Эрин Хантер - Firestar’s Quest

“Yes.” The former SkyClan leader dipped his head.

“Thank you, Firestar. You have done all you can to rebuild and protect SkyClan once more. Now it’s up to the new SkyClan cats.”

Firestar took a deep breath. “But how can Leafdapple receive nine lives if you’re the only cat here?”

The gray-and-white cat raised his tail commandingly, and Firestar fell silent. He watched the SkyClan ancestor step lightly over the moorland grass to face Leafdapple.

“Do you believe in what is about to happen?” he asked her.

Leafdapple’s panic-stricken gaze flew to Firestar and back to the StarClan cat. “I… I think so,” she stammered. “At least, Firestar says you’re going to give me nine lives, and I believe him.”

A flicker of sadness passed across the pale warrior’s face.

“That will have to be enough,” he mewed. “Come, and I will give you your first life.”

Leafdapple took a step forward so that she stood right in front of the SkyClan ancestor. He bowed his head and touched his nose to hers. Leafdapple stiffened and flinched away, then deliberately moved back so that the SkyClan cat could touch her again.

“I give you a life for endurance,” he meowed. “Use it well to strengthen your Clan in times of trouble.”

As the SkyClan ancestor finished speaking, Firestar saw all Leafdapple’s limbs spasm, and her jaws gaped in a soundless wail of agony. His belly clenched in sympathy; he remembered the terrible pain he had felt when he received his own lives.

“Does it hurt?” Echosong whispered, her eyes wide with shock. “Can’t we help her?”

Firestar shook his head. “This is for Leafdapple to bear alone.”

Leafdapple trembled as the pain ebbed away, but she stayed on her paws. “Firestar”—she gasped—“do I have to do that eight more times?”

“It’s okay,” Firestar comforted her. “Not all the lives will feel the same.”

The she-cat had a dazed look in her eyes, and a touch of resentment in her voice as she mewed, “You never said it would be like this.” She shook her head in mingled astonishment and wonder. Firestar guessed that no cat could go through what she had just endured and still doubt that the experience was real. “I wish we could just get it over with.”

“It won’t be long,” Firestar promised.

“Look!” Echosong exclaimed, whirling around. “Leafdapple, can you see?”

“I-I think so,” the tabby she-cat mewed.

A row of cats was appearing faintly through the mist. They encircled the three living cats and the SkyClan ancestor, their outlines indistinct in the drifting clouds. Then one of them strode forward: Skywatcher. Not the scrawny elder who had died in the gorge, but as Firestar had last seen him in his dream, a strong and powerful warrior.

Leafdapple’s eyes stretched wide. “Skywatcher,” she whispered. “Is that you?”

Skywatcher touched noses with her. “Welcome, Leafdapple.

I give you a life for hope,” he meowed. “Use it well to guide your Clan through the darkest days.”

Once more Leafdapple tensed as the life surged through her. Firestar could see that the pain was not so great this time, or perhaps she knew what to expect and had braced herself against it. She recovered more quickly, dipping her head to Skywatcher. “Thank you,” she murmured. “Thank you for all you have done for my Clan.”

Skywatcher stepped back noiselessly to stand with the ranks of misty warriors.

Leafdapple gazed with expectation at the circle of cats whose shapes were gradually becoming more distinct. “I’m ready,” she mewed.

The third cat to appear was a tabby she-cat so like Leafdapple that Firestar could hardly tell them apart. She bounded forward and touched noses with Leafdapple: a gesture of pure affection, not the giving of a life.

“My mother!” Leafdapple exclaimed. “But you died… I thought I’d never see you again.”

“Nothing is lost forever, dear one,” her mother replied.

Once again she touched noses with her daughter. “With this life I give you love. Use it well for all the cats who look to you for protection.”

Leafdapple had stretched forward eagerly to receive this life, and Firestar could see she was unprepared for the piercing agony that came with it. Her limbs went rigid and she dug her claws into the ground, clenching her teeth on a screech of pain. He had experienced the same anguish when Brindleface had given him a life; he had not realized how fierce was a mother’s love for her kits, how willing a she-cat was to die to protect her children.

As Leafdapple’s pain ebbed, her mother covered her face and ears with loving licks.

“Don’t go,” Leafdapple whispered.

“Don’t be afraid, dear one,” her mother reassured her. “I will walk with you many times in dreams, I promise.”

As she stepped back, a fourth cat was already walking forward. Firestar caught his breath at a familiar scent, but one he had never expected to smell here. The shape of the cat’s head reminded him of the SkyClan ancestor. Then as she emerged fully from the mist he recognized the slender tortoiseshell.

“Spottedleaf!”

She bounded forward and touched noses with him.

“Thank you, Firestar,” she mewed. “I’m so proud of you! SkyClan owes everything to you. I never told you how much it means to me to see the Clan restored.”

Firestar breathed in her sweet scent. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Spottedleaf.”

The medicine cat dipped her head to him. “I have been given the privilege to walk these skies to give Leafdapple her fourth life.” Approaching the tabby she-cat, she went on. “I give you a life for healing wounds caused by words and rivalry.

Use it well for all cats troubled in spirit.”

This time Firestar could see that there was no pain as the life flowed into Leafdapple. The she-cat let out a blissful purr, her eyes narrowed; for a few heartbeats she looked like a kit in the nursery, safe inside the curve of her mother’s paws and belly.

“Thank you, Spottedleaf,” she mewed when it was over.

“Firestar has told me so much about you. I’m honored to meet you at last.”

The medicine cat brushed her tail softly along Leafdapple’s pelt, then withdrew once more to the edge of the circle.

Firestar could see that the mist was growing thinner. More of the moorland was opening up, and the moonlight grew stronger, though the moon itself remained hidden. More and more cats were revealed, stretching into the distance. A shiver ran through Firestar, as if his paws splashed into icy water.

As if she felt it too, Echosong pressed against him for a moment. “They’re coming home,” she whispered. “All the ancestors of SkyClan. I can hear them.”

Before Firestar could reply, the cats in the front rank parted to allow four new cats into the center of the circle. He gazed at them, puzzled. They looked vaguely familiar, yet they didn’t remind him of SkyClan. They looked nothing like any of the other cats who had given lives. They walked with head and tail high, with all the authority of leaders, yet he had never seen them before, and didn’t understand why they should come now to give a life to Leafdapple.

Instead of approaching the she-cat, the newcomers padded over to the SkyClan ancestor, who was staring at them with wide eyes. As the first cat, a muscular bracken-colored tom, drew closer, he gasped. “Redstar!”

To Firestar’s astonishment, the bracken-colored cat stood in front of the SkyClan ancestor with his head bowed. “I was wrong all those moons ago,” he meowed. “All of ThunderClan joins with me to tell you we’re sorry for what we did.”

Firestar stared: this cat must have been the ThunderClan leader when SkyClan was driven out of the forest.