Эрин Хантер - Crowfeather's Trial

“Hang on, I’m coming!” Crowfeather called out as he charged up, half expecting to see a fox or a badger emerging from the tunnel. Except that wasn’t fox or badger scent.

As Crowfeather halted beside Hootpaw, he thought that he spotted something white and shining at the mouth of the tunnel, whisking out of sight into the blackness.

That looked like a tail . . . , he thought. Or am I seeing things?

Featherpaw joined him, panting, while Nightcloud hurried up with a vole in her jaws. Harespring and Slightpaw ran up shortly after.

“What happened?” Nightcloud asked, dropping her prey. “Hootpaw, tell me you didn’t go into the tunnel, after what I told you!”

“I didn’t!” Hootpaw protested. “But I . . . I saw something in there. An animal I’ve never seen before, like a glowing, pure white cat! It looked right at me, like it wanted to tell me something.”

“Oh, for StarClan’s sake, don’t be so mouse-brained,” Nightcloud snapped. “There’s no such thing as glowing white cats—only StarClan, and they glitter like stars . Honestly, you made such a noise, I thought a badger must be ripping your fur off!”

“I know what I saw,” Hootpaw mewed stubbornly. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It was scary!”

Harespring looked thoughtful. “Smoky from the horseplace told me once that kittypets sometimes came back after they died, all shining white, to visit their Twolegs. He said he’d seen ghosts with his own eyes.”

“That’s the most flea-brained thing I’ve ever heard!” Crowfeather exclaimed, glaring at Harespring. It was bad enough that Hootpaw was scared out of his fur. They didn’t need Harespring encouraging him. “Maybe kittypets believe that, but they don’t even commune with StarClan.” Harespring returned his glare for a moment but finally looked away as if he was embarrassed. He should be, Crowfeather thought, annoyed. This is who Onestar chose over me? A warrior who can barely catch a rabbit and now believes in ghosts? Some deputy.

“I saw a glowing white cat,” Hootpaw insisted. His fur was lying flat again, but his eyes were still wide and frightened, and Crowfeather could see that Featherpaw and Slightpaw were beginning to look apprehensive as well, casting nervous glances at the tunnel entrance as if, at any moment, whatever the apprentice had seen was going to come charging out of the shadows.

Crowfeather knew it was nonsense, but all the same, something was niggling at the back of his mind. If there were ghost cats, he thought, this would be the right time for them to show up. We lost so many of our Clanmates in the Great Battle. But he quickly dismissed the thought. Clearly, he was letting the apprentices—and their mouse-brained deputy—get to him. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for whatever Hootpaw had seen, but now wasn’t the time to find it.

“I think we’ve done enough hunting for one day,” he meowed decisively. “Let’s carry our prey back to camp.”

Harespring opened his mouth as if to argue, but he quickly snapped it shut and nodded his head. Crowfeather knew the deputy was probably irritated that he was calling the shots, but since he was eager to leave the area, he went along with him. Without any further discussion, the patrol set off, collecting their prey as they went. The deputy loaded up the apprentices and sent them on ahead, while he padded along behind with Crowfeather and Nightcloud. Crowfeather couldn’t help noticing how subdued the apprentices seemed now, so different from their earlier playfulness.

“I have no idea what got into Hootpaw.” Nightcloud still sounded cross. “He’s usually so sensible.”

“I know,” Harespring responded. “That’s why I believe him.” At Nightcloud’s annoyed expression, he continued. “Look, I’m not saying they were glowing white cats, but he must have seen something .”

“He did,” Crowfeather mewed thoughtfully. “I know because I saw something, too.”

“Oh, really, you ‘saw something’?” Nightcloud turned an incredulous gaze on him. “Not a glowing white cat, by any chance?”

“No.” Featherbrain. Crowfeather swallowed his anger, not wanting to get into an argument with Nightcloud. “But something white . . . like maybe a tail vanishing down the tunnel. There could have been another animal there.”

“But there aren’t any white animals on the moor,” Harespring objected. “Still . . . perhaps we should report it to Onestar.”

“What can he do about it?” Nightcloud asked.

“I’m not sure,” Harespring replied. “But we were told to check out this area, and that’s what we’ve found. Besides, suppose this is the start of some kind of trouble, and we didn’t report it. The Clan would be unprepared, and if anything terrible were to happen, it would be our fault. Onestar needs to know what’s going on in his own territory.”

Crowfeather was surprised to find himself murmuring in agreement. Harespring might not have been the deputy he would have chosen, but he had to admit that everything he’d just said was true. He gave Harespring a sideways glance. Maybe the tom wasn’t the worst deputy Onestar could have appointed after all.

Crowfeather picked up his pace until he caught up with the apprentices. Featherpaw was trudging along, carrying the rabbit Nightcloud had caught earlier; as she glanced up at Crowfeather, he could see the worry in her eyes.

“It’ll be okay, you know,” Crowfeather reassured her. “If there is anything in the tunnels, Onestar will help us figure out what to do about it.”

Featherpaw blinked at him. “I know,” she mumbled around her prey. “I just wish we could be sure what Hootpaw saw.”

“We will be soon,” Crowfeather responded. “And then, whatever it is, WindClan will deal with the problem.”

Featherpaw’s tail shot up in the air and her gaze cleared. “Yeah! WindClan can deal with anything.”

Crowfeather gave her an approving nod, reflecting on what a bright young cat she was. She would make a great warrior. He imagined how proud he would be if he were her father. But the thought made his gut twist, and he suddenly felt guilty, thinking of Breezepelt, and how he had a better relationship with his apprentice than his son.

Returning to the camp, Crowfeather spotted Onestar outside his den, stretched out in the pale sun of leaf-bare. He sat up alertly as Harespring led his patrol across the camp toward him. “Did you find anything down there?” he asked.

Harespring began to explain about the weird scent they had picked up near the tunnels, and how Hootpaw—and maybe Crowfeather—had seen something at one of the entrances.

“It was a ghost!” Hootpaw interrupted. “A shining white ghost cat!”

Onestar looked befuddled. “A ghost?” he echoed, twitching his whiskers in confusion.

Harespring explained what he had learned from Smoky at the horseplace about how he claimed he’d seen dead kittypets returning as shining white “ghosts.” Crowfeather could see that Onestar was listening carefully, but also that he didn’t believe a word of it.

“I can see you were all very brave,” the Clan leader told the apprentices when Harespring had finished. “But I don’t think there’s any such thing as a ‘ghost cat.’ Only StarClan. What you saw must have been a trick of the light, or your imagination.”

Hootpaw still looked mutinous, but he had enough sense not to argue with his Clan leader.

“It’s that weird scent that’s bothering me,” Onestar went on. “It seems like there must be something around the tunnels, and I don’t like the sound of that. I think we should organize another patrol to take a look inside and check it out.”