Outcast

by Erin Hunter

  Squirrelflight gave his shoulder an affectionate flick with her tail. “Crowfeather, neither of us can complain about apprentices making the journey.” When Crowfeather didn’t respond, she went on. “Talon and Night—do you remember them?—came to our camp to fetch Stormfur and Brook. The Tribe is being threatened by a group of invading cats who are trying to take over its hunting grounds. We—I mean Brambleclaw and I—thought we would go and help too.”

  Crowfeather paused before replying; Hollypaw couldn’t read anything from his expression. “What’s it got to do with us?” he asked eventually.

  “They helped us on the Great Journey,” Squirrelflight mewed.

  “And Feathertail died for them!” Crowfeather spat, his blue eyes blazing. “We owe them nothing.”

  Feathertail had been a RiverClan cat, Stormfur’s sister, who had died on the first journey. None of the other cats seemed to think her death was a reason not to help the Tribe now. Why should Crowfeather take it so personally? Feathertail hadn’t even been his Clanmate.

  “Feathertail was willing to help the Tribe before,” Squirrelflight replied calmly. “She would help them again. It wasn’t the Tribe’s fault she died. You can blame Sharptooth for that.”

  A shiver ran through Hollypaw and she dug her claws hard into the tough moorland grass. Squirrelflight was talking so matter-of-factly about stories Hollypaw had heard since she was in the nursery! It was as if her mother and father belonged in a legend. Crowfeather, too, though it was hard for Hollypaw to reconcile the brave warrior, StarClan’s chosen, with the suspicious, bad-tempered, skinny cat who stood in front of her. No wonder Breezepaw is so grumpy. He got it from his father!

  “Squirrelflight, greetings.”

  Hollypaw whirled to see Whitetail returning with Onestar and Ashfoot, the WindClan deputy. It was Onestar who had spoken; he padded up to Squirrelflight with his head and tail held high.

  “Greetings, Onestar.” Squirrelflight dipped her head.

  “You’re welcome to our camp.” The WindClan leader sounded friendly, though there was surprise in his amber eyes. “What can we do for you?”

  Squirrelflight launched into a more detailed explanation of how the Tribe cats had come to ThunderClan looking for help. Crowfeather listened with the same disgruntled expression, while other WindClan cats gathered around. Hollypaw spotted Heatherpaw, and gave her a nod; Breezepaw had reappeared too, standing beside his fellow apprentice.

  “So Brambleclaw and I thought that all the cats who went on the first journey should go now and help the Tribe,” Squirrelflight finished. “Brambleclaw has gone to ShadowClan to speak to Tawnypelt, and I came here to tell Crowfeather.”

  Onestar narrowed his eyes. “He would be away for a long time, perhaps a moon or more.”

  “And I have an apprentice,” Crowfeather reminded him.

  “True. All the same, I think you should go,” Onestar meowed. “The Tribe of Rushing Water gave us food and shelter on the Great Journey. Without their help, many cats would have died, and we might never have found this home by the lake. Besides,” he went on, ignoring Crowfeather as he tried to interrupt, “the mountain cats were kind to Tallstar when he was on his last life. We would honor him by helping them now.”

  Crowfeather looked taken aback. “But what about Heatherpaw’s training?”

  “Whitetail can take over as her mentor,” Onestar decided. “She will be without an apprentice, since I think it would be a good idea if Breezepaw went along with you.”

  Oh, no! Hollypaw thought. You might be fed up with him, but we don’t want him either, thanks.

  “What?” Breezepaw exclaimed. His eyes stretched wide with dismay.

  “You’re so lucky!” Heatherpaw put in, with a sigh of envy. “I’d give my tail to go.”

  “Well, I don’t want to!”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be coming back,” Hollypaw snapped.

  “How do you know that?” Breezepaw’s ears flattened and his tail drooped. “I think my Clanmates just want to get rid of me.”

  He sounded so miserable that Hollypaw felt a rush of pity for him, but it lasted no more than a couple of heartbeats. Breezepaw had broken the warrior code twice in the last moon; it was time he was taken down a tree branch or two.

  Crowfeather padded forward a couple of paces to stand beside Squirrelflight. “It is my choice if I go,” he meowed, with a glance at Onestar. Hollypaw wondered if he was defying his leader, but Onestar didn’t rise to the challenge. “And I—I will go. I would like to stand again in the place where Feathertail lies.”

  “What about Breezepaw?” Squirrelflight asked.

  Crowfeather sighed. “Yes, I suppose he must come too, if Onestar orders it.”

  Breezepaw shot his father a sulky look and started tearing up the grass with his claws. Hollypaw thought of her own mother and father; she was glad that they supported her when she wanted to try new things. It didn’t look as if Crowfeather and Breezepaw got along at all. And I can under stand that, sort of, she thought, now that I’ve seen Crowfeather a few times. He’s just…weird.

  “Do you want Crowfeather and Breezepaw to come with you now?” Onestar asked.

  “Yes, please,” Squirrelflight replied. “We thought we would all stay in the ThunderClan camp tonight and set off in the morning. Leafpool is preparing traveling herbs.”

  “I want to say good-bye to my friends first,” Breezepaw objected.

  “There isn’t time!” Crowfeather snapped.

  “I’ll say good-bye for you.” Heatherpaw darted forward and touched her nose to Breezepaw’s shoulder. “And don’t worry. You’ll have some amazing stories to tell us when you come back.”

  Breezepaw didn’t look as if the idea cheered him up.

  A black she-cat emerged from the group of WindClan cats; Hollypaw recognized Crowfeather’s mate, Nightcloud. She brushed her pelt against Crowfeather’s. “Take care,” she meowed.

  Crowfeather gave her ear a quick lick, but Hollypaw noticed that his eyes were gazing into the distance.

  Squirrelflight dipped her head to Onestar and thanked him. Then Crowfeather led the way up the slope and out of the WindClan camp. As they trekked across the moor he still looked sour, and Breezepaw sulked all the way, refusing to talk to Hollypaw even when she tried to be friendly.

  I don’t think this journey is going to be much fun after all, Hollypaw thought gloomily.

  CHAPTER 13

  Jaypaw shivered in the dawn chill. The sharp scent of the traveling herbs wreathed around him, almost masking the scent of Leafpool as she worked beside him in the medicine cat’s den. Stifling a yawn, he thought back to his dreams of the night before, full of strange scents, jagged rocks, and unfamiliar cats, and the screech of warriors meeting in battle. He had lost count of the number of times he had jerked awake, his heart pounding until he realized that he was curled up in his own nest of ferns. Nothing in the dreams made any sense to him, and he flicked his tail impatiently. What’s the point of dreaming if I don’t learn anything?

  Soft sounds filtered through the bramble screen as the cats in the clearing began to wake up. Jaypaw couldn’t remember the hollow ever being so full, with the WindClan and ShadowClan cats as well as the visitors from the Tribe. It was just as well the night had been warm enough for some of them to sleep in the open; the WindClan cats especially were used to that. Jaypaw’s claws slid out as he remembered his dismay when he discovered that Breezepaw had come along with his father.

  I can’t stand that arrogant, mange-ridden excuse for a cat!

  He would never forget how useless Breezepaw had been when they were trapped underground. It was no wonder that the tunnels had been sealed up, so Jaypaw couldn’t reach Rock and Fallen Leaves anymore. What could you expect when Breezepaw hadn’t shown any sense or respect?

  “Jaypaw, what are you daydreaming about?” Leafpool’s voice broke into Jaypaw’s thoughts. “You can start taking these herbs out to the cats who are leaving.”

  “Don�
�t you want to do that?” Jaypaw was surprised; the Tribe cats would probably want a medicine cat to explain to them what they were eating.

  “No.” Leafpool sounded agitated. “I’ve got to check these herbs one more time.”

  Rubbish! Jaypaw thought. It doesn’t take all this fuss to make up a few traveling herbs. But he just picked up the first portion of herbs and padded out into the clearing.

  The scent of the herbs in his jaws made it harder to locate the cats, but after a couple of heartbeats he pinpointed a group of them just outside the warriors’ den: Crowfeather, Breezepaw, Squirrelflight, and Tawnypelt.

  Jaypaw padded up to them and dropped the herbs at Crowfeather’s paws. “Traveling herbs,” he mewed.

  “Thank you.” There was a tension about Crowfeather that Jaypaw didn’t understand; it felt like more than the natural anticipation of the journey. Who knows what goes on in the minds of those weird WindClan cats?

  Returning to his den, he was tempted by the thought of sneaking something disgusting into Breezepaw’s traveling herbs. A few yarrow leaves, maybe. The first part of their journey would be around the lake on WindClan territory; if Breezepaw started being sick, they would have to leave him behind.

  Or maybe he’d just delay the rest of us. Jaypaw considered the punishment he’d receive if any cat found out what he’d done. He’d be made to stay at home, for sure. The risk wasn’t worth it.

  He went on dividing up the herbs. Soon the Tribe cats appeared with Stormfur and Brook and joined the others by the warriors’ den.

  “What’s this?” Talon queried when Jaypaw put down his share of the herbs.

  “Traveling herbs,” Jaypaw replied. “They’ll make you stronger, and you won’t feel so hungry.”

  “Are you sure?” Jaypaw pictured the cave-guard prodding the herbs suspiciously with one paw. “I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

  “Stoneteller never heard of them, either,” Night agreed. Jaypaw heard her sniffing at the little pile of leaves.

  “For StarClan’s sake!” he snapped. “Just eat them. We’re not trying to poison you.”

  “They’re okay,” Stormfur meowed. Jaypaw felt the gray warrior’s tail flick lightly across his muzzle. “They’ll make the journey a lot easier.”

  “If you’re sure…” Talon’s voice was still dubious, but he licked up the herbs. “They taste bitter,” he complained.

  Stifling a sigh, Jaypaw carried on until he’d taken herbs to every cat except his father.

  “Where’s Brambleclaw?” he asked Squirrelflight, mumbling around his mouthful of leaves.

  “I think he went to talk to Firestar,” Squirrelflight replied. “I’ll take those up to him, if you like.”

  “No, I’ll do it.” Jaypaw’s fur bristled as he bounded across the camp. I can climb up to the Highledge without falling! He scrambled up the tumbled stones, making sure that his pelt brushed the cliff wall at every paw step. As he reached the Highledge, he heard Firestar’s voice from inside the den.

  “You’ll be away for at least a moon, Brambleclaw. We need to decide who should be deputy while you’re gone.”

  Jaypaw halted outside the den, drawing close against the rock wall so that the cats inside wouldn’t see him.

  “Graystripe is the obvious cat to choose,” Brambleclaw answered. “He knows the deputy’s duties, after all.”

  Jaypaw’s whiskers twitched in dismay. His father had only become Clan deputy because every cat thought that Graystripe was dead. After the gray warrior’s unexpected return, some cats had thought that Brambleclaw would step down. Graystripe hadn’t wanted that; he said he didn’t have enough experience of the Clan’s new home, and he was tired after his journey. But none of that was true anymore. If Graystripe took over as deputy now, what would happen when Brambleclaw came home? Jaypaw gritted his teeth. Couldn’t his father see that he might be giving up his position in the Clan?

  “Fine, if you’re happy with that.” Firestar sounded relieved. “I’ll tell him.”

  There was movement inside the den as if the cats were rising to their paws. Quickly Jaypaw found a loose pebble and flicked it with his paw so they would think he had just arrived. Stepping into the mouth of the den he meowed, “Firestar?”

  “Come in,” his leader responded.

  “Are those my traveling herbs?” Brambleclaw asked. “Thanks, Jaypaw. Is every cat ready?”

  “Nearly,” Jaypaw replied. “I’d better find Leafpool and see if she wants me to do anything else.”

  He withdrew from the den with a quick dip of his head. As he hurried down the rocks again he tried to scent Lionpaw and Hollypaw. He wanted to tell them about Graystripe taking over as deputy while they could still talk in private. But as he reached the floor of the clearing, his littermates passed him with fresh-kill in their jaws, heading for the elders’ den. Hollypaw called out, “Hi, Jaypaw,” as they went by but they were too busy to stop.

  Frustrated, Jaypaw went back to his own den. Leafpool was still there, fiddling with some leaves, though all the traveling herbs had been distributed now, except for Jaypaw’s own.

  “What are you doing?” he asked. “Do you want me to take some herbs with me?”

  “What?” Leafpool sounded surprised, as if she hadn’t realized he had come back. “Oh, no—there’s no point in doing that. They’d be a nuisance to carry every day, and you don’t know what you’ll need.”

  “But I have no idea which herbs grow in the mountains,” Jaypaw objected.

  Leafpool scraped the ground with one paw; she was trying to hide it, but Jaypaw could feel she was on edge for some reason. “You won’t be in the mountains for most of the way,” she told him. “And when you get to the Tribe, Stoneteller will be able to show you the mountain herbs. You’ll learn a lot from him.”

  I hope so, and not just about herbs.

  “Come on, Jaypaw, don’t just stand there. Eat your own herbs.” Jaypaw felt his mentor’s paw brush his as she pushed the remaining herbs toward him. “Brambleclaw will want to leave soon.”

  Jaypaw licked up the mouthful of herbs. “Yuck,” he muttered.

  “You’ll be glad of them once you get going,” Leafpool mewed sharply. “You’re lucky to be going on this journey at all.”

  Lucky because I’m blind and shouldn’t be allowed to go? Jaypaw thought mutinously. He said nothing, trying to swallow the last of the bitter leaves.

  “You’ll find the mountains fascinating,” Leafpool went on, sounding more like her normal self. “You should take the chance to learn all you can about them.”

  That’s just what I mean to do, Jaypaw told himself, though he suspected he meant something different from what his mentor was suggesting. Oh, he would learn about new herbs and new ways of living, but what he really wanted to know was how the Tribe came to settle in the mountains, and how they were connected to Rock and the ancient cats who had left their paw prints around the Moonpool. But he knew better than to say any of that to Leafpool.

  “Jaypaw?” Brambleclaw’s voice came from the clearing. “Are you ready?”

  “Coming!” Jaypaw called back. He whisked around the bramble screen, then turned back to ask Leafpool, “Aren’t you coming to say good-bye?”

  Leafpool let out a long sigh. Tension was crackling off her like a storm in greenleaf. “I—I’ve said it already,” she murmured.

  “Okay. Good-bye then.” Jaypaw knew he should leave, but something held his paws back. He found Leafpool incredibly annoying when she fussed, but he couldn’t ignore her feelings of misery, even if he didn’t understand them. He darted across to her and buried his nose in the fur on her shoulder. “Good-bye. I’ll have lots to tell you when I get back.”

  “Good-bye, Jaypaw.” Leafpool’s voice quivered. He felt her tongue rasp over his ear. “Take care.”

  “Jaypaw!” Brambleclaw’s voice came again from the clearing.

  “Gotta go,” Jaypaw meowed, dashing out past the brambles with a sigh of relief to be away from Leafp
ool’s strange intensity. As he emerged he smelled Squirrelflight’s scent and felt her pelt brush his as she slipped into the medicine cat’s den to talk to her sister.

  I hope she knows what’s going on, because I sure don’t, Jaypaw thought.

  The cats who were leaving had gathered together in the middle of the stone hollow. Jaypaw found Hollypaw and Lionpaw and bounded over to stand beside them.

  “What kept you?” Hollypaw asked. “We’re all waiting.”

  “I’m here now,” Jaypaw retorted. “And I’ve got stuff to tell you two.”

  The chilly air of dawn had vanished as the sun rose. Jaypaw could feel the beams slicing down through the trees, falling across his pelt. It was a perfect morning to travel: cool and clear, with warm sunshine later on.

  He heard rustling from the warriors’ den as several of his Clanmates emerged to see the travelers off. There was a rapid patter of paws from the apprentices’ den, and Jaypaw heard Icepaw mew, “It’s not fair! I want to go too.”

  “Maybe your turn will come another time,” Whitewing told her kindly.

  The sound of a huge yawn came close to Jaypaw’s ear, and Cloudtail’s scent wafted over him. “Why don’t you get moving?” he mumbled. “Then every cat can get a bit more sleep.”

  “No chance.” Dustpelt spoke sharply nearby. “You’re coming with me and Sandstorm on the dawn patrol.”

  “Mouse dung!” Cloudtail muttered.

  Jaypaw picked up Firestar’s scent and heard his paw steps as he padded across to join the traveling cats. Graystripe was just behind him; Jaypaw could picture the gray warrior standing at his leader’s shoulder with a glow in his amber eyes.

  As if he’s deputy already!

  “Farewell, all of you,” Firestar meowed. “May StarClan light your path—and may you all come home safe.”

  A sudden tension sprang up between the departing cats, as if Clan warriors and Tribe cats were facing one another, gathering their courage for the first paw steps of their journey. Squirrelflight had returned, slipping up to Brambleclaw’s side.