Fire And Ice

“During this thaw, the woods will be alive with prey,” Tigerclaw meowed. “They’ll be hungry after sheltering in their burrows. This will be a good chance to catch as much as we can.”

“But there’s still fresh-kill in the snow store,” Dustpaw mewed.

“It’ll be crowfood soon,” Tigerclaw told him. “We need to take every opportunity to hunt. As leaf-bare goes on, the prey will start to disappear, and what stays around will be too thin.” The warriors nodded in agreement.

“Longtail”—Tigerclaw turned his eyes on the pale tabby warrior—“I want you to organize the hunting parties.” Longtail nodded, and Tigerclaw got up and padded toward Bluestar’s den. As Fireheart watched him disappear through the lichen, he couldn’t help wondering if the leader and deputy would discuss his fight with Graystripe.

Longtail’s voice summoned him away from his thoughts. “Fireheart! You and Sandpaw can join Mousefur. Graystripe can hunt with Whitestorm and Brackenpaw. It’s probably best if I don’t put you two in the same group.”

Amused purrs rippled through the group, but Fireheart narrowed his eyes angrily. He comforted himself by studying the nick he had left in the pale tabby’s ear when Longtail had taunted him on his first day in the camp.

“Good fight last night,” Mousefur rasped beside him, her eyes gleaming with mischief. “It almost made up for missing out on a battle.”

Fireheart scowled as Dustpaw added, “Yeah! Nice moves, Fireheart—for a kittypet.” Fireheart gritted his teeth and looked at the ground, sheathing and unsheathing his claws.

The two groups left the camp together. As the hunters filed up the trail out of the ravine, Fireheart looked at the sky. The rain clouds he had seen rolling in last night had covered the sun, and the snow underpaw was turning to slush.

Mousefur led Sandpaw and Fireheart through Tallpines. “I’ll take Sandpaw with me,” the brown warrior told Fireheart. “You can hunt alone. Meet us back at camp at sunhigh.”

Fireheart couldn’t help feeling relieved at the thought of being alone. He stalked away through the trees, still hardly able to believe that he and Graystripe had fought so bitterly. Fireheart felt lost and alone without his old friend, though he barely recognized him anymore. He wondered if they could ever be friends again.

It wasn’t until he felt the softness of leaves beneath his paws that Fireheart realized he’d wandered all the way to the oak woods that backed onto the Twolegplace. Instantly he thought of Princess, and wondered if his paws had carried him to her Twoleg nest for a reason.

Fireheart made straight for her fence and called softly down into the garden. Then he jumped back into the woods and waited in the undergrowth for his sister to come looking.

He didn’t have to wait long before there was a scrabbling noise on the fence and he smelled her distinctive scent. Fireheart was about to leap out to meet her when he smelled a second, unfamiliar scent.

The bracken rustled, and Princess appeared. In her mouth she carried a tiny white kit. As Fireheart pushed his way out to meet her, she mewed a warm greeting through the bundle of fur in her teeth.

The kit was very small; Fireheart guessed it would not be weaned for another moon. Princess cleared away some slush with her paw and laid it gently down on the leaves. Then she sat down and wrapped her thick tail around it.

Fireheart was overwhelmed with emotion. This was his own kin, kittypet born like he had been! He walked quietly over to Princess, nuzzled a greeting, then bent down and sniffed the kit. It smelled of warmth and milk—strange but somehow familiar. Fireheart gave it a tender lick on the head and it mewled, opening its pink mouth to reveal tiny white teeth.

Princess looked at Fireheart, her eyes shining. “I have brought him for you, Fireheart,” she meowed softly. “I want you to take him back with you to your Clan so that he can be your new apprentice.”

Chapter 21

Fireheart stared at the tiny kit. “I never expected…” he began. He dragged his gaze away and stared wordlessly at his sister.

“My housefolk will choose where the rest will live,” Princess went on. “But this is my firstborn and I want to decide his future.” She raised her chin. “Make him a hero, please. Like you!”

The unsettling sense of loneliness that had been dragging at Fireheart for so long began to ebb away. He pictured the white kit among the Clan, as he showed him the ways of the forest and hunted by his side through the thick ferns. At last, there would be another cat in ThunderClan who shared Fireheart’s kittypet roots.

Princess tilted her head. “I know how upset you were about your apprentice. I thought if you had a new apprentice—one who’s your own kin—you wouldn’t feel so lonely.” She stretched her neck and rested her nose against Fireheart’s side. “I don’t understand all your Clan ways, but seeing you, and hearing you talk about your life, I know I would be honored if my son was brought up as a Clan cat.”