Erin Hunter - Twilight

How will Daisy and Sorreltail and the kits escape ? Daisy would never be able to defend herself against something like a badger, and Sorreltail was too close to giving birth to fight well.

Could they climb to the Highledge, Squirrelflight wondered, and take shelter in Firestar’s den? But the fallen rocks were too easy to climb, easy enough for a badger, and they could all be trapped up there.

More badgers were trying to enter through the wreckage of the thorns. At least that was their only way in. Firestar flung himself at the barrier, fighting furiously, with Dustpelt, Sandstorm, and Thornclaw beside him. Thornclaw was picked up by a massive paw and sent spinning into a clump of nettles; the trembling stalks closed around him, and he didn’t reappear.

Squirrelflight glimpsed her father clinging desperately to a badger’s shoulder while he clawed at its eyes. Then another of the huge creatures pushed in front of him, and she couldn’t see any more.

“Where’s Daisy?” a hoarse voice meowed. Squirrelflight turned her head to see Cloudtail limping toward her; the white warrior’s pelt was covered with dust, but the light of battle still gleamed in his blue eyes.

“In here,” Squirrelflight meowed, nodding to the bramble thicket behind her. “Brambleclaw’s fetching her.”

The tabby warrior appeared as she spoke, pushing Daisy in front of him. Berrykit squirmed in his jaws, wailing.

Daisy’s eyes were stretched wide with horror. “They’ll kill us all!” she yowled. “What about my kits?”

“We’ll save your kits.” To Squirrelflight’s surprise, Brightheart had made her way across the clearing from the medicine cat’s den. “It’s not their fault their mother brought them here,” she muttered fiercely as she vanished into the nursery. Cloudtail followed her to fetch the third kit.

“But we’ll never get out!” Daisy wailed, staring at the fight still going on in the camp entrance.

“Yes, you will,” Squirrelflight meowed. She suddenly remembered how Leafpool had sneaked out of the camp to meet Crowfeather. “I know a way.”

“Show us.” Brambleclaw managed to speak around the kit in his jaws.

Squirrelflight glanced into the nursery to yowl, “Hurry up!” Brightheart appeared at once, but she wasn’t carrying a kit. “Fetch Cinderpelt,” she snapped. “Sorreltail’s kits are coming. Now .”

Panic swept through Squirrelflight. Great StarClan, no !

Scanning the clearing, she couldn’t see Cinderpelt, but she caught sight of Sorreltail’s mate, Brackenfur, battling furiously with a badger only a few tail-lengths away. He was obviously trying to reach the nursery.

“Brackenfur, run!” she yowled, launching herself at the badger and clawing at its haunches.

The creature swung aside, batting at the air, giving Brackenfur the chance to dodge around it.

Squirrelflight let go of the badger and raced back to the nursery. “Sorreltail’s kits are coming,” she gasped. “No!” she added, blocking Brackenfur as he tried to dive into the bramble thicket. “Find Cinderpelt.”

Brackenfur shot her a look from eyes glazed with fear, then he turned and plunged across the clearing toward Cinderpelt’s den. A gap opened up among the battling animals, just long enough for Squirrelflight to see him meet the medicine cat. He gestured frantically with his tail, then both cats headed back toward the nursery. They arrived just as Cloudtail and Brightheart appeared from the brambles, each with a kit in their jaws.

“If Sorreltail’s kits are really coming, she can’t be moved,” Cinderpelt meowed. “One of you must stay to guard the entrance. The rest of you, do what you can to save yourselves and the kits.” She vanished into the nursery without waiting to see if her order was obeyed.

“I’ll stay,” Brackenfur offered instantly.

“I’ll come back and help you,” Squirrelflight promised. “As soon as I’ve shown the others how to get out. It’s this way…”

She glanced from side to side, trying to judge the safest way to reach Leafpool’s escape route. It’s all the way on the other side of the clearing ! At least darkness had fallen, and although the center of the clearing was lit by the faint light of the crescent moon, shadows lay thickly around the edges. Badgers could see well in the dark, but Squirrelflight hoped that they were too distracted by the battle to bother with a few cats slipping along beside the walls.

“Stay close to me,” she warned Daisy.

She padded around the edge of the hollow, sheltering as well as she could beneath brambles and clumps of fern. She could hear the quick, terrified breathing of the horse place cat behind her, and farther back the faint mewling of her kits, almost drowned out by the snarls and screeches of battling animals no more than a couple of tail-lengths away.

“What’s happening?” Mousekit asked plaintively. “What’s all the noise about?”

“Yes, and why do we have to be carried?” Berrykit complained. “I’m big enough to walk by myself!”

“You’re being carried because badgers are such big, clumsy creatures,” Daisy told them over her shoulder. “They might tread on you in the dark.” Squirrelflight felt a flash of admiration for the way she was hiding her fear from her kits.

“If a badger stepped on me, I’d bite it!” Hazelkit boasted.

“You won’t get the chance,” his mother mewed. “Now keep quiet and stop wriggling, and we’ll be perfectly safe.” She caught Squirrelflight’s eye as she spoke, as if warning her not to disagree.

They shrank back against the camp wall as a badger lumbered past, roaring furiously as it tried to dislodge Thornclaw, who was clinging to its shoulder and raking his claws over its ear.

As they passed the hazel bush where the elders had their den, Squirrelflight saw Mousefur crouched in the shelter of the branches, her claws bared and her eyes gleaming with fury.

Goldenflower and Longtail were just behind her.

“Come with us,” Squirrelflight called softly. “I know a way to climb the walls.”

Mousefur shook her head. “A blind cat can’t climb rocks,” she replied with a glance at Longtail.

“Then you go,” Longtail responded. “I can still claw a badger if it comes near enough.”

Mousefur hissed at him. “We’re staying together and that’s that.”

Squirrelflight didn’t have time to stand around arguing.

Beside her, Daisy was shivering with fear, barely holding back panic. Brambleclaw, Cloudtail, and Brightheart had caught up with them and were shifting restlessly under the weight of the kits they carried; Squirrelflight heard Berrykit asking, “Why have we stopped?”

“You can hide on the Highledge,” she suggested to Mousefur.

“Longtail should be able to get up there if you guide him.” She still had her doubts about how safe Firestar’s den would be, but at least it was more sheltered than down here.

“Okay.” Mousefur nodded. “Longtail, grab my tail with your teeth.”

Squirrelflight led the way past the warriors’ den, Daisy and the others following close behind her. She had to halt briefly as a badger broke out through the branches, blood pouring from its side; it looked ready to give up. Sandstorm shot out after it, yowling, “Get out and stay out!” Squirrelflight flicked her ears at her mother as the badger fled, but there was no time to stop.

When they were more than halfway around the hollow, a pale gray shape slid out of the shadows. It was Ashfur; one ear was torn and a trickle of blood came from a deep scratch on his flank.

He was breathing hard, but he didn’t seem to be seriously hurt.

“Squirrelflight, are you okay?” he exclaimed.