"Hey, Pinefern, can I ask you a question?" Rainpaw spouted out of the blue in the middle of a training session.
Pinefern's ear twitched in amusement, used to Rainpaw's strange questions, but he nodded.
"Why did StarClan give nine lives to Tigerstar?" Rainpaw blurted.
"Tigerstar?" Pinefern repeated, sounding amused, "Why do you care about Tigerstar?"
"I don't know, Morningrain was telling me about him," Rainpaw explained, twitching her ear self-consciously, "She was telling me about her mother's mother and about how Tigerstar tried to kill her for being half-Clan."
Pinefern was silent, his tail stopped twitching as he contemplated his answer.
"He was leader of his Clan," he mewed simply, "It is the way of StarClan."
"But he was evil!" Rainpaw protested, twitching her own tail, "I wouldn't even be here if he had killed Morningrain's mother's mother. He's the whole reason BloodClan drove us out. Why was he given nine lives?"
Pinefern was quiet again and Rainpaw waited for him to respond.
"It is not our duty to question the will of StarClan, Rainpaw," he said after a long pause, the traces of amusement gone from his tone, "We do not have all the answers."
"But it doesn't make sense!"
"Rainpaw, we need to train, not question the motives of our warrior ancestors!" Pinefern told her crossly.
Rainpaw sat down and drew her tail around her paws self-consciously. It was a legitimate question! Why did Pinefern have to get so touchy about it? But then he must have noticed her shift in mood, because his orange eyes softened.
"Let's finish our training session, Rainpaw," he told her, giving her a quick lick on her forehead, "No cat has the answer to your question, so there's no point worrying about them."
"Not even the medicine cats?" Rainpaw muttered, slowly looking upward back at Pinefern.
Pinefern gave a mrrow of laughter. "Not even the medicine cats."
"If I was a medicine cat I'd force StarClan to tell me," Rainpaw stated, meaning it. If a dead cat could tell you that danger was near or that some cat was important in some prophecy, how hard would it be for a medicine cat to ask StarClan why they gave evil leaders like Tigerstar nine lives?
"Do you want to become a medicine cat?" Pinefern asked her softly.
Rainpaw hesitated. She thought about what it would be like to learn all the mysteries of StarClan and knowing how to help any cat that was injured. But though she was still very, very young, somewhere deep down Rainpaw knew that she would miss being a warrior too much. Fighting, hunting, training. One day having kits.
She shook her head. "No."
"Then let's finish our training," Pinefern told her, "We can worry about Tigerstar a different day."
And with that he placed a slow, but well-aimed blow, towards Rainpaw's head, which she dodged, knowing Pinefern had made it easy. She purred and attacked him back.
Mentor and apprentice sparred and trained each other for the remainder of the day, questions about Tigerstar's nine lives forgotten for the moment.
Rainpaw sat very still, sitting next to the water and looking for movements in the stream. Finally, she saw a flash of silver, and ka-blam! Rainpaw pulled out a fish from the river and killed it with one blow.
Rainpaw was excited. A half-moon had passed since her question session with Pinefern, and she was having a lot of fun being an apprentice. Especially since Rockpaw, Stormpaw, and Streampaw had all become 'paws and Rainpaw was now training with all her friends. However the apprentice den definitely felt crowded, with eight apprentices in it. And Graypaw kept kicking her in his sleep. She tried kicking him back the previous night but then she accidentally hit Stormpaw instead, who had not been amused.
But today Rainpaw was on a solo hunting mission. And she had just caught her first fish without falling into the water!
"Nice catch!" a cat mewed from across the stream.
Rainpaw looked up in surprise. On the border stood the two SkyClan apprentices she had met at the Gathering, Branchpaw and Acornpaw.
"Hi!" Rainpaw shouted back, excited to see the two cats again.
Branchpaw energetically bounced to the edge of the water, while Acornpaw followed her at a much slower pace, obviously not as keen to get his paws wet.
"Rainpaw!" Branchpaw exclaimed, jumping right up to the water, "That was amazing! Can you show me how to do that?"
"SkyClan don't fish, squirrel-brain," Acornpaw told his sister affectionately, cuffing her on the ear.
"Well, why not?" Branchpaw asked, "It's not against the warrior code."
"I thought SkyClan cats didn't like fish," Rainpaw mewed, frowning. At least that was what she had always been told. The other Clans hated fish, though she couldn't imagine why. Fish tasted amazing. It was like… the feeling of sunning oneself in the sun. If the feeling of sunning oneself in the sun was a taste. If the feeling of sunning oneself in the sun was a taste it would taste like fish. Plus, how could any cat afford to be picky when they fought over boundaries all the time?
"Well, I've never had it," Branchpaw announced. Then she turned to look back at Rainpaw. "Can you teach me?"
"I guess so, but I'm not very good," Rainpaw responded, suddenly feeling self-conscious. She hadn't even been an apprentice for an entire moon yet and still fell into the water. She sucked in her breath and tried to remember what Pinefern had told her. "The trick is to not let your shadow fall over the water." Then after a moment of thought she added, "And also not to fall into the water."
Branchpaw tried walking around the water, but the sun was facing behind her and she couldn't get her shadow to go away. Finally, she perched herself on top of a rock that was under the shade of a leafy tree, merging her shadow with its shadow so that the fish couldn't see her shadow because of the tree's shadow. Rainpaw was enthralled. It was the most amazing thing she had ever seen!
"Woah, that's really smart, Branchpaw," Rainpaw remarked, excited to tell everyone back in camp about it. Hiding under the shadow of a tree looked way less difficult than trying to find a spot on the stream where the sun was facing towards her.
"What do I do now?" Branchpaw asked, flicking her tail in excitement.
"Stay very still," Rainpaw mewed, crouching down her side of the stream, "And wait."
Rainpaw waited for a quick silver shadow to whiz by near Branchpaw. Her eyes grew wide as she saw one. Branchpaw saw it too and dove right in after it.
"Branchpaw!" Acornpaw shouted as Branchpaw's brown head disappeared under the water. Rainpaw bounded from her side of the stream and dove into the water after her friend. SkyClan cats couldn't swim. Branchpaw was going to drown! A second before she reached her, Branchpaw came up gasping for air. Then she stood up and Rainpaw immediately remembered how shallow the stream was.
"I missed it!" Branchpaw said angrily, ignoring the fact that she was soaking wet.
"Fish-brain!" Rainpaw mrrowed in amusement and relief at the sight of the SkyClan apprentice clumsily paddling back to shore, "I told you not to fall into the water."
Branchpaw stuck her tongue out, but there was humor in her eyes.
"What are we going to tell Leaf-fall?" Acornpaw muttered, gazing at his wet sister and shaking his head in exasperation. "She's bound to know you were in RiverClan territory."
"Technically the boundary is in the middle of the stream," Branchpaw mewed, licking herself dry, "So I didn't cross the border."
"Plus it's not like there's anyone here to see it," Rainpaw put in.
"Trespassers!" A voice hissed from RiverClan's side of the border and Rainpaw recognized Mudpelt, Pinefern, Dustclaw, and Rockpaw as their patrol raced to the river. Mudpelt was the one who had spoken, and he raced right up to the edge of the stream, baring his jaws.
Acornpaw looked tense but Branchpaw continued licking herself dry as if nothing had happened.
"Rainpaw, why didn't you chase them off?" Dustclaw asked her, his green gaze boring into her.
"They didn't cross the border, Dustclaw," Rainpaw explained hurriedly, thinking that that should solve it. The two SkyClan cats didn't break the warrior code, so there shouldn't be an issue. Rainpaw expected Dustclaw to call the patrol home. But he seemed to ignore her.
"That one is all wet," Mudpelt hissed at Branchpaw, lashing his striped brown tail, "She was swimming."
"She didn't cross to our side, Mudpelt," Rainpaw told him, hoping maybe the darker warrior would listen to her better than Dustclaw had, "She was near the shore the whole time."
Mudpelt opened his mouth to protest, but Pinefern stopped him.
"Calm down, Mudpelt," Pinefern mewed, touching his tail on Mudpelt's shoulder, "They're only apprentices."
"Don't worry, I didn't swim on purpose," Branchpaw called at them quickly from across the stream, "I didn't mean to get in the water. Rainpaw was teaching me how to fish and I fell in by accident."
The whole patrol turned to look at Rainpaw.
"You were doing what?" Pinefern hissed, lashing his own tail as he glared at her with his orange eyes.
Branchpaw realized what she said and coughed loudly.
"I mean Rainpaw didn't teach me to fish," Branchpaw mewed hurriedly, "She was telling me not to fish. I didn't listen and then I tripped and then I fell and then I got all wet and then I got out of the water and then you all showed up–"
Rainpaw was so taken aback she barely heard Branchpaw. She had never seen kind and gentle Pinefern so angry before.
"I–I just told her not to let her shadow fall over the water," Rainpaw replied, pinning her ears against her head in fear. Rockpaw was staring at her in shock, Mudpelt was lashing his tail again, and Dustclaw narrowed her eyes at her, but it was Pinefern's angry gaze that shook Rainpaw to the core. She had never meant to cause trouble. She had never broken the warrior code, she hadn't done anything wrong! "I didn't cross the border!"
"–And then you saw me all wet and then you jumped to conclusions–" Branchpaw went on.
"Rainpaw, they are SkyClan!" Pinefern hissed, "You can't teach them RiverClan secrets!"
"–And then you all started blaming Rainpaw for telling us RiverClan secrets," Branchpaw mewed, "But we actually have not learned any RiverClan secrets–"
"Stop talking, Branchpaw," Acornpaw hissed quickly.
"What RiverClan secrets?" Rainpaw gulped, still afraid. She didn't reveal anything she wasn't supposed to, or at least she didn't think so. Did other Clans not know that your shadow wasn't supposed to fall over the fish? Wasn't that obvious? How was that a RiverClan secret? This was completely ridiculous!
"You can't teach cats of other Clans how to hunt!" Pinefern insisted, pinning his ears back, "It's against the warrior code!"
"No it's not," Rainpaw protested, frowning as she tried to remember the code. "Kits and elders eat first, no hunting on other territories, no being mates with cats outside of your Clan, don't be a kittypet, murder is wrong–"
"Maybe not directly against the code, but against the spirit of it," Dustclaw growled, interrupting Rainpaw before she could finish and stepping in front of Pinefern to look at her. "You can't go around looking for loopholes."
Rainpaw felt like mewling, but she pinned her ears back and refused to cry out. She wasn't a kit anymore.
"But I wasn't," she muttered, trying to keep her voice steady, "I was just trying to be kind."
Pinefern's orange eyes softened and he took a step back in front of Dustclaw, then gave Rainpaw a lick on the top of her head.
"I know," he said quietly, and Rainpaw thought she could hear a tinge of remorse in his voice, "I shouldn't have gotten so angry. You didn't know any better. Pick up your fish, and let's get back to camp."
Rainpaw was afraid that Dustclaw or Mudpelt would protest, but they only grunted and turned away.
"You two go find your mentors," Mudpelt hissed at Branchpaw and Acornpaw, who hadn't moved during the entire dispute, "And if we find any trace of your scent on our land, we'll shred you."
Rainpaw looked back at her two friends with a look of remorse. She hoped that they would understand. The two tabbies blinked at her sympathetically, and then turned away deeper into SkyClan territory.
Rainpaw headed back towards camp, tail sagging. Her fish felt like it weighed the same as five million boulders all stacked on top of each other and the pride she had had when she caught it had completely dissipated like the seeds of a white dandelion.
"Don't let it get to you, Rainpaw," Rockpaw told her softly, blinking at her with kind amber eyes, "Every apprentice makes mistakes."
But no one else was caught teaching cats from other Clans how to fish, Rainpaw thought to herself, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to respond with the fish in her mouth, And the worst part is, I still can't understand that what I did was wrong.
Thornstar padded to the edge of the forest, half-heartedly chasing a squirrel. Prey was running well in ThunderClan and with the fresh-kill pile so high it seemed almost a waste to catch anything else. But he needed an excuse to get away from camp and to think…
Thornstar stopped at the edge of the treeline, watching as the squirrel vanished back into the trees. He was almost to the ShadowClan scent marker and absentmindedly gazed into the pine woods deeper in their territory. His Clan was safe now, but he couldn't help remembering the recent badger attack that had claimed the life of ThunderClan's previous leader and wondering what would happen next.
"Hoping to catch prey by staring them to death?" a voice called to him from beyond the scent line. Surprised that not only a cat was very close to trespassing on ThunderClan territory but also being so vocal about it while its leader was right there, Thornstar unsheathed his claws and turned to see who had spoken.
He saw a sandy yellow she-cat with faint speckles grinning at him right on the edge of the ShadowClan border. Thornstar was shocked when he realized who it was. Then a second later, he realized he shouldn't be.
"Hello Birchleaf," Thornstar tiredly greeted the ShadowClan medicine cat, "What are you doing so close to ThunderClan territory?"
"Oh, you know me, I'm just scouting the best possible places to plan an invasion," Birchleaf responded without skipping a beat, digging her nose in the grass and pulling out leafy plants.
Thornstar sighed.
"Oh, don't be like that, Thornstar," Birchleaf said, setting down the herbs and looking back at him, "Stop looking so dead inside. StarClan, every single new leader thinks that the whole fate of the forest rests in their paws and they have to take everything so seriously. You're allowed to laugh sometimes, you know."
Thornstar shuffled his paws. Ever since Rootstar's death, he had tried to be a good leader for ThunderClan but he just felt so… inexperienced. And he had tried so hard to be the best leader ThunderClan deserved. Though Birchleaf had once been a warrior, she was a medicine cat now and even then she had never quite got Clan rivalries. She couldn't possibly understand what he was feeling.
"Moonrise," Birchleaf mewed unexpectedly, not looking up from her roots.
"What?" Thornstar asked, afraid he missed something she had spoken.
"Moonrise," Birchleaf repeated, turning to look right back at Thornstar, "Moonrise is the perfect time to plan an invasion on ThunderClan. Everyone will be asleep and the attack will come as a surprise."
Thornstar unsheathed his claws again and dug them into the ground. Why was she being so hostile?
"It's called a joke, frog-brain," Birchleaf told him, turning away again, "ShadowClan isn't attacking you at moonrise."
"How do I know that?" Thornstar challenged, remembering what Rootstar would have reacted, "How do I know you aren't just spying for ShadowClan?"
"You don't," Birchleaf responded, digging out more roots, "It's the perfect cover. No one expects the medicine cats. Please step aside, your shadow is blocking my view."
Thornstar immediately jumped to the side, almost afraid to scent ShadowClan warriors coming over the ridge. But all he scented was Birchleaf, who continued digging out more roots, and the scent marker. To his annoyance, he realized he had obeyed the ShadowClan cat almost without thinking. Some leader I am.
"If I was planning an invasion on ThunderClan," Birchleaf mewed without turning around, "I wouldn't be telling you this."
Thornstar forced the fur on his shoulders to relax as he realized she was right. Birchleaf was just messing with him, it was what she did. Even back when she was a new warrior and he was a new apprentice they had laughed and joked together with other cats at Gatherings and occasionally when they met on the border. Sometimes Thornstar missed the happy and easy friendship he had had with her and the cats from other Clans, but when he became deputy, he realized he couldn't afford to keep them anymore. He needed to be devoted to his own Clan with no divided loyalties. He had seen time and time again how divided loyalties could destroy a cat. Even a simple friendship could change everything.
"Take some of these to Patchthorn," Birchleaf mewed unexpectedly, dropping a mouthful of roots and leaves in front of Thornstar, "She'll know how to use them."
Thornstar looked at them in surprise. He had noticed the ThunderClan medicine cat had looked a little more tired than usual, but how could Birchleaf have known that? Perhaps StarClan had told her.
"What are these for?" he asked.
"For her aching joints," Birchleaf told him, "It's comfrey."
Thornstar bent down to take them, then he paused. He was leader now, he had better start acting like it.
"I do not take orders from any cat, much less a ShadowClan one," he growled.
"Oh, you stupid frog-brain, just take the fox-dunged herbs!" Birchleaf insisted.
Thornstar quickly picked up the pile of leaves.
"Give Patchthorn my best," Birchleaf mewed before picking up the rest of the leaves, "I'll see you at the invasion."
Then the sandy-colored she-cat turned to leave.
"Wait!" Thornstar called after her, setting the comfrey down for just a second. Birchleaf paused and he instantly regretted calling her back. But he had a question, a thought that had been nagging him and he just wanted to know, he just wanted to speak with someone besides his own cats about it…
"Do you know about the danger and the destruction, Birchleaf?" he blurted out, "Has StarClan showed you anything else?"
"No, StarClan have been avoiding me," Birchleaf responded casually, dropping her own comfrey.
It took Thornstar a second to process what Birchleaf had said.
"I'm sorry," he mewed, shaking his head to clear it, "StarClan have been doing what?"
"StarClan have been avoiding me," Birchleaf repeated easily, as if being avoided by their wise and powerful deceased ancestors was as normal as finding moss between her claws.
"Avoiding you?" Thornstar repeated, shocked. Avoiding Birchleaf? A medicine cat? "StarClan, why would they do that?"
Birchleaf was silent and then stared at Thornstar with her piercing blue eyes.
"Because they're afraid, Thornstar," she mewed quietly.
Thornstar's heart was racing. StarClan? Afraid? And avoiding their own medicine cat? What does this mean? What does any of this mean? Does it have anything to do with the danger and the destruction?
Thornstar was almost afraid to ask Birchleaf his next question, but he managed to get it out in a squeaky whisper.
"Afraid of what?"
"Afraid that I know their secret, Thornstar, because I do," Birchleaf responded softly.
Thornstar seemed to freeze, his mind whirling at Birchleaf's terrible words. How could she be this faithless when referring to our warrior ancestors? What secret could she possibly be referring to? How could StarClan keep any secrets from the Clans?
And yet, despite all his instincts screaming at him to yowl at Birchleaf or to run away and leave her and her forsaken ideas far away from him, Thornstar paused. He had to ask his final question.
"What is StarClan's secret, Birchleaf?" he mewed quietly.
Birchleaf only looked at him, whiskers twitching, though with what emotion Thornstar couldn't tell.
"I think you already know the answer to that question, Thornstar," the ShadowClan medicine cat responded.
Then she picked up her own bundle of herbs and disappeared back into the pine forest on her side of the border without another word.