Эрин Хантер - Crowfeather's Trial

She’s still next door? For a moment Crowfeather found it hard to get his breath. He could hardly believe that they were so close to Nightcloud, after so long and coming so far. But I knew it! I did scent her!

“Thank you,” he mewed to the kittypets. “We’ll leave you to sleep.”

“Thank goodness for that,” the tortoiseshell responded, wrapping her tail over her nose and closing her eyes.

“Good luck,” the tom meowed.

Crowfeather leaped down from the ledge to join his Clanmates. The fence that divided this garden from the one beside it had gaps between the flat wooden strips, and it was easy for the WindClan cats to slip through.

As soon as they emerged into the next garden, they picked up Nightcloud’s scent again, but there was no sign of her.

“The kittypets said she’s always trying to escape,” Heathertail pointed out. “That means the Twolegs must be keeping her in their den.”

Hootpaw let out a gasp. “You mean we have to go . . . in there?” Looking at his wide eyes and bristling pelt, Crowfeather couldn’t decide whether the apprentice was delighted or terrified.

“Maybe,” he replied. “We have to find Nightcloud first.”

Scanning the Twoleg den, Crowfeather spotted a huge gap in the wall, starting at ground level and rising up several tail-lengths above his head. It was blocked by the shiny, transparent stuff that Twolegs used to plug holes in their walls, but he had never seen a hole so big.

Cautiously Crowfeather padded up to the gap, beckoning with his tail for his Clanmates to follow him.

Peering through the transparent stuff, Crowfeather was confused at first; he needed a moment to make sense of what he was seeing. But then he ignored the strange Twoleg material and focused on something that was more familiar: a nest, though instead of moss and bracken, this one seemed to be made of interlaced twigs and lined with soft white bedding.

Inside the nest was Nightcloud. She was curled up asleep. Crowfeather could see her sleek black body rising and falling as she breathed: strong, steady breaths that showed she must have recovered from her injuries. A weird, white object, like a curled, hard leaf, surrounded her head.

“Thank StarClan!” he breathed out, so relieved to see a familiar form that he had thought he would never see again. Nightcloud!

“Oh, she’s safe!” Breezepelt’s voice shook as he pressed himself up against the shiny barrier.

Then Nightcloud shifted in her sleep, the leaf-object bumping against her soft bedding. Crowfeather gaped in astonishment as he picked up the scent of a second cat, and saw that what he’d thought was bedding, like some sort of Twoleg moss, was another cat curled up in the nest with her—a fluffy white kittypet.

A kittypet tom !

CHAPTER 24

For a moment Crowfeather stood frozen, thrown seriously off balance by the appearance of the kittypet tom. Surprise flashed through him, along with a twinge of jealousy that he didn’t want to admit to. The excited murmuring of his Clanmates made him pull himself together. At least they were too focused on Nightcloud to have seen his reaction.

His companions crowded up to the barrier, banging against it with their forepaws. At last Nightcloud stirred, raised her head, then sprang out of the nest and bounded over to join them, her expression filled with the shock of recognition. The strange white leaf still clung to her neck, surrounding her face. Crowfeather supposed it was some Twoleg trickery that Nightcloud couldn’t take off.

The barrier was divided into two parts with a shiny strip running down the middle. There was a tiny gap between the two sections, and Nightcloud stretched her neck out of the white leaf and thrust her nose into the gap so that she could speak to her Clanmates.

“Well, you certainly took your time finding me,” she mewed, though Crowfeather could see from her shining eyes that she was happy and excited to see them.

Disturbed by Nightcloud’s movement and the noise of their meows, the white tom woke up and left the nest to pad up behind her. The grumpy look on his squashed-in face showed that he didn’t share Nightcloud’s happiness.

“Hello there,” he mewed. “What’s all this?”

Every cat ignored his question. Crowfeather didn’t spare him more than a disdainful glance, taking in his plump body and his long, perfectly groomed white fur. “How can we get you out of here?” he asked Nightcloud.

“This door slides open,” Nightcloud explained, waving her tail at the transparent barrier. “Maybe if we push . . .”

“It’s worth a try,” Breezepelt agreed, with an eager twitch of his whiskers.

“Hey, be careful,” the white tom warned them. “You mustn’t break our housefolk’s things. And who did you say you were, again?”

Nightcloud gave him a dismissive flick of her tail. “Not now,” she meowed. “I’ll explain in a moment.”

Crowfeather and the others pushed from outside, and Nightcloud from inside, but there was nowhere to get a grip with their paws, and the barrier didn’t move.

“This is no use,” Breezepelt mewed at last, huffing out a breath as he stood back. Crowfeather thought that his enthusiasm was waning, as if he was beginning to doubt that he would be reunited with his mother after all. “We need a different plan.”

“We need to get the Twolegs to open it,” Crowfeather responded.

“But the Twolegs will be asleep,” Heathertail pointed out.

“That’s right,” the white tom put in. “And they really don’t like it if we wake them.”

Crowfeather bared his teeth. “Fox dung to that. If we need to wake them, we wake them.”

“I know how!” Hootpaw squealed, bouncing excitedly. “I can yowl really loud!”

“Okay, then—” Crowfeather began.

He was interrupted by the white tom, who paced forward to stand beside Nightcloud. “Is all this really necessary ?” he asked her. “Couldn’t you just stay with me? You know how dangerous it is out there. Just look at it! There’s snow on the ground!”

“Well spotted,” Crowfeather muttered.

“And look how long it took these cats to come get you,” the white tom went on. “Days and days! How much do they really care about you?”

Nightcloud turned slowly to face the kittypet and paused for a long moment. Crowfeather half expected her to give the interfering creature a swat on the nose, but her voice was actually friendly as she replied.

“I’m sorry, Pickle, but I always told you I’m a Clan cat. I belong on the moor.”

Pickle? Crowfeather thought. What sort of name is that for a cat?

The tom narrowed his eyes and let out a growl; Crowfeather glared at him through the barrier. Does he think Nightcloud belongs to him?

For a moment, Nightcloud stood still, giving him a thoughtful look. “Would you like to join me out there?” she asked eventually.

Join her in WindClan? Crowfeather was outraged, and he saw Breezepelt giving his mother a look of blank astonishment. What is she thinking of? He’s a kittypet! All that silly white fur would get tangled and matted with burrs.

Crowfeather had to admit he rather enjoyed imagining that.

To his relief, the tom turned his head away awkwardly. “I can’t do that,” he told Nightcloud. “It’s my job to guard the housefolk. That’s very important. I can’t just up and leave .”

“I can see that,” Nightcloud sighed, sounding as if she was genuinely regretful. “I’m sorry, then, but we’ll have to part ways.”

Crowfeather shook his head helplessly. I can’t believe I’m listening to this. “Right,” he mewed briskly, turning to his Clanmates. “Heathertail and Hootpaw, you make the loudest noise you can. We have to wake the Twolegs and make them open the door.”