“But hear this,” Leafstar went on. “If ShadowClan decides to leave, I’m never taking any more cats into SkyClan. It’s disruptive, and it’s robbing my Clan of time we could be spending strengthening ourselves. This is it!”

“I understand,” Violetshine responded.

Leafstar retreated to her den. Together with Twigpaw and Tree, Violetshine padded around the camp until they found Tawnypelt with Rowanclaw, sharing tongues in the shelter of a rock beside the stream.

“Tawnypelt, we need to talk to you,” Violetshine began.

Tawnypelt looked up at them, narrowing her eyes when she spotted Twigpaw. “I saw you talking to Leafstar,” she meowed. “You’re not expecting to come back again, are you?”

Twigpaw shook her head emphatically. “No! I’m just visiting.”

Tawnypelt gave a grunt of approval. “So what is all this about?”

Violetshine sat beside the two ShadowClan warriors and wrapped her tail neatly around her paws. Twigpaw crouched down beside her, while Tree draped himself over the rock, seemingly lazy, though his eyes were alert as he looked down at the others.

Gathering her courage, Violetshine took a deep breath. “We’re all worried about the prophecy,” she meowed. “StarClan wants five Clans, and things will only get worse until ShadowClan comes back. So, Tawnypelt, we wanted to ask you if you would consider leading a revived ShadowClan.”

Tawnypelt exchanged a shocked glance with Rowanclaw. “Why me?” she asked. “You’ve got a Clan leader right here. Why don’t you ask him?”

“Oh, no,” Rowanclaw interrupted, shaking his head. “I don’t want to lead ShadowClan again. I’ve made that very clear. Besides . . .” He hesitated and then went on, “I’ve been dreaming about Tigerheart, and I haven’t given up hoping that one day my son will come back—especially since the medicine cats had the message about returning shadows.”

Tawnypelt gazed at him, her green eyes suddenly softened. “I hope that’s true,” she whispered.

“I’ll support Tawnypelt if she wants to do it,” Rowanclaw went on. “She was deputy, after all, after Tigerheart left.”

“That’s great!” Violetshine mewed, though she had the feeling that Rowanclaw wasn’t that enthusiastic. “So, Tawnypelt, what—”

“Of course, we would need approval from StarClan,” Rowanclaw interrupted. “In fact, Violetshine, why are you and Twigpaw the ones bringing this up? Where are the medicine cats?”

You stupid furball! Violetshine scolded herself. If she had thought for a heartbeat, she would have realized that she should have spoken to a medicine cat first: probably to Puddleshine, who had been ShadowClan’s medicine cat. I was thrown off balance by Twigpaw’s showing up, and then Leafstar’s being so angry. . . .

She was about to suggest going to find Puddleshine when she heard approaching paw steps, and turned her head to see Sleekwhisker and Yarrowleaf, now very heavy with her kits.

“We overheard,” Sleekwhisker mewed. “We’d love to see ShadowClan rise again!”