Erin Hunter - Twilight

Squirrelflight couldn’t imagine what it could be, but fear for Leafpool hung over her like a heavy black cloud that would soon unleash a storm.

Leafpool picked her way through the undergrowth, ears pricked for the sound of pursuit. Ever since she had returned from meeting Crowfeather to find her sister waiting for her, she had been terrified of being followed. Her belly clenched with pangs as sharp as hunger when she imagined the rest of her Clan finding out what she was doing. They’ll find out sooner or later , a voice inside her mewed.

The quarrel with Squirrelflight still haunted her. Without the closeness she had shared with her sister since they were kits, Leafpool felt utterly alone in her Clan. But she couldn’t tell Squirrelflight the truth, and she couldn’t give up her meetings with Crowfeather. He was the only cat she could talk to now.

She’d tried to work up enough courage to tell Cinderpelt, but the medicine cat seemed obsessed with restocking her supplies, hunting through the territory for the tiniest signs of new growth. Besides, Leafpool was afraid Cinderpelt had already guessed her secret and was showing her disapproval in an uncharacteristic quickness of temper. She missed the afternoons they had spent talking back in the forest, when their paws had been busy sorting berries and leaves. Now her mentor seemed distant and more judgmental, less of a friend than she had always been.

In desperation, Leafpool had considered telling her mother, approaching her one evening by the fresh-kill pile.

But Sandstorm had been discussing the best hunting grounds with Dustpelt, only giving her daughter a friendly nod before returning to the debate. And as for Sorreltail, Leafpool’s friend was so close to having her kits that she spent all her time with Daisy and Ferncloud in the nursery. Apart from when Cinderpelt asked her to take strength-building herbs to the queens, Leafpool kept away.

She paused when she heard a twig snap, freezing with one paw in midair. But it was only a squirrel, jumping down from an oak tree and racing in the opposite direction. Leafpool took a deep breath and carried on. A little earlier, at sunset, heavy rain had fallen from thundery black clouds. The skies were clearer now, but every fern and grass stem was loaded with drops of water, reflecting the pale glow of moonlight.

Leafpool’s pelt had soaked through long ago, the cold seeping into her skin. Stopping to shake herself, she gazed up at the waning moon. It would have to wax again before her next visit to the Moonpool, yet she longed to lie down beside the water and share tongues with StarClan in her dreams. But what if StarClan refused to speak to her again?

“Oh, Spottedleaf,” she whispered, “I wish you’d tell me what to do.”

Leafpool’s head spun with weariness. She had been meeting up with Crowfeather every few nights, leaving her short of sleep and restless whenever she was away from him.

During the day she had to pretend to Cinderpelt and the rest of the Clan that she was as committed as ever to being a medicine cat, that the only important thing was where to find juniper berries or easing the stiffness from the elders’ leaf-bare-damp joints.

You can’t go on like this , the small voice warned her.

Crowfeather had said the same thing: “We can’t go on like this, Leafpool. We’ll never be together unless we leave our Clans.”

Leafpool had stared at him in horror. Through all their difficulties, her fear and guilt warring with her love, she had never really imagined that they would have to leave their Clans. “Crowfeather, we can’t!”

Crowfeather shook his head. “It’s the only way. Will you think about it, please?”

Reluctantly, Leafpool had nodded. “All right. I will.”

But how could she give up her life as a medicine cat, give up her Clan, her family, her friends? Whatever decision she made, she was afraid she would not survive the loss.

Close to the border stream, she tasted the air for the first traces of Crowfeather’s scent; every hair on her pelt prickled with excitement as she detected it, and a heartbeat later she made out the lean gray-black warrior waiting for her in the shadow of a bush on the WindClan side of the stream.

“Crowfeather!” she called, bounding forward.

“Leafpool!” Crowfeather sprang to his paws and his tail shot straight up as he spotted her.

She halted on the brink of the stream. Crowfeather climbed down the bank and splashed through the water as if he hardly realized it was there. Hauling himself out on the ThunderClan side, he padded up to Leafpool, droplets spinning from his pelt as he shook himself. His scent wreathed around her and she shut her eyes blissfully.

“I’m so glad you could come,” Leafpool purred. “Did you have any trouble getting away from camp?”

Crowfeather was about to reply when he froze, ears standing up. At the same moment, Leafpool heard a rustling in the bushes behind her. ThunderClan scent flooded her senses.

She spun around.

“All right, Squirrelflight, come out!” she snapped. “I know you’re there.”

There was a brief silence. Then the bracken in front of her parted and out stepped not Squirrelflight, but Cinderpelt.

“What… what are you doing here?” Leafpool stammered, casting an anguished glance over her shoulder at Crowfeather.

The medicine cat limped forward and faced her calmly.

“You know what I’m doing, Leafpool. I’m here to tell you that this has to stop.”

Leafpool stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t lie to me, Leafpool. Not with that WindClan warrior standing there, on our territory.”

There was no anger in her blue eyes, only concern. Her steady gaze pinned Leafpool like a claw, until the younger cat had to look away. “I suppose Squirrelflight told you to follow me,” she muttered.

“Squirrelflight? No. I was collecting herbs when I picked up your scent, and a WindClan cat’s close by. I came to see what was going on. Besides, do you think I didn’t suspect you’ve been sneaking out at night?”

Terror flashed through Leafpool. “You’ve been spying on me!”

“I didn’t need to,” Cinderpelt meowed. “You’re obviously so exhausted that you can’t do your job properly. Only yesterday you tried to give Sootfur borage leaves instead of water mint for his bellyache. As for Crowfeather, I can’t say I’m surprised. Do you think I haven’t noticed the two of you at Gatherings? I’m not blind, Leafpool.”

“Wait,” Crowfeather began, stepping forward to Leafpool’s side. “This is between me and Leafpool. She’s not betraying her Clan, if that’s what you think.”

Cinderpelt fixed him with a stern gaze. “I never imagined she would. But she shouldn’t be here with you, and you know that as well as I do.”

Crowfeather bristled. Leafpool’s belly lurched, terrified that the aggressive young warrior might launch himself at the medicine cat with claws unsheathed.

“It’s okay, Crowfeather,” she mewed. “I can handle this.”

Reluctantly she added, “You’d better go back to your camp.”

“And leave you alone to get your ears clawed?”

“Cinderpelt won’t do that. Please,” Leafpool begged.

Crowfeather hesitated a moment longer, limbs stiff with anger. Then he swung around and bounded back across the stream; Leafpool’s gaze followed him until he vanished into the undergrowth on the other side.

Turning back to her mentor, Leafpool sank her claws into the ground. “We aren’t doing any harm,” she mewed.