At sunrise the next morning, Bluestar padded over to Spottedleaf's den, where Firepaw, Graypaw, Sandpaw, and Ravenpaw were swallowing their herbs, looking as if they would have liked nothing more than to spit them out. She purred with amusement, remembering how much she'd hated the herbs when she had to eat them before her first journey to the Moonstone. Tigerclaw joined her a few moments later, watching Ravenpaw critically as though he were judging his apprentice on his eating manners. Bluestar sighed inwardly; she knew Tigerclaw hadn't been impressed when she gave him the timid black cat as an apprentice, but she knew that she had made the right choice. The dark tabby was a fine warrior, so surely some of his courage would pass down onto Ravenpaw.
"Ugh!" Graypaw complained, swallowing the last mouthful. "I knew they'd be bitter. Why couldn't we eat a fat, juicy mouse instead?"
"With you here, I don't think there would be any for the rest of us if we let you near the mice," Firepaw mumbled. Screwing up his face in disgust, he choked down the last of his herbs as well.
"These herbs will keep your hunger at bay longer," Bluestar meowed, glancing over at her kit with fond sympathy.
"I'll say," the ginger tom huffed. "After having that taste in my mouth, I don't think I'll be hungry for moons."
Sandpaw snorted with laughter and Tigerclaw rolled his eyes. Bluestar tapped her son's shoulder with her tail before leading the Moonstone patrol out through the gorse tunnel. As they exited the camp, they came across Lionheart and Redtail, returning from the dawn patrol.
"Safe journey," Redtail meowed.
Bluestar nodded to her deputy. "I know I can trust you to keep the camp safe," she meowed.
Lionheart looked over at Graypaw and dipped his head. "Remember," he meowed. "You are almost a warrior. Don't forget what I have taught you."
Graypaw looked back at his mentor with affection. "I will always remember, Lionheart," he meowed, nudging his head against the golden tabby's flank.
Bluestar led the patrol swiftly through Fourtrees, knowing it was the quickest way to pass into WindClan territory. Behind her, she could hear Firepaw talking animatedly with his denmates about a few mishaps he'd gotten into as a kittypet.
"You did not," Sandpaw gasped, doubling up with laughter at one of Firepaw's stories.
The flame-colored apprentice grimaced. "Sad to say, but I did," he meowed. Curious, Bluestar pricked her ears to listen. "Admittedly, my Twolegs' fish didn't taste all that great, but it was better than the slop they usually tried to feed me. You should have seen their faces, though. I didn't think it was possible for a Twoleg to make those sounds."
Now Bluestar found herself chuckling as well, imagining her son's Twolegs screeching in fury as he gulped down their fish. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Tigerclaw staring ahead coldly, but the twitching of his whiskers gave away his amusement.
"That wasn't the worst thing, though," Firepaw continued. "When I was two moons old, there was an old tom in Twolegplace that passed away. As it happened, he had a littermate who looked exactly like him, but he always stayed inside for some reason. The first time I saw him was after his Twolegs buried his brother, and...and I screamed and hid in some flowers because I thought he was a ghost."
Bluestar was grateful that she hadn't been allowed to eat before they left because if it were possible, she would likely have thrown up from laughter by now. Firepaw's denmates were nearly suffocating, and even Tigerclaw was chuckling reluctantly. They were still trying to control themselves as they padded through the vast expanses of WindClan territory. The air still carried the faint scents of WindClan, but they were stale. Much fresher and more alarming were the scents of ShadowClan.
"Cats are granted safe passage to Highstones, but ShadowClan seems to have no regard for the warrior code anymore, so be alert," she warned her patrol. "We mustn't hunt outside our territory, though. We'll obey the warrior code even if ShadowClan refuses."
They set off into the plateau as the sun rose higher into the sky. Bluestar's thick fur felt heavy and hot without the canopy of the trees back in ThunderClan territory, but she pushed forward, knowing she couldn't show any weakness to her Clan.
Suddenly, Tigerclaw stopped dead. "Watch out!" he hissed. "I smell a ShadowClan patrol."
Bluestar lifted her nose, catching the scent of ShadowClan on the wind. To her relief, they were upwind, so they wouldn't have scented them yet.
"It's alright, they're upwind," she meowed. "But we must hurry. If they move forward, they're likely to detect us."
They moved quickly through the sweet-smelling heather, keeping an eye out for the ShadowClan patrol. Eventually, however, the odor grew fainter and fainter as they reached the edge of the uplands. There, the landscape changed dramatically, altered beyond recognition by Twolegs. Wide earth cracks crisscrossed green and gold meadows, small woods dotted the land, and Twoleg nests were scattered about the field. The Thunderpath loomed in the distance, and Bluestar felt the familiar pang of memory and loss hit her when she spotted the wide, gray path.
"Is that the Thunderpath?" Firepaw meowed from behind her.
"Yes," Sandpaw meowed. "It runs up from ShadowClan territory. Look closely and you'll see Highstones beyond it."
Bluestar assumed that Firepaw must have looked for Highstones, but her mind was no longer on the journey. Instead, memories of Snowfur, Mosskit, and Thrushpelt were running through her head. Three cats, all the kin of her son: his father, his aunt, and his half-sister. Yet he remembered none of them. One he had lost his memories of after being taken to Twolegplace, and two he wouldn't meet until it was his time to join StarClan.
Perhaps if she'd made different choices, Firepaw could have had his family to grow up alongside. Snowfur would have loved taking care of him and Mistyfoot and Stonefur would have been wonderful older siblings. Mosskit would still be alive too. But at the same time, Bluestar knew that if she'd made different choices, her first litter likely wouldn't exist. As much as it hurt to see them at Gatherings, she knew that she could never wish that her children hadn't been born.
They skirted a Twoleg nest. It stood on an expanse of hard, white stone, with smaller nests surrounding the edges. Keeping low, the cats crept alongside the fence that surrounded the white stone. A sudden barrage of barking and snarling made them spin around.
Dogs! Bluestar felt her fur bristle with alarm, ready to protect her kit if necessary. Instinctively, she shifted so that she was shielding Firepaw from the dogs' view.
Tigerclaw peered around the fence. "It's alright, they're tied up," he hissed.
The shout of an unseen Twoleg silenced the dogs, and the cats moved on. Bluestar felt the fur on her shoulders lie flat, silently thanking StarClan that the dogs hadn't caused any more trouble. Being so far away from home, her protective instinct had taken over a considerable part of her mind. Were it not for the fact that she knew that doing so would raise suspicion, she would have insisted that Firepaw stay right by her side for the entire journey.
The sun was beginning to set by the time they reached the Thunderpath. Watching as the monsters sped by in front of her, Bluestar signaled with her tail for her warriors to stop.
"We'll go one at a time," Tigerclaw meowed. "Ravenpaw, you first."
"No, Tigerclaw," Bluestar interrupted. "I will go first. Don't forget, this is the first time crossing for the apprentices. Let them see how it's done."
She padded over to the edge of the Thunderpath, waiting calmly as one monster after another flew by, ruffling her fur. As soon as the Thunderpath grew quiet, she raced across to the other side.
"Off you go, Ravenpaw, now you've seen what to do," Tigerclaw meowed.
Ravenpaw padded to the edge of the path, his eyes wide with fear. Bluestar found that she couldn't blame him. The Thunderpath was quiet, but the scrawny black cat hesitated for a moment.
"Go!" Tigerclaw hissed.
Bluestar's view of Ravenpaw was momentarily blocked as a monster sped by. As soon as it was gone, he pelted over to the other side to join her. His fur was still fluffed up along his spine, but some of the terror in his eyes had faded.
"Are you alright?" Bluestar asked.
"I'm fine, Bluestar," Ravenpaw meowed as Sandpaw pelted over to join them.
"I'll be glad if I never have to cross that thing again," the pale ginger molly meowed.
"Well, we'll have to cross again on the way back," Bluestar reminded her. "But you likely won't have to make many journeys across it in the future."
Graypaw was lucky. A long lull let him cross safely. Then it was Firepaw's turn.
"Go on, then," Tigerclaw growled.
Bluestar watched as the ginger tom approached the edge of the Thunderpath, looking from side to side. A monster was roaring towards him from a distance. It was moving too quickly for him to pass over now, so he remained where he was.
Suddenly, her heart lurched as she realized that the monster had veered off the Thunderpath and was heading straight for her kit. A Twoleg was hanging out from an opening in its side, jeering. Firepaw leaped swiftly to the side as the monster swerved around him, barely missing him by a whisker as it zoomed back onto the path and disappeared. Once it was gone, Firepaw raced across to the other side, nearly knocking Sandpaw off his feet as he cannoned straight into her.
"Oof–sorry, Sandpaw," Firepaw meowed apologetically, still breathless from his close call.
"No worries. I thought you were fresh-kill!" she exclaimed.
"Do you want to rest before we go on?" Bluestar asked, her own heart still racing from watching her son nearly get flattened by a Twoleg monster. She longed to be able to curl around him and lick the grime and dirt out of his fur as she had done when he was still a tiny kit.
"No," Firepaw replied, glancing up at the sky. "I'm okay."
The cats continued on, with Bluestar in the lead. Every so often, she would glance over her shoulder to make sure that Firepaw was alright. It occurred to her that she was probably more frightened by Firepaw's close call with the monster than he was, but it wasn't as if she could help it. She had already lost Snowfur to the Thunderpath; she didn't need to lose her son the same way.
As they approached the base of Highstones, Bluestar settled herself down on a warm, sunlit rock wide enough for all six cats to sit and rest side by side. Some of the tension left her as she felt Firepaw's smaller body brush against her flank.
"Look," she meowed, gesturing with her nose toward the dark slope before them. "Mothermouth."
The cats waited in silence as the sun began to dip down below Highstones. When the moon was beginning to rise, Bluestar meowed, "We'll wait here until the moon is higher. You should all go find some food if you're hungry and then get some rest."
Sandpaw, Graypaw, and Ravenpaw raced away and Tigerclaw headed in the opposite direction, but Firepaw remained where he was. Bluestar looked down at her kit, still gazing curiously at Mothermouth.
"You're not hungry?" she asked, feeling worried. Maybe that close brush with the Twoleg monster had frightened him more than he'd let on.
"Not really," Firepaw murmured but didn't say anything else.
The other three apprentices returned with plenty of fresh-kill, and with Tigerclaw they crouched on the stony hillside and feasted. But Firepaw didn't join in and neither did Bluestar, although she couldn't have even if she wanted to. She resolved to get her son to eat something before the return journey. It wouldn't do him any good to starve himself.
After they were done eating, the cats settled themselves around Bluestar and Firepaw and rested as the warmth seeped out of the rocks. As cold, black shadows crept up on all sides, Bluestar rose to her paws and called out, "Come. It is time."