Эрин Хантер - Eclipse

“Who is he?” Scorchpaw whispered.

Snaketail tasted the air. “Not a Clan cat, that’s for sure.”

“Where is everyone?” Lionpaw hissed in Hollypaw’s ear.

Hollypaw looked around the camp. It was strangely empty.

“They must be resting after the battle,” she guessed.

“Wait there,” Russetfur ordered, and disappeared into Blackstar’s den.

The brambles rustled at one side of the camp. Hollypaw recognized the nursery entrance, where Snowbird had gathered Tawnypelt’s kits. Flamekit, Dawnkit, and Tigerkit were tumbling out now, their eyes bright with excitement.

“Hollypaw!” Flamekit reached her first and started jumping up to grab her tail. She spun around and greeted him with a playful cuff over his ear.

Tigerkit was bouncing around Lionpaw. “Have I grown?” the kit demanded, stretching himself up to his full height.

Dawnkit leaped on her brother, bowling him over. “You must have grown, the amount you eat!” She pummeled his back with her hind paws, then stopped when she spotted Sol.

She scrambled to her paws and stared at the stranger. “Who’s he?”

Tigerkit followed her gaze. “What’s he doing here?” He frowned and gazed up at Hollypaw. “Why are you here?” Was he worried they’d come to take his mother away again?

Flamekit was padding around Jaypaw. “Who are you ?”

“He’s Jaypaw, our brother,” Lionpaw told her.

Jaypaw stared blankly ahead as Flamekit circled him.

“Why isn’t he looking at me?” he asked.

Jaypaw leaned down suddenly. “Do you want me to look at you?” His nose was a whisker away from Flamekit’s eyes.

Flamekit leaped back with surprise. “His eyes are all stare-y!”

Hollypaw glanced nervously at Jaypaw.

“I’m blind,” he explained more softly.

Flamekit padded closer. “How did you get here, then?”

“I walked,” Jaypaw mewed.

“Without bumping into anything?” Tigerkit sounded impressed.

“I hope you’re not being rude!” Tawnypelt’s stern mew sounded from the nursery. The ShadowClan she-cat padded out, yawning and ruffled. She blinked in surprise as she caught sight of Hollypaw. “You’re back again!” Then her gaze flicked to Jaypaw, Lionpaw, and finally Sol. “What in StarClan’s name are you doing here?” She pawed her kits back toward their den. “And who’s he?” Tigerkit tried to leap out of the way, but she caught him with an expert flick of her tail and sent him bundling toward the den. “Go inside,” she ordered.

“You can come out and say good-bye when they leave.”

“But—” Dawnkit began to argue.

“But nothing.” Tawnypelt gave the kits a final gentle shove, and they disappeared into the brambles.

Tawnypelt looked warily at Sol. “Who are you?”

“I’ve come to meet Blackstar.”

As he spoke, Russetfur appeared from Blackstar’s den and stood to one side to let her leader pass. Blackstar’s white pelt was unwashed. His long tail drooped behind him, and he padded across the clearing as though his soot-black paws were too heavy for him.

“Russetfur tells me there is a stranger among us,” he growled. He glanced at Hollypaw, Lionpaw, and Jaypaw. “She said you were showing him around our border.”

“We weren’t showing him anything!” Jaypaw mewed hotly.

“We were on our way home.”

“Why were you there at all?” Blackstar sat down and looked at them. His eyes were strangely dull, considering he was the leader of a Clan who’d just been involved in a terrible battle.

Hollypaw stepped forward. “We went to find Sol.”

Blackstar looked at the stranger for the first time. “And this is Sol, I suppose.”

“It is.” Sol dipped his head. “I’m honored to meet the leader of ShadowClan.”

“You know about ShadowClan?” A glimmer of interest sparked in Blackstar’s eyes.

“I have heard much about you.”

Blackstar tilted his head. “From these three trespassers?”

“We never crossed your border!” Jaypaw growled. He stared toward Russetfur as though challenging her to deny it.

Lionpaw moved closer to his brother. “We were looking for Sol.”

“So you said. But why? He’s just a loner, isn’t he?”

“A traveler,” Sol corrected him.

Blackstar blinked. “Why would three apprentices be so interested in a traveler ?”

Jaypaw flicked his tail. “Because he told us the sun was going to disappear and it did!”

Russetfur’s pelt bristled. Behind her, Ivytail and Toadfoot stared wide-eyed.

Tawnypelt shifted on her paws. “You knew it would happen?”

Sol nodded. “I saw a great darkness fall over the Clans.”

“Did StarClan tell you?” ShadowClan’s medicine cat, Littlecloud, had come out of his den and was staring at Sol.

Sol swung his head around to face the medicine cat. “The great darkness had nothing to do with StarClan.”

Silence gripped the camp as the setting sun turned the brambles to liquid amber.

“Then who made the sun disappear?” Blackstar growled.

Sol padded across the clearing and turned so that his tail swept a rainbow shape on the needle-strewn ground. “It was a sign.” He lifted his chin, the dark patches on his fur shining in the last rays of sunshine. Lean, hard muscles rippled under the thick-furred pelt on his shoulders. “A sign of change that will come whether you want it or not.”

Are we part of that change? Hollypaw glanced at Lionpaw, anxiety stirring in her belly. Lionpaw gave a small shake of his head. She understood.

Say nothing about the prophecy.

Blackstar padded toward Sol, his eyes gleaming. “What sort of change?”

“Do you want change?” Sol lowered his voice to barely a whisper.

Blackstar stepped closer. “I’m not sure the Clans should be here,” he confessed.

Hollypaw wondered if the ShadowClan leader had forgotten where he was. Should he be sharing his fears so openly?

But Blackstar’s eyes were brimming with hope as he gazed at Sol as though here was someone who finally understood.

“Could StarClan have made a mistake by telling us to settle by the lake?”

Smokefoot shot an astonished glance at Ivytail, who shrugged. Littlecloud was leaning forward, as if he were finding it hard to hear—or finding it hard to believe what he was hearing.

Or perhaps he was simply waiting for Sol’s answer.

Hollypaw’s heart began to race. Were ShadowClan about to reject StarClan? And the warrior code?

“Change is not necessarily a bad thing,” Sol murmured.

Yes, it is! She dug her claws deep into the ground, desperate to root herself in something solid.

Sol’s voice chanted on, soft, yet loud enough to reach to the edges of the clearing. “Especially if we anticipate what’s coming and prepare for it.”

Blackstar was nodding as Sol continued. “There is more than one path to tread in this life.”

“There must be an easier one than this,” Blackstar agreed.

“Life here is so hard. There is great hunger in leaf-bare, and in greenleaf the Twolegs drive us farther and farther from our hunting grounds.”

Sol closed his eyes as Blackstar went on, as if he were picturing Blackstar’s description of life in ShadowClan’s new home.

“We are plagued by battle after battle, and even the moonhigh trek to the Gatherings is longer and harder than in the forest.”

“You are greatly troubled,” Sol sympathized without opening his eyes.

“My troubles are endless,” Blackstar told him.

Tawnypelt stepped forward. “Night is falling,” she meowed briskly. “The ThunderClan apprentices should be on their way home.” She flashed a knowing look at Hollypaw. “Their Clanmates will be wondering where they are.”