Chapter Text
“If you were chosen for the Gathering, get ready to go!” Brambleclaw called. “We don’t want to keep the other Clans waiting.”
Hollyleaf finished her vole and stood up, padding over to join Jayfeather by the thorn tunnel. It had been just over two moons since she had returned to ThunderClan, so this was her third Gathering since being back.
Across the camp, Lionblaze was saying goodbye to Cinderheart and promising to tell her everything that happened. It seemed that the two of them had gotten much closer while she was gone. She hadn’t known how to feel at first about the idea of her brother and her best friend becoming mates, but she had come around on it in time. Hollyleaf still didn’t see herself ever wanting to have kits of her own, but she couldn’t wait to help take care of and play with her brother’s kits one day. She loved both Cinderheart and Lionblaze so much, so maybe it only made sense that they would love each other too.
Though recently, there was an obvious tension between the two of them, which wasn’t surprising, considering the circumstances. First, Lionblaze had told her about the prophecy and Cinderheart had decided she couldn’t be mates with him because it would interfere with his destiny. And then, as if things weren’t complicated enough, Cinderheart and the entire Clan had learned that Cinderheart was actually Cinderpelt, ThunderClan’s medicine cat before Leafpool, reborn. Cinderheart still wasn’t quite sure if she was meant to be a warrior or a medicine cat, so taking a mate was obviously the last thing on her mind.
Hollyleaf didn’t know quite how to support her friend through this realization. It didn’t help that she had been gone for so long, and their friendship had lost some of its simplicity. They had once understood each other perfectly, even without speaking, but they were both such different cats now. They were still friends, but… it was different.
And besides, how was anyone meant to help in this situation? Cinderheart was facing a dilemma no cat had ever faced before. Hollyleaf had urged her to choose the path she wanted, not the path she felt like she was supposed to choose, but Cinderheart didn’t even know anymore which of her desires were her own and which ones were inherited from Cinderpelt.
Just then, Lionblaze trotted up to her and Jayfeather. “So Firestar said you can go to the Gathering again this moon, Jayfeather?” he asked.
Jayfeather nodded. “The other medicine cats told their leaders I didn’t kill Flametail. It was up to the leaders to tell their Clans, but as far as he’s concerned, I’m ThunderClan’s medicine cat again.”
That had been another big event in ThunderClan. At Hollyleaf’s first Gathering back, her return had quickly been overshadowed by Dawnpelt accusing Jayfeather of murdering her brother Flametail. Of course any cat with half a brain knew Jayfeather would never do something like that, but Firestar had thought it would be best to appease the other Clans by asking Jayfeather to step down from his “official” duties until his innocence was proven. Jayfeather had acted like this didn’t bother him, just as he always acted like he didn’t care about the opinions of any other cat, but it was clear he was furious, and desperate to prove his innocence. He had finally gotten Flametail’s spirit to tell the other medicine cats Jayfeather hadn’t killed him, and now his name was cleared.
“I’m glad you’ll be there with me this moon, Ivypool,” a young voice was meowing lightly behind her. Dovewing .
Dovewing was the cat she felt like she least knew how to interact with. Hollyleaf knew Dovewing hadn’t meant to replace her. It wasn’t Dovewing’s fault that she had powers and Hollyleaf didn’t. It wasn’t her fault the prophecy had chosen her. And she felt bad for Dovewing, too– the prophecy and her powers were an awful lot of responsibility for a cat so young to bear.
But… she couldn’t help but feel jealous of the young she-cat. Even though it wasn’t Dovewing’s fault, she still had everything Hollyleaf had wanted. And it didn’t help that Dovewing was just… well, infuriating at times. She complained about her powers, and her role in the prophecy, as if Hollyleaf wouldn’t have killed to have what she had. She insisted she didn’t want to spy on her Clanmates or on the other Clans, even though the entire reason she had been given those powers was to use them.
Hollyleaf remembered talking to Lionblaze when they had first learned about the prophecy. He had told her he hoped his power would be to be stronger than any cat, so he could win any battle. And she had told him she hoped she would have the power to know things other cats didn’t, so she could understand everything . Now, Dovewing had the power to do just that, and yet she refused to. It was hard for Hollyleaf to not resent her, though she was trying her hardest.
Ivypool, on the other hand, was so easy for Hollyleaf to like. She saw so much of herself in the young warrior. She was brilliant, and brave, and desperate to prove herself to her Clan. And both Ivypool and Hollyleaf had to find a way to live with the knowledge that their littermates had been born more special than they could ever become.
She had already heard plenty about Ivypool from Hawkfrost and Tigerstar.. Hawkfrost in particular was extremely impressed by her quick learning and dedication to her training. Hollyleaf had felt an ache of sorrow that a cat as brilliant as Ivypool had been so misled by the Dark Forest. But to her delighted surprise, it turned out Ivypool was no more dedicated to the Dark Forest’s cause than she herself had been.
When Hollyleaf had returned, after a few days of her brothers holding secret meetings with Dovewing that tore at her heart to be excluded from, Lionblaze had finally forced Jayfeather to bring her up to speed. She had pretended to be surprised when they told her about the Dark Forest’s plans, and had learned that Ivypool was spying on the Dark Forest for them. Every night, Ivypool risked her life to go to that horrible place and gather information for the good of her Clan.
Sometimes, Hollyleaf thought that Ivypool held the power of the stars in her paws far more than her sister did.
She wished she could tell Ivypool just how much they had in common, and what she herself had done in the Dark Forest, but she had decided the only way to make sure the Dark Forest wouldn’t punish her for killing their leaders was to never tell any cat. She knew the Dark Forest could see some of what was happening in the waking world. If they were watching, and she talked about what she had done, she would risk them finding out, too. And she didn’t think they would be all too pleased about it.
Besides, she didn’t need the glory for the kills. She had done it to help her Clan, not so that her Clanmates would be proud of her. But she still wished Ivypool knew, if no other cat. She also wished she could thank Ivypool, since it was only because the young warrior had already injured Tigerstar and exhausted Hawkfrost that night that she had been able to defeat them.
It was through Ivypool that Hollyleaf had learned what had happened in the Dark Forest after the deaths of Tigerstar and Hawkfrost. No cat knew who had killed them, but the Dark Forest was determined to find out and punish the cat responsible. In the meantime, Brokenstar had taken full control of the Dark Forest, and it was not going well for him. Brokenstar was brutal, and he might be good at passing down this brutality to his trainees, but he didn’t have Tigerstar’s powers of persuasion. Since Brokenstar had taken over, the Dark Forest had all but stopped pretending that they didn’t intend to wage war on StarClan and destroy the Clans, and this had driven out a sizable number of the trainees.
“Cats were training there because they were convinced it would help them become better warriors to better serve their Clans, not because they wanted to destroy the Clans,” Ivypool had explained. “Now that the Dark Forest’s true intentions are clear, some cats are still deluding themselves into thinking they’re going to help their Clans, some are too afraid to stop coming back, and a few genuinely believe in the Dark Forest’s mission. But the rest have left. They’re down to barely half of their previous numbers.”
Hollyleaf had breathed a huge sigh of relief upon hearing this news, glad to know everything she had done had been worth it. Ivypool believed the Dark Forest was still planning an attack, but it had been greatly delayed due to their drop in numbers, and the Clans would be able to be much better prepared.
“Hey, Hollyleaf. Are you coming?” Lionblaze was calling. Starting, Hollyleaf realized the group was leaving. She dashed after them, catching up with her brothers. And on the way to the Gathering, the three of them talked the whole time in a way that almost felt normal. When she had returned, Lionblaze had welcomed her back eagerly at once. But Jayfeather, despite being the one to call her back, had been colder. It seemed that he was still angry at her for letting them think she was dead, and she couldn’t blame him. Eventually though, he came around. Maybe it helped that he was dealing with enough else, being accused of murder and facing the threat of the Dark Forest, that his anger with her became a lower priority.
That night, for once, they weren’t the last Clan to arrive at the Gathering. Only RiverClan was there, with ShadowClan and WindClan still absent. The Gatherings had been tense since she had returned; Jayfeather had explained that not only were the Clans not getting along, but StarClan wasn’t either. The medicine cats weren’t even meeting at the half-moon anymore.
Even her friend Willowshine had barely spoken to her. At her first Gathering, Willowshine had seemed overjoyed to see her alive, but scared to be seen talking to her for too long. At her second, Willowshine hadn’t spoken to her at all.
But now, some of the tension seemed to be eased, at least among the medicine cats. Mothwing and Willowshine greeted Jayfeather warmly, and then Mothwing and Leafpool went off to share tongues. Though it seemed that nothing could weaken that friendship– Jayfeather said they had remained close friends even once Leafpool had stopped being a medicine cat, and the recent tension between the medicine cats hadn’t stopped their friendship either.
Hollyleaf’s reunion with Leafpool had been one of the hardest. She had spent so many moons hating her mother, and then so many more believing her mother hated her . She hadn’t known what to think after learning that Leafpool hadn’t told the Clan her daughter had murdered Ashfur. What had she done to deserve her mother’s protection? She had revealed Leafpool’s secret, and tried to kill her. Leafpool should be angry with her. She should yowl at her, and tell the Clan what she had done, and even attack her physically.
But her mother did something far worse. She forgave her.
Hollyleaf didn’t believe she deserved that forgiveness. But she wasn’t going to let it go to waste. Neither she nor Leafpool had quite known how to talk to the other when she had returned, but slowly, they were beginning to speak more and more. They had both apologized, and they were working on having some kind of relationship again.
Reuniting with Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw had been only a little bit easier. To her dismay, the parents that had raised her were no longer on good terms. Brambleclaw was still furious with Squirrelflight for lying to him about the kits he had believed to be his, and it seemed like he didn’t quite know how to speak to those kits anymore. Squirrelflight had been shocked to see Hollyleaf alive again, but it had been easier to slip back into normalcy with Squirrelflight than Leafpool. After all, Squirrelflight was the cat she had known as her mother most of her life.
Suddenly, there was a flurry of chatter as WindClan arrived at the Gathering. Hollyleaf scanned the group of arriving cats, quickly finding the one she was looking for.
“Breezepelt!” she called, trotting over to him. He was entering the clearing side by side with Sunstrike. He seemed to be getting closer and closer with her every time she saw them. Hollyleaf had been a bit worried at first seeing them together, knowing what she did about Sunstrike’s involvement in the Dark Forest, but then Ivypool had told her Sunstrike was one of the cats to leave when she had found out the Dark Forest’s true intentions, and Hollyleaf had relaxed. It seemed that like so many cats, Sunstrike had just been drawn to the opportunity to become a better warrior.
All in all, Hollyleaf quite liked Sunstrike, and was glad to see her brother spending more time with her. She seemed like a really sweet cat– nothing like the Breezepelt she had known before the tunnels, but maybe just alike enough to the cat he had become. Hollyleaf thought she brought out the best in him– a happier side of him.
“Hey, Hollyleaf!” Breezepelt purred, padding over to her. “How’s ThunderClan?” It had been strange not being with Breezepelt constantly anymore. They had spent half of their entire lives with only each other for company. Even though he was just one Clan over now, she still missed him desperately. She knew they were both where they belonged, but that didn’t make the separation any easier.
“Oh, same as usual,” she meowed. Chaotic and frenzied , she thought. “Brightheart’s kits were just born, so the whole Clan is excited about that.”
Breezepelt nodded. “It was the same way when Heathertail’s were born,” he meowed. “Everyone loses their minds over kits.” Sunstrike gave a mrrow of laughter, and Hollyleaf found herself wondering if kits were in their future, too. But of course she was getting ahead of herself.
In that moment, back with ThunderClan, with all three of her brothers around her, and working on her relationship with her parents, Hollyleaf felt more content than she had ever felt in her life. She might not be a part of the prophecy, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t serve her Clan. And the Dark Forest might be rising, but they would rise to meet it.
Hollyleaf was home. And she was never leaving again.