SkyClan's Destiny

by Erin Hunter

  Ebonyclaw watched him go. “I’m sorry if I interrupted something…”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Leafstar mewed. And now I suppose Ebonyclaw is going to complain about Frecklepaw helping Echosong again. If it’s not one thing it’s another. “I’ll have another word with Echosong—”

  “No, it’s not that,” Ebonyclaw responded. “I wanted to talk to you about something else. Have you noticed that Shrewtooth hasn’t been himself recently?”

  Leafstar blinked in surprise. She hadn’t thought much at all about the young black tom. Apart from his excessive nervousness, he was quiet and he didn’t cause trouble, which made him easy to overlook when other cats were making more noise.

  “I’m worried that he’s feeling left out,” Ebonyclaw went on. “He’s always been shy, but lately he hardly says anything. He never said a word at the last Gathering, and he never volunteers for patrols anymore. It’s as if he thinks that no cat will want to hunt with him.”

  Leafstar’s neck fur had begun to stand up. It sounded as if Ebonyclaw was deliberately hunting for trouble. “If Shrewtooth has a problem,” she mewed, “then he ought to know he can come to me about it.”

  “But what if he doesn’t know?” Ebonyclaw suggested. “You’ve been very busy with the visitors lately.”

  Leafstar bristled even more at hearing the new warriors referred to as “visitors.” She didn’t like Ebonyclaw’s implication that she had neglected the existing members of her Clan in favor of Stick and his friends. Is it true? Have I really been unfair to Shrewtooth?

  Leafstar had to admit that she hadn’t talked to Shrewtooth for a while, and she struggled to remember putting him on any patrols. He must have been fulfilling his warrior duties, or I would have heard about it from Sharpclaw.

  “I have time for all my Clanmates,” she meowed to Ebonyclaw, keen to show that she was in control. “I’ll go hunting with Shrewtooth today, and give him the chance to speak to me in private.”

  Ebonyclaw dipped her head. “Thank you.”

  Once again Leafstar felt her fur rising. I shouldn’t need to be thanked for doing my duty as Clan leader! Forcing her fur to lie flat again, she tried to convince herself that she was being oversensitive, but she still felt unsettled when Ebonyclaw had gone and she went to look for Shrewtooth.

  The black tom was crouched by himself at the edge of the stream, staring into the water. He jumped up as Leafstar approached, his claws skittering on the stones. “Uh… Leafstar…” he stammered.

  “Hi, Shrewtooth,” Leafstar mewed, trying to sound casual. “I’m going hunting. Do you feel like coming with me?”

  The black tom’s eyes widened. “Yes … yes, that would be great,” he choked.

  “Good.” Leafstar couldn’t help thinking he looked as if he’d just been given a punishment. “It’ll give us a chance to catch up away from all the noise and bustle around here.”

  Shrewtooth gave her a scared nod, as if she’d suggested they should go and fight foxes.

  Leafstar’s paws felt clumsy and oversized as she led the way across the Rockpile and up one of the trails on the other side of the gorge. She was acutely aware of the young tom following her, and a thorn of guilt stabbed her as she wondered if he was actually afraid of her.

  I’m his Clan leader! He should trust me, not act as if I’m going to claw his ears off!

  At the top of the cliff, she headed for the deeper woodland on the border of their territory. Shrewtooth padded behind her, starting at every rustle in the undergrowth. When a blackbird shot out of the ferns just ahead, he jumped, then arched his back and dug his claws into the ground as if he was facing an enemy.

  “It’s only a blackbird,” Leafstar mewed mildly.

  “Sorry! I’m really sorry!” Shrewtooth looked so miserable that Leafstar wished she hadn’t spoken.

  I just wanted to reassure him, not tell him off!

  “It’s okay,” she muttered. “Let’s hunt.”

  Shouldering her way through the bracken, she tasted the air and picked up the scent of a thrush. She glanced back at Shrewtooth and angled her ears toward the bird, which was pulling a worm out of the ground at the foot of an oak tree a couple of fox-lengths ahead.

  At once Shrewtooth dropped into the hunter’s crouch and began to creep forward. Leafstar watched his action approvingly. He would be a good hunter if he weren’t so nervous.

  But Shrewtooth had hardly moved when the thrush tugged the worm free and flew up with it onto a low branch of the oak tree. Shrewtooth turned to Leafstar, his eyes wide with distress, as if he expected a scolding for letting the prey escape.

  “Not your fault,” Leafstar whispered. “We’ll catch it anyway. Work your way around the tree and climb up from the other side. Find yourself a branch just above the thrush.”

  Shrewtooth nodded and slipped off. When he had gone, Leafstar slid through the bracken in the other direction until she could climb an ash tree whose branches mingled with the oak’s.

  The thrush had swallowed the worm and was shifting from foot to foot on the branch. Leafstar spotted Shrewtooth’s face peering out from a clump of leaves just above. Cautiously she crept out along a branch until she could cross into the oak, this time below the thrush. When she was a tail-length away she rose to her paws and let out an earsplitting screech.

  Now, Shrewtooth!

  The black warrior was ready. As the thrush fluttered upward with a raucous alarm call, Shrewtooth swiped out a paw and snagged his claws in its feathers. He grabbed it by the neck in his jaws and scrambled out of the leaves, his eyes glowing with triumph.

  “Well done!” Leafstar meowed.

  She leaped down to the ground; a heartbeat later Shrewtooth landed beside her with a soft thud, his prey in his teeth.

  “That was great!” he puffed, dropping the thrush at Leafstar’s paws. “Can we do it again?”

  He was quivering with excitement now, not fear. He’s a different cat, Leafstar thought. “I certainly hope we can,” she replied. “Let’s just bury this, and we’ll see what else we can find.”

  When she had scratched earth over the thrush, Leafstar padded on, relieved that Shrewtooth had boosted his confidence with a good catch. She tasted the scent markers as they crossed the border, but there was no scent of prey close by.

  Where has everything gone? she wondered, flicking her tail in frustration as she headed deeper into the woods. Instead of the prey-scents she was hoping for, she picked up the taint of rotting crow-food and the smell of dog. Rounding a bramble thicket, she found herself in a clearing. At the opposite side was a broken-down Twoleg fence, with an untidy red-stone nest beyond.

  I know this place! she realized, halting in shock. It’s where we rescued Petalnose and the kits from the Twoleg who kept her a prisoner.

  The fur along her spine stood up as she remembered being part of the patrol led by Firestar: how Sharpclaw and Patchfoot had made such a racket fighting in the garden that the Twoleg had come out, leaving the door open for Leafdapple, Firestar, and Rainfur, Petalnose’s mate, to slip inside the den and bring out Petalnose with her kits.

  Leafstar had never meant to come back here. It was a dark place, heavy with the memory of Twoleg cruelty. “Come on, Shrewtooth,” she meowed. “Let’s—”

  She broke off when she turned and saw the young black tom crouched on the ground, his claws digging into the earth and his eyes tight shut. “Oh, no, no…” he whispered.

  Puzzled, Leafstar touched her tail to the black warrior’s shoulder. “Shrewtooth? What’s the matter?”

  The young tom stared up at her, his eyes stretched so wide with horror that she thought they might burst out of his head. “It’s a trap … a trap,” he moaned. “You brought me here… I knew you never wanted me in the Clan! But I’ll never go back!” he added fiercely. “Never!”

  “Shrewtooth, I don’t know what you mean.” Leafstar spoke gently. She had never seen any cat as frightened as this, not even when Firestar had led them against the rats i
n the barn. “Of course I want you in SkyClan. I made you a warrior, didn’t I?”

  Shrewtooth blinked, but he was still shaking with terror. “Yes … you did … but this place… It’s evil.… Evil…”

  Leafstar guessed that for whatever reason the Twoleg den had driven Shrewtooth into a daze of fear. She decided that pointing out there was no sign of danger right now wouldn’t help at all. “Yes, it’s a foul place, so we won’t stay here,” she meowed. “We’ll find somewhere else to hunt. Come on.”

  She nudged Shrewtooth to his paws and guided him with her tail across his shoulders, back around the bramble thicket and through the woods until they crossed the border into SkyClan territory.

  But Shrewtooth was still in no state to hunt. His eyes were unfocused as if inwardly they were still fixed on the dark den. He kept on shaking, and stumbled over every pebble and twig in his path. Leafstar realized that all she could do was lead him back to camp.

  “Leafstar, what happened?” Echosong popped her head out of her den as Leafstar guided Shrewtooth into the medicine cat’s outer cave.

  The young black tom sank to the ground, shivering, and covered his nose with his tail. Leafstar sat beside him, exhausted by the long journey back, nudging Shrewtooth every paw step of the way.

  “Is he hurt?” Echosong queried, padding up to Shrewtooth and giving him a sniff.

  “No, I don’t know what the matter is,” Leafstar replied. “We were out hunting, and we ended up beside that Twoleg den—the one where Petalnose was shut up. And suddenly Shrewtooth was like this. He won’t explain why.”

  “Shrewtooth?” Echosong bent closer to the quivering black tom and touched his ear lightly with her nose. “You’re safe here. Tell us what we can do to help.”

  But Shrewtooth’s only reply was a low moaning sound.

  Echosong sighed and shook her head. “I think the best I can do is give him some poppy seeds to help him sleep. Maybe when he wakes he’ll be able to talk about it.”

  Leafstar nodded. “If you think that’s best.”

  While Echosong went to fetch poppy seeds from the niche in the rock where she kept her supplies, Leafstar slipped out of the den. Glancing around, she spotted Mintpaw padding past with a mouse dangling from her jaws.

  “Mintpaw, I need you to fetch Petalnose,” she meowed. “Tell her it’s urgent.”

  The apprentice sped off, tossing her prey onto the fresh-kill pile as she went. Maybe Petalnose can get some sense out of Shrewtooth, Leafstar thought as she returned to the den.

  She found that Echosong had moved Shrewtooth into one of the scrapes in the floor of the outer cave, where sick cats lay to be treated. She was shaking out a poppy head so that the black seeds fell out near Shrewtooth’s nose.

  “Lick those up,” she ordered.

  The black warrior shuddered, but raised his head to do as he was told, then sank back into the nest with a sigh. Gradually his breathing steadied and his shivering died away. Leafstar thought that he might be drifting into sleep, when Petalnose appeared at the mouth of the den.

  “Mintpaw said you wanted me,” the gray she-cat meowed, with a polite nod to Echosong.

  As quickly as she could, Leafstar told her about their visit to the old Twoleg den, and how it had affected Shrewtooth.

  Understanding flooded into Petalnose’s blue eyes. “Can’t you see?” she asked when Leafstar had finished. “That Twoleg must have shut Shrewtooth up there, too.”

  Without waiting for Leafstar to reply, she padded across the outer cave to Shrewtooth and crouched down beside him, stroking his shoulder with her tail. “You were there, weren’t you, in that horrible den?” she mewed softly. “Do you want to tell us about it?”

  “I was born on a farm,” Shrewtooth began, his voice a drowsy whisper. “My mother died when I was still a kit, and I strayed off into the woods. I was managing all right, hunting mice and shrews, and then this filthy old Twoleg came and grabbed me.”

  A shudder ran through him. Petalnose went on stroking him and murmured, “But it’s over now. You’re safe.”

  “He shut me in his den with a nest of dirty old pelts,” Shrewtooth went on. His voice had sunk even lower, so that Leafstar and Echosong had to creep closer to hear. “He fed me on crow-food … when he fed me at all. Even the smell made me sick. His dog was always barking and snuffling around the den where I was shut in, and I was terrified that it would get at me.”

  “A dog?” Petalnose sounded shocked. “That’s awful. There was no dog when I was there.”

  “It’s a huge brute, with such big teeth.…” Another shudder rippled through Shrewtooth.

  “It’s not here now. You’ll never have to see it again,” Petalnose promised.

  “But what if it gets loose in the woods?”

  Leafstar wondered if that was the reason for Shrewtooth’s nervousness. Is he always expecting the Twoleg’s dog to leap out at him? “The dog won’t come after you here,” she meowed. “And even if it does, we have warriors who can deal with it.”

  “How did you escape?” Echosong prompted him.

  “I climbed up and up.” Sleep, brought on by the poppy seeds, was blurring Shrewtooth’s words. “Up through a long, dark tunnel that led into the sky. And then I fell down and down until I landed in a bramble thicket.”

  “You were very brave.” Petalnose gave the black tom’s ear a lick.

  “The dog knew I was there,” Shrewtooth went on. “But I was in the middle of the thicket, and it couldn’t get at me. At last it went away, and I got out. I’d wrenched one of my legs, but I managed to make it as far as the cliffs.”

  “And Waspwhisker found you there,” Leafstar finished for him. “I’m glad he did, Shrewtooth. I’m proud to have you as a warrior of SkyClan.”

  Shrewtooth shook his head, rustling the bracken underneath him. “I was ashamed because the Twoleg kept me a prisoner,” he confessed. “That’s why I never told any cat where I came from.”

  “There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Petalnose assured him gently. “I was a prisoner there, too, with Mintpaw and Sagepaw, when they were kits.”

  Shrewtooth blinked and struggled to focus on the pale gray she-cat. “You were?”

  “I don’t like to talk about it either,” Petalnose continued. “And I had to be rescued. You escaped all by yourself. You should be proud, not ashamed.”

  Shrewtooth’s only reply was a long sigh; he seemed to relax.

  “He’s sleeping now,” Echosong murmured, giving him another sniff. “You’d better leave him to rest.”

  Leafstar padded out of the den with Petalnose close behind. Her belly churned with a mixture of fury and helplessness. “Twolegs!” she spat, scraping her claws on the path. “They think they can do anything they want!”

  “How dare he do that to Shrewtooth!” Petalnose was just as angry, flexing her claws and lashing her tail. “I hate thinking that more cats have suffered like I did. Leafstar, we need to teach that Twoleg a lesson!”

  Leafstar stared at her. “We’re just cats. What can we do against Twolegs?”

  “Plenty.” A threatening meow came from behind Leafstar; she glanced over her shoulder to see Sharpclaw padding up, his green eyes flashing fury. Obviously he had overheard enough to work out what was going on. “That Twoleg is an enemy of SkyClan,” he announced, swiping one forepaw through the air to emphasize his words. “And he’ll be treated as such!”

  Leafstar wasn’t sure what Sharpclaw intended to do, but she told him everything that Shrewtooth had said.

  “So there’s a dog there now,” Sharpclaw mused when she had finished. “That makes it more complicated. We’d have to deal with it…” His voice died away thoughtfully.

  “Just a moment,” Leafstar meowed. “I haven’t said that we’re going to deal with anything.”

  “You can’t ignore this.” There was a flame burning in Petalnose’s blue eyes that Leafstar had never seen there before. “How many more cats does this Twoleg get to torture?”


  “I think you should call a Clan meeting,” Sharpclaw suggested. “See what other cats think.”

  Leafstar considered her deputy’s idea for a moment. She wasn’t happy about it; she felt as if she was putting a paw into a fast-flowing river that might well sweep her away, and her Clanmates with her. But Sharpclaw and Petalnose had a point: The Clan was at risk with this cruel Twoleg living so close to their borders.

  “Very well,” she decided, and jumped up to the top of the Rockpile.

  The clouds had built up while Leafstar and Shrewtooth were returning from the woods, and a cold wind buffeted her fur as she stood on the smooth gray boulders. She shivered as she let out a yowl. “Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Rockpile for a Clan meeting!”

  Cherrytail, Rockshade, and Waspwhisker appeared from the warriors’ den and padded down the trail. Lichenfur and Tangle emerged to sit in the entrance to their den, while Clovertail listened from the ledge outside the new birthing den. Sagepaw joined his littermate, Mintpaw, near Echosong’s den. The medicine cat sat in the entrance, where she could keep an eye on Shrewtooth as he slept.

  Fallowfern guided her kits down the trail from the nursery and tried hard to make them sit quietly while they bounced around with excitement. Billystorm, Ebonyclaw, and Frecklepaw appeared from the direction of the training area, and sat side by side, grooming sand out of their pelts.

  Leafstar looked around. None of the newcomers had arrived for the meeting, nor had Harveymoon and Macgyver. They must still be out on patrol. She was about to start speaking, when she spotted Patchfoot heading up the gorge with Cora, Shorty, and Sparrowpelt. They looked surprised to see a Clan meeting in progress, and bounded up to listen.

  Leafstar began by explaining what had happened that morning, adding the story of Petalnose’s imprisonment for the benefit of those cats who hadn’t been Clan members at the time. While she was still speaking Stick’s patrol returned, with Coal, Bouncefire, and Tinycloud, who were quickly brought up to date by their Clanmates.

  As Leafstar finished, she saw pelts beginning to fluff up, claws sliding out, tails lashing, as her warriors learned what had happened to Petalnose and Shrewtooth. Her misgivings increased.