Erin Hunter - Starlight

Somehow, now that ThunderClan was on their own, the lake and the land around it seemed to stretch away farther than before, even more unknown and more threatening.

Brambleclaw was acutely aware of every rock or bush that might hide an enemy. His pelt bristled. It was strange that he hadn’t felt the same sense of danger on the patrol. But apart from Mistyfoot, he had faced many dangers with those cats beside him, and he could trust them to look out for themselves as well as one another. Now he had to worry about the safety of his whole Clan, who were less practiced at traveling through unfamiliar territory.

Firestar obviously shared his misgivings. “Every cat stay alert,” he called, and added more quietly, “Brackenfur, Dustpelt, keep guard on the side nearest the lake. Cloudtail and Brightheart, you take the other side. Sandstorm and Sorreltail, stay at the back and make sure no cat falls behind.”

The warriors took up their positions and the Clan moved on. The cheerful meows and joking died away, and the cats padded on in silence, their eyes wide and watchful.

The cold gray light was beginning to fade when they came to a stream at the foot of a gentle slope. On the other side was the wood where Squirrelflight had discovered the stone hollow. Brambleclaw’s ears twitched uncomfortably as he wondered what his Clanmates would think of their new home.

“We crossed this stream before,” Squirrelflight muttered as they paused on the bank. “Once we’re on the other side, we’re really in ThunderClan territory!”

“If we decide to make this our boundary,” Brambleclaw reminded her. “It’s not decided yet.”

The stream was too wide to leap, and the cats hesitated on the bank, looking for stepping-stones or tree branches that might help them cross. As the last of the light died, turning the woods ahead to a rustling mass of shadows, Brambleclaw sensed his Clanmates’ anxiety rising. Ferncloud curled her tail around Birchkit’s shoulders to keep him away from the water, and even the apprentices looked scared.

“What about Longtail?” Mousefur called out. “How do you expect him to get across here?”

“Mouse dung!” Squirrelflight muttered crossly. “We’d better climb the hill to the place we crossed before. It was easier farther up.”

“No, hang on,” Brambleclaw meowed. They didn’t have time for that, not if they wanted to reach the stone hollow before dark. “The water doesn’t look deep. Let’s see if we can wade across.”

He dipped one paw in the water, shivering at its icy touch, then stepped out into the current. The pebbly bottom shelved gently, and he found that even at the deepest place the water didn’t lap much higher than his belly fur.

“Come on!” he called as he leaped out on the opposite bank, shaking each leg in turn to get rid of the water. “It’s easy!”

A couple of yowls of protest rose from the other bank. “If you think I’m getting wet, you’ve got bees in your brain!”

Mousefur called across to him.

Brambleclaw sighed. It would take far longer to climb the hill to the stepping-stones, and if the Clan had to blunder about in the dark looking for their new camp, then the chances were that some cats would discover it the same way Squirrelflight had—by falling over the edge of the cliff. To his relief, he saw Firestar beckoning to his Clan with his tail.

“Come on!” he meowed impatiently. “We’ve come all this way. We’re not going to let a stream stop us now, are we?”

One by one, the Clan began to cross. Cloudtail and Sandstorm went first, wading slowly through the water with their tails washed sideways by the current. Dustpelt carried Birchkit across next, his head tipped back to save the kit from getting too wet, and behind him Brackenfur and Sorreltail guided Longtail. Squirrelflight finally persuaded Mousefur into the water by promising she’d soon be in a warm den, on a bed of dry moss; the older warrior grumbled every pawstep of the way until she pulled herself out on the other side and glared at Brambleclaw as she shook herself dry. Behind her, Squirrelflight rolled her eyes, as if she wasn’t looking forward to collecting all the moss she’d promised on the other side of the stream.

Firestar crossed last. “Right,” he meowed as he joined Brambleclaw on the bank. “Where’s this camp?”

Brambleclaw exchanged a glance with Squirrelflight. They hadn’t approached the hollow from this direction, and in the gathering darkness everything looked different. Squirrelflight was obviously no more certain than he was. She looked blankly back at him and gave the tiniest shake of her head.

Brambleclaw tasted the air, trying to judge their position from the stream and the slope of the hill. “It’s this way,” he meowed at last, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

The Clan followed him into the trees. Brambleclaw veered in front of his Clanmates to walk beside Squirrelflight.

“What if we can’t find it?” he mewed quietly.

Squirrelflight’s green eyes glinted in the darkness as she turned to look at him. “Then we’ll have a lot of furious cats on our tails. Stop worrying,” she added. “It’s around here somewhere. We found it even though we weren’t looking for it before, remember?”

Brambleclaw didn’t tell her that was precisely what he was afraid of—that they’d find the hollow only when a cat fell into it. He suddenly felt very small and vulnerable as he padded through the dead leaves, with smooth gray trunks rising up on every side. Even if we find the hollow, will the others think it’s any good? he wondered desperately.

He was just beginning to hear uneasy muttering from the other cats, who must have realized they weren’t following a direct route, when he saw Squirrelflight’s ears prick up.

“Look!” she meowed. “That gap between the trees over there, with the clump of dead bracken… I’ve seen that before.”

“Are you sure?” Brambleclaw asked, but Squirrelflight was already racing ahead. He followed her into a small clearing and skidded to a halt in front of the tangle of thorns where Squirrelflight had disappeared when she first found the stone hollow.

She was standing in the middle of the clearing, her eyes shining. “This is it!” she yowled triumphantly. Spinning around, she called to the rest of the Clan, “Come on, we’re here!”

Spiderpaw let out a screech of excitement. He broke away from the rest of the Clan and dashed forward, straight into the brambles. Brambleclaw stared in horror. They had found the hollow again, but that wasn’t the way in!

“Come back!” Mousefur called after her apprentice.

There was no reply. Brambleclaw caught a glimpse of his long black tail waving among the thorns and sprang forward, but Squirrelflight was faster.

Yowling, “No!” she burrowed among the thorns after Spiderpaw. Brambleclaw slid underneath the branches and found them on the very edge of the cliff. Squirrelflight had pinned Spiderpaw down with a paw on his neck, her flanks heaving with effort. Beneath her, the apprentice peered over the sheer rock wall, his eyes bulging.

“Stupid furball!” Squirrelflight exclaimed. “Do you want a broken neck?”

“Sorry,” Spiderpaw mumbled. “You said we were here, so I thought_”

Squirrelflight batted him across the ear with one paw, her claws sheathed. “Get back to the others,” she rasped. “And maybe you should try thinking less and listening more next time!”

Brambleclaw almost snorted out loud, hearing Squirrelflight give the same advice she’d heard so many times. He waited until they had crawled away from the cliff before following them out of the brambles.

“What’s going on?” Ferncloud, Spiderpaw’s mother, demanded as they came into the clearing. “Is there something dangerous in those bushes? Why didn’t you warn us before?”