Chapter 18

Shadepaw tossed and turned, until finally she opened her eyes with a sigh. Her dreams were so confusing lately – not necessarily filled with evil but not quite feeling right, either. She hadn't seen a sign at all from StarClan since the group had left the forest, and she hoped that didn't mean she'd made a mistake in coming.

It's too late now to regret that, she thought. Her eyes adjusted to the gloom of the abandoned Twoleg nest they were sheltering in. She could see her companions huddled together, their flanks rising and falling softly in sleep. There was something comforting about knowing that they, at least, seemed to be sleeping well.

Shadepaw blinked. There was one body not curled up in sleep. She could see his shape outlined in the coming dawn light – Crowpaw.

She got to her paws, carefully disentangling herself from Nightpaw. The last thing she wanted to do was wake her brother when she could feel that he was dreaming peacefully. Shadepaw picked her way over to Crowpaw, placing her paws gently.

Crowpaw didn't react when Shadepaw sat down beside him. His narrow muzzle was pointed to the star-filled sky, and Shadepaw could see something in his blue gaze that she couldn't quite identify. She longed to pry, but she knew it would be too much for the prickly Crowpaw – she settled for looking out at the stars with him, grateful at least that he hadn't snapped at her yet.

They sat in silence for a time. Shadepaw curled her tail around her paws. The other cats on the journey weren't utterly strangers to Shadepaw, but Crowpaw was a mystery. That has to make him feel very lonely, she thought. Does he regret coming?

"That's the Father, up there," Crowpaw said finally, his voice low. "Towards the middle of the sky."

Shadepaw blinked. She looked up at the sky, to a star that seemed central and bright. Her eyes widened. The star stood out from the thick band of Silverpelt in a way that drew the eye. "Oh, wow," she breathed. "How have I never noticed that before?"

"WindClan elders say that the Father was once the father of all the Clans," Crowpaw went on. "When he died the four Clans were born, and his ghostly paw carved a riverbed in the sky for Silverpelt to flow."

Shadepaw's pelt prickled. "Do you think he was one of the Great Clans? A leopard or a lion?"

Crowpaw shrugged. "Don't know," he admitted. "But WindClan, we like to think that he's a guiding star, so that the Clans don't lose their way."

Shadepaw felt a strange feeling in her heart. ThunderClan didn't think of the stars in such a way – sure, occasionally you could estimate who might be who in Silverpelt, but they didn't assign names or meaning. That felt… sad. Did the other Clans have stories and legends like this?

"We're taught the stars as part of our training," Crowpaw meowed. "Our territory is very open and big, and sometimes cats lose their way in the grass. If you know the stars, all you have to do is wait for night and follow the right one."

Shadepaw could hear the homesickness in his tone. "Thank you for teaching me this," she offered.

Crowpaw only grunted.

Shadepaw suppressed a sigh. Would she ever get anything other than grunts and begrudging thank-yous from the WindClan apprentice? There had to be warmth somewhere beneath his tough exterior.

She looked back at Nightpaw, who was still sleeping. It didn't take much probing to know that he was dreaming of hunting the forest back home in ThunderClan territory, with the sun dappling his pelt and the smell of greenleaf high in the air. Shadepaw wished once again that she could read others' feelings the same as she could Nightpaw's.

Shadepaw's own heart ached with homesickness. Looking out at the land before her, there was not a single landmark she knew. Even the stars, despite the Father shining bright, seemed wrong. They were only a day's walk away from Highstones and yet it seemed like everything had changed.

"I miss the forest," she lamented, the words spilling out of her. "I… I thought leaving home was the right thing to do, and I was excited to go – but I miss my Clan."

Crowpaw grimaced. For a moment, Shadepaw thought he'd admonish her for oversharing. His eyes flashed to her and then down to his paws. "I miss WindClan, too," he agreed.

Shadepaw blinked sympathetically at him. "I think we all miss home," she went on. "The sooner we get this mission done, the better, right? Then we can all go home to our families. I wonder how much they miss us…" The thought of Tinystar and Sandstorm distraught made Shadepaw's heart only ache more. Would Brackenfur telling her parents that StarClan had sent her away make them feel better, or worse? I didn't mean to cause you suffering!

"Any idea how long we'll be out here?" Crowpaw wondered.

"I don't know," Shadepaw sighed. "I wish StarClan would tell us."

Crowpaw frowned. "They told you to come along, right? Why wouldn't they tell you anything else?"

Shadepaw had no answer. She stared at her paws. For the first time since setting paw out of camp to find Mistyfoot and Nightpaw, Shadepaw wondered if she had wanted to come because of StarClan, or because of her anger at Brackenfur.

She looked up at the stars, at the Father, and found that they did not answer.

Dawn light streamed in through cracks in the small Twoleg nest. The journeying cats were awake, and at Stoneheart's behest they gathered in the center of the nest to speak. Mistyfoot sat beside her brother, curling her tail over her paws. She still couldn't believe she'd woken up so far from Clan territory, and her head still felt a touch foggy. She wasn't the only one – Stormfur stretched his entire body, yawning greatly, while Nightpaw looked as if he could use a few more moment's sleep.

"Alright," Stoneheart breathed. He looked out at the others with eyes cool like river water. "It's too late for us to have second thoughts now. It would waste too much time to go back to the Clan territories – we need to drop some of our pretenses and form a Clan of our own if we're to make it out here."

Mistyfoot felt her brother tense as the others' expressions changed. Stormfur and Feathertail seemed the most on board, while Nightpaw and Shadepaw look at one another, confused. Crowpaw, of course, looked the least enthused, grumbling and sliding his claws in an out.

"I won't stop being WindClan," the apprentice hissed. "Certainly not for you."

"That's not what Stoneheart means," Stormfur pointed out amiably. "We each have our own skills – we need to use them and cooperate to avoid stuff like yesterday happening again."

Crowpaw's eyes flashed rebelliously at the mention of yesterday's incident, but he said nothing.

"Does that mean you'll teach us to fish?" Nightpaw wondered, looking over at Feathertail and Stormfur.

Feathertail shrugged. "Only if you want to learn," she replied.

"What about the warrior code?" Shadepaw asked.

"I don't think the warrior code can account for situations like this," Stoneheart answered. "I'm not suggesting we drop it completely, but…"

"… but we need to take care of one another if we're going to survive," Mistyfoot finished. She gave her brother a grateful look. She could understand where he was coming from on this, and it was likely something all the warriors on this journey had been thinking about. "We can't afford to be at one another's throats constantly, especially over borders we're no longer inside."

Crowpaw bristled. "I was almost a warrior back home," he snapped. "I won't be ordered around by anyone, especially a ThunderClan cat."

Stormfur flicked his tail at the prickly apprentice. "You've got plenty to teach us, too," he offered. "I think, considering the circumstances, even you can see that we can afford to learn from one another here."

Stoneheart nodded to Shadepaw and added, "Even you."

"Me?" Shadepaw looked perplexed.

"Your lack of fighting experience isn't good," Stoneheart pointed out. "It'll only hinder us, and you, in the end. You need to learn some way to defend yourself. Not only that, but you can teach us about herbs, too."

Shadepaw's eyes flashed, and the young she-cat almost looked overwhelmed at the prospect. But in the end she lowered her white muzzle and mewed, "I understand."

"This is going to be awesome!" crowed Nightpaw. He looked at Shadepaw and Crowpaw, his ice-blue eyes wide. "When will any other apprentice get to learn this sort of stuff?"

Mistyfoot swallowed. The thought of guiding the apprentices made her heart pound in her ears. How could she mold their minds after what happened to Shrewpaw? The urge to flee the nest was almost overwhelming. Stoneheart's idea was the right one, but how could she be trusted to help?

"Can you teach us how to run fast?" Nightpaw asked, thrusting his muzzle into Crowpaw's face.

Crowpaw batted him away with a paw. "It doesn't work like that!" he hissed down at Nightpaw. "Your legs are way too short."

He looked up at the gathered cats, his blue eyes dark. His gaze flitted over each one and, finally, with a raised muzzle he stated, "Mistyfoot and Shadepaw are probably the best candidates. They're more built for endurance running."

Mistyfoot flicked an ear self-consciously. Shadepaw, however, seemed eager now, too. Her eyes sparkled. "Could you teach us?" she asked.

Crowpaw hesitated, whiskers twitching. "Uh…"

"If I may," Stormfur mewed. "Rabbits would be the more common prey around these parts – they'd be very filling, too, if we could catch them. It'd be unfair to you, Crowpaw, if we only relied on you to catch them."

Shadepaw's eyes grew round. "That's true!" she agreed. "Come on, Crowpaw – please teach us? I want to run like Mother does!"

Crowpaw blinked. For a moment he looked unsure – and then Mistyfoot saw a spark of pride in his eyes. He puffed out his chest. "Sure," he decided. "Why not?"

He likes to be treated like a warrior, Mistyfoot thought. She twitched her whiskers in amusement at the way Shadepaw had wrapped Crowpaw around her tail. "She figured out something we haven't," she whispered into Stoneheart's ear. "How to keep Crowpaw from being a bee in our tail!"

Stoneheart purred. "Think she can teach us?"

"We should get moving," Feathertail commented. Mistyfoot saw the silver tabby looking up at the sky through the gaps in the nest walls. "I think today is going to be quite cloudy. We don't want to lose the right direction when the sun disappears."

Nightpaw flicked his tail. "Do RiverClan cats know how to predict the weather?" he wondered.

Feathertail blinked down at the small black tom. "Old stories of ours say that the tigers of RiverClan could control the rain," she purred.

"Liar!" Nightpaw chuckled. "No cat could have powers like that!"

Feathertail's fur fluffed. "It was so true!" she insisted, blue eyes sparkling with playful indignation. "All cats with RiverClan blood can tell when it's about to rain!"

Stormfur fluffed his own thick pelt. "I agree," he mewed. "I think rain is on the way."

"Then we need to get moving," Stoneheart decided. "The sooner the better."

"Agreed," Mistyfoot mewed.

Stormfur lifted his tail as he got to his paws. "Don't worry, guys," he meowed, padding towards the entrance of the nest. The dawn light touched his fur and turned gray to gold. "I think we'll work together just fine, in the end."

The journeying cats began to stream out into the open, following Stormfur's lead. Mistyfoot let the apprentices scamper ahead, catching Crowpaw already instructing Shadepaw on how to get the most distance with her stride. Nightpaw was trying too, despite his small legs, his eyes filled with obstinate determination.

Mistyfoot watched them, feeling her stomach twist. The idea that the group would become a Clan of its own was both terrifying and comforting, and Stormfur's words rang in her head. Despite what the warrior code said… Mistyfoot guessed that Stormfur was right.