River Of Fire

“Oh, yes, no problem,” Velvet replied. “If you don’t mind?” she mewed, with a questioning glance at Birchfall.

Birchfall looked surprised, but for answer he sat down and stretched out the injured paw. “I’d put up with a badger if it could get rid of this wretched thing,” he meowed.

After making sure Velvet knew what she was doing, Alderheart was turning to Cherryfall when Sorrelstripe came padding over from the nursery.

“Is Briarlight okay?” Alderheart asked her.

“Yes, she’s settled in again,” the brown she-cat replied. “But I have to tell you . . . I vomited while we were up in the tunnel. And my belly aches really badly.”

Oh, no, not another one, Alderheart thought. Aloud he mewed, “You need watermint, and—”

He broke off as the skies opened again and without any warning rain began falling in torrents, a renewed storm even fiercer than the one before. Alderheart’s pelt was soaked in heartbeats.

“Quick, into the den!” he yowled, turning to the other cats. “Squeeze inside and—”

An enormous crack interrupted him, and another claw of lightning crashed down, impossibly bright and leaving Alderheart half blinded and stumbling through the puddles. As his vision cleared, he saw orange light flaring into the sky.

Fire had struck again, but this time it was much closer. The ominous glow was lighting up the sky over the territories of WindClan and RiverClan.

CHAPTER 13

Twigpaw stuck her head out of the nursery and gazed out into the storm. She could make out Alderheart at the opposite side of the camp, yowling louder than the thunder that echoed and echoed around the stone hollow.

“Bramblestar! Bramblestar!”

The Clan leader was already racing down the tumbled rocks.

“Fire!” Alderheart yowled again, dashing to meet his Clan leader in the center of the camp. “It’s not the one I saw at first, in Velvet’s Twolegplace. This is on the other side of the lake. WindClan or RiverClan might need our help.”

Twigpaw shuddered, sure that this was the storm StarClan had warned them about. Memories of her vision at the Moonpool haunted her. Has lightning struck another Clan’s camp?

Velvet, the long-haired kittypet, appeared from the medicine-cat den and joined Alderheart and Bramblestar, mewing in shock. As the thunder died away, Twigpaw could hear what they were saying.

“If Alderheart’s treated your wounds, perhaps you should head back toward the Twolegplace,” Bramblestar mewed curtly. “If Clan cats are hurt, we may need the space in the medicine cats’ den.”

“No, they can’t,” Alderheart objected. “Velvet knows about healing, and if the fire’s as out of control as it looks, then some of the RiverClan cats might be injured. Leafpool and Jayfeather are still sick, so we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Bramblestar agreed reluctantly. “And there’s no time to stand around arguing. We have to go now!”

Twigpaw raced out into the storm, ignoring the mud that splashed up around her, and skidded to a halt beside her Clan leader. “I want to go!” she gasped.

“And me!” another voice piped up behind her.

Glancing over her shoulder, Twigpaw saw that Finpaw had followed her. She gave him an approving flick with her tail, admiring the young tom’s courage.

Bramblestar dived into the warriors’ den and emerged a moment later with Sparkpelt and Larksong. Ambermoon and Rosepetal appeared hard on their paws.

“We’ll come too,” Rosepetal announced.

Bramblestar took the lead as the cats left the camp and plunged into the forest, heading for the lake. The darkness under the trees was so thick that Twigpaw could hardly make out the tail of Ambermoon, who was just in front of her. The heavy rain had made the ground spongy; Twigpaw struggled to run, but her paws were clogged with mud. As she forced her aching legs to carry her, she pictured the terrible vision she had seen at the Moonpool, smoldering trees and undergrowth as fire roared through a camp, devouring everything in its path.

I thought I was seeing the ThunderClan camp at the Moonpool . . . but maybe I was wrong. Twigpaw’s relief that the destruction was happening to a different camp was mixed with guilt and anxiety for whichever Clan was facing the fire.

Is my vision really happening now? Will we be too late?

Once the patrol broke out of the trees to reach the lakeshore, the going became easier. The rain had lessened, too; now it was no more than a fine drizzle, with gaps in the clouds where fitful moonlight showed through. For a heartbeat Twigpaw felt relieved, then realized that the heavy rain might have helped to put the fire out. There was nothing to stop it now.