by Erin Hunter
As soon as the monsters rumbled past, Firestar gave the command to run.
The ThunderClan cats rushed forwards. Squirrelpaw staggered blindly through the mud, keeping her eyes fixed on Brambleclaw’s tabby pelt. As long as he was in sight, she felt she would be safe. By the time she reached the rocks, she was panting with fear and exhaustion. Brambleclaw reached down and hauled her on to the ledge, where the others had already gathered. Firestar weaved among them, his orange fur turned brown by the mud. His eyes were fixed on the cats still struggling towards the outcrop.
Crowpaw reached the rock and held up the kit for Onewhisker to take before scrambling after it. Squirrelpaw heard a Twoleg shouting and turned to see it running unsteadily across the mud, waving its arms. It had seen the cats still heading for the rocks. Tawnypelt was among them, trying to drag a RiverClan apprentice out of the mud.
“Blackstar and Leopardstar must have hesitated before giving the order to run!” Squirrelpaw hissed.
The monsters were turning now, steering their paws towards the straggling cats.
“They’ll never make it to the rocks in time!” Brambleclaw gasped.
“We must go back and help them!” Firestar yowled.
Desperation drove every scrap of tiredness from Squirrelpaw’s body, and she leaped back down into the mud. Firestar flashed ahead of her. She felt Brambleclaw’s pelt brush hers and then she spotted Crowpaw, pelting towards the RiverClan cats.
The monster’s roar made Squirrelpaw’s ears ring. She hurled herself among the RiverClan cats, reaching for an apprentice who was desperately trying to free himself from the mud. She plunged her teeth into his scruff to haul him out, and he raced away toward the rock.
“Thanks!”
Squirrelpaw looked up to see Stormfur watching her. He blinked gratefully and turned to yank another apprentice to its paws.
“My kit!” Dawnflower’s screech made Squirrelpaw spin round. One kit lay at the RiverClan queen’s paws. Another was racing panic-stricken straight towards a monster, too scared to see where he was going.
“I’ll get him!” Crowpaw lunged forward and grasped the kit in his jaws. Mud sprayed from his paws as he skidded back towards the outcrop.
Squirrelpaw scooped up the other kit and gave Dawnflower a fierce nudge. “Quick!” she hissed.
She reached the rock and bounded up, finding a shadowy crevice out of sight of the Twolegs. She fled along the gully with the kit swinging in her jaws until she emerged on the other side. Dawnflower shot out behind her, followed by Firestar and a stream of RiverClan cats, and finally Crowpaw emerged with the other kit. Dawnflower raced over and gratefully took the kit from him.
Squirrelpaw placed the other kit at her paws and looked around for her sister. “Leafpaw!” she called.
She was crouching beside Tallstar. The WindClan leader’s flanks heaved and his eyes looked wild with fear. “Hunted in my own territory!” he wheezed.
Leafpaw looked up when she heard Squirrelpaw’s call.
“Can you look at these kits?” Squirrelpaw asked. Leafpaw glanced uncertainly at Tallstar, but Cinderpelt appeared beside her.
“I’ll look after him,” she murmured.
Leafpaw hurried over and sniffed each kit. She pressed her ear against the chest of one and then the other. “They’re just scared and tired,” she concluded. “They’ll be fine.”
“Of course I’m fine,” squeaked one of the kits, a dark grey female. “That monster was never going to catch us.”
“Hush, Willowkit,” soothed Dawnflower. As she bent to wash the mud from her kits’ faces, the ShadowClan cats emerged from the gully.
“Is every cat with you?” Firestar called to Blackstar.
Blackstar nodded, too breathless to speak.
The Clans rested on the rocks for a moment, but another swath of churned-up moorland still lay between them and the grassy slope that led down to the meadows, and the Twolegs would be looking out for them by now. It wasn’t safe to linger too long near the monsters.
“We should stay closer together,” Firestar suggested. “Travel like a single Clan.”
“And who will give the orders?” Leopardstar demanded. “You?”
Firestar shook his head. “That’s not important. I only meant it would be less dangerous if we were to stick together.”
“You have no idea where we’re going,” Blackstar argued. “We have to trust the cats who’ve made this journey already, and each Clan has one of those. We can travel separately.”
“But you fell behind just now,” Firestar pointed out. “RiverClan, too. We must stick closer together, at least while we’re near the Twolegs.”
Blackstar narrowed his eyes. “Closer together, yes,” he conceded. “But each Clan should follow its own leader’s orders.”
Squirrelpaw’s paws pricked with frustration. Fighting a bone-weariness that made her head spin, she gazed across the stretch of land between the rocky outcrop and the edge of the moor. There were yet more monsters in the distance, lumbering up and down like terrifying border patrols.
Brambleclaw padded up to her. “I’ve spoken to the others.” His voice was low, and Squirrelpaw understood that by “others,” he meant Tawnypelt, Crowpaw, and Stormfur. “We’ve agreed to keep to the outside,” he explained. “That way we can look out for trouble and help any cat who falls behind. Crowpaw and I will stay at the back. Stormfur will lead. You take one side, and Tawnypelt will take the other.” Squirrelpaw nodded. “We’ve brought them this far—we have a responsibility to protect them,” he added, his eyes darkening with worry.
Squirrelpaw twined her tail with his. “We’ve done the right thing,” she whispered. “I’m still sure of that.”
“Are we ready?” Firestar yowled.
Slowly the cats gathered on the brink of the rocks, huddling close to their Clanmates. Only Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Squirrelpaw, Stormfur, and Tawnypelt slipped away from their Clans to take up positions at the edge of the group. Blackstar gave the order to move first, but Leopardstar, Firestar, and Mudclaw quickly followed, and the cats began to leap down from the reassuringly hard surface of the outcrop and back into the slippery mud.
They crept towards the monsters that guarded the edge of WindClan’s territory, keeping low and quiet. Squirrelpaw skirted one edge of the group, keeping her ears pricked for any unexpected Twoleg activity, as well as looking out for any cats falling behind.
Leafpaw fell in beside her. “Is everything OK?”
“I think so,” Squirrelpaw murmured.
“I meant are you OK?” Leafpaw persisted. “You don’t have to protect all of us, you know. We made our own decisions to come on this journey.”
Squirrelpaw blinked gratefully at her. “I know.”
As the Clans neared the monsters they slowed down, crouching so low that Squirrelpaw felt she had almost turned into a lump of mud. At least with the cats this filthy, they blended into the earth around them. The monsters were far away to one side and showed no sign of straying back here yet.
“There’s mud in my eye!” Birchkit squealed.
“Hush!” snapped Ferncloud, and Birchkit fell silent.
Squirrelpaw’s heart pounded. Only a few more fox-lengths and they would reach the crest of the slope that would take them away from this mud and the monsters. Suddenly she heard a sound that turned her blood to ice. A dog howled from somewhere near the monsters, and when she lifted her head to look, she saw it pelting towards them, its ears flapping and its giant paws leaping over the mud.
“Dog!” yowled Leopardstar.
“Run!” Blackstar commanded.
Squirrelpaw stared around in panic. There was no way the kits and elders could outrun a dog! As the other cats pelted forwards, Firestar and the other leaders raced among their Clans yowling orders.
“Pick up the kits!” Firestar commanded.
“Help the elders!” hissed Leopardstar.
Squirrelpaw looked for Birchkit, but Rainwhisker had already scooped him up and was
racing for the top of the slope. Ferncloud hurtled after him, but Squirrelpaw could hear the terrifying howls of the dog getting closer. The huge creature bounded easily over the rutted ground, bearing down on the cats even faster than the monsters had done. Already the elders were falling behind, even though the other cats urged them forwards with desperate yowls and nudges.
Squirrelpaw glanced back to find out where Brambleclaw was, and with a jolt of horror she watched him spin round and head straight towards the dog. Crowpaw and Tawnypelt raced beside him, hardly recognisable under the slick of mud that clung to their pelts. What were they doing?
Stunned, Squirrelpaw watched them charge towards the vicious snarling dog, and only when they got near did she understand what they were doing. Spreading out on Brambleclaw’s hissed command, they surrounded the great black hound; at once the creature slowed down, swinging its massive head from side to side as it figured out which cat to chase. Then it fixed its eyes on Crowpaw and headed straight for the scrawny black warrior. Instantly Crowpaw swerved towards Tawnypelt, his paws sliding in the mud. Tawnypelt shot past him in the other direction, yowling abuse at the dog as she dodged its snapping jaws. The dog hesitated, snarling, then set off after the ShadowClan warrior. Squirrelpaw’s heart pounded with terror as she saw it gaining on her, but Brambleclaw was already racing up behind the dog. He raked its hind legs and swerved nimbly away as the dog spun round and gave chase.
The Twolegs had heard the commotion and one ran towards the dog, howling as Brambleclaw fled a fox-length ahead of the creature’s glistening fangs. Crowpaw had turned and was running for the dog again, hurtling past its nose and bringing it to a bewildered halt. The dog gazed around, its eyes gleaming with fury. Crowpaw spun on his hind legs and raced back again. The dog lashed out, its jaws snapping close to Crowpaw’s flank. The Twoleg howled again and leaned forwards, reaching out with its paw.
Squirrelpaw’s breath stopped in her throat. Don’t let the Twoleg catch you! she silently begged Crowpaw. They couldn’t lose another cat this way! Then the Twoleg’s paw closed around the dog’s collar and dragged it away. Squirrelpaw felt dizzy with relief.
Crowpaw tore away from the Twoleg with Tawnypelt and Brambleclaw on his tail. “Run!” he screeched as he streaked towards Squirrelpaw. She spun round and raced after her Clanmates. Most of them had reached the top of the rise and were pelting down the other side. Squirrelpaw checked to see if any cat needed help, but the last elders, two ShadowClan cats weak with fear, were being half dragged, half pushed to safety by Russetfur and Stormfur. Squirrelpaw followed them as they stumbled over the crest of the hill and fled down the slope.
Not until she was halfway down did she realise that she had crossed the WindClan border and left Clan territory for the very last time. The scent markers had been washed away by the mud and the rain and the stench of the monsters.
Squirrelpaw forced herself not to look back. They had left their homes. The journey had truly begun.
CHAPTER 19
Like cloud shadows drifting over the ground, the Clans trekked in silence across a meadow. Squirrelpaw was grateful that Brambleclaw walked close beside her, shielding her from the icy wind. The rain was easing now, but the clouds had been raked into tatters by a thorn-sharp breeze that promised colder weather. Shivering, she looked up and saw a Twoleg nest looming ahead, even bigger than the Great Rock.
Her paws were sore from the prickly stubble that seemed to cover all the fields they had passed through, and she longed for the softness of leaves underpaw. The air was filled with unfamiliar scents—Twolegs, the monsters that prowled the crisscrossing Thunderpaths, the fresh scent of dog drifting from a Twoleg nest, and the recent scent of rogues. Squirrelpaw felt the instinctive tension of any cat that strayed from its territory, even though she was surrounded by more Clan cats than she had seen before in her life. She scanned the hedgerow, and her heart seemed to stop beating altogether when she saw the brown beech leaves rustle madly, shaken by more than just the wind.
Ravenpaw stepped out from his hiding place like a shadow coming to life, and stared at the Clans in surprise. A second cat slipped out of the hedge behind him. Squirrelpaw recognised the black-and-white pelt of Barley, the cat who had allowed Ravenpaw to share his home in a Twoleg barn for many moons.
“Firestar! Is that you?” Ravenpaw’s ears twitched as he called out for his old friend. The Clan cats halted and stared at him. Every cat knew about the black-pelted ThunderClan apprentice who had been driven out by his mentor, Tigerstar. Even if they hadn’t known him during his short time in the forest, many had met him on the journey to Highstones.
“Hello, Ravenpaw.” Tallstar dipped his head in greeting.
“Ravenpaw!” Firestar pushed through the other cats to greet his old friend.
“Firestar!” Ravenpaw touched noses with the ThunderClan leader. He looked around. “Where’s Greystripe?”
Firestar blinked. “Greystripe’s not with us.”
“Is he dead?” Ravenpaw’s pelt bristled in shock.
Firestar shook his head. “Twolegs captured him.”
“Twolegs?” Ravenpaw echoed. “Why?”
“They started trapping us.” Firestar’s mew was raw with grief. “We’ve been forced to leave the forest.”
“What?” Ravenpaw lifted his nose to scent the air. “Is that WindClan and RiverClan with you? And ShadowClan?”
“The Twolegs are destroying all our homes,” Firestar explained. “We would have been crushed by their monsters if we’d stayed, if we didn’t starve first.”
“You look half-starved already,” Barley remarked, coming forward.
“Hello, Barley,” Firestar greeted him. “How’s the hunting?”
“Better for me than for you, by the looks of it,” came the blunt reply.
“Where are you heading?” Ravenpaw asked.
“Highstones first, and then . . .” Firestar turned to look questioningly at Brambleclaw, but Brambleclaw just gazed back in silence.
“You’ll stay with us tonight, won’t you?” Ravenpaw asked. “The hunting is good this moon. The barn is full of rats sheltering from the cold.”
“Wait, Ravenpaw,” warned Barley. “This many cats will never fit into the barn. The Twolegs would have a fit when they came to get straw for the cows.”
“That’s true,” Ravenpaw said. “But there must be a way to help.”
“I suppose they could stay at the broken nest,” Barley suggested.
“Of course!” Ravenpaw turned to Firestar. “You know the place—where you sheltered with Bluestar after the rat attack?”
Firestar glanced up at the reddening clouds. “I was hoping we’d make it to Highstones by tonight.”
“We can’t turn down the offer of food,” Blackstar argued.
Firestar dipped his head. “You’re right.” He turned back to Ravenpaw. “Thank you.”
“Let’s get you settled; then we can show the warriors the best places to hunt,” Ravenpaw mewed. “There’ll be plenty for every cat.”
Squirrelpaw heard murmurs of excitement ripple through the Clans, and the kits began to mewl their hunger out loud now that it seemed there was a chance they would be fed.
“We need a rest and a meal more than you can imagine,” Firestar meowed.
Ravenpaw gazed at his friend’s mud-stained pelt. “Oh, Firestar,” he murmured, “I think I can imagine.”
The broken Twoleg place had no roof, but now the rain had stopped, its stone walls were enough to shelter the cats from the wind.
“I recognise this,” whispered Ashfoot, a WindClan queen. “We slept here when Firestar led us back home, after Brokenstar drove us out.”
“I didn’t think we’d ever see this place again,” Webfoot growled.
The kits and elders streamed gratefully into the nest, glad of the chance to lie down. Ravenpaw and Barley led the warriors away to hunt, while the apprentices, Squirrelpaw and Crowpaw among them, stayed to guard the others. Cinderpelt and Leafpaw padded a
mong the cats to check that none had been hurt in the desperate scramble across the moor.
“Squirrelpaw?” Leafpaw called. “Can you fetch some of that rain-soaked moss from outside? Some of the queens and elders are too tired to walk that far.”
Squirrelpaw nodded and hurried away to pull pawfuls of sodden moss from the ancient stones that formed the walls of the shelter.
The cats took it from her eagerly, lapping at the water that they squeezed out with their forepaws. When the last WindClan elder had drunk her fill, Squirrelpaw decided she could settle down and rest her aching paws. As she made herself comfortable in a corner, the warriors returned, carrying fresh-kill. Warm, delicious scents filled the shelter, and Squirrelpaw felt a quiver of joy as Brambleclaw dropped a plump rat in front of her.
“Do you want to share?” she offered.
“No,” Brambleclaw mewed. “It’s all yours.”
Squirrelpaw’s belly ached by the time she had finished because she was unused to such a huge meal, but this sort of discomfort was far less frightening than hunger, and for the first time since returning to the forest, she felt warm and well fed.
“This is a good place to rest,” Tallpoppy purred. “I don’t think my kits could take another night in the open. They nearly froze in last night’s rain.”
“They’ll be warm enough tonight,” Ferncloud agreed.
It was dark when Brambleclaw returned. He settled down beside Squirrelpaw with a piece of fresh-kill as big as the one he’d given her.
Firestar was lying next to Sandstorm, their tails, pale ginger and dark red, curled together. “Will you rest with us tonight?” he mewed to Ravenpaw, who was watching the cats eat from the entrance to the nest.
“Yes, I’d like that.” He padded over to the corner where ThunderClan had gathered. ShadowClan huddled opposite, while RiverClan and WindClan settled in separate corners.
“I never thought I’d sleep among the Clan again,” Ravenpaw murmured.
