Alderheart was waiting as they reached the far side of the stream, and reached down to sink his teeth into Twigpaw’s scruff and help haul her to safety.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

Twigpaw nodded feebly, tried to speak, and coughed up a mouthful of water. “Thank you,” she gasped when she could breathe again. “Finpaw, I never knew you could swim like that.”

Finpaw shrugged. “I was born by a lake,” he responded. “Don’t all cats swim?”

Mistystar let out a faint mrrow of amusement. “Maybe you should be a RiverClan cat,” she told Finpaw.

“Paws off!” Alderheart retorted. “He’s ours!”

Bramblestar padded up, looking down at Finpaw and Twigpaw with an approving glow in his amber eyes. “Finpaw is full of surprises,” he murmured. “And as for you, Twigpaw, that was very brave.”

“It was,” Mistystar agreed, bending down to touch Twigpaw’s head with her nose. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

Twigpaw struggled to her paws, pride warming her from ears to tail-tip. But then, gazing past Mistystar, she saw the fire still burning in the RiverClan camp.

What does StarClan have in store for us next? she wondered anxiously. Our troubles aren’t over, not by a long shot. But how much worse can everything get?

Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

Frosty lightning flashed over the forest for a heartbeat, leaving Violetshine blinking as the dim, leafy daylight surged back. She winced as thunder crashed overhead and rolled on through the trees until she felt as if her head would burst with the sound.

“Fox dung!” Sandynose, who was leading the hunting patrol, let out a furious exclamation as the sound died away. “I nearly had that blackbird, until the lightning scared it off.”

Macgyver winced from the noise and dropped the mouse he had just caught. “Maybe we should call it a day,” he suggested.

Before he had finished speaking, Violetshine could feel a chilly wind rising. Branches above her began to creak, and dead leaves whirled in the air. All three cats exchanged alarmed glances.

“I think you’re right,” Sandynose meowed. “Let’s take what we’ve caught so far and head back to camp. This is going to be a powerful storm!”

Violetshine gazed upward to where dark clouds were massing, covering the setting sun and casting an eerie twilight over the forest. She shivered as the first icy drops of rain splashed onto her fur.

The words of the prophecy crept unbidden into her mind: The dark sky must not herald a storm.

The ominous prediction reminded her of how she had talked to Puddleshine and Tawnypelt over the last quarter moon. She knew that Puddleshine wasn’t sure that ShadowClan should rise again, or that StarClan would support Tawnypelt as leader.

But what if that’s a mistake? Violetshine wondered, shivering more deeply at the thought. Is this the storm we’ve been warned about? Are we too late to stop it?