Read Firestar's Quest for Free Online

fretted. “Will he really go blind?”
    â€œCinderpelt doesn’t know yet,” Firestar replied. “Let’s hope the damage isn’t as bad as it looks.”
    â€œI was lucky,” Brightheart murmured, half to herself. “At least I’ve still got one eye.”
    Glancing around at their troubled faces, Firestar tried to give them something else to think about. “What about the hunting patrol?” he asked Cloudtail and Brackenfur. “You’d better carry on, and I’ll come with you. Whatever happens, the Clan still needs to be fed.”
    â€œI’ll lead another,” Graystripe offered. “Mousefur, are you up for it?”
    The wiry brown warrior nodded, lashing her tail. “I’ll fetch Dustpelt,” she meowed.
    As she loped off toward the warriors’ den, Firestar cast a final glance back at the fern tunnel. Everything was quiet now in Cinderpelt’s clearing. “Oh, StarClan,” he whispered, “don’t let Longtail lose his sight.”
    Â 
    That night Firestar was too restless to settle in his den. He was afraid the dream would return. He had come to dread the unknown moorland and the cries of distress from cats he had no power to help.
    As he paced the clearing, he heard a murmuring sound coming from Cinderpelt’s den, and brushed through the fern tunnel to find out what it was. Longtail lay in the ferns outside the split rock. His eyes were closed, but he looked too tense to be asleep. Sticky tears seeped from beneath his eyelids.
    Cinderpelt sat beside him, stroking his forehead lightly with the tip of her tail, murmuring to him words of comfort that a mother might use to soothe an injured kit. She glanced up as Firestar appeared.
    â€œShouldn’t you be resting?” he asked.
    Her blue eyes glinted in the moonlight. “I could ask you the same thing.”
    Firestar shrugged and went to sit beside her. “I couldn’t sleep. How’s Longtail?”
    â€œI’m not sure.” Cinderpelt dabbed up a pawful of chewed-up herbs from a leaf beside her and patted them gently onto Longtail’s eyes. Firestar recognized the sharp scent of marigold. “The bleeding has stopped, thank StarClan,” the medicine cat went on, “but his eyes are still very swollen.”
    â€œFirestar.” Longtail raised his head, though he kept his eyes shut tight. “What will happen to me if I go blind? If I can’t be a warrior anymore?”
    â€œDon’t worry about that,” Firestar mewed firmly. “Whatever happens, there’ll always be a place for you in ThunderClan.”
    Longtail let out a long sigh and lowered his head again. Firestar thought he had relaxed a little, and hoped he would be able to sleep.
    â€œListen, Firestar.” Cinderpelt dabbed some more of the marigold poultice onto Longtail’s eyes as she spoke. “As your medicine cat, I’m telling you to get some rest.” More quietly, she added, “Your dream isn’t going to go away; you know that as well as I do. You need to find out what it means, and the only way to do that is to dream it over and over until you figure it out.”
    Firestar hesitated; he wasn’t sure he agreed. Dreaming hadn’t told him much so far. “All right,” he mewed reluctantly.“But if StarClan are trying to tell me something, I wish they would make it clearer.”
    Obeying Cinderpelt, he padded back to his den. But this time he slept without dreaming at all.
    Early the next morning he went back to the medicine cat’s den, taking her a squirrel from the fresh-kill pile. He found Cinderpelt still sitting beside Longtail, who was curled up asleep.
    â€œHave you been here all night?” Firestar asked, dropping the squirrel at Cinderpelt’s side.
    â€œWhere else would I be? Longtail needs me. Don’t worry; I’m not tired.” She contradicted herself by stretching her jaws in an