Warriors: Dawn of the Clans #2: Thunder Rising (20 page)

As Jackdaw’s Cry and Shattered Ice stood back, cleaning earth from their paws, Gray Wing turned to face the other cats. “Moon Shadow was a brave cat,” he began. “He survived so much, in the mountains and on our journey here. His death is a sign of all the changes we have experienced since we left the mountains. I know there will be more changes to come. But whatever happens, no cat will ever forget Moon Shadow. I’ll make certain of that.”

Before he had finished speaking, Tall Shadow had already turned and walked away, heading back to the camp. Gray Wing felt his heart begin to break, to see her so alone.

The rest of the cats followed. Gray Wing was the last to reach the camp. He paused for a moment at the top of the hollow, watching as the cats dispersed after the burial. As he stood there, he saw Jagged Peak come hobbling up to him. His fur was bristling and his blue eyes wide with apprehension.

“Gray Wing!” he gasped. “I’ve lost Owl Eyes!”

Gray Wing couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What do you mean, lost? All you had to do was look after three young kits!”

Guilt and shame flooded into Jagged Peak’s eyes. “I was giving them a training session, teaching them how to climb a rock. Obviously I can’t show them, but I can give them directions. I was helping Pebble Heart and Sparrow Fur, when I suddenly realized Owl Eyes wasn’t with us anymore.”

Gray Wing dug his claws into the ground in anxiety. “That’s no excuse. You’re supposed to be watching all three!”

He knew how harsh his words sounded when he saw Jagged Peak flinch, but he was too worried about Owl Eyes to care. His gaze raked the hollow. The other two kits were standing close together a couple of tail-lengths farther down the slope, their eyes wide and frightened, but there was no sign of Owl Eyes.

“Have you checked the dens?” he asked Jagged Peak.

The young cat gave a tense nod. “He’s not there.”

Turtle Tail padded up to stand beside Gray Wing. Her face and her voice were calm—
too calm
, Gray Wing thought—as she spoke to Jagged Peak. “You mustn’t worry,” she told him, sounding as if she could barely get the words out. “This isn’t your fault.”

Gray Wing beckoned the other kits with his tail. “Do you know anything about this?” he asked them both.

Pebble Heart shook his head. Sparrow Fur scuffled her forepaws in the soil, her head lowered.

“Sparrow Fur!” her mother mewed sharply. “If you know anything, you have to tell us!”

“Owl Eyes said he was going out to hunt a hare,” the tortoiseshell kit admitted reluctantly.

“A hare!” Turtle Tail turned to Gray Wing, her eyes wide and frightened. “He’s not big enough to tackle a hare. And on his own!”

“And there are dogs on the moor,” Gray Wing added, feeling his chest beginning to tighten again as he realized what might happen to Owl Eyes. “Why didn’t you tell Jagged Peak?” he asked Sparrow Fur, his tone harsh with fear and anger.

She flinched away. “Because I didn’t think he meant it!” she wailed. “I thought he was just boasting. I never believed he would be flea-brained enough to actually
do
it.”

Gray Wing paused for a heartbeat. He knew that Owl Eyes had good hunting instincts, but deciding to go out alone was one of the most reckless things he had ever heard of. “We have to go after him,” he decided.

No way am I going to leave a kit to be killed in a dog attack or a fight with a hare
.

With a wave of his tail, Gray Wing called the other cats to him. “Turtle Tail, Wind Runner, you stay here and look after the kits,” he ordered, ignoring Jagged Peak’s hurt look.
I can’t trust him with the kits again!
“Jackdaw’s Cry, I want you with me. Gorse Fur, will you take charge of another group?”

As the cats began to organize themselves, Gray Wing padded across to Tall Shadow, the only cat who had not answered his summons. She was sitting at the foot of the tall rock, staring into the distance.

“Tall Shadow, Owl Eyes has gone out onto the moor by himself to hunt,” Gray Wing explained. “We’re going to look for him. Will you come with me?” When Tall Shadow didn’t respond immediately, he added, “I know you’re grieving for Moon Shadow, but I need you by my side now.”

Tall Shadow rose and gave her pelt a shake, as if she was trying to get rid of clinging burrs. She finally turned to look at Gray Wing, and her eyes were blazing.

“My brother is buried,” she meowed. “I won’t see another cat die. Of course I’ll help. Where do we start?”

C
HAPTER
22

As Gray Wing led the way
up the slope, he paused to speak to Rainswept Flower, who was watching, her eyes wide with concern. Angling his ears toward Jagged Peak, he meowed, “Look after him, will you?”

Rainswept Flower nodded. “Don’t worry, Gray Wing. I will.”

At the edge of the hollow Gray Wing sniffed around until he picked up Owl Eyes’s scent. “This way!” he exclaimed, waving his tail to beckon Tall Shadow and Jackdaw’s Cry.

But as the three cats headed across the moor, the kit’s faint scent was drowned in the reek of dogs.

“We’ll never find him at this rate,” Jackdaw’s Cry muttered.

Fear crept through Gray Wing as if the blood in his veins had turned to snowmelt. Gazing around, he realized how unlikely they were to find the kit he’d come to love as his own before he fell into danger.
It could already be too late
.

“He seemed to be going this way,” he meowed, setting out in the direction the scent had led.

His denmates followed as he forged onward, all his senses at full stretch to pick up the least trace of the kit. Weaving a path through a clump of gorse bushes, he spotted a smear of blood on one of the low branches. For a heartbeat his paws froze to the ground, he was so afraid that the blood belonged to Owl Eyes.

Tall Shadow padded across and sniffed at the smear. “I’m sorry,” she mewed. “The dog-scent is so strong, I can’t tell where the blood came from.”

That wasn’t much comfort for Gray Wing, but he forced himself to get moving again.

On the other side of the gorse bushes all three cats cast around to try to pick up Owl Eyes’s scent again. Eventually Tall Shadow raised her tail. “Over here!” she called out. “The trail is leading toward the forest.”

Gray Wing gazed at the line of trees in the distance. Somewhere among them was Clear Sky’s camp.
Would he protect Owl Eyes if the kit was in danger
?

The moor gradually sloped downward into a valley with a narrow stream trickling along the bottom. The dog-scent wasn’t as strong here, and everything seemed peaceful, but Gray Wing’s pads prickled with apprehension.

It’s too peaceful. . . .

Glancing around he realized that if they were attacked there was nowhere to hide, not a tree or bush they could scramble into. The only cover was sparse clumps of reeds and long grass by the waterside.

They were heading downstream, still following Owl Eyes’s scent trail, when Gray Wing heard a shrill voice calling his name. He stiffened, gazing across the stream, and spotted Owl Eyes’s head popping out between the reeds.

“Look what I caught!” the kit called triumphantly, tossing a dead vole into the air.

Relief surged through Gray Wing, followed by a hot rush of anger. “You stupid,
stupid
furball!” he yowled, leaping the stream and bounding toward the kit. His chest had begun to ache again from stress and the effort of running.

Tall Shadow and Jackdaw’s Cry crossed the stream behind him, but as they reached Owl Eyes the clouds which had been lowering over the moor for most of the day suddenly released their rain. Fat drops splashed onto Gray Wing’s pelt and stippled the surface of the water.

“Now we’ll get soaked through!” Jackdaw’s Cry grumbled.

Gray Wing’s breath was wheezing in his chest. He couldn’t face racing back across the moor to the shelter of the camp. Hunching his shoulders as the rain grew heavier, he spotted a hole in the bank of the stream above their heads. “Up there!” he snapped at Owl Eyes, thrusting the kit in front of him and following him into the hole. “Come on!” he called to the others.

Little light filtered in from the entrance to the burrow, and there was a stale scent of rabbit. But there was enough space to move forward, Gray Wing’s pelt brushing the earthen sides. He could scent Tall Shadow and Jackdaw’s Cry following him, and when he glanced over his shoulder he could just make out Tall Shadow’s ears outlined against the dim light.

In the next heartbeat there was a slippery sound and the light was cut off, leaving the cats in pitch darkness.

“What happened?” Gray Wing called out, feeling his belly clench with the first stirrings of panic.

“The entrance collapsed,” Jackdaw’s Cry replied, sounding more annoyed than frightened. “The rain must have weakened it.”

“Then we’re trapped,” Tall Shadow rasped.

Guilt washed through Gray Wing, as overwhelming as the rain outside. He struggled to catch his breath, knowing that the others would be able to hear his wheezing in the silence. He had never felt so useless in his life.
If it wasn’t for my bad chest, we would be halfway back to the camp by now
.

“I . . . I’m sorry . . . ,” he choked out. “I shouldn’t have . . .” His voice was trembling too much from his sense of failure and he couldn’t finish what he wanted to say.

“It’s not your fault,” Jackdaw’s Cry meowed sturdily. “And it’s no big deal. All we have to do is keep going. There’s bound to be another way out.”

Gray Wing began to creep forward, gently pushing Owl Eyes ahead of him. “This is exciting!” the little kit squeaked, then added, “Mouse dung! I dropped my vole by the stream.”

Gradually Gray Wing realized that the darkness was giving way to a faint gray light, coming from up ahead. At the same time he began to pick up a strange scent: a strong reek that reminded him of the smell of foxes, though it wasn’t quite the same. The fur on his neck and shoulders began to prickle.

A few paces farther on, the tunnel widened into an open space where the cats could stand side by side and look around. More than one tunnel led away from the central cave where they were. Light was trickling down through small chinks in the roof, the earth held up by a tangle of roots. The floor of the cave was covered with dead leaves and bracken; Gray Wing wrinkled his nose at the smell.

“This place is yucky!” Owl Eyes announced. “I don’t like it here.”

Jackdaw’s Cry gave him a gentle cuff over one ear. “It’s your own fault for running away from Jagged Peak,” he meowed. “What were you told about not leaving camp? You can’t ignore Gray Wing’s orders like that, especially when he is our leader, and the most respected cat in camp.”

Even though Gray Wing knew that Jackdaw’s Cry was trying to make him feel better, guilt gnawed at him even more deeply.
Respect? I don’t deserve that!
But he had the sense to stay silent and not reveal to Owl Eyes how bad he was feeling.

“It was just a bit of fun!” Owl Eyes protested. “And I
did
catch a vole.”

“Fun!” Jackdaw’s Cry exclaimed. “You bee-brained kit, you—”

“That’s enough, both of you,” Gray Wing interrupted. “We need to decide which of these tunnels is best,” he went on, gesturing with his tail toward the exits from the cave.
I can’t wait to get out. This damp air is making my chest hurt even more
.

But as he led the way across the cave to the nearest tunnel, there was movement inside it. Gray Wing stared as an animal paused in the entrance. It had black fur with a white stripe down the middle of its narrow head, a wet nose, bright beady eyes and small ears. Its short legs ended in powerful, blunt claws.

Gray Wing froze with a mixture of fear and curiosity. “What’s
that
?” he whispered.

“It’s called a badger,” Tall Shadow replied in a no-nonsense tone. “I remember Shaded Moss telling me about them. He said they live in groups like us, and they’re really fierce.”

And we just walked into its den
, Gray Wing realized. Struggling to think clearly, he could see that they only had one advantage: speed. This great hulking creature couldn’t possibly move as fast as a cat.
We’re trapped down here—but we have to try to get away
.

The badger heaved itself out of the tunnel and reared up in front of the cats, opening its jaws to show huge yellow teeth.

“Run!” Gray Wing screeched.

Making sure that Owl Eyes was following, he raced for the next exit tunnel and plunged into it. Almost at once he realized that he had made a mistake. They could only go as fast as his breathing would allow, and that wasn’t as fast as he would like.

I should have let the others go first. I could have faced the badger while they escaped
.

But it was too late now. The tunnel was so narrow that the other cats couldn’t get past him.

Thankfully he realized that after the first few tail-lengths the tunnel opened up into a network with connecting tunnels on either side. Gray Wing twisted and turned, hoping to lose the pursuing badger. More chinks in the roof let in enough light for him to see his way.

Gray Wing hesitated at a screech of pain behind him, followed by the sound of a scuffle.
Some cat is injured!
But there was no way he could get back to help; he had to go on.

At last Gray Wing spotted an irregular patch of light ahead of him and realized that they had found the way out. He forced a last burst of speed from his paws and tumbled into the open.

The heavy rain had turned into a thin drizzle. Through it Gray Wing saw that they were close to the edge of the forest. One of the outlying trees was a few tail-lengths away. Checking with a swift glance to make sure all his cats were following, he hurled himself at the tree and clawed his way up the trunk until he could crouch trembling on a branch, his breath coming in great gasps. His denmates joined him and shrank back into the cover of the leaves.

Gray Wing gazed down and saw the badger thrust its striped snout out of the tunnel mouth. It raked the surroundings with a glance from its small, malignant eyes, then let out a grunt and withdrew underground.

Tall Shadow let out a gasp of relief. “It’s gone!”

“Owl Eyes, are you okay?” Gray Wing asked.

The kit was pressing close to him, shaking with fear. Gray Wing spotted a scratch down one of his back legs; it was slowly oozing blood. “You’re hurt!” he exclaimed. “It was you I heard back there.”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” Owl Eyes mewed bravely, though his teeth were chattering.

Jackdaw’s Cry flexed his claws. “I gave the badger something to think about.”

Gray Wing could hardly believe that the kit had been injured while he was still so young.
It’s my fault
, he thought despairingly.
What sort of leader am I, when I can’t even protect my own kit?

The last of the rain stopped and the clouds began to clear. Gray Wing could see the sun dipping toward the horizon.

“I don’t think the badger’s coming back,” he meowed. “We’d better get back to camp. If we’re out here after dark, we’ll be in more trouble.”

Tall Shadow was first to jump out of the tree; she took the lead as the cats headed back across the moor. Gray Wing and Owl Eyes brought up the rear, Gray Wing still struggling for breath and Owl Eyes limping from his scratch.

“I’m sorry,” Owl Eyes murmured, blinking apologetically at Gray Wing. “I shouldn’t have left the camp on my own like that.”

Gray Wing twitched his ears to acknowledge the kit’s words, but he didn’t have any energy left to speak.

He looked up and saw the shape of Highstones outlined against the setting sun. It reminded him of his own more distant mountains.
If only I had Stoneteller here to guide me
, he thought.
But she’s so far away. She can’t help me now
.

As Gray Wing reached the top of the hollow, he saw his denmates huddled together in the middle of the camp, exchanging anxious meows. Then Rainswept Flower looked up and spotted them.

“They’re back!” she yowled.

Instantly Turtle Tail raced up the slope, flinging herself at Owl Eyes and covering him with licks. “I’m so angry with you!” she mewed. “What were you thinking, going off on your own like that? And you’re hurt!”

“I caught a vole,” Owl Eyes announced proudly.

“I don’t want to hear about it!”

Turtle Tail nosed her son down into the hollow, and the other cats followed, while their denmates crowded around, questioning them about what had happened. Gray Wing was still having trouble breathing, so he sat down and let Tall Shadow tell the story.