Sharpclaw will easily convince them we have to fight back. And I’m not sure that’s the right thing. It’s not the same as fighting against the rats.
“So why are you telling us this?” Cherrytail called. “What are we going to do about it?”
“Claw the Twolegs’ ears off!” Sparrowpelt yowled from the back of the crowd.
“Yes, and his dog!” Tinycloud added.
Murmurs of agreement rose from the rest of the Clan, though Leafstar noticed that the new warriors didn’t join in. They sat close together, glancing uneasily at one another and saying nothing.
Sharpclaw rose to his paws from where he was sitting at the foot of the Rockpile, and raised his tail for silence. “You’re right, something must be done,” he began, “but—”
He broke off as Harveymoon and Macgyver raced over the rim of the gorge and skittered down the trail, only just managing to come to a halt at the edge of the crowd of cats.
“Sorry!” Harveymoon panted. “I know we’re late, but Macgyver’s Twolegs didn’t let him out.”
“What’s going on here?” Macgyver wheezed.
Tinycloud bounced over to them and repeated the story in an excited whisper while Sharpclaw continued.
“This Twoleg is a danger to any cat who goes near him. He could be a danger to us, especially if we decide to expand our territory on that side of the gorge. Something has to be done.”
“I know!” Sparrowpelt jumped up. “Let’s dig a big pit and lure the Twoleg into it.”
“Great idea!” his littermate Cherrytail agreed. “We could throw things at him.”
Sharpclaw rolled his eyes. “Right, let me know when you’ve dug a pit big enough. Like, by next leaf-bare.”
Mrrows of amusement broke out among the Clan. Sparrowpelt sat down again, twisting his head to give his back a couple of licks, trying to seem unconcerned.
“I’ve got a better idea,” Harveymoon announced, bouncing gently on his paws. “Let me go and make friends with the Twoleg. I could purr and stuff to make him like me, and he’d take me inside his den—”
“And then we’d have to rescue you, mouse-brain!” Tinycloud interrupted.
“No, listen!” Harveymoon kinked his tail over his broad white back. “Then I let the rest of you in. And we trap the Twoleg in his own den!”
There was silence as the Clan thought about this. “What would we do with the Twoleg once we trapped him?” Leafstar asked. “And what about the dog?”
Harveymoon tipped his head to one side, looking puzzled.
“Any more brilliant ideas?” Sharpclaw meowed scathingly.
Before Harveymoon could say anything, a loud wail came from Echosong’s den. The medicine cat vanished rapidly inside, and returned a heartbeat later with Shrewtooth. She padded close beside him as they came to join the meeting.
“Nightmares,” she mewed briefly in explanation. “I think he’ll feel better if he’s with the rest of us.”
“Sorry,” Shrewtooth muttered, his head hanging.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” Leafstar told him. “And you’re welcome to join us. You might come up with some useful ideas.”
“We have an idea.” Bouncefire and Rockshade had been murmuring to each other with their heads close together; now Bouncefire rose to his paws. “We’re SkyClan cats, right? So we should use SkyClan skills to deal with the Twoleg.”
Rockshade stood beside his littermate. “Some of us should climb trees near the Twoleg nest. Then some others lure the Twoleg out and underneath the trees.”
“And then we jump on him!” Bouncefire finished. “That’s using skills from how we hunt prey. Why should we treat the Twoleg like a different kind of enemy?”
“Because he is a different kind of enemy!” Coal leaped to his paws. “Are you all flea-brained? You’ve no idea what you’re getting yourselves into.”
Several cats flinched with surprise as the black tom spoke. Leafstar scanned the group of newcomers. It was as clear as the sun in greenleaf that none of them wanted to take part in a raid on the Twoleg.
What do they know about Twolegs that we don’t?
“Go on, Coal,” she prompted.
But it was Cora who spoke. “Why are you talking about hurting this Twoleg?” she demanded. “That’s not the kind of thing that cats do. You should stay well clear, and be thankful you can live separately, here in the gorge. If you take on Twolegs, you are risking too much. They can hurt you worse than dogs or foxes, you know. This is not a battle that can be won—or should be fought,” she finished, sitting down again with a swish of her tail.
Yowls of protest broke out from among the Clan.
“How do you know we can’t win?” Waspwhisker growled.
“Yes,” Billystorm agreed. “We’re strong, and we can fight.”
“I think you’re scared!” Ebonyclaw meowed, glaring at the newcomers.
“I’m sure that’s not true.” Leafstar raised her tail to end the protests. “No cat is scared of the Twoleg. We just need to find a way to teach him to stop hurting cats.”
A short silence followed her words; it was broken by Stick, who stood up and let his gaze travel solemnly around the Clan until every cat was waiting for him to speak.
“Fear is your best weapon,” he announced quietly. “Fear leaves you hollow, paralyzed, unable to think.” He dipped his head toward Shrewtooth, who was quaking miserably at the back of the crowd. “You can’t hurt the Twoleg,” Stick went on, “but you can frighten him.”
Staring at the ragged brown tom, Leafstar wondered if he was speaking from his own experiences. Her pelt itched all over with curiosity, but she knew this wasn’t the right time or place to question him. Besides, he would never give me a straight answer.
“I think Stick is right,” Sharpclaw meowed. “We need to give the Twoleg a taste of his own medicine, and make him as scared of cats as Shrewtooth is scared of him.”
“So we won’t actually attack the Twoleg?” Leafstar checked.
Sharpclaw looked grim. “Oh, we attack him all right—we’ll make him think his worst fears are coming true, that the cats he once tortured have come back to seek revenge. But we won’t get close enough for him to touch us, and that way we’ll keep ourselves safe. Stick is right, cats don’t fight Twolegs, and never will.” He shot a glance at Shrewtooth, who seemed to have shrunk even further into his pelt. “But there are ways to hurt that don’t leave scars.”
Leafstar narrowed her eyes. Was it possible to scare the Twoleg into leaving cats alone without risking their own pelts? “Tell us what you think we could do,” she invited Sharpclaw.
Leaping down from the Rockpile, she joined her deputy on the flattened sand. The rest of the Clan gathered around, huddling in the shelter of the boulders as the wind rose, sending clouds scudding across the sky.
Sharpclaw stretched out one claw and drew lines in the dust in front of him. “Here’s the clearing, and this is the Twoleg nest,” he began as he sketched the shapes. “And this is where we’ll start.…”
CHAPTER 21
Leafstar woke as a paw prodded her in the side. “Leafstar! Leafstar, wake up!”
It was Sharpclaw’s voice. Leafstar opened her eyes and blinked at him as he stood over her, one paw raised to prod her again.
“What’s the matter?” she muttered, scrambling out of her nest. “Are we being attacked?”
“No, but we have to go now,” Sharpclaw hissed. When Leafstar stared at him, puzzled, he added, “To the Twoleg’s nest, to give him a fright he won’t forget.”
“No.” Leafstar shook her head. “We agreed to attack tomorrow night, as long as the weather was better.”
“But the clouds have cleared. Look!” Sharpclaw backed away to the entrance to the den, and stood on the trail outside, his shape outlined against an almost full moon. He waved his tail at a sky glittering with the warriors of Silverpelt. “You couldn’t hope for a better night than this.”
“But the kittypets have gone home,
” Leafstar argued. “They promised to stay tomorrow night and help with the attack. We can’t leave them out again, not when they were so upset about the fight against the rats.”
Sharpclaw twitched his tail impatiently. “That’s their problem. This is the best night for attacking. We need as much light as possible.”
Leafstar twitched her nose. “I suppose you’re right,” she admitted reluctantly.
But as she shook moss out of her fur and headed down the trail into the gorge, she couldn’t shake off a nagging sense of guilt. She could imagine the shock and disappointment on the faces of the daylight-warriors when they heard that the attack had taken place without them. What am I going to say to them? And will Billystorm think that I lied to him?
Sharpclaw ran nimbly across the face of the cliff to rouse the warriors in their den, then led the way down to the river. Leafstar joined them near the foot of the Rockpile. The moon cast black shadows across the cliffs and turned the surface of the river to bubbling silver; every rock and tree stood out sharply against the wash of pale light. Sharpclaw was right. This is a good night to attack. But deep inside, she still knew that this wasn’t right.
Though no cat had called them, Sagepaw and Mintpaw burst out of their den and raced down to join the warriors.
“Are you going now?” Mintpaw panted, her eyes gleaming. “I want to come, too!”
“And me,” Sagepaw added. “I want to teach that Twoleg a lesson, after what he did to our mother.”
“Mintpaw, you can certainly come,” Leafstar replied. “But I’m not sure about you, Sagepaw. It’s a long way. Will your leg hold out?”
“My leg is fine now!” the apprentice insisted.
“Echosong, what do you think?” Leafstar asked the medicine cat, who had padded up in time to hear the discussion.
Echosong twitched her ears. “I know how much this means to Sagepaw…” she began hesitantly. “I suppose he can go,” she mewed at last. “But keep an eye on him, Leafstar, and if he starts limping, then take him out of the action.”
Leafstar nodded. “I’ll do that. And Sagepaw,” she added sternly, “if I tell you to back off, you do it. No arguments, okay?”
“I’ll keep an eye on him, too,” Petalnose promised, shouldering her way through the throng of cats to stand beside her kits.
“You’re sure you want to come?” Leafstar meowed, faintly surprised that the she-cat would be willing to return to the den where she had been a prisoner for so long.
“You need me,” Petalnose replied steadily. “I know that Twoleg and his nest better than any cat.”
“True.” Leafstar dipped her head in approval.
“I’ll come, too,” a shaky voice meowed.
Leafstar spun around to see Shrewtooth, who had crept up behind Echosong, a black shadow in the night. He was trembling, but there was determination in his gaze.
“Thanks, Shrewtooth, but there’s no need,” Leafstar responded. Great StarClan! What if he panics like he did this morning?
“But I want to. I don’t want to be a coward anymore.”
“No cat will call you a coward,” Leafstar promised. “But we don’t need every cat to come. Patchfoot is going to stay behind to guard the camp, but he can’t do it alone. What if the rats attacked Clovertail and Fallowfern and the kits?”
“Leafstar’s right,” Sharpclaw added, with more sympathy for the young black tom than Leafstar had expected. “Guarding the camp is the most important job there is. We trust you, Shrewtooth.”
The young warrior blinked and stood a little straighter. “Okay, Sharpclaw. I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t,” Sharpclaw told him.
With a grateful glance at her deputy, Leafstar gathered the rest of her Clan together and led them over the Rockpile and up to the top of the cliff on the far side of the gorge. She noticed that all four newcomers had joined the patrol without any more protest, though they padded along in a tight group at the rear, their tension clear in the swift glances they cast from side to side, and the bristling of their fur.
What secrets are they hiding?
The wind had dropped and the night was warm and still. The only sounds were the soft paw steps of her Clanmates and the swish of ferns and grass as they brushed against well-groomed fur. It would be a good night for a hunt, Leafstar thought, not looking forward to what was coming.
As the SkyClan warriors crept across the border, Leafstar noticed that Petalnose was trembling. Slipping through the ferns to her side, she touched her nose briefly to the gray cat’s ear. “If it gets too bad, you can go back,” she murmured.
Petalnose shook her head. “I can do this, Leafstar,” she vowed.
Leafstar padded alongside her to bolster her courage as they headed for the Twoleg den. Did ThunderClan ever fight Twolegs? she asked herself, wondering whether their starry ancestors were watching from the sky. I should have asked Echosong if she had a sign from StarClan about this attack, she thought with a stab of concern. But wouldn’t Echosong have told her? If StarClan was silent, perhaps it meant that they were happy for SkyClan to make their own decision. Leafstar flicked her tail in frustration. Why did it always feel as if she was leading her Clan in the dark? All the stars in the sky didn’t seem to give enough light to see where the future lay.
There was a soft hiss from Sharpclaw as the patrol reached the edge of the clearing and halted under the trees opposite the Twoleg nest. It was dark and silent; Leafstar could almost believe the nest had been abandoned. That would make everything much easier.
“Right, this is it,” Sharpclaw whispered. “You all know what you have to do. Waspwhisker, Shorty, and Cherrytail, go collect dead branches and brambles, and drag them outside the nest door as quietly as you can. We don’t want to wake the dog and warn the Twoleg.”
The three warriors, already primed from the earlier planning, twitched their ears in acknowledgment and melted into the shadows.
“Cora, Bouncefire, Rockshade.” Sharpclaw beckoned the next group of cats with his tail. “You’re the fastest runners, so you’re going to lead the dog away. Get into position now.”
“And make sure you have a good escape route,” Leafstar added before the three cats could move. “Climb a tree if you need to. I don’t want any cat getting hurt tonight.”
“We know all this,” Bouncefire muttered as he led the others away.
“We’ll be careful, Leafstar,” Cora mewed; her eyes were full of sympathy, as if she shared her Clan leader’s misgivings.
“The rest of you, spread out around the clearing,” Sharpclaw went on. “And don’t so much as twitch a whisker until you hear Leafstar’s signal.”
Leafstar crouched beneath the bushes at the edge of the Twoleg garden, her nose quivering at the rank smells that came from the den; scents of dog and rotting Twoleg waste drowned out the sweet night scents of grass and herbs. Moon-high was close, and the silver light cast sharp-clawed shadows on the walls of the den.
There was a thick whispering sound. Cherrytail, Waspwhisker, and Shorty crept across the open space, dragging branches and tendrils of bramble behind them. Her paws tingling with tension, Leafstar watched them make several trips back and forth from the edge of the wood until they had built a dense, bristling mound outside the door of the nest. Then they melted silently into the bushes. Now the only sounds Leafstar could hear were the faint rustling of leaves and the distant bark of a fox. Her warriors were in position. For a heartbeat her belly cramped as if she had eaten crow-food.
This is it.
“Attack!” she yowled, bunching her hindquarters underneath her and springing forward.
All around her the warriors of SkyClan burst out of the undergrowth and raced toward the Twoleg den. Their yowls split the still night air and sent birds crashing out of the trees with shrieks of alarm. Sharpclaw was the first to reach the den. He leaped up onto the narrow ledge outside the gap in the wall; his paws rattled the hard, transparent barrier as he battered at it. Leafstar, a pace
behind him, jumped up to the gap on the other side of the door and hurled herself against it, feeling the transparent stuff shift in its crumbling wooden frame.
Sparrowpelt sprang up beside her, while Tinycloud and Petalnose bounded over the thorn barrier and raked their claws down the door in long, whistling scratches. Leafstar saw the light of battle in Petalnose’s eyes; the gray she-cat’s nerves had vanished now that the attack had begun. The rest of the Clan gathered close to the nest, wailing as they lashed their tails and dug their claws into the ground. Leafstar’s misgivings returned; these looked like cats just waiting for a chance to slash at their enemy with claws and teeth. Would they be able to resist getting dangerously close to the Twoleg or his dog?
Her gaze met Sharpclaw’s; the deputy gave her a swift nod, and jumped down to join the warriors on the ground. “Remember we’re only trying to scare the Twoleg,” he yowled. “We don’t want any injuries.”
Suddenly light appeared in one of the gaps high up in the den wall, throwing a hard-edged yellow square onto the grass that trapped Mintpaw and Sagepaw in the glare. The two apprentices crouched, frozen in shock.
“Get back!” Sharpclaw screeched, waving his tail to urge his Clanmates away from the nest.
Leafstar repeated the signal. “Keep back! Hide!” she ordered.
The cats dashed for cover on either side of the nest, leaving a clear space in front of the door. Leafstar found herself crouching in a clump of ferns with Shorty beside her. The brown tom was shivering, his eyes wide and his gaze fixed on the light in the wall of the Twoleg den. Leafstar could hear crashing inside the nest and shouts from the Twoleg. The door flew open and the dog stood on the step, its tongue lolling. Leafstar shuddered. The dog’s legs were long and bony, its muscles hard and stringy under its smooth pelt. Its small eyes glittered with moonlight as it stared around.
The cats beside the Twoleg nest fell silent, leaving a single eerie wail that came from the far end of the garden. Every hair on Leafstar’s pelt prickled. It even scares me, and I know what it is! Poking her head out of the ferns she spotted Bouncefire, Cora, and Rockshade, blurry black shapes at the edge of the garden. There was a glint of pointed white teeth as Bouncefire stopped wailing and snapped shut his jaws.