Erin Hunter - Sunset

Mothwing will find the catmint on her own if she looks hard enough. At least tonight is the quarter moon, and I’ll be meeting her at the Moonpool.

I can pass on Mudfur’s message then, without having to leave my Clan.

But as she went on watching over Berrykit, she couldn’t push her dream of the old medicine cat out of her mind. Was it part of her duty to carry out his request? She sighed. Why did it suddenly seem so complicated to be a medicine cat?

Was her duty to ThunderClan alone, or to StarClan, and therefore all the cats that they watched over?

“I’m not sure I should go,” Leafpool meowed anxiously.

The sun was setting, sending bloodred shafts of light into the clearing. Leafpool stood outside her den, gazing down at Berrykit. He was sleeping more peacefully now, curled up in his nest. His fever was waning, but she still wasn’t convinced that his injuries were healing properly.

After her vigil Leafpool felt almost too exhausted for the long journey to the Moonpool. Besides, she shrank from the thought of seeing the other medicine cats and telling them that Cinderpelt was dead.

“You have to go,” Brightheart told her, flicking her on the shoulder with her tail. “Berrykit will be fine with me. I know what to give him if he wakes up.”

Leafpool knew that was true. Brightheart was an efficient helper, and she had all the herbs she would need. And there was Mudfur’s message to deliver to Mothwing.

“Okay,” she meowed. “I’ll go. But I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry about a thing,” Brightheart assured her.

After checking Berrykit one last time, Leafpool padded out into the clearing and headed for the thorn tunnel, saying good night to Thornclaw, who was just settling down on guard duty. It felt strange to be going on this journey without Cinderpelt. She longed to feel Cinderpelt’s spirit beside her, but there was no trace of familiar scent, no brush of soft gray fur. Leafpool had never felt so alone.

The sun dipped below the horizon as she headed for the WindClan border and followed the stream up into the hills.

The scents of greenleaf wreathed around her as the forest filled with shadows, and the dew was cool on her pads. Her weariness faded away as she thought about crouching down to lap the water of the starry pool and sharing dreams with StarClan. With the other medicine cats around her, and the warriors of StarClan to share tongues with, she wouldn’t feel so lonely.

Near the border of WindClan territory, she saw Barkface, the WindClan medicine cat, just ahead of her, and Littlecloud from ShadowClan. They must have scented her, because they stopped and waited while she scrambled up the last slope and fell in beside them.

“Greetings, Leafpool,” Barkface rumbled. “It’s good to see you again. I grieve for your loss. It’s sad that Cinderpelt had to go so young to join the ranks of StarClan.”

“What?” Littlecloud exclaimed, his neck fur rising.

“Cinderpelt is dead?”

Leafpool knew that the ShadowClan medicine cat wouldn’t have heard the news yet. She nodded. “Badgers attacked our camp. Onestar brought WindClan to help us, but they were too late to save Cinderpelt.” I was too late .

Littlecloud bowed his head. “She was a great medicine cat. I owed her my life.”

Leafpool had heard the story of how Cinderpelt had dis-obeyed orders many moons ago to help Littlecloud and one of his Clanmates when sickness struck ShadowClan.

Littlecloud always said that was what had made him choose to become a medicine cat.

She wondered if she should tell the others what really happened—that Cinderpelt died because Leafpool had turned her back on her Clanmates and all her medicine cat duties.

Would they blame her for Cinderpelt’s death as much as she blamed herself?

Then she realized that there was nothing but sympathy in Barkface’s and Littlecloud’s eyes. There was no point in unburdening herself and only adding to their grief.

“You must miss her greatly,” Barkface murmured. “But you will be a worthy successor.”

“I hope so,” Leafpool replied tightly, her throat almost too choked to speak. “I’ll never forget her or everything she taught me.”

As they climbed farther into the hills, her fellow medicine cats padded one on each side of her, sharing her grief and adding their strength to hers.

Leafpool would have liked to ask Barkface how Crowfeather was, but she knew she couldn’t. You have to stop thinking about him!

By now night had fallen. Leafpool halted at the top of a swell of moorland and looked back to see the quarter moon shining over the distant lake. There was no sign of Mothwing, and when she tasted the air she could not pick up her friend’s scent.

“Did you see Mothwing on the way?” she asked the others.

Barkface shook his head.

“I haven’t seen her either, but then she never comes through ShadowClan,” Littlecloud meowed. “But don’t worry. She’s been late before.”

Leafpool knew that was true, but she also knew what was going on in RiverClan. She wondered if Mothwing had been unable to come because she couldn’t leave the elder who was ill with greencough. Perhaps the sickness had spread further, without a supply of catmint to treat the sick cats.

When Leafpool and the others reached the tumbling stream, there was still no sign of Mothwing. Leafpool bounded up beside the star-filled water and pushed her way through the bushes that surrounded the hollow, half hoping that her friend would already be there.

The waterfall poured down the wall of rock, a moving sheet of silver, churning the pool below so that it seemed full of leaping moonlight. But no familiar golden tabby shape rose to greet Leafpool; no friendly scent reached her. The hollow was empty.

Barkface led the way down the spiral path to the edge of the pool. Leafpool followed, feeling her paws slip into the marks left behind by generations of cats long gone. But this time she didn’t feel the peace that always surrounded her in this place. She was too worried about Mothwing and RiverClan, and afraid that if she met Mudfur in her dreams he would blame her for not passing on his message.

She could say nothing about it to the other medicine cats.

Instead, she crouched beside them on the edge of the pool and craned her neck to lap from the icy water. The cold seemed to flow into every part of her, gripping her limbs so that she felt like a cat made of ice. Her gaze was transfixed by the churning surface of the water; gradually it stilled, and Leafpool made out the reflections of countless cats, lining the hollow around her.

She looked up. Barkface and Littlecloud, one on each side of her, were motionless, far distant in their own dreams.

Around the pool, and lining the sides of the hollow as far as the circle of bushes, were the glimmering shapes of the warriors of StarClan.

A blue-furred cat rose to her paws on a mossy rock jutting out over the water. Leafpool recognized Bluestar.

“Welcome,” meowed the former ThunderClan leader.

“StarClan welcomes you as the new medicine cat of ThunderClan.”

A murmur of greeting rose from the starry ranks around the pool. Leafpool spotted Feathertail sitting beside a beautiful silver-furred she-cat who must be her mother, Silverstream. Closer to the water’s edge were Shrewpaw, Larchkit, and Hollykit, Ferncloud’s kits who had died in the famine in the old forest. Tallstar, the previous WindClan leader, sat nearby. Leafpool felt herself draw strength from their luminous eyes.

“Thank you,” she replied. “I’ll do my best to serve my Clan, I promise.”

On the opposite side of the pool she could see a group of former medicine cats: her own dear guardian, Spottedleaf, along with Yellowfang and Mudfur. A shadow seemed to hang over them, though above the hollow the moon floated in a cloudless sky. Mudfur’s gaze was fixed on his paws; Leafpool’s heart lurched as she wondered if he was deliberately avoiding her.