Crowfeather's Trial

While he waited for the kittypets to reply, Crowfeather tasted the air and thought that he could pick up Nightcloud’s scent, stronger than the traces in the forest and beside the Thunderpath. His paws tingled with anticipation. She must be somewhere around here! Or am I just imagining things?

The tortoiseshell kittypet looked from Crowfeather to Heathertail and back again. “Okay, what can we do for you?” she muttered ungraciously.

“We’re looking for one of our friends,” Heathertail explained, while her other Clanmates, who were still searching the garden, padded up to join her and listen.

“A cat called Yew said she came this way,” Crowfeather added. “Do you know him?”

“You?” The tortoiseshell stretched her jaws in an enormous yawn. “Like ‘Hey, You’?”

“Like the tree,” Crowfeather responded, stifling a mrrow of amusement.

“Weird name,” the tortoiseshell sniffed. “No, we don’t know him.”

“Our friend is black, and quite thin,” Crowfeather continued, looking at the tortoiseshell’s rounded figure. “And she was probably bleeding from a wound.”

“Have you seen her?” Breezepelt asked eagerly.

“Oh, yeah, we’ve seen her,” the black-and-white tom mewed, with a glance at the tortoiseshell, who gave a brief nod.

Crowfeather felt a surge of relief, and could see it was shared by his Clanmates in the garden below. Hootpaw leaped into the air and let out a triumphant caterwaul. “Yes! We found her!” For once, no cat told him to keep quiet.

“She turned up quite some time ago, in the garden next door.” The tom angled his ears in the direction from which the Clan cats had come. “She was weird… She kept meowing on about returning to her ‘Clan.’ She said her ‘Clanmates’ would be looking for her.”

“And she wouldn’t play stalking with us,” the she-cat added. “She said she was a ‘warrior,’ and that was a game for kits.”

“What’s weird about that?” Breezepelt asked, bristling. “We’re her Clanmates, and we’re looking for her. We’ve come to take her home.”

The two kittypets exchanged a surprised glance; Crowfeather thought they were impressed to hear that Nightcloud had been telling the truth.

“We thought she must have hit her head,” the tortoiseshell admitted. “She was talking about all sorts of crazy things, like cats made of stars! And fighting against cats who were already dead! Who would believe that?”

Crowfeather sighed. How stupid are these two? They have no idea about StarClan — living with Twolegs must make them blind. “So where is she now?” he asked brusquely.

“The housefolk next door took her in,” the tom replied. “And they’ll probably be glad to be rid of her. She’s so prickly, no gratitude at all — always trying to scratch them and escape.”

She’s still next door? For a moment Crowfeather found it hard to get his breath. He could hardly believe that they were so close to Nightcloud, after so long and coming so far. But I knew it! I did scent her!

“Thank you,” he mewed to the kittypets. “We’ll leave you to sleep.”

“Thank goodness for that,” the tortoiseshell responded, wrapping her tail over her nose and closing her eyes.

“Good luck,” the tom meowed.

Crowfeather leaped down from the ledge to join his Clanmates. The fence that divided this garden from the one beside it had gaps between the flat wooden strips, and it was easy for the WindClan cats to slip through.

As soon as they emerged into the next garden, they picked up Nightcloud’s scent again, but there was no sign of her.

“The kittypets said she’s always trying to escape,” Heathertail pointed out. “That means the Twolegs must be keeping her in their den.”

Hootpaw let out a gasp. “You mean we have to go… in there?” Looking at his wide eyes and bristling pelt, Crowfeather couldn’t decide whether the apprentice was delighted or terrified.

“Maybe,” he replied. “We have to find Nightcloud first.”

Scanning the Twoleg den, Crowfeather spotted a huge gap in the wall, starting at ground level and rising up several tail-lengths above his head. It was blocked by the shiny, transparent stuff that Twolegs used to plug holes in their walls, but he had never seen a hole so big.

Cautiously Crowfeather padded up to the gap, beckoning with his tail for his Clanmates to follow him.

Peering through the transparent stuff, Crowfeather was confused at first; he needed a moment to make sense of what he was seeing. But then he ignored the strange Twoleg material and focused on something that was more familiar: a nest, though instead of moss and bracken, this one seemed to be made of interlaced twigs and lined with soft white bedding.