River Of Fire

Glancing around, she spotted Lilyheart stretched out on a rock at the side of the stone hollow, and padded over to join her. Lilyheart looked up at her, blinking affectionately.

“Hi, Twigpaw. No training today?”

“No, Sparkpelt is sick,” Twigpaw replied, not wanting to go into all the problems about training with Finpaw.

“Then you can come and talk to me.” Lilyheart gestured with her tail for Twigpaw to join her on the rock.

Twigpaw felt soothed by her welcome. When she had first come to ThunderClan as a tiny kit, Lilyheart had taken her into the nursery and cared for her as her own mother had never had a chance to. Twigpaw still felt a strong bond between them.

At least one cat is happy to see me, she thought, but a pang of grief pierced through her at the memory of when Lilyheart’s mate, Snowbush, had died in a rockslide. I wasn’t even in ThunderClan to comfort her when that happened.

“How are you today?” she asked, remembering that Lilyheart had been one of the first cats to fall ill.

“Better, but it’s a slow job,” her foster mother replied. “I just long to get out into the forest to have a good run and stretch my muscles. But when I get up, I can barely totter over to the fresh-kill pile!”

“Would you like some fresh-kill now?”

Lilyheart shook her head. “I’m fine, thanks.” Giving Twigpaw a more penetrating look, she added, “But I can see that you’re not. Something’s bothering you, isn’t it?”

Twigpaw hesitated, but her foster mother’s loving gaze encouraged her to speak. “I feel a little restless here in ThunderClan,” she confessed. “I don’t want to leave—far from it—but I’m not sure yet what my place is. I know I’m being stupid, but . . .” She paused again, needing to make sure her voice would be steady. “I guess I expected my Clanmates to be more excited to have me back.”

Lilyheart stretched out her neck to rasp her tongue over Twigpaw’s ear. “You’re not being stupid at all,” she mewed gently. “But, you know, it’s because we all loved you so much that we were so upset when you left. Now I’m happy, because I feel like I have all my kits back with me.”

Twigpaw nuzzled Lilyheart’s shoulder. “It’s Violetshine, too,” she continued. “Things are so strained between us now, and I hate it.”

“She’ll always be your sister,” Lilyheart reminded her.

“Yes, but I wish I had kin here in ThunderClan, too,” Twigpaw meowed. “They would understand me, or at least make things less difficult.”

Lilyheart reached her tail around to touch Twigpaw’s shoulder. “The Clan will trust you again,” she promised. “Maybe you need to prove to yourself that you belong here, instead of proving it to other cats.”

Twigpaw bowed her head and touched noses with Lilyheart, grateful for her foster mother’s wisdom and feeling much better about herself. “Thank you,” she purred.

Just then a triumphant voice rang out from the entrance to the thorn tunnel. “Twigpaw! Look!”

Twigpaw turned to see Finpaw bounding across the camp, a vole dangling from his jaws. Larksong followed more slowly.

“Look!” Finpaw repeated, dropping his vole on the fresh-kill pile. “I caught it all by myself!”

“That’s great!” With a dip of her head toward Lilyheart, Twigpaw raced over to join her friend and inspect his prey. It was a very small vole, but Finpaw looked as proud and excited as if he had brought back the fattest squirrel in the forest.

“Larksong,” he asked his mentor, “please can I share it with Twigpaw?”

Larksong looked almost as delighted as his apprentice. “Of course you can.”

Eyes shining, Finpaw picked the vole up off the fresh-kill pile and settled down with Twigpaw to eat. As she bit into the warm prey, Twigpaw felt a moment of happiness. But she still wondered what she could do to prove herself a loyal ThunderClan cat.

CHAPTER 5

“Sandynose, I want you to lead a border patrol,” Leafstar meowed. “And you can take a look at the old ShadowClan camp on the way. Violetshine, you can go with him.”

Pleased to be chosen, Violetshine stepped up beside her Clanmate, while Leafstar fixed Tree with a serious gaze. “Tree, it’s been half a moon, and Frecklewish tells me you don’t seem too interested in learning the ways of a medicine cat,” she continued. “So I think you’d better join this patrol, too. Let’s see how the life of a warrior suits you.”

The muscular yellow tom was sitting at the edge of the group, watching the clouds drift by. He didn’t respond when his Clan leader addressed him.

“Tree,” Leafstar repeated. “Are you with us?”

Tree gave a sudden start. “Uh . . . sorry, Leafstar, what did you say?”

“I told you to join this patrol,” Leafstar replied, flicking her tail toward Sandynose and Violetshine.

Tree looked uncertain. “But that sounds like a warrior task,” he protested, “and I’m not a warrior.”