Erin Hunter - Dawn

“We thought you’d changed your mind,” Mudclaw growled as the three Clans neared the top of the slope.

“Mudfur was dying,” Leopardstar explained. “We waited until he had gone to join StarClan.”

Tallstar sat shivering beside his warriors. His ribs stuck out like gnarled twigs. As the Clans reached the top of the rise, he stood up, wincing at the stiffness in his limbs. “I’m sorry to hear about Mudfur,” he meowed.

“At least he died beneath Silverpelt, which is more than we will,” muttered Blackstar.

His words sent a shiver of unease down Squirrelpaw’s spine. “We saw Silverpelt at the sun-drown-place,” she objected.

“StarClan will be waiting for us when we arrive.”

Mudclaw’s tail twitched. “You saw stars, but were they our warrior ancestors or someone else’s?”

Squirrelpaw blinked, thinking of the Tribe of Endless Hunting who watched over the mountains. What if Mudclaw was right, and they were leaving StarClan behind as well as their homes?

Blackstar clawed the muddy ground. “Are we going or not?”

“We’re ready,” Tallstar replied.

The moorland that stretched ahead of them was unrecognizable, all the grass swept away to reveal bare, rutted earth.

Leopardstar stared across the broken ground. “Are there many monsters?”

“Too many,” Tallstar growled.

As the cats scrambled over the first stretch of exposed ground, Squirrelpaw soon began to struggle. The mud sucked at her paws, and her legs felt stone-heavy with exhaustion.

Brambleclaw clawed his way back to join her. “Come on; you can make it.”

“It’s okay,” she snapped. “I can manage.”

He blinked. “I know you can,” he meowed, and Squirrelpaw wished she hadn’t been so harsh.

Dustpelt was behind them, carrying Birchkit in his jaws.

Cloudtail struggled to his side. His pelt was streaked with mud, only his back kept white by the relentless rain. “I’ll take the kit,” he offered. He took Birchkit from Dustpelt’s jaws, trying not to let the swaying bundle drag in the mud. Dustpelt nodded his thanks and plunged down a muddy ridge to help Ferncloud, who was fighting to stay on her paws.

Crowpaw was carrying a kit too. He looked on the verge of collapse, but his paws kept moving, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him.

Squirrelpaw heard the rumble of Twoleg monsters ahead, and their stench reached her even through the rain. She lifted her face, raindrops stinging her eyes, and saw Twolegs cluttering the horizon. “How will we get past?” she gasped.

“Can we go around?” Firestar yowled to Mudclaw.

“They’re everywhere on the moor,” Onewhisker called back. “This is the quietest place to cross, I promise.”

A monster with huge round paws and gleaming teeth roared across the landscape, while another churned up earth in its wake. Just beyond them, a small rocky outcrop rose from the mud.

“If we can make it that far, we’ll be safe for a while,” Mudclaw advised. “The Twoleg monsters can’t climb those.”

But they can crush them if they want , Squirrelpaw thought, remembering the Great Rock.

“You’re right; it could be our only chance. Let’s wait for these two monsters to pass and make a run for it.” Firestar glanced at the other leaders who each nodded their approval.

Squirrelpaw pressed her belly deeper into the mud, feeling the cold earth seep through her fur and drench her skin.

Cinderpelt crouched beside Tallstar, pushing a pawful of herbs toward him. The last of the traveling herbs, to give him strength , Squirrelpaw guessed.

As soon as the monsters rumbled past, Firestar gave the command to run.

The ThunderClan cats rushed forward. Squirrelpaw staggered blindly through the mud, keeping her eyes fixed on Brambleclaw’s tabby pelt. As long as he was in sight, she felt she would be safe. By the time she reached the rocks, she was panting with fear and exhaustion. Brambleclaw reached down and hauled her onto the ledge, where the others had already gathered. Firestar weaved among them, his orange fur turned brown by the mud. His eyes were fixed on the cats still struggling toward the outcrop.

Crowpaw reached the rock and held up the kit for Onewhisker to take before scrambling after it. Squirrelpaw heard a Twoleg shouting and turned to see it running unsteadily across the mud, waving its arms. It had seen the cats still heading for the rocks. Tawnypelt was among them, trying to drag a RiverClan apprentice out of the mud.

“Blackstar and Leopardstar must have hesitated before giving the order to run!” Squirrelpaw hissed.

The monsters were turning now, steering their paws toward the straggling cats.

“They’ll never make it to the rocks in time!” Brambleclaw gasped.

“We must go back and help them!” Firestar yowled.

Desperation drove every scrap of tiredness from Squirrelpaw’s body, and she leaped back down into the mud.

Firestar flashed ahead of her. She felt Brambleclaw’s pelt brush hers and then she spotted Crowpaw, pelting toward the RiverClan cats.

The monster’s roar made Squirrelpaw’s ears ring. She hurled herself among the RiverClan cats, reaching for an apprentice who was desperately trying to free himself from the mud. She plunged her teeth into his scruff to haul him out, and he raced away toward the rock.

“Thanks!”

Squirrelpaw looked up to see Stormfur watching her. He blinked gratefully and turned to yank another apprentice to its paws.

“My kit!” Dawnflower’s screech made Squirrelpaw spin around. One kit lay at the RiverClan queen’s paws. Another was racing panic-stricken straight toward a monster, too scared to see where he was going.

“I’ll get him!” Crowpaw lunged forward and grasped the kit in his jaws. Mud sprayed from his paws as he skidded back toward the outcrop.

Squirrelpaw scooped up the other kit and gave Dawnflower a fierce nudge. “Quick!” she hissed.

She reached the rock and bounded up, finding a shadowy crevice out of sight of the Twolegs. She fled along the gully with the kit swinging in her jaws until she emerged on the other side. Dawnflower shot out behind her, followed by Firestar and a stream of RiverClan cats, and finally Crowpaw emerged with the other kit. Dawnflower raced over and gratefully took the kit from him.

Squirrelpaw placed the other kit at her paws and looked around for her sister. “Leafpaw!” she called.

She was crouching beside Tallstar. The WindClan leader’s flanks heaved and his eyes looked wild with fear. “Hunted in my own territory!” he wheezed.

Leafpaw looked up when she heard Squirrelpaw’s call.

“Can you look at these kits?” Squirrelpaw asked. Leafpaw glanced uncertainly at Tallstar, but Cinderpelt appeared beside her.

“I’ll look after him,” she murmured.

Leafpaw hurried over and sniffed each kit. She pressed her ear against the chest of one and then the other. “They’re just scared and tired,” she concluded. “They’ll be fine.”

“Of course I’m fine,” squeaked one of the kits, a dark gray female. “That monster was never going to catch us .”

“Hush, Willowkit,” soothed Dawnflower. As she bent to wash the mud from her kits’ faces, the ShadowClan cats emerged from the gully.

“Is every cat with you?” Firestar called to Blackstar.

Blackstar nodded, too breathless to speak.

The Clans rested on the rocks for a moment, but another swath of churned-up moorland still lay between them and the grassy slope that led down to the meadows, and the Twolegs would be looking out for them by now. It wasn’t safe to linger too long near the monsters.

“We should stay closer together,” Firestar suggested. “Travel like a single Clan.”