Maybe I should go back, he thought, hesitating at a spot where another Thunderpath crossed the one he was following.
Then Alderheart heard a voice. “It was so cool, living with the wild cats! I became an amazing hunter. And I know all about herbs!”
Fuzzball!
Following the sound of the voice, Alderheart leaped up onto a fence that surrounded a Twoleg den. On the other side, short, smooth grass stretched from the fence up to the den, edged by bushes covered in bright, unfamiliar flowers.
Fuzzball stood in the middle of the stretch of grass. He was talking to another cat: a white tom. Alderheart stared in astonishment as he recognized him.
That’s Rippletail, one of the missing ShadowClan cats!
“Rippletail!” Alderheart called out, leaping from the fence into the garden.
Rippletail whirled around and gave Alderheart one stunned look. Then he dashed across the grass and thrust his way into the Twoleg den through a small gap in the bottom of the den door. With a whisk of his white tail, he disappeared.
“Hey, Rippletail!” Alderheart yowled after him, dropping Velvet’s toy. “It’s me, Alderheart from ThunderClan!”
Rippletail didn’t reappear.
Fuzzball trotted up to Alderheart and touched noses with him. “Hi, Alderheart,” he meowed. “It’s good to see you. What did you call that cat?”
“Rippletail,” Alderheart replied. “He’s a ShadowClan warrior.”
Fuzzball looked puzzled. “No, I think you’ve got it wrong. That cat’s name is Buster. And I’ve told him all about life with the Clans,” he added. “He would have mentioned if he knew them.”
“Has he been here long?” Alderheart asked, certain that he wasn’t making a mistake.
“A while.” Fuzzball shrugged. “He seems very happy with his Twolegs.”
Alderheart wasn’t sure what to do. If Rippletail is happy, maybe I should leave him alone.
“Fuzzball, when you see him next, could you give him a message?” he mewed at last.
“Sure. What message?”
“Tell Buster that ShadowClan is whole again.” Alderheart spoke slowly, thinking what would be best to say. “Darktail is dead and the rogues are gone, and Rippletail’s littermates, Cloverfoot and Berryheart, have come back. Can you remember all that, Fuzzball?”
For once the little tom looked uncertain. “I’ll try. Let’s see . . . ‘Tell Buster that ShadowClan is down a hole . . .’”
Alderheart suppressed a sigh. “Repeat it after me.”
It took several repetitions before Fuzzball got it right and Alderheart was reasonably sure that he would remember it.
“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Fuzzball promised at last. “But even if he’s who you think he is, I don’t think he’ll want to leave.”
Alderheart guessed that he was right, if the way Rippletail had fled revealed how he felt. “Well, it’s up to him,” he declared. “Now, can you show me where Velvet lives?”
Fuzzball’s eyes shone. “She’ll be so glad to see you! She misses you.”
Alderheart retrieved Velvet’s scrap of fur and followed Fuzzball through a gap in the Twoleg fence and down another narrow Thunderpath until they stood outside a second Twoleg den. This one had a wall of red, square-cut stones around a bigger garden with small paths leading through clumps of bright flowers.
“This is Velvet’s den,” Fuzzball told Alderheart. “And I’d better be getting back. My housefolk’s kit sometimes cries if I’m away too long.” He flicked his tail at Alderheart and padded off down the Thunderpath, pausing at the corner to look back and call out, “Tell Jayfeather hi from me. And come and see me anytime!”
Alderheart leaped up onto the top of the wall and examined the den. Almost at once he spotted Velvet, looking out through the hard, transparent stuff that blocked the gaps in the den walls.
“Velvet!” he yowled.
Velvet looked up and to Alderheart’s dismay immediately disappeared.
What’s wrong with me today? Alderheart wondered. First Rippletail flees at the sight of me, and now Velvet. A cold, hollow place opened up inside him. Doesn’t she want to see me?
Then Alderheart saw a Twoleg open the door of the den and Velvet slip past it into the garden. He leaped down from the wall and bounded forward to meet her beside one of the clumps of flowers.
“I’m sorry I took so long,” Velvet mewed, stretching forward to touch noses with Alderheart. “I had to get my housefolk to let me out, and honestly! They don’t understand anything. A newborn kit has more sense!”
“It’s okay.” Privately Alderheart was appalled. It’s a good thing I didn’t come with her. I wouldn’t want a Twoleg telling me when I could go out and when I had to come in. “You’re here now. Look,” he added, pushing the scrap of fur over to her with one paw. “I brought you this.”
“My toy!” Velvet’s eyes stretched wide with delight. “Oh, thank you, Alderheart! I completely forgot it when we were leaving your camp.” She let out a purr, then continued, “In the Clan, I didn’t need it as much as I thought I would. I suppose it shows how different life is there.”
Alderheart nodded sadly. Yes, our lives are so different. . . .
“It’s wonderful to see you,” Velvet went on softly. “Would you like me to show you around a bit?”
It can’t hurt to linger a while, Alderheart thought, hoping to convince himself. “Yes,” he replied. “I would like that a lot.”
The sun was going down by the time Velvet led Alderheart back to her own den. “I suppose it’s time for you to go,” she mewed regretfully.
“Yes, I must be getting back,” Alderheart responded. “Good-bye, Velvet.”
“Good-bye.” Velvet gave Alderheart a quick lick around his ear. “I’m glad you came,” she went on. “I’ve missed you. But I’m not sure we can be friends. You’ve chosen one life, and I’ve chosen another.”
Her amber eyes were full of sadness, but there was wisdom there too, and Alderheart knew she was right. He had been sure all along, deep down, that this was the last time he would see her.
“I’ll always be grateful to ThunderClan for taking me and Fuzzball in,” Velvet told him. “I want to give you something, to say thank you. Come with me.”
Velvet led Alderheart around the back of the Twoleg den. The garden was different here: there weren’t so many flowers. Instead leafy green plants grew in neat rows.
“Over here,” Velvet mewed, showing Alderheart a corner where some small bushes were growing.
Alderheart examined the woody stems and sniffed the broad, pointed leaves. “Is that thyme?” he asked. “It looks a bit like it, but it’s different from the thyme that grows in the forest.”
“Yes, it’s a different kind of thyme,” Velvet explained. “Twolegs plant it, and I think it’s stronger than the kind you have. It’s good for coughs and colds and indigestion.” She began scratching at the soil until she had uprooted one of the small bushes. “There. I’d like ThunderClan to have it.”
“Thank you,” Alderheart responded, touched that Velvet had been so thoughtful. “I’ll plant it and take care of it.”
Velvet leaned into his shoulder, and for the last time he drank in her sweet scent. “Good-bye, Velvet,” he murmured. “I’ll never forget you.”
“Good-bye, Alderheart.” Velvet gazed at him for a moment longer, blinking affectionately, then whisked away around the side of the Twoleg den.
For a moment more, Alderheart stared after her. He tried to imagine a life for himself here, eating kittypet food, sleeping in a Twoleg nest, and waiting beside the door for a Twoleg to let him in or out.