Эрин Хантер: Hollyleaf’s Story

Hollyleaf stared after him until the shadows swallowed him up. The walls of the tunnel seemed paler, as if more light was filtering in. When she’d been speaking, she’d heard her voice echoing from far away, which suggested that her first impression had been right and she was lying at the entrance to a cave. She couldn’t hear any water, so it wasn’t the cave with the river. Hollyleaf rested her chin on her paws and closed her eyes. She was lost and injured, but somehow a cat had found her and kept her alive with food and water, and herbs for her leg. Had he been sent by StarClan? Or was she just very, very lucky? Either way, she figured that she was safe, at least for now.

She woke from a doze to find another little fish beside her, as well as freshly soaked moss and some more comfrey. It was harder to see the walls of the cave, which meant it must have gotten darker outside. Was it night? Hollyleaf wondered how many days she had been down here. It had been a full moon when she… left. Perhaps Fallen Leaves could tell her what the moon was now. After eating her fish and masking the taste with the comfrey, Hollyleaf tried to stay awake, hoping that Fallen Leaves would come back. The cave grew darker until she couldn’t see a thing. Hollyleaf gave up waiting for her strange companion. He would come again in the morning, she was sure.

This time she was awake and half-sitting up to wash her chest when Fallen Leaves arrived. He was carrying something bulkier and fluffier-looking than a fish. Hollyleaf paused between licks. “Hey! You caught a mouse!”

Fallen Leaves deposited the fresh-kill at her paws. He looked flushed with triumph. “I heard it creeping into one of the tunnels,” he explained. “I hoped you’d like it.”

“I do!” Hollyleaf meowed. “Thanks!” She leaned forward to take a bite, then looked up. “There’s plenty here. Would you like some?”

Fallen Leaves shook his head. “No, it’s all yours.” While Hollyleaf continued eating, he gently prodded her injured leg. “Is it mending, do you think?”

Hollyleaf nodded with her mouth full. “Definitely,” she mumbled. “I can bend it now, and it doesn’t hurt so much when I move.”

“You can try walking on it when you’ve finished eating,” Fallen Leaves decided. “Not too far, but you need to start exercising it before the muscles waste away.”

Hollyleaf twitched her ears with surprise. Fallen Leaves sounded just like a medicine cat. He must have come from a Clan! Or something very close to a Clan—like the Tribe of Rushing Water. She swallowed and mewed, “Are you a Tribe cat? Did you come from the mountains?”

Fallen Leaves stared blankly at her. “This is my home now,” he replied. “There is nowhere else.”

Hollyleaf shivered as if a cold claw had run down her spine. There was something about Fallen Leaves’s voice that made her feel more alone and desperate than she could imagine. She straightened up and nudged away the scraps of mouse ears and tail. “Where should I walk?” she asked.

“Don’t get too excited,” Fallen Leaves warned. “Just a few steps today, that’s all.”

Hollyleaf used her front legs to push herself to her paws. A stab of pain ran up her injured leg, but she took a deep breath and kept her paw on the ground. Hesitantly, she took one step forward. Her hind leg held, though it felt weak and not quite connected to the rest of her. Hollyleaf limped toward the place where the light grew stronger. The walls of the tunnel opened out on either side into a small cave, about six fox-lengths wide. A tiny hole in the roof blazed with light, so bright that Hollyleaf had to screw up her eyes to look at it. “The sun is shining today,” Fallen Leaves commented as he came to stand by her shoulder.

Hollyleaf turned to face him. “Do you ever go outside? How can you live here all the time?”

Fallen Leaves looked away. “This is my home,” he repeated. “Now, can you make it back to your nest?”

Hollyleaf started to walk back along the tunnel, frustrated that she hadn’t gone farther. But by the time she reached the dented pile of feathers her leg was aching badly, and she sank down with relief. “You can try again tomorrow,” Fallen Leaves meowed as if he could tell she was in pain. “Rest now.”

He turned to leave but Hollyleaf reached out with one paw. “Wait! I’m bored of being on my own. Can’t you stay and talk to me?”

Fallen Leaves viewed her with somber blue eyes. “Rest,” he mewed. “That way your leg will heal faster. I’ll see you again later.”

He padded away and Hollyleaf slumped down on the feathers. She willed her leg to get better soon. She’d wanted to escape from ThunderClan, but a life in the dark, dependent on another cat for food and water, was not what she had imagined.

The slim beam of sunlight felt warm on her fur as Hollyleaf marched across the cave and back again on all four paws. “See?” she challenged Fallen Leaves, who was sitting at the entrance. “Good as new!”

It felt like whole seasons had passed before Hollyleaf had been able to walk all the way across the cave without limping, but Fallen Leaves assured her the moon wasn’t full again yet. He had insisted that she stay within the cave to exercise, walking in circles until she felt dizzy. He still left her on her own for most of the day and all night, but Hollyleaf didn’t want to start roaming the caves without him. She had been lucky once; she couldn’t rely on Fallen Leaves finding her again.

Fallen Leaves came over and sniffed her leg. “If you’re telling the truth about not being in pain, then it must have healed.”

“Of course I’m telling the truth!” Hollyleaf protested. How dare he suggest she was lying? The truth was the only thing that mattered, ever. But it didn’t feel like that when I spilled my Clan’s secrets at the Gathering.

Hollyleaf pushed the image of Squirrelflight’s horrified face out of her mind. “Can we explore now?” she asked.

Fallen Leaves traced a line in the stone dust with his paw. “You mean, you want me to show you the way out.”

“No!” Hollyleaf exclaimed. “I want you to show me around your home. Where is the cave with the river? How far do the tunnels reach?”

The ginger-and-white cat looked at her in surprise. “You really want to know? Most cats want to get straight out of here.”

There was such pain in his eyes that Hollyleaf felt a rush of sympathy. “I have nowhere else to go,” she mewed softly. “You’ve been a good friend to me, Fallen Leaves. Why would I want to leave you now?”

Fallen Leaves led Hollyleaf down a narrow tunnel on the far side of the cave, into darkness so thick that it seemed to lap at Hollyleaf’s fur like water. The floor felt smooth and cold under her paws, and she was only aware of the walls on either side when the tips of her whiskers brushed against them. At first she reacted too much and lurched into the opposite wall with a crash, but soon she learned to move her head just the tiniest amount when her whiskers tingled.

“The tunnel opens out down here,” Fallen Leaves called back over his shoulder. He must have heard her stumbling from side to side.

Hollyleaf realized she could see her companion’s outline against a paler shade of gray. The sound of water echoed down the tunnel, not exactly splashing but a soft liquid murmur that could only be the underground river. Hollyleaf broke into a trot, squeezing past Fallen Leaves and bursting into the huge cavern. It was filled with dusky light and to Hollyleaf, after being trapped in the dark for so long, it seemed as familiar and welcoming as her den in the hollow. In front of her was the river, tame and quiet between its shallow stone banks, and there was the ledge high up on the wall where Lionblaze had boasted of standing.