The Broken Path

by Erin Hunter

Lucky was horrified to see the longpaws stop only a few rabbit-chases in front of the Pack’s noses. What are they doing? He could hear them talking to one another, but he could understand even less of their language than usual; they spoke in crackling hisses as they jabbed their metal sticks into the soil. One pointed at a hollow among the trees; another shook its head and turned to stare—

  Right in the dogs’ direction!

  Lucky cringed closer to the ground, wishing he could press himself right through the surface and into the protective paws of Earth-Dog. The longpaw’s black face was turned toward him and Lick, but with its eyes invisible Lucky had no idea if it had noticed them or not. He had never felt so helpless, so incapable of a decision.

  Please, Forest-Dog. Please don’t let the longpaws see us!

  A volley of sharp, hissing barks made Lucky snap his head up, terrified. It was the yellow-furred longpaw, barking furiously in that crackling voice. And the longpaw was pointing as he shouted—pointing straight at the crouching dogs.

  “Run!” Lucky barked, scrambling to all fours.

  The other dogs leaped up with him, and together they took to their paws and fled. Lucky ran blindly, dodging tree trunks, crashing through bushes and thorny undergrowth, hearing the panicked panting of the others as they raced close by. Bruno grunted as he leaped a fallen trunk, and Lucky heard Mickey yelp as if he’d stepped on thorns—but they were all still with him, flying as fast as their paws would go.

  Fiery was pounding at his side, tongue lolling, but the big dog managed to bark out a furious order. “I’ll run behind. You take the lead, Lucky!”

  “Why?” panted Lucky. “What are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know. But if the longpaws want to hurt a dog under my command, they’ll have to go through me to do it!”

  There was no more time to question Fiery. Lucky took the lead, but plowed almost immediately into a patch of mud, his paws slithering and slipping. One forepaw sank deep in the stickiness, and he stumbled, but recovered. Behind him he heard yelps, and knew that the others too were having trouble with the mud, but he couldn’t look back. Fighting his way free, paws still slipping, he struggled up a bank, then turned to bark encouragement.

  “You’re nearly there, Snap. Come on, Bruno!” His chest heaved.

  “Why run? We should fight!” The savage bark came from Lick, who stopped suddenly, her legs spattered with filth, her bared teeth white and gleaming.

  “No, they’re too big! Come on, Lick! Run, and the mud will slow the longpaws too!” Fear tightened Lucky’s throat as he barked.

  Mickey reached the bank, dragging himself up with his foreclaws, then turning to drag the floundering Bruno by the scruff of his thick neck. Snap clambered out too, shaking great clods of dirt from her coat, but Lick still stood there in the middle of the mud-field, barking savagely at the advancing longpaws.

  “Lick, move!” Lucky snarled. Relieved, he saw Fiery reach the young dog, and the big dog nipped sharply at her haunches to drive her on. Reluctantly she turned and stumbled, her fangs still bared. But Lucky could hear muffled shouts of pursuit; the longpaws were close behind them now, jumping down into the mud and wading after them with their sticks.

  Those aren’t the same sticks, Lucky realized with a stab of terror. He recognized the ones they wielded now—long poles with looped cord at the end. His memory flashed back to a day that seemed ages ago, though he knew it’d only been a few turns of the Moon-Dog. The day the longpaws captured me and caged me in the Trap House! These were the same sticks that had caught him then, looping around his neck and tightening, choking, holding him fast.

  Once those loops were around a dog’s neck, it was impossible to get out of them. “Run, Lick!” he howled.

  But she still hesitated at the bottom of the bank, snarling as Fiery scrambled up. “They’re afraid of us!” she yelped in fury. “Those longpaws need sticks—they’re scared, and we can drive them away!”

  “No!” Lucky leaped down the bank, seized her scruff, and dragged her up after him. “We have to move!”

  Fiery joined in, shouldering Lick up the bank as Lucky tugged at her. She stumbled and fell as he released her, panting.

  “We have to change course,” Fiery growled, with a glance back at the longpaws. “We’re heading straight back to the Food House, to the Pack. We can’t lead the longpaws there!”

  “You’re right. You go ahead!” barked Lucky as Lick scrambled to her feet, panting.

  Fiery spun and pounded toward the thicker forest once more. Bruno, Mickey, and Snap followed, paws crunching on dry leaves again as Lucky shoved Lick to make her run faster. He could just make out Fiery’s haunches as the big dog plunged through the trees. We can get away!

  He and Lick broke out of the trees and into a shallow clearing just as Fiery reached its center. A flash of movement from above made Lucky flinch and swerve, but Fiery was still running hard as something fell from the high branches.

  Lucky skidded to a halt, horrified, as the thing fell directly onto Fiery. The big dog tumbled head over paws, his legs still pumping. He was caught in a huge net of rope. Rolling over and over, tangled tightly, Fiery slammed to a stop against a tree root, his paws flailing through the thick, tangled web.

  Lucky raced forward. “Fiery!”

  He could only see one of Fiery’s eyes, which rolled, showing the white, as the huge dog yelped in terror, slobber flying from his mouth.

  “Lucky! Lucky, help me!”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Struggling to wriggle free, Fiery rolled again, his claws raking the ground. His teeth snapped uselessly at the rope that seemed to pull ever tighter around his muzzle; it had dragged the skin back so that his fierce teeth were completely exposed. The more he struggled, Lucky realized desperately, the tighter the rope-cage drew.

  “Stop moving, Fiery!” he barked. “It’s going to choke you!”

  As the other dogs gathered around Fiery, whining in distress and trying to lick at their trapped Packmate through the ropes, he went still except for the heaving of his foam-streaked flanks. His paws twitched, as if he was desperate to run, but thankfully he was managing to control himself.

  “What do I do?” he whimpered through his twisted muzzle.

  “I don’t know.” Lucky licked his jaws and scraped at the ground, frustrated and tormented. “I don’t know! I’ve never seen a trap like this. I don’t know what the longpaws have done!”

  Lucky heard the barks of the approaching longpaws—they were far too close now. Desperately he pricked his ears, hoping against hope that they would take a wrong path, but no; he could hear them crashing through the undergrowth toward the clearing. Lick shouldered past him.

  “We have to get him out!” she whined.

  “Stop, Lick!” Lucky darted forward to block her with his body. “There could be more traps. We don’t know how this works.”

  “But we can’t just wait—the longpaws are getting closer!”

  Lucky stared past her, listening to the crunch of leaves and undergrowth, the racket of clumsy longpaws. Snap, Bruno, and Mickey were all watching him, their eyes terrified, and he knew they were expecting him to come up with some clever City Dog trick. But I can’t. I don’t know what to do!

  “Packmates!” Fiery gave a strangled bark, and every dog turned toward him. “You have to get away. You can’t save me; there isn’t time. You have to get back and warn the others.”

  “No!” Lucky whined in distress. “We can’t leave you behind, Fiery.”

  “Listen to me.” With difficulty, Fiery licked his jaws. “If the longpaws wanted to kill me, I’d be dead by now. It’s obvious that they only want to catch dogs. I don’t know why, but my life’s not in danger—not yet. You can’t rescue me later if you get caught, too. Get out of here—go warn Alpha. . . .” Fiery’s eyes burned into Lucky’s. “. . . and Moon and my pups. Please.”

  Indecision gnawed at Lucky’s gut. It goes against everything I believe to abandon a Packmate.

&n
bsp; But he knew Fiery was right. There was nothing he could do for the big dog.

  “All right,” he said at last. “All right, Fiery, we’ll go. But we will be back for you!”

  “Good. Just go now!”

  Lick started toward Fiery again, but Lucky grabbed her by the scruff and dragged her back. “He’s right, Lick. We have to go!”

  Reluctantly Snap, Mickey, and Bruno turned. Mickey gave a last reassuring whine in Fiery’s direction, and they plunged back into the trees.

  Lucky paused to peer through the tangle of branches. The longpaws burst into the clearing, stopping when they caught sight of the trapped Fiery. He was squirming again, fighting the ropes and snarling. He’s keeping the longpaws distracted, thought Lucky.

  The longpaws’ barks had changed; they were making that huffing, rumbling sound he remembered from his days in the city. It meant they were amused; he knew that. It was their way of laughing. Once, it had meant friendly longpaws; it had meant he was safe and could expect only kindness.

  Now, it just made his belly churn with anger. We will be back for you, Fiery. I promise.

  They ran a long way through the forest; Snap led them in a wide circle before daring to head back in the rough direction of the longpaw settlement and the Food House. When she finally came to a halt, panting hard and still looking back fearfully into the forest, the others gathered around her, shaking their fur and regaining their breath. Lick spun and bared her teeth at Lucky.

  “Why did we leave him? How could you do that, Lucky?”

  Lucky panted, flanks heaving from the long, hard run. “There was nothing we could do.”

  “I don’t understand!”

  “How could it have helped if we’d all been caught?” he asked her. “If we escape, we can do something to help Fiery later. But if we got trapped, there would be no dog left to warn the Pack of the longpaw danger. The others would try to hunt, or they’d come looking for us, and soon all of our Pack friends would be prisoners!”

  “Lucky’s right,” growled Snap. “We had no choice.”

  “It’s true, Lick,” added Bruno.

  Lick was breathing hard, but at least she seemed to be calming down. She threw an angry glance back the way they’d come. “I wish I could teach those longpaws a lesson,” she snarled. “I told you: They’re afraid of us. One good scare, and they would keep their distance.”

  “It’s not that simple.” Lucky forced himself to ignore the aggression in her tone. He nuzzled her head gently, and gave her a nudge in the direction of the longpaw settlement.

  “Come on,” he murmured. “We need to get back to the Food House right now.”

  “No!” Daisy yelped in horror. “Fiery captured?”

  The shadows were growing longer in the Food House, and to Lucky the dimness made everything seem even more unreal. He felt numb with shock.

  “You left my Father-Dog with longpaws?” barked Beetle in disbelief.

  Snap threw Moon a pleading look. “We had to.”

  Moon was very quiet, seeming dazed and miserable, but she at least was controlling herself. The rest of the Pack was in panicked chaos. Sunshine turned in a frantic circle as Martha licked her ears, trying to calm her. Dart murmured to herself, clawing the ground. Sweet paced to and fro, growling with anger. Alpha lay with his head on the ground, silent, his flanks heaving and his expression thunderous. Spring simply barked over and over again with frustrated rage, while Whine glared at Lucky.

  “Betrayal is all you get from a Street Dog,” sneered the former Omega.

  “What did you say?” Lick’s ears shot up.

  Uh-oh! Lucky barged in front of her as she lunged, just in time to stop her grabbing Whine and shaking him to death.

  “I don’t understand!” barked Spring. “Snap, why would longpaws hunt dogs? Do they eat us now?”

  “Of course not!” yelped Mickey. “Don’t be stupid!”

  “Who knows what they’d do?” snarled Alpha. “The Big Growl changed dogs. Why wouldn’t it change longpaws?”

  “They wouldn’t,” howled Daisy miserably. “They just wouldn’t do that!”

  “Then why?” asked Snap. “I don’t understand it either, and I saw them. They thought it was funny.”

  “This only confirms what I thought before.” Alpha got to his paws and gave Sweet a curt nod of his head. “We need to move on. Now. Every dog, get ready.”

  Moon lifted her head at that, frowning. She got to her paws and shook herself violently. “Alpha? You mean after we’ve rescued Fiery, right?”

  “I mean now,” growled Alpha. “The whole Pack is in danger. We have to get away from this place.”

  Lucky stared at him in disbelief. Surely Alpha didn’t intend to abandon his third-in-command?

  “No.” Moon bounded forward until she was almost nose-to-nose with her leader. “I know you don’t mean that. Leave Fiery behind, at the mercy of those longpaws? No, Alpha.” She shook her head, her muzzle curling to show a gleam of teeth. “That is not going to happen.”

  All around them the other dogs went still, watching Moon and the half wolf as they faced each other down.

  “Fiery took his chance when he went hunting in the forest,” snapped Alpha. “He knew the risks. We can’t afford—”

  “You’re afraid!” barked Moon, her dark eyes flashing with rage. “You never wanted to face him in the challenge. Now you don’t have to, if you abandon him.”

  “Watch your muzzle, Moon,” snarled Alpha. “I am your leader. This has nothing to do with your mate’s stupid challenge.”

  Moon looked as if she might fly at Alpha’s throat. No! thought Lucky. He sprang forward to her side and licked her jaw gently, then turned to face Alpha.

  “Moon’s right,” he said grimly. “Fiery insisted that we save ourselves—and I made him a promise that we’d be back to rescue him. I won’t let him down. Lick didn’t even want to—”

  “Lick?” barked Alpha. “I should have known that evil little pup had something to do with this. Did she lead poor Fiery into this trap?”

  Lucky’s blood ran cold with anger and his fur bristled. “How can you possibly think this was Lick’s fault? She doesn’t even know about longpaws—she’d never seen one before today. How could she have led any dog into a trap?”

  Alpha gave a low throaty growl. “She’s bringing us bad luck. Everywhere we go—”

  “You’re just making things up now!” Lucky barked furiously. “You know that’s nonsense, straight from the top of your skull. There’s no bad luck, there’s no ‘evil’ dog . . .”

  His breath caught in his throat and he swallowed as he glared at Alpha.

  “Go on, Lucky,” growled the half wolf. “Do grace us with your ‘wisdom.’”

  Lucky clenched his teeth. “Maybe there is such a thing as an evil dog, but it isn’t Lick. Terror talked about a Fear-Dog spirit. Well, I’m connected to the Forest-Dog, and the River-Dog watches over Martha. If anyone in this Pack has a link to the Fear-Dog . . .”

  “What are you implying?” snarled Alpha. “How dare you, Street Dog?”

  Lucky opened his jaws again, but he couldn’t say more. I’ve gone too far. I shouldn’t have said it, but . . . He kept his eyes on Alpha’s glowing yellow ones. The growl in Alpha’s throat was growing louder, like distant thunder before a Sky-Dog war.

  “Stop. Both of you!” Sweet stepped between them, casting a hard glare at Lucky and then turning it on Alpha. “This does the Pack no good. It doesn’t help any dog to have two of our strongest dogs at each other’s throats all the time. You should both be ashamed!” Her teeth glinted. “We need to make a decision for the good of the Pack—together!”

  Alpha stood up, hackles raised. “The decision has been made,” he growled. “I lead this Pack and I consult no dog! Who do you think you are?”

  “Your Beta!” she snarled.

  “And I am your Alpha! We are moving on from this place; the whole settlement is a trap. Wild Dogs do not belong here!”

 
; Moon leaped to her paws, her calm finally shattered. “I will not leave the father of my pups. If no dog will help me, I will go for him myself!”

  For a moment, the air seemed to tremble with tension as the whole Pack stared from Moon to Alpha. No dog even seemed to breathe.

  Then Spring’s nose twitched, and she drew a breath. Lucky’s head snapped around, and he too caught the scent. Every dog noticed it now, and their noses lifted.

  “What is it?” whimpered Sunshine.

  “Dog-scent,” Mickey murmured. “Who . . .”

  “I know that scent,” growled Sweet, nostrils flaring.

  “Every dog into battle line, now!” Alpha snarled. “We are under attack!”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  There was no time to order themselves, Lucky realized as the Pack tumbled into a ragged defensive line. In the cramped room of the Food House the dogs could not even form proper ranks, and he could only push Daisy and Sunshine roughly behind him to make sure they were protected as much as possible. Whine shrank back out of danger, Lucky noticed, without his help. That’s typical of him! Moon positioned herself snarling in front of Beetle and Thorn, but the two pups wriggled forward past her legs to take their places in the line. Moon’s face softened just for a moment as she glanced down at them with pride.

  Standing in the center of the line, facing the broken clear-stone entrance, Alpha drew back his lips to show his teeth. “You see? We can’t even defend ourselves in this longpaw-place. If we get out of this alive, we are moving on—no arguments.”

  “Discuss it later,” snapped Sweet, bristling as a shadow fell across the half-open doorway.

  A nose appeared first, sniffing at the air. The door creaked a little wider, and Lucky cocked his head in surprise. Through the gap peered familiar puzzled eyes in a brown-and-white head.

  “What . . . don’t attack! It’s me. Twitch!”

  The strain snapped so quickly, Lucky could almost feel the muscles of every dog relaxing. Spring gave a growling sigh of relief, and Moon shut her eyes.

  “Twitch?” Snap gave a low, suspicious rumble, and Lucky realized she was remembering their last encounter, and the terrible fight with Terror’s Pack.