Outcast

“Coming!” he called.

He leaped down from the outcrop and joined his littermates as the cats began to make their way into the trees. His father and mother took the lead with Tawnypelt and Crowfeather.

“Remember how we felt when we first climbed up here?” Tawnypelt meowed.

“I remember how sore my paws were,” Squirrelflight replied with a twitch of her tail.

Brambleclaw skirted a huge clump of bracken. “Tallpoppy’s kit fell over here. Ferncloud picked her up and carried her. We all helped one another then.”

“But it can’t be like that anymore.” Lionpaw thought Crowfeather sounded wistful, the familiar edge missing from his voice. “It’s natural for Clans to be rivals.”

Lionpaw thought sadly about Heatherpaw; he guessed that all four of the senior warriors missed the friendships they had forged on their journeys. He was relieved that they seemed to know the way. Now that he couldn’t see his home anymore he was daunted by the vast stretches of unknown territory. His pelt grew hot with embarrassment when he remembered his dreams of power on the hilltop, and he was thankful that no other cat knew what he’d been thinking.

Unless Jaypaw knows. Lionpaw’s pelt grew hotter still at the idea that his brother might have been eavesdropping on his thoughts.

“Come on, pick up your paws,” Brambleclaw called back. “I want to be out of these trees by nightfall.”

Lionpaw stifled a sigh. His paws were dragging already and his belly was yowling with hunger. The energy from the traveling herbs seemed to have worn off. He wished he’d taken the chance to rest and eat after all.

“Here.” Squirrelflight’s voice was muffled; Lionpaw glanced back to see her padding up to him with a mouse hanging from her jaws. “Eat as quickly as you can,” she added, dropping her prey at his paws.

“Thank you!” Lionpaw touched his nose gratefully to his mother’s shoulder.

“I was tired of listening to your belly growling,” Squirrelflight mewed, her tail curling up in amusement. “I reckon they could hear it back in ThunderClan.”

She ran ahead to join Brambleclaw, while Lionpaw crouched over the mouse and devoured it in a few famished bites.

By the time he had finished his companions were out of sight, but he could hear their voices ahead and followed their scent trail until he caught up. Strength had flooded back into his paws. Passing the rest of the group, he bounded up to his father.

“What do you know about these invading cats?” Brambleclaw was asking Talon. “How many are there?”

“Too many,” Talon replied.

Brambleclaw twitched his ears. Lionpaw guessed that he didn’t find the Tribe cat’s answer much use in planning what they would do when they reached the mountains.

“Well, what have you done so far?” Brambleclaw went on.

“Have you worked out their ways of hunting and fighting? And what about regular patrols—”

“We’re not Clan cats, you know.” Talon’s neck fur bristled.

“We need help, but that doesn’t mean we want to be treated like a bunch of to-bes.”

“Calm down, Talon.” Night touched her Tribemate’s shoulder with the tip of her tail. “Brambleclaw’s only trying to work out the best way of helping us.”

For a heartbeat Lionpaw thought that the tabby cave-guard would snap at her too, but then his fur lay flat again and he gave Brambleclaw an awkward nod as if he was trying to apologize.

“We’ve never needed to set boundaries before,” he explained. “We just chose some rocks around our cave and set guards to keep watch for the intruders. Stoneteller said…”

Growing bored with this talk of strategy, Lionpaw let his father and the others go ahead and waited for his littermates to catch up.

“The Tribe cats seem really tense,” he meowed as he fell in beside Hollypaw. “I thought Talon was going to claw Brambleclaw’s ear off.”

Hollypaw blinked thoughtfully. “I think it’s because they never told Stoneteller what they planned to do. He might be angry when a bunch of Clan cats turn up in his territory.”

“Angry?” Lionpaw’s pelt grew hot with outrage. “He should be grateful to us!”

His sister let out a snort. “Maybe his pride would be hurt.

Leaders ought to be able to deal with problems without asking for help from outside. How do you think Firestar would feel if we were having trouble and you went to ask for help from WindClan?”

“He would probably line his nest with my pelt,” Lionpaw admitted.

“So what would you do if you were Stoneteller?” Jaypaw’s voice was curious as he flicked his sister’s shoulder with his tail tip.

Hollypaw paused for a few heartbeats before she replied.

“I’d set up border patrols—”

“But they don’t have borders,” Lionpaw reminded her.

“Then I’d mark some.” Hollypaw’s ears twitched. “I’d make sure they were patrolled regularly, and I’d teach all my cats to fight. That would keep the intruders out.”

Jaypaw shook his head. “You’re thinking like a Clan cat.

The Tribe’s ways are different. I’m not sure we should try to change them.”