Hawkfrost’s gaze was gentle as he rested his muzzle against his sister’s cheek.

“I never thought we’d be leaving anyone behind.” Stormfur sighed.

“Neither did I,” Leafpaw agreed, gazing at Frostfur and Speckletail. The image of Graystripe staring out from the monster’s belly flashed through her mind.

Leopardstar padded to the center of the clearing and looked around. “Is everyone ready?”

“We haven’t hunted today,” a RiverClan queen protested, wrapping her tail protectively around her kit.

“We can hunt on the way,” Leopardstar told her.

The moment had arrived. Silently, the cats began to head for the camp entrance. Frostfur and Speckletail sat in the clearing watching their Clanmates leave.

“Good-bye, Frostfur,” Leafpaw whispered. “Good-bye, Speckletail. Good hunting.”

“Good hunting,” Frostfur replied.

Leafpaw looked up at the gray sky crisscrossed by leaf-bare branches. The rain spattered on her face, and she blinked away the drops that clung to her eyelashes. It was as if StarClan wept to see their Clans leave the forest. Bleakly, Leafpaw wondered if their ancestors would travel with them, or whether this was a final farewell.

“Come on.” Firestar’s voice sounded softly in her ear. “The Clan will be waiting for us.”

*

The trek through the forest was hard going, the rain making the leaves slippery underpaw. The RiverClan cats stayed together, keeping up with ThunderClan but traveling separately. Sorreltail fell into step beside Leafpaw and nudged her up each time she stumbled. As they neared the edge of the forest, where there was a narrow strip of RiverClan territory before the moorland began, Leafpaw scented ShadowClan cats. She lifted her head and saw them huddled under the trees, wet and shivering.

“We thought you’d never get here,” Blackstar complained, shaking the water from his coat.

The ShadowClan cats paced impatiently around him. They were not comfortable under the trees that had once belonged to ThunderClan; even Tawnypelt looked eager to leave. But Leafpaw longed to linger here, suddenly unable to bear the thought of saying good-bye to the forest for the last time.

Firestar gazed at his Clan. “We must say good-bye to all we have known,” he meowed.

Leafpaw felt Sorreltail’s pelt pressing against hers, and she noticed Squirrelpaw draw closer to Brambleclaw.

“I want to go home!” one of Tallpoppy’s kits mewled up at her mother with her eyes stretched wide.

“We are going home,” Tallpoppy promised, her ears twitching. “Our new home.”

As she spoke, a tawny-colored cat emerged from the trees a little way off. Even though the rain masked her scent, Leafpaw recognized the stranger at once. It was Sasha.

Mothwing recognized her too, because she bounded over and rolled on her belly like a kit. Hawkfrost padded after his sister more slowly, the tip of his tail flicking from side to side.

The RiverClan cats watched them go with patient acceptance, but Leafpaw saw bewilderment in the eyes of the ThunderClan cats who did not know who Sasha was, and open hostility from the ShadowClan cats.

“What’s she doing here?” Squirrelpaw whispered.

“Perhaps she knows we’re leaving,” Leafpaw guessed.

“But why did she come?”