Bramblestar’s Storm

“It doesn’t freak you out anymore when you eat them, though,” Jessy pointed out.

“I know. I’ll try to do better next time,” Minty promised.

“Your stalking was very good,” Bramblestar told her. “Why don’t you see if you can scent some more prey?”

Obediently Minty began sniffing around, and soon picked up another scent trail, following it across the clearing with her nose to the ground.

“Well done!” Bramblestar called to her.

“This is odd,” Minty muttered. “I don’t know this scent, but it must be prey, right?”

Bramblestar and the others watched as she vanished among some brambles at the other side of the clearing, then froze with only her hindquarters and her tail sticking out. Feeling his pelt begin to prickle with apprehension, Bramblestar opened his jaws to taste the air. In the same heartbeat, Minty began to back slowly out of the thicket.

“Er… this isn’t prey at all,” she mewed.

The reek of fox hit Bramblestar in the throat as a snarl sounded from the midst of the brambles. Minty turned and fled across the clearing, her belly fur brushing the grass and her tail streaming out. A young fox exploded out of the thicket behind her.

“Stay back!” Bramblestar snapped at the kittypets.

Bounding forward, Bramblestar met the fox at the center of the clearing and reared up on his hind legs to rake the claws of both forepaws across the fox’s muzzle. The fox let out a bark of mingled pain and surprise, and lunged at Bramblestar, its jaws gaping. Bramblestar ducked aside and managed to land a blow on the fox’s flank before he darted back out of range.

The fox whirled to follow him, but it was already looking confused. It didn’t expect its prey to fight back, Bramblestar thought with satisfaction as he dashed in again and clawed its ears with a swift slash of his paw. Letting out a high-pitched screech of terror, the fox backed off, then spun around and fled out of the clearing, vanishing among a thick clump of ferns. At the same moment another ThunderClan hunting patrol raced into the clearing, with Mousewhisker in the lead.

“We heard the fight!” Mousewhisker gasped. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Bramblestar panted. “Take your patrol and follow it,” he added, “all the way to its den.”

“Right.” Mousewhisker waved his tail to the rest of his patrol, and vanished into the ferns on the trail of the fox.

It’s a good thing they turned up, Bramblestar thought. We can’t hope to clear all the forest of foxes, but we need to know where they are, especially now that we’re hunting across the border.

The three kittypets crowded around Bramblestar, their eyes wide with shock.

“That was amazing!” Frankie exclaimed.

“I never thought a cat could take on a fox like that,” Jessy added, her eyes glowing. “It was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen!”

“It wasn’t hard,” Bramblestar mewed, wanting to scuffle his paws in the earth like an embarrassed apprentice. “It was a young fox, and easy to confuse. Besides, it’s quite common for us to have to chase off a fox or a badger.”

“A badger!” Minty squeaked. “Purdy told me about those. They’re huge!” She glanced around her fearfully as if she expected a massive black-and-white animal to erupt out of the bushes at any moment.

“Believe me, they’re really rare,” Bramblestar reassured. “We chased the badgers out of the forest a long time ago. But I can show you a few techniques to keep in mind, if you like.”

Minty took a pace back, looking as if she might never leave the tunnels again. But Jessy and Frankie both pricked their ears with interest.

“Yes, show us,” Frankie mewed. “You never know; we might meet something nasty.”

“Mostly you use the fighting techniques you’re already learning,” Bramblestar explained. “But you need to practice dashing in to strike and then away again, like I did just now. That works even better with badgers, because they’re slower than foxes. Another move you can try is to spring onto the badger’s back. You can claw it to your heart’s content up there, and it can’t get at you.”

“On its back?” Minty breathed, horrified.

“Show me the spring,” Jessy urged.

“Okay.” Bramblestar took a pace forward that brought him to her side. “First, get into the hunter’s crouch.” As Jessy pressed herself to the ground, he added, “Now, remember that your hind legs—”

He broke off as he spotted movement in the corner of his eye, and looked around to see Squirrelflight emerge into the clearing. She bounded over to him with an anxious look in her green eyes.

“I heard about the fox,” she told him. “Is everything okay?” Glancing down at Jessy, she went on, “Uh… what are you doing?”

“Discussing ways to fight off a badger,” Bramblestar meowed.

“Oh… are you?” There was an odd note of strain in Squirrelflight’s voice. “We met a badger once in the old forest; do you remember? Me and you and Thornclaw, when I was your apprentice.”