Эрин Хантер - Tigerheart’s Shadow

“We can move back home,” Tuna meowed happily.

“It’ll smell of fox stench,” Fog grunted.

“Not for long,” Tuna promised. “It’s hardly changed apart from the smell. In fact I think the foxes have dug a few new nests in the rubble.”

“You have to go now ,” Tigerheart told Fog. “Before the Twolegs come to get their traps.” He wanted the Twolegs to find the land around gathering place deserted. They’d probably believe the foxes had chased the cats away before being trapped.

Fierce stared at the Fog, her gaze hard. “Don’t come back,” she growled. “From now on, this is guardian-cat territory, and we’re ready to defend our borders.”

Fog blinked at her, surprise showing in her blue gaze. “Okay.” She dipped her head. She clearly didn’t want to argue with cats who could trap foxes.

Dovewing nuzzled Tigerheart’s ear. “Come on,” she murmured. “Let’s go and tell the kits.”

As he followed Dovewing across the grass, Fierce’s words rang in his mind: From now on, this is guardian-cat territory, and we’re ready to defend our borders. At last she was beginning to think like a warrior. Tigerheart’s chest swelled with pride. He suddenly felt hopeful that the guardian cats could survive anything. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad place to raise kits after all.

“The kits!”

Dovewing’s alarmed cry jerked Tigerheart from his doze. He opened his eyes and saw her, pelt still ruffled from sleep, scanning the gathering-place den frantically. “Pouncekit! Shadowkit! Lightkit! Where are you?”

“They’re too small to reach the entrance by themselves.” Tigerheart lifted his head, irritated at being woken unnecessarily. “They’re probably just playing hide-and-seek again.”

Tigerheart and Dovewing had drifted to sleep in a pool of afternoon sunshine, their bellies full after a meal of Twoleg scraps. Now the sky outside had turned pink as afternoon slid into twilight.

Dovewing stared at him, round-eyed. “No, they can reach the ledge now! I caught them sniffing the entrance yesterday.”

Tigerheart scrambled to his paw. Had they grown so much? Only a few days had passed since the Twolegs had carried away the traps. With the foxes gone and Fog and her friends back at their old camp, life had returned to its easy routine.

“Blaze!” Dovewing crossed the den to where the ginger-and-white kit was nipping herbs from a twig. “Have you seen the kits?”

Blaze looked up. “Sorry,” he mewed, spitting out leaf flecks. “I’ve been busy. I didn’t notice.”

“Fierce? Mittens?” They were lounging at the far end of the den. “Have you seen my kits?”

Fierce jumped to her paws. “Are they missing?”

“I can’t see them anywhere.”

Mittens glanced at the entrance. “Have you looked outside?”

Tigerheart saw Dovewing’s pelt bush. He hurried to her side. “Let’s go and look.”

“Do you want help?” Cinnamon ducked out from her nest beneath a pile of Twoleg clutter.

“I’ll come too.” Pipsqueak left a half-chewed bone and padded to join them.

“What if they’ve wandered onto a Thunderpath?” Dovewing fretted.

“They’re too smart.” Pipsqueak jumped up to the entrance.

Cinnamon hopped after the brown-and-white tom. “I can smell their scent here,” she mewed. “I’m surprised no cat saw them leave.”

Pipsqueak nosed through the gap. “They probably waited until no cat was looking.”

“No, I saw them go.” Feather, the sick white she-cat, looked over the side of her nest. “But I didn’t know they weren’t allowed out.”

Tigerheart paused. He’d never told the kits not to go outside. He’d assumed they were too small to reach the entrance. He looked at Dovewing. “Did you tell them not to go out without us?”

Dovewing blinked at him. “Did you ?”

Tigerheart’s pelt prickled guiltily. “I should have.” He was angry with himself for not thinking of it, and angry at being stuck in the city. He shouldn’t need to explain such simple rules to kits. In the Clan, no kit was allowed out of camp. Every cat knew the rule. Few kits dared to break it. They knew their apprenticeship might be held back for a moon as punishment.

“We have to find them.” Dovewing brushed past him and jumped up to the entrance. He scrambled after her.

They won’t have strayed beyond the hedge, surely? Tigerheart reassured himself as he slid outside. A heavy dew had already settled on the grass. The clear sky promised a chilly night. The dew would soon turn to frost. Dovewing was already nosing around the stone slabs. Pipsqueak and Cinnamon were ranging farther, sniffing the stone boundary that edged the stretch of grass on this side of the gathering place.

Tigerheart pricked his ears as he heard Twolegs murmuring. He jerked his nose around. A small group was clustered around one of the slabs at the end of the gathering place. They meowed quietly to each other. Tigerheart scanned the grass. Had the kits been mouse-brained enough to stray near them?

“I see them!” Dovewing’s relieved mew rang through the air. Tigerheart followed her gaze and saw Pouncekit, Lightkit, and Shadowkit sitting like starlings in the branch of a tree at the edge of the grass. Dovewing bounded toward them.

Tigerheart chased after her. “Thanks,” he called to Cinnamon and Pipsqueak who had turned to look. “We can get them down.”

Cinnamon turned anxiously toward the cluster of Twolegs. “Do you want us to distract them?”

“No.” Tigerheart slowed. “It’s probably best if you and Pipsqueak go back inside. If the Twolegs see too many cats, they might bring their traps back.”

Cinnamon dipped her head and beckoned to Pipsqueak with a flick of her tail. Skirting the Twolegs, they headed back toward the den entrance.

“What are you doing up there?” Dovewing called.

Pouncekit looked down, breaking into a purr as Tigerheart reached Dovewing. “Look at us!” she squeaked. “We climbed up all by ourselves.”

Tigerheart frowned at the excited kit. “Have you planned how you’re going to get down?”

Pouncekit’s face fell as she looked toward the ground. She nudged Lightkit. “Look!” Her sister wobbled on the branch. She was straining to see the Twolegs. Pouncekit nudged her again. “Dovewing and Tigerheart are here.”

Lightkit looked down, her eyes lighting up as she saw them. “We’re watching the Twolegs.”

Shadowkit peered over the edge. Guilt flashed in his eyes as he met Tigerheart’s stern gaze. “We weren’t going to be long. But Pouncekit said that the Twolegs were being weird.”

“They’ve dug a hole in the ground and they’ve put something in it,” Pouncekit mewed excitedly. “What do you think they’re hiding? It looks big. Perhaps it’s something special they want to keep safe during ice-chill.”

“Leaf-bare,” Tigerheart corrected tetchily. She sounded like a stray.

Lightkit’s fur was spiked with excitement. “They’ve gathered flowers and put them all around the hole. It looks pretty.”

As she spoke, Shadowkit’s eyes widened in alarm. A Twoleg kit had broken away from the cluster and was running toward them.

“Quick!” Tigerheart ordered. “Come down from there. We have to go inside.”

“But we’re safe here.” Pouncekit watched the Twoleg kit running closer. “Why don’t you jump up?”

Tigerheart turned toward the Twoleg kit and arched his back. He hissed loudly, flattening his ears.

The kit stopped, alarm sparking in its tiny eyes.