Rippletail whirled around and gave Alderheart one stunned look. Then he dashed across the grass and thrust his way into the Twoleg den through a small gap in the bottom of the den door. With a whisk of his white tail, he disappeared.

“Hey, Rippletail!” Alderheart yowled after him, dropping Velvet’s toy. “It’s me, Alderheart from ThunderClan!”

Rippletail didn’t reappear.

Fuzzball trotted up to Alderheart and touched noses with him. “Hi, Alderheart,” he meowed. “It’s good to see you. What did you call that cat?”

“Rippletail,” Alderheart replied. “He’s a ShadowClan warrior.”

Fuzzball looked puzzled. “No, I think you’ve got it wrong. That cat’s name is Buster. And I’ve told him all about life with the Clans,” he added. “He would have mentioned if he knew them.”

“Has he been here long?” Alderheart asked, certain that he wasn’t making a mistake.

“A while.” Fuzzball shrugged. “He seems very happy with his Twolegs.”

Alderheart wasn’t sure what to do. If Rippletail is happy, maybe I should leave him alone.

“Fuzzball, when you see him next, could you give him a message?” he mewed at last.

“Sure. What message?”

“Tell Buster that ShadowClan is whole again.” Alderheart spoke slowly, thinking what would be best to say. “Darktail is dead and the rogues are gone, and Rippletail’s littermates, Cloverfoot and Berryheart, have come back. Can you remember all that, Fuzzball?”

For once the little tom looked uncertain. “I’ll try. Let’s see . . . ‘Tell Buster that ShadowClan is down a hole . . .’”

Alderheart suppressed a sigh. “Repeat it after me.”

It took several repetitions before Fuzzball got it right and Alderheart was reasonably sure that he would remember it.

“Okay, I’ll tell him,” Fuzzball promised at last. “But even if he’s who you think he is, I don’t think he’ll want to leave.”

Alderheart guessed that he was right, if the way Rippletail had fled revealed how he felt. “Well, it’s up to him,” he declared. “Now, can you show me where Velvet lives?”

Fuzzball’s eyes shone. “She’ll be so glad to see you! She misses you.”

Alderheart retrieved Velvet’s scrap of fur and followed Fuzzball through a gap in the Twoleg fence and down another narrow Thunderpath until they stood outside a second Twoleg den. This one had a wall of red, square-cut stones around a bigger garden with small paths leading through clumps of bright flowers.

“This is Velvet’s den,” Fuzzball told Alderheart. “And I’d better be getting back. My housefolk’s kit sometimes cries if I’m away too long.” He flicked his tail at Alderheart and padded off down the Thunderpath, pausing at the corner to look back and call out, “Tell Jayfeather hi from me. And come and see me anytime!”