The Forgotten Warrior

“Then what do you mean about another medicine cat?” Jayfeather prompted. “Not Briarlight or Brightheart, surely? They know more than the others, but they haven’t had any real training. Brightheart hasn’t even been to the Moonpool.”

Yellowfang lashed her scraggy tail. “You should know who I mean, mouse-brain,” she rasped. “ThunderClan has a third medicine cat—Cinderheart. Perhaps it’s time to tell her who she really is.”

Jayfeather flinched. “You think so? Will she believe me?”

“She will if you walk in her dreams,” Yellowfang meowed. “Take her back to the life she had before. All the knowledge is there; she just needs to reach out for it.”

Disconcerted by the burning intensity in Yellowfang’s amber eyes, Jayfeather took a step back. “Wait. Cinderpelt was your apprentice; she doesn’t have to be mine. How can I train a new medicine cat with everything else that’s going on?”

Yellowfang rolled her eyes. “You won’t need to train her!” she spat. “She already knows more than you do. She just needs to remember who she is.”

Jayfeather bristled. “I’ll think about it,” he snapped.

“Make sure you do,” Yellowfang mewed. “Or I might walk in her dreams myself.”

That would scare Cinderheart out of her fur, Jayfeather thought, unable to imagine anything more unsettling for the young warrior.

“All right, I’ll do it,” he growled.

Yellowfang turned to leave, then glanced back over her shoulder. “You have to be ready for the worst battle the Clans have ever known,” she reminded him. “One medicine cat will not be enough!”

Jayfeather woke to darkness. He was curled comfortably in the moss and fern of his nest in the medicine cat’s den; the air around him was warm, and full of the fresh scents of early greenleaf. But although his body was at ease, his mind was troubled, and he felt as if he had scarcely rested at all.

Outside in the clearing, cats were moving around; Jayfeather could hear Brambleclaw’s voice as the deputy organized the patrols. Paws scampered closer to his den, and Cherrypaw’s voice rose above the background murmur.

“Sol—come and watch us training, please!”

“Yeah,” Molepaw added. “I’ve learned this really cool battle move I want to show you.”

Jayfeather raised his head out of his nest and tasted the air. He could pick up the apprentice’s scent, along with Sol’s, just outside the bramble screen. Rosepetal and Cloudtail, who was still mentoring Cherrypaw, stood a couple of tail-lengths farther away.

“That’s really not a good idea,” Rosepetal meowed. “Sol has better things to do than watch a couple of apprentices.”

“And we want you to concentrate on your training session,” Cloudtail added, his voice cool with dislike of Sol. “Not showing off for a visitor.”

“It’s kind of you to ask me,” Sol mewed to the two young cats. “But I have other duties right now. I’ll want to hear a full report of what you’ve learned when I get back.”

Jayfeather heard a suppressed hiss from Cloudtail, and sensed a wave of annoyance rolling off him. He could understand what the white warrior felt. Sol is talking as if he’s our Clan leader!

“Jayfeather?”

Focused on what was happening outside the den, Jayfeather hadn’t noticed Brightheart dragging herself up to him.

“Jayfeather, can I go and speak to Sol?” she asked.

The eagerness in her tone irritated Jayfeather. “He’s not going to mend your back, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he snapped.

“I wasn’t hoping for that,” Briarlight huffed. “I’m curious about him, that’s all.”

“Well, don’t be,” Jayfeather retorted. “He’s nothing special.”

“He saved the apprentices from the fox,” Briarlight reminded him.

Jayfeather snorted. “Maybe.”

I can’t believe Lionblaze and I got it so wrong, he thought. Sol was the last cat we were expecting to turn up.

The apprentices and their mentors moved away. Sol loitered for a few more moments outside the den, then he, too, retreated in the direction of the entrance. Jayfeather hauled himself out of his nest and began to groom the scraps of moss and bracken from his fur.

“Jayfeather!” Daisy’s voice came from the other side of the bramble screen. “Can you come and have a look at Sorreltail?”

Leaving his grooming unfinished, Jayfeather brushed past the screen and out into the camp. Daisy was waiting for him a tail-length away.

“Is something wrong?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” Daisy admitted, falling in beside him as he padded toward the warriors’ den. “You’re the medicine cat. But I’ve seen a lot of cats near to giving birth, and I’m not sure I like the look of Sorreltail.”

Jayfeather replied with a grunt. As he slid between the outer branches of the warriors’ den, his nose twitched at the musty scent of dried moss and fern. Most of the cats were already out on patrol; he located Sorreltail lying in a nest near the edge of the den, and picked his way through the bedding to her side.