Bramblestar’s Storm

“Dovewing told me how she and the others dislodged the beaver dam,” Ivypool told Bramblestar as they waited for Jessy to return. “It sounds as if it must have been similar to this. But they waded into the stream and attacked the dam from the bottom. The water here is too deep and fast flowing for us to do that.”

Bramblestar nodded. “We can’t risk—”

“Bramblestar!” Bumblestripe broke in. “I can smell WindClan cats. They’re coming this way.”

Turning away from the tree trunk, Bramblestar parted his jaws to taste the air. Bumblestripe was right. He drew in fresh WindClan scent, growing stronger with every heartbeat. And it was on their side of the stream. “Hide!” he ordered. “Jessy, get back here!”

While the brown kittypet ran back along the tree trunk, Ivypool and Snowpaw dived into the shelter of the rocks. Bumblestripe flattened himself underneath a low-growing thorn bush, and Bramblestar shoved Jessy in beside him. She peered out at him, wide-eyed with excitement at the sudden crisis.

“They’ll see my white fur!” Snowpaw gasped from behind a rock.

“No, they won’t.” Bramblestar threw himself down on top of the apprentice, who wriggled underneath him and stuck his head out, gasping for breath.

Cautiously Bramblestar craned his neck to see around the rock. The WindClan patrol he had seen earlier was heading up the stream, panting and scrambling over the stones. Squirrelflight and her patrol were bounding after them, screeching. Harespring skidded to a stop beside the tree trunk and turned to face the pursuing ThunderClan patrol while the other three WindClan cats ran across the log. All of them looked disheveled, as if the ThunderClan cats had given them a few swipes, but no cat was seriously hurt. Once his Clanmates were across safely, Harespring sprang after them, with a final hiss at Squirrelflight and her warriors.

Bramblestar waited until the WindClan patrol had vanished downstream, heading back toward their own territory, then emerged from hiding. The rest of his patrol followed to meet Squirrelflight and her cats beside the stream. To his relief, all of Squirrelflight’s patrol seemed unhurt, except for Thornclaw, who was dabbing at a scratch on his muzzle. Actually, they looked better than they had for days, energized by the skirmish that had driven off the rival Clan.

“They won’t come back in a hurry,” Squirrelflight mewed, twitching her whiskers in satisfaction.

“Let’s hope not,” Bramblestar responded. “But to make sure of it, we have to move this tree.”

To his surprise, Ivypool and Jessy already had their heads together, thinking of ways to shift the temporary bridge.

“We can’t break the tree trunk, or chew through it,” Ivypool muttered.

Jessy nodded. “Suppose we dislodge all this rubbish that’s piled up against it,” she suggested. “Then the extra force of the current might wash the log away.”

“That might work…” Ivypool sounded doubtful. “But where would we stand to do it? Besides, that would mean at least one cat being stuck over the other side.”

“Then we have to dislodge just one end,” Bramblestar meowed, padding over to join the discussion. “That way, the whole thing might fall into the stream.”

“Okay, let’s give it a try,” Cloudtail mewed impatiently.

All the cats clustered together and tried to push the end of the log. But there wasn’t enough room on the bank for all of them to reach and add their strength. The log didn’t move.

Jessy leaped down onto the collection of twigs and debris washed up by the stream, to try pushing from there, but it rocked alarmingly under her paws. Panic rushed through Bramblestar as he saw her stagger, about to lose her balance and fall into the torrent. Leaning over precariously, he grabbed her by the scruff and hauled her back to the bank.

“Thanks!” Jessy gasped.

“I won’t lose another cat to the floods,” Bramblestar meowed grimly.

Jessy looked up at him. “But you’ve already seen me swim,” she reminded him, “and I managed just fine.”

“Actually, that was a good idea,” Squirrelflight told Jessy, turning away from the tree trunk. “If we could strengthen that twiggy stuff so we could stand on it, then we could give the log a bigger shove than we can from the bank.”

“Then let’s look for something to do that,” Bramblestar mewed. As the group of cats scattered in different directions, he added to Jessy, “Stay close to me, just in case.”

“In case of what?” Jessy asked with a gleam in her eyes.

“Anything,” Bramblestar muttered.

The bleak moorland didn’t seem to offer much that would be useful. A few rocks jutted out here and there from the rough grass, but they were far too big to move into the stream. Bramblestar was beginning to think that they would have to trek back into the forest to fetch bracken when he heard Cloudtail’s voice calling him.

“Bramblestar! We found something!”

Bramblestar bounded back to the stream to find Cloudtail and Poppyfrost waiting for him. “What is it?” he asked, glancing around; he couldn’t see anything.