River Of Fire

Suddenly Alderheart didn’t want to deal with the tensions in camp. He wanted to hold on to the hopeful feeling he’d had when he first woke. Picking up the scrap of fur, he headed out of the camp, reflecting that ThunderClan could spare him long enough to take a walk.

It surely can’t do any harm to return Velvet’s toy to her . . . and see her one more time. . . .

Alderheart knew the general direction of the Twolegplace, across the unknown territory beyond the ThunderClan border. After a while, he was able to pick up the scent trail of the cats who had returned the night before.

But when he reached the Twolegplace, it was far bigger and louder than he had anticipated. His fur bristled as he crept along a narrow Thunderpath between two rows of Twoleg dens, and his heart thumped painfully in his chest. Somewhere close by he could hear the shouts and thumping paw steps of Twoleg kits, and farther away a dog was barking.

Monsters were sleeping in front of some of the Twoleg dens. Alderheart was scared of waking them, so he slunk past, trying to keep out of their sight and stay well away from their round black paws. He didn’t know where he might find Velvet, and when he tasted the air in an attempt to pick up her scent, he was assailed by so many weird, competing smells that he couldn’t distinguish any of them.

Maybe I should go back, he thought, hesitating at a spot where another Thunderpath crossed the one he was following.

Then Alderheart heard a voice. “It was so cool, living with the wild cats! I became an amazing hunter. And I know all about herbs!”

Fuzzball!

Following the sound of the voice, Alderheart leaped up onto a fence that surrounded a Twoleg den. On the other side, short, smooth grass stretched from the fence up to the den, edged by bushes covered in bright, unfamiliar flowers.

Fuzzball stood in the middle of the stretch of grass. He was talking to another cat: a white tom. Alderheart stared in astonishment as he recognized him.

That’s Rippletail, one of the missing ShadowClan cats!

“Rippletail!” Alderheart called out, leaping from the fence into the garden.

Rippletail whirled around and gave Alderheart one stunned look. Then he dashed across the grass and thrust his way into the Twoleg den through a small gap in the bottom of the den door. With a whisk of his white tail, he disappeared.

“Hey, Rippletail!” Alderheart yowled after him, dropping Velvet’s toy. “It’s me, Alderheart from ThunderClan!”

Rippletail didn’t reappear.

Fuzzball trotted up to Alderheart and touched noses with him. “Hi, Alderheart,” he meowed. “It’s good to see you. What did you call that cat?”

“Rippletail,” Alderheart replied. “He’s a ShadowClan warrior.”

Fuzzball looked puzzled. “No, I think you’ve got it wrong. That cat’s name is Buster. And I’ve told him all about life with the Clans,” he added. “He would have mentioned if he knew them.”

“Has he been here long?” Alderheart asked, certain that he wasn’t making a mistake.

“A while.” Fuzzball shrugged. “He seems very happy with his Twolegs.”

Alderheart wasn’t sure what to do. If Rippletail is happy, maybe I should leave him alone.

“Fuzzball, when you see him next, could you give him a message?” he mewed at last.

“Sure. What message?”

“Tell Buster that ShadowClan is whole again.” Alderheart spoke slowly, thinking what would be best to say. “Darktail is dead and the rogues are gone, and Rippletail’s littermates, Cloverfoot and Berryheart, have come back. Can you remember all that, Fuzzball?”

For once the little tom looked uncertain. “I’ll try. Let’s see . . . ‘Tell Buster that ShadowClan is down a hole . . .’”

Alderheart suppressed a sigh. “Repeat it after me.”

It took several repetitions before Fuzzball got it right and Alderheart was reasonably sure that he would remember it.

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Fuzzball promised at last. “But even if he’s who you think he is, I don’t think he’ll want to leave.”

Alderheart guessed that he was right, if the way Rippletail had fled revealed how he felt. “Well, it’s up to him,” he declared. “Now, can you show me where Velvet lives?”

Fuzzball’s eyes shone. “She’ll be so glad to see you! She misses you.”

Alderheart retrieved Velvet’s scrap of fur and followed Fuzzball through a gap in the Twoleg fence and down another narrow Thunderpath until they stood outside a second Twoleg den. This one had a wall of red, square-cut stones around a bigger garden with small paths leading through clumps of bright flowers.

“This is Velvet’s den,” Fuzzball told Alderheart. “And I’d better be getting back. My housefolk’s kit sometimes cries if I’m away too long.” He flicked his tail at Alderheart and padded off down the Thunderpath, pausing at the corner to look back and call out, “Tell Jayfeather hi from me. And come and see me anytime!”