Эрин Хантер - Hollyleaf’s Story

“I’ll never do that, I promise,” Fallen Leaves murmured into her ear. “You will never be lost down here, because you have me. Come on, I’ll take you back.”

With his head close to hers, he led Hollyleaf along the tunnel, slowing his pace as she limped beside him. They emerged into the cavern, waded through the river, and headed back into the tunnel where Hollyleaf’s nest lay. She collapsed into the feathers, feeling grateful for their warmth against her chilled fur. Her leg throbbed and Fallen Leaves pushed some poppy seeds toward her.

“Eat these—they’ll help you sleep,” he prompted. He turned to leave but Hollyleaf lifted her head.

“Can… can you stay here tonight?” she mewed. “I don’t want to be alone in the dark again. There’s room in my nest if I shift over.”

Fallen Leaves hesitated, then stepped into the circle of feathers. “Okay, just for one night,” he meowed. He curled next to her somewhat awkwardly, and Hollyleaf wriggled to give him more room. The poppy seeds were working and her eyelids felt heavy. She uncurled until her spine was pressed against Fallen Leaves’s flank. For a moment it was like being back in the hollow, sharing her nest with Cinderheart. Hollyleaf breathed deeply and started to drift into sleep. But just before the limpid blackness filled her mind, she flinched. Why am I so cold? There was no warmth coming from Fallen Leaves’s pelt at all. Had living underground chilled him right to the bone?

“Hey! Wake up! It’s time for the morning patrol!”

Hollyleaf rolled over and rubbed a paw over her eyes. Fallen Leaves was looking down at her, his tail curled high over his back.

“Come on, sleepy slug!” he teased.

Hollyleaf scrambled up. She had been dreaming that she was back in ThunderClan, chasing a squirrel that got tinier and tinier the closer she came. Just as she reached out to grab it, the squirrel had vanished completely.

She peered past Fallen Leaves to look at the pale yellow light slanting into the tunnel. The angle between the beam of light and the roof was narrower today, which meant the sun was lower in the sky. Hollyleaf tipped her head to one side. She’d been here… how many moons? Three or four, at least. Leaf-fall must be creeping into the woods outside, turning the trees gold and scarlet. Hollyleaf wondered if it would get colder in the tunnels. She prodded her nest with her foot. She’d need to find more feathers.

Fallen Leaves was trotting away from her. “I’ll take the moor-tunnel today,” he called over his shoulder. “And you can check the woods-tunnel.”

He had come up with names for the two main exit tunnels that didn’t lead back into ThunderClan territory. They never went into those tunnels; without saying anything out loud, Hollyleaf knew that Fallen Leaves was trying to keep her distracted from her former home. She had chosen to stay with him, so that must be what she wanted, right? When she had told him about daily life in the Clans, with border and hunting patrols and ceremonies for apprentices and warriors, he had suggested doing the same down here. Now each day started with a patrol of the exit tunnels—not that they ever found anything in the empty stone pathways—followed by fishing in the underground river. Hollyleaf had learned to hook minnows with her paw almost as smoothly as Fallen Leaves, and she had grown used to the strong, watery taste. She could run through the dark confidently now, detecting the faintest breezes on her whiskers and picking up the tiniest echoes of flowing water from the river to locate where she was. When she was patrolling an exit tunnel, she only went as far as the light that spilled in from the mouth, hanging back as if it would burn her paws. She belonged in the shadows now, hiding from daylight and the sound of the wind in the trees.

Hollyleaf shivered. She had shelter, food, and company. Wasn’t that more than she deserved, after what she had done? Fallen Leaves was much less demanding than her old Clanmates; he let her eat all the fish they caught together, and he never spent so long with her that she grew tired of his company. In fact, he often left her alone, especially at night. Hollyleaf wondered where he slept; she thought she’d explored all the tunnels by now, but she’d never seen signs of another nest.

“Come on!” Fallen Leaves’s voice echoed down the tunnel, and Hollyleaf broke into a run. She caught up with him in the river-cave and they stood side by side, looking down at the water. It was flowing more quickly today, and little waves spilled over the edges of the stone gully.

“It rained last night,” Fallen Leaves explained.

Hollyleaf felt a flash of alarm. “Is the river going to flood?”

Fallen Leaves shook his head. “Not yet.” He walked over to a corner and came back rolling a large flat stone with his muzzle. He nudged it to the edge of the wet line left by splashing waves. “We’ll use this as a marker to see if the river rises any more.”

Hollyleaf ran her paw over the stone. It felt smooth, like an egg. “That’s a good idea,” she commented.

“It’s what the sharpclaws told me to do,” Fallen Leaves meowed. “Before I came down here for my initiation.”

Hollyleaf looked up at him sharply. Fallen Leaves had mentioned once before that he had gotten lost in the tunnels while training to be a sharpclaw, which seemed to be the same as a Clan warrior. He wouldn’t tell her anything else about his Clan, or Tribe, or whatever his kin had called themselves.

“If you went back now,” she mewed gently, “you’d be one of the greatest sharpclaws ever. You may have gotten lost once, but you know these tunnels better than any cat! If finding your way through the tunnels is supposed to teach you to be strong, brave, and independent, you are all of those things! You’d be a hero!”

Fallen Leaves stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Go back?” he hissed. “I can’t go back! Don’t you understand? It’s too late!” Shaking with distress, he whirled around and raced into the tunnel that led to WindClan, the one they called the moor-tunnel.

“Wait!” Hollyleaf called, running after him. But she stopped when she reached the edge of the river-cave. All she had were questions for Fallen Leaves, and she didn’t want to make him more upset. The thought flashed in her mind that she might not be the only one fleeing from a terrible secret. She had never told Fallen Leaves what had happened with Ashfur; perhaps she had more in common with her new companion than she realized.

She turned and padded back across the cave. The entrance to the woods-tunnel was on the far side of the river, and today it took a much bigger leap to clear the gully. Hollyleaf yelped as her hind paws splashed into the edge of the water and showered her belly fur with icy droplets. As she entered the tunnel she broke into a run to warm herself up.

The rough gray walls on each side emerged from the darkness as she neared the entrance. The wind was blowing directly into the tunnel, filling Hollyleaf’s mouth with scents of drying leaves and brittle grass. She padded closer until the light spilled over her paws. She lifted up one and looked at her pad in surprise. It was pale and tough from moons of running on stone. Suddenly Hollyleaf longed to feel soft, green grass under her feet, and to see the sky, vast and full of light, above her. She felt herself pulled toward the mouth of the tunnel as if she were a twig on a river. Outside!

The light grew stronger and Hollyleaf screwed up her eyes. It wasn’t sunshine—this light was cool and gray—but it was brighter than anything she’d seen in a long while. The entrance to the tunnel was a circle of dazzling white, too painful to look at directly. Suddenly there was a crashing noise beyond the brightness, the sound of branches cracking beneath heavy paws. Then a volley of barking, mixed with a high-pitched yipping. Hollyleaf winced as the noise hit her ears; she was used to the heavy silence of the tunnels. She shrank back against the wall, too startled to know which way to run. There was an explosion of paw steps at the entrance and a huge dark shape burst through the light. At the same time a wave of stench hit Hollyleaf’s nose. Fox!