Эрин Хантер - Fading Echoes

“I noticed the wound at the Gathering.” Tigerheart narrowed his eyes. “I wondered what it was.”

“But everyone got so angry with me!” Dovepaw’s pads itched with frustration. “All they were bothered about was that I’d crossed the border. But I was worried about her. We’re all Clan cats, aren’t we? Is it wrong to care about one another?”

Tigerheart gazed into her eyes. “No, it isn’t.”

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Dovepaw looked away.

“Do you remember when the dam burst?” Tigerheart’s mew was brisk, as though he could sense her discomfort and wanted to distract her. “The river nearly washed us to StarClan.” He stood up and began to knead the ground. “And we had to cling to nothing but branches to keep our heads above water.” He leaped for a low twig jutting from a pine trunk and swung by his forepaws.

Dovepaw purred with amusement. “What about trying to drag the logs out of the dam? That was like trying to pull the forest up by its roots!”

“I thought you were so brave!” Tigerheart told her.

“You were braver,” she argued.

“No way! I was terrified!”

“I couldn’t tell.” Dovepaw found herself staring into his soft amber eyes. Words dried on her tongue.

“Tigerheart!” The call of a ShadowClan cat made her freeze.

Tigerheart bristled, then quickly nudged her past the brambles and bundled her across the scent line. “See you soon!” he hissed before turning back to meet his Clanmate.

Dovepaw glanced around. No one had seen her. She scooted away from the border and headed home through the trees. Warm with thoughts of Tigerheart, she felt a purr rise in her throat. This was one friendship that Lionblaze and Jayfeather couldn’t spoil, because they were never going to know about it.

She lifted her nose. And if they thought she was going to spy on ShadowClan for them, they were very much mistaken. Clanmates were Clanmates, but friends were just as precious.

“Clanmates are everything. And we’re your Clanmates now.”

Hawkfrost gazed deep into Ivypaw’s eyes, and she began to relax. The gray, mist-wrapped forest suddenly seemed less strange. The sound of warriors training beyond the half-shadowed trees felt familiar. She was with Clanmates.

At first, when Ivypaw had dreamed herself beyond the flower-flecked meadow and into the forest, she’d been nervous. She’d crept between the towering trunks with her fur prickling, stiffening every time a yowl drifted from the misty depths of the woods.

But then Hawkfrost had found her, padding out of the shadows, his blue gaze sparking with pleasure as he saw her.

“Don’t be scared of them,” he’d reassured her when she’d jumped at a sudden, muffled noise.

“But who are they?” Ivypaw flicked her tail toward two wraithlike forms wrestling in a clearing a few tree-lengths away.

“Your Clanmates,” Hawkfrost answered.

“They’re ThunderClan ?” Ivypaw blinked. This couldn’t be such a bad place if ThunderClan came here.

Hawkfrost didn’t answer, just scraped a line in the moldering earth. “See if you can make it past this mark,” he challenged.

More training!

Ivypaw crouched down, wincing at the ache in her shoulders. The pain followed her from dream to waking and back. As she’d hunted with Icecloud and Toadstep that day after sunhigh, she’d struggled to keep up. Nightly training with Hawkfrost had taken its toll, but Ivypaw knew she was growing stronger, and his praise was worth much more because it was so hard-won.

She swished her tail over the ground and stared at Hawkfrost. He sat calmly watching her behind the line he had drawn. She narrowed her eyes, keeping her rump still as he’d taught her.

Wait a moment. Then another. She ran through an old lesson in her head. Until they’re not sure what you’re going to do.

Ivypaw lunged, forepaws stretching, claws unsheathed. She looked for Hawkfrost’s first sign of movement, knew he’d double-bluff, pretending to move one way, then another, then back. She kept her hind paws on the ground until she was sure of his direction, then used them to steer her pounce and caught him off balance, swiping his muzzle with one front paw.

He batted her back with a hefty blow to her shoulder, and she fell sprawling to the ground. She sat up, shaking the dizziness from her head.

Hawkfrost was staring at the line. The earth was scuffed, but only on her side.

“You didn’t cross it,” he growled. “Try again.”

Ivypaw tucked her hind legs under her, concentrating. She barely saw the shadow move at the edge of her vision.

A voice rumbled from the mist. “Hello, Hawkfrost.”

Stiffening, Ivypaw spun around. A massive dark tom padded out. Brambleclaw? No. This cat had the same broad shoulders and tabby pelt, but his eyes glittered like a fox’s.

“Who—” Ivypaw didn’t get a chance to finish her question. Hawkfrost slammed into her, flinging her down and pinning her shoulders to the ground. He leaned in close, baring his teeth. “I’ve warned you before about getting distracted,” he growled.

She struggled to her paws, eager to examine the newcomer, but wary of taking her eyes from Hawkfrost.

The blue-eyed tom nodded. “Meet Tigerstar.”

With his permission, Ivypaw turned to stare at the dark warrior. He was bigger than Brambleclaw and his pelt was crisscrossed with scars. “T-Tigerstar?” She’d heard many stories about this warrior, stories that made her paws tremble.

She was surprised when his gaze softened. “Don’t believe everything you hear, little one,” he rumbled.

Could he read her mind? “I—I wasn’t,” she stammered. “I mean, I didn’t…”

Tigerstar weaved around her, his pelt brushing hers. “You’re among friends now, Ivypaw,” he murmured. “I know what the Clan cats say about me. But they can’t see into my heart.” He sat down. “Success is lonely. I was punished for wanting to lead my Clan. They misunderstood my desire to guide them through hardship. And so they forced me to leave.”

“You mean ThunderClan?” Ivypaw struggled to remember the details of the nursery tales she’d heard.

“They were my birth Clan.” Tigerstar sighed. “If I’d led them, they would not have lost so many. Instead they drove me out. But they could not destroy my loyalty to the Clan that raised me.”

Ivypaw narrowed her eyes. “But you led ShadowClan.”

“What else could I do?” Tigerstar shrugged. “Turn rogue? What true warrior would do that?” He leaned toward her, his eyes round and sincere. “We are Clanmates in every way.” He turned to Hawkfrost. “How’s she doing?”

Hawkfrost flicked Ivypaw’s flank with his tail. “Show him.”

“Show him what?” Ivypaw suddenly felt nervous.

Hawkfrost cocked his head. “How fast you can turn. How accurately you can pounce.”

Ivypaw dropped to her belly, then sprang up, pushing with her hind legs as hard as she could. She landed and turned instantly on one hind paw, then leaped again, landing on a twig that she’d fixed in her gaze. She plucked it up with her forepaw and snapped it in midair. Then she came to rest, paws straight, tail down, muscles tensed to leap again if she had to.

“Very neat,” Tigerstar murmured. He padded toward her and without warning stretched out a massive forepaw and tossed one of the broken pieces of twig into the air. It arced over her head.

“Catch it!” he ordered.

Without thinking, Ivypaw jumped, twisted in midair, and stretched to pluck the twig from the air, catching it without effort and landing on three legs. Pleased with herself, she dropped the twig at Tigerstar’s paws.