"I have seen stars. They did not act very clannish as far as I could tell."

"And what do you think of the warrior code?"

"I don't know most of it, but it doesn't sound like it applies to me anyway."

Fireheart turns back to Cam.  "Like that."

"Does StarClan want every talking cat to be a warrior?"

"Probably not.  If nothing else there's medicine cats and elders and whatnot, but - cats can walk different paths.  And I think Clans work best when they're made up of only cats who truly want to walk this one."

"Fair enough." He scritches Cricket, who purrs.

"So.  I was named deputy of ThunderClan, and a while later Bluestar wanted to go to the Moonstone to share dreams with StarClan, but a WindClan patrol led by Mudclaw stopped us and escorted us home.  Stopping a leader from going to Highstones is I think unheard of and anyone would agree it was wrong, but we chose not to fight them and allowed ourselves to be escorted here.  Two ShadowClan cats trespassed on our territory, begging for food and herbs because of their plague I mentioned earlier.  Cinderpelt wanted to help them; Yellowfang said that Carrionplace disease was too dangerous to risk spreading to the rest of us and sent them away.  But Cinderpelt later ended up helping them hide in our territory, far from the camp, and took care of them."

"There's a specific stone you go to to get StarClan dreams?"

"For leaders and medicine cats seeking out guidance or doing specific ceremonies, yes.  They're also sent unprompted sometimes."

"Can I go sleep on the rock or is it cats only."

" - I would say it's probably cats only and even if it wasn't I think you wouldn't fit; it's deep underground."

"Drat."

"What does that mean."

"I am disappointed."

"It isn't even for more than a very small number of cats.  If that makes you feel better."

"Not really, I'm just very curious about StarClan."

Fireheart's tail is swishing a little.  "That makes sense."

"Maybe I will take a nap and see if they say anything."

"I think they probably won't talk to you but if they did I'd expect them to do it during your normal sleep.  I'm not sure I've ever had a dream from StarClan while the sun was up."

"I will take a nap at night, then."

" - Okay.

Cloudpaw is my apprentice, and he . . . hasn't always been certain that he wanted to walk the path of a Clan cat.  He lived with us, but sometimes he would sneak into Twolegplace and go into one of their nests and they'd give him food.  And after a while some other Twolegs captured him and took him away in a monster."

"- have you seen him since?"

"Yes, we rescued him."

"Oh good. I know this doesn't, like, help, but the Twolegs presumably thought they were doing him a favor."