Erin Hunter - Midnight

“I took your advice, Ravenpaw,” Brambleclaw meowed. “I think StarClan sent me the dream because they want me to travel to the sun-drown place. These are the cats StarClan has chosen to go as well.”

“Or some of us are,” Crowpaw muttered disagreeably.

Brambleclaw ignored him, and introduced the rest of the cats to Ravenpaw and Barley. The older loner merely dipped his head in greeting and slid away into the shadowy depths of the barn.

“Don’t mind Barley,” Ravenpaw meowed. “It’s not often we have so many visitors all at once. So this is Squirrelpaw,” he went on, touching noses to greet the young apprentice.

“Firestar’s daughter! I’ve seen you before, when you were a kit in the nursery with Sandstorm, but you won’t remember that. I said then that you would look just like your father, and now I see I was right.”

Squirrelpaw scuffled her paws in embarrassment; Brambleclaw guessed she was for once lost for words to meet this cat who had played such a large part in the history of her Clan.

“What does Firestar think about the journey?” Ravenpaw asked Brambleclaw. “I’m surprised he let Squirrelpaw go so far when she isn’t a warrior yet.”

Brambleclaw and Squirrelpaw exchanged an uneasy glance.

“It wasn’t quite like that,” Brambleclaw admitted. “We left without telling him.”

Ravenpaw’s eyes widened with shock, and for a heartbeat Brambleclaw wondered if he would send them away again.

But Ravenpaw only shook his head. “I’m sorry to hear that you couldn’t tell him what’s going on,” he meowed. “Perhaps you’ll tell me more when you’ve eaten. Are you all hungry?”

“Starving!” Squirrelpaw exclaimed.

A mrrow of laughter escaped Ravenpaw. “Feel free to hunt,” he invited them. “There are plenty of mice.”

A short time later, Brambleclaw was curled up comfortably in the straw, his stomach stuffed full of mice that had almost lined up to leap into his mouth. If Ravenpaw and Barley ate like this every day, it was no wonder they looked so strong and healthy.

His companions were sprawled around him, equally full and growing sleepy as the sun went down, sending shafts of red light through the holes in the barn roof. All around they could hear scuffling noises and faint squeaking in the straw, as if their hunt had made no difference at all to the number of prey.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll sleep here tonight and leave first thing in the morning,” Brambleclaw meowed.

Ravenpaw nodded. “I’ll come with you as far as Highstones.” Before Brambleclaw could protest that there was no need, he went on, “There are even more Twolegs than before around the Thunderpath. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, so I know the safest ways to go.”

Brambleclaw thanked him, only to feel Crowpaw shift closer to him and mutter into his ear, “Can we trust him?”

Ravenpaw’s ear twitched; he had obviously heard the remark. Brambleclaw thought he was going to sink through the floor with embarrassment, and Squirrelpaw lifted her head to aim a furious hiss at Crowpaw.

“Don’t be angry with him,” Ravenpaw meowed. “That’s good thinking, Crowpaw. Thinking like a warrior, in fact.

Where you’re going, you must trust nothing and no cat without very good reason.”

Crowpaw ducked his head, looking pleased at the loner’s praise.

“But you can trust me,” Ravenpaw continued. “I may not be able to do much to help with the rest of your journey, but at least I can see that you get to Highstones safely.”

Wind struck Brambleclaw squarely in the face, flattening his pelt to his sides and almost carrying him off his paws. When he unsheathed his claws to steady himself, they scraped against bare rock. He and his companions were standing on the summit of Highstones, gazing out over endless, unknown territories.

They had set out in the first faint light of dawn and reached the stony slopes well before sunhigh, led swiftly by Ravenpaw. He stood beside Brambleclaw now, his ears pricked into the distance.

“You’ll avoid that tangle of Thunderpaths,” he meowed, pointing with his tail to the thick gray smudge in the landscape. “Just as well. That’s the place where WindClan took refuge when Brokenstar drove them out. It’s full of rats and carrion.”

“I know about that!” Squirrelpaw put in. “Graystripe told me how he and Firestar went to fetch WindClan back.”

“There are many smaller Thunderpaths to cross,” Ravenpaw went on. “And Twoleg nests to avoid. I’ve traveled that way now and again—not far, but far enough to know that it’s not a place for warriors.”

Squirrelpaw shot a nervous glance at Ravenpaw. “Is there no more forest at all?” she asked.

“Not that I saw.”

“Don’t worry,” Brambleclaw meowed reassuringly. “I’ll look after you.”

To his surprise she whirled on him, the light of fury in her green eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you, I don’t need looking after!” she spat. “If you’re going to behave like Firestar all the way to the sun-drown place, I might as well have stayed at home.”

“Oh, don’t we wish,” Crowpaw murmured, rolling his eyes.

Tawnypelt gave Squirrelpaw a curious glance. “Are you going to let an apprentice talk to you like that?” she asked her brother.

Brambleclaw shrugged. “You try stopping her.”

His sister’s ears twitched. “ThunderClan!”

Feathertail exchanged a glance with Stormfur, and then padded up to Squirrelpaw’s side. “I’m nervous, too,” she admitted. “I get shivers all along my spine when I think of being so close to all those Twolegs. But StarClan will bring us through.”

Squirrelpaw nodded, though her eyes were still troubled.

“If you’ve all quite finished,” Crowpaw mewed loudly, “it’s time we were moving.”

“Okay.” Brambleclaw turned to Ravenpaw. “Thank you for everything,” he meowed. “It makes a difference that you understand why we are doing this.”

The loner dipped his head. “Think nothing of it. Good luck, all of you, and may StarClan light your path.”

He stood aside, and one by one the six cats began to pick their way down the far slope of the hill. The rising sun cast long blue shadows in front of them as they took the first steps on the longest journey of their lives.

Brambleclaw heaved a sigh of relief to come down from Highstones and feel grass under his paws again. They were alone now, a tiny band of cats in a vast, unknown territory. Ravenpaw had pointed out a path across fields divided by sharp, shiny Twoleg fences, and there were many scents of Twolegs and dogs, though none of them were fresh. Wooly faced sheep stared at the traveling cats as they slipped past, their heads low and their ears flat, uncomfortable at being out in the open.

“You’d think they’d never seen a cat before,” Stormfur grunted.

“Maybe they haven’t,” Tawnypelt replied. “There’s no reason for cats to come here. I haven’t had so much as a sniff of prey since we left the barn.”

“Well, I’ve never seen a sheep before,” Squirrelpaw pointed out. She padded a little closer to the nearest one, and Brambleclaw unobtrusively moved up behind her; as far as he knew sheep were not dangerous, but he was taking no chances. Squirrelpaw paused a tail-length away, took a good sniff, and wrinkled her nose. “Yuck! They might look like fluffy clouds on legs, but they smell horrible!”

Tawnypelt yawned. “Can we get on , for the love of StarClan?”