“What?” Petal drew back grudgingly. “When?”
“When we were traveling from the mountains,” Falling Feather replied. “He saved me from a bright red monster.”
“Is that true?” Leaf asked.
Shattered Ice gave a curt nod. “Yes.”
Leaf took a pace back, looking uncomfortable. “You know we’re not supposed to let cats trespass on our territory,” he protested to Falling Feather. “These cats were trying to hunt.”
“We were only defending ourselves,” Petal added.
“Don’t worry.” Moon Shadow puffed out his chest importantly. “I can escort these cats away.”
Shattered Ice rolled his eyes. “You haven’t changed then, Moon Shadow,” he mewed. “Still showing off. We don’t need escorting, thank you very much.”
Thunder cringed as Moon Shadow flexed his claws and drew his lips back in a snarl. He hoped that Shattered Ice hadn’t gone too far. “Would you prefer a fight, flea-pelt?”
Falling Feather pushed her way between the two toms before either of them could strike a blow. “Stop this!” she ordered. “I’ll never turn my back on a cat who once saved my life. Still,” she added, turning to Shattered Ice, “you have to understand that things have changed now. It’s best that you don’t come here to hunt. Clear Sky wouldn’t be happy.”
A pang struck Thunder like claws around his heart at the mention of his father. “Would Clear Sky really be so angry?” he asked. “He wouldn’t deny his own son, would he?”
The other cats all looked at one another uneasily, and a nasty silence dragged out until Thunder wanted to yowl to break it. His heart sank as low as his paws.
At last Falling Feather turned to him. “Clear Sky is only concerned about helping every cat survive,” she explained gently. “He can’t have favorites. And so that all cats know where they can hunt, he’s making sure that the boundaries are respected. That’s all we’re asking for—a little respect.”
Thunder’s pelt felt hot with shame as he listened to Falling Feather. Shattered Ice and I shouldn’t have entered the forest, but they didn’t need to be so hostile. We haven’t done anything wrong! He exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Shattered Ice. “What should we do?” he asked.
Before Shattered Ice could reply, a loud barking split the quiet air, coming from the direction of their camp. Thunder’s heart began to pound. “Dogs!” he exclaimed.
“We have to go to the others!” Shattered Ice meowed.
Without another word he and Shattered Ice broke away from the forest cats, who were already disappearing farther into the forest. They pelted through the trees, heading for the moor. Thunder could only hope they wouldn’t be too late.
CHAPTER 5
Thunder exploded from the trees, hard on Shattered Ice’s paws, and raced up the slope, his paws pounding over the wiry moorland grass. He could still hear the dogs barking, but he couldn’t see anything until he reached the ridge.
Pausing to catch his breath, Thunder looked down the hill. Now he could see the dogs in the distance, and hear their yelping and growling more clearly. Beyond them he spotted the small figure of a cat, hobbling and totally exposed as he tried to reach the camp. He kept glancing back over his shoulder as the dogs’ powerful legs ate up the distance between them.
“That’s Jagged Peak!” Thunder exclaimed, pointing with his tail. “What’s he doing out here?”
“Never mind that. Come on!” Shattered Ice mewed. “We have to head off the dogs before they catch him.”
Together the two cats rushed into the valley. But before they reached the dogs another cat appeared from the direction of the hollow. He was much closer to Jagged Peak, racing toward him with his belly fur brushing the grass and his tail streaming out behind him.
“Gray Wing!” Thunder gasped. “Oh, no! What’s he doing?”
Gray Wing dashed straight past Jagged Peak, who halted to stare at him. Gray Wing yowled something at him and hurled himself at the nearest dog, a leggy brindled animal with a lolling tongue. Reaching out a paw, Gray Wing swiped his claws across the dog’s nose, then instantly doubled back and darted away. Faintly Thunder heard him snarl, “Take that, flea-pelt!”
The brindled dog let out a howl of pain and fury and began to chase Gray Wing; the second dog—a small white creature—gave chase too, leaving Jagged Peak free to struggle on unharmed.
Shattered Ice reached the valley bottom and veered to one side to come up beside Gray Wing, but Gray Wing waved him off with a lash of his tail. “Help Jagged Peak!” he yowled, and pelted on with the dogs panting close behind him.
The air reeked of dog-scent. Thunder was close enough to see their gleaming eyes and the spittle flying from their open jaws. He shuddered at the thought of those murderous fangs sinking into Gray Wing.
Hurtling along behind Shattered Ice, Thunder saw Gray Wing heading for a copse of windblown trees on the ridge. The dogs were snapping at his paws as he reached it and scrambled up the nearest tree.
Crouching on a low-lying branch, Gray Wing looked down at the dogs, who were yelping and throwing themselves at the tree trunk.
“Flea-pelts!” he spat. “Useless mange-faces! Go away and leave us alone.”
Thunder and Shattered Ice caught up with Jagged Peak, flanking him on either side; Shattered Ice let the injured cat lean on his shoulder. “What are you doing out here, you stupid furball?” he asked.
“I can go where I like!” Jagged Peak gasped.
Shattered Ice just snorted in reply. Jagged Peak’s neck fur was bristling, but Thunder could see that he was too exhausted to argue anymore.
“Not far now,” Thunder meowed encouragingly. “When we get to camp we can hide in the dens.”
But to his horror Thunder heard the yelping and whining of the dogs turn to full-throated barking. Glancing back, he saw that they had abandoned Gray Wing in his tree, and were heading back in their direction. “They’re coming!” he gasped.
Jagged Peak bared his teeth. “Get out of here!” he snarled. “I can take care of this.”
Thunder couldn’t believe what he was saying. “We wouldn’t ever leave . . . ,” he began to meow.
Before he had even finished speaking, Shattered Ice put on a burst of speed, abandoning his place beside Jagged Peak. In moments he’d vanished over the next hill. Thunder stared after him disbelievingly. I never thought Shattered Ice was a coward!
“I’m not going,” he growled at Jagged Peak. “We’ll do this together, so get over it.”
The dogs were drawing closer, eating up the distance with enormous bounds. Thunder realized that he wouldn’t be able to get Jagged Peak back to the camp before the dogs caught up with them. Glancing desperately around, he spotted a narrow hole between two rocks that jutted out of the moorland soil.
Thunder threw all his weight against Jagged Peak, thrusting him across the grass and down the hole, then turned around and crammed himself in tail first. He had managed to push the two of them a tail-length from the opening when the dogs loped up, whining in excitement.
Most of the light from the hole was cut off as the big brindled dog shoved its snout inside. Thunder met its maniacal gaze. He could hear its excited panting and feel its hot, sour breath washing over him. It stuck a paw inside the hole; Thunder shrank back, barely able to stay out of reach of the thrusting claws. If it gets in here, we’re done, he thought.
Behind him he could hear a continual muttering from Jagged Peak. “What do you think I am, a rabbit? Stupid, mange-ridden dogs . . . we should have stayed to fight. I could rip the throat out of one of them, no trouble. . . .”
Thunder flicked his ears. Despite Jagged Peak’s words, he was happy to be safe in the tunnel.
Thunder had never been down one of the rabbit burrows before. Even discounting his fear of the dogs, he didn’t like it at all. It was so different from the wide, comfortable tunnel mouth where he slept with Hawk Swoop and her kits. His fur itched with the dirt, and the damp walls seemed to press in
on him from all directions. The dog’s panting echoed loudly and he could hear it start to scrape at the earth around the hole.
“Please get me out of this,” he muttered, then wondered who he was talking to. I’m so scared I’ve got bees in my brain!
Sliding out his claws, Thunder braced himself to attack the dog if he had to. More muffled sounds penetrated from outside, and he recognized the voices of Twolegs. The ground quivered with the stomping of their huge paws. There were angry noises, then Thunder glimpsed a Twoleg reach out and drag the dog away. The creature gave a howl of protest, but a heartbeat later light flooded into the burrow again as the dog’s nose was withdrawn.
Thunder heard more Twoleg voices and another flurry of barking. They seemed to be growing more distant; the ground stopped shaking. Are they really leaving? He couldn’t see any dogs or Twolegs through the narrow mouth of the tunnel. But he wondered whether they might be crouching outside, waiting for the cats to emerge.
“What’s going on?” Jagged Peak asked.
“I’m not sure.” Thunder felt too scared to poke his head out of the hole. His heartbeat was so fast and strong, it felt as if his chest was going to burst open. Clear Sky said I was too young to look after myself. Maybe I am. Then a spark of confidence began to flicker inside him. But I saved Jagged Peak, didn’t I?
“Do you think the dogs are definitely gone?” he asked the injured cat.
Jagged Peak let out an exasperated sound. Thunder looked around to see his haunches pressed against the side of the tunnel, his pelt clogged with soil. “How would I know?” Jagged Peak asked in a muffled voice. “I’m facing down the tunnel, mouse-brain. I can’t see a thing!” He paused and added, “We should probably wait a while, just in case.”
The two cats crouched motionless in the burrow. Thunder strained his ears to make out what was happening outside.
“Thanks,” Jagged Peak mewed at last. “For staying to help me.”
Hot embarrassment flooded through Thunder from ears to tail-tip. It felt wrong that Jagged Peak had to thank him—he’d only done what he would have done for any cat. Except they both knew that most cats in their camp weren’t permanently injured. Most cats would have been able to run away. “That’s okay,” he mumbled. “I’m sure Gray Wing would have led the dogs away again.”
“I’m sure he would have tried,” Jagged Peak meowed. A couple of heartbeats later he went on reluctantly, “One thing I’ve learned since I was a kit is that not even Gray Wing can fix everything.”
Thunder squirmed uncomfortably.
As if Jagged Peak’s words had summoned him, Gray Wing’s head appeared at the mouth of the tunnel. He looked thoroughly shaken. “It’s okay to come out,” he meowed. “The dogs have gone. And what in the world were you thinking?” he added angrily to Thunder. “Going off like that without permission. I ought to claw your ears.”
Thunder’s belly clenched. “Sorry,” he muttered as he scrambled out of the burrow at once, relieved to shake the dirt out of his pelt. Thin trickles of soil fell from the roof as he emerged.
“Where’s Shattered Ice?” Gray Wing asked.
“He . . . he ran back to the camp,” Thunder replied.
Gray Wing’s eyes clouded. “Without you and Jagged Peak?” he asked incredulously.
“I told the others to go away and save their own lives,” Jagged Peak called out angrily from his place in the tunnel. “At least Shattered Ice listened to me.”
Gray Wing let out a sigh. “I never thought he—”
A loud yowl interrupted him. Thunder looked up to see a long line of cats appearing at the top of the hill and sweeping down the slope toward them. Shattered Ice was in the lead; Thunder recognized Dappled Pelt, Jackdaw’s Cry, and Rainswept Flower. To his surprise, Wind and Gorse were with them too.
“It’s Shattered Ice!” he called to Jagged Peak in the tunnel. “He’s not a coward after all. He went for help.”
“Jagged Peak, you can come out now,” Gray Wing added.
Scuffling sounds came from the tunnel.
“It’s not easy, trying to back out of one of these little rabbit dens,” Jagged Peak grumbled. “Especially with a bad leg. I—” Coughing drowned out whatever he was trying to say.
“What’s the matter?” Gray Wing asked.
“Nothing.” Jagged Peak’s voice sounded muffled. “I just got a mouthful of dirt. It’s getting sort of dusty in here,” he added nervously.
There were grunts and noises of discomfort as Jagged Peak wriggled his way to the entrance. Thunder wondered whether it might have been a bad idea to shove him in quite so roughly. But what choice did I have?
There was a small yowl of displeasure, and then a noise that made Thunder much more worried—a creaking, groaning sound that came from the ground itself.
Gray Wing darted a glance to where Thunder had gone to sit on the bank above the hole. “Get away from there—quick!” he ordered.
Thunder leaped off. He crouched to look into the hole. More earth was dribbling down from the roof of the tunnel. “Jagged Peak, hurry!” he mewed.
“Come on, come on,” Gray Wing added, glancing anxiously at the bank. Thunder couldn’t believe it: The packed earth was sinking into a hollow before their eyes. The tunnel was . . .
A soft thump sounded. A cloud of dust billowed out into the open as the mouth of the burrow suddenly collapsed.
Jagged Peak was buried alive.
CHAPTER 6
This can’t be happening. Not to my brother . . . Gray Wing stared disbelievingly as the ground sank into a hollow and soil closed up the entrance to the tunnel. “Jagged Peak!” he yowled. His heart was pounding with fear as he flung himself at the mound of earth where the opening had been and began digging frantically.
Thunder was beside him, loose soil spraying everywhere as his paws scraped with all their strength.
But the earth was too soft. As quickly as they tried to dig out a hole, the loose dirt collapsed in on itself. His fear mounting, Gray Wing realized they were making very little headway.
How much more time do we have?
Gray Wing had only gone down a rabbit burrow once, when Wind was showing him how she hunted. He remembered how uncomfortable he had been, close to panic, and his heart broke for Jagged Peak, trapped beneath the weight of earth. He kept on clawing and digging, even while he was fighting despair.
“Jagged Peak, we’re coming!” he yowled, hoping the young cat could hear him.
There was a scuffling sound behind him and then Shattered Ice and the other cats were crowding around, all trying to reach the collapsed burrow and dig.
“Let us help,” Jackdaw’s Cry gasped, shoving in front of Gray Wing.
Gray Wing found his way blocked, and when he tried to get closer to the tunnel he was almost knocked off his paws by Rainswept Flower. She was clawing frantically, her paws moving in a blur. Cats were screeching in panic, and even though he realized they were trying to help, Gray Wing knew they were only making this worse.
Time’s running out, he thought, picturing Jagged Peak crushed down in the dark, his mouth choked with dirt.
Then a cat’s voice—Wind’s—rose up above all the others. “Get back, all of you! Let us deal with this!”
When the other cats paused, startled, Gorse and Wind sprang past them and began digging farther up the tunnel, above the place where Jagged Peak had been when it collapsed.
“We know these tunnels,” Gorse explained rapidly as they dug. “We’ll reach solid ground quicker this way.”
“There’s room for one more cat,” Wind added. “Jackdaw’s Cry, you’ll do. The rest of you keep away.”
Gray Wing worked his claws impatiently into the moorland grass. It seemed to take forever for the three cats to clear away the soil, but at last he glimpsed a patch of gray fur. “Jagged Peak!” he gasped, starting forward.
Wind raised her tail to halt him. She and Gorse leaned over the hole they had dug and carefully lifted out the limp form of Jagged Pea
k. His head lolled and his fur was caked with dirt; Gray Wing couldn’t see him breathing.
“He’s dead!” he choked out. I’ve already lost Clear Sky! I can’t lose Jagged Peak, too.
The mountain cats gathered around sorrowfully as Wind and Gorse laid Jagged Peak gently on the grass. He looked so small and thin, with his pelt plastered to his sides by soil. Gray Wing remembered how tiny Fluttering Bird had looked in death, and a pang of grief shook him from ears to tail-tip. Why do things like this happen? he asked himself.
“We all came safely through the cold season,” Dappled Pelt murmured, her tail drooping. “And now Jagged Peak dies like this.”
It’s my fault, Gray Wing told himself. I left the mountains to protect Jagged Peak. I’ve failed. . . .
“We can’t give up hope,” Wind meowed, her tone brisk and bracing. “He may not be dead.”
While she was speaking she slipped her paw into Jagged Peak’s mouth and clawed out some of the dirt; she gave his nose a lick, clearing that too. Gray Wing waited tensely, then let out a gasp of relief as Jagged Peak started to cough, gagging on the soil, and vomited some of it up. A heartbeat later his eyes blinked open and he rubbed at them feebly.
“He’s okay!” Rainswept Flower exclaimed. “Oh, Wind, thank you!”
Wind dipped her head. “You’re welcome.”
We owe these rogues so much, Gray Wing thought. I’m going to talk to Tall Shadow about letting them join us. We’d be crazy not to welcome such generous cats.
Wind and Gorse stepped back as the mountain cats gathered around Jagged Peak, using their paws and tongues to clean the earth off his pelt, and giving him comforting licks around his ears.
“No need to fuss,” Jagged Peak grunted as his strength began to return. He tried to pull away from his denmates and sit up. “I’m not a kit. I can groom my own fur.”
Gray Wing knew his young brother wasn’t trying to be rude and ungrateful; he understood that Jagged Peak was quivering with embarrassment because he hated to seem weak.
“You shouldn’t have been wandering around by yourself,” Jackdaw’s Cry meowed. “What if something happened and no cat was there to save you? You’re lucky that Thunder and Gray Wing were nearby.”