Starlight

Chapter 20

Brambletuft halted at the edge of the lake and gazed across the stream into ShadowClan's territory. The pine forest on the far side of the stream was a blue-black shadow against the heavy gray sky. No cats were in sight, but the damp wind brought a powerful reek toward him: the old, familiar ShadowClan scent, nearly as strong as it had ever been.

It was one more sign that all the cats were settling into their new territories. An even more powerful sign was the discovery of the Moonpool. Early that morning Cinderpelt and the newly named Leafpool had returned from the medicine cats' first meeting with StarClan, and in two nights' time Mudclaw would receive the nine lives of a leader at last.

Squirrelflight had chosen to stay behind from the journey cats' meeting last night in favor of waiting with Cloudtail for their sister. The other cats had understood immediately, though Crow- feather in particular looked really upset that she wasn't there. A pleasant surprise for all of them, though, was that Feathertail was now expecting Hawkfrost's kits. Brambletuft felt pride that he'd now have even more kin in RiverClan and that his old friend was mates with his half brother.

"Yuck!" exclaimed Rainwhisker, breaking him from his thoughts. "I'll never get used to the way ShadowClan smells. It's like a fox that's been dead for a moon."

"I don't suppose they're too keen on our scent, either," Brambletuft pointed out.

A splash and a startled yowl behind him interrupted him. He glanced around to see Spiderleg standing in the lake with water lapping halfway up his legs.

"Great StarClan, what are you doing?"

Spiderleg waded back to the shore, hanging his head in embarrassment. "I saw a fish," he explained, and added unnecessarily, "It got away."

Brambletuft sighed. "You don't catch fish like that. Remind me sometime to give you a lesson. Feathertail taught us when we were on our journey." The familiar ache that he would never hunt beside the beautiful RiverClan she-cat tugged at his heart. "Come on; we'd better finish patrolling this border."

He turned to head upstream, and stopped when he caught sight of something moving on the ShadowClan side. A dark gray cat had emerged from the trees and was racing along the lakeshore toward him. Brambletuft's eyes widened in surprise when he recognized Mistyfoot. What was a RiverClan cat doing in ShadowClan territory?

"Brambletuft, wait!" she yowled. She splashed through the stream as if it weren't there and skidded to a halt in front of him, panting. "I've got to talk to Skystar right away."

Spiderleg stepped forward, his neck fur bristling. "What are you doing on our territory?"

"Yeah, let's chase her off," Rainwhisker growled.

Brambletuft flicked his tail irritably at the two younger warriors. "We're not chasing her anywhere. This is Mistyfoot—remember? She's been a good friend to ThunderClan and Skystar would be furious with us if we did."

"Thanks, Brambletuft." Mistyfoot dipped her head, though there was still a wild look in her eyes, as if she'd seen something that terrified her. "Please take me to Skystar."

"Okay." Brambletuft couldn't think what might be so urgent, but he knew Mistyfoot wasn't the sort of cat to make a fuss about nothing. "You two carry on with the patrol," he told the others. "Watch out for Twolegs, and when you get as far as the dead tree, make sure the ShadowClan scent marks are where they're supposed to be."

Rainwhisker and Spiderleg exchanged a glance, as if they weren't sure they wanted to leave Brambletuft and Mistyfoot together, but neither of them said anything. They set off upstream; Rainwhisker kept looking back as if he expected Mistyfoot to attack Brambletuft as soon as his back was turned.