“No!” Pebbleshine yowled desperately. “I have to get back to my kits! Put me down! I have to get back to my kits!”
But the Twoleg didn’t understand a word.
Pebbleshine wanted to claw at the Twoleg’s restraining paws, but she was caught up in the soft wrapping, and she couldn’t control her legs. The Twoleg carried her into the monster’s belly; Pebbleshine made a last massive effort to struggle, but pain washed over her again and she had to give way to the darkness. This whole adventure started with a monster carrying me away, she realized. Then, it pulled me away from Hawkwing and my Clan; now, it’s my kits.
Her last sensation was of the monster beginning to move off.
Pebbleshine felt the warmth of sun on her fur. Her nose twitched at the scents of fresh growing things all around her. She wasn’t in pain anymore. It should have been a relief, but she couldn’t help feeling alarmed.
This isn’t right… . What happened to me?
Blinking her eyes open, Pebbleshine was dazzled by sunlight. When her vision cleared, she found that she was lying in lush meadow grass. A cat was bending over her; Pebbleshine let out a gasp as she recognized the pale yellow tom who had helped her give birth to her kits.
“It’s you!” she exclaimed. “I thought I’d imagined you.”
Amusement glimmered in the tom’s eyes. “No, I’m real,” he responded. “My name is Micah. I was the first SkyClan medicine cat. I’m glad I was able to help you when you needed it.”
The first … Pebbleshine caught her breath in wonder. He came from so long ago … for me?
“There are some friends waiting to greet you,” Micah told her.
He moved aside. Sitting up, Pebbleshine saw a group of cats standing a few tail-lengths away from her. A handsome ginger-and-white tom stepped forward and dipped his head. “Welcome, Pebbleshine,” he mewed.
“Billystorm!” Pebbleshine gasped out his name as she sprang to her paws. Her former mentor looked strong and healthy, not ripped apart by a badger’s claws as she had last seen him. “But you’re—”
“Dead, yes.” Billystorm let out an affectionate purr. “This is the territory of StarClan.”
For the first time Pebbleshine noticed the frosty glitter on Billystorm’s pelt, and the pelts of the other cats who still waited to greet her.
“Then am I dead too?” she asked. Glancing down at her paws, she couldn’t see any trace of the glimmer of starshine there.
“Yes,” a tom with a dark ginger pelt replied, his sharp green eyes focused on Pebbleshine. “But you haven’t yet entered StarClan. We’ve come to welcome you.”
“Sharpclaw!” Pebbleshine whispered as she recognized the SkyClan deputy who had died fighting against Darktail and his rogues in the gorge. “And Duskpaw, you’re here too,” she added, turning to a young ginger tabby tom. “Oh, Duskpaw, you look great! I’m so sorry we couldn’t rescue you from the fire. And Bouncefire, and Snipkit … I thought I’d lost you all forever!”
For a few heartbeats, Pebbleshine felt nothing but joy at seeing her dead Clanmates, safe and happy now in StarClan. But then the terrible sights and sounds crowded back into her mind: the badger’s blunt, destructive claws; the harsh light and acrid scents of the monsters on the Thunderpath; worst of all, the heartbreaking wails of her abandoned kits. Anxiety gnawed at her belly, sharp as a fox’s fangs.
She turned back to Micah. “My kits!” she exclaimed. “I have to get back to my kits. They’re not safe alone.”
“Your kits will be well,” Micah reassured her. “Come here, and I’ll show you.”
“But—”
Micah interrupted her with a wave of his tail. “Come.”
Not sure if she believed the medicine cat’s reassurance, Pebbleshine followed Micah across the grass until they came to a dip with a pool at the bottom of it. Micah bounded down to the water’s edge and waved his tail once again, beckoning Pebbleshine to join him.
“Look into the water,” he instructed Pebbleshine when she had reached his side.
Pebbleshine gazed into the depths of the pool. At first all she could see was waterweed, and the silver flashes of tiny minnows darting to and fro among the fronds. Then her vision blurred, and when she could see clearly again, she found that she was gazing at the Thunderpath and the entrance to the tunnel where she had left her kits.
The sun was shining. Every hair on Pebbleshine’s pelt bristled with apprehension at the thought that her kits had been alone for at least one night, and maybe more.
For a moment she felt that she could leap into the pool and get back to her kits that way, but Micah extended his tail across her chest, blocking her.
“No,” he mewed gently. “Watch.”
As Pebbleshine gazed into the water, she spotted movement on the grassy slope that led down to the Thunderpath. Two young cats were padding slowly downward: one of them was a dark ginger tom, and the other a she-cat with a silver-gray pelt. Pebbleshine caught her breath in a gasp of relief as she recognized the thin, muscular bodies and familiar patrolling movements of Clan cats. She guessed from their age that they must be apprentices.
“Who are they?” she asked. “They’re not SkyClan, but they are Clan cats, aren’t they?”
Micah nodded. “Yes, they are. They will find your kits and take them to the Clans. One day, your daughters will be able to rejoin SkyClan, and they will meet their father, Hawkwing.”
Pebbleshine was glad to hear that, though she felt that her heart would break as she realized for the first time that she would never make it back to Hawkwing.
She tried to comfort herself with the thought that her kits would know their father, but she still wasn’t sure that she believed Micah was right. “I still have to watch over them,” she protested. “They have a special destiny, I was told in a dream. And they’re my kits. I’m not ready to trust strange cats to look after them.”
Micah looked down at her, his eyes deep pools of understanding. “There is a way to go back,” he told her at last.
“How?” Pebbleshine felt her fur bristling with eagerness. For a few heartbeats the medicine cat seemed reluctant to speak. “Tell me what I have to do! I’ll risk anything!”
Micah blinked, still looking indecisive. “You’ll only be an observer,” he meowed at last. “Your kits won’t be able to see you, or know that you’re near them. And neither will any other cat you care about. It’s a lonely way to be. Are you sure that’s what you want?”
Pebbleshine felt a sudden pang of desolation at the thought that she would never be able to nurse her kits again, never lick their soft fur or teach them the warrior code. And she shuddered at the thought that even if she saw her kits in danger, she wouldn’t be able to help them. But that wasn’t enough to make her change her mind.
“Of course I’m sure!” she insisted, digging her claws into the ground with impatience. Maybe I will be able to help them somehow, like Micah when he brought me that stick. “Let’s get on with it!”
“If you leave now, you might not be able to get back to StarClan for a long time,” Micah warned her. “Perhaps you should do what all your warrior ancestors have done, and watch over your kits from StarClan.”
“I’m sure,” Pebbleshine repeated. “I’ve lived as a loner for many days now. I can stand it for as long as I need to, to take care of my daughters. And I don’t need to be in StarClan to watch over them. Besides,” she added, “my warrior ancestors knew that their loved ones would be safe in their Clan—in SkyClan. But the other Clans drove SkyClan from the forest. Why should I trust those Clans now? I hope they’ll treat my kits fairly, but there’s no way I can know that. I want to stay at least until SkyClan finds them—until they reach the end of their journey to the lake.”