Эрин Хантер - Outcast

“For what it’s worth”—Hollypaw sounded troubled—“I don’t trust the trespassers. And I don’t know if the Tribe will be able to defend its new borders.”

Jaypaw’s belly lurched to hear his sister echoing the warning that Rock had given him in the Cave of Pointed Stones.

“I don’t know why we came here if we weren’t going to succeed,” she continued, sounding a little desolate. “Did the Tribe of Endless Hunting get it wrong?”

Jaypaw reached out with his tail to touch her shoulder.

“The Tribe’s ancestors didn’t want us here,” he mewed. “And StarClan did not send us. We came so that we could win the battle, and because we needed answers to our questions.”

When neither Hollypaw nor Lionpaw responded, he added, “We all wanted to come to the mountains, didn’t we?” There was a murmur of agreement from his brother and sister.

“Then don’t you understand? That’s why things happened so that we came. This is all about us , the three of us. Without us the Tribe might survive, or it might not, but that doesn’t matter now. They’ve all been waiting for us—StarClan, the Tribe of Endless Hunting, Rock—”

“Who?” Hollypaw asked.

“What are you talking about?” Lionpaw meowed. “Have you got bees in your brain?”

Jaypaw crouched on the edge of the pool and motioned with his tail for his brother and sister to draw closer. “Listen,” he murmured. “There’s something I have to tell you…”