River Of Fire

“Then it’s time you did,” Leafstar snapped, “and stop all this dithering around. We’re not going to keep you here if you don’t contribute.”

A pang of fear shook Violetshine like a gust of icy wind. She mustn’t send Tree away. . . .

“Tree, why don’t you come hunting with me?” she suggested desperately. “While you try to figure it all out, you might as well learn some warrior skills, right?”

Tree blinked, hesitating, then reluctantly mewed, “Okay.”

“Well, thank StarClan for that!” Leafstar exclaimed, still looking irritated. “And thank you, Violetshine. Maybe if Tree tries the warrior way of hunting, he’ll get to like it.”

And maybe hedgehogs fly, Violetshine thought. She knew that she had to find a place for Tree, but she couldn’t imagine what that would be.

As Violetshine led the way across the camp to the fern tunnel, she spotted the group of former ShadowClan cats, all of them glaring after Leafstar as she returned to her den. Scorchfur muttered something to Snowbird with a hostile lash of his tail.

Violetshine suppressed a sigh, reflecting how much tension there had been in the Clan since Leafstar had turned Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker away. Juniperclaw, Scorchfur, and Snowbird had been all but ignoring orders from the leader and deputy, or being as slow and uncooperative as they could. Every one of them had been criticizing Leafstar, loudly and openly where the whole Clan could hear them. Only rebukes from Rowanclaw and Tawnypelt had kept them from outright defiance; they were listening to Rowanclaw as if he were their leader still.

I’m not sure how I would feel if Leafstar had turned my kin away, Violetshine thought. But she wasn’t sure either if she trusted Yarrowleaf and Sleekwhisker. Perhaps Leafstar is right, and this is a time for caution. But then, Tree wondered if they might be good cats . . . .

“Let me show you the hunter’s crouch,” Violetshine mewed when she and Tree were out in the forest. “It’s like this. Keep your paws well tucked in, and your tail close to your side so you don’t alert the prey.”

“Like this?” Tree asked.

Staring at him, Violetshine had to let out a loud mrrow of laughter. Tree had taken up an almost perfect hunter’s crouch, except that he was lying on his back, with his paws in the air.

“What do you expect to catch like that?” she asked. “Low-flying blackbirds?”

Tree rolled over and sprang to his paws. “Well, it’s a bit different from how I usually hunt,” he remarked.

“It’s how we do things out here in the wild.” Violetshine was glad that Leafstar couldn’t see Tree messing around. “Now try it the right way up.”

Tree crouched down, impressing Violetshine this time with how quickly he had mastered the position.

“That’s very good,” she told him. “Now creep forward, setting your paws down as lightly as you can. Remember that a mouse will feel the vibrations of your paws on the ground long before it hears you coming.”

Tree pressed his belly to the ground and began to creep with long, slow movements of his legs. Watching his muscles rippling underneath his pelt, Violetshine realized that he would be a formidable hunter and fighter if he could be bothered to learn.

Tree went on creeping until he came to the top of a steep bank. Instead of stopping, he launched himself downward and rolled head over paws until he landed with a crunch in a heap of dead leaves.

“I think your mouse just escaped,” Violetshine meowed drily, peering down at him from the top of the bank.

Tree sat up with a leaf stuck to the top of his head. “You never told me to stop.” His voice was reproachful, but his eyes were sparkling with mischief.

Violetshine skidded down the bank to join him. “You daft furball!” she exclaimed, butting his shoulder with her head. “Honestly, how did you ever manage to feed yourself when you were a loner?”

“Ah, I had a special move for that,” Tree explained. “I turned myself into a bush.”

Violetshine rolled her eyes.

“No, really. Shall I show you?”

“Go on, then,” Violetshine responded with a sigh.

“Okay. You start by crouching down like this,” Tree instructed her, tucking his paws underneath him in something like the hunter’s crouch. “That’s right,” he mewed as Violetshine copied him. “Now think bush!”

Violetshine stared at him. “Do what?”

“Think bush. Like your legs are branches and your claws are twigs, and you have leaves opening up all over your pelt. You’ve got to keep really still, and then your prey will come to you.”

While Tree was still speaking, incredibly, a mouse went skittering past. The yellow tom lazily stretched out one paw and slammed it down on top of the prey. “Like that,” he finished.