Dark River wpot-2

by Erin Hunter

  Jaypaw suddenly felt cold where the tom’s warm body had been. Panic gripped him and time seemed to slow. For a heartbeat Jaypaw glimpsed a pair of amber eyes.

  “Wait!” he called. “Come with us!”

  Fallen Leaves blinked, his gaze filled with sorrow. “It’s not my time to leave,” he mewed faintly and then he was gone.

  Not again!

  “Are we going to die?” Sedgekit’s terrified mew rose above the torrent.

  Jaypaw’s mind whirled as he tried to work out some way to escape. Water sprayed his face as the river frothed and bub-bled against the cave walls. Lionpaw pressed him back with the others until they were huddled on a narrow strip of earth, water snapping at their paws.

  Help us!

  Blood roared in Jaypaw’s ears.

  Could StarClan hear him down here?

  Suddenly, a silvery light glowed at the edge of his vision, like moonlight creeping across a night-black forest. Jaypaw looked up and saw a smooth ledge near the top of the cave. A cat was sitting there. It was the cat from his dream, with twisted claws, balding pelt, sightless bulging eyes. The cat who had sent Fallen Leaves into the tunnels to die.

  The cat looked straight at Jaypaw.

  Anger rose in Jaypaw’s chest. Have you come to watch us die too?

  A shadow moved beneath the cat’s paws. He was rolling something toward the lip of the ledge. Something long and slender and smooth. Jaypaw’s fur stood on end. The stick from the lake!

  Its markings were clear in the moonlight and, as Jaypaw stared in confusion, the cat lifted his paw and held a trembling claw over a row of scratches. Five long and three short.

  Jaypaw gasped. Those scratches weren’t there before! He had counted the marks so many times he knew them by heart.

  Five warriors and three kits! He means us !

  Jaypaw stared, panic-stricken, into the old cat’s eyes. Are we going to die?

  The cat bent his head to look at the stick before slowly lowering his claw and running it through the scratches. With a rush of hope, Jaypaw understood.

  We’re going to survive!

  The cat nodded.

  A paw clapped him sharply on the ear. “Stop staring at nothing and help us think!” Breezepaw snarled.

  The vision disappeared and Jaypaw was in darkness once more. He turned to the others, his pelt bristling with excitement. “There’s a way out of here!” he mewed. “I know it!”

  “What is it, then?” Lionpaw demanded.

  “I’m not sure,” Jaypaw admitted. “Let me think for a moment.”

  “Thinking won’t move boulders!” Heatherpaw screeched.

  “We’re trapped!”

  “We could wait till the cave floods and swim up to the hole in the roof,” Hollypaw suggested.

  “It’s too small to escape through,” Breezepaw growled.

  “And the kits might drown!” Heatherpaw pointed out.

  Jaypaw shook his head. There was something at the edge of his thoughts. An idea he could sense but not reach. The stick! It had been here in the cave. But he’d found it by the lake. How did it get out?

  Water splashed at his paws. He recoiled, then froze. He pictured the river reaching up to the stick, lifting it, washing it away. Of course! The river must flow out into the lake.

  “We’ll have to swim!” he cried.

  “Swim where?” Lionpaw spluttered.

  “The river runs into the lake. It’ll carry us there!”

  “But it disappears underground!” Breezepaw hissed.

  “It comes out in the lake!” Jaypaw insisted.

  “We’re not RiverClan. We can’t swim!” Heatherpaw wailed.

  Lionpaw pressed against Jaypaw. “Will this really work?”

  “There’s no other way.”

  “If you say we must do it, then we have to trust you,”

  Hollypaw mewed.

  “Yo u might!” Breezepaw growled.

  “If we don’t do something, we’re all going to drown!”

  Heatherpaw screeched.

  Hollypaw kneaded the ground. “Let’s try it!”

  Swallowkit squealed in terror. “I’m not going in the water!”

  “We’ll hold you by your tails,” Lionpaw promised. “We won’t let go.”

  “By our tails?” shrieked Thistlekit.

  “If we hold you by your scruffs, we’ll swallow too much water,” Lionpaw mewed. “You’ll have to keep your head afloat by paddling with your forepaws like this.” Water spattered from his paws as he churned the air, showing the kits how to paddle.

  “I’m scared,” Heatherpaw whispered.

  “It’s going to be okay.” Lionpaw dropped onto four paws and pressed against the WindClan cat. Jaypaw was close enough to hear him whisper into her ear, “Our time together will be something I remember even when I’m with StarClan.”

  Heatherpaw trembled. “There will be no borders between us there.”

  Jaypaw blinked, startled by the emotion flooding between them. Then light flickered in his vision and he saw the old cat again.

  Leave now!

  He thought of all the cats who had ventured into this place; their fear and hope seemed to whisper in the air around him. The scratches on the stick had marked their fate.

  Did the new lines really predict the Clan cats would survive?

  He had to believe that they did.

  “We have to go!” he ordered.

  “Line up at the edge of the river,” Hollypaw instructed.

  “Lionpaw, you take Sedgekit, I’ll take Thistlekit, Breezepaw can take Swallowkit.”

  “What can I do?” Heatherpaw asked.

  “Hold on to my tail,” Jaypaw mewed. “We’ll help each other.”

  “Okay,” Heatherpaw agreed. He felt her take the tip of his tail lightly in her teeth.

  “I’m not going!” Swallowkit’s paws splashed through the shallows as she tried to make a run for it. She shrieked as Breezepaw grabbed her and dragged her toward him through the water. “Don’t worry, Swallowkit,” he soothed. “I won’t let go. There’s no way I’m going to let you drown.”

  Swallowkit whimpered but didn’t try to escape again.

  “Come on,” Lionpaw urged.

  Jaypaw waded through the shallows. His paws throbbed with dread as he felt the tug of the river.

  “Ready?” Lionpaw mewed.

  “Yes!” Hollypaw answered.

  Jaypaw tensed. “Jump!”

  He hurled himself into the rushing torrent. Heatherpaw tugged on his tail as the water swirled her downstream. The current dragged him under and he was lost in his dream of drowning again, choked by the tumbling water with the bodies of cats all around him and his ears filled with roaring.

  Chapter 20

  Water roared in Hollypaw’s ears as the pale light of the cave faded from sight. The river dragged her into the tunnel, the current pulling her under. Her lungs screamed for air. She fought the urge to suck in water and kept her jaws firmly clamped around Thistlekit’s tail.

  Rock scraped her ears and she felt air on her face as the river swirled her upward. She drew a quick breath before the river dragged her down once more.

  A body brushed hers and was swept away. Thistlekit struggled, raking her nose with thorn-sharp claws. She resisted the urge to fight, trusting Jaypaw, letting the flood carry her, feeling stone graze her flanks as the water tossed her against the sides of the tunnel.

  The roaring grew louder till she thought her ears would burst.

  Then peace.

  The current let her go and the noise died away. She strained to see through the darkness. Was that light? Bright dots sparkled in the distance. Was StarClan waiting to welcome her?

  Her head swam and blackness pressed in on the edges of her consciousness. She fought her way upward, frantically seeking the surface, praying that she wouldn’t find rock above her. With a final desperate effort she pushed up and up until she thought the whole world must be water.

  Suddenly, she burst th
rough the surface of the lake, startled by the chill of the wind as it swept her face and filled her nose and ears. They had made it! She gasped and spluttered, drawing in lungful after lungful of cold, wonderful air.

  Blinking water from her eyes, she saw that the dots were stars, glimmering through wind-torn clouds. The rainstorm was moving away.

  Thistlekit thrashed in the water beside her, fighting to keep her head above water. Hollypaw grasped the kit with her forepaws, let go of her tail and grabbed her scruff, paddling with her hind legs to keep both their heads out of the water.

  She forced herself to relax, letting the water support her and working her paws in a steady rhythm that held them afloat.

  Thistlekit coughed and wheezed, trembling against her chest.

  Hollypaw scanned the dark surface of the lake for the others. Joy sparked in her belly when she saw Lionpaw’s golden head bobbing a few tail-lengths away. Sedgekit was clinging to his back, eyes shining in the moonlight.

  Bubbles exploded near him, and Breezepaw burst to the surface with Swallowkit.

  Jaypaw? Heatherpaw? Panic started to grip Hollypaw. Had they made it? She heard splashing behind her and she twisted around, dragging Thistlekit so fast he squealed with surprise.

  Jaypaw and Heatherpaw were flailing beside each other, their paws spraying water as they fought to stay afloat.

  “Jaypaw!” she called.

  “We’re okay!” Heatherpaw coughed.

  Hollypaw swam toward them, kicking out with her hind legs, surprised to find herself swimming like a RiverClan cat.

  “The shore’s over there!” She could see it not far off and, reaching Jaypaw, she nudged him toward it.

  Heatherpaw was splashing toward Lionpaw. Why wasn’t the WindClan apprentice trying to help her own Clanmate?

  Then she realized that Lionpaw was thrashing in the water, ducking his face under. As he came up for a breath, she saw his eyes were wild with panic.

  “Sedgekit’s gone!” he yowled.

  Heatherpaw dived beneath the surface. Hollypaw held her breath, treading water as Lionpaw ducked under again. Had the current dragged the kit back down into the black, bot-tomless water?

  Suddenly, Heatherpaw bobbed up, Sedgekit between her jaws. The kit’s paws flapped wildly. He was alive!

  Lionpaw broke the surface, his eyes lighting as he saw Sedgekit. He swam to Heatherpaw’s side and grasped the kit’s tail between his teeth, and together they headed for the shore. Hollypaw swam beside Jaypaw, casting an eye back to make sure Breezepaw was still managing. The black WindClan apprentice was pounding through the water with Swallowkit’s scruff in his jaws and his eyes fixed on the shore.

  Hollypaw’s muscles burned with exhaustion, but she didn’t dare stop moving. With Thistlekit’s fur blocking her mouth, every breath was a struggle, but she kept her gaze pinned on the shoreline and pushed on. At last, she felt pebbles graze her hind paws and, reaching down, touched the bottom with a forepaw. Thank you, StarClan!

  Wading from the water, she dropped Thistlekit in the shallows and stood panting for a moment, struggling to get her breath back. Heatherpaw and Lionpaw already lay farther up the shore, their flanks heaving while Sedgekit crouched beside them, vomiting water onto the pebbles.

  Pebbles clacked behind her as Jaypaw followed her out of the lake.

  “How did you know it would carry us into the lake?”

  Hollypaw gasped.

  “It . . . it made sense,” Jaypaw mewed between coughs. He splashed onto the beach, and Thistlekit stumbled after him.

  Breezepaw was struggling out of the shallows a few foxtails along the shore. Swallowkit dangled from his jaws, her paws flailing as she fought to be put down.

  “We’re all safe!” Hollypaw breathed. She padded to Lionpaw and Heatherpaw, her trembling paws slipping on the wet pebbles. “Are you two okay?”

  Lionpaw lifted his head. “Only half-drowned.”

  A purr burst from Heatherpaw. She flicked Lionpaw with her dripping tail and got to her paws. “We’d better get the kits back to camp.”

  Hollypaw glanced up the beach. Brambles and ferns crowded the shoreline, the forest dark behind them. This was

  ThunderClan territory. “Let’s take them to Leafpool,” she suggested. “It’s nearer and we need to make sure they’re okay.” Sedgekit was still coughing up water. Thistlekit had collapsed beside him, and though her eyes were open, her breathing was rapid.

  “Hollypaw’s right.” Jaypaw joined them. “They need treat-ment for shock.”

  Swallowkit hurried toward them, Breezepaw at her side.

  “That was the horriblest thing I ever did!” She shook the water from her fur.

  “You wait till you taste Leafpool’s medicine,” Jaypaw warned.

  Breezepaw’s eyes glittered with suspicion. “Leafpool?”

  “The ThunderClan camp’s closest,” Heatherpaw told him.

  “We should get them treated.”

  Breezepaw stared at Swallowkit. There was blood on her fur where the rocks had scoured her pelt. “Okay,” he agreed.

  Jaypaw pricked his ears. “Listen.”

  Threatening yowls rang through the night air. Hollypaw stiffened as she recognized her father’s voice, countered by the menacing growls of WindClan cats.

  “It’s coming from the forest border,” Jaypaw mewed.

  Had their disappearance made things even worse?

  “There’s going to be a battle if we don’t get back soon!”

  Hollypaw gasped.

  Lionpaw leaped to his paws. “We can show them the kits.

  If they know they’re safe, there doesn’t need to be a fight.”

  “Are we going to the battle?” Swallowkit’s eyes grew wide as an owl’s.

  “I can help fight!” Sedgekit mewed.

  “There won’t be a battle if we get there quickly,” Hollypaw mewed. Sedgekit had no idea that he’d helped cause this mess, or that he’d be fighting some of the cats who’d just saved him. “Do you think you can make it?”

  “Of course we can!” Thistlekit flicked her tail.

  Jaypaw sniffed each kit in turn. “They need herbs,” he mewed doubtfully. Then he lifted his chin. “But it can wait a while.”

  “Walking will warm them up,” Heatherpaw pointed out.

  Hollypaw led the way up the beach. She scrambled up the bank and pushed aside a swath of ferns, holding back the fronds to let the others pass. Heatherpaw nudged Swallowkit up the slope while Breezepaw followed Thistlekit, pressing his muzzle against her flank to stop her stumbling. Lionpaw grabbed Sedgekit by the scruff and swung him up the steep bank, letting him drop beside Hollypaw. She pressed the ferns back as the kit padded past. He was staring up at the branches, eyes wide as though he’d never walked beneath trees before.

  “What’s Jaypaw doing?” Lionpaw was staring at his brother on the shore.

  Hollypaw narrowed her eyes. Jaypaw was crouched beside a stick.

  “You stay with the others,” she told Lionpaw. “We’ll catch up with you.”

  She darted back onto the beach. “Are you okay?” she called to Jaypaw.

  He didn’t seem to hear her. He was staring at the stick, eyes closed like he was asleep. She padded closer, feeling as if she were intruding.

  “All safe, just as you promised,” Jaypaw was murmuring, his muzzle pressed against the smooth, pale wood. “Thank you.”

  “We have to go!” Hollypaw urged.

  Jaypaw didn’t stir. “Go carefully, Fallen Leaves,” he whispered. “I hope you find your own way out one day.”

  “Come on, Jaypaw!” They must hurry. The yowls from the border were growing fiercer.

  Jaypaw lifted his head. “I’m coming.” He left the stick and padded to her side.

  “What were you doing?”

  “It’s not important,” Jaypaw replied, turning his sightless eyes on her. Hollypaw knew him well enough to guess that it was. Sometimes she wished she understood Jaypaw better.

  Lionpaw was e
asy. His friendship with Heatherpaw had broken the warrior code, but there was no mystery in his liking the pretty WindClan cat. But Jaypaw seemed to be guided by invisible paws, as though he walked in a secret world she could never be part of.

  They caught up with the others. Hollypaw’s chest ached and her paws felt raw after the journey through the tunnels.

  How soft the forest floor felt on her pads after so much rough stone. Breezepaw pushed the pace harder and the kits had to scurry to keep up. Thistlekit tripped over a root. Lionpaw instantly scooped her up and she didn’t complain, hanging limp from his jaws, her eyes glazed with exhaustion.

  Sedgekit was panting hard.

  “I can carry you,” Hollypaw offered. The kit shook his head, too breathless to speak.

  Suddenly, Swallowkit squealed. A bramble had snagged her fur. Jaypaw plucked it free with his teeth. Hollypaw’s chest tightened. It was cruel to make the kits travel so quickly through the forest. But they had to stop the battle.

  “We’re nearly there,” she mewed.

  The ground sloped down and Breezepaw broke into a run.

  Sedgekit and Swallowkit skittered after him.

  An angry yowl echoed from the forest ahead. “I told you, we don’t have your kits!”

  It was Firestar.

  “Then where are they?” Onestar spat back. “RiverClan swears they don’t have them either. But they must be somewhere and we mean to find them.”

  “Put one paw across the border and we’ll shred you!”

  Hollypaw strained to see her Clanmates. Through the trees, she could make out Brambleclaw squaring up to Ashfoot on the WindClan side of the gully. Firestar stood shoulder to shoulder with his deputy. Thornclaw, Whitewing, Spiderleg, and Berrypaw were bristling behind them as the WindClan cats faced them, fur on end, lips drawn back in threatening snarls. Crowfeather was tearing at the ground beside Onestar and Ashfoot, claws unsheathed, while Owlwhisker and Tornear paced up and down behind them.

  Heart pounding, Hollypaw swerved past the kits and chased after Breezepaw. Brambles sprang back in his wake, lashing her muzzle. She burst from the undergrowth just in time to see Breezepaw leap across the gully.

  “Stop! We found the kits,” he yowled.

  “There’s no need to fight!” Hollypaw stared anxiously over her shoulder, willing the others to hurry.