Эрин Хантер - Hawkwing’s Journey

“Us too!” Finpaw demanded, bouncing up to Blossomheart, while Dewpaw skidded to a halt in front of M acgyver.

All three mentors led their apprentices to a flat grassy area at the side of the camp, where Blossomheart began demonstrating the hunter’s crouch.

As he watched them go, listening to their eager chatter, a familiar hollowness swelled inside Hawkwing. These are not my kits, he reminded himself. They will always have a place in my heart, but they can’t truly fill the hole Pebbleshine and our kits have left behind.

His paws led him to the top of a rocky bluff overlooking the camp. Wind ruffling his fur, Hawkwing raised his head to gaze at the sky, where the clouds were rapidly clearing.

What will fill my heart, then? Hawkwing asked himself. He didn’t feel the despair he had struggled with all leaf-bare, but he also didn’t have any answer to his question.

“M y brave warrior, with the wings of a hawk.” Echosong padded up beside him and settled down with her paws tucked under her. She met his gaze, curiosity in her green eyes. “What do you see when you look at the horizon?” she asked.

Hawkwing gazed out across the vista of rolling hills and trees, and considered the medicine cat’s words. There was only one honest answer. “The future,” he replied.

“That’s no small task,” Echosong responded, “after the tragedies we’ve all suffered. It takes a strong cat to see the future, instead of getting lost in the past.”

Hawkwing looked down at her. “Do you think we’ll find the other Clans?”

“I know we will, for StarClan has told me so,” Echosong replied. “And they’ve told me something else, too.”

Hawkwing waited curiously, but for a few heartbeats Echosong didn’t go on.

“After I went back to sleep,” she continued at last, “I had a vision of a young she-cat who looked exactly like you, Hawkwing.

At her paws was a maple leaf, and she nodded down to its five points. Do you know what that means?”

Hawkwing stared at her, stunned. What could that mean? “She looked just like me?” he stammered. “Then… she… could she be my kin?”

Echosong nodded sagely. “Your kin… or perhaps even your kit.”

A wave of fierce emotion washed over Hawkwing, almost carrying him off his paws. Could my kits really be part of my future? It’s what I want most in the world—but I never dreamed it could be possible.

“You deserve happiness, after everything you’ve suffered,” Echosong meowed. “It has been a long, difficult journey, but it has made you into a very strong cat—the very cat your Clan needs most.”

“Thank you,” Hawkwing meowed fervently.

Side by side, he and Echosong turned to look out at the sky.

The clouds had cleared away, and the sun shone in a vast expanse of crystal blue.

A fragile hope began to bloom inside Hawkwing. If one of my kits is alive, then surely Pebbleshine is, too. For the first time he began to believe that everything his Clan had suffered would prove worth it in the end.

We aren’t home by the lake yet, Hawkwing thought, but for the first time in a long while, I believe we will be soon.

READ ON FOR AN EXCLUSIVE MANGA

ADVENTURE…

CREATED BY

ERIN HUNTER

WRITTEN BY

DAN JOLLEY

ART BY

JAM ES L. BARRY