The Apprentice's Quest

To his relief, Sandstorm took the lead as he and the other questing cats headed for the thorn tunnel. The rest of ThunderClan padded along with them, calling out their good wishes.

“Best of luck, Alderpaw!”

“Keep safe!”

“May StarClan light your path!”

At the last moment, before Alderpaw and Sparkpaw stepped into the tunnel, Squirrelflight bounded up to them. Alderpaw saw fear in her eyes, but her voice was brisk as she meowed, “Don’t you dare get yourselves killed! I want to hear all about it when you get back.”

“We’ll be careful,” Alderpaw promised.

“I’ll look after him,” Sparkpaw added with an impudent glance at her littermate.

Squirrelflight touched noses with each of her kits, then took a pace back. Alderpaw was aware of her gaze on him until he headed into the tunnel.

This is it! The quest has really begun!

The sun was rising as Alderpaw’s group headed through the forest toward the lake, strong rays of sunlight striking through the trees and making patterns on the forest floor.

Alderpaw remembered how vast and frightening the territory had seemed when he first left the camp. Now he found it familiar and safe.

“How long will this quest take?” Sparkpaw asked, bouncing along at his side. “Where’s the place you saw? I want to know more about your dream—no, wait, your vision.”

“I have no idea where the place is, or how far it is,” Alderpaw replied, feeling a prickle in his pelt at his littermate’s questions. “And I can’t really talk about it. It’s medicine-cat stuff.”

“Oh, come on, you can tell me. Were there cats in your vision? What did they look like?

What did they say?” she persisted, her eyes sparkling eagerly.

Alderpaw’s nervousness increased under the flood of questions, until he felt like he had rats gnawing at his belly. He wished he could tell the truth to the other cats; it felt really awkward having to lie. Especially to Sparkpaw. I’ve never kept secrets from her before.

He staggered sideways as Sparkpaw gave him a hard prod in his side. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked crossly. “I’m only trying to help. I want to find what lies in the shadows and save ThunderClan. So how do you know your vision’s got something to do with the prophecy? Huh?”

“Sparkpaw, stop nagging your brother,” Sandstorm meowed tartly, pausing to let the younger cats come up with her. “You heard him.

It’s medicine-cat business.”

Sparkpaw glared for a couple of heartbeats, then shrugged, relaxing. “Okay. I’ll find out soon enough, anyway.” She bounded over to Cherryfall, who had moved into the lead. “What do you think?” she asked. “What does

Alderpaw’s vision mean?”

Alderpaw let out a sigh of relief. He was secretly pleased that Sparkpaw hadn’t been cowed by the rebuke. He felt bad enough for hiding things from her without getting her into trouble as well.

“I’d answer that better if I knew what the vision was,” Cherryfall replied patiently.

“Wouldn’t we all?” Sparkpaw responded, flicking a glance at her brother. “But you must have some ideas, Cherryfall. What do you think we’ll find at the end of the quest?”

“What we need to, I guess,” Cherryfall mewed.

“Something that will help clear the sky,” Molewhisker added. Then he muttered, “Whatever that means.”

“I think it might mean we find some new hunting grounds,” Sparkpaw announced. “I hope it does. Then we—”

She broke off as they came to the edge of a clearing where a squirrel was sitting upright among the grass, nibbling at something held in its front paws. Instantly Sparkpaw darted off, her tail flowing out behind her.

But the squirrel was too fast even for her.

Spotting her at once, it raced for the nearest tree, swarmed up the trunk, and vanished into the branches. A few leaves drifted down around

Sparkpaw, who stood looking up with a frustrated expression on her face.

“We all know you’re a quick learner,” Cherryfall mewed teasingly as Sparkpaw returned to the group with her tail drooping.

“But do you really need a new hunting ground already? It seems like you still have something to learn on the one we have.” She suppressed a mrrow of laughter.

Sparkpaw didn’t respond, only giving her chest fur a few furious licks to cover up her embarrassment.

For a moment Alderpaw felt bad for her. He knew exactly how it felt to lose prey.

“Well, I think we should stop and hunt for a while,” Sparkpaw meowed. “There’s a lot of prey here, and who knows how much there’ll be once we’ve left our territory?”

“No, I think we should keep going and hunt later,” Alderpaw objected. He guessed that Sparkpaw just wanted another chance to prove what an awesome hunter she was. “We have a long way to go.”

“And Thunderpaths to cross,” Sandstorm added. “Graystripe helped me work out a route so that we don’t have to cross the mountains, but it means more danger from Twolegs and monsters.”

“Huh, Thunderpaths!” Sparkpaw sniffed dismissively. “Purdy told me all about them.

They’re no big deal.”