Midnight

Chapter 24

Swiftpaw shoved Squirrelpaw behind him, spitting furiously at the massive creature. Anger coursed through Squirrelpaw. All their visions and dreams, and signs from StarClan, journeying to the place Squirrelpaw had seen, only to be led straight to their deaths. What use was faith and courage, when StarClan deceived them and were letting them die, far from their homes?

Crowpaw flattened himself to the ground just a tail-length in front of Swiftpaw and was creeping forward with his teeth bared in a snarl. Stormfur was edging around the badger to attack it from the side. The rest of them were frozen stiff. Even all seven of them, weak and starving and worn out by the water, were no match for a badger. Caught as they were by the choking waves, it would not be long before they were ripped to shreds by blunt claws and snapping teeth.

"We should never have come here," Squirrelpaw muttered, curling into herself.

The badger stopped at the edge of the shadow that filled the back of the cave. Its powerful shoulders were hunched and its claws scraped on rock. Its head swung to and fro, the white stripe glimmering, as if it were deciding who to attack first. Squirrelpaw stiffened as its gaze zeroed in on her, as if sensing that she was the most fearful.

Then it spoke.

"Midnight has come."

Squirrelpaw's mouth fell open, and for a moment she believed she really did die and this was all some strange afterlife. A badger, speaking to them, in words they could understand. . . She watched it in disbelief, her heart threatening to burst from her chest.

"I am Midnight." The badger's voice was deep and rasping, like the sound of the pebbles turning under the waves. "With you I must speak."

"Mouse dung!" Crowpaw spat. The WindClan apprentice was still crouched, ready to spring. "Make one move and you'll have my claws in your eyes."

"No, Crowpaw, wait—"

The badger's throaty laugh interrupted Brambletuft, whose bristling fur counteracted his tone. "Fierce, is he not? StarClan have chosen well. But there will be no clawing this day. Here is talk, not fight."

Squirrelpaw and her friends grouped together, all of them uncertain with the strange turn of events. Crowpaw said what they were all thinking. "Are we really going to trust it?"

"What else can we do?" Feathertail responded, blinking. "It's a talking badger, one that knows of StarClan no less. Perhaps we should hear it out."

Squirrelpaw leaned to size up the badger. It was smaller than the one she'd seen at Snakerocks, but no less dangerous. Believing what it said went against everything she'd ever been told. Yet so far it hadn't made a move to attack them, and Squirrelpaw thought she could see a glimmer of amusement in its black gaze.

She turned back to her friends. Crowpaw, Swiftpaw, Feathertail, and Stormfur might be able to fight well, but she and Brambletuft were worn out from the water, and Tawnypelt had sunk to the floor of the cave with her injured shoulder held awkwardly, and hardly seemed conscious anymore.

"Come," the badger rasped. "All night we cannot wait."

If there was one thing Squirrelpaw knew, it was that this was no ordinary badger, even if she's only ever seen one badger before this one. Never before had she heard of a badger speaking in a language that cats can understand—still less one that spoke of StarClan, as if she knew more of their wishes than any cat alive.

"Feathertail could be right," Squirrelpaw meowed, turning back. "If it wanted to, it would've turned us all into crowfood by now. Besides, the cats who visited us told us to listen to what midnight tells us. They must've not meant a time at all." Turning back to the badger, she asked loudly, "You are Midnight? Do you know about our dreams?"