Erin Hunter - Starlight

Onewhisker’s eyes flooded with relief. “Would you, Firestar? Thanks.”

Firestar nodded, but Brambleclaw felt a flicker of unease.

He knew that the two cats had been friends long before Firestar became Clan leader, but surely this was a time when Onewhisker should be acting on his own, however hard it was. There was going to be enough shock from WindClan without suggesting that Firestar, a cat from a completely different Clan, had been involved.

The ThunderClan leader pushed his way out through the branches. Brambleclaw and the others followed as Firestar padded across and leaped up on the stump at the edge of the deserted clearing.

Onewhisker was about to sit among the roots when Firestar gestured with his tail to a spot beside him. “You should be up here,” he meowed. “What is your Clan going to think if you sit down there like an ordinary warrior?”

Brambleclaw could see exactly what Firestar meant, and he fought down a prickle of impatience. It was time Onewhisker got over his shock and started behaving like a leader. “Go on,” he urged.

Onewhisker gave him a doubtful look, then jumped up to stand beside Firestar.

The ThunderClan leader let out a yowl. “Cats of all Clans!

Gather to hear the news I have to tell you.”

All around the clearing, Brambleclaw watched the cats stir in their makeshift nests, like a ripple in long grass when wind passed over it. From close by he heard some cat mutter crossly, “What does he want now?”

Firestar repeated his yowl until one by one the cats slipped out of their makeshift dens and crept forward until they surrounded the stump.

Squirrelflight padded sleepily over to Brambleclaw, her jaws gaping in a huge yawn. “What’s happening? What does Firestar want?”

“It’s best you hear it from Firestar,” Brambleclaw meowed.

He couldn’t begin to put into words what had happened before Tallstar lost his ninth life.

Too late, he remembered his quarrel with Squirrelflight; she obviously hadn’t forgotten, however, and interpreted his guarded response as reluctance to speak to her at all.

“Fine,” she mewed. She glanced coolly at him, then padded a couple of tail-lengths away before sitting down.

“Cats of all Clans, I have some very sad news,” Firestar began. “Tallstar has gone to hunt with StarClan.”

“Tallstar dead!” exclaimed Tornear. “He became leader before I was born. What will happen to WindClan without him?”

Beside him, his apprentice, Owlpaw, bowed his head, too overcome to speak. Mosspelt, a RiverClan queen, touched the young cat on his shoulder with the tip of her tail. “He was a noble cat,” she murmured. “He will be welcomed by StarClan, and walk with the best of them.”

From somewhere near the back a single voice rose up in a wail of grief. Brambleclaw echoed it in his heart.

“I was there when he died,” Firestar went on, with a glance at Brambleclaw, “and he said—”

He broke off as a mottled brown warrior thrust his way forward and halted at the foot of the stump. “What’s that?” he demanded, his eyes flashing anger. “Tallstar is dead? Why did no cat tell me?”

It was Mudclaw.

Firestar looked calmly down at the WindClan warrior. “Tallstar died just a few moments ago,” he meowed. “There’s been no chance to tell any cat.”

“Mudclaw, you’re our leader now,” meowed Webfoot. “We will all grieve for Tallstar, but we need you to help us settle in our new home.”

A murmur of agreement came from his Clanmates.

Mudclaw dipped his head in acknowledgment, but when he turned back to Firestar his eyes still gleamed with fury. “You should have come to find me before calling this meeting.

Why should a ThunderClan cat announce WindClan’s news?”

Firestar’s tail-tip twitched. “Tallstar wanted it to be this way. Listen to what I’m trying to tell you, please.” Addressing all the cats, not just Mudclaw, he went on: “Just before he died, Tallstar made Onewhisker his deputy.” His gaze swept over Brambleclaw, but he didn’t meet the warrior’s eye.

Brambleclaw’s fur prickled; was Firestar really willing to ignore the fact that Tallstar hadn’t used the right ceremony to appoint his new deputy?

“ What ?” Mudclaw screeched in disbelief.

“You mean Mudclaw isn’t our leader?” Webfoot queried.

He unsheathed his claws in confusion and sank them into the ground.

“Mouse dung to that!” A black WindClan she-cat drew her lips back in a snarl. “There’s no cat better able to lead the Clan.”

Brambleclaw listened uncomfortably. If it were up to him, he thought Onewhisker would make a better leader than Mudclaw, but he didn’t have the right to judge. And he could imagine exactly how Mudclaw must be feeling, to have the leadership he had been waiting for snatched out of his paws in a heartbeat.

Onewhisker looked down at Mudclaw. “This is as much of a shock to me as it is to you,” he meowed. “And I would like you to carry on being WindClan’s deputy. I’ll need your support and experience every pawstep of the way.”

Mudclaw’s neck fur bristled. “You don’t think I believe this load of fox dung, do you?” he spat. “Every cat knows that Tallstar practically handed our Clan over to Firestar before he left the forest. He’s always felt more loyalty to ThunderClan than they ever deserved. And now Firestar tells us that his friend Onewhisker is to be leader! Did any other cat witness this convenient change of mind?”

His paws heavy as stone, Brambleclaw padded forward until he stood beside Mudclaw. “I did.” The words stuck in his throat like a tough bit of fresh-kill. “I was there. I heard Tallstar make Onewhisker his deputy.”

He almost added, but he didn’t use the right words , then stopped himself. Firestar had said nothing about that.

The clearing and the tree stump faded away, and Brambleclaw was back in the ravine, an apprentice of less than seven moons, grudgingly searching the elders’ pelts for ticks. All the apprentices hated this duty, but sometimes it was made bearable by the chance to listen to stories about the old days in ThunderClan, before the apprentices were even born. As Brambleclaw fixed his teeth gingerly around a tick at the base of One-eye’s tail, he could hear the old cat talking to Dappletail about when Bluestar appointed Firestar—then called Fireheart—to be her deputy. The former deputy, Tigerclaw, had been revealed as a traitor who was plotting to kill his Clan leader—and Brambleclaw’s fur had crawled even then to hear his father spoken of in dark, grim tones.

Tigerclaw had been chased out of the camp, and Bluestar had appointed Fireheart in his place. But she had been so distressed by Tigerclaw’s treachery that she had delayed the ceremony until long after moonhigh, which was the time limit set down by the warrior code. Several cats in the Clan, even those who liked and respected the flame-colored warrior, had grave doubts about his right to be called deputy, and it had been many moons before Fireheart had proved himself worthy of taking Tigerclaw’s place.

Brambleclaw shook his head, jolting himself back to the copse on the lakeshore. His blood thickened icily in his veins.

There had been something wrong with Firestar’s deputy ceremony, just like Onewhisker’s! No wonder the ThunderClan leader wanted to defend Onewhisker when doubts were cast on his right to lead the Clan. If Firestar had ever had any doubts about his own position as deputy, he had kept them to himself; he obviously believed Onewhisker should do the same.