Crowfeather's Trial

Join her in WindClan? Crowfeather was outraged, and he saw Breezepelt giving his mother a look of blank astonishment. What is she thinking of? He’s a kittypet! All that silly white fur would get tangled and matted with burrs.

Crowfeather had to admit he rather enjoyed imagining that.

To his relief, the tom turned his head away awkwardly. “I can’t do that,” he told Nightcloud. “It’s my job to guard the housefolk. That’s very important. I can’t just up and leave.”

“I can see that,” Nightcloud sighed, sounding as if she was genuinely regretful. “I’m sorry, then, but we’ll have to part ways.”

Crowfeather shook his head helplessly. I can’t believe I’m listening to this. “Right,” he mewed briskly, turning to his Clanmates. “Heathertail and Hootpaw, you make the loudest noise you can. We have to wake the Twolegs and make them open the door.”

“What about me?” Breezepelt asked. He still sounded doubtful that the plan would work.

“You and I are going to watch the Twolegs when they come down, and make sure that once the door is open, they don’t stop Nightcloud from coming out.”

Breezepelt bared his teeth and flexed his claws, determination driving out his uncertainty. “I can do that.”

“Yes, but don’t attack them unless you have to,” Crowfeather told him. “We don’t want to start more trouble than we can handle.”

Breezepelt stared at him for a moment, as if he felt like challenging his orders. He opened his jaws, then glanced at Nightcloud and clearly decided that protest wasn’t worth it; the most important thing was to get his mother back. He gave Crowfeather a curt nod.

“And me?” Gorsetail mewed.

“You can just keep a general watch, and pile in when you’re needed,” Crowfeather replied. “Are you ready, Nightcloud?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay.” Crowfeather’s gaze swept around the little group of his Clanmates. “Let’s do it.”

At once, Heathertail and Hootpaw threw back their heads and let out the most earsplitting caterwauls Crowfeather had ever heard. I wouldn’t be surprised if our Clanmates heard that all the way back in the camp!

Meanwhile, he and Breezepelt crouched one on either side of the transparent barrier, ready for when the Twolegs would appear. Gorsetail retreated into the shadows of a bush.

The horrible yowling had gone on for several heartbeats before light appeared in one of the gaps in the wall near the top of the Twoleg den. The Twolegs must have heard us, Crowfeather thought, his heart beating faster with anticipation.

A moment later, he heard the thump of heavy paw steps, and the space behind the barrier was lit by what looked like a tiny sun, up near the roof. A male Twoleg came into view, wearing some kind of long, loose pelt. A smaller female followed him, and stooped down, reaching inside the white leaf to give Nightcloud’s head a stroke. Crowfeather saw her stiffen under the touch, and guessed she was holding herself back from scratching.

“Come on…,” Breezepelt muttered. “Open up.”

The male Twoleg did something to the shiny strip that separated the two parts of the barrier, then slid one of them back. He stepped out into the garden, yowling something and gazing around to see where the noise was coming from.

Nightcloud sprang to her paws and was about to slip out when the white tom suddenly shifted, sitting back on his haunches and craning his neck upward. Crowfeather felt his neck fur rising as he guessed — too late — what the kittypet was about to do.

A heartbeat later, Pickle let out a caterwaul of his own, almost drowning out the racket from the garden. Immediately the female Twoleg turned toward him, scooping up Nightcloud as she went. Nightcloud struggled in her grip, but couldn’t free herself.

“That mange-pelt!” Breezepelt snarled. “He’s trying to mess up our plan so Nightcloud has to stay. I’ll slaughter him!”

Crowfeather blocked him in time to stop him from charging into the den to attack the kittypet. “No — if you go in there you might get trapped,” he meowed. “Then we’d have two of you to rescue. Right now, we have to get Nightcloud out.”

Breezepelt hesitated for a moment, then dodged around Crowfeather and darted into the den. Instead of attacking Pickle, he veered aside, leaping at the female Twoleg. She let out a screech, stumbling a pace backward. At the same moment Nightcloud wriggled, sliding out of her grasp and landing on the floor with a thump.

“Out! Breezepelt, out!” Crowfeather yowled.

He raced away from the den and the light that spilled out of it, into the shadows at the edge of the garden. Glancing back, he saw that Nightcloud and Breezepelt were following. The male Twoleg made a grab for Nightcloud, but she dodged him and pelted on, while Gorsetail ran between his hind paws, almost tripping him.