Эрин Хантер - Hollyleaf’s Story

She didn’t give herself another moment to change her mind. She picked up the yarrow leaves and hared down the trail that led to the bottom of the cliff. Skidding around the corner, she almost crashed into the brambles that shielded the dirtplace.

A voice growled from inside, “Wait your turn!”

Hollyleaf bit back an instinctive apology and darted around the edge of the barrier. There was no cat on guard now that dawn had come. She dropped the herbs close to the well-hidden pathway through the thorns. The next cat to come out would find them. Cherrykit could be treated before the sun rose any higher.

As she heard a cat pushing through the brambles from the other side, Hollyleaf whisked around and raced back up the cliff. Her Clanmates might wonder who had delivered herbs so conveniently, but with luck they’d assume one of the apprentices had collected them unasked. No cat needed to know that Hollyleaf had returned to help them.

Not all secrets were terrible.

“Cherrykit has stopped coughing! Poppyfrost looks so relieved. She was playing with the kits this morning, teaching them how to pounce on a ball of moss. I remember when Squirrelflight showed us our first pounce…” Hollyleaf trailed off.

Fallen Leaves, sitting next to her by the edge of the underground river, twitched one ear. “The yarrow leaves worked, then,” he meowed.

“They must have!” Hollyleaf jumped to her paws and faced him. “Do you think I should take some more? What about marigold? Or catmint—do you know if there is any growing near the woods-tunnel?”

“No, I don’t know,” Fallen Leaves answered with a hint of impatience. “I don’t need herbs for myself, so why would I go looking for them?”

“But you found comfrey for me, and poppy seeds,” Hollyleaf reminded him. “When I’d hurt my leg.”

The tip of Fallen Leaves’s tail flicked. “That was different,” he muttered. “You were right in front of me. I could hardly leave you to suffer, could I?”

“Well, ThunderClan is right above our heads!” Hollyleaf countered. “The warrior code says we must protect the kits of all Clans, not just our own. If we gather herbs that will help Cherrykit and Molekit through leaf-bare, we are only obeying the code.”

“It’s not my code,” Fallen Leaves mewed, turning away. “Good luck hunting for herbs if that’s what you want to do.” He padded into the tunnel that led back to Hollyleaf’s nest.

Hollyleaf watched him vanish into the shadows. He was behaving very oddly. She hadn’t seen him at all for several days, and the only creatures she’d had for company were her Clanmates when she spied on them from the top of the cliff. Fallen Leaves never shared her nest now, and never came to watch her hunt from the mouth of the woods-tunnel. Had she done something to upset him?

Perhaps he doesn’t like the fact that I spend so much time in ThunderClan.

Hollyleaf’s pelt prickled with guilt. It was true that she went back almost every day to see what her Clanmates were doing. Poppyfrost’s kits were nearly six moons old, so they would be apprenticed soon; Hollyleaf wondered which cats would be chosen as their mentors. If she’d been in the Clan, she would have liked Cherrykit as an apprentice, with her spirit and sense of humor. But she would never be a mentor, not now.

Giving herself a shake, Hollyleaf trotted into the woods-tunnel. She needed to catch something to eat, then she’d scout for fresh herbs. Leaf-bare was at its height, so there were few green leaves anywhere, but she might get lucky in the sheltered spots beneath fallen trees. And maybe she could catch something for Fallen Leaves, to make it up to him for all the time she had spent outside. He had never shared fresh-kill with her before, but perhaps nothing had tempted him. There must be some sort of prey, plump from pinecones and fallen nuts, among these trees that he would be willing to eat.

Hollyleaf caught a squirrel, soft and downy in its pelt of gray fur, but Fallen Leaves was nowhere to be seen when she returned to the tunnels. Hollyleaf ate alone in the river-cave, carefully leaving half for Fallen Leaves before rinsing her muzzle in the icy water. She hadn’t found any fresh herbs to take to the Clan, so she headed to her nest, her paws trailing a little from tiredness and disappointment. She curled up on the feathers and tucked her nose under her tail. Tomorrow she’d spend all day with Fallen Leaves—if she could find him—patrolling the tunnels as far as he wanted to go.

She only seemed to have closed her eyes for a moment before Fallen Leaves was nudging her with his paw. “Wake up, Hollyleaf!”

Blearily, Hollyleaf sat up. “Is it dawn already?” she mumbled.

“No!” Fallen Leaves turned a circle, impatience making his fur stand on end. “Two of your Clanmates are in the tunnels!”

Hollyleaf was instantly wide awake. “What? Where? Who is it?”

“I don’t know!” Fallen Leaves snapped. “But they can’t stay down here. I told them how to get out but they didn’t listen and they’re still lost. Go and help them, will you?”

“Are they okay?”

“They’re well enough to chatter like starlings, so I presume they aren’t injured.” Fallen Leaves started to walk away. “Just get them back where they belong,” he meowed over his shoulder.

Hollyleaf hopped out of her nest and ran to the river-cave. In spite of the river noise, it was the best place to hear if there was anything in the main tunnels. She crouched by the water and strained her ears. High-pitched, nervous chatter echoed down one of the passages. Hollyleaf leaped up and raced toward the sound, swerving confidently around corners without needing to see her way through the dark. Suddenly the voices sounded very close. The cats were just ahead, invisible in the shadows but near enough that their scent washed over Hollyleaf: She recognized Ivypool, the newest warrior, and Graystripe’s daughter Blossomfall. She ducked into a crevice at the side of the passage and listened.

“I wish I’d asked that cat his name,” Ivypool was muttering. “We could call for him.” There was a pause before she added, “I don’t suppose he would have come, anyway.”

She must mean Fallen Leaves!

A soft scraping noise suggested that one of the cats had flopped to the ground. “I’m sorry,” whispered Blossomfall, sounding breathless and scared. “This is all my fault. I was the one who wanted to come down here.”

“I could have stopped you,” Ivypool argued.

“How? By hanging on to my tail?”

Hollyleaf admired Blossomfall’s spirit. She wondered how the cats had found their way into the tunnels. For a moment the urge to reveal herself to them, to be reunited with her Clanmates, was so strong that her legs trembled.

No! You chose to leave! There is no going back, not now.

But she could still help them find their way out. They’d already met one cat down here; as long as they didn’t get too close, they would assume he’d come back to help them a second time. Hollyleaf leaned out of her hiding place and called softly, “Come on! What are you waiting for?”

The air crackled as if both cats had tensed with alarm. Hollyleaf heard Ivypool turn to look down the tunnel, but she knew the shadows would keep her dark pelt safely hidden.

“You do want to get out, don’t you?” she prompted. “You know you shouldn’t be here.”

“Oh yes—please help us!” Blossomfall begged.

“Very well. Follow me.” Hollyleaf spun around and ran back down the tunnel, judging by the sound of paw steps behind her how fast she needed to go to stay out of sight, but slow enough that the others could follow. She led them on a deliberately confusing route, down side passages and at one stage crossing a tunnel they’d already been through, in order to discourage the cats from coming back. One of the cats—Hollyleaf thought it was Blossomfall—started to walk more slowly and her breathing grew louder.