SUNSTAR

He was awake before sunup, as the sky began to blush rosy pink and faint birdsong could be heard among the rustling trees. Sunstar found Old Scratch sitting hunched by the riverside, alone and far apart from the others, her expression bitterly twisted.

"Does fortune toy with me like prey now?" the rogue muttered, as streaks of gold began to glint off the rippling water. "I dreamt last night that my Mittens was dead."

Sunstar didn't answer, following her eyes toward the distant, blocky mass of Twolegplace beyond the wood.

"I've grown old," Scratch rasped. "And from weary limbs, my warrior's honor is beaten out. I'm going home. Stealing prey, there's more dignity in that."

She left without another farewell, and Sunstar watched her go, as the rest of camp stirred awake. Something in the back of his mind told him he would not see her again.

He let her go in his heart and turned his eyes to the rest of the stirring Clan, frost in their pelts. To hunt, and to return home, and to cross back over into the meadows again. There was no rest for the wicked.

Crossing over the river, he felt the sun warm his back and greet them warmly over the treetops. Entering beneath the shade of the forest canopy after what felt like so long away in the open meadows, was almost like entering another world.

LeafClan camp was already awake and abuzz and waiting for them, swarming the warriors as they filtered in again through the bramble tunnel.

"LeafClan has won!" Boulderstep bellowed.

The shouts, the cheers, LeafClan warriors throwing fish and voles on the fresh-kill pile. Those voices washed over him as he marched toward the mouth of the Hollow Ash.

"Sunstar! Sunstar! Sunstar! Sunstar! Sunstar! SUNSTAR!"

Then they bore in the bodies, and the mirth curdled in their throats. Sedgetuft and Shademist carried their littermate between them, to the horrified expressions of the other apprentices, and Cloverfern giving a loud wail at the sight of her brother Kestrelstrike dragged between Tansyslip and Mistpelt. Close-eye and Murkpool bowed their heads in silent prayer as Asterstripe was laid in the center of the clearing, every part of him raked with red wounds, no matter how much they'd tried grooming over his fur for the Clan's final vigil.

Ryebreeze stumbled out of the nursery, Frostkit's yellow eyes peering from the den entrance. She washed Sorreltail and Honeypad in desperate, welcoming licks before turning to Sunstar.

"Where's he?" she asked urgently. "Where's Bluenose?"

Sunstar set his mouth in a hard line, searching for the words, and finding himself short. He could only drop his gaze to his paws, drooping his tail.

"He's dead?" she choked. "Where is he?"

There was no body to bring home. Not a hair for memory. "He would have betrayed us to MeadowClan," Sunstar answered, hardening his voice. "Him and Thrushear both. They're gone."

She shoved at him with both paws, and Sunstar had to stumble to keep his balance.

"You're lying," she hissed. "Where is he? You exiled our mates?"

Sunstar still couldn't bring himself to answer, or even lift his eyes. His sister shoved at him again.

"You killed him…?" she whispered. "Thrushear too?"

He turned his bad eye on her. "They confessed their guilt, and now they hunt with StarClan—"

Ryebreeze swiped her claws across Sunstar's face, making him stagger back as other warriors circled around. Boulderstep shouldered forward, but Sunstar froze him with a silent tail signal, wincing at the slow, warm drip of crimson down the bridge of his nose.

"What happened to your heart?" his sister sobbed, turning tail and storming away.

It was near to the full moon when LeafClan and MeadowClan met again. This time, he prayed, not to use their claws. Sunstar led his warriors across the river past sunhigh, following a tributary stream up its course until almost sundown.

The MeadowClan delegation gathered to meet them on another island stream, this one shaded with smooth-limbed willows that bent and drooped their hanging branches overhead. Lilystar sat at the forefront, calm and reposing on a flat, smooth stone beneath the sun.

His tail curled neatly around his paws, and if his Clan's defeat had shamed him, his pride wouldn't allow him to show it.

Some of the other MeadowClan cats looked as if they were sitting vigil for a fallen clanmate, so grave and solemn in their expressions. A few others still looked as if they might relish another fight, and Sunstar couldn't help but envision what he'd do in an ambush.

Ryebreeze stood close to Honeypad and Sorreltail. She had hardly said a word since giving him a taste of her claws, but when Sunstar gathered the war party again, she still wordlessly volunteered. Boulderstep stood at one flank, and Hawkwing on the other, Owlswoop and Swiftstorm close behind him.

In a fight, he couldn't hope for a better personal guard. But Sunstar silently prayed that soon they could all keep their claws sheathed for good.

Raggedweed stood close to his leader, sitting at the foot of the sunning stone. Where Morningsky might have stood, there was another senior warrior in her place. Embercloud, a long-haired ginger tom with patches of white, green eyes full of sadness. The senior warrior gave them a respectful nod of greeting as the LeafClan cats approached.

There were others among the MeadowClan cats, many he recognized, and some he couldn't name. Brokenface, a white tom with a twisted jaw, stormy-eyed Thistleteeth, grave Hailfall, and Poppypetal, the dark reddish warrior whose trackers they had ambushed in one of the MeadowClan barns. Lilystar's mate, Ducktail, a brown tabby with cream and white patches. And there, Ivyflower, the kind-faced queen from his kitten days, who offered no kind looks to her former Clan now.

She looked haggard.

By the older queen's side, there was the pretty face he'd seen in his vision. A silver and white tabby, long haired like most of MeadowClan, blazing icy blue eyes, the same face he couldn't help but linger on at every Gathering. Certainly, he wasn't the only tom to stare after her. But why her? In his dream, she had been kind and smiling.

Standing so close now, she narrowed her eyes at him like he was some loathsome toad, too ugly to even hunt. Her name was Rainripple, and more than that, he knew her as one of Lilystar's kits.

Sunstar stopped in his tracks, focusing his gaze on Lilystar, and giving the fellow leader a respectful bow of his head.

"To Lilystar and all MeadowClan, health and good-day," Sunstar greeted, even with the tension and latent emotion palpable enough to chew on. His eye lingered on Rainripple a moment longer before turning to Raggedweed and Embercloud, sitting at Lilystar's paws.

"It is by Embercloud, our new deputy, that this meeting is contrived," Lilystar said evenly, no hint of scorn or bitterness in his face. "Right joyous we are to behold your face in peace, most worthy leader of LeafClan. Fairly met. So are you, warriors of LeafClan, everyone."

Thistleteeth couldn't prevent himself from bristling at his father's fair words, and Rainripple wrinkled her nose, but Lilystar's expression betrayed nothing.

Ducktail raised her eyes from beside her mate. "Your eyes have been poison against MeadowClan's warriors until now," she mewed, looking him up and down. "We hope this venom has lost its quality, and that this day shall change all griefs and quarrels into love."

"I believe every cat wishes as much," Sunstar said, even with so many MeadowClan eyes glaring searing white hate into his pelt.

"You LeafClan warriors, please sit as we do," Ducktail entreated. "We meet on our territory beneath a sacred truce, so do we swear."

Sunstar gestured with a silent flick of his tail, and he heard his war party settle down uneasily behind him

It was Embercloud who stepped forward between the two leaders, switching his gaze between them. "My duty today is to both Clans," the newly appointed deputy mewed. "That I have labored with all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavors to bring you two leaders together, you both bear witness. You have respected me enough to name me deputy of MeadowClan, and to listen to my plea, that we should meet face to face and eye to eye.

"Then let it not disgrace me, if I ask before both our Clans, what snag or impediment there is to poor, mangled peace? Why should that peace we have enjoyed, in these best of hunting grounds beneath the stars, not bless us once again?

"That peace has long been chased from the prairie, and our claws are sharpened for war and death, not for hunting. I have lost a daughter; Lilystar has lost a son. And now should our kits grow with minds tainted by vendetta and revenge, as rogues that do nothing but meditate on blood?"

He looked searchingly between both Sunstar and Lilystar. "We all know that blood is too dear to waste. So I must entreat you both to know why gentle peace shouldn't expel these inconveniences, and bless us with its former qualities?"

"If MeadowClan desires peace," Sunstar answered, "then you must buy that peace with full accord to our demands."

"You mean the hunting grounds once owned by LeafClan during Stormstar's leadership?" Embercloud questioned.

"That was before," Sunstar said, as MeadowClan and LeafClan cats alike exchanged glances. He kept his gaze steady. "But in a season's time, when MeadowClan has renewed its strength, what becomes of our peace then?"

"We can only offer our solemn vow before StarClan," Raggedweed chimed in.

"Words are air," Sunstar said with a wave of his tail. "And so you may honor your oath, but the words of dead cats will not bind our kits, or the kits of our kits. So long as our Clans live apart, in enmity, divided by petty differences, warriors will water these green fields with their blood. Not unless both our Clans rise above and do what it takes to break this cycle."

Lilystar perked his ears, still silent, but emerald eyes quietly absorbing every detail. Embercloud flicked his ears. "How do you propose that?" he asked. "You ask warriors to change their nature."

"I believe all cats can change their nature, with guidance from the warrior code and their ancestors," Sunstar mewed. "Lilystar, I ask that you name me your deputy. Let us join our Clans together into one."

Scandalized gasps rippled through the gathered cats, as Embercloud's eyes widened in quiet shock.

Sunstar couldn't flinch now. "We will share all territory, all camps. Our clanmates will become your clanmates, our kin will become your kin. And we will live, hunt, fight, and share together in peace. Not as LeafClan or MeadowClan, but as one LionClan."

"There have always been four Clans," Raggedweed protested.

"Until there were three," Boulderstep countered.

"HillClan's territory is vacant, too vast for our Clan alone to hunt and patrol," Honeypad added.

Lilystar, at last, seemed lost for words. As the MeadowClan deputy looked helplessly to him for guidance, he had his eyes lifted to the sky, as if in silent prayer.

"The peace you urged lies in your answer," Sunstar finished, and now it was out of his paws.

"This is too great a proposition for me alone to decide," Lilystar answered quietly after a lingering pause. "If you would appoint some of your senior warriors to sit with us, I will consult my Clan, and you will soon have our final answer."

"We shall," Sunstar said with a dip of his head. "Go, Boulderstep, and Ryebreeze, and you Honeypad, Swiftstorm, Owlswoop, and Hawkwing, go with Lilystar. You have free leave to negotiate with my voice, to any condition you think is reasonable, and I'll agree to the changes."

Lilystar turned, moving to gather with his other warriors. Sunstar's eyes moved to the pretty silver tabby whispering fierce words in Ducktail's ear.

"But while you speak, may I have a private word with Rainripple?" Sunstar asked suddenly, almost surprised to hear his own words.

The she-cat turned with sudden surprise, tail twitching. Ducktail merely blinked.

"Rainripple is merely a young warrior," the queen mewed skeptically. "But she has good leave."

As the MeadowClan cats dispersed, huddling on the other side of the willows, the silver tabby now stood alone. Or might've stood alone, except that she reached out the tip of her tail to stay Ivyflower.

His LeafClan warriors turned to speak among themselves as Sunstar padded out toward Rainripple, now suddenly grasping for words. What should he even say? What could he even say?

He played StarClan's vision over and over in his head, trying to glean its meaning. Rainripple only stared him down like an approaching skunk. Somehow, even though he'd faced down a MeadowClan war party outnumbered five to one, he felt his gut tie itself into knots.

It was the older queen who greeted him.

"Sunstar," Ivyflower mewed in greeting. The queen from his kitten days was given to easy smiles, but her eyes were hollow now. "My, you've grown. I think the last time I saw you, you were still an apprentice."

"Grown too great for his own nest," Rainripple murmured under her breath, not disguising her contempt.

He pretended not to hear that. "With my carefree training, it's a wonder I'm not an apprentice still," Sunstar mewed with a twitch of his whiskers, hoping for a laugh, but only receiving a noncommittal, 'Hmm' in response. "It is good to see you once again, Ivyflower. I hope you have made a good life here in MeadowClan."

"I did," the queen said. "MeadowClan is very accepting of outsiders. I've met friends, a mate, a family. They are my true clanmates now."

'To restore what was broken, to right what was wronged, to cleanse what has been tainted, look to the half-Clan…!' The haunting prophecy echoed in his mind.

"That sounds wonderful, Ivyflower." Sunstar remembered her so many moons in the nursery, never with a litter of her own. He wondered if she had kits of her own now, in her adopted Clan. "You shall have to point out this mate to me."

Ivyflower gently flicked her tail, blinking. "Bristlefur, if you know him." Her tone was as dull as her eyes.

"He's dead now," Rainripple cut in bluntly. "In the battle."

"Oh." Sunstar averted his gaze. "I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Hmm," was the only answer he got in return. Both she-cats continued to look at him blankly, Rainripple's blue eyes searing with hostility.

There was no way but forward, and he steeled his churning gut to wade through the awkwardness. "I had hoped for a private word with you, Rainripple, if you can spare a moment," Sunstar said.

"There is nothing I don't share with Ivyflower," Rainripple said, touching her tail to the older queen's flank again. "Anything you have to say to me, you can say it to her."

This was harder with an audience. He felt his tail kink up, mentally fumbling for his words. If StarClan had ever blessed his tongue, speaking to warriors in the heat of battle, they robbed that blessing back from him now. "Well, I know no better way to say this… but at Standing Stones, I dreamed of your face."

The way her expression twisted could've crumbled him into dust. "Are you coming on to me?"

"What? No!"

She craned her head. "Oh? Then what else did you dream about?"

His face burned hot beneath his fur. "I can't get into all that—"

"How very insightful then," Rainripple mewed with a roll of her eyes. "Perhaps StarClan was warning you to watch your back around me."

"Perhaps they were," Sunstar said hotly. "I just know our fates are intertwined. We'll talk again before long."

She flicked her ears, scoffing at that, as Ivyflower watched with a raised brow. "If you say so, Sunstar." Then the she-cat turned to the older queen, murmuring something into her ear. He could only make out the contours of the whispered words, but he knew it was nothing flattering.

"What did you say?" Sunstar pressed, flattening his ears.

"That LeafClan tongues are full of deceits," the queen said with a twitch of her whiskers, as Rainripple shot him another adder-like glare. "We should join the rest of the Clan and add our voices, Rainripple," Ivyflower mewed gently now with a brush of her tail, and both she-cats went padding away, leaving Sunstar standing alone with a stomach full of writhing eels.

Well… Maybe it could've gone worse.

He waited with his warriors, head bowed in prayer and silent meditation for a long while until Lilystar and the rest of the MeadowClan cats returned.

"We have consented to all terms of reason," the old leader said at last, solemn as the grave.

"Is it so, LeafClan?" Sunstar asked quietly, opening his eyes.

"Lilystar has agreed to every condition, just as proposed," Owlswoop replied.

"Except for this," Boulderstep ventured. "That we should forget the names LeafClan and MeadowClan, and call ourselves after one of the Great Clans of legend."

"Nor have I denied this provision," Lilystar interjected. "But at your insistence, I shall let it pass."

"Then I ask you, in love and dear alliance, to let this clause rank with the rest," Sunstar said, raising his head. "Give me your oath, and I will be your deputy, and together we will be LionClan."

Lilystar straightened his back, closing his eyes, and gave a nod of his head. "Then hear me, MeadowClan." His voice rang through the island. "I say these words before StarClan, so that the spirits of our warrior ancestors may hear and approve of my choice. LionClan lives again, and our deputy will be Sunstar!"

The meadows were more beautiful in newleaf, all freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, spotted with wildflowers.

Two mice dangled lightly from his teeth as he skirted the edge of the abandoned barn, following the telltale scent among the hemlock and darnel.

"Sunstar," a voice greeted neutrally, blue eyes blinking from the half-light. Rainripple stood alone among the piles of old hay, her own fresh-kill collected in a neat pile.

"Rainripple," he mewed with a dip of his head. "The prey is running well." His words felt stiff, unnatural, and she only blinked in acknowledgment.

"What? Smalltalk?"

Clanmates they might be now, but that had not made them friends. It was a struggle for every cat, from the forest to the meadows. Old divisions were not so easy to erase, and phantom wounds still bit at them.

"We are one Clan now," Sunstar said quietly. "Why should we not share tongues and fresh-kill like clanmates?"

"Why should we not? Why should we?" Rainripple said with a whip of her tail. "Don't tell me you dreamed about me again."

That, he couldn't help. "Don't flatter yourself." He felt his face burn hot again. "Do you not like me?"

She seemed incredulous that he would even ask. "Like you?" she laughed. "You're the great and mighty Sunstar. What do you care if I like you or not?"

When he just kinked his tail, she laughed again.

"You're quite sensitive underneath, I think," she mocked. "Like a fawning apprentice." Rainripple stood, looking him up and down, before moving over to her collection of fresh-kill. "If you want my honest feelings, Sunstar? I cannot tell what to think of you."

With that, she gathered up her prey in her jaws, and left. He could only watch her sashay away back into the sunlight, tail disappearing around the corner of the barn wall.

It was a gentle greenleaf rain when they were alone together again. He'd never seen her venture so deep into the heart of the forest, almost to Tumblestone, where he was hunting snakes with Swiftstorm and Hawkwing.

"Sunstar?" she'd called out through the wood, freezing him in his tracks. "Could I have a private word?"

He dismissed the warriors with a flick of his tail, and let her lead them to the shelter of a hollow log.

"Rainripple," he mewed cautiously. "Consider me surprised."

He could taste the tension as she averted her gaze. "I don't know any better way to say this, but…" Rainripple glanced up at him now, eyes wide and uncertain. "You were in my dream last night."

Sunstar felt his hair stand on end. "And what of it?"

"It wasn't a normal dream," she whispered. "I saw… many things. It led me to an ancient tree in the forest, and a voice spoke out of it. The voice of StarClan."

The golden tom stood to his paws. "Come with me."

She followed him slowly out of the cover of the log, struggling to keep pace as he trudged carefully through the thick green ferns and over old prey trails.

The Father Oak's ancient roots spread and knotted through the earth, its leaves full and green with the season. When they stood before it, he heard the breath leave Rainripple's lungs.

"This is the very place," she gasped. "It was a true sign."

"Then we dreamed the same," Sunstar said, turning to her now. "What did the voice tell you?"

"That the darkest night is still to come. That the forest would grow over the meadows," Rainripple said, seemingly oblivious to the rain washing down her long coat. "That from the wrong-eyed one, the bloody dawn would rise. And I saw this tree, all the leaves blowing away in a storm, and all the stars blink out of Silverpelt."

She reached out with her tail, lightly brushing it over the scarred side of his face. Wrong-eyed one…?

"And it told me," she went on. "'Look to the half-Clan.' This forest, this tree, were all covered in thorn and bramble, until roses wound around the briar, all the way to the crown of the tree."

"I heard those same words," he affirmed. They padded closer to the tree, under the long, drooping boughs, where there was some cover from the rain overhead.

"What do you suppose it means?"

Her eyes darted everywhere except in his direction. "I… I'm not sure."

"It's baffled me too," he growled, raking his claws. More than a few of the meadow-cats were born loners, or kits of loners. Brokenface for one. Not to mention the many daylight warriors that stalked back to barns or housefolk at night… Were they half-Clan, in StarClan's eyes?

Rainripple cleared her throat, tail twitching. "There is… well, one possibility."

He glanced at her with sudden anxiety and quickly turned his eyes away, gritting his teeth.

"I mean… do you think…?"

"StarClan showed us each other's faces," she reasoned. "I-I'm just putting it out there, I don't know. The idea doesn't please me any more than it does you."

"Yes, it's not a pleasant thought at all," Sunstar said in a rush, and then at her furrowed brow, wished he could eat the words back up again. "N-not that… It's just, well—"

"It's just a bit awkward, this," Rainripple mewed, fur bushing out. "I mean, what if that's not what they meant?"

"Then I'd bloody well wish they'd just say what they mean outright," Sunstar groaned. Was StarClan supposed to be so full of riddles? "What do you think?"

"Think about what?"

He flicked his tail and hissed. "What do you think what about?"

"Look! I don't know!" she sighed back in exasperation. "I don't know any other obvious answer."

"Then what should we do?" he pressed.

"I just said I don't know. You're a leader or deputy or whatever, you've shared dreams with StarClan, you tell me."

Sunstar sat back on his haunches, defeated, and Rainripple mirrored his action.

"Well, take emotion out of it… It might be our only lead. We dreamed the same dream." Or almost the same. He'd have to pick her memories for what else she'd seen. "We could… give it a chance. Bump noses and a bargain, what do you say?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, very romantic."

"Am I supposed to be romantic about it?" Sunstar bristled. "Look, if you want me to twitter like a bird or dance for your sake, then you undo me. If I could win a mate at leapfrog or by vaulting onto an enemy on the battlefield, then I should quickly leap into one—"

Rainripple covered her mouth with her tail. "My word!"

"But, under all the stars, Rainrippple, I can't look greenly or gasp out eloquence, and I'm not some cunning linguist. Only plain oaths, which I never swear until urged, nor never break for urging." He forced himself to look her in the eye, although like everyone else, she flinched at the sight of his scars. "If you can learn to love a fellow of this temper, Rainripple, whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks at his reflection for love of anything he sees there… let your eyes be your hunter.

"I speak to you as a plain warrior: if you can love me for this, take me. And while you live, Rainripple, take a plain and constant mate. He must do you right, because he has no gift for wooing any other cat. Honey-tongues that can speak themselves into romance, always reason themselves back out again."

She looked as flustered as he felt, and he found his throat clenching, his heart quickening, but there was no bailing out of this now.

"A speaker is just a babbler," Sunstar said. "A good leg will fall; a straight back will stoop; muzzles will turn white; thick coats grow thin and fall out; a fair face will wither; a full eye will turn hollow… But a good heart is the sun and the moon. Or rather, the sun, and not the moon; it shines bright and never changes, but keeps its course truly.

"If you would have such a one, take me; and take me, take a warrior; take a warrior, take a leader." It sounded so much smoother in his mind, but he fumbled over it now, almost cringing at his own words. His voice dropped low. "What do you say to that?"

Her blue eyes had often seemed cold as leaf-bare, but now they were brittle ice, threatening to melt with newleaf thaw.

"Is it possible that I should love the enemy of MeadowClan?" she asked quietly.

"No, it is not possible you should love the enemy of MeadowClan, Rainripple," he said, so close now that they almost seemed to breathe the same air. "But, in loving me, you should love the friend of MeadowClan. For I love MeadowClan so much that I will not part with a blade of grass. I will have it all mine. And when MeadowClan is mine and I am yours, then yours is MeadowClan and you are mine."

He didn't know what to expect, but he was not sure her giggle was the worst or the best thing he could have hoped for.

"That's so sappy I might gag," she laughed.

"It's as easy for me to conquer a Clan as to speak much more," Sunstar said, easing into a smile. "But do you hear me any better? Can you love me?"

"I…" Rainripple's smile eased off her lips again. "I cannot tell."

This was impossible. "Can any of your clanmates tell? I'll ask them." He whipped his tail. "Do not call it love then, not yet. But open your heart to me and I will open mine to yours. Now, beshrew my father's ambition, he was thinking of wars when he got me, so I was created with a stubborn exterior, and I frighten queens and kits with my looks.

"But, in truth, the older I grow, the better I shall appear. My comfort is that old age can do no worse to my face. You have me, if you have me, at the worst, and you will wear me, if you wear me, better and better. And so tell me, Rainripple, will you have me…?"

She seemed lost for words. "What would my father say? My clanmates?"

"Together, we lead all of LionClan," Sunstar said, smiling. "Nice customs bow to great leaders. We are the maker of manners, Rainripple. It should please them well. It shall please them."

"Then it shall also content me," she said faintly.

Sunstar tensed his whiskers. "Then…" He found himself leaning forward, pulled in by the gravity of those eyes. But before their noses could touch, Rainripple flinched back, hackles raised.

"Wait," she said, swinging from nervous laughter to seriousness. "Waitwaitwaitwait…"

"What?"

"I'm just, um…" She laughed again, shuffling her paws. "I saw a squirrel over there!"

"What?" He turned his head, and she bolted through the thicket in the other direction, and he went chasing after her.

It was a funny way of getting to know a stranger. Long hunts and walks along the river, coming back to camp long past sundown. Learning to hook fish from the river, standing so still and striking out like lightning, something Rainripple quickly taught him he had no aptitude for.

One late night, crossing back over the river, they both almost jumped out of their fur when they saw Embercloud fishing on the nearby bank.

"Good evening," Embercloud greeted, twitching his whiskers. "Sunstar, have you been showing Rainripple the forest?"

"I would have all LionClan cats learn every mouse-length of their new territory," Sunstar said.

Embercloud purred. "Hmm, I expect so," he mewed. "I think you'll find her an eager learner."

The senior warrior's eyes followed them as they walked on across the grasslands, and he wondered what other whispers cats might spread when they were not within earshot.

But let them whisper. No one else was bold enough to say something to their face, except Ivyflower, who cornered him by the riverside one night.

"I wish I knew your heart," the older queen had said to him quietly, peering close to him eye to eye, and not flinching from his fearsome scar. "I fear it's false."

"Then never was any tom true."

When the warm winds came, when the lotus blossomed on the surface of the water and the greenleaf air grew thick with flying insects, that's when she said those words, 'I love you.' And when the leaves turned gold and fell from the trees, that's when she told him the happy news. Kits. Kits of his own, his very own. And when he heard, some part wanted to scream in panic. But despite himself, a smile broke across his face.

But with it came the hard part. They stood together beneath the shade of the Old Willow, heads together in deep conversation. Above, the moon and stars leered over the MeadowClan camp, the frogs so loud around the burbling creek that it masked their voices.

"Should I start, or you?" she fretted.

"It's your parents," Sunstar reasoned. "It should be you."

"Oh, you're just saying that because you don't want to go first, you mouse-heart."

"You asked!" He heard a rustle behind him, and his pelt bushed out. "Here comes your father."

They both whirled on their paws, standing prim and a proper fox-length apart as Lilystar and Ducktail emerged from the leader's den. The old leader's green eyes glimmered in the half-light, with his mate cocking her head beside him.

"Sunstar," he rasped in greeting, but Sunstar could see those sage eyes searching for greater purpose behind his visit. Even ruling together, the two leaders almost always kept their separate camps. "You are welcome in the meadows tonight."

"Lilystar, Ducktail," he greeted, and suddenly he might as well have been trapped in a badger's den. "I, or, we…" Sunstar glanced to Rainripple for assistance, but she only offered him a helpless glance. So he seized on the words.

"I love your daughter," Sunstar said in a breathless rush. "And I know no other ways to mince it in love, but directly to say, I love her. And if you urge me farther than to say, 'Do you, in faith?' I wear out my suit."

Both mother and father looked at him as if he'd sprouted a second tail. But after a pause of stunned silence, Ducktail looked to her daughter. "And do you feel the same, Rainripple?" she asked.

Rainripple only gave a faint nod.

Lilystar strode forward, and Sunstar's first instinct was to step back. But he held his ground as the leader approached, and at last the leader bumped his nose against his.

"Then take her, fair son," Lilystar mewed, his eyes deep pools of emotion. "And from her blood, raise up issue to me, that our contending Clans may cease their hatred. And with this match, plant kinship and love in their sweet hearts, so that the bleeding claws of war never again cross between the forest and meadows."

Rainripple finally came to his side now, brushing her cheek fiercely against his, and then against her father's, and then looking to her mother.

"May the stars who have brought you together combine your hearts in one, your Clans in one," Ducktail said, finally managing a weak smile. "As mates, being two, are one in love, so be there between our Clans such a bond that pride or envy never break. That all divisions dissolve between forest cat and meadow cat, and receive each other as clanmates."

Night faded, to the sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams that ever entered in a drowsy head. That sunup was as sweet as he ever tasted, blood red and bone white roses seeming to blossom from the pink clouds.

And he woke smiling, with Rainripple beside him, knowing LionClan would be at peace.

Thus far with rough and all-unable pen

Our bending author hath pursued the story,

Making warrior cats out of mighty men,

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.

Small time, but in that small most greatly lived

This star of LeafClan...