This was the last thing Hollyleaf had planned for. She had spent two moons agonizing over whether she should try to convince Breezepelt to leave the tunnels with her. On the one hand, there was the comfort of a place they knew, the closeness to the Clan she still loved, and the knowledge that she would be close by when the Dark Forest finally decided they were ready to act. On the other hand was the chance to live in daylight again, the end of the stress of avoiding detection, and the ability to join a group of cats again. Eventually, she decided the comfort of familiarity should come second to the potential of finding a new, real home.

So she had privately said her goodbye to her new home, and prepared herself to leave the lake forever. Now, Crowfeather and Breezepelt were offering her the possibility of staying? Not just staying by the lake, but being a part of a Clan again. Living by the warrior code again. Guaranteeing she would always be able to keep track of her loved ones.

Of course, it wasn't really that simple. To begin, she would be joining a Clan that was often ThunderClan's enemy. Could she really bring herself to fight her former Clanmates, if it came down to it? Probably not. But maybe she could find a way to avoid the fight– or even prevent it! Then, she would be helping both Clans.

There was also still the issue of Ashfur. If all of ThunderClan knew she had killed Ashfur, it was unrealistic to believe no one in WindClan would ever find out. After all, cats talked at Gatherings, and now they talked in the Dark Forest too. When WindClan found out she had murdered one of her former Clanmates, would they exile her too?

Maybe not. It wasn't necessarily against the code for a cat to kill a cat of a different Clan. So maybe it wouldn't be a problem. And if they did find out, hopefully she would have already had a few moons in WindClan by then, which she could use to prove her value to the Clan so they wouldn't want to make her leave.

WindClan would never be ThunderClan. She knew she would miss the forest she was raised in forever. But… it was the closest she could ever come to being a part of ThunderClan again. She could see her former Clanmates again at Gatherings. She knew they would probably hate her for killing Ashfur and running away, but still, just to see them… And she could see her friends in other Clans too– like Willowshine! She had never thought she would see the beautiful RiverClan medicine cat again. If she joined WindClan, she could see her friend one more time.

Most importantly, there was Breezepelt. Hollyleaf was no fool– she could see that, as much as Breezepelt was trying to act like he was equally fine with whatever she chose, he longed desperately to return to WindClan. She was a bit surprised, given the way he spoke about his relationships with his former Clanmates, but not very surprised. She had always suspected he cared more for them than he let on.

If Hollyleaf said she didn't want to join WindClan, Breezepelt wouldn't go back either. And she couldn't live with the guilt of knowing she had taken away his opportunity to be with his loved ones again.

Even if Onestar did find out she had killed Ashfur and exiled her in a few moons, maybe Breezepelt would already have settled back in with his Clanmates by then, and he wouldn't feel like it was so important to stay with her. Of course she would miss him terribly if she had to leave him, but she would rather be alone than take his chance at happiness away.

Plus, if she stayed in WindClan, she could be sure she'd still be able to meet with Tigerstar and Hawkfrost in her dreams and finish what she'd started in the Dark Forest. She would be nearby when they decided it was time to strike, and she would even be around other Clan cats who were training there too.

She didn't know how to feel about Crowfeather being the one to make this offer. He was her father, but he had never felt like her father. She knew he was only offering to bring her to WindClan because he wanted Breezepelt back, but that was peculiar too. Breezepelt had been convinced his father hated him, and what she had seen of their relationship on the journey to the mountains certainly supported this. But now it seemed like he was trying to turn over a new leaf and be a better father. Would he start to feel like her father too?

She shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. For now, she just had to decide if she should go to WindClan. But hanging over her was the fact that if she returned to WindClan, ThunderClan would learn she was alive again. She would have to actually face her brothers, Leafpool, Squirrelflight, and Brambleclaw again. She would have to apologize for faking her death, and for revealing their secret. The Clan she had left behind would be real again. Was she really ready for that?

It would be easier to say no. To keep running forever and never give closure to her loved ones. Never give closure to herself.

But… she knew that wasn't the right choice. She owed them an explanation of where she had been. She owed it to herself to say a proper goodbye. And she owed it to Breezepelt to give him the same opportunity.

So, Hollyleaf took a deep breath, and then spoke. "I'll go back with you," she meowed. "Let's go to WindClan." As soon as she spoke, the relief on Breezepelt's face was unmistakable, and she knew she had made the right decision.

Relief was evident on Crowfeather's face too, which caught her attention even more. Based on her own observations and Breezepelt's stories, Crowfeather had never seemed to have much interest in being a father. But now here he was, practically begging Breezepelt to come home. This version of Crowfeather was completely inconsistent with the one she had known before.

But then again, she supposed cats could change. She and Breezepelt were living proof of that.

The three cats hardly spoke as Crowfeather led her and Breezepelt towards the WindClan camp. The closer she got, the more her instincts screamed out for her to run, to hide, to get away before any cat saw her. But she shoved those feelings down. Breezepelt needs to be with his Clan, she reminded herself. And maybe I need that too.

Finally, they came to a stop just outside the camp. The WindClan camp was completely unlike ThunderClan's. ThunderClan's camp was safe and protected by high walls on every side, and the dens were in caves or tight spaces under branches or thickets. WindClan's camp was completely exposed. They had no cliff walls to protect them from invaders. Hollyleaf didn't even see enough space for all of WindClan's cats to sleep under the gorse bushes that surrounded the camp.

"Wait here," meowed Crowfeather. "I'm going to go get Onestar so you two can talk to him about joining and rejoining the Clan out here, instead of parading you past the entire Clan to get to him." Hollyleaf and Breezepelt both nodded, and Crowfeather walked off, entering the camp between two bushes.

Once he had left, Hollyleaf turned her gaze on Breezepelt, trying to decipher his facial expression, but found it to be unreadable.

"Are you excited to see your Clanmates again?" she asked. Breezepelt turned to look at her with wide eyes, looking like he might be in some sort of shock.

"I… I don't know," he meowed softly. "I mean, what if they don't even remember me? I've been gone a long time. And what do I say to them? What do I say to Heathertail?"

Hollyleaf didn't know how to answer that, but she gave his ear a comforting lick. "I'm sure they remember you," she meowed. "Don't be silly. They'll be overjoyed to have you back, I'm sure of it." Breezepelt just shook his head.

"Maybe," he muttered. But he didn't seem sure.

After a few moments that felt like they stretched into an eternity, Crowfeather reappeared, Onestar in tow. Crowfeather was already in the middle of speaking.

"And she's an excellent hunter," he was meowing. "I saw it on our journey to the mountains. You know prey has been running much lighter than usual for greenleaf. We could use her skills when leaf-fall and newleaf come." He's talking about me, Hollyleaf realized, an unexpected rush of pride filling her chest. Even though he had never been her father in any way that mattered, now her father was giving her a compliment.

Onestar and Crowfeather came to a stop in front of her and Breezepelt. "Breezepelt," meowed Onestar warmly. "You're really back. It's good to see you."

Breezepelt looked up at him, an expression of surprise on his face. Is he surprised Onestar is happy to see him? Hollyleaf wondered. Poor Breezepelt. It seemed like he could never believe anyone would be happy to see him.

"I'm back," he meowed steadily. "I'm sorry for being gone for so long, but I want to rejoin WindClan, if you'll have me." He was standing tall as he spoke, but Hollyleaf could see the tension he was holding in his shoulders. This was really important to him. If Onestar wouldn't let him come back, it would crush him.

"You'll always be a member of this Clan," Onestar meowed, and Breezepelt's shoulder slumped with relief.

"Thank you," Breezepelt meowed gratefully. And then Onestar turned his attention on Hollyleaf.

"So, Crowfeather tells me you want to join WindClan," he meowed. "Tell me, why don't you go back to your own Clan?" Hollyleaf didn't know how to answer that. Of course she knew why she could never return to ThunderClan, but she couldn't tell Onestar those reasons. He might find out she had murdered Ashfur one day, but she certainly wasn't about to confess that now, while he was actively deciding her fate.

"I don't want to live in a Clan of liars," she answered finally. It pained her a bit to say it– she had largely forgiven her mothers for the lies they had told, after seeing the baby fox had made her realize how deeply they had loved her. But after her actions at the Gathering, she figured this would be believable enough reasoning. "Besides," she went on. "Breezepelt and I have been together this whole time. He's my Clan now. I want to go where he goes." The last bit wasn't a lie at all. She had spent half her life with only Breezepelt for company. At this point, she probably knew him better than she knew her own littermates.

Onestar looked thoughtful. "How do I know you can truly be loyal to WindClan, given your history?" he asked. "If it came down to it, could you truly bring yourself to fight your own Clanmates?"

No, she thought. "Yes," she meowed. "I haven't been ThunderClan in many moons. I feel no more loyalty to them." The weight of the lie only truly hit her as she uttered it aloud. Of course she was still loyal to ThunderClan. She would always be loyal to ThunderClan. How was she meant to convince Onestar otherwise when she could barely even force the words to renounce them from her mouth?

Onestar still looked uncertain. She couldn't blame him. Her mind was racing, trying to figure out how to convince him she could be loyal to WindClan, when Crowfeather spoke.

"I told you, Onestar. We can trust her," Crowfeather meowed.

"And how do you know that?" Onestar demanded.

"Because she's my kit," Crowfeather meowed with a fierceness that made Hollyleaf shiver. Does he really care about me, or does he just want me back because he knows that's the only way Breezepelt will return? Either way, his words suggested Crowfeather was maybe trying to be a better father than the one Breezepelt had known. "You're a father too, Onestar. I know you would never abandon your kit. You have to understand I can't just abandon one of mine."

Onestar froze. His expression twisted into one of deep thoughtfulness and… sorrow? It seemed this argument had really gotten through to him. He was silent for a long while before he finally spoke again.

"Very well," he murmured at last. "Hollyleaf, if you can be loyal to WindClan, we will welcome your presence."

An unexpectedly strong wave of relief washed over her, too, at his words. She did want this, more than she had maybe thought she did. She wanted to be a part of a Clan again. "Thank you, Onestar," she meowed, nodding her head towards him. "You won't regret this."

"I hope I don't," he replied. "Tonight, you two can just get settled in. I'm sure Breezepelt has a lot of reunions to make. And tomorrow morning, I'll have some of the senior warriors start teaching you WindClan hunting and fighting techniques. And Breezepelt, I'm sure you could do with relearning them as well."

Breezepelt looked decidedly unenthusiastic at the idea of having to relearn his Clan's techniques, but he just nodded in agreement.

With that settled, Hollyleaf and Breezepelt followed Crowfeather and Onestar to the entrance to the WindClan camp. Breezepelt hesitated before entering, hovering in the entryway.

"Are you okay?" Hollyleaf whispered. She couldn't imagine how strange it must be for him to be back here.

He nodded. "I'm okay. I'm ready," he meowed. And, lifting his head high, he padded after his father into the camp.

Immediately, cats started to notice them. Only a few at first, and then the whole camp. Voice camp, overlapping each other.

"Is that Breezepelt?"

"I thought he was dead."

"Where had he been all this time?"

"Who's that cat with him?"

"That's Hollyleaf! She's a ThunderClan cat! She was at the Gathering where-"

"I thought she was dead."

"Well clearly not, she's standing right there."

"Why is she in WindClan?"

"Where have they been?"

Hollyleaf just watched Breezepelt, wanting to make sure he was doing okay. His eyes were darting from one cat to the next. Is he looking for someone specific? she wondered.

Just then, a light brown tabby she-cat emerged from a den tucked under a gorse bush, and it was immediately clear by Breezepelt's expression that this was who he had been looking for. Heathertail. But Heathertail looked quite different than when Hollyleaf had seen her last, most notably because her formerly lithe body was looking quite a bit plumper than Hollyleaf remembered, and her belly hung close to the ground.

Heathertail was carrying kits.

Hollyleaf watched Breezepelt's face for a reaction. She knew he and Heathertail had been close. She didn't think they were mates exactly, but they had practically been. How was he going to feel about her carrying another tom's kits?

Breezepelt and Heathertail just stared across the clearing at each other, both of them looking like they had seen a ghost. Finally, Heathertail spoke.

"You're back," she breathed, in a quiet voice that somehow still carried all the way across the clearing. And then, as if she couldn't look at him a moment longer, she whirled around and dashed back into the den from which she had emerged.

Breezepelt took one step forward as if to follow her, but before he had set more than two feet forward, another she-cat was bounding towards them. She was a tortoiseshell, with a large white mark on her forehead.

"Breezepelt!" she exclaimed. "You're back!

He tore his eyes away from the space Heathertail had occupied, and met her eyes with a soft smile. "Hey, Sunstrike," he meowed. "I'm back."

"Where have you been all this time?" she demanded. As Breezepelt started to answer her, Hollyleaf scanned the camp again. To her right, Crowfeather was whispering something to a small white she-cat, and to her left, Onestar was speaking with a light brown tabby tom.

"But you're not really going to let her stay, are you?" the tom was demanding.

Onestar sighed. "Think, Owlwhisker," he meowed. "With ThunderClan acting the way they have been, don't you think having someone loyal to us who knows their ways could be valuable?"

Hollyleaf bristled. She was not going to be used as a source of information to help Onestar attack her former Clanmates. She might be willing to join WindClan, but she would never give away ThunderClan secrets.

The rest of the day Hollyleaf spent in a blur of new cats, some of whom she recognized from Gatherings, some of whom she didn't. They all wanted to know where she and Breezepelt had been, and they all wanted to know why she was in WindClan. She and Breezepelt gave the same answers every time, but she was getting exhausted, and she could tell he was too.

Nightcloud, Breezepelt's mother, hadn't been in the camp when they had arrived– she had been out on a hunting patrol. But when she came back, she and Breezepelt had a long chat that Hollyleaf wasn't close enough to overhear. It seemed quite emotional for both of them.

Eventually, the Clan quieted down as cats started to go to sleep. To her surprise, the warriors in WindClan didn't sleep in a den. They slept in the grass, out in the open. No wonder Breezepelt had been so unbothered by the cold in the tunnels– he had spent every night sleeping with the wind blowing straight through him.

The next morning, she and Breezepelt were assigned to training with Whitetail and Emberfoot. The senior warriors' task was to teach Hollyleaf WindClan hunting techniques, and to remind Breezepelt of them. Sunstrike came with them too, though Hollyleaf wasn't sure if she had actually been assigned to their group or if she had just invited herself along.

They spent the day training, and Hollyleaf quickly found herself getting the hang of the new techniques. She had always been a strong hunter, and though some of the WindClan techniques were new to her, she was picking them up quickly.

Sunstrike, meanwhile, spent the day getting Breezepelt up to date on everything he had missed in WindClan. She didn't recognize half the names she was speaking about, but Breezepelt seemed to. Cats had taken new mates, new warriors had been made, and new kits had been born. Barkface, WindClan's medicine cat, had died and Kestrelflight had taken over as the full medicine cat. And in RiverClan, Leopardstar had lost her last life and Mistyfoot– now Mistystar– had become leader.

Sunstrike spoke the most solemnly about a WindClan warrior named Antpelt. "He died a few moons ago," she meowed softly. "He– he's still missed a lot."

"We don't even know what killed him," Emberfoot chimed in sadly, inserting himself into Sunstrike's storytelling not for the first time. "We found him one morning covered in scratches– deep ones. We assume he must have gotten into a fight with a fox or a dog, and died before he could reach Kestrelflight to ask for help. But why he was fighting foxes or dogs by himself at night, no cat knows."

Hollyleaf felt a chill. She knew. A cat turning up mysteriously injured one morning? That sounded like the Dark Forest. She had known their training methods were harsh, but she had had no idea trainees were actually being killed.

"That's too bad," Breezepelt meowed softly. "He was a good cat."

Training finally wrapped up in the early evening, and the group headed back to camp to eat. She was going to have to acquire more of a taste for rabbit, she decided. It seemed to be most of what they ate here.

But rabbits aside, WindClan wasn't half-bad. It was no ThunderClan, but it was still a Clan. She was among other cats again, she was living by the warrior code again, and she was still able to spend time with Breezepelt.

She was happy.