Hawkwing watched his apprentice with approval, noticing how she remembered to set her paws down lightly. When she had pinpointed her prey her hunter’s crouch was perfect; waggling her hindquarters, she sprang into a vigorous pounce. Hawkwing heard a shrill squeal cut off in the middle, and Curlypaw stood up with a mouse dangling from her jaws by its tail.
“Great catch!” Hawkwing purred. “You’ve got a real talent for pouncing.”
Curlypaw’s eyes shone at his praise, and she carried her prey over to where Cherrytail, Plumwillow, and Clovertail lay stretched out in the dried grass; Echosong was checking Cherrytail’s wound.
Hawkwing caught a couple more mice for the exhausted she-cats, marveling at how easy it was. It’s no wonder Barley looks so plump!
“Thank you,” Cherrytail murmured, giving her mouse a sniff.
“This is a good place. I’m so glad we came here.”
“Yes, it’s great,” Hawkwing responded, wondering with a prickle of concern if his mother really thought this was the end of their journey. “And Barley should be able to help us find the other Clans.”
Cherrytail gave him a puzzled look, her eyes clouded by weariness. “Oh, yes, of course,” she mewed at last.
Hawkwing still wasn’t sure that Cherrytail was fully aware of what was going on. She’ll be better after a good night’s sleep, he reassured himself.
Finally Hawkwing and Curlypaw were able to hunt for themselves. As Hawkwing was stalking a mouse, he came close to where Leafstar and Waspwhisker were talking to Barley.
“I don’t know how you’re going to find ThunderClan,” he heard the old tom meow. “It’s a big world out there, and you don’t know where you’re going.”
“StarClan will guide us,” Leafstar told him. “They’ll send
Echosong a vision.”
Barley let out a grunt, as if he wasn’t convinced, and Hawkwing found that he shared the farm cat’s doubts. I hope that Leafstar is right, and StarClan is watching over us, he thought. But Barley is right, too. It’s a big world out there, and full of dangers.
Besides, there aren’t so many of us now. How many more fights do we have left in us?
Clouds were building up, covering the sun, as the SkyClan cats ventured out of the barn on the following morning. Hawkwing fluffed out his pelt against the damp air, guessing that it would rain before long. Cold seeped into his pads from the dew that still remained on the grass.
“That’s the way you need to go,” Barley meowed, pointing with his tail to the hill Rileypool and Bellaleaf had spotted from the riverbank. “After that, I can’t help you.”
“It’s a start,” Leafstar responded. “We’re all grateful to you, Barley.”
“It’s been good to see you again,” Waspwhisker added.
Leafstar gestured with her tail to gather her Clan around her, but before they could move off, Cherrytail spoke up.
“There’s something I have to say,” she began hesitantly, looking down at her paws. “I’ve been talking to Barley, and I’ve decided to stay here in his barn until I’ve recovered from my injury.”
Surprised exclamations rose from every cat. “You can’t!”
Hawkwing exclaimed.
Cherrytail raised her head, gazing at him with eyes filled with love and sorrow. “I have to,” she insisted. “I haven’t felt right since we left the gorge. It’s not just this infected wound. It’s leaving the place where Sharpclaw was killed.” Her voice shook as she continued. “He was my mentor when Firestar first restored SkyClan. All my life in the gorge was with him. Now I feel as though I’m leaving him behind.”
“But we need you!” Blossomheart protested, staring at her mother with consternation.
Cherrytail’s gaze traveled over Hawkwing, Blossomheart, and Cloudmist; she blinked rapidly as she struggled to control her emotion. “I love you all dearly,” she whispered. “But I’m not sure
I’m up for this journey. M y body is too weak, and my heart is tugging me home.”
“But it’s not our home anymore,” Cloudmist pointed out. “You can’t go back to the gorge, not when Darktail and his rogues are there.”
“I don’t know where I’ll go,” Cherrytail mewed. “But for now, I want to stay here.”
Hawkwing shook his head, desperate to find some way of making his mother change her mind. “We’ve just lost our father,” he meowed. “Now you say you’re going to leave us too?”
Cherrytail glanced from Hawkwing to Pebbleshine and back again. “Your future lies ahead of you, where the Clans are. I’m not sure where my future lies, and I need time to work it out. Oh, my dear kits, you are all so brave and loyal. I shall miss you dreadfully, but I can’t follow you into a future I know is not the right one for me.”
“Then I’m staying with you.” Cloudmist took a pace forward to stand at her mother’s side. “I can’t lose you, so soon after losing Sharpclaw.”
Cherrytail turned to look at her daughter, all the love she felt shining in her eyes. “I can’t ask you to do that,” she whispered.
“You belong with your Clan.”
“And so do you,” Cloudmist responded determinedly. “And we’ll both find our Clan again one day. I know it.”
She brushed her pelt against Cherrytail’s, and her mother didn’t protest again.
Hawkwing stared at them both, unable to believe that this was happening. He couldn’t share Cloudmist’s certainty. My family is breaking up like ice in newleaf! Shock almost overwhelmed him; his legs felt weak and his head as light as if it would drift away like a cloud. His heart clenched in dread that he would have to go on without his mother and sister and never see them again. A dark mist swirled before his eyes.
Then Pebbleshine drew close to him, nuzzling his flank, and Hawkwing felt the darkness retreat.
“Then, good-bye,” he murmured, dipping his head to his mother and sister in acceptance. “I hope we’ll meet again one day.”
But I’m not sure we will, and I can hardly bear it.
“That’s in the paws of StarClan,” Cherrytail responded. “But I hope so, too. I’m so proud of you, Hawkwing. I know you will go on to achieve great things.”
Hawkwing touched his nose to hers and stepped back, while
Blossomheart said good-bye too. Is this really the last time we’ll see our mother? Hawkwing asked himself, his legs shaking with renewed shock.
Then Leafstar turned away, and the whole Clan began to move off. Hawkwing followed, with Pebbleshine by his side, but before they lost sight of the barn he looked back, to see his mother and sister, tiny at that distance, sitting with Barley outside the barn door.
“M ay StarClan light your path,” he murmured.
SkyClan had begun the day with full bellies, for they had hunted in Barley’s barn before they set out. But as the day wore on, Hawkwing began to feel hungry again.
“Are we going to hunt soon?” Curlypaw asked. “I feel like I haven’t eaten for moons!”
“Soon,” Hawkwing promised. “You can show off the moves
I’ve been teaching you, and maybe you’ll catch a nice shrew!”
Glancing around, he realized that all the cats were looking thinner than when they left the gorge, especially the two young apprentices. Thinking back to the conversation he had overheard between Barley and Leafstar, Hawkwing wondered what would happen if StarClan didn’t guide them to their new territory before Plumwillow’s kits were born.
I’d better sharpen my own hunting skills, he reflected. I’m going to need them!
Skirting the foot of the hill Barley had pointed out, the cats came upon a stretch of woodland where a stream ran through banks of fern and bramble. Leafstar announced that they would stop to rest.