Erin Hunter - Dawn

He turned to leave, but Firestar stood in his way. Blackstar curled his lip to reveal sharp teeth.

“We can’t let them fight!” Squirrelpaw hissed to Brambleclaw.

“I know,” he agreed. He leaped over the logs to Firestar’s side. “Firestar, you have to persuade ShadowClan to come with us! That’s what StarClan wants. If there isn’t a sign, like Midnight said, then we should go back to the sun-drown-place and ask her if she knows where we should go.”

“You want us to go to a strange place just because you think StarClan sent you there?” Leopardstar snarled. “Since when do you make decisions for all the Clans?” Her gaze swept over Squirrelpaw, Tawnypelt, and Stormfur. “In fact, why should we trust any of you? You are all part ThunderClan!”

Tawnypelt unsheathed her claws. “Are you questioning my loyalty to my Clan?”

“My sister died on the journey to fetch this message!”

Stormfur hissed.

Squirrelpaw wondered if StarClan was watching them and thinking that these quarrelsome Clans didn’t deserve to be saved.

“Stop!” rasped a feeble voice, and Tallstar padded unevenly over. “If we fight, the sign will never come!”

“How many times do I have to tell you? We don’t need a sign,” growled Blackstar. “ShadowClan is going to leave the forest, and we already know where to go.”

Firestar didn’t argue with him. Instead, he turned to Leopardstar. “What do you plan to do?”

“RiverClan has no need to travel to some distant place on the word of a few dreaming warriors,” Leopardstar replied.

“The river is still full of fish. It would be stupid for us to leave.

The other Clans’ troubles are not ours to worry about.”

“But if our troubles are not yours as well, why was Feathertail sent by StarClan with the other cats?” Cinderpelt challenged quietly.

“Only Feathertail can answer that, and she is dead,” Leopardstar retorted.

Hawkfrost climbed up beside his leader. “If you can’t survive in the forest anymore, then I agree that you should leave,” he meowed, his gaze flicking around the cats to include Tallstar. “After all, what sort of leader would let his Clan starve?”

Squirrelpaw was rather taken aback by the bold way he addressed the other Clan leaders. After all, he wasn’t much older than her.

Brambleclaw glared at Hawkfrost. “You just want us to leave so you can steal our territory!”

“If you aren’t here, then you won’t need it anymore.”

Brambleclaw bristled. “You might feel differently if you were truly Clanborn.”

“Show some respect, Brambleclaw!” Firestar snapped.

“Hawkfrost is not responsible for his birth.”

Brambleclaw opened his mouth, ready to argue, then seemed to think better of it and looked down at his paws.

Squirrelpaw thought she saw Hawkfrost’s whiskers twitch with satisfaction and felt a surge of anger on Brambleclaw’s behalf. How dared he gloat?

“This is getting us nowhere,” Tallstar meowed fretfully.

“The four Clans must remain together,” Firestar insisted.

“We have lived beneath Silverpelt for as long as any cat remembers. We share the same ancestors. How could StarClan watch over us if we are separated?” But Blackstar had jumped down from the tree trunk and was padding away, signaling to Littlecloud, the ShadowClan medicine cat, to join him.

Tawnypelt looked uneasily at her friends. “I have to go,” she whispered to Squirrelpaw.

“What about the sign?” Squirrelpaw reminded her. She shivered, and not just from the cold. Where was the sign that was supposed to save them?

Doubt flickered in the ShadowClan warrior’s gaze. “I’m sorry; I can’t wait.” She hurried after Blackstar and Littlecloud.

The hollow felt even emptier and more exposed without the three ShadowClan cats.

“Good luck, Firestar,” Leopardstar meowed. She looked over to where Mothwing was crouched beside Mudfur. “Is he well enough to travel?”

“Of course I am!” Mudfur rasped, struggling to his paws.

“I made it here, didn’t I?”

“Then come,” Leopardstar ordered, and, turning away, she led her cats from the clearing.

Stormfur brushed against Squirrelpaw’s pelt as he passed.

“I’ll try to speak to you and Brambleclaw soon,” he whispered.

“What can we do without the sign?” Squirrelpaw hissed frantically.

Stormfur flashed her a look of despair. “I don’t know,” he said. He gazed back at the Great Rock, dragged from its ancient seat. “Perhaps StarClan has no power here anymore.”

Squirrelpaw stared at him in horror. Could that be true?

Firestar watched the RiverClan cats leave. “I cannot persuade them.” He sighed.

“Then we two must go alone,” Tallstar wheezed. He sat down to catch his breath. “Firestar,” he croaked, “I must find new territory for my Clan before the next full moon. We are starving.” Squirrelpaw felt her heart twist with pity as he went on. “But we are too weak to make the journey alone.

Travel with us, Firestar. Help us like you did when you brought WindClan back from exile, after Brokenstar drove us out.”

Firestar miserably twitched his ears. “We can’t leave without the other two Clans. There have always been four Clans in the forest, and wherever we end up, four Clans must be there as well. How else can we be sure the fifth Clan will come with us?”

The fifth Clan? Squirrelpaw wondered what her father meant. She glanced at Brambleclaw, but he looked as puzzled as she felt.

“StarClan will be with us always,” Tallstar argued, and Squirrelpaw understood: StarClan were the fifth Clan.

She saw a glimmer of anger enter the WindClan leader’s tired eyes. “You are too proud, Firestar,” he warned. “I can tell ThunderClan is on the brink of starvation just like WindClan.

If you insist on staying in the forest while you wait for the other two to make up their minds, your Clanmates will die.”

Firestar looked away. “I’m sorry, Tallstar,” he meowed. “I want to help you, but my heart tells me that ThunderClan cannot leave until all the other Clans agree to leave as well.

We will have to keep trying to persuade them.”

Tallstar thrashed his tail. “Very well,” he hissed. “We cannot travel without you, and so we will wait. I don’t blame you for the hunger we suffer, but I’m disappointed you will not help us now.” He padded away with Barkface close beside him, ready to support him if the WindClan leader stumbled on paws that hardly seemed strong enough to carry him to the edge of the clearing, let alone all the way back to the moor.

Squirrelpaw turned to Brambleclaw. “Why wasn’t there a sign?” she protested.

Brambleclaw gazed at her. “Do you think Midnight was wrong?” His wide eyes reflected the moon. “After all, did she really tell us anything we can’t see from what is happening around us?” He gestured with his tail to the ravaged clearing, to the swaths of fallen trees around them. “Every cat knows the forest is being destroyed by Twolegs. Perhaps Blackstar is right, and each Clan should just try to save itself, without waiting for any more signs.”

Squirrelpaw fought to control the panic that fluttered in her chest. “You can’t mean that! We have to believe that Midnight was right!” she argued. “StarClan sent us to speak with her, and that must mean StarClan wants us to save the Clans.”

“But what if we can’t?” Brambleclaw murmured.

Squirrelpaw stared at him in dismay, her mind suddenly filled with an image of falling trees, roaring monsters, and blood spilling down Sunningrocks into the river. “Don’t give up, Brambleclaw!” she whispered. “We didn’t make that journey and lose Feathertail for nothing. We have to save the Clans!”