The rain kept falling, harder and harder, as the dogs paced the clearing below. Thunderstar shifted miserably on his branch and tried to peer across to the other trees to check on Violet Dawn, and on the rest of his Clanmates, but he could see very little through the sheets of driving rain. Gradually, shadows began to spread through the clearing.
After a long time, as darkness fell and the rain continued, the dogs finally wandered off, after a few last barks up at the unreachable cats. They looked as wet and muddy as he was, and Thunderstar hoped they were even more uncomfortable.
As soon as he could no longer hear them crashing through the undergrowth of the forest, Thunderstar leaped down into the clearing.
“I think it’s safe now,” he called, and his Clan gradually joined him, some dropping daringly from the branches above, the rest scrambling down tree trunks with varying amounts of caution. Thunderstar looked carefully around: Yes, they were all here, from tiny Patch Pelt and Beech Tail to Pink Eyes, the oldest cat in the Clan.
“Thank StarClan no cat was killed,” Milkweed said, her eyes wide.
“They scattered our prey everywhere, though,” Yew Tail said, poking disdainfully at a bedraggled shrew. “I don’t think we can eat this.”
Clover gingerly tested her paw against the ground, sheathing and unsheathing her claws. “Well, if I didn’t have a sprained paw before, I definitely have one now.”
Thunderstar pressed himself close to Violet Dawn’s side, and she leaned against him, nuzzling his shoulder. “We’re all okay,” she said soothingly. “We made it.”
For how long? Thunderstar wondered. Now those dogs know where we live.
The rain had cleared overnight, and the sun was shining. Normally, the ThunderClan cats would have stretched out in the sunshine and let it warm their pelts after a quarter moon of rain. But this morning every cat was on edge, scanning the treeline and listening with their ears pricked, wondering if the dogs were coming back.
“I’ve never seen dogs like that before.” The fur on Leaf’s shoulders bristled at the memory. “They were so vicious.”
“Their muzzles looked big enough to swallow us whole!” Blue Whisker mewed, her green eyes wide.
“I was brave, though, wasn’t I?” Snail Shell asked. “As brave as Lightning Tail and Thunderstar were when they saved Owl Eyes from the Twolegplace! I helped Violet Dawn and Owl Eyes protect Clover.”
“And I’m very grateful for it,” Clover replied warmly. She looked at the long scrapes the dogs’ claws had left in the ground beneath the trees and shuddered.
Thunderstar gestured with his tail for Violet Dawn and Lightning Tail to join him by his den.
“We might not be safe here anymore,” he announced quietly, and Violet Dawn dipped her head in agreement.
“Now that they know where we live, they could come back at any time,” she mewed.
“We can send out extra patrols to watch for them,” Lightning Tail suggested. “But dogs sometimes travel far with their Twolegs. They might not even live near here.”
“We should send out extra patrols,” Thunderstar agreed. “Since there’s been peace with the other Clans, we’ve gotten too complacent.” He looked around at his Clanmates, who were already beginning to relax as the warmth of the sunshine and the normal sounds of the forest soothed them. “It’s not even just those dogs. There are dangers out there we’re not watching for.” He looked from the beautiful amber gaze of his mate to the sympathetic green eyes of his deputy. There were so many dangers in the forest. How could he protect his Clan from all of them? Or his kits?
His own littermates, who he barely even remembered, had been killed by Twoleg monsters, along with his mother, when they were much smaller than Beech Tail and Patch Pelt. If something like that—if anything—happened to his own kits, or to Violet Dawn, Thunderstar didn’t think he could survive it.
“There have always been dangers in the forest,” Violet Dawn said gently. “We are much safer here than I ever was with Slash, or than you were when the Clans were at war and rogues roamed the forest. All we can do is be careful and alert.”
“We should go find them,” Thunderstar declared, and Lightning Tail cocked his ears questioningly.
“Go find the dogs?” he asked. “Have you gone mouse-brained?”
Thunderstar flicked his tail in irritation. “Maybe you’re right and they live with Twolegs far from here and we’ll never see them again,” he meowed. “But if that’s not true, we need to find their camp. If they’re too close, we’ll have to move ThunderClan.”
Lightning Tail’s eyes went round. “Move out of the ravine?”
“If we have to. If the dogs hunt near here, the ravine’s not safe anymore.”
“Is SkyClan safe?” Violet Dawn wondered. “They’re not far from us. We should warn them.”
Lightning Tail stood up. “We should warn all the Clans. They need to know if they might be in danger. I’ll send patrols to tell them to keep a sharp lookout.”
“Good idea,” Thunderstar agreed. “Send messengers to WindClan, ShadowClan, and RiverClan. But I’ll go to SkyClan myself.” He squared his shoulders, feeling resigned. He and Skystar tried to get along, but there was always tension between them. They had too long a history of hurts and betrayals. “I need to pay a visit to my father.”
CHAPTER FOUR
As Thunderstar traveled toward SkyClan’s territory, he kept his ears cocked and his eyes open, watching for any sign of the dogs that had attacked ThunderClan’s camp. Scenting the air, though, he smelled nothing other than the usual musty scents of the forest.
Violet Dawn had wanted him to take a patrol with him, but he couldn’t bear to leave the camp with fewer cats to protect it while he was gone. She had made him promise, though, her gaze wide and worried, that he would be on his guard.
As Thunderstar approached the hollow where SkyClan had their camp, he caught a glimpse of silver-and-white fur moving through the bracken.
“Hey!” a voice called, and the silver-and-white cat sped toward him. “Hi! Thunderstar!”
As she burst out of the bracken, he recognized Dew Petal, one of Skystar and Star Flower’s kits. She greeted him enthusiastically, her tail high in the air. “It’s my brother!” she called, and Honey Pelt, brother of ThunderClan’s own Blue Whisker, hurried out of the bracken after her.
Thunderstar blinked, a bit startled to hear Dew Petal call him brother. Skystar had fathered both of them, of course, but Dew Petal and her sister, Flower Foot, seemed much more like Skystar’s kits than Thunderstar ever had. Warmed by their greeting, he touched noses with both Dew Petal and Honey Pelt.
“How’re you?” Dew Petal asked. “Is Violet Dawn almost ready to have her kits? How’s ThunderClan?”
“I need to talk to Skystar about that, actually,” Thunderstar told them. “Are you two out here by yourselves?”
Dew Petal puffed out her chest with pride. “Skystar asked me to help train Honey Pelt to hunt. I’m one of the best hunters in our Clan!”
The dogs must not have come near SkyClan if Skystar is letting his own kits roam the forest alone, Thunderstar thought. Skystar would certainly never put Dew Petal in danger, or Honey Pelt, who he had raised as his own after Moth Flight gave him to SkyClan.
“You’d better come to the hollow with me,” he suggested. “Will you take me to Skystar?”
Both cats happily agreed, and they chattered about the latest happenings in SkyClan as they strolled with him toward their camp. Honey Pelt asked about Blue Whisker, and Thunderstar assured him that his sister was thriving in ThunderClan. Dew Petal bragged that Skystar had praised her for managing to catch a fat squirrel yesterday despite the rain.
“Skystar said I really helped the Clan yesterday by finding a big patch of tansy for Acorn Fur to have in case any cat gets hurt,” Honey Pelt retorted.
“It sounds like you’re both important to SkyClan,” Thunderstar mewed cheerfully. But there was a strange pang in his chest as he heard about the enco
uragement and praise Skystar heaped on these young cats. In the brief time he had spent in SkyClan, his father had been harsh in his treatment of Thunderstar, unforgiving at any sign of disagreement or disobedience. What would it have been like to have the same kind of relationship with Skystar as his younger kits did now?
Thunderstar flicked his ears, wishing the thought away. There was no use in digging up old prey now. Fatherhood didn’t come naturally to every tom, and Skystar had improved with time.
Even if it isn’t easy at first, I can learn to be a good father, like Skystar did, Thunderstar thought. He didn’t have to be perfect right away, although he privately vowed that he would at least be better than Skystar had been to him.
As they reached the edge of the hollow, Honey Pelt ran ahead, calling for Skystar. Dew Petal paused by Thunderstar’s side.
“Can I come and see the kits when they’re born?” she asked eagerly. “They’ll be my kin, too.”
Touched by the request, Thunderstar blinked at her fondly. “Of course you can,” he said.
Skystar strode out of his den toward them, and Dew Petal slipped away to join Honey Pelt at the prey pile, waving her tail to Thunderstar in farewell. Skystar looked a little thinner than he used to, Thunderstar thought, and age had dulled some of the shine of his thick gray fur, but his shoulders were still broad and his gaze as sharp as ever.
“Thunderstar,” he said, sounding pleased. “It’s good to see you outside of a full-moon Gathering. How is everything in ThunderClan?” Thunderstar hesitated, and a gleam of anxiety came into Skystar’s eyes. “Is Violet Dawn all right? No problems with the kits?”
“No, no, Violet Dawn’s fine,” Thunderstar said. “But we had some trouble yesterday.” He told Skystar about the dogs’ attack on the ThunderClan camp. “We wanted to warn you that they may still be nearby,” he finished. “I’ve never seen such vicious dogs. We were lucky no cat was killed.”
Skystar was looking away from Thunderstar, and his tail flicked indecisively, as if he was wondering whether to tell Thunderstar something. Thunderstar narrowed his gaze, struck by an unpleasant suspicion. “Did you already know these dogs were in the forest?” he asked.
Skystar was still avoiding Thunderstar’s gaze. “We’ve been scenting dogs here and there lately, but never too close to our camp, so we haven’t been worried.”
Thunderstar lashed his tail angrily. “Close to ThunderClan’s borders, I suppose? You’re never worried about anything unless it threatens your own Clan. You could have warned us.”
There was a genuine look of regret in Skystar’s eyes when he finally raised them to meet Thunderstar’s. “Believe me, Thunderstar, I would have told you if I’d thought your Clan was in danger. The scent seemed to have been carried here on the wind from far away. I didn’t think the dogs I smelled were a threat to any of us.”
“Well, they are,” Thunderstar said, his fur still ruffled. “We’re all going to have to be alert if we want to keep our Clanmates safe.”
“Their scent was very different from the scents of the forest,” Skystar said thoughtfully. “Almost as acrid as the scent of the Thunderpath. We would have noticed an animal that smelled that strange if they had been here before.”
Thunderstar’s pelt prickled with anxiety. “So they must have come a long way. If they’re brave enough to roam that far while they’re hunting, they won’t think anything of raiding our camps. Perhaps we should find where they live and teach them a lesson so they won’t dare to come near us again.”
Skystar stared at him doubtfully, and Thunderstar went on, thinking hard. “If we could get the other Clans and all attack them together. . . .”
Skystar cut him off, flicking his ears dismissively. “That sounds like trying to get ourselves killed. SkyClan isn’t going to attack a pack of fierce dogs on their own territory.”
Thunderstar’s tail drooped. “I wouldn’t have thought you’d back away from a fight, Skystar,” he said. “But maybe you’re right. Even all the Clan cats together might struggle to defeat these dogs. And what if there are more of them?”
“I can show you where I last caught their scent,” Skystar offered. “Maybe we can figure out where they came from.” He glanced back at the cats sunning themselves and sharing prey in the SkyClan camp. “Tell Star Flower I went with Thunderstar and I’ll be back soon,” he called to Quick Water, and the gray-and-white she-cat twitched her whiskers in acknowledgment.
Skystar led Thunderstar back through the forest. When they reached the border with ThunderClan, he hesitated. “It was around here that I scented strange dogs,” he said, turning his face to the wind.
Thunderstar sniffed, too, and caught a whiff of the acrid dog-scent. It was weak, noticeable only on the odd burst of air, and he had to admit that if this was the only hint of the dogs he had gotten, he wouldn’t have been worried enough to alert the other Clans either.
He told Skystar this, and the older cat brightened. “Let’s try to follow the scent,” he said.
Stopping and sniffing the breeze, following each hint of dog-scent, Thunderstar and Skystar passed through ThunderClan’s territory as far as the Thunderpath that marked their border with ShadowClan. Thunderstar pressed his paws against the Thunderpath, feeling for the vibration that would mean monsters were approaching, and then they quickly crossed.
Skystar was as fast as ever, Thunderstar noted. His long legs still moved surely and steadily, covering as much territory with each stride as Thunderstar’s could. His father wasn’t really getting old, not yet.
Skirting ShadowClan’s territory, Thunderstar wrinkled his nose in disgust as they passed the foul-smelling Carrionplace. “I can’t smell anything here except the usual stench,” he said.
“This way, I think,” Skystar said.
They walked a long way, the sun climbing to sunhigh and then beginning its descent on the other side of the sky. They had passed out of Clan territory, and out of anywhere Thunderstar had traveled before. Thunderstar’s paw pads were beginning to ache, but the dog-scent was getting stronger.
As they topped a hill, the valley below came into view and both cats froze.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Thunderstar murmured, and Skystar nodded.
Below them, a vast stretch of land, made of the same black stuff as the Thunderpaths, spread out behind a glittering silver fence. All over it, as still as if they were sleeping, were Twoleg monsters. Not normal monsters, though.
“They’re dying,” Thunderstar whispered. “Or already dead.” These monsters would never race down a Thunderpath again. No Twoleg would ride inside them. The eyes of one of the great beasts were broken into pieces. Another gaped open, the top of what must have been its mouth torn off completely. Others were missing their round black feet or were only strangely shining bones.
This was the source of the strange acrid smell Thunderstar had not been able to identify, the smell the dogs had carried with them that was almost like the scent of the Thunderpath, but not quite. Mixed in with it came the stench of dogs and, in the distance, a faint, fierce barking.
“This is it,” Thunderstar meowed. “This is where they come from.”
CHAPTER FIVE
“I never thought that Twoleg monsters could die,” Violet Dawn mewed, twitching her tail thoughtfully. Thunderstar had pulled her and Lightning Tail aside as soon as he returned to camp, and now all three were sitting outside Thunderstar’s den and discussing his and Skystar’s discovery.
“So we’ve found where the dogs live, but now what?” Lightning Tail asked. “Do you really think we should move ThunderClan’s camp? If that’s what we’re going to do, we should do it soon so we have all of greenleaf to settle into a new camp.”
Thunderstar shook his head. “I don’t want to move until it’s clear we don’t have any other choice. There’s no other place in ThunderClan’s territory that would make as good a camp as the ravine.” He hesitated. Violet Dawn wasn’t going to like what he was going to say next,
but he was sure it was the right thing to do. “Before we think about moving, I want to learn more about these dogs. If I go into that Twolegplace where they live, maybe I can find out more about them.”
Lightning Tail cocked his head curiously. “You’re going to walk all that way just to look at a bunch of dogs? What good will that do?”
“I don’t know,” Thunderstar said. “I’m not sure anything will come of it, but it’s better than just sitting here waiting for them to come back. Or moving the whole Clan when we don’t know if a new camp would be any safer.”
Violet Dawn twitched her ears. “Are you hoping a good idea will just suggest itself once you’re there?”
Thunderstar hunched his shoulders, feeling stubborn. “I want to do something. The more I learn about these dogs, the easier it will be to figure out the best way to fight them.”
Violet Dawn stroked her tail along Thunderstar’s side, looking worried. “I’m afraid you’re going to get hurt. Those dogs are so dangerous.”
“If you’re going, you’re not going alone,” Lightning Tail said fiercely. “The two of us will be stronger together. I’m your deputy; I should be with you, supporting you.”
It would be so much better to have Lightning Tail with me, Thunderstar thought. From their kithood adventures to the fiercest battles of carving out the Clans’ territory, Thunderstar had always fought better, climbed higher, thought more quickly, with Lightning Tail by his side. But when he looked at Violet Dawn, her sides rounded with his kits, he knew he had to refuse. “I need you to look after Violet Dawn,” he said. “You’re the only one I trust to make sure she’s safe. You’re right, you are my deputy—so you’re the one who has to keep the Clan safe when I’m not there.”
“I can keep the Clan safest by going with you to where the danger is. Owl Eyes can watch out for the Clan, and Cloud Spots will make sure Violet Dawn’s healthy,” Lightning Tail argued. “She doesn’t need me.”