TALLPOPPY—long-legged light brown tabby she-cat
SNAKETAIL—dark brown tom with tabby-striped tail
WHITEWATER—white she-cat with long fur, blind in one eye
WINDCLAN
LEADER
ONESTAR—brown tabby tom
DEPUTY
ASHFOOT—gray she-cat
MEDICINE CAT
KESTRELFLIGHT—mottled gray tom
WARRIORS
CROWFEATHER—dark gray tom
OWLWHISKER—light brown tabby tom
APPRENTICE, WHISKERPAW (light brown tom)
WHITETAIL—small white she-cat
NIGHTCLOUD—black she-cat
GORSETAIL—very pale gray-and-white she-cat with blue eyes
WEASELFUR—ginger tom with white paws
HARESPRING—brown-and-white tom
LEAFTAIL—dark tabby tom with amber eyes
ANTPELT—brown tom with one black ear
EMBERFOOT—gray tom with two dark paws
HEATHERTAIL—light brown tabby she-cat with blue eyes
APPRENTICE, FURZEPAW (gray-and-white she-cat)
BREEZEPELT—black tom with amber eyes
APPRENTICE, BOULDERPAW (large pale gray tom)
SEDGEWHISKER—light brown tabby she-cat
SWALLOWTAIL—dark gray she-cat
SUNSTRIKE—tortoiseshell she-cat with large white mark on her forehead
ELDERS
WEBFOOT—dark gray tabby tom
TORNEAR—tabby tom
CATS OUTSIDE CLANS
SMOKY—muscular gray-and-white tom who lives in a barn at the horseplace
FLOSS—small gray-and-white she-cat who lives at the horseplace
OTHER ANIMALS
MIDNIGHT—a star-gazing badger who lives by the sea
“It’s not the same, is it?” Leopardstar commented beside her. Mistyfoot raised her head and looked at her leader. Leopardstar’s golden fur looked dull and dusty in the gray dawn light, and the dark spots that had inspired her name seemed to have faded in the last moon. “I thought when the water returned that everything would be as it was before,” Leopardstar went on. She dipped her paw in the lake, staggering a little as she straightened up again, and watched the drips fall from the tips of her claws onto the stone.
“The fish will come back soon,” Mistyfoot meowed. “Now that the streams are flowing, there’s no reason for them to stay away.”
Leopardstar gazed at the ruffled water. “So many fish died in the drought,” she sighed, as if Mistyfoot hadn’t spoken. “What if the lake stays empty forever? What will we eat?”
Mistyfoot moved closer to her leader until her shoulder brushed Leopardstar’s fur. She was shocked to feel the she-cat’s bones sharp just beneath the skin. “Everything will be fine,” she murmured. “The beavers’ dam has been destroyed, the rain has come, and the long thirst is over. It’s been a hard greenleaf, but we have survived.”
“Blackclaw, Voletooth, and Dawnflower didn’t,” Leopardstar snapped. “Three elders lost in a single season? I had to watch my Clanmates starve to death because there were no fish to catch, nothing left in the lake but mud. And what about Rippletail? He was as brave as any of the other cats who went to find where the water had gone—why didn’t he deserve to come back? Did he go too far beyond the sight of StarClan?”
Mistyfoot let her tail curl forward to rest on Leopardstar’s back. “Rippletail died saving the lake, and all the Clans. He will be honored forever.”
Leopardstar turned away and began to pad up the shore. “He paid too high a price,” she growled. “If the fish haven’t returned with the water, we’re no better off than we were during the drought.” She stumbled, and Mistyfoot jumped forward, ready to support her. But Leopardstar shrugged her off with a hiss and continued over the stones, limping.
Mistyfoot followed at a respectful distance, not wanting to fuss over the proud golden cat. She knew Leopardstar was in pain most of the time now, worn down by a sickness that had resisted all of Mothwing’s medicine skills, although it wasn’t unknown: the ravaging thirst, the dramatic weight loss in spite of constant hunger, the growing weakness that dulled a cat’s eyes and hearing. Mistyfoot felt her gaze soften as she watched Leopardstar reach the end of the pebbles and push her way into the ferns that ringed the RiverClan camp.
Suddenly there was a muffled cry from the depths of the undergrowth.
