Days continued to pass slowly for Heatherpaw.
Her mentor, Crowfeather, often asked her to go out to train or patrol, and she agreed. But Heatherpaw could never focus on the task at hand, and she wouldn't have been surprised if Crowfeather simply stopped trying.
Other apprentices were beating her easily at battle training, using her slow moves and lack of concentration against her. When she hunted, even rabbits that were slow and ran without caution evaded her claws. Crowfeather would sometimes punish her for her sloppiness by instructing her to clean out the elder's den, but even that was a difficult feat for her. She missed many obvious ticks that covered their pelts, and the moss she brought back for their bedding was often rotten and useless.
Breezepaw had even stopped trying to coax her out of her strange behaviour. Though Heatherpaw had once been an active and fun-loving cat, the cat that Breezepaw had initially become friends with, no trace of that cat seemed to remain in Heatherpaw now. Nothing was the same anymore.
One night, however, a different cat tried to change her mind.
Heatherpaw dreamed of Lionpaw often, though they were constantly nightmares. She would call out to him, beg for him to return to her. And he would only walk away, or perhaps tell her that it was all for the best, that now he could be a warrior. It wasn't uncommon for Lionpaw to laugh at her and leave her in tears, but when Heatherpaw awoke, it only made it worse that she knew Lionpaw would never do something like that. It only hurt more when she thought about his perfection.
So when one night she found herself in ThunderClan territory, she was not surprised at all. Though in the dreaming world she always forgot that Lionpaw was gone, on this night she was prepared to see him leave. Which was what made it all the more strange when a different cat came to her, smelling of WindClan, not ThunderClan.
The tom before her was black and white, and had a strangely long tail. The description reminded Heatherpaw of some cat, but she couldn't quite remember when she had heard this cat described.
"Welcome, Heatherpaw," the tom meowed. "Would you like to come with me? I want to show you something."
Heatherpaw nodded, confused. She was uncertain of why, but something about this tom made her calm and comfortable. Although she was in ThunderClan territory now, the tom before her made her feel like it was almost home.
The undergrowth was swamped in silver moonlight, and the tom suddenly threw himself into it at an amazing speed. Heatherpaw dashed after him, surprised by his speed. He was certainly a WindClan cat, and a strong one at that. Even Crowfeather could not match the speed at which this cat was running.
The undergrowth disappeared suddenly, opening to open ground. At the bottom of the slope there was a pool of water, and it was surrounded by paw prints, both new and ancient.
Moonpool! Heatherpaw realized suddenly. The tom she was following was still moving, but she had frozen. Recognizing the pool of water had helped her to discover who the tom she was following really was.
"Tallstar?" Heatherpaw asked in a choked voice.
The tom stopped and turned around, smiling. "Yes, Heatherpaw. I am Tallstar, former leader of WindClan. I have come to show you something."
Heatherpaw followed him faster now, losing any caution that might have slowed her down before. Tallstar was known as a great leader of WindClan, the one that had led them to peace with all the Clans, aided them in the Great Journey to what was now her home. He had awarded Onestar with leadership instead of Mudclaw, who WindClan soon discovered to be evil.
Tallstar stopped at the edge of the pool of water and gazed into it. Heatherpaw stopped just beside him, and gazed into the pool of water. It didn't look very special at first, and Heatherpaw wondered at first what Tallstar was looking at. But then suddenly, it changed.
Instead of just the reflections of Tallstar and Heatherpaw, there were suddenly hundreds of cats visible in the pool. Some were old and some young, but they were all looking at Tallstar and Heatherpaw. Wisdom glowed in the eyes of each of them.
"Heatherpaw, I have brought you here tonight to meet Feathertail," Tallstar said. As he spoke the words, one of the cats in the pool broke away from the others, and was suddenly standing beside Heatherpaw. She knew that it was a dream, but this was still incredible.
"Heatherpaw, I came to talk to you about Lionpaw," Feathertail meowed softly. Though Feathertail had died before Heatherpaw had even been born, Heatherpaw had heard a lot about her. Heatherpaw in particular knew a lot about Feathertail, because her mentor, Crowfeather, had been in love with her.
"I understand the difficulty you're having in forgetting him," Feathertail continued, her voice still soft and kind. "And in truth, you should never forget him. He's a wonderful cat, and the time you spent together was amazing, wasn't it?"
Heatherpaw nodded silently.
"But now you must move on. In particular, I can understand the difficulty that you're having. Though I never had to do anything like it, I watched another cat move on after I had died."
"Crowfeather," Heatherpaw meowed quietly, her voice shocked.
"Yes," Feathertail told her. "But he did get past it. He never forgot me, but he moved on. Of course, a better example would be Leafpool, but she is not here to speak to you."
Heatherpaw nodded slowly, beginning to understand.
"I'm not telling you to forget him," Feathertail said quietly. "Just… Just try to remember that he isn't the only cat in your life."
Heatherpaw nodded. "Thank you," she said to Feathertail, and then Tallstar.
"You're welcome, Heatherpaw," Tallstar meowed, and then he and Feathertail returned to the Moonpool.