Warriors: Power Of Three 4 - Eclipse (16 page)

Dustpelt was washing beside the halfrock. “At least they’ll have proper warrior names,” he muttered. He had clearly not forgotten that Millie had refused a Clan name.

Graystripe took no notice of the striped warrior. He returned to rummaging through the fresh-kill pile until Firestar bounded down from Highledge.

“You chose fine Clan names.” The ThunderClan leader sounded excited for his old friend, though Jaypaw detected sorrow running like a spider’s web between the two warriors, as though they shared a sad memory. Was it connected with the silver tabby Jaypaw had seen in his dream?

“You should have called Blossomkit Squealkit, because that’s all she does!” Toadkit mewed.

“Don’t be mean!” Rosekit gasped. Fur brushed the dusty ground as the two kits tumbled into a fight.

“Stop it, you two!” Spiderleg’s stern mew echoed around the hollow as he separated his kits.

“We were just playing,” Toadkit complained.

“Well, play something quieter!” Spiderleg snapped. “I don’t envy you, Graystripe. Two kits are hard enough.” Then he yelped in pain. “When I told you to play something else, Toadkit, I didn’t mean attacking my tail!”

The thorn barrier rattled. Jaypaw swallowed the last of his mouse and tasted the air. Brambleclaw, Ashfur, and Lionpaw were padding into the camp. They headed to the fresh-kill pile and dropped their prey.

“Where’s the dawn patrol?” Brambleclaw called. “They should be back by now.”

“Who was on it?” Spiderleg asked.

“Thornclaw, Poppyfrost, and Birchfall.” Guilt was prickling Firestar’s pelt. He should have noticed they were missing.

Jaypaw concentrated on the camp, scanning it for signs or smells of the three missing warriors.

“Perhaps they decided to hunt,” Graystripe suggested.

“They’re supposed to report straight back,” Brambleclaw pointed out.

“It must be quiet in the forest,” Spiderleg guessed.

Jaypaw could smell only stale scents of the three warriors.

He cast his mind farther, beyond the walls of the camp. If they were close to the hollow he might be able to pick up a stray thought or feeling. He could picture trees and bushes, a landscape built of images glimpsed in his dreams. But no sign of his Clanmates.

Suddenly his mind emptied and blackness crowded in, smothering his thoughts. Coldness gripped him, seeping into his flesh, chilling his bones. He tried to breathe, but the emptiness choked him, crushing him like water, drowning him in its terrible darkness.

Then it vanished, and he could picture the forest again, green and quiet.

Jaypaw gasped for breath, his flanks heaving as he sucked in clean, bright air.

“Are you all right?” Leafpool was crouching beside him.

Hollypaw pressed against his pelt. “What’s wrong with him?” she wailed.

How much time had passed?

Graystripe was still standing at the fresh-kill pile with a vole dangling from his jaws. Spiderleg was still chasing Toadkit away from his tail. The vision had only overtaken him for a heartbeat or two.

“Something’s coming,” Jaypaw croaked. “Something”—he broke off as terror seized him again—“something dark!”

Leafpool didn’t comment. Her attention had been snatched away by the rustling of the barrier.

“Poppyfrost!” Firestar greeted the young warrior as she padded out of the thorns. Then the ThunderClan leader’s mew sharpened. “Are you okay?”

Poppyfrost was ruff led and nervous. Birchfall followed her, his paw steps hesitant. Jaypaw leaned forward, every hair on his pelt tingling. Unfamiliar paw steps were padding through the tunnel. A new scent filled his nose as a strange tom entered the hollow.

“Who is it?” Jaypaw demanded under his breath.

“I don’t know,” Hollypaw whispered back.

“What does he look like?”

Hollypaw didn’t answer, her thoughts drawn to the stranger.

Jaypaw tasted the air. The tom carried the scent of heather on his pelt, and the clean smell of wind and water, but nothing else familiar. He tried searching the tom’s mind but found himself dazzled by countless thoughts and images: trees, sky, lightning, roaring monsters, and vast stretches of rolling green water, but none of them stayed still long enough for Jaypaw to see them clearly. It was like trying to gaze at broken water flashing with sunlight.

He nudged Hollypaw. “Well?”

“H-he’s tall,” she mewed distractedly. “Taller than Firestar.

His head narrows toward his chin, and his ears are large and wide spaced. His fur is longer than ours—dark brown and white with splashes of bright tortoiseshell—and his tail . . .”

Her mew trailed away. “I’ve seen him before! It’s the lion.”

Jaypaw stiffened in alarm. “What?”

Her voice dropped even more. “On the moor, with the sun rising behind him. He looked like a lion.”

Jaypaw wanted to know everything, but Firestar was padding toward the stranger. The air in the hollow crackled with tension.

“Thornclaw.” Firestar’s voice was sharp as he addressed the senior warrior. “Why have you brought this cat here, into our camp?”

“I-I . . .” Thornclaw seemed lost for words, and Jaypaw sensed confusion clouding the warrior’s thoughts. He was no longer sure why he had led a perfect stranger to the heart of ThunderClan territory. It had just seemed like the right thing to do.

“Firestar.” Unexpectedly, the stranger broke in. “I am honored to meet you. I have long looked forward to seeing ThunderClan.” His mew was deep but his tone light, as though promising honesty.

“How does he know us?” Spiderleg hissed.

“Where’s he from?” Leafpool breathed.

“You’ve looked forward to seeing ThunderClan?” Disbe -

lief edged Firestar’s meow as he echoed the stranger’s words.

“What do you want with us?”

“What do we want with him?” Mousefur growled. “Send him away!”

“I want nothing from you.” The stranger’s mew echoed around the hollow.

Wariness flashed from Firestar. “Then why are you here?”

“I came because it was time.”

“Time for what?” Spiderleg called.

“Time to come,” the stranger replied. Jaypaw shivered. How did this cat make such simple words sound so powerful?

Firestar shifted his paws.

“He’s talking nonsense,” Mousefur muttered. “Tell him to leave.”

“But he just got here!” Toadkit skipped excitedly across the clearing. “Who are you?” he asked, stopping in front of the stranger.

A purr of amusement rumbled in the stranger’s throat. “I am Sol.”

Brambleclaw padded quickly forward. “You and Rosekit should be resting in the nursery,” he told Toadkit. “You couldn’t have gotten much sleep last night.”

“There was trouble?” Sol meowed.

“No.” The ThunderClan deputy followed Rosekit and Toadkit as they padded, grumbling, to their den. He waited while they scrambled inside, then called to Thornclaw, “Where did you find this stranger?”

“On the WindClan border,” Thornclaw explained. “He wasn’t stealing prey, or even trying to cross into our territory.

He was just . . . waiting.”

“I was waiting for a patrol,” Sol told them.

How does a loner know about borders and patrols?

“Why?” Firestar sounded baffled.

“So that they could escort me here.”

Jaypaw focused on Sol, groping for a reason why he had come. But he still couldn’t make any sense of the glittering shoal of thoughts.

His Clanmates seemed to have been lulled into a bewil-dered, ruff led silence.

When no one spoke, Sol meowed again. “I have intruded.”

The tip of his tail brushed the earth. “I thought that ThunderClan above all would welcome me.” His attention fixed on Firestar like a shaft of light. “You like to help cats less fortu-nate, don’t you?”

Firestar bristled. “We don’t turn away cats who are in need,”

he meowed carefully. “But you say you need nothing.”

“You want me to go,” Sol concluded. But he made no move to leave. Instead, he sniffed as though tasting the air for more information. “May I meet your Clan first? I have traveled far, and alone, and I would be grateful to brush pelts with other cats for a few moments.”

“Very well.” Firestar padded across the clearing. “This is Brambleclaw, my deputy.” His tail swished the air. “And that is Leafpool, our medicine cat.”

“So you are the medicine cat.” Sol sounded pleased.

“Y-yes,” Leafpool meowed, shifting her paws.

“This is Thornclaw, Graystripe, Sandstorm, and Dustpelt,”

Firestar meowed quickly.

“And I’m Icepaw!” The young apprentice bounded forward. “And that’s my brother, Foxpaw.”

“Ah, ’paws,” Sol meowed thoughtfully. “You are learning to be warriors, yes?”

“That’s right,” Brambleclaw answered for her. “In fact, they should be training now.” He addressed the apprentices.

“Shouldn’t your mentors have you out in the forest?”

Whitewing darted forward. “Yes, come on, Icepaw, let’s go do some battle training. Foxpaw, you can train with us until Squirrelflight gets back from hunting.”

“Can’t we stay here?” Foxpaw whined. But Whitewing was already shooing them out of the camp.

With a squeak, Rosekit and Toadkit tumbled out of the nursery.

“I thought I told you—” Brambleclaw began, then stopped as Daisy followed them out, scolding.

“I told you, Millie’s kits are too young to play! Even if you were just tickling them with a feather!” The queen’s angry mew trailed off abruptly. She must have spotted Sol.

“Away with you!” she whispered to her babies, her mew brittle with embarrassment. She hurried Rosekit and Toadkit toward the apprentice den. “Play over here, and don’t make any noise. Firestar is busy.”

“She isn’t Clanborn, is she?” Sol commented.

Spiderleg growled. “She’s part of ThunderClan now!”

“Of course,” Sol meowed smoothly.

Spiderleg shuffled his paws. “I meant she’s one of us, that’s all.”

Jaypaw smelled fresh prey as the barrier rustled. Squirrelflight and Sandstorm were returning from their hunt. They slowed when they spotted Sol, surprise pulsing from them.

“More prey?” Sol queried as they dropped their catch self-consciously on the fresh-kill pile. “Do you ever run out?”

Brambleclaw crossed the clearing to join Squirrelflight.

Jaypaw didn’t catch what he whispered in his mate’s ear before turning back to Sol. “Prey is scarce in leaf-bare, but we survive,” he meowed.

“I can see,” Sol meowed approvingly.

“Perhaps we can offer you a meal before you continue your journey,” Firestar offered.

Sol sat down. “I catch my own prey.”

“Can’t he take a hint?” Hollypaw whispered.

Jaypaw felt Sol’s gaze hot on his pelt.

“You have blind cats in the Clan?”

Leafpool stepped in front of Jaypaw. “Jaypaw’s my apprentice,” she meowed protectively.

“Two medicine cats,” Sol observed. “Even better. I have something to share that I think a medicine cat will appreciate more than a warrior.”

“So you have come for a reason!” Firestar challenged.

“I am just passing through,” Sol meowed lightly. “But while I’m here I may as well share.” He paused. “Would you rather I left immediately?”

“No!” Leafpool darted forward. “Let him share what he knows with me,” she begged to Firestar.

“It is not for all ears,” Sol warned.

“We can go into the forest,” Leafpool suggested.

She feels his power too! Why else would she be so eager to share with him?

Firestar hesitated.

“Very well,” the ThunderClan leader agreed cautiously.

“But take Jaypaw with you.”

Leafpool led Sol out of the camp, and Jaypaw followed, padding in their paw steps until they reached a mossy clearing not far from the camp entrance.

“What is it that you want to tell us?” Leafpool seemed determined not to be intimidated.

Sol crouched, energy surging from his pelt. “Darkness is coming,” he hissed.

Jaypaw held his breath. The choking blackness! He pushed the memory away. He had to hear everything that this cat said.

“What do you mean?” Leafpool’s mew was taut.

“A time of great emptiness lies ahead,” Sol warned. “Nothing will be the same again.”

Sol’s voice was hypnotic, and his words seemed to echo with the wisdom of the ancient Clans. Jaypaw leaned closer as Sol’s voice grew softer.

“The sun will go out.”

What does he mean? Jaypaw struggled to see beyond the words, into Sol’s thoughts, but it was like trying to catch fish too slippery to grip.

Leafpool shifted her paws. “StarClan haven’t given me any signs.”

“Dear Leafpool.” Sol sighed. “Your faith is noble, but can StarClan really know everything?”

“But—” Leafpool tried to object, but Sol pressed on.

“They are only the spirits of ordinary cats like you and me, aren’t they?”

That’s what I think! Jaypaw’s fur stood on end. But he’s brave enough to say it out loud. He wanted to ask Sol how he knew. Had he met StarClan? The Tribe of Endless Hunting? Rock? But Leafpool flicked the tip of her tail across his mouth to stop him from saying anything.

“We have been guided by StarClan in many things,” she meowed firmly. “They found us a new place to live after our forest was destroyed by Twolegs. We will continue to trust in them for all the moons to come.”

Sol sat up. “I was only thinking of the Clans,” he meowed.

Had Leafpool offended him? “But no doubt they can take care of themselves, as they always have.”

“Yes, they will.” Leafpool stood and began to head back toward the thorn barrier. Clearly she didn’t care whether she’d offended him or not.

Sol padded slowly after her. Was that satisfaction warming the stranger’s pelt?

Jaypaw began to follow.

“Hush!”

A hiss from the undergrowth made him stop in his tracks.

He sniffed the air.

Foxpaw and Icepaw!

“I thought you were training,” he mewed sternly.

Ferns swished as the apprentices slid out from where they’d been hiding.

“Whitewing sent us off to practice stalking,” Foxpaw mewed sheepishly.

Icepaw showed no sign of embarrassment. “Is it true?” she squeaked. “Is the sun really going to die?” She was quivering with a mixture of excitement and horror. “Why hasn’t StarClan warned us?”