Goosefeather's Curse

by Erin Hunter

  The silver-gray she-cat paused and looked back at him. “At least Stormtail is normal,” she retorted. “Why do you have to be so . . . so different?” She whisked around and disappeared among the ferns.

  Goosepaw grumpily swept the herbs into a pile.

  “Hey! Don’t mix them up!” Pearnose protested. “It may be greenleaf, but every leaf is worth saving.”

  “I’ll pick some more,” Goosepaw snapped.

  “Not if you can’t remember what they look like,” Pearnose teased. Her tone softened. “Look, I know what it’s like to be apprenticed to a medicine cat when your denmates are preparing to be warriors. It feels as if they’ll never understand what you do. But nothing—no herb name, no healing trick—is more important than being loyal to your Clan. And that includes all your Clanmates, especially when you are a medicine cat.”

  “It would be easier to be loyal if they didn’t treat me like a rogue,” Goosepaw complained. “Perhaps I should just accept that I’ll never have any friends because I walk a different path than they do.”

  Pearnose snorted. “Sometimes, Goosepaw, I think you make your path more different than it needs to be. When you’re as old as me, you’ll realize that all cats—kits, apprentices, leaders, elders—are all the same underneath their fur. Your Clanmates need to be able to trust you, to see you as one of them, if you are going to treat them when they are sick or injured. Now take these herbs back to the camp and check Nettlebreeze for ticks again. I don’t think you used enough mouse bile on him yesterday.”

  Goosepaw stood up. At least Moonpaw only has one mentor to boss her around! Sometimes he felt as if Cloudberry and Pearnose would wear his ears off with their constant nagging!

  He plunged into the ferns, reveling in the feeling of the fronds brushing against his pelt. He imagined this was what it would be like to plunge into a cool green river, cut off from the sky and trees and all the forest scents. . . . Goosepaw stopped. He could smell something beneath the ferns: newly cut wood overlaid with a sharp, sour tang that made his nose wrinkle. He had smelled it before, but where? Twolegplace! It was the scent of the wooden boundary at the very edge of ThunderClan territory. But he was nowhere near. Why could he smell it here?

  Goosepaw’s ears filled with a loud buzzing noise. He dropped the herbs as the ground rocked beneath his feet, making him lurch sideways. Now he could smell other cats—musty, unwelcome scents as well as the stifling odors of Twolegs and too-bright flowers. Kittypets? What were they doing so far into ThunderClan territory?

  Goosepaw blinked. The ferns had vanished—or at least faded until they seemed to be very far away. Instead he was at the edge of dense pine trees, standing in lush green grass beside the wooden Twolegplace border. Abruptly the buzzing in his ears was pierced by the shrieks and yowls of fighting cats, a writhing knot of fur that lurched toward him, then jerked away. Goosepaw stared in horror as more kittypets streamed over the wooden border and plunged into the fight. He strained to make out individual pelts—from the scent he knew that it was a ThunderClan patrol being attacked, but were these his Clanmates, or cats from long ago?

  Goosepaw peered closer, trying to recognize each cat, but they were moving too fast, and too tangled up with their attackers. He winced as a thick-set ginger-and-white kittypet sank its teeth into a brown tabby neck.

  “Those kittypets are stronger than you’d think,” purred a voice in Goosepaw’s ear.

  He whirled around to see a tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat standing beside him. Her amber eyes gleamed with delight as she watched the battling cats.

  “Who are you?” Goosepaw whispered.

  The cat twitched her ears without taking her gaze from the fight. “Have I been forgotten so soon?” she murmured.

  Goosepaw jumped as a cat thudded to the ground near his paws, flung by a kittypet with long black fur. He tried to make out the wounded cat’s face, but the buzzing had returned in his ears, and suddenly he was surrounded by ferns again. Goosepaw blinked. He was back on the path from Sunningrocks. The battling cats, the strange she-cat watching them, the pine trees, and the Twolegplace border had disappeared.

  But Goosepaw couldn’t forget the shrieks of terror, and the bitter taste of fear clung to his tongue. He had never been submerged so completely in a vision before. Everything had been louder, brighter, more vivid than his previous visions. Pelt bristling, he raced through the bushes and plunged down into the ravine. He burst into the clearing, startling the apprentices who were standing at the fresh-kill pile.

  “Are you being chased by a fox?” Heronpaw called.

  “Goosepaw always smells of leaves. He’s more likely to be chased by a rabbit!” Poppypaw teased.

  Moonpaw and Rabbitpaw huffed with laughter. Stormtail looked up from the other side of the fresh-kill pile. “You want to watch out, Goosepaw,” he purred. “Even rabbits can be dangerous when you don’t know how to look after yourself.”

  Rabbitpaw reared up onto his hind legs and boxed the air. “This rabbit’s always dangerous!” he meowed, bringing his front paws down on Heronpaw.

  The dark brown tom shrugged him off. “Stop messing around!”

  Goosepaw noticed his sister watching him with a frown, as if she was worried about how he would react. He forced his fur to lie flat and lowered his tail. “No foxes or rabbits after me today,” he mewed. “Something spooked me, that’s all.” The shrieks of battling cats rang in his ears for a moment, and he shook his head to clear it. “Have you left any fresh-kill for me?” he asked.

  “Goosepaw? Is that you?” Cloudberry pushed her way out of the ferns, sniffing. “Did you bring back the herbs that I gave you?”

  Goosepaw’s belly lurched. He had dropped all the leaves when he had the vision of the kittypet attack. “Er, not quite . . . ,” he began.

  He was interrupted by Pineheart appearing from Doestar’s den. “Is Squirrelwhisker’s patrol back yet?” he meowed, looking around the clearing.

  Larksong looked up from the pigeon she was sharing with Mumblefoot. “No, they’re still out.”

  Pineheart narrowed his eyes. “But they went out before your patrol. What’s taking them so long?”

  Goosepaw froze. He pictured the warrior who had fallen at his feet in the thick of the battle. The image wasn’t as clear as it had been before, but he remembered brown tabby fur, terrified amber eyes, long pale whiskers . . . Was it Squirrelwhisker’s patrol being attacked by kittypets? Goosepaw was about to say something when he caught Moonpaw’s eye. She wants me to be normal, right? He couldn’t be certain it was his Clanmates in the fight. Goosepaw shut his mouth and turned back to the fresh-kill pile.

  His first mouthful of vole felt as if it was choking him. The yowls of frightened cats kept echoing in his ears, and all he could smell was fear and blood and the sickly scent of Twolegplace.

  “Are you okay?” Moonpaw asked him quietly.

  Goosepaw shook his head. Abandoning the vole, he padded to the leader’s den beneath the Highrock. Cloudberry was inside, talking to Pineheart and Doestar. Goosepaw stopped at the entrance and coughed.

  “Goosepaw?” Doestar called. “Come in.”

  It was dark inside the den, and Goosepaw could hardly make out the shapes of the three cats. He stood in the doorway, blinking. “Cloudberry, I need to speak to you,” he mewed.

  One of the shapes moved toward him. “What is it?” She sounded cross, and Goosepaw’s heart sank. Was his mentor in the mood for hearing about this?

  “I saw something on the way back from Sunningrocks,” he whispered, hoping Doestar and Pineheart weren’t listening. “I . . . I was by Twolegplace, watching a battle between ThunderClan cats and kittypets. I think Squirrelwhisker was one of the cats.”

  Cloudberry leaned closer to him, her breath hot on his muzzle. “Do you think it was a vision of the future?”

  Goosepaw swallowed. “I don’t know,” he confessed. “My other visions have felt different, more . . . distant. This one felt as if I was right in the middle of it.�
�

  The old she-cat narrowed her eyes. “You mean it could be happening right now?”

  Goosepaw shrugged. “Like I said, I don’t know. But I thought I should tell you.”

  Cloudberry straightened up. “You did the right thing.” She turned to the other cats inside the den. “We should send a patrol to find Squirrelwhisker and the others. They could be in danger.”

  Doestar stood up, her pale fur glowing in the shadows. “What do you mean? Has StarClan sent you a sign?”

  Cloudberry glanced at Goosepaw. “Not to me,” she meowed. “But I think we should treat it seriously.”

  Goosepaw ducked his head as he felt Doestar’s eyes rest on him. There was a pause; then the leader mewed, “Pineheart, take a patrol of warriors and follow Squirrelwhisker’s tracks. Cloudberry, do we know where we might find them?”

  The medicine cat touched Goosepaw’s flank with her tail. Without looking up, he muttered, “By Twolegplace.”

  “Right,” meowed Doestar. “Go quickly, Pineheart.”

  The deputy hesitated, shifting from paw to paw. “Really? Because an apprentice says so?”

  Goosepaw stared at a crack in the ground, wishing he could disappear into it.

  Beside him, Cloudberry lifted her head. “And because I say so. Goosepaw and I are your medicine cats, remember.”

  Goosepaw risked a glance at Pineheart. The fox-colored tom was glaring at Cloudberry. Suddenly the scent of kittypets grew stronger, filling Goosepaw’s nose and mouth until he thought he was going to choke. He whirled around, frightened that the kittypets had stormed the camp and were about to invade Doestar’s den. But everything was quiet, and none of the cats beside him had moved.

  “Just go, Pineheart,” Doestar ordered. “Say nothing to the others about the possibility of trouble, but there’s nothing to be lost by making sure Squirrelwhisker’s patrol is safe.”

  The deputy dipped his head and slipped past Goosepaw out of the den. Doestar looked at Goosepaw for a few moments, then turned to Cloudberry. “I hope I was right to trust you,” she murmured.

  I’m not making this up! Goosepaw thought fiercely.

  Cloudberry brushed her tail against him. “Come on,” she mewed. “We need to sort out our stocks if there are going to be wounds to treat.” Nodding to Doestar, she led him out of the den.

  The apprentices were watching the gorse tunnel, which still quivered from the rapid exit of Pineheart’s patrol. “What’s happening?” asked Rabbitpaw.

  “Pineheart has gone to check that Squirrelwhisker’s patrol is okay,” Cloudberry replied lightly. “Nothing to worry about.” She padded into the ferns, then looked back at Goosepaw, who had stopped. “What’s wrong?”

  Goosepaw stared at the gorse, picturing Pineheart and the warriors racing through the forest to the border with Twolegplace. Would they be in time to help Squirrelwhisker? “I wish I could have gone with them,” he mewed.

  “You’re not trained to fight,” Cloudberry reminded him. “That’s not what a medicine cat does. Now, are you going to help me with these herbs? Seeing as you left a good portion of them somewhere in the forest today. . . .”

  Goosepaw was trying to brush a wad of cobweb off his paws when he heard the thunder of cats entering the camp. He rushed out of the den with sticky white web trailing behind him. “Wait for me!” Cloudberry called behind him, but Goosepaw ignored her and plunged through the ferns.

  The clearing was thronging with cats, swirling like fish in a tiny pool. Goosepaw stood on tiptoe and spotted Pineheart, Stormtail, Larksong . . . all cats who had gone to look for the missing patrol. The crowd shifted, and suddenly Goosepaw saw a dark brown shape huddled on the ground, oozing scarlet trails. Squirrelwhisker! He started forward, but Cloudberry was already running past him.

  “Let me through!” she yowled, and the cats stepped aside to let her crouch beside the injured warrior. Goosepaw saw the rest of Squirrelwhisker’s patrol now: Stagleap, Rockfall, Flashnose, all battered and bleeding and looking shocked but on their feet.

  “They were being attacked by kittypets,” Pineheart reported to Doestar. “They were outnumbered, and the kittypets took them by surprise. We sent them packing with a few scratched ears, I promise.”

  “Thank StarClan you found them!” gasped Fallowsong. She had been on a hunting patrol, which had just returned.

  “They were lucky that Pineheart went looking for them,” Rainfur agreed.

  “It was nothing to do with luck,” Doestar meowed.

  Goosepaw felt his fur grow hot. Cloudberry glanced over her shoulder at him and gave a faint shake of her head, as if warning him that his secret would be safe with her. But Doestar was already bounding onto the top of Highrock and calling the Clan together.

  “Let all those cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below!” she yowled. “We need to thank StarClan for the victory over the battle with kittypets today—and not only StarClan.” She looked down at Goosepaw, who felt the cats around him take a step away, leaving him in a bare patch of sand. “Squirrelwhisker and her patrol owe their rescue to one of their Clanmates. An apprentice, no less! It was Goosepaw’s vision that led Pineheart straight to the attack. Cats of ThunderClan, we have a powerful medicine cat among us! And Cloudberry, if you agree, I would like Goosepaw to receive his full name as a sign of our gratitude and pride.”

  Goosepaw blinked. Behind him, he heard the apprentices muttering in disgust.

  “He’s only been training for three moons!” Poppypaw complained.

  “I’ve only been an apprentice for a moon!” wailed Moonpaw. “That’s not fair!”

  “What makes you so special?” growled a voice in Goosepaw’s ear. It was Stormtail.

  Goosepaw spun around and glared at the warrior. “You have no idea what I can do!” The image of a badger loomed over him. If all my visions come true, then so will this one! Stormtail is going to try to kill me with a badger! Goosepaw sank his claws into the earth to keep himself steady. “I know what you’re going to do,” he hissed. “And I’ll be ready, just you wait and see!”

  Stormtail looked baffled. “You’re weird.”

  Cloudberry stepped out of the crowd and dipped her head. “You are very generous, Doestar. I will gladly give Goosepaw his full name at the next half-moon. But I am sure he knows that he still has much to learn, and his training will continue until I am called to StarClan.” She fixed her clear yellow gaze on Goosepaw and he nodded.

  Goosepaw ignored the glares of fury coming from Rabbitpaw and Stormtail. They were only jealous. He glimpsed Squirrelwhisker through the crowd, raising her head just enough to nod gratefully to him. Goosepaw felt a stirring of pride in his belly.

  No other cat sees as much as I do! I will keep my Clan safe forever!

  CHAPTER SIX

  “Goosepaw, do you promise to uphold the ways of a medicine cat, to stand apart from rivalry between Clan and Clan, and to protect all cats equally, even at the cost of your life?”

  Goosepaw bowed his head in the glittering light of the Moonstone and tried to ignore the murmurs that came from the shadows. As always, the little cavern was full of watching eyes, voices whispering to him on the cusp of his hearing, dire threats and prophecies echoing around the stone walls. It seemed as if every cat in StarClan came here to pour their warnings into his ears—warnings that he couldn’t distinguish, that only made his pelt crawl and his tail fluff up with fear.

  “I do,” he replied.

  “Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your true name as a medicine cat. Goosepaw, from this moment you will be known as Goosefeather. StarClan honors the power of your sight, and we welcome you as a full medicine cat of ThunderClan.” Cloudberry rested her muzzle briefly on top of his head, then stepped back.

  “Goosefeather! Goosefeather! Goosefeather!” whispered the unseen cats.

  Goosefeather winced; then Sagepaw cheered, “Goosefeather!” The air in the cave instantly felt warmer. Goosefeather blinked gratefully at the white-furred Shad
owClan apprentice.

  “Welcome to life as a medicine cat, Goosefeather,” meowed Chiveclaw of WindClan. His apprentice, Hawkheart, who had received his full name at the last half-moon, nodded.

  Echosnout sniffed. “I hope he doesn’t get any fancy ideas about knowing as much as the rest of us,” she muttered.

  Cloudberry raised her tail. “Goosefeather knows he’ll never stop learning,” she purred.

  Goosefeather fought down a flash of anger. I can already do more than any of you! I see all the cats that have gone before us, and things that have not yet happened. You have no idea what powers I have!

  The voices grew louder inside his head, as if the unseen cats knew what he was thinking.

  “Blood will spill blood!”

  “Darkness, air, water, and sky will come together!”

  “He is a kittypet!”

  “Water will destroy her!”

  “Only fire will save the Clan!”

  Shut up! Goosefeather screeched silently. It’s too much! I don’t know what you’re talking about!

  Sagepaw’s mentor, Redthistle, shook her dark ginger pelt. “Time to go home,” she mewed. “I’m so cold I can’t feel my paws.” She limped out of the cave with Sagepaw beside her.

  Cloudberry nodded to Goosefeather, and he fled up the tunnel, pushing past the ShadowClan cats. The voices faded behind him, and he took deep breaths of the cold night air. He knew his gift was special, and that he had no choice but to serve his Clan as a medicine cat. But here, far underground, in the shimmering light of the moon-bathed crystal, Goosefeather’s gift seemed more than he could possibly bear.

  “Great StarClan! Are we out of borage already?” Cloudberry stuck her head farther into the cleft in the rock, then withdrew it, sneezing. “Nothing but dust back there. You’ll need to gather borage as well, Goosefeather.”

  He rolled his eyes. “At this rate I’ll be bringing back half the forest,” he meowed. “Can’t I take one of the apprentices with me?”