Chapter 2

Barkface, Windclan's medicine cat woke slowly from his deep sleep. Kestrelpaw, his apprentice was asleep a few tail-lengths away nose twitching as though he was tracking something in his dream. Like the whole Clan he and his apprentice slept out in the open next their warrior ancestors.

Still curled up in a ball Barkface lifted his head up to the sky. The sliver of moon was high up in the sky and the stars twinkled brilliantly in Silverpelt. He blinked sleepily; he never woke so late at night. He stood up and stretched giving out tremendous yawn. He sat down and pulled his tail around his paws. He looked around at his sleeping Clanmates. A sneeze tickled his nose and he sputtered trying to stifle it so as not to wake any of the sleeping cats. Kestrelpaw did wake; he lifted up his head nose poking up first still half dreaming.

Kestrelpaw blinked dazedly from just being woken from his dream. As soon as Kestrelpaw's saw his mentor sitting up he quickly blinked the sleep from eyes and tilted his head confused that his mentor would be up so late at night. "Is everything alright Barkface?" He asked his mentor sleepily.

Barkface smiled at his young apprentice. "Yes, Kestrelpaw I just can't sleep, that's all, just go back to sleep." Barkface said gently.

Worry blew into Kestrelpaw's mind rarely did Barkface wake in the middle of the night. Whenever a member of the clan woke up late at night the next morning they would go on mumbling about Barkface's loud snoring. He didn't know what to say because he didn't want to be rude. "Oh, there are some poppy seeds in the store; they'll help you fall asleep. I'll go get some for you if you want." Kestrelpaw volunteered.

Kestrelpaw was always taking care of others. He will be a fine medicine cat one day. "No, thank you I'll be fine. Go back to sleep." Barkface told his apprentice.

Kestrelpaw didn't want to go back to sleep while his mentor was acting so strangely. He was tired, though, and knew his mentor well enough to know when he wanted to be alone to think. So Kestrelpaw nodded respectfully to his mentor and put his head back down to the ground and pulled his tail up to his nose. He was asleep in a matter of seconds.

Barkface was always jealous of how fast his apprentice could fall asleep as it took him quite a long time to get comfortable enough to sleep but once he did he never woke up until morning. He shook himself standing up and noticed for the first time the ivy leaf that lay next to where he had been sleeping. Ivy only grows up in the cliffs on the way to Moon pool and I doubt any cat had tracked it in.

As he looked up he saw a shimmering cat who hadn't been there before at the entrance to camp. He recognized Tallstar at once and silently bounded over to the former leader. He stopped in front of him and bowed his head in respect to the former Clan leader. "Greetings Tallstar, what brings you here tonight?" Asked Barkface.

Tallstar looked at the medicine cat "I came because there is something you must know but, something I cannot tell you. Go and follow the ivy and soon you shall understand farewell my friend."

The former leader looked up at the sky and his form shook and diminished. Barkface watched Tallstar disappear sadly. Why can't they ever give a straight answered. He growled and knew he should start right away because whenever StarClan came down like this it must be important.

So careful not to disturb his clanmates he slipped out the camp and made his way quickly to where he knew ivy grew, on the way to Moonpool.

He carried the ivy leaf with him in case he needed it. The smell made him cough and he often had to stop to pick it up when he had spit the awful tasting leaf out. Barkface reached the outcrop path quickly where a patch of ivy vines grew at the beginning of the trail. This was the only patch that Barkface knew of that grew in Windclan territory. Barkface was confused; Tallstar had sent him here and there was nothing here.

He searched his mind for the exact words Tallstar had told him. I should have known it wouldn't be this easy! He scolded himself for thinking it would have been. Nothing involving Starclan was that easy, nothing!

Didn't Tallstar say something about following the ivy, yes! He said "go and follow the ivy." He had gone to the ivy now he needed to follow it. He looked up at the ivy and muttered bitterly as he traced the ivy up the face of the rock wall. There was no way he could climb the wall, it was straight up and down with nothing that could be used as a paw hold to pull himself up to the top. No, that must not be what Tallstar meant when he said "follow the ivy".

Barkface searched around for some sort of hint on Tallstar's strange directions. The only ivy he saw was that that was growing on the rocks.

Just as he was ready to give up and return to camp an aggressive wind started up and his fur blew against his skin and parting his fur in odd ways. He pinned his ears against his head and struggled to see, though the wind blew into his eyes stinging them so he eventually had to close them.

The wind died down to a gentle breeze and then stopped altogether. When he opened his eyes he saw his fur was sticking out in strange directions. He sighed there was no time to fix his fur. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something flutter in the air.

He turned his gaze in time to see a dried up ivy leaf fall to the ground. He dashed up to it and saw it was indeed an ivy leaf. Finally a clue! A little way off another green leaf was sticking to a rock jutting up out of the ground. He raced over to it and it too was an ivy leaf. Another was a little further stuck to the side of a massive boulder. Leaf by leaf he followed the ivy trail up to the Moonpool, where the trail stopped cold. Barkface knew that the trail ended at the Moonpool but why couldn't Tallstar just tell him to go to Moonpool it would have been so much easier than chasing ivy leaves down the path. There must be another reason.

What do they want? As soon as the question flashed past her mind she saw a flash of orange, black and white fur. He spun around to see a calico she-cat watching him with dazzling green eyes. At first he thought she was of Starclan but, her fur didn't shine with the stars.

The calico she-cat was small and looked barley at apprenticing age. She watched him, flexing her claws self-consciously out of fear which sparkled in her eyes.

"Who are you?" Growled Barkface viciously at the calico.

The she-cat crouched down making herself small and unthreatening. She shrunk smaller, cowering as Barkface approached her.

"Who are you?" Asked Barkface again, just as viciously.

"M-my name is Ivy." She stammered to Barkface.

Understanding sparked in Barkface's mind the ivy trail made sense now Tallstar hadn't been talking about a plant but a cat. Ivy, this cat is why Tallstar came to him.

"Oh," Barkface's voice was gentler now. "You have nothing to fear. How did you get here anyway?"

"I drank from the waters and a shining cat came to me." She gulped. "He said his name-his name was Tallstar and that this was my destiny and then some sort of weird saying."

"A prophecy!" Exclaimed Barkface.

"Yeah I guess you could call it that." Ivy said standing back up giving herself a few quick licks afterwards.

"Do you remember what he said?" Asked Barkface suddenly intrigued by the loner cat that could talk to Starclan.

"Ah kinda," she said "Something about Clans fighting, allies change from sun and moon, the lake belong to only three and the clan I belong to threatened to be pushed out and only I can save them." She told Barkface.

"The lake belongs to three, changing allies from sun and moon?" Barkface asked, what in Starclan does that mean?

"Yeah, those were his exact words. I remember thinking how odd they were and what were the three." She told him, "I am sure."

"Well, I must say I don't have the slightest clue what it means but, it can wait." Barkface said gently, "Why don't you come back with me to my clan?"

Ivy nodded glad to finally have somewhere to go even though she hadn't a clue what a clan was. She followed Barkface down the path from Moonpool to the moor. Barkface neatly cleared the small brook in a single bound. It took a little more concentration for Ivy being new to being a cat. She crouched down and leapt forward onto the other side. As her hind legs hit the ground with amazing strength she was laid flat on the ground hind legs splayed up behind her. Embarrassed from falling like that when Barkface had jumped it so perfectly she stood up, shook the dirt from her pelt and walked by him as though nothing had happened.

Barkface blinked back his surprise. This cat is as clumsy as a kit! His ears pricked up as he heard the deep raspy voice of twolegs. Soon he caught site of a few twoleg kits wandering the lakeshore calling out. With his head he pushed Ivy farther away from them into the shadows where they couldn't be seen. "Twolegs, hurry we must get out of here!" He meowed at Ivy.

"Two-what?" She asked.

"Two-legs! Those down by the beach! Now hurry!" He barked

She turned her head towards the "twolegs" or whatever Barkface called them and recognized her brothers. Guilt flowed through her as she watched the boys calling out, what she knew to be her name. Barkface was shoving her angrily now and with a half step she bounced away with him her heart melting into mush as he herded her away from the only family she had ever known.

They hid behind some rocks for what seemed like an eternity. Barkface peeked up his head above the rock and jumped out of the hiding spot. She jumped up onto the rock and then down to ground after him. His ears were standing straight up as he listened intently for the sounds of the twoleg voices. They were gone and there was no sound of their voices or footprints. "Mousebrain!" He snarled at the calico she-cat, "They could've seen us!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know what a two-twoleg was." She stammered.

Barkface felt bad for yelling at the she-cat. She was young and he shouldn't have expected her to move so quickly when he had used a term she didn't understand.

He turned his head skyward and watched his warrior ancestors for a moment. "Come now we should go back to camp now." He said kindly again now.

Moody weird cat! Ivy thought. With that said he turned a padded away towards the open moorland.

It was dawn before Barkface and Ivy reached the camp. Ivy followed Barkface closely as he led her down into a small valley. As she neared dozens of pairs of eyes watched her suspiciously. She felt her pelt prickle as the eyes watched her closely. "Ignore them." Barkface whispered, "Now go over to the small crack over there, it is my den. My apprentice Kestrelpaw will be there."

She nodded briskly a bounded off. He needed to go talk to Onestar,

As she neared the cave a cat's head poked out. The cat looked at her skeptically burning a hole through her fur. "Barkface sent me." She managed to choke out.

The other cat nodded curtly and motioned her inside. "I'm Kestrelpaw." Said the cat cheerfully, "Who are you?"

"I'm Ivy." She said

This morning when Kestrelpaw had woken there had been a strong smell of Ivy near his mentor's bed he had at first been worried but had figured there was a reason for the ivy and his mentor's disappearance and there was. Starclan must have sent him to find her!

"Well Ivy, you must be pretty special." He told her.

"Why?"

"Because non-forest born cats rarely are permitted this far but to be permitted into a clan, it's amazing!" He exclaimed.

"I haven't been accepted yet." She pointed out.

"You will be, Onestar will have no choice when Barkface tells him." He said excitedly.

"Tells him what?" She asked.

"That Starclan sent him to get you."

"Oh, right, the strange shining cats!" She said understanding now.

"They visited you!" He said incredulously.

"Uh, yeah."

"Then you are more special than I thought!"