Forest of Secrets (Warriors 6)

“As for you—” Fireheart hissed to Cloudkit.

“Leave the kit alone,” Darkstripe interrupted, padding up to stand beside Cloudkit. “He’s not doing any harm.”

“Keep out of this, Darkstripe,” growled Fireheart.

Darkstripe shouldered past him, almost knocking him over, before stalking back to his prisoner. “Kittypet!” he sneered over his shoulder.

Fireheart’s muscles tensed. He wanted to leap at Darkstripe and force the insult back down his throat, but he stopped himself. This was no time for Clan warriors to start fighting each other. Besides, he had to deal with Cloudkit.

“Did you hear that?” he demanded, glaring down at the white kit. “Kittypet?”

“So?” Cloudkit muttered mutinously. “What’s a kittypet?”

Fireheart gulped as he realized that Cloudkit had not yet learned what his origins meant to the Clan. “Well, a kittypet is a cat who lives with Twolegs,” he began carefully. “Some Clan cats don’t believe that a cat who’s born a kittypet will ever make a good warrior. And that includes me, because like you, I was born in Twolegplace.”

As Fireheart spoke, Cloudkit’s eyes grew wider and wider. “What do you mean?” he meowed. “I was born here!”

Fireheart stared at him. “No, you weren’t,” he meowed. “Your mother is my sister, Princess. She lives in a Twoleg nest. She gave you to the Clan when you were very young, so you could be a warrior.”

For a few moments Cloudkit stood rigid, as if he were a kit made of snow and ice. “Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded.

“I’m sorry,” Fireheart meowed. “I…I thought you knew. I thought Brindleface would have told you.”

Cloudkit backed away a couple of tail-lengths. The shock in his blue eyes was slowly replaced with cold understanding. “So that’s why the other cats hate me,” he spat. “They think I’ll never be any good because I wasn’t born in this dump of a forest. It’s stupid!”

Fireheart struggled to find the right words to reassure him. He couldn’t help remembering how excited Princess had been when she gave her son to the Clan, and how he had promised her that Cloudkit would have a wonderful life ahead of him. Now he was forcing Cloudkit to think about his past, and the difficulties he would have before being accepted by the Clan. What if the kit began to think that Fireheart and Princess had made the wrong decision?

Fireheart sighed. “It may be stupid, but that’s the way it is. I should know. Listen,” he explained patiently. “Warriors like Darkstripe think being a kittypet is something bad. It just means we have to work twice as hard to make them see that kittypet blood is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Cloudkit straightened up. “I don’t care!” he mewed. “I’m going to be the best warrior in the Clan. I’ll fight any cat who says I’m not. I’ll be brave enough to kill outlaws like old Brokentail.”

Fireheart was relieved to see Cloudkit’s spirit overcoming the shock of his discovery. But he wasn’t sure that the kit really understood the meaning of the warrior code. “There’s more to being a warrior than killing,” he warned Cloudkit. “A true warrior—the best warrior—isn’t cruel or mean. He doesn’t claw an enemy who can’t fight back. Where’s the honor in that?”

Cloudkit ducked his head, not meeting Fireheart’s eyes. Fireheart hoped he had said the right thing. Looking around for Cinderpaw, he saw that she had gone up to Brokentail and was checking his tail where Cloudkit had worried it. “There’s no damage,” she mewed to the blinded tom.

Brokentail crouched motionless, his ruined eyes fixed on his paws, and did not respond. Reluctantly Fireheart went over and nudged the old cat to his paws. “Come on,” he meowed. “Let’s get you back to your den.”

Brokentail turned in silence and let Fireheart guide him back to the leaf-lined hollow under the dead branches. Darkstripe watched them shuffle past with a contemptuous flick of his tail.

“Right, Cinderpaw,” Fireheart meowed when Brokentail was settled. “Let’s go and find those herbs.”

“Where are you going?” Cloudkit piped up, bouncing over to them with all his energy restored. “Can I come?”

When Fireheart hesitated, Cinderpaw mewed, “Oh, let him come, Fireheart. He only gets into trouble because he’s bored. And we could do with some more help.”

Cloudkit’s eyes gleamed with pleasure, and a loud purr rose from his throat, an enormous sound to come from his small, fluffy body.

Fireheart shrugged. “All right. But put one paw wrong, and you’ll be back in the nursery before you can say ‘mouse’!”

Limping steadily, Cinderpaw led the way along the ravine to the hollow where the apprentices had their training sessions. Already the sun was beginning to go down, casting long blue shadows across the snow. Cloudkit scampered ahead of them, peering into holes in the rock and stalking imaginary prey.

“How can you find herbs with snow on the ground?” Fireheart asked. “Won’t everything be frozen?”

“There’ll still be berries,” Cinderpaw pointed out. “Yellowfang told me to look for juniper—that’s good for coughs and bellyaches—and broom to make poultices for broken legs and wounds. Oh, and alder bark for toothache.”

“Berries!” Cloudkit skittered sideways toward them. “I’ll find lots for you!” He dashed away again in the direction of a clump of bushes growing up the side of the hollow.

Cinderpaw flicked her tail in amusement. “He’s keen,” she remarked. “Once he’s apprenticed, he’ll learn quickly.”

Fireheart made a noncommittal noise in his throat. Cloudkit’s energy reminded him of Cinderpaw when she was first made apprentice. Except Cinderpaw would never have taunted a helpless cat like blind Brokentail.

“Well, if he’s my apprentice, he’d better start listening to me,” he muttered.

“Oh, yes?” Cinderpaw gave Fireheart a teasing look. “You’re a really tough mentor—all your apprentices will be trembling in their fur!”

Fireheart met her laughing eyes and felt himself relaxing. As usual, being with Cinderpaw was lifting his spirits. He would stop worrying about Cloudkit and get on with the job they had come to do.

“Cinderpaw!” Cloudkit called from farther along the hollow. “There are berries here—come and look!”

Fireheart craned his neck and saw the white kit crouching beneath a small, dark-leaved bush that pushed its way up between two rocks. Bright scarlet berries grew close to the stems.

“They look tasty,” Cloudkit mewed as the two cats drew nearer. He stretched his jaws wide to take a hungry mouthful.

At the same moment a gasp came from Cinderpaw. To Fireheart’s amazement she shot forward, propelling herself over the snow as

fast as her injured leg would allow. “No, Cloudkit!” she yowled.

She barreled into the kit, bowling him over. Cloudkit squealed in shock and the two cats scuffled together on the ground. Fireheart bounded over, anxious that Cloudkit might hurt the injured Cinderpaw, but as he reached them she pushed the kit off her and sat up, panting. “Did you touch one?” she demanded.

“N-No,” Cloudkit stammered, puzzled. “I was only—”

“Look.” Cinderpaw shoved him around until his nose was a mouse-length from the bush. Fireheart had never heard her sound so fierce. “Look but don’t touch. That’s yew. The berries are so poisonous they are called deathberries. Even one could kill you.”

Cloudkit’s eyes were round as the full moon. Speechless for once, he gazed, horrified, at Cinderpaw.

“All right,” she mewed more gently, giving his shoulder a couple of comforting licks. “It didn’t happen this time. But take a good look now, so you don’t make that mistake again. And never—do you hear me, never—eat anything if you don’t know what it is.”

“Yes, Cinderpaw,” Cloudkit promised.

“Go on looking for berries, then.” Cinderpaw nudged the kit to his paws. “And call me as soon as you find anything.”

Cloudkit padded off, glancing back over his shoulder once or twice as he went. Fireheart couldn’t remember seeing him so subdued. Bold as the kit was, he had received a real shock. “It’s a good thing you were here, Cinderpaw,” he meowed, feeling a pang of guilt that he hadn’t known enough to warn Cloudkit. “You’ve learned such a lot from Yellowfang.”

“She’s a good teacher,” Cinderpaw replied. She shook several clumps of snow off her fur and began padding up the hollow after Cloudkit. Fireheart walked beside her, once more slowing his pace to match hers.

This time Cinderpaw noticed. “You know, my leg has healed as much as it ever will,” she meowed quietly. “I’ll be sorry to leave Yellowfang’s den, but I can’t stay there forever.” She turned to look at Fireheart. All the mischief had faded from her eyes; instead, there was pain and uncertainty in the blue depths. “I don’t know what I’ll do.”