Эрин Хантер - Tigerheart’s Shadow

“Tigerheart.” There was anger in her yowl. He stopped as she marched toward him. She was alone, her pelt bristling as she glared at him. “You’re on our land. And I know why. You’ve come to lie to me again. You’re here to persuade me that you have nothing to do with Dovewing’s disappearance. But you know where she is, don’t you?”

“No.”

“You knew she was going to leave!” Ivypool accused.

“I did,” Tigerheart admitted. “I tried to stop her, but she was determined.”

“Where has she gone?”

A huge Twolegplace with nests that reach into the sky…

He could still hear Dovewing’s words clearly. He pictured the desperation in her green eyes as she told him. He couldn’t betray her. She was convinced that their kits’ lives depended on finding a gorse-spined den. He looked at Ivypool. “I tracked her as far as the Thunderpath beside the marsh.”

“But no farther?” Ivypool’s eyes flashed with disgust. “Did the monsters scare you away?”

“My Clan needs me,” Tigerheart meowed simply. “I couldn’t abandon them.”

“But you could abandon Dovewing?” Ivypool flexed her claws.

She abandoned me ! Frustration flared in Tigerheart’s belly. “I thought you didn’t want us to be together,” he snapped.

Ivypool spat at him. “Do you think I’d prefer she was out there alone ?”

Guilt swamped Tigerheart. Ivypool was right. He had chosen to stay with his Clan. He’d left Dovewing to face the land beyond the forest alone.

Ivypool thrust her face closer. “I always knew you were trouble. You never cared about Dovewing. If you had, you’d never have let her leave.” With a snarl, she lashed her claws across his muzzle.

Tigerheart didn’t flinch. He deserved it. He felt the sting of torn flesh and the wetness of blood welling on his nose. Without moving, he held Ivypool’s gaze. “I love her,” he confessed. “I should have stopped her, but I couldn’t.” He’d let Scorchfur and Juniperclaw keep him from meeting her. If he had let his Clanmates go to SkyClan, he could have met Dovewing before she left. He might even have been able to persuade her to stay. Instead he’d given up everything he loved for his Clan. His eyes grew hot with grief.

Ivypool stared at him with hatred. “You’re a coward. And a fox-heart. Dovewing deserved a better mate than you.” Tail lashing, she turned away and left him alone beneath the dripping pines.

She’s right. His throat thickened with grief, almost choking him. Dovewing, I’m so sorry.

“The rain has driven the prey too far underground.” Grassheart lifted a clump of soggy leaves and peered underneath. “There’s a mouse hole here.” She reached in but dragged up nothing but mud.

Tigerheart’s belly rumbled. The rain still hadn’t ceased. The scratches Ivypool had given him still stung. They hurt worse in his sleep, when he dreamed of Dovewing wandering alone. Each morning he woke to a fresh ache in his heart. The fresh-kill pile had dwindled to nothing as the forest creatures hid from the endless torrent. As he stood with the patrol now, he grunted at Grassheart. “Prey must search for food eventually. It’ll starve quicker than us.” He tasted the air but smelled nothing but wet wood.

Juniperclaw paced behind him. Strikestone and Snakepaw huddled beneath the shelter of a bramble, their pelts slicked against their skinny frames.

“There might be frogs in the ditches,” Juniperclaw suggested. “We could catch those.”

“There’s probably fish there by now,” Grassheart snorted. “They’ve been flooded for days.”

“Tawnypelt led a hunting patrol to the ditches this morning while you were marking the borders,” Tigerheart told Juniperclaw. “They came back with a drowned vole and four slugs.”

Snakepaw shuddered, her nose wrinkling. “Perhaps we could look around the beech patch near the SkyClan border,” she suggested. “The beechnuts might attract something tastier than slugs.”

Tigerheart glanced at the honey-brown tabby. It was a good idea. He flicked his tail. “Nice plan, Snakepaw.”

She glanced shyly at her paws. Grassheart shook the rain from her pelt and headed toward the patch of forest where, moons ago, beeches had found a gap among the pines and had grown vigorously, as though celebrating their small victory over the evergreens.

Their leaves were browning in the leaf-fall chill. Some hung limply on bare branches. Most lay on the ground in sodden swathes around the roots. The small opening to the sky let more rain in and Tigerheart narrowed his eyes against it as he reached the beech patch. Beyond it, the ground sloped upward toward the SkyClan border nearby. Spiky beechnuts scattered the ground, their skin peeled open, the nuts gone.

Grassheart kicked miserably at an empty shell. “It looks like the prey has already been and gone.”

“They didn’t get everything.” Snakepaw tapped an unopened beechnut with her paw, her eyes bright.

Tigerheart flicked his tail toward his Clanmates. “Let’s surround the beech patch and wait. It might take a while, but something is bound to come looking for food eventually.” He threaded through the battered bracken stalks sprouting beside a beech and crouched just outside the cluster of trees. The rest of the patrol did the same, encircling the beeches. As Tigerheart flattened himself against the ground, hoping his pelt would blend against the moldering leaves, his Clanmates hunkered down until he could hardly see them.

Now we wait. He braced himself against the cold that began to seep through his pelt. As his belly rumbled with hunger, he thought of Dovewing. He had tried to keep himself busy since she’d left, but there were always moments of stillness when his thoughts would slide toward her. Where was she? Was it raining there too? Was she wet and hungry? Their unborn kits would need food, and so would she. Would he ever see her again? Would he ever meet his kits? Grief swelled in his chest. He tried to push it away. But the scent of her still lingered in his fur despite the rain. Perhaps he was imagining it. He no longer knew.

Paw steps thudded the ground nearby. He stiffened, his eyes widening. Prey? His heart leaped as a rabbit raced across SkyClan’s border toward the beech patch. He saw Juniperclaw’s eyes widen with excitement beyond the bracken. Not yet. He flicked his tail to order the warrior to wait. He wanted to make sure the rabbit was surrounded. It wasn’t going to escape.

Suddenly a SkyClan warrior crashed across the border and streaked after the rabbit. Plumwillow! The she-cat’s gaze was fixed on her quarry. Her fur was fluffed with excitement. She’d clearly been chasing it for a while. As the rabbit reached the edge of the beech patch, Plumwillow leaped. Fast as a bird, she swooped onto the terrified prey and, clamping her jaws around its neck, snapped its spine with a killing bite.

Her eyes shone as she straightened and rested her paw on the rabbit’s fat flank.

“What are you doing?” Juniperclaw’s angry yowl made her stiffen. She turned, eyes wide, toward the ShadowClan warrior as he strode from his hiding place among the bracken.

Grassheart marched between the beeches, fur bristling with indignation. “That’s our rabbit!”

Plumwillow blinked at them in surprise. “But I caught it.”

“On our territory!” Juniperclaw glared at her.

“I started chasing it on SkyClan land,” Plumwillow argued. “That makes it SkyClan prey.”