Hollyleaf’s Story

Fallen Leaves put on a burst of speed and Hollyleaf ran to keep up with him. The walls of the tunnel emerged from the shadows and she could see the outline of the cat in front of her. Hollyleaf couldn’t tell where the light was coming from, and for once she didn’t instantly look down to check where she was putting her paws. She knew the floor was smooth and level here—no loose pebbles had tripped her up so far, and there hadn’t been any sharp inclines.

Fallen Leaves turned to look at her, his eyes gleaming in the semidarkness. “Okay to go a bit faster?” he meowed. There was a hint of challenge in his voice.

“Of course!” Hollyleaf replied. Her injured leg wasn’t aching in the slightest, and she was ready to use muscles that had been kept still for too long.

She hardly had time to take a breath before Fallen Leaves raced away. His ginger-and-white pelt was almost instantly swallowed up by the shadows beyond the reach of the pale light. This time Hollyleaf didn’t think twice about following him. Her whiskers quivered with the effort of feeling for the walls on either side, and she kept her weight low over her paws so that she could adjust to changes in the floor of the tunnel. It started to slope down steeply, so Hollyleaf rocked backward until her front paws were doing little more than feeling the way, keeping her balanced on her haunches. After a while her hind leg began to hurt, but then the tunnel flattened out and Hollyleaf was able to run at full-pelt again. She could hear Fallen Leaves ahead of her, and she was starting to know when the tunnel curved or hit an incline from the sound of his paws.

When they burst into a small cave that was filled with sunlight from a crack in the roof, Hollyleaf was almost disappointed. The cats stopped for a moment, panting.

“That was fun!” Hollyleaf gasped.

“You’re doing really well!” Fallen Leaves purred admiringly.

“Thanks!” Hollyleaf looked around. “Where are we? I mean, in relation to outside?”

“We’ve come to the other side of the hills,” Fallen Leaves explained. “That tunnel over there”—he nodded to a gap in the wall—“leads out if you follow the scent of trees when you reach the fork.”

Hollyleaf tipped back her head and stared at the ceiling. Pointed stone blades hung down, ringed with delicate lines. A drip of water clung to each tip. She didn’t know the territory above them, not if it was beyond Clan boundaries. But it was weird to think that caves like this, and long winding tunnels, had been beneath her paws all the time.

“We should head back,” Fallen Leaves meowed. “You don’t want to hurt your leg. Come on, let’s go a different way.”

Before Hollyleaf could protest that her leg was fine, he darted into a side tunnel. “Wait for me!” Hollyleaf squeaked playfully. She raced into the darkness, stretching her neck until her muzzle bumped against cold fur. “Caught you!” she teased.

Fallen Leaves chirped with amusement. “We’ll see about that!” He lengthened his stride and pulled ahead.

Hollyleaf leaped forward, but her toe caught on a loose stone and she stumbled. Regaining her balance, she stopped to listen. Fallen Leaves’s paws sounded faintly somewhere down the tunnel. Hollyleaf set off, but almost at once she crashed into the wall because she was so busy straining her ears for footsteps. She paused and shook her head. Focus! She straightened her whiskers with a flick of her paw and started trotting down the tunnel. She could definitely hear Fallen Leaves ahead of her. A breeze on her face revealed a tunnel leading off to one side. Hollyleaf instinctively turned her head to look but it was so dark she couldn’t see any change in the shadows around her. She fought down a pulse of alarm and sniffed the empty space where the side tunnel began. There was no trace of warmth or fur, no sign that Fallen Leaves had gone this way. Had he kept to the main tunnel, then? Hollyleaf pricked her ears. The silence pressed around her, heavy as water filling her ears. She forced herself to walk forward, and jumped as she heard the faintest sound of paw steps. She stopped, straining to listen. The footsteps had stopped. Hollyleaf looked down at her paws, even though she couldn’t see them. Mouse-brain! She’d been listening to the echo of her own steps. She was completely alone in the darkness.

A wail rose in her throat and she swallowed to keep it down. Her pelt stood on end and she felt her paws start to tremble. Surely Fallen Leaves would notice she wasn’t behind him? Or would he assume she’d found a different way back? She’d been running so confidently after him. Hollyleaf took a step forward and her head thudded against rock. Reeling, she jumped sideways and hit her shoulder against the opposite wall. Had the tunnel shrunk? Were the walls closing in on her, slowly crushing her to nothing?

“Hollyleaf!” A whisper beside her made Hollyleaf almost jump out of her skin. “Are you okay?” Fallen Leaves asked, coming closer until his muzzle touched her ears. “What happened?”