Erin Hunter - Twilight

Squirrelflight suddenly felt very lonely. Exploring didn’t seem like so much fun if she had no one to share it with.

Then she heard a voice calling her name, and she glanced around to see Ashfur standing a little way off. She bounded over to him.

“Where do you want to go? That way?” he suggested. He gestured with his tail toward a thicket of trees and bushes in the center of the island.

“No, let’s go around the outside first,” Squirrelflight meowed. “I want to see every pawstep!” She blinked warmly at him—somehow she knew there was no need to tell him how pleased she was that he wanted to explore the island with her.

They padded along the shore, passing Squirrelflight’s mother, Sandstorm, who was sharpening her claws on the trunk of another pine.

“This is good,” she mewed happily. “Much safer than where we gathered last time, near the horse place.” Her claws sharpened to her satisfaction, she sat down and stared out across the gently lapping water.

Squirrelflight and Ashfur skirted an outcrop of rocks leading down to the water and came to a wider stretch of pebbles and sandy earth, broken up here and there by small, gleaming pools. Squirrelflight crouched down beside one, tongue extended to lap, then sprang back with a meow of surprise.

“There are fish in there!”

Ashfur padded up beside her and looked interestedly into the water. “I can’t see any.”

“Tiny fish—look, there!” She pointed with her paw as a sleek shape flickered from the shelter of one rock to another.

“Too small for prey, though,” she added regretfully. “Let’s keep going.”

The island shore grew rockier farther around, where the vast, glittering lake stretched all the way to their own territory. Squirrelflight could just make out the mass of trees with the dark bulk of the moorland rising above them.

“This would be great to sun ourselves on warm days,” Ashfur commented, gazing up at a smooth gray boulder splotched with lichen. “We haven’t found anything like Sunningrocks in our territory.”

“No, but we haven’t explored it all yet,” Squirrelflight reminded him. “And it would be a very long way to come to warm our pelts!”

As they scrambled over the boulder, claws scraping for balance, she caught a glimpse of Brambleclaw and Hawkfrost nearer the center of the island. They were padding side by side, their heads bent close together as they talked. They didn’t seem interested in exploring their surroundings, and they took no notice of the cats from all Clans that swarmed around them. Squirrelflight wrenched her gaze away from Brambleclaw and called a greeting to Tawnypelt, who was peering under a bush with a young ShadowClan warrior Squirrelflight didn’t recognize. Tawnypelt acknowledged her with a flick of her tail, but didn’t speak; Squirrelflight guessed she had her eye on prey.

The ShadowClan deputy, Russetfur, was sniffing around the bottom of a rock, flanked by her Clanmates Rowanclaw and Oakfur. Squirrelflight changed direction to avoid them; Tawnypelt was the only friend she had in ShadowClan.

“Have you noticed,” she mewed to Ashfur, “how we’ve split up into our Clans again? It’s as if the journey from the forest never happened.”

“Well, Brambleclaw is over there with Hawkfrost,” Ashfur pointed out, turning his ears to where the two tabby toms had reappeared from a clump of bracken.

“Huh!” grunted Squirrelflight.

Ashfur’s blue eyes gleamed. “You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”

“Worried? Me?” Squirrelflight mewed. “Certainly not!”

When Ashfur didn’t respond, she added, “Honestly, I’m not worried about him.”

Ashfur let out his breath in a long sigh. “Good,” he murmured. “He’s an honorable cat, you know. He may be friends with Hawkfrost, but he wouldn’t betray his Clanmates.”

Squirrelflight flinched. Was it so obvious that she no longer trusted Brambleclaw? Surely she knew him better than any cat in ThunderClan. Or had she become too close to him to judge properly? She shook her head, confused by the thoughts that buzzed in her ears. She wanted to trust Brambleclaw, she really did, but he seemed determined to make that impossible with everything he said and did.

The moon had risen high in the sky by the time the two cats made a complete circuit of the island. Squirrelflight bounded down to the lake beside the tree bridge and gulped down a few mouthfuls; the water was icy cold, and as she lapped at the glittering surface she felt as if she were drinking starlight.

“I can see why Hawkfrost wanted this to be the RiverClan camp,” Ashfur mewed. “There’s everything here a cat could want!”

“Except enough prey,” Squirrelflight pointed out. “RiverClan don’t eat fish all the time. Imagine trying to swim across with fresh-kill in your jaws.”

Ashfur shifted uneasily. “I hope RiverClan don’t change their mind now that the tree bridge is there.”

Squirrelflight stared at him in alarm. “They couldn’t !” she protested. “StarClan put the tree here for all of us.”

“Well, if Leopardstar is planning to claim the island for RiverClan, we’ll find out soon. The Gathering must be due to start.” Ashfur glanced up at the moon.

Squirrelflight shook starry drops from her whiskers. “We still don’t know where we’re meeting.”

“Let’s head for the center,” Ashfur suggested. “We should be able to hear the other cats, even if we can’t see them.”

The two warriors headed for the central thicket. They hadn’t gone far before they heard the gentle murmur of many cats greeting each other after a moon apart.

Ashfur paused to taste the air. “All four Clans are here.

This must be the place.”

He led the way through a clump of thorns, swerving to avoid a particularly prickly branch. Squirrelflight could hear prey rustling in the leaves around her, but she was too excited to think of hunting. She tried to push her way through the brambles more quickly, but thorns caught in her pelt.

“I’m not going to get stuck again!” she muttered.

Ashfur let out a mrrow of laughter. “Don’t worry. If you do get stuck, I’ll help you. We can’t have you missing the Gathering.”

Squirrelflight crouched down until her belly brushed the crisp dead leaves underneath the brambles, then she wriggled forward until the branches thinned and she broke out into the open.

“Wow!”

She was standing at the edge of a wide circle of grass that shone silver in the moonlight. It looked like a much smaller version of the lake, its surface rippling as the breeze brushed against the stems. A single oak tree grew in the center. Roots thicker than a cat’s body clutched at the ground, while branches shifted overhead and cast trembling shadows on the cats below.

“This is perfect!” Ashfur exclaimed, emerging from the bushes beside her.

Squirrelflight looked around for her Clanmates.

Goldenflower was stretched out in a clump of longer grass with a couple of elders from other Clans, and Cinderpelt had joined Leafpool and Mothwing near the tree roots.

Littlecloud, the ShadowClan medicine cat, was padding over to sit beside them. Cloudtail and Dustpelt were standing in the shelter of the bushes farther around the circle; after a shared glance they went over to Mistyfoot and Blackclaw of RiverClan, dipping their heads in greeting.

Squirrelflight suddenly realized she had been nervous that ShadowClan and RiverClan would be as hostile as WindClan had become since they reached their new home.

But this looked more like a regular Gathering back in the forest, with cats from different Clans comfortably sharing news.

She twitched her ears to welcome Leafpool, who had left the other medicine cats and padded across the grass to join her sister.