Эрин Хантер - Ravenpaw’s Farewell

Barley glanced at the warriors who had started to emerge from dens and behind rocks at the bottom of the valley.

“Don’t worry, you’re quite safe,” Echosong told him.

“Hawkpaw will look after you.”

A sturdy little cat with sleek gray fur and piercing yellow eyes who had just come out of a den nodded. “Absolutely,” he promised.

“Thank you,” Echosong meowed. “Let me know if Ebonyclaw arrives and needs you to do something else.”

She went on to Ravenpaw, “Ebonyclaw is a daylight warrior, so she’s not here yet. Hawkpaw is her apprentice.”

“He seems very committed,” Ravenpaw remarked.

Echosong nodded. “He is. As long as we keep him away from Billystorm’s apprentice, Pebblepaw. The two of them do not get along!”

They left Barley, Riley, and Bella standing rather awkwardly with the gray apprentice and continued up the path. It led past several small caves—warrior dens, Ravenpaw guessed from the scents that wafted out—to a ledge where three cats sat: Leafstar, a ginger-and-white tom with a broad, handsome face, and a dark ginger tom whose gaze raked Ravenpaw’s pelt as he approached.

Leafstar dipped her head. “Ravenpaw. I wasn’t expecting to see you again.” She indicated the cats beside her, the scowling dark ginger tom first. “This is Sharpclaw, my deputy. And this is Billystorm. Whatever you have to tell me, you can say in front of them.”

Ravenpaw took a deep breath and hoped the warriors couldn’t hear his heart pounding. “I want to help you with the kittypet, er… problem. We saw what happened last night, and I think there’s a way you could stop it.”

Sharpclaw stood up, hackles raised. “So you were trespassing?” he growled.

“We were on the cliff top, on the other side of your border marks,” Ravenpaw replied, trying not to let his paws shake.

“Sit down, Sharpclaw,” Leafstar mewed.

The ginger tom slowly folded his hind legs beneath him.

“Those kittypets are a nuisance, nothing more,” he rasped.

“We’re not afraid of them.”

“But they must be taught to respect your boundaries,” Ravenpaw meowed. “You cannot let them come into the heart of your camp!”

“We’re hardly welcoming them in!” Billystorm pointed out.

Leafstar raised one paw. “Do you think you know a way to keep them out of the camp, Ravenpaw?” Her tone was light, as if she was prepared to listen to him out of politeness.

Ravenpaw stood up and unsheathed his front claws to mark a shape on the sandy ledge. With a few swift lines he made a circle with ripples spreading outward, just like the pattern in the moonlit pool in his dream.

“This is your camp,” he explained, pointing to the circle in the center. “But the boundaries need to be much farther out, to keep trespassers at a safe distance.” He rested his paw on the outermost ripple. “This is the point that you need to defend, halfway across the empty ground between your camp and the Twoleg dens. If you make that your boundary, and prove to the kittypets that you will not let them cross, then your home will be safe.”

“Who are you to tell us about boundaries?” Sharpclaw huffed. “You’re not even a Clan cat.”

But Leafstar nodded, staring down at the marks in the sand. “You mean we should move our boundary back from the edge of the gorge? Yes, I can see there is sense in that. It will be harder to patrol because there are so few points to place markers out there, but it would certainly protect the gorge.” She looked up at Ravenpaw. “How would you teach the kittypets to stay away from the new boundary?”

Ravenpaw gulped. Memories of his time in ThunderClan whirled in his head: patrols, checking border marks, training with Tigerclaw… “Constant patrols along the new border, all night, until the kittypets learn exactly where it lies,” he meowed. “Your warriors will need to rest during the day, but perhaps the daylight cats can take over duties then? You might only need a constant patrol for one night, if you fight hard enough.”

“We always fight hard enough!” Sharpclaw snarled.

Ravenpaw blinked. “Before sunhigh today, you must set markers along the new boundary. Build places to mark, if you must, from branches or piles of stones. Then rest until dusk, when every warrior and apprentice must take their place along the border. The kittypets must not be allowed to set one paw across the line.” He stopped, panting. His belly was gripped by a spasm, and he tried hard not to curl into a ball to ease it.

Leafstar studied Ravenpaw with a thoughtful gleam in her eyes. “Once again, ThunderClan comes to help us,” she mewed.

“Oh, I’m not ThunderClan anymore,” Ravenpaw replied.

Leafstar didn’t say anything. Instead she stood up and padded down the path to the bottom of the gorge, then leaped gracefully onto the boulder. “SkyClan, gather here!” she yowled.

Ravenpaw limped down behind Sharpclaw and Billystorm to join Barley. The black-and-white cat regarded him with concern, but Ravenpaw just nodded toward Leafstar, who was explaining the plan to expand the Clan’s boundaries. Her Clanmates listened in silence, with frequent glances at the visitors. When Leafstar had finished, she beckoned to Ravenpaw with her tail. Ravenpaw gulped.

“Go on!” Bella squeaked, bouncing on her paws with excitement.

Ravenpaw stayed where he was—he didn’t think he could jump anywhere with this pain in his belly—and turned to face the crowd of cats. “You are stronger than you realize,” he began, raising his voice in spite of the throbbing inside him.

There were a few indignant murmurs.

“You know nothing about how strong we are!”

“Come here and fight if you think we’re so weak!”

Ravenpaw carried on. “Unlike kittypets, you have your warrior ancestors on your side, and your faith in the warrior code to keep you strong. You have to make an invisible boundary visible—and painful —to the kittypets who show you no respect.” He drew another breath. “They are not warriors! They will not win!”

“They are not warriors! They will not win!” echoed the cats, and Ravenpaw sagged with relief. Leafstar met his gaze and nodded.

Sharpclaw bounded onto the rock and began dividing the cats into patrols to trace out the boundary and create new markers far back from the edge of the cliff. To Ravenpaw’s surprise, he paused and growled at Riley and Bella, “I suppose you want to help too?”

The young cats nodded so hard their ears flapped.

Sharpclaw flicked his tail at Riley. “You go with Cherrytail, Waspwhisker, and Dustpaw to pile up stones for the new markers.” Riley ran over to join the patrol.

Sharpclaw gestured to Bella. “You can help Bouncefire and Blossompaw fetch sticks from the woods.”

“What about the daylight warriors?” Plumwillow called from the middle of the crowd. “Are they going to do all the regular duties so we can rest before the fight?”

A slender black-and-white tom popped his head up.

“We’ll do all that, and stay to fight,” he declared. Around him, several cats nodded. “We are SkyClan as much as you are! This is our battle too!”

“Thank you, Macgyver,” Sharpclaw meowed.

“I’ve been invited to join a hunting patrol,” Barley murmured in Ravenpaw’s ear. “But you need to get some rest.”

Ravenpaw opened his mouth to object, but Barley went on. “I can see you’re in pain. Don’t lie to me, please. Just look after yourself while I help with the fresh-kill pile.”

Ravenpaw nodded. “I’ll be here when you get back,” he promised.

He watched the black-and-white cat trot over to a patrol that included Firefern. The ginger she-cat greeted him frostily, but a brown tom seemed more welcoming and fell in beside Barley as they padded out of the camp.