TWILIGHT

Webfoot’s eyes burned. “I wasn’t the only cat to believe Mudclaw was our rightful leader,” he snarled. “But since StarClan killed him with the falling tree, and gave Onestar his nine lives and his name, I know that I was wrong.”

“If Onestar trusts him he’s got bees in his brain.” Squirrelflight dropped back to mutter in Ashfur’s ear. “If I was Onestar, I’d watch my tail.”

To her relief, she spotted Crowfeather appear over the rim of the hollow, dragging the rabbit’s body. Even though the WindClan warrior was as prickly as a holly bush, he wouldn’t be as cold and suspicious as Webfoot among his old friends.

“Hi, Crowfeather,” she meowed. “Good catch!”

To her surprise, the dark grey warrior gave her a curt nod and glanced away without saying anything. He kept his jaws clamped on his fresh-kill, his nostrils flaring.

“If that’s all,” Webfoot meowed, “you can all go home.”

“Don’t tell us what to do on our own territory!” Squirrelflight snapped.

“Leave it,” Brambleclaw warned in a low growl. Squirrelflight knew he was right—this was not the time to pick a fight, however hostile the WindClan cats were being.

Webfoot and the other WindClan warriors watched silently from their side of the stream as Brambleclaw turned and led his patrol back towards camp. Squirrelflight felt the WindClan cats’ gaze pricking her pelt all the way down the hill, and when she glanced back at the edge of the trees, the four cats were still there. She bounded forward, not stopping until she had put a thick bramble thicket between herself and WindClan.

“Thank StarClan!” She skidded to a halt in a clearing and shook herself as if she had just climbed out of icy water. “I don’t know what’s got into them.”

“Me neither,” Rainwhisker agreed.

“I would have thought it was obvious,” Brambleclaw meowed. “WindClan don’t want to be allied with ThunderClan anymore. Everything’s different now.”

“After all we did for them!” Squirrelflight’s frustration and anxiety spilled over into anger; she couldn’t believe Brambleclaw was accepting WindClan’s new hostility without question. “I was a whisker from clawing Webfoot’s ears off back there.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” Brambleclaw pointed out dryly. “There’s more than one cat in ThunderClan who’d say that Firestar shouldn’t interfere in another Clan’s business.”

“Mouse dung! Does that mean you think Firestar should have done nothing, and just let Mudclaw take over?” Squirrelflight sprang forward, but before she could reach Brambleclaw, Ashfur pushed his way between them.

“There’s no need for this,” he meowed. “WindClan probably want to prove they’re strong again, now that they have their new leader. Give them time. They’ll calm down.”

Squirrelflight suspected the grey tomcat was right, but that didn’t mean she was willing to let Brambleclaw get away with insulting her father. She forced her neck fur to flatten again, but she still quivered with fury as they set off towards the ThunderClan camp.

“Firestar will always want to help Onestar.” She addressed the back of Brambleclaw’s head as he slipped through a patch of ferns ahead of her. “They’ve been friends forever.”

“Maybe, but Onestar clearly doesn’t need his help any more,” Brambleclaw mewed without looking back. The certainty in his tone infuriated Squirrelflight all over again. “It’s natural for Clans to be rivals. We were right to help WindClan when they were in trouble, but we can’t keep on looking out for them.”

“Stupid furball!” Squirrelflight growled, not loud enough for Brambleclaw to hear her. She hated the way the Clans had separated like flowing water into their new territories; what had happened to their closeness during the journey from the forest, when every cat had tried to help each other without stopping to remember which Clan they belonged to? It felt much too soon to turn their backs on that and let hostility and Clan rivalry take over. How would they survive in this new and unfamiliar place if they couldn’t rely on each other?

“And what will happen if ThunderClan need WindClan’s help?” Rainwhisker meowed ominously, as if he had followed Squirrelflight’s thoughts. “Have any of you thought of that?”

Brambleclaw led the patrol home by a different route, hunting on the way to take fresh-kill back for the Clan. Pausing underneath an oak tree, Squirrelflight once again picked up the scent of badger. It was stronger this time, and fresh; she guessed that it was not long since the creature had passed that way.

“Brambleclaw, do you smell that too?”

The tabby warrior padded up with a squirrel he had just caught. He put the fresh-kill down and swiped his tongue around his jaws before drawing in a stream of air. Alarm flared at once in his amber eyes. “Badger! Close by, too.”

Squirrelflight’s pelt prickled. A badger in their territory was the last thing any cat wanted. Hawkfrost had already driven one away from RiverClan, and it looked like ThunderClan had been lucky not to encounter one before now. “We’ll have to do something,” she mewed.

Brambleclaw nodded. A badger would make a tasty meal of a young kit if it had the chance. They were unlikely to prey on an adult cat, but that didn’t mean full-grown warriors were safe if they met one. A badger would kill out of pure savagery, trampling its prey into the ground or clamping it in its jaws and never letting go until its victim was dead.

Squirrelflight reminded herself that not all badgers were like that. Her first journey from the forest had led her to Midnight, the wise badger who lived at the sun-drown-place. Midnight had warned them that Twolegs would destroy the forest, and told them that the Clans would have to leave. But Midnight was unique; the rest of her kin could be bloodthirsty marauders if the mood took them.

“Is there a problem?” Ashfur came to join Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw; his words were indistinct because he carried a mouthful of mice, dangling by their tails.

Brambleclaw beckoned with his tail to Rainwhisker, who had just brought down a blackbird; the young warrior came trotting over with a satisfied look on his face and a feather on his nose.

“A badger—maybe more than one—has been here,” Brambleclaw meowed. “We can’t go back to camp without checking it out.”

“You mean, follow the trail?” Rainwhisker mewed in alarm. “Are you sure?”

“We have to find out if it’s left our territory. Squirrelflight, can you tell which way it went?”

Squirrelflight nosed at the scent the badger had left in the grass. “That way.” She pointed with her tail.

Brambleclaw padded over to sniff the trail. “Keep quiet, all of you. I don’t want them to know we’re here until we see how many there are and decide what’s best to do. We’re lucky that the wind’s in the right direction, so it won’t carry our scent to them.”

The cats left their prey among the roots of the oak tree, scratching earth over the pile until they could come and collect it later. Then with Brambleclaw in the lead, they set out after the badger.

The trail led them deeper into the forest, in the direction of the ShadowClan border. Here and there were freshly turned patches of earth, as if the badger had been digging for grubs. Squirrelflight felt a pang of concern for her friend Tawnypelt and the rest of ShadowClan; if they failed to track the badger down in their territory, some cat would need to warn Blackstar.

The scent grew steadily stronger, a powerful reek that swallowed up all other scents of the forest. Squirrelflight felt her fur stand up along her spine. It looked as if ShadowClan would be safe after all; the badger was still close by.

Suddenly Brambleclaw halted in the shadow of a boulder and held up his tail as a sign for the others to stay back. He clawed his way silently up the rough stone until he could poke his head above it and see to the other side.

Instantly he ducked down again. Squirrelflight crept forward until she could peer around the side of the boulder.

The ground on the other side was flat and pebbly, leading to a scattering of more smooth grey boulders. Between two of the rocks there was a gaping hole flanked by piles of freshly dug earth; Squirrelflight almost sneezed as a harsh scent reached her from the damp soil, a mingled reek of badger and fox. The badger must be building a set in an old fox den, she thought.

In front of the hole, three badger cubs scuffled about, making high-pitched fretful noises as if they didn’t like having to trek through the forest in daylight. Squirrelflight stared, her neck fur rising in horror, then she slid back to join Ashfur and Rainwhisker in the shelter of the rock.

“There’s a whole family of them!” she hissed. “Great StarClan, they’ll be all over the territory in a couple of seasons!”

Ashfur looked puzzled. “It’s unusual for a badger to move with cubs.”

“Maybe they were forced out of their old home,” Rainwhisker suggested.

Brambleclaw slid down from the top of the boulder and crouched beside them. “We can’t do anything until we know how many adults there are,” he meowed. “We’ll stay here and keep watch. Don’t do anything unless I say so, OK?”

All three cats nodded, though Squirrelflight seethed at the way Brambleclaw was ordering them about like wet-eared apprentices.

“Badgers mostly come out at night,” Brambleclaw went on. “If they’re in the set now, there’s not much we can do. No cat is going in there.” His amber gaze rested on Squirrelflight.

“I’m not stupid!” she hissed.

“I didn’t say you were,” Brambleclaw retorted. “But there are times when you do stupid things.”

Ashfur took a breath as if he were going to leap to her defence, but she flicked her tail at him for silence. “Really, it’s not worth it,” she muttered.

“If we find there’s just one fully-grown badger with the cubs, we’ll attack,” Brambleclaw mewed. “We can’t let them settle in our territory. Four of us should be able to cope with one badger. Hawkfrost managed to drive one off, after all. This could even be the same badger.”

Squirrelflight’s neck fur began to rise again at the mention of Brambleclaw’s half-brother. It was bad enough that Brambleclaw refused to admit that Hawkfrost was untrustworthy, without having him held up as a model of courage and fighting skill as well.

“We might drive it into ShadowClan territory,” she pointed out.

“Then ShadowClan’s warriors will have to deal with it.” Brambleclaw’s eyes were intense, and his voice cold. “We have to protect our own Clan first.”

“And if there’s more than one badger?” Ashfur wondered.

“Then we’ll gather as much information as we can and report back to Firestar. Find somewhere to hide where you can see the mouth of the set.”

Squirrelflight returned to her vantage point in the clump of fern. The badger cubs were still scuffling in front of the pile of earth. The sun climbed higher, and Squirrelflight would have dozed off if hunger hadn’t gnawed at her belly. The squirrel she had shared with Ashfur seemed a long time ago, and she thought longingly of the heap of fresh-kill left under the oak tree.

Her jaws gaped in a yawn, and she clamped them shut again as an even stronger reek of badger flooded into her mouth. The undergrowth on the far side of the clearing rustled briefly before the ferns parted to reveal a powerful, broad-shouldered body and a long muzzle with a white stripe down the middle. The female badger lumbered into the clearing and her three cubs scampered up to her. She dropped a mouthful of beetles onto the ground and the cubs gulped them up with high-pitched cries of joy.

Brambleclaw sprang on top of the boulder and let out a challenging yowl. The female badger’s head shot up and she roared in defiance, showing two rows of sharp yellow teeth.

Brambleclaw yowled again. “Attack!” He leapt from the boulder, landing among the cubs who scurried out of the way, yelping with fear. They huddled together in the mouth of the set, staring at the warrior with wide, scared eyes.

Ashfur hurtled out of his hiding place further around the clearing, with Rainwhisker hard on his paws. Squirrelflight pelted forward to stand beside Brambleclaw. “Get out!” she hissed at the badgers, even though she knew they wouldn’t understand what she was saying. “This is our territory!”

Brambleclaw lashed at the badger’s muzzle with both forepaws. She reared backward, swiping at him with massive claws, but Brambleclaw dodged the blow.

Squirrelflight ran forward until she was close enough to rake her claws down the badger’s side; blood welled out of the clawmarks and she shook her paw fiercely to dislodge the trapped black fur. She ducked to avoid the snapping jaws, then darted back just as Ashfur dashed in from the other side. The badger swung her head from side to side as if she couldn’t decide which swift-moving target to attack first.

This is easy! Squirrelflight thought. She’s too slow and clumsy!

She let out a screech of alarm as a massive white-furred paw slammed down less than a mouse-length away from her haunches. If it had landed on her it would have snapped her spine. Startled and shaking, she rolled out of range in a tangle of paws and tail. She wanted to run all the way back to the camp, but she knew they couldn’t give up now. This ferocious creature could not be allowed to make a home in their territory, or no cat would be safe, from the youngest kits to the most battle-hardy warriors.

She scrambled to her feet in time to see Brambleclaw swipe his claws down the badger’s shoulder. Leaping up, he tried to fasten his teeth in her throat, but the badger shook him off. He flew through the air, landed with a loud thump, and lay motionless.

Squirrelflight raced to his side, her belly churning in fear. But before she reached him, he shook his head as if he were coming out of deep water, then he staggered to his paws. “I’m OK,” he rasped.

Squirrelflight veered away to meet the badger head-on. Rearing up on her hindlegs, she clawed her enemy’s nose while her other paw slashed for the tiny bright eyes. Ashfur battered at the creature’s haunches, angling his body to make room for Brambleclaw, who was biting down on the badger’s hindpaw. Rainwhisker had his front paws hooked in the badger’s rough pelt while his teeth clamped down on her ear.

The badger had had enough. Shaking off Brambleclaw and Rainwhisker, she let out a roar of fury and defeat and turned tail. Lumbering across to the mouth of the foxhole, she nudged her cubs to their paws and herded them in front of her as they fled the clearing.

“And don’t come back!” Ashfur yowled.

The badger wouldn’t understand his words, but the meaning was plain enough. All four cats stood shoulder to shoulder while the badger’s roars and the high-pitched cries of the cubs faded away through the trees.

“Well fought, all of you,” Brambleclaw panted. “Let’s hope that’s the last we see of them.”

“And that there aren’t any more,” Ashfur commented.

Brambleclaw nodded. “We’ll fill in the hole and keep watch to make sure they don’t come back.”

“What? Now?” Squirrelflight protested. “I’m worn out, and my belly’s yowling!”

“No, not now. We’ll go back to camp and get a couple of other warriors to deal with the set. The regular patrols can keep an eye on it after that.”

“Thank StarClan!” Squirrelflight sighed. “Let’s go and collect that fresh-kill.”

The four cats limped back through the forest. Squirrelflight felt the sting of new wounds on top of her scratches from the battle against Mudclaw. “I won’t have any fur left at this rate,” she muttered.

Ashfur padded to her side and drew his tongue gently across a clawmark on her shoulder. “You fought well,” he murmured.

“So did you.” Squirrelflight could see how battered he was, with blood seeping from a patch on his hindquarters where the fur had been clawed off. She touched her nose to his ear. “I bet that badger wishes she’d never set foot on our territory!” she mewed.

She pictured the huge creature crashing through the undergrowth with her cubs stumbling along behind. For a few heartbeats she shared their fear, and a pang of sympathy pierced her. She knew what it felt like to lose your home, and have to travel far to find a new one.

I hope she finds somewhere safe for her cubs, Squirrelflight thought. But a long, long way from ThunderClan.

CHAPTER 3

“Leafpool! Leafpool, what’s the matter with you? That’s the third time I’ve called your name.”

The young medicine cat jumped. “Sorry, Cinderpelt.”

The grey she-cat bent her head to sniff at the seeds Leafpool was wrapping in a leaf. “What have you got here?”

“Poppy seed.”

Cinderpelt sighed. “No, it’s not. It’s nettle seed. Honestly, Leafpool, what’s the matter with you today?”

Leafpool stared down at the leaf. Cinderpelt had asked her to take some poppy seed to Firestar to soothe the pain in his wrenched shoulder. She had no idea how she had taken the wrong herb from the store inside Cinderpelt’s den, but the green, spiny seeds on the leaf in front of her were definitely nettle. They might have helped if Firestar had eaten something poisonous, but they wouldn’t do anything to help his shoulder.

“I’m really sorry, Cinderpelt.”

“I should think so. This morning I caught you trying to put yarrow on Mousefur’s ticks instead of mouse bile.” Cinderpelt’s tone softened. “Is everything all right, Leafpool? Were you hurt when those ShadowClan warriors chased you?”

Leafpool shook her head. “No … no, I’m fine.”

Her thoughts flew back to the night of the battle, when two ShadowClan warriors had chased her into the undergrowth at the top of the hollow, and plunged over the cliff to their deaths. Leafpool had almost fallen with them, her paws slipping on the rock as she tried to haul herself up. She could still feel the firm grasp on her scruff that had hauled her to safety, still see the intense gaze of her WindClan rescuer as he confessed that he loved her. Crowfeather! Every hair on her pelt tingled.

“Leafpool, you’re doing it again!”

Shaking her head to clear it, Leafpool carried the leaf back into Cinderpelt’s den. She returned the nettle seeds to the crack in the rock and took out some poppy seeds instead.

“If there is anything wrong, I wish you would talk to me about it,” Cinderpelt meowed, watching her from the entrance. “We’re busier than we’ve been since we arrived, dealing with wounds from the battle. I need you, Leafpool. You’re more than an apprentice now—you should be able to carry out medicine cat duties on your own.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But everything’s fine, really.”

Of course it was—it was better than fine, when Crowfeather loved her! Leafpool wrapped the correct seeds in the beech leaf and picked up the package to carry it to Firestar. She nodded to her mentor as she nudged her way through the curtain of brambles that led into the camp. Part of her wanted to confide in Cinderpelt more than anything, but Leafpool knew she could never reveal her feelings for Crowfeather to any cat. Medicine cats were not supposed to fall in love.

Cinderpelt had suspected a connection between Leafpool and the WindClan warrior before the Clans split up into their new territories. But that was before Crowfeather told Leafpool that he loved her, before Leafpool had admitted her own feelings to herself. Now it would be even harder to hide what she felt from the wise medicine cat.

She scrambled up the rocks that formed a tumbled pathway to the Highledge outside Firestar’s den. Looking down into the clearing, she saw Dustpelt slipping into the nursery to visit Ferncloud and Birchkit; the patrol that had taken the bodies to ShadowClan must have returned peacefully.

Leafpool set her leaf packet down on the ledge outside the den. “Firestar!” she called.

“Come in!”

She slid through the narrow cleft for a couple of tail-lengths until it widened out into a cave, dimly lit by the light that shone through the opening. Firestar was stretched on a bed of fern and moss at the far end. Thornclaw sat beside him. Firestar nodded a greeting to Leafpool and turned back to the golden-brown tabby.

“So there was no trouble with ShadowClan?”

Thornclaw shook his head. “We met Russetfur leading a border patrol, and she fetched Blackstar. He said he knew nothing about his warriors supporting Mudclaw.”

Firestar shrugged, wincing at a twinge of pain from his shoulder. “That could be true.”

“Then his warriors took the bodies away to be buried,” Thornclaw finished, “and we came home.”

“Well done, Thornclaw. I don’t want any trouble with ShadowClan.” Firestar paused for a moment before adding, “We’d better be careful what we say at the next Gathering. No sense in trailing our tails for Blackstar to pounce on. Pass the word to the rest of the Clan, would you?”

“Sure, Firestar.” Thornclaw rose to his paws and left with a farewell flick of his tail.

Leafpool padded across the cave and set down the leaf-wrapped poppy seeds. “Cinderpelt sent you these.”

Firestar leaned over and licked up the seeds with one swipe of his tongue. “Thank you, Leafpool. This’ll teach me not to take on two warriors at once!”

“You should sleep now,” Leafpool meowed.

As she finished speaking, she heard the sound of cats gathering in the clearing below the ledge, and Squirrelflight’s voice calling, “Firestar!”

The Clan leader glanced at Leafpool with a gleam of amusement in his eyes. “There goes my nap. Brambleclaw’s patrol must be back from WindClan.”

He rose to his paws and limped across the den. Leafpool followed him. Excitement rushed through her like a bubbling stream. She wanted to fling herself down the rocks and hurl questions at Squirrelflight. Had the patrol seen Crowfeather? What did he say? Had he been hurt in the battle? Had he mentioned her … ?

She stopped abruptly at the entrance to her father’s den. If she asked just one of these questions, Squirrelflight would want to know why she was so interested in the young WindClan warrior. And even her sister wouldn’t understand if she knew that Leafpool had broken the code of a medicine cat and fallen in love.

Brambleclaw and the rest of the patrol were waiting in the clearing, while more of the Clan cats gathered around them to hear their news. Leafpool jumped down the tumble of broken rocks and paused, feeling puzzled as she caught a powerful wave of feeling from her sister. Squirrelflight was in even more turmoil than she had been after the quarrel with Brambleclaw, making Leafpool’s fur bristle with a whirl of agitation, fear, and sympathy.

Leafpool slid between Dustpelt and Mousefur until she reached Squirrelflight’s side. “What’s the matter?” she murmured in her sister’s ear. “What happened?”

Squirrelflight’s claws scraped furiously at the earth in front of her. “WindClan treated us like we were sworn enemies!” she hissed.

Leafpool turned to listen to Brambleclaw, who was reporting to Firestar.

“Webfoot looked as though he’d like to claw our fur off,” the tabby warrior meowed. “You would never have thought we were the same cats who helped WindClan fight off Mudclaw a couple of nights ago.”

“But did you find out about Onestar?” Firestar asked. “He is Onestar now, isn’t he?”

“Oh, yes, he’s got his nine lives all right, but his Clan don’t seem to think we’re allies anymore.”

“I told you,” Ashfur broke in. “They have to show us they’re strong enough to stand on their own now.”

Brambleclaw shook his head. “I think it was more than that.”

“And you really can’t imagine what the problem is?” Dustpelt meowed, coming forward to stand beside his Clan leader. “Come on, Brambleclaw. You’re hardly likely to be the most popular cat in WindClan just now, not after Hawkfrost saved your life at the end of the battle. Onestar probably thinks you and Hawkfrost were working together all along.”

“Mouse dung!” Brambleclaw snapped. “Onestar forgave all the cats who fought against him, including Hawkfrost. And every cat knows I fought for WindClan. Onestar can’t have any quarrel with me.”