Эрин Хантер - Thunder Аnd Shadow

Alderpaw squeezed after her, while Fernsong and Ivy pool crouched at the opening, their eyes wide as they peered through.

“The nest must have been washed away,” Alderpaw guessed.

Twigpaw blinked at him through the darkness. Sorrow tugged at her heart. “Why did she leave us here?”

“Surely she had no choice.” Alderpaw’s eyes glinted in the shadows.

Twigpaw glanced around. “I see why you took us now.” Suddenly she understood that Alderpaw couldn’t have left her and Violetpaw here. If cold or hunger hadn’t killed them, rats might have. But hope still pricked her heart. “I wonder where she went.”

Without waiting for a response, she pushed past Alderpaw and slid back through the crisscrossed sticks. Flattening her ears against the m onsters’ roars, she glanced along the ditch. She tried to im agine what her mother had been thinking when she left the nest. She must have gone looking for food. Had she gotten lost? Had she forgotten her way back to the tunnel? Twigpaw nosed past Ivy pool and Fernsong and headed along the ditch. She clim bed onto the slope and toward a swath of long grass. Mice would be there, right? Her mother might have followed this path, guessing the sam e.

“Twigpaw!” Ivy pool called after her.

Twigpaw glanced back.

The silver-and-white she-cat was hurry ing after her, Fernsong and Alderpaw on her heels.

“Wait for us.” She caught up to her, puffing.

“I have to figure out where m y mother went,” Twigpaw mewed urgently.

Ivy pool gazed at her sy m pathetically. “But it was moons ago, Twigpaw. You can’t hope to find a trace of her.”

Fernsong stopped beside her. “The leaf-bare snows would have washed any scents away.”

Twigpaw stared at them, panic opening like a whirlpool in her belly. White fur caught her ey e.

She glanced past them. A cat was on the Thunderpath! It sat, m otionless, in the m iddle as m onsters thundered past it. “Look!”

Ivy pool snapped her head around, following her gaze.

“What in StarClan!” Fernsong’s m outh gaped open as he saw the stranded cat.

“Why isn’t she try ing to run away?”

Twigpaw hardly heard Ivy pool’s gasp. She hared down the slope. “We have to save her!”

She tore toward the Thunderpath, desperation driving her on. What if that was her mother?

She leaped over the ditch, her paws hitting the Thunderpath as a m onster howled past, a tail-length from her nose. Her gaze flicked across the stretch of gray stone. If she could dodge the m onsters, she could reach the cat and guide her to safety. Her thoughts whirled. Blood pounded in her ears.

She glanced back and forth, searching for a gap to race through.

Suddenly claws gripped her pelt. Her paws scratched over the stone as som eone j erked her backward. Teeth sank into her scruff as the ditch opened below her and Ivy pool hauled her down into its shelter.

“What in StarClan do you think y ou’re doing?” Ivy pool stared at her.

Fernsong landed beside them, his pelt bushed. “Do you want to get y ourself killed?”

“What about the cat?” Twigpaw wailed above the m onsters.

She reared onto her hind legs, peering over the edge. A bright red m onster, far bigger than the rest, pounded toward the helpless cat. “Run!” The shriek tore from Twigpaw’s throat. But the cat didn’t m ove. Horror shrilled though Twigpaw as the red m onster hurtled over it. She stared in disbelief as the cat disappeared.

“They killed her.” Her words caught in her throat.

Ivy pool hopped onto the edge of the Thunderpath and stared across it. Twigpaw j um ped up beside her, her heart pounding as she scanned the stone for blood. But there was none. All that was left of the cat was white fluff, tossed in the wake of the m onsters like thistledown.

Twigpaw stared at it. “That cat wasn’t real.” Her m urm ur was swept away as another m onster tore past.

Ivy pool nudged her down into the ditch. “It must have been som e Twoleg trick,” she meowed as they landed with a crunch on the pebbles.

Fernsong blinked at them. “Let’s get out of here.”

Twigpaw stared at him, hardly hearing. She felt frozen. That could have been her mother.

Realization swept over her like an icy wind. How could her mother still be alive? She’d had kits to feed. She’d had to hunt. She would have had to cross the Thunderpath countless tim es. She was probably hit, like that lifeless ball of fluff, by a m onster. Why else would she have not returned to their nest? Certainty sat in Twigpaw’s belly like a stone. Her mother was dead.

“Come on.” Alderpaw’s soft mew sounded in her ear. She felt his warm m uzzle nudging her forward. Num bly, she let him guide her out of the ditch and back up the slope.

She was dim ly aware of Ivy pool and Fernsong m oving beside them. Her heart ached with every paw step, and then shadow swallowed her. She blinked, realizing they were am ong the trees once more.

She m et Alderpaw’s gaze. “I know she’s dead now,” she m urm ured hoarsely. “Let’s go home.”

Violetpaw rolled over in her nest, half waking as fur brushed the door of the den. Through a m ist of sleep, she wondered if she’d slept late and Dawnpelt had come to wake her. She half opened her eyes and, seeing it was still dark, decided that she must have dream ed it.

She let sleep drag her into blackness once more.

“Violetpaw.”

A hiss beside her ear m ade her leap to her paws. “Who is it?” Shock pulsed through her as she sm elled unfam iliar scent. This wasn’t a ShadowClan cat. She could make out the shape of a young she-cat in the gloom.

“It’s m e,” the voice hissed again. “Twigpaw.”

Violetpaw froze. “What in StarClan are you doing here?”

“I had to see y ou.”

Violetpaw looked around, alarm spiking her pelt. Thank StarClan Whorlkit, Flowerkit, and Snakekit hadn’t been m ade apprentices y et. She had the den to herself. “You can’t be here!” she whispered anxiously. “If som eone finds y ou, we’ll both be in trouble.” Her Clan was just starting to accept her. She couldn’t be found with a ThunderClan cat. She nudged Twigpaw toward the entrance, her nose wrinkling as she sm elled ThunderClan scent on her sister’s pelt.

“But I have to talk to y ou!” Twigpaw dug her paws in.

Violetpaw shoved her harder. “Not here !” She bundled Twigpaw from the den and hurried toward the shadow at the edge of the clearing. “This way!” Her gaze darted nervously around the camp. Snores sounded from the dens. Nothing m oved apart from Twigpaw, pale in the moonlight.

“Hurry!” Violetpaw led the way quickly and quietly to the dirtplace tunnel.

She turned. Twigpaw wasn’t following. Her sister stood beside the camp wall, her eyes flashing in the darkness. “What are you doing?” Violetpaw dem anded. Did Twigpaw want to get into trouble?

“I went to find our mother,” Twigpaw hissed. “She’s gone. She’s dead. You were right.”

Violetpaw stared at her. “Of course she’s dead. Why else would she have abandoned us? Did y ou come just to tell m e that?”

She saw pain glitter in Twigpaw’s eyes. Frustration welled in her chest. What did Twigpaw want from her? “I’m sorry! But don’t expect m e to be surprised.” She glanced nervously around the camp. The stench of ThunderClan cat was bound to wake som eone soon. “Look,” she growled, “I know y ou’re upset, but y ou’ve got to get out of here.”

“Don’t you care?” Twigpaw stared at her, still not m oving.