“We made it.” Deerleap gave her a nod. “One more thing to remember—once you decide it’s safe, run as fast as you can and don’t look back.”
Yellowpaw was relieved when they left the Thunderpath behind. Beyond it, the land began to rise into moors that reminded her of WindClan territory, covered with the same short, tough grass. But the WindClan scents were fading behind them. With a tingle of excitement in her paws, Yellowpaw realized she was heading into unknown territory, where no Clan cats lived. She felt exposed in the open spaces, without the comforting shelter of pine branches.
Rabbits scampered temptingly across their path, and all Yellowpaw’s instincts yowled at her to give chase. But she knew Deerleap would be annoyed if she broke off their journey to hunt, and the traveling herbs were working so she didn’t feel hungry. This is your lucky day, rabbits, she thought.
Over to one side, beyond the big Thunderpath, she spotted a cluster of Twoleg dens.
“Do we have to go there?” she meowed, remembering what had happened when she went to the Twolegplace with Raggedpelt.
Deerleap shook her head. “We’re heading for those hills,” she replied, pointing with her tail. “Highstones, where the Moonstone is waiting for us.”
Looking ahead, Yellowpaw saw the ground slope upward to a row of crags outlined against the sky. They looked like jagged teeth pushing out of the ground. As the cats climbed higher, the grass underpaw gave way to bare soil strewn with stones, and the slope grew steeper.
My legs have never ached like this before, Yellowpaw complained silently as she toiled upward. What’s wrong with me?
As if her mentor had picked up her thoughts, Deerleap halted. “Let’s rest for a bit.”
She flopped down on a flat stone and Yellowpaw settled beside her, enjoying the sensation of sun-warmed rock on her pads and pelt. Ahead of them the sun was going down, washing the crags with an orange glow.
“I’m very proud of you, Yellowpaw,” Deerleap meowed after a while.
Yellowpaw pricked her ears in surprise; Deerleap hardly ever doled out praise.
“The moons are passing,” Deerleap went on, “and soon it will be my time to join the elders. You will be my last apprentice, and I know that you will become a great warrior.”
Yellowpaw rested her muzzle on the she-cat’s shoulder. “You’ve been a fantastic mentor,” she murmured. “I won’t let you down, I promise.”
Darkness had fallen and Silverpelt was glittering across the sky before Deerleap rose to her paws. “Come,” she meowed. “It’s time.”
The moon was still low in the sky and the rocks cast long shadows as Yellowpaw followed Deerleap up the last steep slope toward the crags. As they drew closer, she spotted a dark hole underneath a rough archway in the rock.
“Is that where we’re going?”
Deerleap nodded. “That’s Mothermouth. It leads to the Moonstone.”
A scramble up the final slope, with stones shifting under her paws, brought Yellowpaw to the threshold of Mothermouth. A tunnel led deep into the rock; it was so dark that Yellowpaw couldn’t make out anything beyond the first fox-length. She felt her heart begin to beat faster.
“Follow me,” Deerleap instructed. “You won’t see anything, but you’ll be able to pick up my scent. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I have walked this path many times.” She stepped forward into the tunnel and vanished from Yellowpaw’s sight.
Taking a deep breath, Yellowpaw plunged in after her. The light from the tunnel entrance died away behind her as she padded in her mentor’s paw steps, and she guided herself by her whiskers brushing the rock walls, and by the thin tendril of Deerleap’s scent. The rock beneath her paws was smooth and cold, and the damp air soaked into her pelt and reached deep inside her until she thought she would never be warm again. The tunnel sloped downward, and Yellowpaw tried not to think of the massive weight of rock above her head. It was too easy to imagine it collapsing on top of her, crushing her to nothing.
Then her nose twitched as she felt a fresher scent and the faint movement of air against her whiskers. Tasting the air, she picked up a faint tang of grass and rabbits. She realized that she had stepped out into a larger space.
“This is the cave of the Moonstone,” Deerleap meowed.
“What do we do now?”
“We wait.”
Yellowpaw shivered in the vast darkness. Above her head she could make out a single glimmering warrior of StarClan; she realized there must be a hole in the roof of the cave. But the light was too faint to reach so far into the depths of the earth.
Then, between one heartbeat and the next, a cold, white light flooded down, revealing walls of rock soaring upward for many fox-lengths. Yellowpaw couldn’t hold back a squeal of surprise. In the middle of the cave was a huge rock, many tail-lengths high. The moon was shining through the gap in the roof, making the rock glitter as if all of StarClan was gathered inside it.
“That’s the Moonstone?” she whispered.
Deerleap was a small, dark shape outlined against the light. She nodded. “Lie down and touch the stone with your muzzle,” she mewed.
Yellowpaw settled herself and stretched out her neck to touch her nose to the rough surface of the Moonstone, closing her eyes against the dazzling light.
Instantly claws of cold gripped her. Her lids were closed, but still she saw brilliant starlight whirling around her as she was swept away. She was surrounded by cats, though she couldn’t see any of their faces. Suddenly a voice echoed in her ears: “From this moment on, you will be known as Yellowfang.”
My warrior name! But Yellowpaw’s delight lasted no more than a single heartbeat. Pain surged through her belly, wave after wave of agony, and she realized that she was giving birth to kits. For a brief moment the whirling journey ceased; Yellowpaw curled herself around a throng of tiny bodies, and felt the joy of letting them suckle at her belly.
Then she was snatched away again. Stars fled past her, and she was overwhelmed by a feeling of loss and anger. More fury than she had ever known made her vision blur; she tried to screech out her desolation, but she couldn’t make a sound.
With a bump she found herself in a green glade, with sunlight filtering through the leaves. Home! she thought gratefully, but there were no scents she recognized. The landscape flickered around her, showing her a stream trickling through thick moss, a stretch of flat rocks with crevices between them and a strong prey-scent all around, a narrow ravine, the gnarled roots of an oak tree, the glitter of sunlight on a wide stretch of water. The torrent of images made Yellowpaw feel sick; she tried to break free, but she felt like a drowning kit, helpless to escape from the dream that had her in its grip.
Suddenly, with a jolt that made Yellowpaw feel that she had been hurled off the top of the big ash tree, the images stopped, leaving her in darkness. Opening her eyes, Yellowpaw saw that she was still in the cave of the Moonstone, lying on the floor in the shimmering white light.
Deerleap stood at her side, her claws fastened in Yellowpaw’s shoulder; Yellowpaw realized her mentor must have dragged her away from the stone.
“Wake up, Yellowpaw!” she was calling.
“I—I’m up.” Yellowpaw staggered to her paws, dazed and exhausted. She tried to remember her dream, but it was all a blur of pain, anguish, and confusion. The details were slipping away from her like water through her paws.
“Come. We have to leave,” Deerleap ordered.
Yellowpaw blinked at her mentor. Did I do something wrong? “It was… so weird,” she began. “I felt—”
“There’s no need to talk about it,” Deerleap interrupted. “Follow me quickly.”