Fading Echoes

The four cats swished through the heather to the ThunderClan scent line, where the stream chattered through the gully dividing the two territories.

“We know the way from here,” Dovepaw told the WindClan warriors.

Heathertail gazed steadily at her. “We’re taking you back to your camp.”

“You can’t do that!” Ivypaw objected.

What would Firestar say if they brought WindClan cats to the heart of their territory? Dovepaw’s fur ruffled along her spine. But the WindClan cats looked determined. She and Ivypaw couldn’t fight them, and she wasn’t going to make this situation more humiliating by begging them not to come.

Breezepelt had already leaped the stream. Reluctantly, Dovepaw led her sister down the bank and jumped the gully. Heathertail bounded after them. With heavy paws, Dovepaw headed toward camp.

“Firestar’s going to kill us,” Ivypaw whispered in her ear.

Dovepaw didn’t want to think about it. She couldn’t explain why she had taken Ivypaw to the WindClan camp without revealing her power. The whole Clan was going to think they were mouse-brained and reckless.

The WindClan cats padded ahead of them, weaving along tracks and through bushes as though they knew the forest well. Heathertail veered along a fox track that led them around a wide swath of brambles.

Ivypaw flicked her tail. “How do you know where you’re going?”

Without glancing over her shoulder, Heathertail replied, “We’ve been here before.”

“But—” Ivypaw began to protest.

“She said, we’ve been here before,” Breezepelt growled in a voice that put an abrupt end to the conversation.

As they neared the thorn barrier, Dovepaw scented Rosepetal bounding toward them. “What are you doing here?” she challenged the WindClan warriors, hackles raised.

Breezepelt halted. “This isn’t an attack.”

Heathertail stepped aside. “We’re just returning a couple of strays.”

Rosepetal stared at Ivypaw and Dovepaw in disbelief. “What are you doing out of the hollow? And with them?” She flicked her tail to the WindClan cats.

A cloud crossed the moon. Dovepaw was relieved by the sudden shadow. She stared at her paws, not knowing how to explain.

“We found them outside our camp,” Heathertail told the startled ThunderClan warrior.

Shifting her paws, Rosepetal stared levelly back at Heathertail. “Thank you for bringing them home,” she meowed. “I’ll take them back to their den.”

Breezepelt stepped forward. “We’re coming with them,” he told her. “I want to speak with Firestar.”

Rosepetal bristled. “He’s asleep.”

“So was WindClan before this pair woke us!” Heathertail growled.

Dovepaw felt herself shrivel inside her pelt.

Ivypaw’s tail drooped. “I didn’t think it could get worse.”

Breezepelt glared at her. “I don’t want any accusations that we took ThunderClan apprentices prisoner.”

Ivypaw bristled. “We wouldn’t lie!”

Rosepetal sighed and dipped her head. “Very well.” She turned and led the WindClan cats through the thorns.

Dovepaw trailed after, her heart quickening as she heard Rosepetal’s paws on the rock pile. She’s gone to wake Firestar.

Cats were stirring in their nests, den walls trembling as they got to their paws and slid out to see what was happening. The nursery shivered and tiny pawsteps pattered across the clearing. “What’s going on?” squeaked Cherrykit.

Poppyfrost’s nest rustled and the queen’s fur scraped the brambles as she followed her kit out of the nursery.

Dovepaw tried not to hear what any of the cats were saying. Her Clanmates were gathering to witness her humiliation. How could she explain? With a rush of frustration that tightened her throat, she wished fiercely that there were no such thing as the prophecy, and that she didn’t have any powers at all.

Why can’t I just be an ordinary cat?

Chapter 6

Jayfeather jerked awake. The air was still damp with night, yet voices were whispering in the clearing. Stones shifted as paws descended the rockfall.

Firestar’s awake.

Jayfeather sat up.

He tasted the air.

WindClan.

Jayfeather leaped from his nest and nosed his way through the brambles as Lionblaze and Cinderheart slid from the warriors’ den.

“What’s going on?” Lionblaze circled his apprentice.

Dovepaw didn’t answer, but fidgeted beside her sister as they stood as uncomfortable as owlets caught in daylight.

Briarpaw pushed her way out of the apprentices’ den, whiskers twitching with curiosity. “Come and see this,” she hissed over her shoulder to her denmates as Brambleclaw joined Firestar in the clearing. Nests rustled behind him, while Whitewing and Birchfall watched from their den, their tails gently stirring the branches.

Dustpelt pushed past them. “What are they doing here?” The dark tabby tom’s mew rang around the rock walls of the camp, anger aimed like a thorn at the WindClan warriors.

Breezepelt and Heathertail didn’t flinch.

“Keep your voice down, Dustpelt,” Firestar ordered. “We don’t want to wake every cat.”