Erin Hunter - Twilight

Now that Blackstar had finished speaking, she assumed the Gathering would be over, but the full moon still floated overhead, and Firestar began to speak once more.

“Clan leaders, and cats of all Clans,” he began, “there’s something we need to decide. This is the Gathering place StarClan have chosen for us, but as Leopardstar said, all of us except RiverClan have to cross another Clan’s territory to reach it. We need to decide exactly where cats can travel in each other’s territory when it’s time to gather.”

“Good idea,” Squirrelflight commented under her breath.

“Well, there’s no need for ThunderClan to cross through our territory to get here,” Blackstar meowed instantly. “It’s much quicker for you to come across WindClan.”

Squirrelflight saw her father stiffen, and she guessed that he was holding back a sharp retort. “Yes, but we still need to discuss it.”

“I don’t mind any cat coming from either direction as far as the tree bridge,” Leopardstar mewed. “But no cat has permission to take prey from RiverClan.”

“The same goes for WindClan,” Onestar added, rising to his paws again. “Firestar, you can bring your cats across my territory, but I want you to keep within two fox-lengths of the lake. If my warriors catch you anywhere else, we’ll regard it as trespass.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Firestar replied calmly. “Let’s make that a general rule.” He raised his voice so every cat could hear. “A Clan may cross another territory to come to Gatherings, but they must stay within two fox-lengths of the lakeshore, and travel without stopping.”

“And take no prey,” Blackstar added.

Firestar nodded. “Does every cat agree?”

A murmur of agreement hung in the air above the cats; what Firestar proposed sounded fair.

Cinderpelt stood up. “Will the same rule apply to cats who want to visit the Moonpool? Because they would have to leave the lakeshore and cross either our territory or WindClan’s to reach the hills.”

“WindClan always allowed cats to cross our old territory when they were going to the Moonstone,” Onestar pointed out. There was a touch more warmth in his voice; he shared the respect that all cats felt for Cinderpelt.

“True,” meowed Firestar. “And I don’t see any reason not to do the same here.”

“But those should be the only two exceptions,” Blackstar put in, with a glare at Firestar. “Otherwise we may as well forget about our boundaries altogether.”

“No, wait.” Mistyfoot looked up from her root. “Cats who cross borders aren’t always hostile. We all need to visit other Clans sometimes. Surely we don’t need to be more suspicious here than we were in the old forest?”

Squirrelflight remembered Mistyfoot’s urgent visit to Firestar when she discovered that Mudclaw and Hawkfrost were plotting together. She had risked crossing ShadowClan’s territory and nearly been caught by a patrol.

“That makes sense,” Leafpool agreed softly. “We should be able to visit each other.” Her amber eyes gazed unblinkingly across the clearing; Squirrelflight couldn’t see what she was looking at.

“If no cat has more to say, we should end this Gathering,” Firestar meowed.

“Fine by me,” Blackstar replied. Onestar and Leopardstar nodded.

“And we need to make sure the cats who aren’t here know what has been decided,” Firestar added.

The ShadowClan leader licked one paw and drew it over his ear. “That would be a job for the deputies, don’t you think?”

Squirrelflight dug her claws into the ground. That was a cruel taunt, aimed straight at Firestar. There was no way the ThunderClan leader could reasonably object. He nodded curtly and sprang down from the tree.

Squirrelflight sighed. “Blackstar won’t let any cat forget that Firestar didn’t appoint another deputy when Graystripe disappeared,” she complained to Ashfur. “It’s obvious he thinks ThunderClan is weaker because of it.”

“If he tries to attack us, he’ll find out how wrong he is,” Ashfur pointed out.

Squirrelflight growled in agreement. As she stood up and stretched, she noticed Brambleclaw still sitting beside Hawkfrost. The RiverClan warrior was mewing something into his ear, and Brambleclaw was nodding slowly.

Maybe he’s telling him what a great deputy he’d make , Squirrelflight thought grimly. She hardly recognized Brambleclaw when she looked at him—he certainly wasn’t the cat she had traveled with to the sun-drown-place to find Midnight. She couldn’t even remember why they had been so close once. Looking at the two warriors again, shoulder to shoulder like a cat beside its reflection in a pool, suspicion prickled through her pelt.

If it were true that Brambleclaw wanted to be deputy, that must mean he thought Firestar was wrong to insist that Graystripe might still be alive. Worse than that, it was only one step from being deputy to being Clan leader. Was Brambleclaw looking ahead to the time when Firestar would lose his last life?

A shiver ran through Squirrelflight’s pelt as she thought of her father’s death, and cold gripped her with icy claws as she remembered the stories she had heard about Tigerstar. He had been prepared to kill to become deputy, and then Clan leader. Did his son, Brambleclaw, share the same ambitions?

And would he be prepared to take the same murderous path to achieve them?

Leafpool stayed sitting down as her sister and Ashfur headed into the bushes toward the lakeshore. She gazed across the clearing to where she had last seen Crowfeather. She spotted the WindClan cat at once; he was looking straight back at her.

Leafpool glanced around. Other cats moved in the shadows; the brambles behind her rustled as they pushed through them on their way back to the tree bridge. No cat seemed to be paying much attention to her.

She started to circle the clearing, keeping to where the moonlight threw deep shadows.

“Leafpool!”

The young medicine cat froze, feeling her pelt tingle with frustration. She took a deep breath before turning around.

“Yes, Cinderpelt?”

“Come on, you’re being left behind.”

Leafpool narrowed her eyes. Her Clanmates had only just left the clearing. Was Cinderpelt deliberately keeping her away from Crowfeather?

“Okay, Cinderpelt, I’m coming.” Leafpool shot a glance over her shoulder and saw Crowfeather watching her with anguish in his eyes.

Leafpool knew she couldn’t do anything but follow Cinderpelt into the bushes.

I’m a medicine cat , she told herself as she ducked under the prickly branches. I can’t love Crowfeather, and he can’t love me.

She repeated it over and over, all the way back to the ThunderClan camp, but all she could think of was the look in Crowfeather’s eyes.

A sweet scent drifted around Leafpool and a voice murmured her name. At first she thought Spottedleaf was calling to her; the former ThunderClan medicine cat had often come to her in dreams. But when she blinked open her eyes the cat standing in front of her had a silvery-gray pelt, and eyes of clearest blue. Starlight sparkled around her paws and at the ends of her whiskers.

Leafpool stared at her, bewildered. “Feathertail?”

Beyond her nest among the brambles outside Cinderpelt’s den, the hollow was bathed in silvery light. But several days had passed since the Gathering, and the moon was waning.

Leafpool knew she was dreaming.

She stood up. “What is it, Feathertail?”

She guessed Feathertail had come to speak to her about Crowfeather. A pang of guilt shot through her. Feathertail and Crowfeather had loved each other so much, but the beautiful RiverClan cat had given up her life to save the Tribe and her friends from the fierce lion-cat Sharptooth. Was she angry that Crowfeather had fallen in love with another cat?