Chapter 24

The cat stayed deadly calm, his piercing, aqua-blue gaze deep and shimming from the light of the stars. "Join us, Hazelfur," he meowed again.

Hazelfur reeled back in surprise, all of her thoughts spinning. Who was this cat? What did he want with her? How did he know her name when she had the curse of the Fallen Warrior?

"Who are you?" she growled defensively, her hackles raised. "I'm not joining you for all the mice in the world!"

The cat seemed struck suddenly, by something she had said, and have a small, absent-minded tiny nod. Hazelfur took it as an opportunity to look at him clearly: he had a dark gray coat as thick as clouds, and coloured like a raging storm. It gleamed, sleek and healthy in the dappled rays of white moonshine. His gaze was string and blue, painted the colour of the ocean from the elders' tales.

"Relax," he meowed monotonously, curling his tail around his paws casually. "You sound as if something's ruffled your fur today! Put your claws away, I'm here to help." And at this, he cast a quick, suspicious, sidelong glance beside him, as if to check that no cat was listening. "I'm Oceanpelt. Have you heard of me?"

The name Oceanpelt struck Hazelfur at once like a wave. She remembered Oceanpelt, the cat that Minnowpaw had mentioned when he had met her. He had gone missing the same dawn that she had arrived in RiverClan, hadn't he?

Of course! He must be the fourth cat that had been switched Clans!

"Wait!" Hazelfur burst out, excitement building up inside her. "You're part of the four who got switched, right? You have the Fallen Warrior's curse too!"

Oceanpelt looked temporarily surprised. "The fallen what?" he asked, his gaze disturbed.

Hazelfur was lost in confusion for a heartbeat. He didn't know about the Fallen Warrior? Never mind, she told herself resolutely. "Oh, nothing," she replied quickly.

Oceanpelt shook his head to clear it. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. Do you know the other two from the Four?"

Hazelfur hesitated for a moment. They must be Eaglewing and Moonshade. Should she reveal their names to him? She didn't know if she could trust him. "I know Eaglewing, and I've heard of Moonshade," she admitted reluctantly, drawing away.

Oceanpelt seemed to guess her thoughts. "I'm on your side," he reassured. "And you do know the others." At this he paused. "What about Rock? Do you know Rock?"

Hazelfur felt her pelt prickle familiarly at the mention of the cat she had had her unsuccessful encounter with that night. The bald, ugly tom had been unfriendly, and spoken in riddles. He had been kicking right from the start, and her neck fur have a bristle as she thought of him.

"I know Rock!" she hissed angrily, lashing her tail in frustration. "Although I wish I didn't!"

"He's not so bad when you get to know him," Oceanpelt mewed, looking amused. "He can actually be quite helpful. Anyway, how much do you know from him?"

Hazelfur felt intimidated by all of these questions. She had only just met Oceanpelt. But he had been the cat to disappear from RiverClan, hadn't he? Just like she had vanished from ThunderClan. And he knew about the Four too. That meant she had to trust him. Hazelfur drew in a sharp intake of breath. "I only met him once, here, on the island. He asked me what a cat's wish was. And…he told me to listen to the sleek wet pelt that was the voice of the ocean." Something struck her. "Did he mean you?"

Oceanpelt nodded, his voice barely a hushed whisper. "Yes," he answered. "I have spoken to him several times. He said I must unite the Four together. That's why you must listen to me."

There was no menace in his voice, no hint of threat in those deep, calming eyes that sparkles like twin electric blue flames. "Is that why you want me to join you?" she croaked.

The sleek tomcat nodded. "I have spoken to Moonshade and met up with her. She too has been forgotten from the ranks of Clan life, and so wishes to join me. StarClan must have made us been forgotten so that we would find it easier to find each other!" His eyes gleamed in unshielded excitement. "We are prophecized to save the Clans, just the four of us!"

Hazelfur still couldn't quite believe it. "So you want Eaglewing and me to team up with you and Moonshade?"

"Yes!" Oceanpelt's voice rang out in her mind. "You say you know him? Can you go and ask him about it? Please? It's the will of StarClan!"

Hazelfur thought that StarClan was quite cruel to put all this weight on her, but she nodded fervently. This could be her way to get back home! "I'll try," she promised.

Oceanpelt looked deeply relieved, and he let his neck fur lie flat as he sat up. "That's great. Meanwhile," he added with a hint of humour, "I see that you look quite well-fed, eh? At least RiverClan has been treating you well."

Hazelfur fought the urge to retort that that wasn't entirely true. "Mostly," she lied through gritted teeth. "Blackglare is our deputy now." That reminds me, how is the Gathering going? Has ShadowClan agrees to give Crescentkit back?

Oceanpelt winced, as if he didn't like Blackglare very much himself. "He'll make a loyal and fierce deputy," he meowed, choosing his words carefully.

Hazelfur twisted her head back. "I have to go right now," she whispered, dying the four leaders jumping from their tree. Her heart jumped as she spotted Crystalstar, looking majestic, as usual.

Nodding, Oceanpelt rose to his pause. "Bye, then," he mewed, saying farewell with a flick of his tail. "Promise you'll ask Eaglewing for me?"

"Promise," Hazelfur swore, bounding up and disappearing through the trees.

Her heart was racing. She had found them all! All four cats! Her paws tingled in excitement as she made her way swiftly through the lush tangle of ferns, pelting as fast as she could to the fallen log that marked the bridge from the island to the shore.

She looked back. The Gathering cats had broken up into their Clans once more, and was about to set off. She couldn't be seen! Ribcage thumping, she clawed herself forward on the mossy trunk, checking back every few heartbeats to check if cats were following her. To her relief, the Clans seemed to be lingering today, and she heard uneasy muttering coming off from the island.

I wonder what happened at the Gathering tonight! she thought, wishing she knew the answers. Her pelt prickled from apprehension. It didn't look very good.

Ducking low to avoid her fur catching moonlight, Hazelfur raced forward on tej slippery surface and hared back to the shore. Her thoughts were spinning in confusion, but she felt a twinge of satisfaction as she was reminded that she would be seeing Eaglewing tomorrow. The memory of how she had saved him from a monster last time that had met shook her fur. Every time she thought of him, she felt just so happy…

Pushing back her feelings, she told herself that she was meeting him to tell him about Oceanpelt. I hope that he's willing to join us, she thought, stifling a yawn.

By now, she had wearily tripped back to camp, and her bones were aching. Spotting Sunpool still on watch, she skirted round the back of the camp's island and let herself slip in through the back cliff silently.

Inside her head, her thoughts were whirling from the shock of tonight's discoveries and the famished voices calling for sleep. Silently lumbering into her den, she flopped down onto her bedding and sighed contemptuously as a wave of sleep crashed over her.

Hazelfur almost sneezed as the pungent stench of fish nearly knocked her off her paws. The oily, slime-coated trout was clamped firmly in her jaws, and she forced herself not to flinch at its awful taste lolling on her tongue.

She was padding to the elders' den in the RiverClan camp. The breeze ruffled her fur, and tonight promised rain, as well as a hwavg thunderstorm. The clouds were weighed down and soaked with water, storms rumbling in their bellies. She paused, tired, feeling juice seep from the trout in her jaws and splash onto her paw.

She had hardly had any sleep last night, with the Gathering taking place. It was a heavy mid-morning, and she was thankful that no cat had seen her sneak out. Sleekstar would have had it for me!

Her bones aching with weariness, she trudged forwards, meaning to ask Weaselclaw about what had happened at the Gathering. She knew he had been to it last night.

She spotted Beechtail emerge from the warriors' den, his thin tail carefully winding through the gap that was the entrance. He paused for a second, drinking in the humid air, before he spotted her, carrying the fish.

He froze, startled, and a look of hurt flooded into his face. "You're eating fish?" he stammered awkwardly. Hazelfur remembered that she had constantly been rejecting his efforts to supply her with the custom RiverClan prey.

Hazelfur felt her ears burn in shame. He has the wrong end of the stick! "No," she mewed hurriedly even though her mouth was full, "I'm just taking it to the elders."

"Oh." Beechtail breathed a sigh of relief scuffing up dirt in his paws. Embarrassed, he looked up and tried to sound normal. "Did you get much sleep last night?" he asked casually.

Hazelfur dropped the trout and sighed, her flanks heaving. Beechtail had noticed her tiredness this morning. Though she was excited at the prospect of seeing Eaglewing soon and finally sorting out this problem of being stuck in RiverClan, she still felt heavy and hollow, like a tree trunk emptied of its wood.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," she confessed, scuffing up dirt in between her claws. She felt a little twinge of guilt at the thought of her slipping out; well, she wasn't lying, technically.

"Poor you." Hazelfur could see longing and sympathy glittering in his eyes. He sidled up to her and his thick tabby fur brushed her flank; she felt his pelt, warm against hers.

"Thanks," she muttered, feeling surprised by this touching gesture. Formerly looking down, she raised her deep amber gaze and stared into his glittering eyes. Why was Beechtail being so sympathic to her? He was normally such an annoying furball, she thought drily.

Suddenly Beechtail advanced slowly, and rested his white tail-tip on her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" she growled, pulling away sharply. She could feel his hot breath on her muzzle, and her eyes narrowed into blazing slits. Beechtail staggered back, and lifted his gaze. His eyes clouded with hurt.

"I— I'm sorry," he managed to stammer, looking genuinely rejected. Hazelfur knew she should feel sympathic for the tom, but how was that possible for her when he kept on being so…infuriatingly persistent?

Hazelfur's glare dropped. "Go," she hissed under her breath hotly, furious with him. A look of even more stung hurt flooded into Beechtail's features, but she stumbled back, before twisting around and fleeing into one of the dens.

Hazelfur scraped her claws impatiently back and forth across the ground. What business did Beechtail want with her? She didn't want him! How dare he try and be so…so…Her mind couldn't think of the word. Possessive?

"Somebody likes you," a voice meowed sharply. Hazelfur spun around, to feel herself staring at Thistletail. The elder squeezed out of the elders' den entrance, hardly wincing as clumsy thorns snagged her fur. She padded forward. "I think you really mean something to Beechtail, you know," she observed quietly.

Struck mute, all of Hazelfur's senses span. Beechtail? She meant something to Beechtail? But she—

"He's just a stupid tom," she muttered angrily, clawing at the ground with fire inside her veins, ready to burst.

Thistletail sighed. Then her face lit up as she spotted the trout at Hazelfur's paws, and the ragged-framed elder licked her lips temptingly. "Is that for me? Better go inside the den, then." And with that, she gestured to the thorny bramble entrance.

Hazelfur followed her inside, ducking under the spiky overhang. A musty, glowing scent tickled her nostrils as she stepped onto a sprawled heap on a mossy bedding.

"Watch it!" Weaselclaw hissed, with a twinkle of a good-humoured gleam in his eyes.

"Sorry," apologized Hazelfur, dropping the trout by him, glad to be able to finally release her jaws' grip on it.

Weaselclaw grunted enviously and restrained himself from taking a huge bite. "So, what's the news?"

"Someone has a crush on Hazelfur." That was Thistletail, answering before Hazelfur could manage to put a word in.

"Hey!" Hazelfur spat, her spine arching as she span around furiously. "That's not true! Beechtail doesn't like me at all!"

"Beechtail, eh?" Weaselclaw exclaimed, shaking his head before ducking to sink his jaws into a juicy mouthful of fish.

Thistletail flopped down, her matted, knotted flanks heaving with straining effort. "He tried to put his tail-tip onto Hazelfur just now," she teased.

Hazelfur felt her instincts flare up as her neck fur bristled dangerously. She wasn't the brink of lashing out. "It's not fair! Why does he always have to be sticking his nose into my affairs?"

"He's not," Thistletail pointed out gently. "You need to stop being so harsh on him."

"Just because he likes me doesn't mean I have to like him!" Hazelfur retorted, her barbed tongue preparing to fling jibe after sharp jibe. Why was Thistletail acting so strange? So Beechtail liked her. So what? It was useless. She didn't like him, and they came from different Clans. And why did keep on pestering her with fish? Couldn't he get that she wouldn't ever eat it, even for all the mice the world? She growled deeply. And why was every cat making such a huge show about this?

Thistletail leaned back into her bedding, her throat raspy and hoarse with age. "You know, there was once a time where I didn't love Weaselclaw at all."

Weaselclaw stiffened, and his ears pricked up instantly. "What was that?" he hissed, his eyes stretched brazenly wide and reflecting shock. Hazelfur stared ahead, stifling a gasp.

Thistletail gave a chuckle that was fracked with old age. "No. Believe it out not, when I was younger, I used to think he was just an annoying furball!" Twisting over to the side to clasp her jaws into a mouthful of trout flesh, she meowed through chewing, "but I got used to him, and grew to love him. Like most mates do."

Hazelfur still couldn't wrap her head around this concept. She…she might grow to like Beechtail? No! Her instincts surged at the thought itself.

"That doesn't matter!" She lashed her tail impatiently. "We're in different Clans! How would he feel when I got back to ThunderClan? It'd all be useless! I'd be being disloyal to my own Clan! It would be against the warrior code!"

Thistletail swallowed her mouthful sluggishly, her sunken, dull eyes brightening with a hint of mischief smuggled somewhere in their swirling depths. "That's not I'm saying," she rasped. "What I mean is, why can't you be nicer to him about it? Break it to him gently. There's no need to treat him like you do."

Hazelfur felt her throat tighten as a huge claw raked through her insides. Beechtail isn't my responsibility! she wanted to yowl, but she realised that there was some truth in the old cat's words. She swallowed. "Fine," she agreed, gritting her teeth.

Then she looked up at the sky, and her heart jumped in her throat It was almost sunhigh! She was about to miss her meeting with Eaglewing!

Thistletail purred. "You know, Weaselclaw, we elders aren't as daft as we look. Does a young cat good to listen to our advice once in a while, it does."

"I have to go," she mewed hastily, scrambling up to shake the scraps of wet, clinging miss that were caked into her pelt. "Bye!" And with a bright surge of newfound energy, she bounded through the den.

"Oh, absolutely, Thistletail," carried on Weaselclaw. "We've seen more moons than they've tasted minnow!"

"I know, I know, well said, Weaselclaw."

"Precisely."

And as their dying conversation faded away to rubble, Hazelfur pelted away.

—

Eaglewing was already waiting for her, pacing back and forth anxiously on his side of the Thunderpath as slinking shadows from the pine trees behind him began to shift. As he saw her, he straightened and nipped down to give his chest a swift lick, and his expression brightened.

"Hazelfur," he meowed, with purpose brusqueness in his voice, as if he were trying to shield his note of happinness. "I was beginning to think that you wouldn't come!"

Hazelfur skidded forward carefully, coming to an abrupt halt. Her flank heaved from effort, and she was panting heavily. "Eaglewing!" she gasped, finally. "It's so important that we discuss things."

"I know!" Eaglewing growled, scraping at the diet with his claws. "Hazelfur, I'm really sorry about the attack. I tried to warn you the other day. But Carcassstar insisted we fight." He sighed. "Anyway, we need to figure out how to get back home to our own Clans."

"Wait!" Hazelfur called. "No, it's not just that! I've got news! You just have to believe me."

Eaglewing's eyes softened. "Come over, then." His voice listened to a murmur that echoed in the trees. "I trust you."

Hazelfur crouched at the end of the Thunderpath, furiously swinging her head side to side in search of roaring, approaching monsters. There were none. Heartbeat hammering like lightning, she hurled herself forward, pelting across the hard Twoleg stuff.

I made it over the Thunderpath! her thoughts broke out in relief. Blinking out small layers of grit from her eyelid, she began hurriedly, without further greetings. "Listen, Eaglewing," she murmured, a note of excitement that she couldn't conceal shining in her voice. "At the Gathering last night, I met a cat called Oceanpelt. He wanted to help us. He used to be in RiverClan, but he got switched to WindClan, and he knows the fourth cat who's done this as well! The two have teamed up, and know he wants us both to join him as well." Her eyes shone at the prospect of finally being able to get back to ThunderClan.

To her surprise, Eaglewing tensed. "What?" Hazelfur saw him clench his teeth. "So, we believe the word of a random cat that you ran into?"

Hazelfur was a little startled. "But you don't understand!" she burst out. "He was on our side! He wanted to help us!"

Eaglewing stiffened. "Did you recognise him?" he growled.

"No." Hazelfur shook her head.

"Exactly! Hazelfur, we don't know this cat. He could be a rogue who wants to destroy the Clans, for all we know. We can't trust him!" He spat those words out.

Hazelfur could hardly believe what she was hearing. She scraped her claws against the pine needles impatiently. "That's mouse-brained!" she retorted, twitching her ears. "The fact that I didn't recognise him didn't mean that we can't trust him—he's been forgotten like all cats, too! He knew about everything that I'd been facing: where I was from, where I was now, what happened to my scent, my memory in others' minds…" Her voice trailed off.

Eaglewing shook his head, his green eyes flaming. "No!" he hissed. "You can do what you like with this- this- Oceanpelt!" His narrow black pupils were roaring, and his voice lowered to a growl. "I'm not joining forces with anybody but you."

He has bees in his brain! "I'm only trying to help!" she snapped, forgetting her temper. What had turned Eaglewing against her so quickly?

Eaglewing suddenly paused, and jerked his head around. He forced his eyes to soften. "I'm sorry," he murmured, scuffing the ground with his paws, "I'm just not ready to completely trust another cat we don't know and join forces with him straight away."

Hazelfur wanted to yowl out desperately. Why didn't he believe her? Stupid mouse-brain! What will I do now? What can I tell Oceanpelt? I've failed him!

Soothing herself, she smoothed her fur and told herself that everything would be alright. "Bye then. Let's meet here tomorrow. Same time," she meowed to Eaglewing, shooting him one last sharp glance before she turned to stalk off.

"Bye," Eaglewing replied, dipping his head with his face still, though Hazelfur could tell that the world was being forced out of him like thorns.

And with that, she disappeared into a swathe of brambles.