Shadowstar jumped to her feet, her worries forgotten. “What happened?” she asked, hurrying over to inspect their injuries. “These were made by another cat. Did some cat cross our borders?”
Is another Clan attacking us, after such a long time of peace? A chill ran through her. Is this how I’ll lose my final life?
Mouse Ear looked embarrassed. “No,” he admitted. “We fought each other. Juniper Branch wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Why should he tell me where to hunt?” Juniper Branch snarled. “I’m a better hunter than he is.”
“Because I know our territory better than you do,” Mouse Ear growled back. “I’ve been with ShadowClan ever since we came here.”
Juniper Branch began to reply, but Shadowstar had had enough. “Quiet!” she snapped. “What kind of mouse-brains are you two?” Both cats looked indignant, but she went on before either could reply. “Because of your foolishness, you didn’t catch any prey. You failed your Clan. Now someone else will have to hunt, because you were too busy fighting to do your duty.”
“This is your fault,” Mouse Ear growled at Juniper Branch. “You’re the one who started the fight.”
Juniper Branch snarled and swiped at him, reopening the scratch across his nose. Hissing, the big tabby leaped at her, tumbling the smaller tortoiseshell onto the ground.
“Stop it!” Raven Pelt, Juniper Branch’s mate, charged toward them, quickly followed by Mud Paws and Dangling Leaf.
They pulled the snarling cats apart. Blood was running down Juniper Branch’s cheek, and a patch of fur was missing from Mouse Ear’s shoulder. They glared at each other, their tails slashing from side to side.
“You’re acting like stupid kits,” Mud Paws yowled, exasperated. “Why would you fight like this?”
Juniper Branch snarled at him. “Stupid kit yourself,” she hissed. “You always stick up for Mouse Ear, even when he’s wrong.”
Mud Paws narrowed his eyes. Before he could retort, Raven Pelt stepped up beside his mate protectively, his ears pressed back in anger.
They’re practically at each other’s throats, Shadowstar thought, dismayed. How will this Clan stay together without me?
She stepped between Juniper Branch and Mouse Ear and glared around at all the warriors. “No more,” she said firmly. “You should be ashamed. Is this how a Clan behaves? Or are you rogues with your claws turned against each other?”
The angry cats’ tails drooped. “I’m sorry, Shadowstar,” Juniper Branch muttered, and Mouse Ear nodded.
“Go to Pebble Heart’s den and let him treat your wounds,” she ordered. “After that, you can work together and change the bedding in all the nests.” Juniper Branch looked as if she was about to object, and Shadowstar gazed at her sternly. “If you two are going to act like kits, you can take on some apprentice duties.”
She watched as they hurried off toward the medicine cat’s den, looking abashed; then she turned to the rest of her Clanmates. “I’m going to lead a hunting patrol,” she announced. “Maybe that way, we’ll be able to focus on actually catching some prey. Who wants to come with me?”
“I will,” Dusk Nose volunteered quickly, and Bubbling Stream stepped forward to join them. With a nod of approval, Shadowstar turned and headed for the tunnel, the two younger cats following.
Out in the forest, the familiar pine scent made Shadowstar feel a little calmer. The earth was cool and damp underfoot. She sniffed the air, searching for prey.
“There were a lot of mice over by the Thunderpath yesterday,” Bubbling Stream suggested.
“We’ll head over there, then,” Shadowstar mewed briskly. Her muscles tightened at the idea of going back to where Sun Shadow had died—where she had died—but she wasn’t going to avoid any part of her own territory.
There was long grass just past where the tree line ended, and Dusk Nose stiffened. “There,” he meowed. “In that clump of grass.” The air was heavy with the scent of mouse, and Shadowstar could hear several quick heartbeats coming from the grass.
“Drive them out and Bubbling Stream and I will catch them,” she told him, and she and the white she-cat slipped forward, passing on either side of the clump of grass where the mice were concealed. Once they were a few steps closer to the Thunderpath, Dusk Nose charged into the grass. Four mice, panicked, ran straight toward the she-cats.
Bubbling Stream pounced at once, pinning one mouse beneath her paws. Shadowstar was a heartbeat too slow to catch the other three and whipped around to leap after them.
They were so close to the Twoleg bridge. For a moment, she expected the shaggy brown dog to step out and block her path. Her heart thumped painfully, and she hesitated.
The mice dashed out of sight.
“What happened?” Dusk Nose burst out, and then licked at his chest fur, embarrassed.
Shadowstar shifted uneasily from one paw to another. “I’m just tired,” she lied. Both her Clanmates were staring at her with concern, and she flicked her ears at them. “Come on,” she meowed. “Let’s try a little farther into the woods.”
I need to get over this, she thought as she led them farther on. It’s because I can’t forget that this is my last life. I have to make sure my Clan is ready to go on without me before I die, but I can’t be so afraid of death that I don’t act.
Catching a rich prey-scent, she peered around. There. A small squirrel was sitting up, its back to them, clutching a nut.
Shadowstar didn’t hesitate this time. She took off, running fast. Excitement shot through her as the squirrel, startled by her movement, began to run too. She could leap before it reached its tree.
Then she stumbled, a blinding pain shooting through her foreleg. Looking down, she realized that she had stepped into a hole and twisted her limb.
I would have seen it if I hadn’t been so reckless. But she’d had to charge, hadn’t she? Otherwise, she would have frozen up again.
As Bubbling Stream and Dusk Nose hurried toward her, Shadowstar wondered bleakly if she’d lost her nerve for good.
Chapter Three
Shadowstar gingerly lowered her paw, shifting her weight onto her foreleg, then relaxed. It barely twinged. It had taken half a moon, but her leg was finally healed. Still, she knew Pebble Heart would insist on examining it one last time.
As she waded through ferns to the cave beneath the Clanrock where the medicine cat made his den, she could hear him treating one of her warriors.
“Hold still and I’ll soon have that out,” the gray tabby tom was saying gently. Looking through the cave entrance, Shadowstar saw Shade Pelt holding one paw in the air as Pebble Heart worked a thorn out of his paw pad.
“There,” he said cheerfully to the younger cat. “I’ll put some comfrey on to help you feel better.”
Shadowstar watched as Pebble Heart chewed the comfrey leaves into a paste and licked it carefully onto Shade Pelt’s paw. He cares so much, she thought. He’s always looking out for every member of ShadowClan.
The medicine cat’s amber eyes glinted as he looked up at Shade Pelt. “Keep off it for the rest of today.”
Shadowstar caught her breath. Amber eyes. Again she pictured the cold eyes that had watched her from the forest as she struggled and died.
Pebble Heart would never do something like that. She was quite sure that if she could trust any cat, she could trust Pebble Heart. She had known him since he was a kit, and he was a medicine cat—charged by StarClan with the duty of taking care of his Clanmates.