Эрин Хантер - The Sun Trail

Petal stiffened at the scent of squirrel, but a heartbeat later she realized the scent was stale; the squirrel must have passed that way the day before. Then a faint sound just ahead warned her of the approach of prey. Two mice appeared, scuffling along the edge of a bramble thicket.

Petal glanced at Fox, who was padding along at her shoulder, and signaled with her tail for him to stay where he was. With breathless caution, she started to work her way around the two mice, making sure that every paw step was silent and that she didn’t let her shadow fall across the two tiny creatures.

It’s been so long since we ate… We need this prey!

They’d come a long way since their early days as orphaned kits, and had managed to survive alone. Occasionally they joined in a hunt with other cats, but that was rare. Mostly they hunted alone. Petal never let them forget that they had only themselves to rely on.

At last Petal dropped into a crouch beyond the mice and leaped toward them, letting out a snarl, trying to sound as menacing as she could. That gray-and-white she-cat taught me something; I can make myself really scary now!

The mice, panicking, scuttled straight at Fox. He slammed down a paw on one of them, and grabbed the other by the neck with his teeth in one smooth movement.

“Great catch!” Petal exclaimed as she bounded back to his side.

“You sent them straight at me,” Fox meowed, dropping the mouse. “Besides, you could have caught them yourself, you know.”

Petal preferred to hunt like this: setting up the catch but letting her brother make the final kill. Ever since their mother died and the gray-and-white she-cat refused to help them, she had realized they needed to work as a team. I’d be lost without Fox , she thought. Yes, she could have killed the mice on her own—but she preferred working with her brother, and knew that was better for him, too. She remembered how forlorn he’d looked when they’d padded away as hungry kits. It’s important that we work side by side , she thought. It’s all we have.

Aloud she mewed, “We’ve got the mice, so who cares?”

Fox blinked at her affectionately and didn’t push the matter. They settled down and ate their prey in quick, hungry bites.

Petal was swiping her tongue around her jaws, wishing for something a bit more substantial than a mouse, when she heard a loud birdsong. Looking up, she spotted a robin singing on a branch a few tail-lengths away. It puffed out its fat red belly and scanned the area with bright beady eyes.

Typical robin bully , she thought. Making that racket to claim his territory …

As she watched, a chaffinch landed on the same tree branch. At once the robin broke off his song and flapped his wings fiercely until the chaffinch hopped backward and took off again.

Petal set her teeth and let out a hissing breath. I hate bullies! And I hate robins! It’s time to show that bird who’s boss. …

“You stay here,” she muttered to Fox. “I’ll enjoy killing this one on my own.” Yes, they normally hunted as a team, but this was about more than hunting.

Flattening herself to the ground, Petal sneaked forward until she reached the bottom of the tree. The robin hadn’t noticed her. Petal slipped around to the other side of the trunk and clawed her way upward paw step by paw step.

But as Petal slid onto the robin’s branch her tail brushed against a spray of leaves, making them rustle. The robin let out a loud alarm call and darted away, vanishing among the trees.

“Mouse dung!” Petal exclaimed.

Scrambling down the tree, she headed into the forest after the robin.

“What are you doing?” Fox hissed after her. She shook her head at him quickly, telling him to be quiet.

Soon she reached a hollow and slipped into hiding behind a bush, where she waited for her breathing to calm. Her ears were pricked as she listened carefully.

Just as she had hoped, not many heartbeats passed before she heard the robin’s strident song again. Stupid creature! Now I know exactly where you are! Petal crept toward it, clinging to the shadows to hide her movements. It was perched on another tree branch; luckily, this bark was soft, making it easier for Petal to sink her claws in silently and climb up until she was only a tail-length from the robin.

This time, little bird …

Petal was stretching out her claws when a cat’s yowl sounded from somewhere in the forest. The robin launched itself into the air and vanished into a thick stretch of shrubs.

Letting out a snarl of annoyance, Petal let herself drop to the ground. Fox came running up to her as she landed. “Did you hear that?” he asked.

More cat yowls and meows reached their ears as he spoke. Petal signaled with her tail for Fox to follow her as she crept toward the noises. “I don’t recognize those voices…” she murmured. Even though she and Fox kept themselves separate from the rest of the cats in the forest, they knew most of the others by sight and sound.

Using every scrap of undergrowth for cover, Petal and Fox slipped forward until they reached the edge of a wide, shallow dip in the forest floor, and crouched together in the shelter of a holly bush. Gazing into the hollow, they saw several cats, some sitting, others pacing around and examining their surroundings.

“Hey, we do know them!” Fox meowed. “They’re the cats who’ve settled in the clearing with the pool. Don’t you remember?”

A hazy memory took form in Petal’s mind. “That’s right,” she murmured. “They chased us off when we tried to find out what they were doing there.”

Petal’s paws tingled with apprehension. She realized she had seen a few of the cats even before that. “I met some of them another time, too, when I was hunting with Nightheart and Leaf,” she meowed. “That black tom was stalking a squirrel in the forest. I would have left him alone, but Nightheart and Leaf jumped on him. Then his friends came to help him, so I had to get involved, too. That gray tom was there, and the white she-cat.”

“We’d better stay away from them,” Fox grunted. “They’re trouble, sure enough. I hope they’re not thinking of moving in here for good.”

As he was speaking, the gray tom suddenly froze, then swiveled around, staring straight at the holly bush where Fox and Petal were hiding.

“He’s seen us!” Petal meowed. “Run!”

“We have to get away!” Petal panted as she raced along beside her brother. “I’ve been in one fight with those cats. I don’t want another!”

She and Fox pelted as fast as they could through clumps of fern and around bramble thickets. Low branches swiped across their faces.

Petal couldn’t hear any sound of pursuit from the strangers. Maybe they’re not following us… but I’m not sticking around to find out!

The two cats were running so hard that neither of them took much notice of where they were going. Then without warning the undergrowth thinned, and they burst out of the trees to find themselves on the bank of the river.

“Mouse dung!” Fox gasped, scrambling to a halt at the very edge of the water. “Another paw step and I’d have fallen in!” Petal knew how much her brother hated water, so she was surprised when he added, “We’ll have to cross. That’ll stop those other cats from chasing us.”

This must be bad , Petal thought, if Fox is willing to cross the water!

Even so, Petal was warmed by her brother’s courage. We can do this together ! Glancing around, she spotted a series of stepping-stones leading across to the other bank. Water was washing their surface, but even if they were slippery, they were a better option than swimming.