Erin Hunter - Long Shadows

“You’re not ready,” he growled. “And Leafpool would tell you the same. I’ll ask her to come and check you, and maybe you can start some gentle exercises, but that doesn’t include chasing squirrels.”

Squirrelflight snorted. “ThunderClan needs every warrior we have right now.”

“Yes, we do.” Jaypaw’s patience with his mother was rapidly running out. “But can’t you see you’ll make more work for us if you go back on patrol before you’re ready?”

Squirrelflight’s reply was cut off by the sound of another warrior pushing into the den; Jaypaw picked up Mousewhisker’s scent, which had an edge of urgency. “Foxpaw told me that Firestar’s ill!” he exclaimed.

There was a stir of movement among the other cats. “StarClan forbid!” Ferncloud wailed. “What will we do if our leader dies? WindClan and RiverClan will attack us again for sure.”

“He won’t die,” Jaypaw insisted, putting all the conviction he could into the words. “And if he does lose a life, he still has plenty more.”

“That doesn’t mean he can throw them away,” Squirrelflight snapped. “And Brambleclaw will need to do even more patrols.

What if our leader and our deputy get sick?”

“We’re doing everything we can to fight the sickness,” Jaypaw meowed. “And Firestar is a strong, fit cat.”

“I know, but…” Squirrelflight’s voice died away. Jaypaw could sense the same anguish coming from her as he had picked up from Graystripe earlier. Without another word she turned away and padded back to her nest.

Worry surged over Jaypaw again as he thrust through the branches of the warriors’ den and went to collect fresh-kill for the cats in the nursery. He was afraid Leafpool had been right when she said that they were losing the battle. Without catmint, there was nothing they could do.

I have to find some. Somehow I must work out what Brightspirit was trying to tell me .

By the time Jaypaw had finished reporting to Leafpool and taking what few herbs they had to the sick cats, night was falling. He curled up in his nest in the medicine cats’ den, wriggling deep into the moss to block out the sound of Millie and Briarkit snuffling and wheezing close by.

Maybe now I can figure out what I have to do .

Jaypaw remembered his meeting with the beautiful silver tabby, and the warmth in her gaze as she spoke to him. Seek for the wind . But there was wind everywhere; you didn’t have to look for it. It rustled through the branches of the trees, swept over the lake, flattened the moorland grass on the way to the Moonpool. If only it was as easy to find catmint!

Seek for the wind… and you’ll find catmint. Was that what Brightspirit meant for him to understand? Excitement tingled through Jaypaw from ears to tail-tip; he flexed his claws, snagging the moss beneath him. Where did the wind blow harder than anywhere else? Of course! Over WindClan territory!

There was no catmint on ThunderClan territory; the RiverClan supply was too far away, and the sparse undergrowth under the pines of ShadowClan made it unlikely that there was any there. If there was more catmint around the lake, it must be in WindClan.

Jaypaw wanted to leap out of his nest and go charging through the forest, but he knew that would be totally mouse-brained. He didn’t know his way around WindClan territory, and even if he could see, he had no idea where to start looking for the herb.

You’re a medicine cat. You have powers. Use them .

Curling into a tight ball, Jaypaw closed his eyes. He had never walked in the dreams of a cat who was so far away, but Kestrelpaw, the WindClan medicine cat apprentice, had always been open and friendly toward him. Dumb, but friendly …

Maybe that would make it easier to step into his dreams.

Jaypaw pictured himself heading out of the camp and through the woods toward WindClan territory. Leaping the stream that marked the border, he swooped across the moorland on featherlight paws, until he reached the top of the hollow where WindClan had their camp. Letting the dream carry him onward, he padded among indistinct shapes of rocks and bushes, focusing on the wide crack in a boulder where Barkface and Kestrelpaw had their den.

Inside the crack, the medicine cat and his apprentice were curled up in nests of moorland grass and feathers that stirred with each breath. Jaypaw’s shadowy form curled up beside

Kestrelpaw, touching his warm, soft fur. He slowed his breathing to match the other cat’s; heartbeats later he felt wind buffeting his fur and found himself in Kestrelpaw’s dream.

The young medicine cat was padding over the moor with the scents of grass and sheep all around him. Clouds scudded across a pale blue sky, and dew glittered under the rays of the early morning sun.

“Hi, Jaypaw!” Kestrelpaw sounded surprised but warm.

“What are you doing here?”

“I just thought I’d visit you.” Jaypaw tensed, wondering if Kestrelpaw would realize how weird that was. If he was too disturbed he might wake, and Jaypaw would be thrown out of the dream and back into his own nest.

“Great.” Kestrelpaw flicked his ears in welcome. “Isn’t it a beautiful day? I thought I’d come out early and look for a few herbs.”

Jaypaw longed to ask Kestrelpaw what kind of herbs he hoped to find, but he was still wary of spooking the other apprentice. Instead, he just followed Kestrelpaw across the moor.

“Does this stream f low down toward ThunderClan?” he asked casually as they leaped across a trickle of brown, peaty water fringed by reeds.

“Yes, it joins the border stream,” Kestrelpaw replied.

He’s not suspicious at all, Jaypaw thought. After all, it’s just a dream, right ?

“I don’t suppose you find much prey up here,” he went on, anxious to keep the WindClan cat talking.

“Then you suppose wrong!” Kestrelpaw’s tail shot up and he raised his head proudly. “Can’t you smell all the rabbits?

And sometimes we catch birds; Crowfeather taught us how the Tribe hunts in the mountains.”

“I guess you’ve got to be fast,” Jaypaw commented.

Kestrelpaw gave his chest fur a couple of quick licks. “That’s what WindClan cats are best at.”

“So what about herbs?” Jaypaw went on, his belly churning as he asked the question that really mattered. “It looks pretty bleak up here. Not the right place for growing most kinds of plants.”

“Wrong again. We’ve got good stocks tucked away along the streams, and in that bit of woodland next to the ThunderClan border.”

“That must be good for water mint,” Jaypaw remarked.

“What about catmint?”

“Oh, yes, we’ve got plenty of that.” Kestrelpaw pointed with his nose toward a spot where the moor dipped down sharply to a tumble of rocks. “Down there.”

“Really?” Jaypaw forced himself to sound mildly interested, when what he really wanted to do was bounce up and down caterwauling in triumph.

“Yes, there’s—”

Just in front of the two apprentices, a rabbit started up out of a gorse thicket and streaked away across the moor. Kestrelpaw broke off what he was saying and raced after it, his belly fur brushing the coarse grass.

“Thanks, rabbit,” Jaypaw murmured.

He waited until the WindClan apprentice had disappeared, then scrambled down the slope to the rocks. Sniffing the air, he picked up the scent of water and a strong smell of catmint. A few heartbeats later he found it: a spring welling up between two of the rocks, with thick clumps of catmint growing all around it.

For a moment Jaypaw stood still, breathing in the scent of the precious herb. He wished desperately that he could tear off a bundle of the stalks and carry them back to his Clan, but he was still dreaming. Some cat would have to come here in the waking world, and steal some of the herb from WindClan.