“We don’t have to swim across, do we?” Bella hissed, fluffing up her orange fur.
Ravenpaw thought for a moment. Firestar had described following the river all the way to the gorge, but had said nothing about crossing it. “No,” he replied.
“Phew,” puffed Bella.
They padded along the path that ran beside the river. It was broad and flat, and full of the scents of Twolegs and dogs. Riley and Bella stopped to sniff every stalk, every paw print, every tiny trail. Even a leaf blowing in the breeze had to be pounced on and shredded.
“How’s my pounce?” Riley called, scraps of beech leaf clinging to his muzzle.
“Keep your weight on your hind legs right until you spring,” Ravenpaw told him. “If you lean on your front paws, you’ll put yourself off balance.” Riley crouched down again, practicing. “But you’ll wear yourself out if you don’t stick to walking for a while,” Ravenpaw added. He noticed Bella staring into a clump of reeds. “We’ll hunt later, I promise,” he told her.
“I’m not hunting. I’m watching that green stone with eyes.”
Ravenpaw padded over to her. “That’s a frog. Not good for prey, unless you’re starving. Or in ShadowClan.”
“Ooh, we’ve heard about ShadowClan!” mewed Riley. “Tell us a story about them!”
Ravenpaw sighed. “If it means you’ll keep walking, okay.” He didn’t want to frighten them with how vicious Clan life could be, so he made up a story about ShadowClan queens teaching their kits how to jump like frogs. It kept Riley and Bella distracted enough that they covered a decent stretch before Ravenpaw realized it was sunhigh and time to rest. He sank down under the hedgerow at the side of the path and licked his haunches. His legs were aching, and his belly felt as if he had swallowed a stone.
There was a loud scrabbling noise in the scrubby grass behind him. Ravenpaw turned to see Bella stepping proudly through the brittle stalks with a shrew in her jaws. She dropped it in front of him. “Fresh-kill!” she declared with her tail curled high above her back.
“Great catch!” Ravenpaw purred.
There was a crack and a thud on the other side of the hedge, and Riley pushed his head through the branches. “Oops!” he panted. “I was chasing a sparrow, but it got away.”
“Don’t worry; Bella’s caught enough for all of us,” Ravenpaw meowed. “And I’m not surprised that sparrow escaped. You sounded like a herd of cows thundering through the hedge!”
Riley scrambled through the hedge and rubbed his muzzle on his sister’s head. He had to stretch up to reach her. “You’re practically a warrior already!” he mewed.
“There’s still a lot to learn,” Ravenpaw warned.
At that moment a storm of barking sounded farther along the river. Ravenpaw sprang up, his fur bristling.
“We’re used to dogs,” Riley boasted. “There was a fluffy white one in the garden next to ours. Bella and I used to scratch its nose whenever it looked under the fence.” Huge paws thundered along the path toward them, and Riley’s eyes grew huge. “But it wasn’t as big as this dog!” he yowled.
He leaped into the hedge as if he had grown wings. Bella followed, and Ravenpaw scrambled after them, giving Bella’s rump a shove with his nose to boost her into the higher branches. They clung to the swaying twigs and looked down at the massive brown beast, which was snuffling up the remains of the shrew. When it finished, it looked up, its long pink tongue lolling, its hot breath stinking of prey.
“Is it going to eat us next?” Bella whimpered.
“Let’s hope not,” Ravenpaw muttered. He sank his claws into the branch and tried to wriggle deeper into the hedge.
A Twoleg bellowed close by, making all the cats jump. The dog looked around; then its ears drooped and it trotted away. Ravenpaw let out a long breath. That was way too close. He waited until the sound of paw steps had faded, then slid down to the ground. Riley landed behind him, but Bella stayed where she was, clinging to a branch at the top of the hedge.
“Come on, Bella!” Ravenpaw meowed. “It’s safe now!”
“What if that dog comes back?” Bella squeaked.
“It won’t,” Ravenpaw replied.
“You don’t know that!”
Ravenpaw sighed. “Well, not for sure, but I can’t see it along the riverbank, and I can’t hear it anymore. We’re going in the opposite direction, so we have time to get away.”
“I’m scared,” Bella mewed in a tiny voice. “I want my mother.”
Riley crumpled a dead leaf under his paw. “Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” he mumbled.
For a moment Ravenpaw wanted to agree with him. Then he remembered Silverstream telling him that he was these cats’ only chance of choosing their own path. “All warriors get scared sometimes,” he told them. “It’s the only way to tell if you’re being brave. You kept yourselves safe from that dog, didn’t you? You did well, both of you. Violet would be very proud of you. But we need to keep going, before the dog comes back.”
Above his head there was a faint whimper. Ravenpaw looked up. “You can’t stay up there forever, Bella! A hedge is no place for a cat, kittypet or warrior!”
“Do you promise the dog won’t get me?” Bella mewed.
“I promise.”
There was a crackle of twigs and a few tumbling leaves; then Bella squeezed out from the bottom of the hedge. Her fur was full of scraps, and her eyes were wide with fear. Ravenpaw licked the top of her head. “Well done. You’re doing great.”
He padded onto the path and looked up and down. There was no trace of life, Twoleg or dog, in either direction. “Let’s go!” he called, and set off at a trot. Riley and Bella fell in behind him. Ravenpaw tried not to show that the incident with the dog had rattled him, too.
They had to dodge a few more Twolegs and dogs as they traveled on, but it was easy to spot them from a long way off and hide in the hedgerow. Bella was unusually quiet, and Riley stayed close to her, giving her encouraging licks. When it started to get too dark to see the edge of the riverbank, Ravenpaw looked for a place to spend the night. He found a squat, angular, gray stone den at the edge of a field just on the other side of the hedge. The floor was damp earth, and it smelled sharply of cows, but there were no other animals in the field and no scents of foxes or badgers.
Ravenpaw led Riley and Bella into the den and waited while they lay down. They looked exhausted, their flanks heaving, and their pelts were dusty and matted. “Stay here and clean yourselves,” Ravenpaw told them before hauling his weary legs back outside and heading for the hedgerow. He found a nest of eggs halfway along the field and carried them one at a time under his chin to his companions. Bella made a face at the slimy texture of the eggs, but Riley ate more enthusiastically.
“I’m so hungry, I could eat grass!”
Ravenpaw clawed some moss from a log that lay at the entrance to the den and shaped it into a nest for all of them. Riley and Bella curled up together in a pool of gray and orange fur and fell asleep at once. Ravenpaw lay down beside them, feeling the warmth of their fur against his belly. Moonlight filtered through a small hole in the wall of the den, and Ravenpaw twisted around to look up at the glowing orb. Is Barley looking up at the moon too? he wondered. They had hardly spent a night apart since he’d first come to the barn. But in spite of his sadness, exhaustion dragged Ravenpaw into sleep.
Riley and Bella were still subdued the next day. Bella refused to eat the thrush that Ravenpaw had caught, saying it smelled funny. For a moment Ravenpaw was tempted to snap at her for being ungrateful, but he reminded himself that they were a long way from everything they had ever known and must be missing their mother. He let Riley finish the thrush, then led them back to the riverbank.
They traveled faster now that Riley and Bella were less interested in stopping to sniff every new scent. Ravenpaw stayed in front, keeping watch for dogs or Twolegs. The sun warmed his black fur, and although his legs were still tired, he found himself looking forward to rounding each new corner,
seeing the river and fields and hedges roll out before him. His whiskers quivered at every fresh sound or smell, and he felt younger than he had in a while. Even the ache in his belly seemed to have faded. Ravenpaw wished that Barley were with him, sharing the adventure.
A small copse of trees appeared on the bank. Ravenpaw decided to hunt, hopefully for something that Bella would eat.
“We’ll stop here for a while,” he announced. Riley plunged into the trees, gray tail waving. Bella lay at the edge of the path and scraped at the grass with her paw.
“I’m too tired to hunt,” she mewed.
“Then wait here until we come back,” Ravenpaw told her, trying not to show his annoyance. He whirled around and followed Riley into the trees. There were few scents of prey in the copse, but he managed to track down a mouse in a clump of bracken.
Ravenpaw hauled his catch back to where he had left Bella. The patch of grass was empty.
“Bella?” he called softly.
No reply. Then Ravenpaw heard the rumbling voice of a Twoleg farther up the river. He turned to see a full-grown male crouching on the edge of the bank beside a long pole, which hung out over the water. Bella was arching her back and purring in delight as she ate something from the Twoleg’s hairless front paw.
Ravenpaw flung down the mouse and raced along the bank. “What do you think you’re doing?” he screeched. “Get away from there!”
Bella spun around and glared at Ravenpaw. “He’s giving me something to eat!” she hissed. “I was hungry!”
Ravenpaw leaped forward and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. It was tricky, as Bella was almost as tall as him. He was aware of the Twoleg stumbling away to the far side of the bank, making noises of alarm.
“Come with me!” Ravenpaw ordered through a mouthful of orange fur. He dragged Bella along the bank and into the shelter of the trees.
“What’s going on?” gasped Riley, who was heading through the bushes toward them.
“Bella was taking food from a Twoleg!” Ravenpaw spat.
“What’s wrong with that?” Bella yowled.
“You’re supposed to be a wild cat now!” Ravenpaw snarled. “Twolegs are not your friends! And they are never a source of food!” He took a deep breath and tried to make his fur lie flat. “If you’re going to be a warrior, then Twolegs must be your enemies.”
Bella flattened her ears at him. “That’s mouse-brained! He was being friendly and giving me treats!”
“You can’t trust Twolegs,” Ravenpaw insisted. “They don’t like warriors.”
Riley flicked his tail. “She didn’t do anything wrong, Ravenpaw. She didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to take his food.”
“Look, these are the rules now,” Ravenpaw growled. “If you aren’t going to listen to me, we may as well turn back.” He tipped his head to one side. “Is that what you want?”
Riley and Bella stared at him, frozen.
Ravenpaw nodded. “Come on, then. And don’t stop for anything.”
He stomped out of the trees and headed along the riverbank once more. The Twoleg had gone, leaving behind a strong scent that made Ravenpaw’s nose twitch. He could hear Riley and Bella trotting behind him, both still bristling at the way he had spoken to them.
That’s not my problem, Ravenpaw told himself. They have to respect their mentor, or SkyClan won’t have anything to do with them. I will have to start teaching them the warrior code. The vastness of his task struck him again.
Do Riley and Bella have any chance of becoming warriors?
CHAPTER SIX
After another uncomfortable night’s sleep, this time under a bush on the riverbank, where they were disturbed by the sound of voles plopping into the river, Ravenpaw woke at dawn and managed to catch a fat young pigeon. Riley and Bella tucked in, Bella with her eyes narrowed as if she was making a point of showing Ravenpaw that she understood the rules about food.
Watching the young cats eat, Ravenpaw felt a pang of compassion. They were so far from home, and they were being very brave considering they were barely out of kithood. Perhaps there was a way he could get the day off to a good start.
“Would you like to learn a few battle moves before we set off?” I hope I can remember a few!
Both cats’ eyes lit up. “Yes, please!” mewed Bella, jumping to her paws.
“Real warrior moves?” Riley asked, and he purred when Ravenpaw nodded.
The path was wide and flat enough to make a good training ground.
“We’ll start with the hunter’s crouch,” Ravenpaw explained. He dropped to his belly, keeping his hind paws tucked under him.
“We know about that already,” Riley meowed. “That’s what we do when we’re going to pounce on something.”
Ravenpaw looked up at him. “That something doesn’t have to be prey, does it? It can be a useful way to attack an enemy, especially if you’re lying in wait. Find your balance, breathe out, then go!” He sprang forward and landed almost on top of Bella.
“Awesome!” purred Riley.
“Now you try,” Ravenpaw puffed, trying to ignore the stabbing pain in his belly.
The young cats settled down onto their haunches and leaped forward one by one. Bella nearly fell over and Riley didn’t cover much distance, but it was a decent start. Ravenpaw dragged a stick out of the hedge.
“Pretend that this is your enemy,” he panted. “I want you to land with your front paws on the back of its neck, here.” He indicated a lump on the stick.
Bella did well this time, dropping down with her paws lightly on her imaginary enemy’s neck. Riley stumbled as he took off and ended up breaking the stick in two.
“Well, at least you wounded your enemy,” Ravenpaw commented, looking down at the splintered wood.
“Teach us something else!” Bella pleaded.
“Just one more; then we need to set off. Let’s try a front-paw blow.” Ravenpaw beckoned to Riley with the tip of his tail. “Imagine we’re face-to-face in battle. I’ll reach up with my front paw like this, fast as I can, and bring it down straight on top of your head. If I can’t reach, I can rear up on my hind legs, but see how this leaves my belly exposed? You have to be quick for this move!”
Bella took Ravenpaw’s place and lightly patted her brother’s head. “Too slow,” Ravenpaw warned. “He would have known exactly what you were going to do. Riley, you can use the duck-and-twist move to get out of Bella’s reach. Drop sideways, tuck your legs under you, and roll out of the way. Excellent!” he praised as Riley folded himself into a ball and tumbled to the edge of the path. “But don’t fall in the river,” Ravenpaw added.
Riley and Bella took turns practicing the front-paw blow and duck-and-twist. Bella had good reach with her long legs, but Riley’s broad shoulders gave him more power, and he was surprisingly fast given his sturdy build.
“We’ll make warriors of you yet!” Ravenpaw exclaimed. “Good work!”
Riley looked at him, his flanks heaving. “That was fun!”
“I can’t wait for our first battle!” Bella mewed.
Ravenpaw shook his head. “Never wish yourself into a fight,” he murmured. “It will come soon enough.” For a moment he thought of Violet, how terrified she would be to know that her kits were preparing for danger. It’s better to be prepared, Ravenpaw told himself. “Come on, you two. Let’s keep going.” He flicked his tail, and the two cats fell in behind him.
Farther along the river, they reached an abandoned Twoleg den made from crumbling red stones. There was no trace of Twoleg scent in the air, and the den was completely silent. Ravenpaw glanced at his companions.
“Want to explore?” he suggested.
“Yes, please!” Riley meowed.
Ravenpaw followed them inside. The floor was strewn with broken stones and dotted with large Twoleg relics. A jagged wooden slope led up to another level, and above that Ravenpaw could see glimpses of sky through holes in the roof.
“Watch this!” yowled Riley. He sprang onto the nearest T
woleg relic, then bounced onto the wooden slope. It creaked under his weight, so he leaped down onto the floor, sending up a puff of dust. “That was fun!” he gasped.
“I’ll chase you!” Bella mewed, bounding toward him. Riley skidded around and set off at a sprint, hurtling past Ravenpaw so fast that his fur was flattened.
Ravenpaw started to worry that something would overhear them. He opened his mouth to warn them to be quiet, when a shadow filled the doorway behind him. Ravenpaw whirled around, claws out, ready to fight. He stared in astonishment.
“Barley!”
Ravenpaw’s first thought was to fling himself at his old friend and cover him with joyous licks. But he held back, remembering their bitter words the last time they had seen each other.
Barley spoke first. “I’m so sorry,” he blurted out. “I should never have tried to stop you from helping Violet’s kits. You are brave, and generous, and I don’t deserve you. . . .”
Ravenpaw bounded forward and pressed his muzzle against Barley’s cheek. “Don’t be such a mouse-brain. You were right to be concerned. It’s been hard, but we’re okay.” He felt a lump in his throat. “Even better now that you’re here.”
Barley nuzzled the top of his head. “I left not long after you did. I thought that the barn was my home, but my home is wherever you are.” He took a step back and blinked at Ravenpaw. “I . . . I thought you were leaving because you didn’t want to be with me anymore.”
“That will never happen!” Ravenpaw meowed. “I’m sorry I left without you. I’ve missed you every step of the way.”
“Whoa! It’s Barley!” Bella came tearing down the wooden slope. Her brother’s paw steps thudded overhead, and Ravenpaw glanced nervously at the trembling ceiling.
With a clatter, Riley rushed down to join them. “Are you going to come with us to SkyClan?”
Barley nodded. “I couldn’t let you have this great adventure without me, could I?”