Dawn

“Of course I will!” Squirrelpaw replied, surprised. She turned to look up at Brambleclaw and saw a flicker of something in his amber eyes. Was he feeling jealous? “Oh, Brambleclaw,” she breathed. “My heart is with ThunderClan; don’t you know that?” She lightly brushed her tail along his flank. “My heart is with you.”

His eyes closed, and Squirrelpaw suddenly hoped she hadn’t said the wrong thing. Then he blinked them open again and looked at her so gently that she felt as if she could have stood there forever.

“We must all follow our hearts,” he murmured. Squirrelpaw’s fears about what lay ahead seemed to dissolve in an instant, like mist in greenleaf. She would lose a friend when Stormfur stayed behind, but she would never be alone.

A movement caught her eye. Stoneteller was padding to the center of the cave.

“The Clans are leaving,” he announced to his Tribe. “I want some of you to go with them to show them the path out of the mountains. They head for hillplace, not sunset, so take them along the path that leads toward the Great Star.”

Squirrelpaw felt a rush of excitement. Were the Tribe cats going to take them straight to where the dying warrior had disappeared behind the mountain range?

Stoneteller dipped his head to each of the Clan leaders in turn. “I wish the cats of StarClan good hunting.”

“Thank you, Stoneteller.” Firestar dipped his head. “Your Tribe has shown us more kindness than we could have dreamed of, and we are sad to leave. But we are expected at another place promised to us by our warrior ancestors.” He turned to the other Clan leaders. “Tallstar, is WindClan ready?”

The WindClan leader stared at him, his eyes clouded with confusion, then glanced at Onewhisker, who was standing next to him. Onewhisker nodded back at him encouragingly, but before Tallstar could say anything, Mudclaw raised his head. “We’re ready,” he meowed.

“ShadowClan is ready too,” Blackstar called.

Leopardstar raised her tail. “All my cats are ready.”

“Not all of them.” Stormfur stepped forward. “I’m staying here.”

There was a stunned silence from all the cats. Then Dustpelt spoke. “You can’t leave your Clan now!”

“He is free to choose,” murmured Tallpoppy. Her eyes rested on Brook, her gaze gentle and understanding.

“Graystripe’s kit would not make such a decision lightly,” Sandstorm put in.

Firestar looked thoughtfully at Stormfur. “I remember how hard it was for Graystripe to choose Silverstream over his Clan,” he mewed. “But from that difficult choice, you and Feathertail were born. Without you both, everything would have been different for the Tribe and for the Clans. Feathertail killed Sharptooth, and you finished a difficult journey to bring StarClan’s message back to us. No cat can question your loyalty and courage, nor criticize your choice, for as your father proved, great things come from listening to your heart.”

Approving murmurs echoed around the cave until Leopardstar silenced the cats with a sharp yowl.

Squirrelpaw’s pelt prickled. Would Leopardstar let her warrior go?

The RiverClan leader stared at Stormfur, her eyes narrowed. “Stormfur,” she meowed at last, “RiverClan will miss your courage and skill, but so much has changed in our lives that it is not impossible we will meet again, in this life or the next.” She dipped her head, accepting Stormfur’s decision without anger. “I wish you well.”

Brook brushed her tail against Stormfur’s flank as the Clans filed slowly out of the cave. Squirrelpaw looked sadly back at her friend, wishing he could at least be part of the patrol that would accompany them to the edge of the Tribe’s territory. But Stormfur stayed where he was, his gray pelt glowing in the shimmering light of the waterfall, his eyes betraying the depths of his grief. However much he wanted to live with the Tribe, Squirrelpaw knew that watching the Clans leave without him must be like losing Silverstream, Feathertail, and Graystripe all over again.

“Do you think he’ll be all right?” she asked Brambleclaw.

He gave her ear a swift lick. “I do.”

They followed the other cats out of the gorge and up into the peaks, the sun to one side of them as they headed along the mountain range.

“Do you think they’re taking us the right way?” she whispered to Brambleclaw.

Brambleclaw blinked. “I hope so.” He craned his neck. “It does seem to be the same direction we saw the star fall. I just hope they don’t lead us too far and we miss it.”

As he spoke, the Tribe cats veered their path and headed down through a winding pass. The ground suddenly fell away and the land rolled ahead of them, hill after hill, grassy here, shadowed with woodland there. From where the Clans stood, on the edge of the mountains, the greenness seemed strange after the endless gray and white of the crags. In the sunshine Squirrelpaw could see streams glimmering among the bare trees like silver birch bark in an oak forest.

“Is that it?” Brambleclaw breathed.