Jaypaw could not guess her Clan from her shape. Her eyes sparked with a fierce spirit, and he drew farther back into the shadows. Something told him he should not be spying here.
Leafpool hesitated at the edge of the pool. “Cinderpelt?” she called hopefully, looking at the cats around the hollow, but there was no reply. She blinked, her eyes wistful, before lying down with her paws tucked neatly under her chest.
Resting her muzzle beside the water once more, she closed her eyes.
“Jaypaw!” Leafpool’s shocked mew woke him from where he lay on the cold stone. He scrambled to his paws. The pebbles scraped his pads and he stumbled. He was blind again.
Leafpool’s anger flashed against his pelt. “What are you doing here?”
“I-I—”
“This is a place for medicine cats! I came here to share tongues with StarClan!”
“I know.” Jaypaw gulped. “I saw you.”
“You saw me with StarClan?”
“I was watching from the top of the ridge while you were talking to Bluestar and Lionheart.”
Leafpool looked stunned. “You were watching? How?”
“When I closed my eyes, that’s what I dreamed. That’s all.”
Leafpool narrowed her eyes. “What did they say?”
“Bluestar said that Firestar must make his own decision,” Jaypaw mewed. “But he should use his head, not his heart, which I suppose means he should choose—”
“You understood!” Leafpool cut in. Her mew came in a shocked whisper.
Jaypaw was puzzled. Why wouldn’t he understand? Was it because he wasn’t a medicine cat? Or because he was blind?
“How did you find your way here?” Leafpool asked.
Jaypaw sensed wariness prick the medicine cat’s pelt, as though she were afraid of his answer. “I followed you…”
“You followed my scent, do you mean? All the way from the hollow?”
“Partly. But I’d dreamed of the journey before, so I knew how it looked.”
Leafpool gasped.
“I can’t help what I dream!” Jaypaw protested.
Leafpool turned away. “Something extraordinary has happened here.” Her words were little more than a murmur, half spoken to herself, but they echoed off the water. “I just wish I knew what it meant.”
“Why should it mean anything?” Jaypaw mewed. What was so odd about having a dream at the Moonpool? Wasn’t that what it was there for?
“Come,” Leafpool ordered. “We should return to camp.”
Briskness masked the confusion flooding from her. She padded up the path to the top of the ridge, and Jaypaw followed. He let her guide him down the rocky slope beyond, though he had a clear enough sense of it now to manage by himself.
“Are you going to tell Firestar everything StarClan said?” he mewed.
“I’ll tell him he must make his own choice about who is deputy.”
“And that’s all?”
“What do you mean?”
“I think Tallstar and Bluestar hinted that Firestar should choose Brambleclaw. He’s the one who knows the Clan best now.” Jaypaw’s nose twitched. He could smell mouse.
“Are you saying that I should influence Firestar’s decision?”
“You’d only be interpreting what they really meant.” The mouse was close. “Isn’t that your duty?”
Jaypaw felt Leafpool’s startled gaze like sunlight on his pelt. “Is that what you would do?”
“I would do what was best for the Clan.” A pebble moved just in front of his paws. He darted forward and slapped his forepaws down, only to find that the mouse had escaped into its burrow. He lifted his muzzle, disappointed.
Leafpool had stopped. Fear seemed to enfold her like a cloud. Had he done something wrong?
“What’s up?”
“Nothing,” she replied, and padded on.
Jaypaw hurried after her.
“You know, that was pretty amazing what you did back there,” she meowed. Her light tone didn’t hide the anxiety sparking from her—or was it excitement? Why was she so edgy?
Jaypaw shrugged. “Aren’t you supposed to see stuff like that at the Moonpool?”
“But this wasn’t any old dream. You actually entered my dream. You saw what I saw.”
“So?”
“I have entered another cat’s dream only once.”
“When?” Jaypaw asked.
“Feathertail led me into Willowpaw’s dream so that I could tell her where to find catmint,” Leafpool explained.
“But Feathertail was already with StarClan. She invited me in. You entered my dream on your own, without the permission or knowledge of StarClan.”
With a shudder Jaypaw remembered the fierce stare of the broad-faced warrior. “Are you sure they didn’t know?”
“They would have told me,” Leafpool meowed.
“Why did you call Cinderpelt’s name?” Jaypaw asked. “Was there something you wanted to ask her?”
“I just wanted to know if she was there,” Leafpool mewed quietly.
“She didn’t answer.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“But she’s dead, right? Where else could she be?”
Jaypaw heard Leafpool’s pawsteps halt. She was expectant, anxious; he could feel it like rain in the air. “What did you feel when you saw StarClan?” she asked. “Were you scared?”
“Scared of a bunch of dead cats?”
“They are your warrior ancestors,” she reminded him. “They have seen and heard more than you could ever imagine.”
“Of course they’ve seen more—I’m blind, remember?”
“You’re not blind in your dreams, Jaypaw. Tell me, apart from the journey to the Moonpool, have you ever dreamed of anything else that has come true?”
Jaypaw shrugged. “Not really. Dreams are just dreams, aren’t they?”
“Not to every cat.”
“Sometimes I dream about when I was very small, traveling through snow,” he confessed. “Is that right? That wasn’t the Great Journey, was it?”
Tension crackled through Leafpool’s fur. “No, the Great Journey was long before you were born. But your… your mother did make a long journey with you through the snow when you were very small. You were born outside the hollow, and she had to wait until you were all strong enough to travel.”
Jaypaw could feel Leafpool staring at him, turning something over in her mind, like a fish too huge to be hooked out of the water. “What is it?” he asked.
“I think that you were destined to be a medicine cat,” she meowed.
“Don’t be silly,” Jaypaw retorted. “I’m going to be a warrior.”
“But you entered my dream,” Leafpool pointed out.
Jaypaw’s tail shot up indignantly. “You think I want to be stuck in camp worrying over kits and elders?”
Leafpool bristled. “There’s more to being a medicine cat than that!”
“If there is,” Jaypaw snapped, “let it be some other cat’s destiny! I want to be out in the forest, hunting and fighting for my Clan. You’re just like Brightheart! Always treating me differently just because I’m blind!”
“I’m treating you differently because you can see StarClan in my dreams! I don’t know of any medicine cat with visions as powerful as that.”
But Jaypaw didn’t want to listen anymore. He padded angrily ahead. “I don’t care about having stupid dreams,” he called over his shoulder. “I’m going to be a warrior. Besides, you’ve already got Hollypaw, remember? You can’t have two medicine cat apprentices!”
Chapter 14
“Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below Highledge!”