Twigpaw stayed still, crouching close to the ground and not even twitching a whisker until she was sure the medicine cats were gone. She had a lot to think about. She knew Alderheart was convinced there should be five Clans, and how worried he was now that there were only three.

Twigpaw wondered what would happen to ThunderClan if ShadowClan was truly gone, and if RiverClan never came back. She knew that Sparkpelt thought the remaining Clans would be stronger, but Twigpaw wasn’t so sure. StarClan had warned of a storm.

Sure now that she wouldn’t be discovered, Twigpaw slid out into the open, shaking leaves and debris from her pelt. She was about to launch herself down the rocky slope, when a sudden thought struck her.

Suppose I go to the Moonpool? Maybe I can help figure out how to drive back the storm.

Twigpaw knew that she wasn’t a medicine cat, and that she had no right to be down there. But if she could somehow get some information, she could reassure Leafpool, and prove her own allegiance to ThunderClan once and for all.

I’ll do it!

Twigpaw took a swift glance over the slope and across the moor to make sure that the medicine cats were gone. Only Alderheart, Leafpool, and Jayfeather were still in sight, and they were a long way off, their figures tiny in the distance.

Taking a deep breath, Twigpaw slid through the bushes and stood at the top of the spiral path.

At first she was transfixed, gazing at the beauty in front of her. Except for the pounding of her heart, she felt as if she had been turned to stone and would never move a paw again. She stood gazing down, drinking in the glimmer of the moon, reflected on the surface of the water. The stream that flowed down the rock face into the pool looked like liquid starlight.

I don’t care if I’m punished for this! It’s worth it, just to see. . . .

Slowly, torn between fear and wonder, Twigpaw began to descend the path, fitting her paws into the depressions made by countless cats before her. At last she reached the water’s edge, and crouched beside it with her nose a mouse-length from the surface.

At first everything was dark and quiet, the only sound the falling water and a soft breeze gently caressing the surface of the pool. Above her head, the stars shone brightly in the deepening dark of the night sky.

Twigpaw bent her head farther and touched her nose to the water. This was how the medicine cats were swept into their visions of StarClan. But for Twigpaw, nothing happened. She raised her head again, twitching water droplets from her whiskers and feeling remarkably silly.

Well, what did you think would happen, you stupid furball?