Эрин Хантер - The Sun Trail

“Why not?” Clear Sky demanded in return. “This could be the answer to all our problems. What’s the point of struggling to feed every mouth if there’s an alternative?” His whiskers quivered eagerly. “It will be an adventure!” He called out to Shaded Moss: “I’ll go!” Glancing at Bright Stream, he added, “You’ll come too, won’t you?”

Bright Stream leaned closer to Clear Sky. “I don’t know… would you really go without me?”

Before Clear Sky could reply, little Jagged Peak wormed his way forward between his two older brothers, followed by Fluttering Bird. “I want to go!” he announced loudly.

Fluttering Bird nodded enthusiastically. “Me too!” she squeaked.

Quiet Rain followed them, and drew both kits closer to her with a sweep of her tail. “Certainly not!” she meowed. “You two are staying right here.”

“You could come with us,” Jagged Peak suggested.

His mother shook her head. “This is my home,” she said. “We’ve survived before. When the warm season returns, we’ll have enough to eat.”

Gray Wing dipped his head in agreement. How can they forget what Quiet Rain told me when I was a kit? This place was promised to us by a cat who led us here from a faraway lake. How can we think of leaving?

Shaded Moss’s powerful voice rose up again over the clamor. “No cat needs to decide yet,” he announced. “Give some thought to what you want to do. The half-moon is just past; I will leave at the next full-moon along with any—”

He broke off, his gaze fixed on the far end of the cave. Turning his head, Gray Wing saw the hunting party making their way inside. Their pelts were clotted with snow and their heads drooped.

Not one was carrying prey.

“We’re sorry,” Shattered Ice called out. “The snow is heavier than ever, and there wasn’t a single—”

“We’re leaving!” some cat yowled from the crowd around Shaded Moss.

The hunting party stood still for a moment, glancing at one another in confusion and dismay. Then they pelted down the length of the cavern to listen as their Tribemates explained what Stoneteller had told them, and what Shaded Moss intended to do.

Turtle Tail made her way to where Gray Wing was sitting and plopped down beside him, beginning to clean the melting snow from her pelt. “Isn’t this great?” she asked between licks. “A warm place, where there’s plenty of prey, just waiting for us? Are you going, Gray Wing?”

“I am,” Clear Sky responded, before Gray Wing could answer. “And so is Bright Stream.” The young she-cat gave him an uncertain look, but Clear Sky didn’t notice. “It’ll be a hard journey, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

“It’ll be wonderful !” Turtle Tail blinked happily. “Come on, Gray Wing! How about it?”

Gray Wing couldn’t give her the answer she wanted. As he looked around the cave at the cats he had known all his life, he couldn’t imagine abandoning them for a place that might only exist in Stoneteller’s dreams.

Growling in his belly woke Gray Wing. The pangs of hunger had seemed even sharper since Stoneteller’s announcement a few sunrises ago. And the cavern hadn’t stopped buzzing with discussions about whether it was a good idea to leave, and what the new place might be like.

Still curled up in his sleeping hollow, Gray Wing could hear excited chatter from cats nearby.

“What do you think we’ll get to hunt?” Gray Wing recognized Dappled Pelt’s voice. “Maybe different kinds of birds—or those… squirrels that the elders put in their stories.”

“We’ll have to be careful.” That was Cloud Spots, sounding thoughtful as usual. “If we eat too much we’ll get too fat to hunt, and then where will we be?”

Gray Wing heard a snort of laughter from Snow Hare. “That’s a problem I’d like to have!”

He lifted his head to see the three cats sitting close together, along with Tall Shadow, who extended her black-furred limbs gracefully as she rose to her paws. “I wonder what new hunting techniques we’ll need to learn. It’s bound to be different in the new place.”

“Well, you’ve always been good at creeping around,” Snow Hare mewed teasingly. “You’ll be able to sneak up on your prey while it’s asleep.”

Tall Shadow gave her chest fur a complacent lick. “I just might do that.”

Scrambling out of the sleeping hollow, Gray Wing shook scraps of moss and feather from his pelt and arched his back in a good long stretch. He decided to go and hunt. There’s no point in wondering about prey somewhere else when we need to eat now.

Sunlight came slanting into the cave, turning the screen of water into a dazzling sparkle. As Gray Wing emerged from the path behind the fall, he saw that the sky was clear blue. Gray Wing’s pads tingled at the beauty of the peaks outlined against it. He took great gulps of the cold, crisp air, relishing the way it felt like water against his fur.

How could I leave all this ?

Continuing along the snow-packed ledge, hardened by the paw steps of many cats, Gray Wing heard voices coming from somewhere above.

“Bright Stream, you have to come with me.”

Looking up, he spotted Clear Sky and Bright Stream at the top of the cliff where the water poured over the lip of the rocks.

“It’ll be great,” Clear Sky went on, “exploring new places together.”

Bright Stream turned her head away. “I don’t know… This is my home, and we’ve survived so far.”

“Don’t you want more than just surviving?” Clear Sky asked, curling his tail persuasively around Bright Stream’s shoulders. “I want to go, but it wouldn’t be the same without you.”

Bright Stream’s eyes shone, but she shook her head. “I’ve still got a few days to decide,” she mewed.

Leaving Clear Sky gazing after her, she bounded lightly down the rocks. Despite himself, Gray Wing’s heart quickened as he saw her approaching. She’s lovely… but she’ll be Clear Sky’s mate one day. He’s a lucky tom, that’s for sure .

“Can I hunt with you?” Bright Stream asked as she leaped off the last rock to stand at Gray Wing’s side. “Just don’t be like Clear Sky and pester me about leaving the mountains with Shaded Moss!”

“I won’t,” Gray Wing promised. “I haven’t made up my own mind yet.”

“For once I wish you poor hunting!” Clear Sky called down from the top of the rocks. “Then you’ll realize that we have to leave.”

Gray Wing gave him a good-humored wave of his tail, and headed for the ridge. Bright Stream scrambled after him. As they drew closer to the summit, icy wind blasted their fur and scoured the snow from the rocks, leaving them bare and gray. Dark, yellowish clouds massed on the horizon, promising more snow to come.

With his back to the gale, Gray Wing gazed around and spotted three more cats farther down the valley—tiny black shapes, too far away for him to distinguish who they were, pursuing a hawk that flew low over the slopes and gradually drew out of sight.

Bright Stream’s voice broke the vast silence of the mountains. “Gray Wing—what do you think about Stoneteller’s dream?”

Gray Wing hesitated before replying. “I don’t know,” he confessed at last. “Can Stoneteller really have discovered a new place for us to live, without knowing exactly where it is? Why haven’t any other cats had the same dream?”

“Maybe it’s something only Stoneteller can do,” Bright Stream suggested. She paused, blinking thoughtfully; Gray Wing could see anxiety in her beautiful green eyes. “I love living in the mountains,” she went on. “In spite of the cold and hunger. I always imagined I’d raise my kits here… but then, I always imagined their father would be Clear Sky.”