CHAPTER 42-Reliving the Past

Snowstorm yawned as he slowly approached us. His amber eyes glowed in the darkness of the evening.

"There you are," he said. "It's getting late, so you'd better get b—" He abruptly broke off and began to bristle.

"Don't move, Dewstep," he whispered. "There's a fox behind you."

I glanced over at the vixen, who was concentrated on sneaking up on a cricket. She was crouching down so that the grass brushed her belly, and her tail waved excitedly over her head like a large brush. She bunched up her muscles and leaped, her paws waving wildly through the air. However, instead of landing on the cricket, she plopped face-first onto the ground. She sat up and sneezed, carefully rubbing a paw across her aching nose. I laughed.

I turned to Snowstorm and replied brightly, "Her name is Pip."

Dewstep rolled his eyes. "You named her 'Pip'?"

Snowstorm gazed at us with a mixture of confusion and surprise etched on his face. "Um...so why haven't you chased her off our territory? She's dangerous."

I mewed, "No she's not. She's perfectly safe. See?"

I leaned down toward Pip. She stiffened when I approached, but relaxed when she looked into my eyes. She turned her head to stare at Snowstorm, studying him, and then opened her mouth to make a noise that sounded like a mixture of a bark and a squeak. I smiled.

"See?" I said. Snowstorm sighed. "I don't care. A fox doesn't belong here."

His brother agreed. "He's right, Shadefrost. What if it wanders into the camp? You know what would happen if the other warriors found out about it."

I stood my ground and meowed stubbornly, "But I can't just leave her. She's all alone, and she's not even full-grown yet. I don't see her parents anywhere. Can I at least keep her until she's old enough to take care of herself?"

The two toms exchanged glances. I gazed up at them sorrowfully, trying to make puppy-dog eyes, and suppressed a laugh when I imagined how idiotic I must look.

After Snowstorm realized that I wouldn't budge, he finally gave in and growled, "Alright then, fine. Don't come running to me if she tries to kill you when she gets older." My eyes sparkled and I buried my face in his thick fur. "Thank you," I purred.

Dewstep muttered something under his breath as he glared at the fox.

Pip was regarding me quietly. "Where should she stay for the night?" I asked.

The white warrior just shrugged.

I thought for a few minutes. I had to take her to a place far away from the camp, so where would that be...?

"Do you remember that secret meadow?" I said to Snowstorm.

He blinked. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't tell me you've completely forgotten about it. You were the one who showed me it in the first place. Come on!"

Confused, the two toms hurried after me as I led them away. I looked back over my shoulder as I ran, making sure that Pip was with us. She bounded along after us, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and her long, spindly legs galloping across the grass. She actually looked like she was smiling as she ran, as if she hadn't felt the spring breeze sliding across her fur for ages.

I took them far away from the ThunderClan camp, all the way to the edge of the border. We slid through the ravine and climbed carefully over boulders.

I halted in front of a hole in the bushes and whispered, "This is it. Do you remember it now, Snowstorm?"

His eyes widened and twinkled when he realized where we were. Dewstep looked lost, since he hadn't been here before.

I ushered Pip through the hole first, and then slid in after her.

A pleasant sigh escaped my lips as I gazed at the scene. I hadn't been here for ages and it still looked the same as it used to.

The soft yellow grass waved soundlessly in the cool breeze as the dandelions sighed softly into the night air. Crickets harmonized together as they nestled in between the soil, and up above, the stars were shining brilliantly like shards of mirrors. Gray dandelion seeds floated up into the sky with their tiny sails. Fireflies wove in and out of the foliage, lighting up the darkness with their endlessly pulsing, glowing tails.

It gave me a nostalgic feeling to finally see the secret meadow again. I remembered back then when it had only been Snowstorm and me, and how we used to lay back against the grass and make wishes on dandelions and stars.

A lot of things had changed since then.

The white cat breathed in the crisp air. "I've missed this place so much," he said gently.

Dewstep stared in wonder at it all, his eyes sparkling as his gaze trailed up to the sky.

Pip seemed to be the happiest. She leaped in the air and tried to pounce on the fireflies, and rolled around in the grass on her back. She made a raspy voice at the back of her throat, which I guess meant that she was feeling content.

Her warm, mahogany brown eyes were bright and blissful. From the way she was acting, it appeared that she had never even seen a meadow before.

After he broke out of his trance, Dewstep growled, "So you two have known this place for a long time, and you never bothered to show me?" However, his growl was good-natured, and he threw himself at Snowstorm in a play fight. They rolled around, chuckling and tumbling like kits.

Snowstorm caught my eye mischievously, and before I knew what was happening, he had knocked me down flat onto my back. I stared up at the heavens from where I lay. The stars blinked, and it seemed that they were staring back at me.

Snowstorm and Dewstep curled up next to me, one on each side. The white cat pointed out the constellations with his paw.

"That's the Big Dipper," he breathed. "And over there is Orion. Ursa Minor is the cluster of stars on the far left, and if you squint, you can see Polaris on the very tip of its tail."

Dewstep said quietly, "The elders have told me the story of how the stars came to be. In the beginning, a long time ago, the sky was only half-filled with faint, trembling glowing sparks, like the glowing ashes of a fire. After the Clans were formed, many warriors, apprentices, leaders, and medicine cats were born. As the years carried on and the past days faded away, the sky was soon lit with the souls of ancient warrior cats, forming thousands and thousands of shining embers twinkling up in the heavens. The old ones look down on us still, even after all of those countless moons."

I murmured, "And what about the shooting stars?"

Right after I said that, a few streaks of silver shot across the sky.

My eyes widened in awe. They were like pale grey minnows, tumbling blindly across the dark black ocean and flashing their white scales across the surface of the moon. They swam hurriedly past the others, as if impatient and trying to get to their destination as fast as they could. In a few seconds, they had vanished past the horizon.

I lowered my gaze and searched for Pip.

"Hey," I murmured, beckoning to her with my tail. "Come join us."

The young vixen was setting a few yards away, her tail curled around her paws and her gaze fixed onto the night sky. The stars were reflected in her eyes. She had a look of wonder on her expression, like she was peering up at those tiny white orbs for the first time in her life.

Her ears pricked up when I called for her again. She stood up with a paw poised in the air, uncertain as to whether she should come closer to me.

Finally, when a cold wind ruffled her fur, she shivered and consented.

The others flinched away as she approached. However, I stayed where I was and let her curl up next to me.

Our fur brushed together. Pip was tense and hesitant at first, but pretty soon, she had practically melted into my touch.

Dewstep blinked. "We should get back to the camp now. Bramblestar will get angry if we're gone for too long."

I rested my head back against the lush grass. "Oh, who cares what Bramblestar thinks," I sniffed. "I want to sleep out under the stars tonight."

Snowstorm inhaled a soft breath of the spring air. "Me too," he replied quietly.

He snuggled up closer to me, along with Dewstep.

I absent-mindedly licked Pip softly across her forehead and felt her squirm slightly against my touch.

My eyes began to droop close as I listened to the peaceful hum of the crickets. The moon stared down at me gently with her pale grey light, and after a while, I fell asleep with my companions curled tightly around me.