“Not Pebble Heart,” Moth Flight sighed. “Everyone says he’s a natural healer.” She glanced at her paws. “I wish I was.”
“How do you know you’re not?” Micah challenged. “Rocky seemed very happy just now.”
Moth Flight purred, picturing the old tom. “A bit too happy.”
“There’s no such thing as ‘too happy.’” Micah broke into a run, swerved around a patch of heather and bounded down the slope as it steepened.
Moth Flight chased after him, purring as she ran. She caught up as they neared the border. “Wait!” She didn’t want him to go home yet.
He skidded to a halt as he neared the brambles spilling from among the trees. “What?”
“You don’t have to get back to camp already, do you?” Moth
Flight gazed into his amber eyes.
Micah glanced at the border. “I guess not.” He didn’t sound sure.
Moth Flight tipped her head. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” Micah swished his tail breezily. “Of course not. I just promised Acorn Fur I’d help her mix some herbs.”
“Acorn Fur?” Moth Flight frowned. “But you’re SkyClan’s medicine cat.”
“Clear Sky wants me to have a helper.” Micah avoided her gaze. “I think he wants her to keep an eye on me.”
“Clear Sky’s never been too trusting.” Moth Flight padded closer. “I’m sure he’ll get used to having you as a medicine cat soon.”
“Yeah.” Micah shrugged. “Besides, Acorn Fur’s nice. We get along fine. And she’s bright. I quite like having her around.”
Moth Flight pushed away the jealousy pricking in her belly.
“Acorn Fur’s okay,” she conceded.
“We found a way to treat scratches,” Micah told her. “If you chew dock leaves and horsetail stems into a paste, you can smear it deep into a wound.”
Moth Flight pricked her ears. “I’ll try that next time one of the kits grazes a paw.”
“It stings,” Micah warned. “They’ll make a fuss. But it will stop the wound from getting infected.”
The brambles shivered. “Micah!” Acorn Fur padded into the evening sunshine. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Micah dipped his head to the chestnut brown she-cat. “I was just on my way back to camp.”
“Clear Sky wants you there now.” Acorn Fur eyed Moth
Flight warily. “He says Tiny Branch needs more catmint.”
Micah frowned. “Tiny Branch is fine.”
“Just come!” Acorn Fur glared at him. “Clear Sky is in one of his moods.”
“Let me say good-bye to Moth Flight first.”
Moth Flight felt Micah’s soft breath on her muzzle as he leaned toward her.
“Hurry up!” Acorn Fur crossed the border and padded to Micah’s side.
Micah caught Moth Flight’s eye, his gaze apologetic. “I’ve got to go,” he whispered.
“See you at half-moon,” Moth Flight murmured back.
“Yeah.” Micah followed Acorn Fur into the trees.
Moth Flight watched the shadows swallow him, her pelt pricking uneasily. Acorn Fur was treating him more like a hostage than a Clanmate. Was Micah okay in SkyClan? She tore her gaze away, already longing to see him again, and headed back to camp.
Chapter 17
Moth Flight glanced at the moon. It rose, a perfect half circle, among the stars. The days since full moon had passed quickly.
Moth Flight had been busier than she’d ever been before. Now she was on her way to Highstones.
She paused, her paws chafed from the stony farm tracks.
Micah halted beside her. “Tired?”
“A little,” she admitted. She’d normally be curled in her nest by now.
They’d left WindClan as the sun sank toward the horizon.
Micah and Cloud Spots had met Moth Flight on the moortop where she’d been waiting, the wind rippling her fur, heart racing in anticipation of their journey to the Moonstone.
Now she glanced at Highstones, looming ahead of them.
“We’ve made good time.” Cloud Spots had hurried ahead. She could see him, no more than a shadow tracking back and forth at the bottom of a beech hedge, as though looking for the easiest way through. “What if the spirit-cats don’t come?”
Micah touched his muzzle to her shoulder. “You worry too much.”
Cloud Spots glanced over his shoulder. “I’ve picked up Dappled Pelt’s trail!”
“At last!” Moth Flight was beginning to wonder whether the RiverClan medicine cat had forgotten the meeting.
“Pebble Heart’s with her,” Cloud Spots called.
Moth Flight hurried to catch up with the ThunderClan medicine cat. “Is the trail fresh?”
“Yes!” Cloud Spots ducked under the hedge and disappeared.
Moth Flight squeezed after the long-furred black tom, the beech twigs scraping her pelt. Micah wriggled through at her tail.
On the other side, a meadow stretched into the shadow of Highstones. The cliff seemed to swallow half the sky. Cloud
Spots was already bounding through the long grass toward two feline shapes moving at the far side.
“Pebble Heart!” Cloud Spots’s yowl rang in the cold night air. “Dappled Pelt! Is that you?”
“Yes!” Pebble Heart’s call echoed back.
Micah broke into a run. “Come on! We’re nearly there!”
Moth Flight hared after him. As the soft grass turned to stones beneath her paws, she reached the RiverClan and ShadowClan medicine cats. “I thought you’d forgotten,” she puffed.
Dappled Pelt’s tortoiseshell fur rippled along her spine.
“How could we forget something as important as this?”
“I can’t wait to speak with the spirit-cats!” Pebble Heart’s eyes shone with starlight.
Micah paced back and forth, his tail twitching. “Cow and Mouse would never believe this.” He looked toward Highstones. The opening was just barely visible, a dark shadow in the face of the rock.
Cloud Spots followed his gaze. “Is that where we’re going?”
“Yes.” Butterflies fluttered in Moth Flight’s belly.
“Is it deep inside?” Pebble Heart’s mew trembled.
“There’s no need to be scared,” Moth Flight reassured him.
“Once we’ve entered, you’ll feel the Moonstone calling you.”
She remembered the strange calm that had enfolded her last time.
“Come on.” Micah began to cross the stones.
Moth Flight bounded after him, pebbles crunching beneath her paws as the slope steepened toward the foot of the cliff. “I bet you never thought, a moon ago, that you’d speak with dead cats,” she guessed as she caught up.
“I never thought I’d be living in a forest,” Micah returned.
Moth Flight blinked at him anxiously. Did he resent how much she’d changed his life? “Are you sorry you met me?”
Micah halted and met her gaze solemnly. “No. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Joy rippled beneath Moth Flight’s pelt. “I feel the same w—”
“Hurry up.” Cloud Spots slid past them, his black pelt hardly visible against the dark rock. Only his white ears and paws gave him away.
Dappled Pelt hurried after the black tom. Pebble Heart bounded behind, scattering stones in his wake.
Wincing as one hit her paw, Moth Flight glanced up at the dark opening. What would the others think when they saw the Moonstone for the first time?
“Come on.” Micah nudged her forward.
Pebble Heart had already leaped onto the shadowy ledge.
The white spot on his chest glowed like a star. Cloud Spots hopped up beside him and stared blinking into the tunnel. Micah followed Dappled Pelt as Moth Flight scrambled up after them.