Jaypaw relaxed against her, sheltering from the wind in her warm, dry fur.
“I’m Whitetail,” the she-warrior went on. “This is Crowfeather, and these are our apprentices, Heatherpaw and Breezepaw. We won’t hurt you.”
“I think he might have guessed that by the way we just saved his life!” Breezepaw muttered.
“I wish you’d teach your son some manners, Crowfeather!”
Whitetail meowed sharply. She turned her attention back to Jaypaw. “What were you doing out here alone? Did you know you were heading for WindClan territory? Are you in trouble?”
“I will be,” Jaypaw mewed under his breath.
“I should hope so,” Crowfeather snapped. “What was your Clan thinking, letting you wander off like that?”
Heatherpaw leaned closer in, brushing Jaypaw’s pelt with her whiskers. “Can you see anything at all?” she asked curiously.
Breezepaw snorted. “If he can, he must be stupid, walking off the edge of a cliff!”
“I didn’t walk off the edge!” Jaypaw hissed.
“It looked like it from where we were standing.” Breezepaw sniffed.
“Be quiet, Breezepaw!” Crowfeather scolded.
Breezepaw fell silent, but Jaypaw could hear his tail twitching crossly over the pebbles.
“I suppose I’d better take him back to ThunderClan,”
Crowfeather meowed. “Are you well enough to travel?” he asked Jaypaw.
Jaypaw nodded. His legs still felt shaky, but he wasn’t going to give Breezepaw the satisfaction of mocking a ThunderClan cat again. He stood up. “Thank you for rescuing me, but I can find my own way home,” he mewed politely.
“There’s no way I’m letting you wander off by yourself again,” Crowfeather insisted. “Whitetail, you take Heatherpaw and Breezepaw back to camp.” He laid his tail firmly on Jaypaw’s shoulder and began to guide him up the beach.
“See your medicine cat as soon as you get home!” Whitetail called after him.
Crowfeather hardly spoke as they trekked back into ThunderClan territory and headed toward the camp. He only meowed curt warnings when they came across rabbit holes or roots that might trip the ThunderClan apprentice.
Jaypaw was content with the silence. The ground was unfamiliar, and he was too furious to concentrate on anything but Crowfeather’s occasional instructions. He resented Crowfeather’s tail resting lightly on his shoulder, but he did not complain. He was in far too much trouble already. Once again his attempt to prove he was as good as any other cat had ended in disaster.
“Crowfeather?” Stormfur’s surprised mew sounded from the bracken ahead.
Paws raced toward them. “Jaypaw!” Squirrelflight’s mew was shrill with relief and anger as she pressed her muzzle into his damp fur. “What in StarClan happened to you?” She licked him ferociously between the ears. “Where did you find him?” she asked Crowfeather.
“He’d wandered into WindClan territory,” Crowfeather explained gruffly. “I had to fish him out of the lake.”
Jaypaw bowed his head, his pelt burning with embarrassment. To make it worse, he could tell Squirrelflight was feeling an awkwardness that strengthened as Crowfeather went on. “Do your kits always go out by themselves?”
“I’m not a kit; I’m an apprentice!” Jaypaw snapped. He felt his mother’s tail brush his muzzle, silencing him.
“Crowfeather,” she meowed coolly, “I believe WindClan once had cats who went wandering farther than they should.”
Her mew was laced with a meaning that Jaypaw didn’t understand. But Crowfeather clearly did. The WindClan warrior flicked his tail away from Jaypaw’s shoulders and snorted.
“You should get him back to camp,” he meowed. “He almost drowned, and the water was freezing.”
“Yes, I should,” Squirrelflight agreed. She nudged Jaypaw down the slope that led to the thorn barrier.
To Jaypaw’s surprise, Crowfeather accompanied them back to the hollow. Squirrelflight did not question it, and Jaypaw sensed positive joy in Stormfur’s step as he padded alongside the WindClan warrior.
Brook fell into step beside Jaypaw. “Do not be ashamed,”
she purred in his ear. “I got up to far worse when I was still training.” She pressed her warm flank against his cold, wet pelt. He knew the mountain cat was trying to make him feel better, but it didn’t help.
Suddenly he heard the thorn barrier rustle, and Mousepaw rushed out of the camp entrance. “You found him!” the
apprentice called, delighted.
Squirrelflight sighed. “Yes, we found him.”
“Go and find Brightheart’s patrol and tell her to stop searching,” Stormfur told Mousepaw. “Ask Cloudtail if you can take Cinderpaw with you.”
“Yes, Stormfur,” Mousepaw mewed, dashing back into the camp.
Squirrelflight led the way through the tunnel. Jaypaw clenched his claws and followed her into camp.
“Go straight to Leafpool,” Stormfur advised him softly.
“I’ll come and see you once I’ve spoken to Brambleclaw,”
Squirrelflight mewed. “He’ll want to know you’re safe.”
Feeling lower than a worm’s belly, Jaypaw slunk toward the medicine cat’s den. Crowfeather padded after him. Jaypaw blinked in confusion. Was the WindClan warrior determined to follow him wherever he went? Surely Crowfeather had no business with ThunderClan’s medicine cat? But he wasn’t going to challenge the warrior. Instead he tried to sense what Crowfeather was feeling, but it was like trying to reach into a bramble bush—he could sense nothing but prickles.
Leafpool spun around as Jaypaw padded through the entrance to her den. She hurried to his side, and he felt her relief like a blast of air. “You’re safe.”
She tensed suddenly, jerking her head to stare at Crowfeather as he pushed his way through the brambles.
Jaypaw’s fur pricked as tension set the air crackling like lightning in greenleaf.
“Hello, Crowfeather,” Leafpool meowed. She sounded as though she had a burr caught in her throat.
“Leafpool.” Crowfeather’s greeting was curt, but for the first time Jaypaw sensed some feeling other than irritation stir beneath the WindClan warrior’s pelt. “I was out with Breezepaw and his mentor when we found him.”
Leafpool stiffened. “Your son’s an apprentice already?”
Her mew was brittle.
“He is,” Crowfeather replied, his voice strangely flat.
“Jaypaw!” Hollypaw rushed up and rubbed her muzzle against his cheek. “You look half-drowned!”
Tiredness suddenly swept through Jaypaw, and he let himself sink down to the ground.
“Fetch some thyme, Hollypaw,” Leafpool ordered.
Hollypaw darted away to the back of the den and returned a moment later, breathless and flustered, her jaws full of leaves. Jaypaw recognized the scent of feverfew, not thyme.
“He hardly needs cooling down,” Leafpool meowed impatiently. She hurried to the herb piles herself and grabbed a mouthful of thyme.
Crowfeather stood and watched silently.
“And why am I giving him thyme?” Leafpool prompted Hollypaw, dropping the leaves beside Jaypaw.
“To make him warm?” Hollypaw ventured.
Leafpool shook her head. “You can warm him by lying next to him,” she meowed.
