“Fine weather again,” Adderfang observed as he padded toward the ThunderClan deputy. Thistlepaw was at his heels, eager for any assignment that took him closer to being a warrior. The other warriors and apprentices padded after them. Robinwing was licking her lips, swallowing the last of her meal, while Dappletail kept bending to lick her chest; her morning wash was clearly not quite finished.
Sweetpaw was not with Smallear. For three sunsets she’d lain in her nest, too weak to move, unable to eat. Poppydawn had taken to sleeping outside the apprentices’ den, too worried to leave her ailing kit. Smallear had kept himself so busy helping Tawnyspots with Rosepaw’s training that the red-tailed apprentice had passed two assessments in as many days. Lionpaw was sick with envy.
“She’ll be a warrior before me!” he’d complained.
“She started her training before you,” Bluefur had pointed out.
She had decided not to question the golden-furred apprentice about Pinestar. Though she longed to, she knew that if her suspicions were wrong, Lionpaw would wonder why she was spreading rumors about ThunderClan’s leader. If they were right, the young cat could be too torn between loyalty to his leader and friendship with his denmate to tell the truth. It was too much to ask of him.
“Snowfur!”
Sunfall’s mew snapped Bluefur from her thoughts.
“You’ll patrol the RiverClan border with Thrushpelt, Tawnyspots, Sparrowpelt, and Windflight.” Sunfall always sent a strong patrol to check Sunningrocks these days. No one was sure how far RiverClan was prepared to push its luck.
“Dappletail and Goldenpaw, you check the ShadowClan border with Speckletail.” Sunfall glanced at Poppydawn, hollow-eyed beside the apprentices’ den. Was he wondering if she’d be better off patrolling than fretting over her kit? His gaze flicked back to his assembled Clanmates.
“Adderfang, Thistlepaw, Smallear, and Robinwing.” The cats straightened as he called their names. “You will hunt.”
Thistlepaw circled his mentor, tail up.
“Bluefur will lead the patrol,” Sunfall added.
“What?” Thistlepaw stared at Bluefur.
“You heard me.” Sunfall padded away to join Poppydawn, leaving Bluefur to face the spiky apprentice’s disbelieving glare.
Thistlepaw cocked his head to one side. “So where are we going to hunt?”
“Snakerocks.” Bluefur blurted out the first place that came into her head.
Adderfang watched her coolly. “Risky,” he meowed. “But it might be worth it. No cat has hunted there for a moon.”
“Because it’s infested with adders and foxes,” Thistlepaw sneered.
Bluefur’s tail whisked the ground. “You’re not scared, are you?” She stared at him. She was not going to be intimidated by an apprentice, even if he was bigger than her now. She was a warrior, and she deserved his respect. She glanced at Robinwing and Smallear. “Ready?”
Smallear nodded and Robinwing plucked the ground as if she couldn’t wait to get moving.
“Good.” Bluefur headed for the gorse tunnel, praying her patrol was following. As she padded out of camp she heard, with relief, paw steps following behind. She led her Clanmates up the ravine and into the forest.
“Why are we taking the long route?” Thistlepaw called as Bluefur headed into a gully toward Snakerocks.
Bluefur hesitated, suddenly doubting her sense of direction.
“This way’s not so steep,” Robinwing meowed. “And it’s softer on the paws.”
“Yeah, right,” Thistlepaw muttered.
Bluefur pressed on.
“Why don’t we take this shortcut?” Thistlepaw scampered ahead of her and leaped onto a fallen log. He flicked his tail toward a thick bramble.
“We’d lose our pelts in there,” Bluefur snapped. Was he going to undermine her every paw step of the way?
“Just fall in behind, Thistlepaw,” Adderfang ordered. “Save your energy for hunting.”
Thistlepaw padded sulkily to the back of the patrol.
Ahead of them, a branch rustled with life. Bluefur halted and crouched, signaling for her patrol to copy her. There was no harm in bagging a bird or two on the way. She crept slowly forward, eyeing the leaves as they twitched to reveal a small song thrush.
“Are we hunting at Snakerocks or what?” Thistlepaw mewed loudly.
The thrush fluttered up into the higher branches calling an alarm.
He did that on purpose!
“Thistlepaw!” Smallear scolded. “Now every piece of prey will know we’re here.”
But Adderfang had already turned on his apprentice. “We’re hunting for the Clan!” he hissed.
Thistlepaw crouched apologetically as Adderfang bared his teeth, but managed to flash a sly look of triumph at Bluefur.
“Come on,” she growled. “Let’s get to Snakerocks.”
By the time they arrived at the rocky outcrop, she had already decided how to punish Thistlepaw. She sniffed the air, remembering the fox that had chased her and Snowfur last time they’d been there.
No fresh stench.
She padded to the clearing at the foot of the rocks. “You guard here,” she ordered Thistlepaw, thinking that the fox might return after all. “Tell us if you scent danger. We’ll look for prey up there.” She nodded toward the wall of boulders rising behind them. Glancing around the rest of the patrol, she added, “Don’t forget, there might be adders hiding in the crevices.”
Smallear and Robinwing nodded. Adderfang watched her, his expression impossible to read. Bluefur felt very uncomfortable giving instructions to senior warriors, but Sunfall had put her in charge of the patrol and she was determined to do things properly.
“Why do I have to be guard?” Thistlepaw complained. “It’s boring.”
Adderfang lashed his tail. “Because you proved back there that hunting is the last thing on your mind today.”
Thistlepaw sullenly flicked a leaf with his paw, but didn’t argue.
With a flash of satisfaction, Bluefur leaped up the rocks, her mouth open to taste the air for prey signs. Smallear disappeared into the undergrowth while Adderfang and Robinwing each took a different route up the boulders.
“Look out!” Thistlepaw yowled.
Bluefur tensed, glancing over her shoulder. “What?”
“Nothing,” he reported, studying something on the ground by his front paws. “Just a beetle.”
Scowling, Bluefur returned to the hunt.
Mouse.
She scented it a moment before she saw a shadow flicker in the crevice between two boulders. Pricking her ears to check for the slither of scales, she crouched. No sign of any snakes. She shot a forepaw down the fissure and hooked out the mouse. Killing it quickly, she tossed it down onto the ground beside Thistlepaw.
“Guard it, don’t eat it,” she told him.
Thistlepaw flashed her a look of fury, but she just turned and climbed to the top of the rocks.
“Snake!” Thistlepaw’s alarm call made Bluefur spin around and peer over the edge, clinging on with her claws as the ground spun far below.
Thistlepaw was looking up at her innocently. “Oops!” he mewed. “It was just Smallear’s tail sticking out of the ferns.”
Feeling her fur spike with anger, Bluefur returned to the hunt. Now she could smell rabbit. Tiny drops of fresh dung littered the top of the boulders, reminding her of the old apprentice trick of telling kits they were tasty berries. She followed the scent trail toward the leafy bank that spilled onto the top of Snakerocks. Silently she crept across the stone, her whiskers stiff with excitement.
Something white was twitching beneath a bush up ahead.
Bluefur tensed and dropped into her hunting crouch. Drawing herself silently forward, she breathed in so her belly didn’t brush the leaves. The rabbit scent made her mouth water.
“Watch out!” Thistlepaw was yowling yet again. What was the mouse-brain playing at this time? Bluefur blocked out the noise. Nothing was going to stop her from getti
ng the rabbit.
It bobbed deeper into the bush.
Bluefur followed, slowly pushing her head between the leaves. There it was, grazing on the soft shoots that sprouted from the middle of the bush. Bluefur unsheathed her claws, stilled her tail, and leaped.
She landed squarely on the rabbit and made the killing bite before it realized what was happening. A twitch, then another, and it was dead. Bluefur dragged it out from the bush, pleased at the weight of it. It would feed the elders and Leopardfoot.
“DOG!” Thistlepaw’s shout suddenly pierced her ear fur. There was fear in his wail this time. Bluefur’s pelt stood on end as she smelled the dog stench and heard giant clumsy paws thundering on the forest floor only tail-lengths away. With the rabbit still in her jaws she launched herself at the nearest tree trunk, scrabbling up it like a squirrel, her neck straining from the weight of her catch. Jaws snapped below her and she flicked her tail out of the way just in time as the dog jumped around the base of the tree, snarling and snapping, its eyes wild with excitement. Bluefur scrambled higher, her claws gouging bark, sending it showering down as the dog stretched its forepaws higher up the trunk. Heart thudding, she scanned the forest. She could make out Robinwing’s brown pelt on a branch of a tree nearby.
“Thistlepaw!” Adderfang was calling.
“Up here.” The answer came from somewhere level with her head, and Bluefur guessed the apprentice was safely up a tree as well. She wanted to check whether Smallear was okay, but there was no way she could call out without dropping the rabbit. She was relieved when Adderfang yowled the warrior’s name instead and Smallear replied, sounding breathless but intact.
“Safe!”
“Bluefur?” Adderfang was calling for her now. Bluefur tightened her grip on the rabbit, unable to reply. How would she get down? This dog would never give up the promise of cat and rabbit. The blood tang must already be singing on its tongue.
A Twoleg barked. The dog froze, then growled with annoyance as the Twoleg barked again. Whining, the dog finally dropped to the ground and lolloped away.
Her jaws aching from the pull of the rabbit, Bluefur waited until the swishing of both Twoleg and dog had faded; then slowly, shakily, she let herself drop, paw over paw, down the trunk. She landed on all four feet, claws burning, and hurried back to the top of Snakerocks.
“Bluefur!”
Her Clanmates were circling in the clearing below, calling anxiously.
Quickly she bounded down the rocks and flung the rabbit at their paws. “Sorry,” she panted. “Couldn’t answer before.”
Robinwing’s eyes glowed. “Nice catch!”
“Didn’t you hear my warning?” Thistlepaw demanded angrily. “I was calling for ages. I heard that dog coming tree-lengths away.”
“I heard it!” Bluefur snapped. She wasn’t going to admit she had ignored it. “But what could I do? I had a mouth full of rabbit.”
Smallear trotted to the roots of an ash tree and dug a sparrow from the leaves that had drifted in a cleft. Adderfang scooted up Snakerocks and retrieved a freshly killed shrew from between two boulders.
“What about my mouse?” Bluefur asked Thistlepaw. Her heart was slowing down and her legs had stopped trembling. She wanted to get back in charge of this patrol.
“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” Thistlepaw retorted, his eyes glittering. He dug in the soil and unearthed the mouse.
“Well done,” Bluefur congratulated him. “I think we have enough.”
“Back to camp?” Robinwing asked.
Bluefur nodded. She picked up her rabbit and headed back toward the ravine.
Thistlepaw was muttering under his breath as she passed him. “What’s the point of making me guard if no one takes any notice?”
“I climbed a tree as soon as you yowled,” Smallear objected.
“Stop complaining.” Adderfang shooed his apprentice forward. “We all escaped.”
“And kept our prey,” Robinwing added.
Bluefur’s neck was aching from the weight of the rabbit by the time they neared the ravine. She was trying her best not to let it drag along the ground, but the closer they got, the more its pelt scuffed the leaves. She couldn’t wait to drop it on the fresh-kill pile. Thistlepaw raced into the lead as they reached the edge and scooted first down the cliff. Bluefur thumped down after him, the rabbit swinging awkwardly from her jaws.
“Listen!” Thistlepaw skidded to a halt in front of her, and she almost crashed into him, her face full of rabbit fur.
“Whaf?” she mumbled.
Thistlepaw’s ears were pricked, his pelt bristling. “I can hear something.”
The rest of the patrol had stopped behind Bluefur.
“Me too,” Robinwing hissed.
Adderfang was scenting the air as Bluefur turned to look back up the path. “It’s that dog!” he warned. “It’s coming back.”
Smallear spun around. “It can smell the rabbit.”
Paws thudded over the forest floor near the top of the ravine; leaves swished and twigs crashed. The dog was charging toward them, fast.
“It mustn’t find the camp!” Adderfang growled.
Bluefur pictured the dog rampaging through the dens; Leopardfoot’s kits would never survive. She dropped the rabbit. “I’ll take this to the top and leave it. It might be enough to stop the dog following.”
“Good plan.” Adderfang nodded. “Smallear, warn the Clan. Get warriors to guard the entrance in case the dog does follow.”
As Smallear hared away, Bluefur picked up the rabbit and began to shoulder past her Clanmates, praying that leaving her catch would be enough to distract the dog.
“No!” Thistlepaw’s angry yowl made her freeze. “We caught that rabbit. We’re going to keep it.” He bounded past Bluefur and disappeared over the top.
“Thistlepaw!” Adderfang chased him up the stack of boulders.
Bluefur tossed the rabbit at Robinwing’s paws. “If the dog comes over the top, leave it here. It might stop it.” She pelted after Adderfang, bounding up the rock and over the edge of the ravine in time to see the dog crash from the undergrowth. Thistlepaw faced it, his back arched and his tail bushed out. As the dog lunged at him, he swiped a forepaw across its muzzle, then aimed another slice at its eye. Blood sprayed the forest floor.
Yelping, the dog sprang back and bared its teeth before lunging again. This time Thistlepaw swerved, diving under its belly and twisting to rake it with hind claws. The dog howled with rage, but Thistlepaw was ready, rearing up, his claws glistening with blood. He swiped again at the dog’s muzzle, batting it with blow after blow until the dog began to back away.
“Run back to your Twoleg!” Thistlepaw hissed, aiming a vicious swipe that missed the snapping jaws by a whisker but sliced open the dog’s nose. Howling, the dog turned and fled into the forest.
Adderfang’s eyes were wide. “Blessed StarClan!” he breathed.
Thistlepaw stared triumphantly at his mentor. “There was no way it was going to steal Clan prey.”
Bluefur blinked. She’d never seen such courage, however foolish it had been. She stepped back, speechless, as Thistlepaw shouldered past. Stormtail, Sunfall, and Pinestar were standing with their hackles up at the base of the ravine. They watched in amazement as Thistlepaw bounded down the cliff.
“The dog’s gone,” he announced, hardly out of breath, before brushing past them and heading for the gorse tunnel.
Bluefur picked up the rabbit and followed. While Thistlepaw accepted the praise of his Clanmates, she quietly placed it on the fresh-kill pile.
“He nearly sliced off its nose,” Adderfang was boasting.
“How big was it?” Poppydawn breathed.
“Bigger than a badger,” Thistlepaw mewed.
Mumblefoot and Weedwhisker padded from the fallen tree.
“He fought a dog?” Mumblefoot gasped. “No Clan cat’s tried that since LionClan walked the forest.”
Pinestar leaped onto Highrock. “Clanmates!” he called. “
I can think of no better moment to give Thistlepaw his warrior name.”
The Clan cheered its approval.
Pinestar leaped down from Highrock to meet Thistlepaw in the center of the clearing. “Step forward, young tom.”
“A warrior already,” Windflight murmured proudly.
Poppydawn glanced over her shoulder at the apprentices’ den. Sweetpaw’s drawn face poked out, her eyes shining as she watched her littermate. There’ll be no warrior name for her yet, Bluefur thought sadly. A prickle of alarm shot through her as Sweetpaw drew her frail body through the ferns and crouched down, trembling, just outside the den.
Pinestar lifted his muzzle. “From this moment, you will be known as Thistleclaw. StarClan honors your bravery and your fighting skill. ThunderClan will always remember your courage today, and we welcome you as a full warrior of ThunderClan. Serve your Clan well.” He pressed his muzzle to Thistleclaw’s head.
Thistleclaw gazed proudly around at his Clanmates as Snowfur hurried to his side and pressed her muzzle against his, purring.
Bluefur forced her fur to lie flat. There was so much arrogance in Thistleclaw’s amber stare. What kind of warrior would he make? He was brave, he had proved that, but wariness pricked her belly. Pride had no place in a warrior’s heart. Overconfidence could be dangerous, to his Clanmates as well as himself.
Sunfall padded to the fresh-kill pile and began tossing pieces of prey to his Clanmates. “If this doesn’t call for a feast, nothing does,” he meowed, flinging the rabbit at Weedwhisker’s paws.
The elder’s eyes sparkled.
Larksong nudged him aside. “I hope you’re going to share that!”
Swiftbreeze took a blackbird to the nursery for Leopardfoot, slipping out a moment later to join Adderfang and Dappletail. The Clan shared the fresh-kill and listened to the elders’ stories till the moon was high overhead. Eventually Pinestar yawned and got to his paws.
The Clan cats fell silent as their leader gazed around the clearing.
“I could not be more proud of my Clan,” he began.
Bluefur narrowed her eyes. Thistleclaw’s warrior ceremony was over, and it was unlike Pinestar to make unnecessary speeches.