As he neared the entrance of MountainClan's rock-walled camp, Link felt the fierce burn of eyes on the back of his neck, their seeking glare stabbing like needles in his mind. The muscles in his lean legs stiffened unconsciously. His heart, which was already beating hard from his climb up the side of the mountain, began to thump even more strongly in his chest. The golden tabby tomcat carefully set down the two sparrows and pika he had been carrying, his dark blue eyes narrowing to sapphire slits. The yellow fur on his shoulders began to prickle and stiffen, and his tail also started fluffing out. His stomach churned; his breathing turned to rapid, fearful pants.

Though he had felt these eyes before, it seemed to him that this time they were searching him. Link swore he could feel their red, fiery fingers stroking the back of his mind—probing, seeking, questioning. His heart hammered faster and faster, and the stinging bile of fear rose up in the back of his throat. The young cat felt paralyzed, as though whoever was watching him had gripped him in their talons and was holding him down for interrogation. His legs locked, his unsheathed claws gripped the dry ground at his paws. He could scarcely breathe. All the while, the eyes burned through his fur, and the flames they had started in his brain spread out far and wide. Terror and confusion rooted him to the spot, but his paralysis was broken by a whispered question that hissed through his ears like a desiccating wind:

Who are you?

Almost as if the voice had ordered him to run rather than asked his identity, Link suddenly found his paws at the end of his legs. He grabbed his catches in eager teeth and bolted towards the camp, not stopping until his hind paws had passed through the thorn barrier. A few of the cats that were sharing tongues in the afternoon sun turned to stare at him strangely. Sighing, Link realized how foolish he must have seemed, darting stiff-furred into the sheltered camp as though a passel of enemy warriors were on his heels. He offered the watching cats a sheepish duck of his head before dropping his catches on the fresh-kill pile. He felt their eyes follow him as he padded up the trail to the medicine cat's den, but after his most recent brush with his mysterious watcher, their gazes felt as cool and welcome as a drink of water on a hot day.


"Sagewhisker, may I speak with you?"

The pretty brown she-cat's head turned in Link's direction curiously as his words bounced off the walls of her cave. She had been herding a pile of small, brown seeds into one of the many niches in the wall when he approached, and with one last pat, she completed the task. Her bright eyes flicked in the tabby tom's direction briefly before she mewed, "Not at this precise moment, but if you're willing to wait, then yes." She flicked her tail in the direction of a small hollow in the floor.

Obediently, Link walked into the cave and over to the hollow, where he settled down to wait. His eyes followed the medicine cat as she padded to and fro, sometimes shepherding berries, others toting a mouthful of leaves. It wasn't long before Sagewhisker had finished sorting out her many herbs and berries—she'd obviously been gathering fresh supplies earlier that day. She padded up to him and sat down, her sky-blue gaze even and curious. "You seem troubled by something," she told him. "Is it your belly or your heart?"

"Heart," Link muttered, shifting his eyes to the side shamefully. "There's something I need to talk about, and..."

"It must really be bothering you, if you brought it to me rather than Lavastar," Sagewhisker mused. The golden tom jerked his head up in surprise. "Honestly, Link, any cat with eyes can see that you have a very special place in your heart for your mentor. And no, I don't mean it in a romantic sense," she added, seeing the beginnings of a protest on Link's muzzle. "You don't even try to hide the depth of your admiration and respect for her. Not that it's something to be ashamed of—many apprentices find themselves in awe of their mentor, and those that do tend to turn out to be splendid warriors."

"I haven't told Lavastar," Link admitted, his heart hammering fiercely in his chest. At that moment, though, he wanted the rusty-orange warrior beside him, despite what he had come to tell Sagewhisker. "I just—I didn't know if she would be willing to hear me out before she reacted to what I've done."

"Well, what have you done?" the medicine cat asked gently. Link sighed.

"I went into Twolegplace while I was hunting today," he confessed, flinching in preparation for Sagewhisker's scorn. But the mottled queen was silent, her eyes and face carefully neutral as she waited for him to explain himself. "It started out that I wanted to hunt fatter prey there, but..." He swallowed hard. "Do you remember that I used to be...a Twoleg?" He spoke the word in the tiniest whisper he could. The medicine cat nodded.

"Yes, but you're a cat now," she meowed simply. "Why do you bring this up?"

"While I was at Twolegplace, I ran into a Twoleg I used to know," he explained. "I can still talk to them, Sagewhisker—and I was talking with her." Link hesitated, a little unsure of how to go on. "Twolegs have...Well, it's kind of like their StarClan, only they aren't the Twolegs' ancestors. They...created the Twolegs, and everything else in this world. They're called Goddesses, and there are three of them."

"If these ' Goddesses' created the Twolegs," Sagewhisker began slowly, carefully tasting the unfamiliar word, "then who created the Goddesses?" She shook her head, the beginnings of an amused smirk visible between her whiskers. Clearly, she thought she was on the verge of relieving him of his old, silly Twoleg notions. "Or do the Twolegs believe that the Goddesses were always there?"

"They believe they were always there," Link mewed. "But...when I was a Twoleg, I was familiar with these Goddesses and was able to use some of their power to protect myself. I even stood in their presence once, although I have no memory of how they looked or what their voices sounded like. So, because of all this, I know that they are not just imaginary beings." He paused. Much of the amusement had died from Sagewhisker's eyes when he mentioned his experiences with the Three. He seemed to be speaking more to her heart now, as one cat with otherworldly experience to another. "And I know that StarClan are real, because they are the ones who called me to MountainClan and gave me this cat body. They also spoke to you and told you that I would come."

"They did," she murmured, obviously intrigued by the turn this conversation had taken. "Perhaps it's possible that both Goddesses and StarClan exist—and that one watches Twolegs while the other protects cats."

"That's what I was thinking as well. I was also thinking that if that's the case, then I'm under StarClan's watch now—considering that the Three can't see me." The tom frowned and licked a forepaw, drawing it over his head distractedly. Saying the words aloud had only set his racing heart surging faster. Though he had delivered himself into StarClan's care at the foot of the mountain trail, the thought of being invisible to the Goddesses who'd watched and protected him as a Hylian was still terrifying. Now, under the bright eyes of Sagewhisker—who was possibly the only other cat in this world who knew of the Three—he felt even more anxious. His paw went back to his long ears again and again, rubbing in swift, hard strokes to try and vent his fears that way.

The medicine cat seemed to sense this, for she rose gracefully to her feet and padded closer to him. With a gentle paw, she lowered Link's furiously-scrubbing forepaw and pressed it lightly back down on the floor. "Stop that," she ordered calmly. "Even if you've only been a cat for a pawful of moons, you should know that a chafed ear is incredibly painful." Link let out a short purr of dry amusement. "Now, from what I've heard thus far, you seem to be worrying yourself over nothing. If your old Goddesses can no longer find you, then perhaps it means that you truly have been delivered out of their grasp and into the paws of StarClan—which is nothing to be afraid of." Her eyes were kind as she gave the tomcat a lick on the head. "Our warrior ancestors care deeply for us, and I think that they will look past your old life and guard you as their own."

"I think that may be what's been worrying me," the young cat admitted, shrugging his shoulders hopelessly. "The protection the Three gave me was absolute—they went out of their way to keep me alive as I worked to fulfill the destiny they had given to me. I know that StarClan also has high hopes for me. I'm just afraid that they won't be as"—he paused, searching for a good word—"as favoring as the Goddesses were, if that makes sense."

"It does." Sagewhisker wrapped her tail around Link's haunches consolingly. The apprentice leaned in closer, hungry for any kind of comfort he could find. "I cannot say for sure whether or not StarClan will defend your life as jealously as you say your Goddesses did. They have been known to guide the pawsteps of chosen warriors away from danger, but they don't force those cats to act in ways that are wise. They can't, you see. StarClan influence; they do not control."

"So I could very well be killed before I complete the task they called me here to do?" Link asked nervously.

"I highly doubt that," the medicine cat purred, giving Link another lick. "Though the land we inhabit may be dangerous, you strike me as a cat who knows how to keep himself out of life-threatening situations." The young tom was startled; hadn't Impa said something along those same lines earlier? He looked up at the she-cat. Sagewhisker had turned her eyes towards the far wall of her den. She seemed to be looking at something that lay outside her fragrant cave, something worlds and lives away from where she sat. Then, a small frown creased her young face, and her blue eyes darkened like a sky full of rainclouds.

"I feel as though StarClan want me to tell you this, though it would normally break the medicine cat's vow of silence concerning dreams," she whispered at length. "You must never tell another cat what I am about to say." Link nodded eagerly. "Brushpaw tells me that he has dreamed of Twolegs who turn into cats. One of them he believes to be you, for the Towleg's head-fur is the same color as your pelt, and his eyes hold the same courage and determination as yours."

"What about the others?" Link asked, suppressing a chill of excitement. Sagewhisker shook her head.

"One he says he can never recall the appearance of, and the third is always hidden in shadow. These dreams have been visiting him on and off for moons, starting before you even arrived at our camp." Her eyes darkened thoughtfully. "We have tried to interpret them ourselves, and have asked StarClan their meaning...but they remain unclear." She shrugged her dappled shoulders in a gesture of resignation. "Perhaps they relate to you, and perhaps they do not. I cannot say for certain."

"I guess time will tell," the former Hylian muttered. Sagewhisker nodded in agreement, then pressed her muzzle into his shoulder briefly.

"Until it does though, I don't think you have anything to fear," she told him. "If you truly were charged by StarClan to protect our Clan, then they will at the very least try to guide you down the right paths. My advice is to be open to anything that looks like it could be a sign from them." Her face grew serious again. "Have you seen anything that might fall under that category?"

"Maybe..." Hurriedly, Link relayed the story of his find of the sagebush and how the herb's flavor had clung to his whiskers. "I think it might have been them telling me to come find you and talk."

Sagewhisker nodded wisely. "I think you're right, and I'm glad I was able to help. Is there anything else you think they may have sent you? Any strange dreams that seem to mean more than they are about? Odd sensations?"

For a heartbeat, Link was tempted to tell her about his feelings of eyes, eyes that burned into the back of his neck like embers. The first few times it had occurred, he was willing to brush it off as simple paranoia—or even jumpiness as he adjusted to his sharper feline senses. He wanted to believe she would say it was the eyes of StarClan following him, or perhaps his own way of interpreting his warrior ancestors' watchful gazes; but he knew she wouldn't. Something, some gut instinct, told him that those eyes were of a darker origin than the silver sparkle of StarClan, and fear of what that darker origin could be kept him silent. With great difficulty, the golden cat shook his striped head. Sagewhisker gave him another affectionate rub of her head, and the fragrant smell of herbs that clung to her fur pushed out his anxieties.

"You have nothing to be worried about, Link," murmured the medicine cat, and Link let himself believe her every word. "Leave your fate in the paws of StarClan, and they will show you the way they want you to go." The young tom nodded. "I think it's time you found Lavastar and see if she has anything in mind for you to do with the rest of your evening. Be sure to tell me if you have any strange dreams or experience anything you think may be a message from StarClan." The tabby apprentice nodded again, and left, his paws and heart much lighter than when he'd entered.


Link never failed to find himself awed by the nursery, even though he had entered its shadows many times since joining the Clan. Blazingpaw had told him once that it was one of the largest dens in MountainClan's camp, second only to the warriors' den. Roughly two tail-lengths deep and almost four wide, it consisted of a series of small, indented "rooms" that branched off from the body of the cave. Queens made their nests, and the nests of their litters, in the little hollows on the edges of the main cave. Link slipped through the low entrance, the prey he'd caught earlier clamped in his jaws. He spent a few moments blinking in the darkness until his eyes adjusted. Once they did, he saw the glimmer of six little kit eyes staring up at him from across the cave. Stormcloud's litter.

Skullkit was the first of the trio to approach the apprentice warrior. The tiny, pale brown tom gazed up at Link unabashedly, his green eyes curious, but critical. The golden tabby found himself reminded, inexplicably, of Swoopingclaw, even though the kit seemed to have no difficulty getting along with MountainClan's rogue-turned-apprentice. The silence between the two young cats grew, until finally, Link mewed, "Is your mother here?"

"She went to stretch her legs, she said," Skullkit informed him. "Why? Is that fresh-kill for her? I don't think she likes birds too much. A few days ago, she was talking to Magmaheart when Firekit and Smokekit were eating a brown bird—like the ones you have; what are they called?—and she said—and she asked, 'How can they stand to pull out all those little feathers?' And she sounded annoyed when she said it, kinda like she sounds whenever she finds out me and Volcanokit pushed Mirrorkit into the stream outside camp." He paused for a moment, his white-furred face crinkling in thought, then asked, "So, are those birds for her? Because I don't think she likes birds."

"She can have the bird or the pika, whichever she prefers," Link told the kit. Skullkit nodded. "How long ago did she leave?"

"A while," Skullkit replied, shrugging. He turned back to his littermates, who were now approaching Link as well. "But now she's right a'hind you." Link turned over his shoulder to see the black and gray she-cat standing at the entrance of the nursery. He stepped to the side to let her enter, and after indicating that the fresh-kill was for her and Magmaheart to share, he left. On his way to the apprentices' den, he passed Swoopingclaw. The pale tabby barely spared him a passing glance before ducking into the nursery himself. Link frowned slightly as a thought occurred to him: Could it be that Swoopingclaw is Skullkit's father, and that's why I'm reminded of him?

Though he hadn't given it much thought before now, the young tom realized that if he set down to work on it, he could probably draw up family trees for most of the Clan. Many cats looked very similar to each other, in build and pelt and eye. And even though some cats looked completely different, the way they treated each other seemed to suggest they had once slept side-by-side in the nursery. They're probably all related in some way, Link thought. All of this, combined with his earlier meeting with the Shadow Sage, was making him feel more like an outsider by the minute. He sighed and shook his head, then padded towards the apprentices' den to rest.

The golden tom was intercepted on his journey a few steps from the nursery by an energetic, yellow fireball. Blazingpaw pounced in front of him, shifting eagerly from paw to paw. Link glanced up into her bright, green eyes briefly—noting that her brother, Ghostpaw, was standing behind her—before lowering his head to its former, sorrowful degree. The she-cat persisted, crouching in his path with her haunches stretched up higher than her forequarters. She pressed her muzzle up against his, wrinkling her nose in greeting. "You look like a kit that just got told its mother's going to wean it," she remarked, flicking her striped tail over his ears playfully. "What's got you so down, Link? It's not like you to be so…ah, Ghostpaw has the word for it…muh, muh, moh…" She turned to her brother helplessly.

"Morose," whispered Ghostpaw, padding up to stand beside his bright-furred sister. His amber eyes glowed with the gentle warmth that the timid tomcat saved for his closer companions. "It means…sad or brooding. It's not a word I would normally choose to describe you, Link, but Blazingpaw is right. You do seem rather morose. Is something the matter?" Looking from one concerned apprentice to the other, Link relented.

"I just…" He trailed off miserably. Blazingpaw stepped around him lightly and pressed her flank against his in a gesture of comfort. Ghostpaw stayed in the front, but he took a few steps closer and settled down there. "Sometimes it bothers me that I wasn't born into MountainClan like every other cat here," he confessed softly. "I know most cats are willing to put my past aside, or even forget it completely, but there are times when I can't." He shrugged. "I just feel so different sometimes."

Blazingpaw and Ghostpaw were silent as they digested this information. Surprisingly, it was the pale gray apprentice who spoke first, drawing his muzzle briefly alongside Link's as he did so. "Ravenpaw said it best at the last Gathering," he mewed. "Do you remember? He said: It doesn't really matter where you started from. You're here now, doing everything we are. You're an apprentice, same as us."

"Ghostpaw's right," Blazingpaw put in eagerly. "It shouldn't matter where you were born. You're doing all of the same work that we're doing, even though…we're Clanborn and…well, you're not…" She ducked her head sheepishly at having reminded the former Hylian of the cause of his sorrows. "Even if you were a rogue, you aren't anymore. You're a MountainClan apprentice, someday to be a MountainClan warrior."

Link felt a quiet purr beginning to build in his chest at the friendship and comfort being shown to him here. He looked from Blazingpaw to Ghostpaw, then back again. The tabby queen winked good-naturedly at him. "And if family's an issue, don't forget what Goronback said when he was introducing you to Sunleg. When he said that I was the one who found you at the end of the camp trail, he described me as being a cat that looked like I could be from the same litter as you." She glanced over at Ghostpaw—who nodded, apparently seeing where his sister was heading—and nudged Link gently with a hindpaw. "If you'd like, we could count you in our litter."

"I'd love to have a brother like you," Ghostpaw murmured. "Perhaps StarClan sent you to MountainClan with the two of us in mind."

The golden tom's mouth hung open. He wondered if the other two apprentices knew just how much their casual offer meant to him. Sure, when he'd been accepted into MountainClan, he had assumed that the other cats would gradually come to see him as one of their own. No cat had actually offered to take him into the family—be it the family of the Clan, or their own mother-father-and-siblings family. Not until now. Link had assumed that there would always be some measure of doubt between him and every other cat here; Ghostpaw and Blazingpaw, it seemed, harbored no such doubt. The suddenness with which their trust and offer came startled the young tom, and for what felt like moons, all he could do was stare openmouthed.

Blazingpaw startled him out of his shock with a friendly nudge on the shoulder and an amused mrrow. "You look like a fish," she commented. "Were you not expecting this?"

Link hesitated, trying to piece together an explanation of his past without revealing too much of it—he was sure Ghostpaw didn't know he had once been a Twoleg, and it wasn't a fact he cared to explain. Finally, he spoke. "I never really grew up with much of a family," he meowed softly. "No mother, no father, none that I can really recall. The most I really had were…friends—friends who took care of me. But I was different from them, and I think most of them couldn't forget that, as hard as they tried." Ghostpaw pushed his head against the other tomcat's flank in a rare display of public affection. Link wondered if the shy cat had some knowledge of where he himself stood: If he wasn't with his sister, Ghostpaw was usually sitting off to the side—alone and unapproached by most. "When I was told about this Clan, I had no idea I was walking into such a big family. It took me a bit to figure out where I might belong, and sometimes I'm still not sure."

"We know where you belong," Blazingpaw cut in eagerly. She flicked her tail to beckon the two tomcats, and trotted across the camp. Link glanced at Ghostpaw before padding after her. For a heartbeat, he feared that she would lead him to the entrance of the camp and tell him that his place was with the Twolegs he'd once lived among; his heart leapt into his throat as he saw where she was leading them. The golden she-cat skipped a few steps, then whirled in the air so that she was facing the two toms when she landed. With a grand gesture, she waved her tail at the low-spread branches of the apprentices' den. "Here," she purred. "This is where you belong, Link—for now, at least." She jerked her head towards the warriors' den. "Someday, you'll belong there."

Link was overcome with emotion. Suddenly he felt as though the friendship of these two cats was all he needed; if the rest of MountainClan hated every hair on his pelt, he wouldn't have cared. They were more than his friends. They were his surrogate litter now, his own brother and sister. He darted forward and buried his nose in Blazingpaw's long-furred shoulder, his entire body rumbling with a purr that sounded like the rolling of thunder. He felt Ghostpaw's soft tail twining around his gently, and smelled the young tom as he pressed close. "We're here for you," he heard Blazingpaw mew in his ear. "From now on, if any cat has a problem with you, they've got a problem with us, too."

"You have no idea how much this means to me," the leggy tom mumbled in a choked voice. He wasn't sure what had happened. He'd woken up this morning an apprentice, spent the afternoon as a Hylian…And now he was two cats' brother.

"I think we do," Blazingpaw told him, and Link felt her tail sweep down his shoulder. "Well, I do, at least. Goronback always says that StarClan gave Brownfur to him as a sister because they knew there were some things his mother wouldn't be able to understand about him." Her muzzle burrowed its way into Link's shoulder, and Ghostpaw pressed even closer to the two cats.

They remained that way, huddled close together in a pile of gold and gray, for what felt like years to Link. The former Hylian found himself unable to believe what had just happened. His saddened heart had sunken to the tips of his claws, only to leap up high into his chest a heartbeat later. He had gone from orphan to brother in the span of an afternoon. Ghostpaw said he thought StarClan sent me here with them in mind, he mused. Maybe he's right. Maybe part of why they sent me here was to help me find the family I never had.