Эрин Хантер - Bramblestar’s Storm

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Bramblestar reminded him.

“No, but it will.” Firestar’s green eyes glowed. “You have done well.”

“Really?” Bramblestar found that hard to believe. “Even by fighting ShadowClan’s battle for them?”

“You did what you thought was right,” Firestar told him.

No , Bramblestar thought. I did what I thought you would think was right .

“Those badgers could have caused trouble for ThunderClan,” Firestar went on.

“I don’t know that for sure,” Bramblestar meowed. “Rowanstar is angry with me.”

Firestar let out a long sigh. “So few cats understand how important it is for us to share dangers between all the Clans.”

Bramblestar was puzzled. How could that be reconciled with keeping each Clan safe and independent, the way the Clans had lived for season upon season? “But each Clan leader is responsible for their own Clan, right?” he checked. “It’s not up to us to make decisions for other Clans.”

Firestar fixed him with an intense green gaze. He sat down in the middle of the clearing and gestured with his tail for Bramblestar to sit beside him. “There’s something you need to know,” he began. “When I had been leader of ThunderClan for just a few moons, Bluestar came to me and told me about a terrible mistake that the four Clans had made a long time ago: that they allowed a fifth Clan to leave the forest.”

Bramblestar stared at him in astonishment. “A fifth Clan? But there isn’t a fifth Clan!”

“Once there was,” Firestar continued. “They were called SkyClan, and their territory in the old forest lay next to ThunderClan’s. Their skill was hunting aboveground in the trees, snatching birds from the air. They were strong and well respected. But the Twolegs began to build more dens, and they destroyed SkyClan’s territory to make room for them.”

Every hair on Bramblestar’s pelt prickled. “Just like the Twolegs did to us,” he breathed, “when the old forest was cut down and we had to make the Great Journey to find a new home by the lake.”

Firestar nodded. “Exactly like that. SkyClan’s leader, Cloudstar, asked the other Clan leaders to change the borders of their territories so that they would still have somewhere to live. The other leaders refused. SkyClan had no choice but to leave the forest and travel until they found somewhere else they could settle.”

“What happened to them then?” Bramblestar felt like a kit begging the elders for a story.

“They made their home in a gorge where the forest river rises. But there were dangers that they never expected, and SkyClan almost died out, until cats began to settle in the gorge again, and StarClan sent me and Sandstorm to help them form a new SkyClan.”

“So that’s where you went!” Bramblestar exclaimed. “That time you disappeared for moons and left Graystripe to lead the Clan.”

Firestar dipped his head. “That’s right. And it wasn’t easy, let me tell you.”

Bramblestar’s head spun. How had the Clans kept this massive secret for so long? “What about SkyClan now? Did they survive?”

“I don’t know,” Firestar admitted. “They have their own warrior ancestors, and I can’t see them from my StarClan, though Cloudstar once visited me here. But I have faith in Leafstar, the cat who became their leader, and her deputy, Sharpclaw, and their medicine cat, Echosong. And if they follow the warrior code, it will protect them.” He paused for a moment, memories flickering in his eyes like minnows in a stream. “The four leaders who drove SkyClan out realized that they had been wrong,” he meowed. “They came to Leafstar and each gave her one of her nine lives. It was more than an apology: It was an acknowledgment that one Clan cannot survive alone, that we owe the others a debt that is greater than we know. And that proved to me what I’ve known all along: that the safety of each Clan depends on all the others.”

Bramblestar began to understand why Firestar had told him this story, but he didn’t dare to interrupt.

“Fighting the badgers was your chance to do the right thing,” Firestar told him, “to save ShadowClan from being driven out of their territory altogether. The Clans traveled a long way to find this home. We can’t lose it now. It’s not up to any one Clan to protect the others; all of us have to fight together to survive.”

“Like in the Great Battle,” Bramblestar meowed.

“Exactly!”

“Tell me more about SkyClan,” Bramblestar went on, his pelt pricking with curiosity about these cats he had never heard of before. “Did they—?”

He broke off as the sun began to rise above the treetops, spilling warm light into the hollow. Firestar’s flame-colored form was already beginning to fade.

“There is one other cat who knows what happened with SkyClan,” he mewed; the words seemed to come from an immense distance as the last glimmer of his green eyes vanished. “If you have any more questions, ask her.”

Bramblestar woke to find his cats stirring around him, heading out of the tunnel in their eagerness to begin the new day. Firestar’s last words echoed in his ears.

I know which cat he meant .

Following his Clanmates out of the tunnel, he padded over to Squirrelflight, who was starting to organize the first patrols. “Don’t put me in a patrol just yet,” he meowed. “There’s something I have to do first.”

Squirrelflight nodded. “No problem.”

A paw poked Bramblestar in the side, and he turned to see Jessy. “Hey,” she protested. “I thought we were going hunting this morning.”

Bramblestar dipped his head. “I know. But this is important. We’ll go later, okay?”

Jessy gave him a light flick with her tail, and bounded off to join Frankie, Cloudtail, and Millie. Bramblestar watched her go, then went to look for Sandstorm. He found her sitting in a patch of sunlight near the mudpile. Jayfeather had just dropped a spray of leaves at her paws.

“But I’m perfectly capable of joining a patrol,” Sandstorm was objecting. “I’m hardly coughing at all.”

“You’re capable when I say you are,” Jayfeather retorted. “Now eat the tansy and get some rest.”

Sandstorm sighed, rolling her eyes, but she licked up the leaves without any more argument. Bramblestar padded up as Jayfeather disappeared into the tunnel again.

“Firestar visited me in a dream last night,” he announced as he sat down beside the pale ginger she-cat.

Joy glowed in Sandstorm’s green eyes. “That’s wonderful!” she exclaimed. “I dream about Firestar all the time, but it’s not the same as a real visit.”

“I know he’s watching over you,” Bramblestar assured her. “He sent me to talk to you.”

“Oh?” Sandstorm’s whiskers twitched. “What about?”

“In my dream, he told me about SkyClan. I wanted to know more, and he said that you were the cat I should ask.”

“SkyClan… oh, yes.” Sandstorm reached out with her forepaws to give herself a good stretch. “That was an amazing time! So scary… but it was fun, too, and what we did was important.”

“Tell me about it,” Bramblestar urged her.

Sandstorm described how the former SkyClan leader, Cloudstar, had visited Firestar in a dream and given him the task of traveling upriver to discover the remains of his Clan. “When we came to the gorge where the river rises, it seemed empty at first. But we learned that an old cat came to sit on the rocks at every full moon to watch the stars and speak to the spirits of his ancestors. His name was Sky.”

“And he was the last surviving cat of SkyClan?” Bramblestar asked, fascinated.

Sandstorm shook her head. “No, but his mother’s mother was born into the Clan. She passed down the warrior code to her daughter, who passed it down to Sky.”