“Sunningrocks was the safest place to hide,” Cinderpelt told them as she weaved through the bracken.
Squirrelpaw was surprised. “But there’s so little shelter there!” Sunningrocks was a wide stone slope near the RiverClan border, bare of trees or bushes except for a few scrubby tufts of grass. Aware that Stormfur was only a few pawsteps behind, Squirrelpaw lowered her voice. “And what about RiverClan? They’ve tried to claim it as their territory before—wasn’t Firestar afraid they might attack the Clan?”
“RiverClan has made no threats lately,” Cinderpelt replied. “Sunningrocks is as far from the Twolegs and their tree-destroying monsters as we could get within our territory, and close to what little prey is left in the forest.”
Despite her limp, she led them quickly through the forest, but Squirrelpaw noticed that the medicine cat’s scrawny flanks heaved with the effort. She glanced at Brambleclaw. He was watching Cinderpelt too, his eyes narrowed with concern.
“We’re in much better shape than she is,” Squirrelpaw whispered to him.
“Our journey has made us stronger,” Brambleclaw commented.
Squirrelpaw felt an uncomfortable pang of guilt that their long and difficult journey had kept them safer and better fed than the cats they left behind. The sun was sinking in a clear blue sky, and a chill wind swayed the branches above them, tugging at the last stubborn leaves. She paused, listening. A few birds chirped a muted chorus, but in the distance she heard monsters all the time, humming like angry bees. Their sticky stench hung in the air and clung to her fur, and Squirrelpaw realised that she had returned to a forest that no longer smelled or sounded like home. It had become another place, one where cats could not survive. No place left for cats. You stay, monsters tear you too, or you starve with no prey. Midnight’s prophecy was already coming true.
The pale grey bulk of Sunningrocks loomed beyond the trees, and Squirrelpaw made out the shapes of cats moving over the stone.
A yowl startled her, and she saw white and ginger fur flashing through the undergrowth. A heartbeat later, Sorreltail and Brackenfur burst out of the bushes in front of them.
“I thought I could smell a familiar scent,” Sorreltail meowed breathlessly.
Squirrelpaw stared at the two warriors. They were as dishevelled as Cinderpelt, and beside her, Brambleclaw’s eyes were wide with shock as his gaze flicked over their gaunt bodies.
“We didn’t think you were coming back,” Brackenfur meowed.
“Of course we were coming back!” Squirrelpaw protested.
“Where have you been?” Sorreltail demanded.
“A long way away,” Stormfur murmured. “Further than any forest cat has ever been.”
Brackenfur glared suspiciously at the RiverClan warrior. “Are you on your way home?”
“I need to talk to Greystripe first.”
Brackenfur narrowed his eyes.
“Let him come,” Cinderpelt advised. “These cats have a lot to tell us.”
Brackenfur’s whiskers twitched, but he dipped his head and turned to lead the way through the trees towards the rocks.
“Come on,” Sorreltail mewed, padding after Brackenfur. “The others will want to see you.”
Squirrelpaw fell into step beside her, trying to ignore the anxiety that gnawed her stomach like hunger pangs. It was starting to look as if their journey had been in vain, and hearing what Midnight had to tell them had come too late to help the Clans. She prayed that the dying warrior’s sign would be enough to save them. Glancing sideways at Sorreltail, she saw that the tortoiseshell warrior’s tail was drooping and her gaze rested wearily on the ground.
“Cinderpelt told me about Leafpaw,” Squirrelpaw murmured.
“I couldn’t do anything to save her,” Sorreltail answered dully. “I don’t know where they’ve taken her. I wanted to look, but we moved camp the next day, and there hasn’t been a chance.” She paused and looked at Squirrelpaw, her eyes flashing with desperate hope. “Did you see her while you were travelling? Do you know where she is?”
Squirrelpaw’s heart twisted. “No, we haven’t seen her.”
The strong, familiar scent of ThunderClan filled the air. Squirrelpaw longed to rush forwards to greet her Clanmates, but instinct warned her to approach them warily. She stood still for a moment, hoping that her thudding heart couldn’t be heard by every cat on Sunningrocks.
The smooth stone slope, lined with gullies and small hollows, rose ahead of her. Trees bordered one side, and at the far edge, where the slope fell steeply away, Squirrelpaw could see the tips of more trees, following the river as far as Fourtrees—or the place where Fourtrees had been. The cold stone, blasted by the leaf-bare winds, was a chilly resting place for the Clan. Squirrelpaw looked at Sorreltail’s paws and saw dried blood staining the white fur around her claws. She remembered how the rocks in the mountains had grazed her own paws while they were staying with the Tribe of Rushing Water.
There was no central clearing here for cats to gather, as there had been in the ravine. Instead, the cats were huddled in small groups; Squirrelpaw spotted the dark pelt of her mentor, Dustpelt, sheltering beneath an overhang, with Mousefur next to him. He seemed much smaller than when she had left, his bony shoulders jutting out from beneath his ungroomed fur. Frostfur and Speckletail, two of the Clan elders, were crouched in the deepest gully. Even in the shadows, Squirrelpaw could see that their pelts were matted and dull, speckled with scraps of moss and dried mud. Further down, where the gully widened, the pale grey shape of Dustpelt’s mate, Ferncloud, was hunched over her two remaining kits.
“It’s more sheltered down there,” Cinderpelt explained, following Squirrelpaw’s gaze. “But the queens still feel very exposed after being used to a nursery made of brambles. The apprentices make their nests in that hollow over there,” she went on, lifting her muzzle to point at a dip in the rocks. Squirrelpaw recognised the brown fur of Shrewpaw, one of Ferncloud’s first litter, fluffed up against the cold.
Squirrelpaw glanced at Brambleclaw, who gave her a tiny nod, but there was anxiety behind his eyes, and his shoulders were tense as he began to pad up the slope. Nervously she followed him. As she passed Ferncloud, the queen looked up at her, and her green eyes darkened with anger.
Squirrelpaw flinched. Did the Clan blame them for what had happened?
Some of the other cats had spotted them too. Thornclaw heaved himself out of a gully near the top of the slope, flattening his ears; with a menacing hiss, Rainwhisker padded from a crevice at the edge of the rocks. The dark grey warrior’s eyes gleamed, but not with any warmth or welcome for the returning cats.
Stormfur was scanning the rocks for Greystripe. Squirrelpaw followed his gaze, but there was no sign of the grey ThunderClan deputy, or of her own father. She fought down the urge to turn tail and flee back to the forest, back to the mountains even. She miserably met Brambleclaw’s gaze. “They don’t want us here,” she whispered.
“They’ll understand once we’ve explained,” he promised. Squirrelpaw hoped he was right.
The sound of rapid pawsteps behind them made her spin around, startled. A pale grey warrior, Ashfur, skidded to a halt in front of her. She searched his eyes, afraid to find rage, but there was only surprise.
“You came back!” He held his tail high and reached out his muzzle to touch hers in greeting.
Squirrelpaw felt a rush of relief. At least one cat seemed glad they had returned.
Shrewpaw scrambled out of his hollow and raced across the rock toward them, with Whitepaw close behind.
“Shrewpaw!” Squirrelpaw cried, trying to sound as if she’d been no farther than Highstones, and for no more than a couple of sunrises. “How’s the training going?”
“We’ve been working hard,” Shrewpaw answered breathlessly as he reached her.
Whitepaw halted beside him. “We would have seen our first Gathering if the Twolegs hadn’t destroyed Four—”
Ashfur shot the white she-cat a warning glance. “They won’t have heard about that yet,” he hissed.
“It’s OK,” Brambleclaw put in. “We know about Fourtrees. Webfoot told us.”
“Webfoot?” Ashfur narrowed his eyes. “Have you been on WindClan territory?”
“We had to travel back that way,” Squirrelpaw explained.
“Back from where?” meowed Shrewpaw, but Squirrelpaw didn’t answer. She had seen Dustpelt and Mousefur emerging from their makeshift den. Sootfur crept out from a hollow beside them. All the warriors were moving closer now, like ghosts slipping through the shadows. Squirrelpaw stifled a shiver as they padded down the rock. She backed away, brushing against Brambleclaw’s pelt and feeling Stormfur edge closer, equally wary. It reminded her of their first meeting with the cats from the Tribe of Rushing Water. Fear stabbed Squirrelpaw’s heart as she realised that it was not just the forest that had changed. Her own Clan was different, too.
“So? Where did you go?” growled a distinctive voice. Frostfur had climbed out of the elders’ gully above them. The old she-cat had lost much of the sleekness from her snow-white pelt, but Squirrelpaw still flinched under her icy stare.
“We’ve been on a long journey,” Brambleclaw began.
“You don’t look like it!” Ferncloud had left her kits and pushed her way to the front. “You look better fed than us.”
Squirrelpaw tried not to feel guilty about the amount of fresh-kill she had caught on the journey. “Ferncloud, I heard about Larchkit, and I’m sorry . . .”
