Mistystar's Omen (8 page)

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Victoria Holmes

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When Hollyleaf disappeared in the tunnels by the lake, ThunderClan believed she was lost to them forever. But her adventure was only beginning. Lost and lonely, Hollyleaf soon meets a mysterious cat named Fallen Leaves, who teaches her how to live in the tunnels. But Hollyleaf can't help wondering if leaving her Clanmates was the right choice. She knows she's a ThunderClan cat at heart, but can she ever truly go back?

Chapter 1

Thunder crashed, louder than anything Hollyleaf
had heard before. There was a ripple overhead and a strange cracking sound.
The sky is falling!
And then it was all around her, sharper and harder than Hollyleaf expected, throwing her to the ground and crushing her bones.
I can't breathe!
She struggled frantically, feeling her claws rip, but the sky was too heavy, too cold, and she let the endless dark sweep her away.

 

Hollyleaf was standing on the edge of a cliff. Behind her, the hollow yawned like a hungry mouth. Flames, hissing and orange, filled the air with smoke and bitter ash. Hollyleaf's littermates, Lionblaze and Jayfeather, crouched beside her; she could feel them trembling against her fur. In front of them, Ashfur stood at the end of a branch that would lead them through the fire. Squirrelflight stood next to him, fury blazing in her eyes. Hollyleaf stared at her mother, waiting for her to move Ashfur out of the way.

“Enough, Ashfur,” Squirrelflight hissed. “Your quarrel is with me. These young cats have done nothing to hurt you. Do what you like with me, but let them out of the fire.”

Ashfur looked at her in surprise. “You don't understand. This is the only way to make you feel the same pain that you caused me. You tore my heart out when you chose Brambleclaw over me. Anything I did to you would never hurt as much. But your kits . . . If you watch them die, then you'll know the pain I felt.”

Squirrelflight met his gaze. “Kill them, then. You won't hurt me that way.” She took a step away from him, then looked back over her shoulder. “If you really want to hurt me, you'll have to find a better way than that. They are not my kits.”

The ground lurched beneath Hollyleaf's paws.
Squirrelflight is not my mother?
Hollyleaf was Clanless, codeless. She could be a rogue, even a kittypet. There was no way Hollyleaf could let Ashfur tell the four Clans about Squirrelflight's confession. She and her littermates would be driven out! Everything they had done up till now, all their loyalty to the warrior code, would count for nothing.

 

The silence was deafening, pressing more heavily on Hollyleaf's ears than the stones that pinned her to the cold floor. Dust filled her mouth and nose, and pain stabbed through one of her legs.
I've been buried alive!
Hollyleaf thrashed and bucked against the weight of the rocks. Her head broke free with a shower of small stones. There wasn't a sliver of light from the mouth of the tunnel. She was trapped in the dark.

“Help! Help me! I'm stuck!”

She stopped. Who was she calling to? She had no Clanmates now. She had left that life behind—on the other side of the rocks, as far away as if it were the moon. Her brothers and Leafpool knew that she had killed Ashfur. And now Jayfeather and Lionblaze probably thought she had died in the rockfall.
Maybe it's better that way. At least they won't come looking for me.
Hollyleaf closed her eyes again.

 

Hollyleaf had followed Ashfur to the WindClan border. She had stalked him like she would a piece of prey, treading softly, claws sheathed to keep them from catching in brambles or scratching on stone. When he reached the bank of the stream, with the water foaming far below, Hollyleaf sprang on him, twisted his head to one side, sank her teeth into his fur and skin, telling herself over and over:
This is the only way!
Ashfur dropped to his belly and Hollyleaf jumped back as he rolled into the stream. She washed the blood from her paws, letting the cold water chill her legs, her flanks, all the way to her heart.
I did it for my Clan!

 

Hollyleaf forced the images from her mind with a shudder. Taking a deep breath, she wriggled her front paws free and pushed away the stones that were pressing against her chest. Then she reached out as far as she could and started to haul herself out. She hissed when one of her hind legs moved. It was so painful, her leg felt as if it might be broken. Hollyleaf pictured the well-stocked medicine den, with comfrey to mend the bone and poppy seeds to help her sleep through the worst of the discomfort.
As far away as the moon,
she reminded herself. Gritting her teeth, she dragged the rest of her body out of the stones. Her wounded leg bounced agonizingly onto the floor.

“Great StarClan, that hurts!” Hollyleaf growled. Speaking aloud seemed to help, so she carried on. “I've been down here before. I know there are other ways out. I just need to follow this tunnel until I find a source of light. Come on, one paw in front of the other.” In spite of her fear, in spite of the pain in her leg, the memories kept flooding back. . . .

 

“I am your mother, Hollyleaf,” Leafpool had whispered. Hollyleaf shook her head. That was impossible. How could she be the daughter of a medicine cat, when medicine cats were forbidden to have kits? Worse than being a rogue or a kittypet, her own birth had broken the code of the Clans.

 

Hollyleaf unsheathed her claws to give her a better grip on the stone. To her dismay, several of them had already broken off in her struggle to get out, and the tips of her pads felt wet and sticky. She smelled blood and pictured the trail she was leaving as she crawled along the tunnel. If Lionblaze and Jayfeather dug through the rockfall, they'd know she'd survived and would follow the trail to find her. Suddenly her front paws thudded into stone. She yelped with pain and swiveled sideways to follow the curve of the wall. It was so dark, she couldn't even tell if her eyes were open.
If I can just find some light
.
If, if, if
 . . .

 

Jayfeather had figured out who their father was. “It's Crowfeather.”

Hollyleaf stared at him in disbelief. “But . . . Crowfeather's from WindClan! I'm a ThunderClan cat!”

“Yellowfang came to me in a dream,” Jayfeather insisted. “She told me it was time we knew the truth.”

For Hollyleaf, there was nothing left. Half-Clan? She stood in the mouth of the tunnel and felt the scent of stone smooth her ruffled fur. She could disappear down here and emerge somewhere far from the Clans. She could begin a new life, away from all these lies and broken promises.

Hollyleaf turned and ran into the tunnel. She heard Jayfeather calling to her—and then the thunder came, and the sky fell in, and she was swallowed up by the dizzying black.

 

Hollyleaf kept going.
Breathe, scrape, haul.
Over and over. She longed to stop, to sleep, to wait for a StarClan warrior to come for her. But did StarClan even know she was here? Her birth had broken the warrior code. She had killed another cat. And she had given up her place in ThunderClan. No ancestors would be watching over her. Had they been watching when Hollyleaf spilled all her Clan's secrets at the Gathering?

 

“Wait!” Hollyleaf leaped to her paws. “There's something that I have to say that all the Clans should hear.” There had been too many lies, too much damage done to the warrior code, for her to keep quiet any longer.

The clearing was so quiet that Hollyleaf could hear a mouse scuttering among the dead leaves under the Great Oak. “You think you know me,” she began. “And my brothers, Lionblaze and Jayfeather of ThunderClan. You think you know us, but everything you have been told about us is a lie! We are not the kits of Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight.”

“What?” Brambleclaw shot to his paws from where he sat with the other deputies among the roots of the Great Oak. “Squirrelflight, why is she talking such nonsense?”

“I'm sorry, Brambleclaw, but it's true. I'm not their mother, and you are not their father.”

The Clan deputy stared at her. “Then who is?”

Squirrelflight turned her sad green gaze on the cat she had always claimed as her daughter. “Tell them, Hollyleaf. I kept the secret for seasons; I'm not going to reveal it now.”

“Coward!” Hollyleaf flashed at her. Her gaze swept around the clearing, seeing the eyes of every single cat trained on her. “I'm not afraid of the truth! Leafpool is our mother, and Crowfeather—yes, Crowfeather of WindClan—is our father.”

Yowls of shock greeted her
words
, but Hollyleaf shouted over them. “These cats were so ashamed of us that they gave us away and lied to every single one of you to hide the fact that they had broken the warrior code. It's all
her
fault.” She whipped her tail around to point at Leafpool. “How can the Clans survive when there are cowards and liars at the very heart of them?”

 

Her words seemed to echo from the walls of the tunnel. Hollyleaf wished she could go back to the start of the Gathering, take back the terrible truth she had spilled, spare her Clanmates the pain and shock she had seen in their faces.
What have I done?

The constant dark was making her eyes ache. She had been searching for a chink of light for so long that she imagined one had appeared up ahead. The faintest line of something paler than black, like the first hint of milky dawn above the trees. Hollyleaf blinked and shook her head, trying to clear her vision. But the gray stripe was still there. Maybe it
was
light? She limped faster, ignoring the burn in her hind leg. The light grew stronger. It was seeping from a gap in the wall: another, smaller tunnel leading off. Hollyleaf dragged herself around the corner. Was it her imagination, or could she see the walls of a cave opening out ahead? In her excitement, she tried to stand up. Her hind leg buckled beneath her and stars exploded in her head. The last thing she saw was the stone floor rushing up to meet her.

Chapter 2

Leafpool! Leafpool, I'm thirsty!
Hollyleaf was
burning up. Her throat felt parched and her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. She must be in the medicine den with a fever. Where was the soaked moss that Leafpool always left close to her patients? She twisted her head, and her muzzle bumped into something soft and wet and green-smelling. Hollyleaf sucked at the tendrils of moss, trying not to wince as she swallowed the precious water. Nothing had ever tasted better.

Suddenly she realized she wasn't alone. There was a cat bending over her, pushing something beneath her injured leg. Hollyleaf hissed in pain, and the cat apologized softly. “It's just some feathers, to make you more comfortable. Lie still now.”

Hollyleaf stiffened. She didn't recognize this cat's voice or scent. “Who are you? Where am I?” She started to flail her front paws. “Let me go!”

A small, cool foot was placed on her shoulder, gently pushing her back down. Strong-smelling leaves were moved close to her muzzle. “Hush, it's all right. You're safe. Eat these, then go back to sleep.”

Hollyleaf allowed herself to be nudged back onto the floor. She swallowed the herbs—comfrey, from the scent of it—and two tiny poppy seeds. The feathers felt soft and warm against her wounded leg. With a small sigh, Hollyleaf closed her eyes and sleep dragged her away once more.

 

When she woke next, her head felt clearer and the pain in her leg had dulled to a nagging ache. Hollyleaf lay still for a moment, letting her eyes adjust to the near-darkness. This definitely wasn't the ThunderClan medicine den. She was lying on a thin bed of feathers over cold stone.
I'm still in the tunnels!
Hollyleaf felt a jolt of relief, then alarm. Who was down here with her? Hollyleaf tried to recall the scent of the cat who had told her to go back to sleep, but her belly rumbled and suddenly all she could think about was how hungry she was. When had she last eaten? She tried to stand up but her hind leg crumpled and she flopped onto her side, frustrated.

“You're awake!” A face loomed from the shadows. “How is your leg?”

Hollyleaf opened her eyes wide until she could make out ginger-and-white patches on the cat's pelt. He smelled of stone and water and moss. “Who are you?” she asked, her voice hoarse from lack of use.

The cat ignored her. Instead, he pushed something toward her with one paw. “You must be starving. Here, eat.”

Fresh-kill!
Hollyleaf bent her head, ready to dive in, then pulled back. A small, slimy minnow lay in front of her. “I don't like fish,” she mewed.

The cat twitched his ears. “Down here, you don't always have a choice.” His tone was mild, but Hollyleaf felt embarrassed. Her belly let out a loud growl as if it would be happy with anything, even crow-food. Holding her breath, Hollyleaf bit into the fish.
Plump, tasty mouse,
she told herself.
Pine-scented squirrel. The first pigeon of newleaf
.

She swallowed the last mouthful and drank from the moss beside her. The ginger-and-white cat watched her expectantly. “Thank you,” Hollyleaf meowed. “I . . . I guess it didn't taste too bad.”

The tom was still studying her. “You're Hollypaw, aren't you?”

She blinked. “Hollyleaf, actually. How did you know? I've never seen you before, have I?”

The cat shook his head and his eyes clouded. “No, you've never seen me. But I saw you with your littermates when you came to rescue those kits, just before the river flooded.”

Hollyleaf stared at him. She would never forget the desperate search for the lost WindClan kits with Jayfeather and Lionblaze. They had been washed out of the tunnels and into the lake when the underground river overflowed. It had been a lucky escape for all of them. Now this cat was telling her that he had been here! “Who
are
you?” she mewed.

The ginger-and-white tom busied himself with the feathers underneath her injured leg, rearranging them so that they were spread evenly. “My name is Fallen Leaves,” he meowed quietly.

“You're not from the Clans, are you?” Hollyleaf pressed. “Where do you live?”

Fallen Leaves padded over to a small bundle of herbs and started dividing them up. “Once I lived in the hills above the lake, but this is my home now.” He turned, pushing some herbs toward Hollyleaf. “Eat this comfrey; it'll help your leg. I won't give you any more poppy seeds unless you have trouble sleeping.”

Hollyleaf obediently chewed the fragrant leaves. “Were you a medicine cat?” she asked.

Fallen Leaves tipped his head to one side. “I don't know what that is. We all learned about herbs and injuries so we could help one another. Is that what you mean?”

“Kind of.” Hollyleaf propped herself up on her front legs, feeling her heart beat faster. “Who were the other cats? Were you part of a Clan?” Was there another group of cats living near here, one that the Clans didn't know about?

“No more questions,” Fallen Leaves ordered. “You need to rest. You haven't broken your leg, just wrenched it. You'll mend soon enough, and then I suppose you'll want to go back to your friends.”

“No!” Hollyleaf yelped. “I can't go back! Not ever!”

Fallen Leaves just shrugged. “That's up to you. Lie down and stop wriggling. I'll bring you something to eat later.” He picked up the scraps of fish bones and walked away.

Hollyleaf stared after him until the shadows swallowed him up. The walls of the tunnel seemed paler, as if more light was filtering in. When she'd been speaking, she'd heard her voice echoing from far away, which suggested that her first impression had been right and she was lying at the entrance to a cave. She couldn't hear any water, so it wasn't the cave with the river. Hollyleaf rested her chin on her paws and closed her eyes. She was lost and injured, but somehow a cat had found her and kept her alive with food and water, and herbs for her leg. Had he been sent by StarClan? Or was she just very, very lucky? Either way, she figured that she was safe, at least for now.

She woke from a doze to find another little fish beside her, as well as freshly soaked moss and some more comfrey. It was harder to see the walls of the cave, which meant it must have gotten darker outside. Was it night? Hollyleaf wondered how many days she had been down here. It had been a full moon when she . . . left. Perhaps Fallen Leaves could tell her what the moon was now. After eating her fish and masking the taste with the comfrey, Hollyleaf tried to stay awake, hoping that Fallen Leaves would come back. The cave grew darker until she couldn't see a thing. Hollyleaf gave up waiting for her strange companion. He would come again in the morning, she was sure.

 

This time she was awake and half-sitting up to wash her chest when Fallen Leaves arrived. He was carrying something bulkier and fluffier-looking than a fish. Hollyleaf paused between licks. “Hey! You caught a mouse!”

Fallen Leaves deposited the fresh-kill at her paws. He looked flushed with triumph. “I heard it creeping into one of the tunnels,” he explained. “I hoped you'd like it.”

“I do!” Hollyleaf meowed. “Thanks!” She leaned forward to take a bite, then looked up. “There's plenty here. Would you like some?”

Fallen Leaves shook his head. “No, it's all yours.” While Hollyleaf continued eating, he gently prodded her injured leg. “Is it mending, do you think?”

Hollyleaf nodded with her mouth full. “Definitely,” she mumbled. “I can bend it now, and it doesn't hurt so much when I move.”

“You can try walking on it when you've finished eating,” Fallen Leaves decided. “Not too far, but you need to start exercising it before the muscles waste away.”

Hollyleaf twitched her ears with surprise. Fallen Leaves sounded just like a medicine cat. He
must
have come from a Clan! Or something very close to a Clan—like the Tribe of Rushing Water. She swallowed and mewed, “Are you a Tribe cat? Did you come from the mountains?”

Fallen Leaves stared blankly at her. “This is my home now,” he replied. “There is nowhere else.”

Hollyleaf shivered as if a cold claw had run down her spine. There was something about Fallen Leaves's voice that made her feel more alone and desperate than she could imagine. She straightened up and nudged away the scraps of mouse ears and tail. “Where should I walk?” she asked.

“Don't get too excited,” Fallen Leaves warned. “Just a few steps today, that's all.”

Hollyleaf used her front legs to push herself to her paws. A stab of pain ran up her injured leg, but she took a deep breath and kept her paw on the ground. Hesitantly, she took one step forward. Her hind leg held, though it felt weak and not quite connected to the rest of her. Hollyleaf limped toward the place where the light grew stronger. The walls of the tunnel opened out on either side into a small cave, about six fox-lengths wide. A tiny hole in the roof blazed with light, so bright that Hollyleaf had to screw up her eyes to look at it. “The sun is shining today,” Fallen Leaves commented as he came to stand by her shoulder.

Hollyleaf turned to face him. “Do you ever go outside? How can you live here all the time?”

Fallen Leaves looked away. “This is my home,” he repeated. “Now, can you make it back to your nest?”

Hollyleaf started to walk back along the tunnel, frustrated that she hadn't gone farther. But by the time she reached the dented pile of feathers her leg was aching badly, and she sank down with relief. “You can try again tomorrow,” Fallen Leaves meowed as if he could tell she was in pain. “Rest now.”

He turned to leave but Hollyleaf reached out with one paw. “Wait! I'm bored of being on my own. Can't you stay and talk to me?”

Fallen Leaves viewed her with somber blue eyes. “Rest,” he mewed. “That way your leg will heal faster. I'll see you again later.”

He padded away and Hollyleaf slumped down on the feathers. She willed her leg to get better soon. She'd wanted to escape from ThunderClan, but a life in the dark, dependent on another cat for food and water, was not what she had imagined.