Dawn

Leafpaw blinked. There were no longer four Clans making this perilous journey. There was just one Clan, bound by fear and helplessness. She left Marshkit with Tallpoppy. Littlecloud was with them now.

“Is Brackenfur okay?” she called, padding to where Sorreltail was sitting beside the golden warrior.

“I’m fine,” Brackenfur meowed, pushing himself to his paws.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Sorreltail promised.

Leafpaw padded over and touched her sister’s flank with her nose. “Surely it can’t get any worse?” she murmured.

Squirrelpaw stared back wordlessly, her eyes clouded with doubt. In desperation Leafpaw turned her gaze toward the sky, praying for the protection of StarClan, wondering if her prayer would reach their ancestors through the snow-laden clouds.

As if in reply, the first freezing flakes began to fall.

Chapter 22

Squirrelpaw glimpsed movement on the ledge above. She stopped, her paws sinking into the banked snow, and glanced up. A falcon was feasting on a shrew a few tail-lengths up the rocky outcrop. Squirrelpaw knew her ginger pelt must stand out like a sunset in a pale sky, and she stood motionless, hoping that the falcon hadn’t noticed her.

The snow felt soothing against her raw pads. She wondered if she had the power to leap up the short distance and catch the falcon. Probably not. The past few days had sapped her strength until she almost couldn’t be bothered to hunt at all.

The falcon flattened the shrew against the rock and stooped to pull the flesh from it. Squirrelpaw felt a wrench of envy as hunger clawed at her belly. Slow as melting ice, she prowled forward, praying the thickly falling snow would camouflage her pelt.

She had to catch some prey. The cold would start killing cats faster than any eagle if the Clans grew any hungrier.

Despite their bold promises to Tallpoppy, the shock of losing Smokepaw and then nearly losing Marshkit had shaken the confidence of even the strongest warriors. Squirrelpaw felt a flood of regret so strong it stopped her in her tracks. She had helped to lead the Clans to their death. She was not even sure she would be able to find her way back to them if she caught the falcon. She knew only that they were somewhere near, huddled in the snow, praying to StarClan for deliverance.

If only she could be sure they had reached the place where the Tribe hunted, then at least they might get help from the cats they had met before. Stormfur had taken to ranging out at night, among the snowy crags. He alone seemed comfortable in this barren territory. She knew he was searching for Brook, or any sign of the Tribe, but he had found nothing so far. The Tribe had no need for borders or scent markers. No other cat wanted their unforgiving hunting grounds.

The falcon ruffled its feathers, shaking off some snow, and brought Squirrelpaw’s wandering thoughts back to the hunt.

She tensed her tired muscles and prepared to leap.

Suddenly a flash of fur above her made her draw back.

Three lean, mud-streaked cats hurled themselves from the rocks above the falcon. One snared the falcon in its long claws, while the other two bundled Squirrelpaw backward, knocking the breath from her. She felt strong paws pinning her under the snow and struggled, but they were too strong for her, and after a few terrified moments she lay still, her breath hoarse and ragged.

“Squirrelpaw?”

She heard a familiar voice growl her name and felt paws tug her out of the snow. She blinked cold flakes of ice from her eyes and saw Talon staring at her in undisguised surprise.

Two more cave-guards stood behind him, wide-eyed with astonishment.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

As Squirrelpaw tried to gather her confused thoughts, she recognized one of the cave-guards. It was Jag, one of the outcasts who had returned to save their Tribemates from Sharptooth. Knowing two of the cats who stood in front of her made her feel a little better. “We’ve left the forest,” she explained. “We’re traveling over the mountains.”

Talon narrowed his eyes. “Again?”

“We’re all going this time.”

“All?”

“The four Clans,” Squirrelpaw mewed. “We couldn’t stay in the forest any longer. There was too much destruction. But we never though the journey would be this hard! Smokepaw fell into a ravine, and then an eagle tried to carry off Marshkit…” She trailed off breathlessly.

“Kits?” Talon demanded. “Out here? Are you mad? You must bring all of these cats to the Cave of Rushing Water and rest. Where did you leave them?”

“We sheltered under some rocks. There was a tree jutting out above them like a giant claw.”

Talon glanced at the cave-guards. “Tree-rock,” he meowed.

“Go there.”

The cave-guards bounded away across the snowdrift, their ears flattened against the falling snow.

“Let’s find these Clans of yours before they freeze to death,” Talon meowed, picking up the still-warm falcon in his jaws.

Squirrelpaw struggled to keep up with the tom as he raced after the guards.