The Sun Trail

by Erin Hunter

  “No,” Shaded Moss replied to his daughter. “We must climb to the top of Highstones. Those peaks are the end of the sun trail Stoneteller promised us. We have to go there before we make any decisions about where to stay.”

  Rainswept Flower nodded, accepting what her father said, while Gray Wing heaved a huge sigh of relief.

  Moon Shadow and Shattered Ice returned with prey. After he had eaten his fill, Gray Wing lay on a rock and watched Dappled Pelt giving Falling Feather another fishing lesson. The two she-cats were obviously having fun. Even when Falling Feather leaned over too far and toppled into the stream with a massive splash, she came up quivering with amusement.

  “It’s easier to be a fish than to catch one,” she spluttered as she emerged and gave her pelt a shake, scattering shining droplets into the air.

  “Watch it!” Quick Water snapped, leaping out of the way. “Some of us don’t want to be fish, thanks very much!”

  As he gazed at the she-cats, Gray Wing began to feel the earth trembling under his paws. At the same moment the air filled with the sound of barking.

  “Dogs!” he yowled.

  Shaded Moss jumped to his paws. “This way!” he ordered.

  Three dogs crashed through the undergrowth. They were different sizes and colors. Frozen, Gray Wing could smell their stinking breath, and feel the heat from their fur.

  “Come on!” Turtle Tail barreled into him, jolting him forward. “Move!”

  Terrified, the cats floundered through the undergrowth. Bursting out of the trees, they raced across an open stretch of grass. Gray Wing glanced over his shoulder and saw the dogs following, covering the ground with long, loping strides.

  They’re catching up!

  Ahead of the cats was a sharp, shiny barrier covered in thorns.

  “Don’t go that way!” Shaded Moss shrieked, swerving across the dogs’ path and hurtling toward the shelter of a line of bushes.

  Faster and faster the cats ran. Wind plastered Gray Wing’s pelt to his body, and grass scraped his belly fur. Falling Feather was dropping behind, and he doubled back to give her a shove, half carrying her toward the bushes. He risked a glance aside, and saw that Clear Sky was helping Jagged Peak.

  The bushes loomed ahead, bristly and dark and solid-looking. Gray Wing couldn’t see any way through, but there was no time to hesitate. With Falling Feather beside him, he hurled himself in, battling against the densely packed branches, his fur tearing as thorns caught at it. He closed his eyes to protect them from the spines.

  As he forced his way out the other side the roar of a monster assaulted his ears, and he was blasted in the face by spray kicked up from its round, black paws. Blinking, he tried to see where he was. Other cats were lurching out of the bushes close by.

  “Wait!” Gray Wing shrieked.

  But his warning came too late. Shaded Moss plunged out of the bushes, across the narrow strip of grass that edged the Thunderpath, and straight into the path of a roaring monster. Gray Wing heard a sickening thud as Shaded Moss’s body was flung into the air.

  The monster growled on, leaving nothing behind but a terrible, deafening silence.

  Horror almost overwhelmed Gray Wing, but he threw himself forward to stop any of the other cats from running straight onto the Thunderpath. “Shaded Moss is hurt!” he yowled, blocking Tall Shadow as she appeared. Then he rushed to intercept Jackdaw’s Cry, who was shouldering his way out of the thorns.

  Glancing swiftly in both directions, Tall Shadow darted onto the Thunderpath and grabbed Shaded Moss by the scruff, dragging him into long grass. Gray Wing stopped each cat on their way out of the bushes, and shoved them toward where their leader’s body lay. Monsters roared past behind him, blurring his vision and filling his ears until they ached.

  Clear Sky was the last cat to emerge, thrusting Jagged Peak in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw Shaded Moss’s body, while Jagged Peak let out a wail. They followed Gray Wing to the broken cat.

  Cloud Spots was bending over him, prodding him gently with one paw. After a few heartbeats he looked up. “He’s dead,” he announced.

  “No!” Rainswept Flower threw herself down beside her father, pushing her muzzle into his fur.

  Gasps of horror and disbelief came from the other cats. Gray Wing stepped forward and rested his muzzle on Shaded Moss’s head. He still felt warm, his fur dusty and ruffled. A thin trickle of blood ran from his nose and mouth, but otherwise he might have been sleeping.

  Pure grief stabbed through Gray Wing, sharper than thorns. Shaded Moss brought us so far. How can he leave us now?

  Clear Sky padded quietly up to Rainswept Flower and gave her a gentle nudge. “Come on,” he murmured. “We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

  Rainswept Flower gazed up at him, her blue eyes blazing with anger and grief. “I’m not leaving him to the monsters!” she shrieked.

  “There’s nothing you can—” Clear Sky began.

  Shattered Ice interrupted him. “Rainswept Flower is right. This is no place to abandon Shaded Moss. We can carry him across the Thunderpath.”

  Gray Wing cast a glance at the bushes they had come through. He could still smell the dogs. There was no going back that way.

  Shattered Ice, Dappled Pelt, and Moon Shadow stepped up to carry Shaded Moss’s body. Gray Wing helped them, while Clear Sky kept watch for monsters. At last there was a gap in the continual roaring, and they were able to set out across the hard, black stone, all the cats crowding anxiously around their leader’s body. Gray Wing saw Shaded Moss’s tail dragging limply on the ground, and grief surged over him.

  My poor Tribemate . . .

  Together Gray Wing and the others carried Shaded Moss into a stretch of deep grass, under the shelter of a line of bushes.

  “There are no stones here.” Rainswept Flower’s voice shook. “We can’t bury him like we would in the mountains.”

  Dappled Pelt touched Rainswept Flower’s ear gently with her nose. “We can use sticks from these bushes, and soft grass. It will be a good enough pelt for him now.”

  Rainswept Flower hesitated for a heartbeat, then gave a tiny nod. She and Dappled Pelt stayed close beside her father, while the rest of the cats set off to forage.

  Gray Wing noticed Clear Sky walking rigidly, alone, his eyes staring at nothing. He’s thinking about Bright Stream, Gray Wing guessed. She had no stones or sticks to cover her body—wherever she ended up. He wished desperately that he could apologize to his brother, but once again the words stuck in his throat like a tough piece of prey.

  Gathering some twigs and large leaves torn from a bush, Gray Wing carried them back to Shaded Moss’s body. But as he began to lay them on the dead cat, Rainswept Flower reached out her tail to block him.

  “Wait,” she mewed. “Please can I stay with him a while longer?”

  As the cats returned, they set down their bundles of sticks and leaves and sat around Shaded Moss’s body.

  “Good-bye,” Rainswept Flower whispered. “You were the best father any cat could have. I’ll never forget you.”

  “And no cat could have led us better,” Tall Shadow added, ducking her head awkwardly toward Rainswept Flower. “You brought us out of the mountains.”

  When she had finished speaking, other cats began to add their memories.

  “You taught me how to stalk prey.”

  “You kept going when any other cat would have given up.”

  “You believed in this journey, and made the rest of us believe, too.”

  Gray Wing stretched out his neck until he could touch Shaded Moss’s head with his nose. “Thank you for your courage,” he mewed. “We will carry on our journey in your memory.”

  “And in Bright Stream’s,” Clear Sky put in, his blue eyes filled with sorrow.

  Turtle Tail nodded. “We miss her, too,” she murmured. “She was strong and confident, but so gentle.”

  “She would have been a wonderful mother to your kits,” Dappled Pelt added.

  Ja
gged Peak said nothing, but pressed himself against Clear Sky’s side.

  Night fell, but the cats stayed clustered around Shaded Moss. Pale dawn light began chasing away the stars, as Rainswept Flower laid the first twig on her father’s body. The rest of the cats followed, covering him in silence, then padded away toward where the sky was brightening, with Rainswept Flower in the lead.

  Though grief had brought the cats together, they were each locked in their own private misery. Even Jagged Peak had stopped complaining. Tall Shadow still limped on her injured paw, though she gave no sign of the pain she must have felt.

  The sun trail took them across several grassy spaces and through a cluster of Twoleg dens. The shrill barking of a dog startled them, but their grief was stronger than fear—all they could manage was a halfhearted scamper to the next wooden wall, scrambling over it to a stretch of open ground on the other side.

  Looking around, Gray Wing realized that they had come to the end of the Twolegplace. Ahead, Highstones was outlined against the sky; anticipation tingled through his paws as he saw how close the peaks were.

  The cats trekked on over tough moorland grass until they reached a copse of pine trees.

  “This might be a good place to hunt,” Moon Shadow suggested without much enthusiasm.

  Dappled Pelt shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”

  The others murmured agreement, and flopped down to rest in the shelter of the trees.

  “Is there any point in continuing without Shaded Moss?” Turtle Tail asked Gray Wing as she settled beside him. “Should we just give up and go home?”

  Gray Wing was startled by the strength of feeling that rushed through him. “No!” he protested. “We’ve come too far! How would it be fair to Bright Stream and Shaded Moss if this journey was all for nothing?”

  Hawk Swoop, crouching nearby, turned her head and mewed sharply, “You didn’t want to come in the first place, remember?”

  Gray Wing forced himself to respond calmly. “Maybe not. But I’ve come this far, just like the rest of you. This will be my new home too.”

  The setting sun covered the ground in scarlet light and cast long shadows from the pine trees. The cats settled in the copse for the night, curling up among the soft pine needles at the base of the trunks.

  Gray Wing dreamed that he was snug in his old sleeping hollow in the cave, but gradually a wail of grief pierced through the thunder of the waterfall.

  “Shaded Moss! Shaded Moss!”

  Gray Wing jerked awake. A couple of tail-lengths away, Rainswept Flower was thrashing around, calling out for her father in her sleep.

  Compassion surged through Gray Wing. Rising to his paws, he padded over to Rainswept Flower and sat beside her, stroking his tail gently over her flank. Her cries sank to a quiet whimper, and then to silence. He stayed at her side, his heart as heavy as a cloud weighed down with rain. Through the branches of the pine trees, he could see the moon, already swelling to full again.

  We’ve been traveling for nearly an entire turn of the moon. Will our journey ever end?

  During the night the wind picked up, rattling the brittle branches overhead. The noise and chill roused one cat after another. “The moon and stars give us enough light to see,” Tall Shadow mewed, stifling a yawn. “Why don’t we get going?”

  With every cat in agreement, they padded through the pine trees and out onto rough, bristly grass, flattened by the strong wind. The ground sloped more steeply upward to where Highstones was a faint dark outline against the night sky.

  Gray Wing paused and took in deep breaths of the cold air. Hope crept into his heart. This feels like home. Glancing over his shoulder, he looked across the landscape that unfolded behind them in the first faint light of dawn. A dark, uneven smudge lay against the horizon.

  That’s the mountains! Wow, we’ve come so far!

  “I can’t believe this!” Beside him, Jackdaw’s Cry echoed his thoughts. “I never imagined the world was this big!”

  The ground grew steeper still, with boulders poking through the tough grass, but the cats leaped confidently from rock to rock.

  “This is harder than it used to be!” Cloud Spots puffed. “All the good eating has made me heavier.”

  The cats spread out as the grass gradually thinned and they found themselves padding along on stone. A sense of achievement tingled through Gray Wing as he scrambled up the last few tail-lengths and stood at the top of the pointed stones.

  “We made it!” Turtle Tail announced as she joined him.

  The peaks were lower and narrower than their mountain home, but Gray Wing rejoiced in their familiarity. He could see that the others, even Rainswept Flower, were regaining a little of their optimism.

  As they stood looking out across the land beyond, the sun broke above the far horizon, flooding the landscape below them with golden light and stretching its warm rays right up to their paws.

  We have reached the end of the sun trail!

  He looked down into the pool of sunlight and saw empty expanses of grass, broken by patches of dense woodland that would offer shelter. A winding river reflected the sunlight.

  “Is that where the other ‘rogues’ live?” he wondered aloud. “Those all look like places where cats could settle.”

  “I think this could be our new home,” Dappled Pelt murmured.

  “Yes!” Falling Feather gave her a nudge. “There’s a river for you to catch fish, and for me to fall into!”

  “And trees,” Clear Sky added. “There’ll be plenty of prey.”

  Gray Wing hoped his brother didn’t expect to be living under the trees. I’d much rather stay in the open spaces, where I can breathe.

  But in spite of the cats’ optimism, a mist of sadness still hung above them. I wish Bright Stream and Shaded Moss had made it this far, Gray Wing thought.

  Tall Shadow meowed, “Come on, let’s go explore,” hopping down from the topmost crag, still limping on her injured paw.

  “When we get there, I’m going to find some herbs that will heal that paw,” Dappled Pelt declared.

  Tall Shadow took the lead as they headed down the slope. “Jagged Peak!” she snapped as the kit scurried ahead of her. “Get your tail back here! You don’t know what danger might be waiting for us.”

  Jagged Peak waited for the rest to catch up, and padded alongside Gray Wing, his ears flat and a chastened look on his face.

  Their path wound between huge boulders that cut off the view of the land below. As they emerged again onto a more open slope, Jackdaw’s Cry let out a startled mrrow. “Look over there!” he exclaimed.

  Turning, Gray Wing saw a massive hole in the mountainside, gaping open like a mouth rimmed with jagged teeth.

  Jackdaw’s Cry ran lightly up to it and peered inside, meowing loudly and listening to the echo. “Wow, it’s really deep!”

  Tall Shadow padded after him to the entrance and took a brief look inside. “We’re not rabbits,” she sniffed. “We don’t live underground. Come on.”

  Dappled Pelt caught up to pad beside Tall Shadow as they moved off again. “You really shouldn’t walk much farther on that injured paw,” she murmured.

  Tall Shadow nodded. “Okay. But let’s get to that stretch of moorland at the edge of the forest.”

  The stony surface gave way to rough grass and then to softer enclosed stretches dotted with sheep. They were so familiar now that the cats ignored them, though they still kept to the bushes that edged the spaces, all their senses alert for dogs or monsters.

  “Another Twolegplace,” Cloud Spots pointed out, as a cluster of red stone dens came into sight.

  “I can smell dog,” Moon Shadow announced, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

  “Then we won’t go near it,” Tall Shadow responded, leading them around in a wide circle.

  Gray Wing looked at the moorland sloping up ahead of them. His legs suddenly felt heavy and his paws ached as he thought of taking a long rest. I’m tired of traveling. Even if this isn’t our new home
, we should be able to stay here for a few sunrises, long enough to heal our wounds and fill our bellies.

  The moorland seemed just beyond their whiskers when a familiar roar assailed Gray Wing’s ears.

  “Oh, no!” Quick Water exclaimed. “Another Thunderpath!”

  Moving cautiously, the cats picked their way through a thin line of bushes and, at a command from Tall Shadow, halted beside the Thunderpath. Gray Wing stared at it in horror. Monsters raced up and down in both directions, growling and letting out long hooting sounds like owls, but louder than any owl he had ever heard. This is the biggest one yet! How are we supposed to get across?

  Glancing at his friends, he saw that many of them were trembling, the memory of Shaded Moss’s death fresh in their minds.

  “I don’t want to cross,” Falling Feather whimpered, crouching down with her nose on her paws.

  “Can’t we stay on this side?” Hawk Swoop asked. “Back on Highstones? There was plenty of space up there.”

  “Yes, but no prey,” Clear Sky pointed out. “We need trees, bushes, and long grass to feed us all.”

  “Well, you can cross without me,” Falling Feather mewed stubbornly.

  Shattered Ice padded up to her and rested his tail on her back. “We’ve come this far together,” he told her gently. “We’re not leaving any cat behind now. I’ll look after you, I promise.”

  Falling Feather rose shakily to her paws.

  Gray Wing noticed that Turtle Tail was also looking terrified, and he brushed his pelt against hers. “You’ll be okay,” he murmured.

  Turtle Tail flattened her ears. “It’s too soon after Shaded Moss.”

  Gray Wing nodded. “I know. But the sun trail has led us here. It’s just one more obstacle, that’s all.”

  Quivering, the cats gathered at the edge of the Thunderpath. The black stone extended in front of them, the far side looking a long way away. Gray Wing watched his brother, admiring Clear Sky’s courage as he ventured close to the path and scanned it in both directions, leaping back just in time as monsters roared past.