The Fourth Apprentice

“This is all we need,” Tigerheart grumbled.

“We’d have been happy about it back at the lake,” Dovepaw pointed out. “I hope it rains there, too.”

As Lionblaze scrambled over the topmost log and stood looking down at the pool, the clouds burst. Rain poured down in a hissing screen that blotted out everything except the logs beneath his paws. His pelt was drenched within heartbeats; he shivered as the cold rain reached his skin.

“Okay,” he yowled, raising his voice to be heard above the drumming of the raindrops. “See if you can loosen some of these logs and branches. Push them down into the streambed.”

He grabbed a long, thin branch in his jaws and hurled it down, then bent his head to grapple with a bigger log. Jigsaw pushed at it from the other end; it rolled slowly to the edge and landed in the stream with a satisfying crash.

“Yes!” Jigsaw yowled.

Farther along the dam Tigerheart and Snowdrop were struggling with a tree trunk, while Seville was showering down twigs and smaller branches into the streambed. Dovepaw was crouched close to Lionblaze, her eyes closed; he guessed she was sending out her senses to find out what the beavers were doing.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

Dovepaw blinked up at him through the driving rain. “Fine,” she replied. “Whitetail and the others are keeping the beavers busy.”

Lionblaze twitched his ears. “Good. Now come help me with this log. Otherwise every cat will start wondering what you’re doing.”

Dovepaw glared at him; Lionblaze knew how she felt about keeping her powers a secret, but he didn’t see what else they could do. Slipping on the wet logs, she struggled to his side and put her shoulder to the log he was trying to shift. Lionblaze thrust hard at it and felt it start to move, rolling faster and faster until it tipped over the edge and fell into the stream.

“Well done!” Lionblaze panted. “We—”

He broke off as the terrified screech of a cat cut through the hiss of the rain. A couple of tail-lengths farther along the dam, Lionblaze spotted Tigerheart’s paws skid from under him; the young warrior went plummeting down toward the stream, landing with a splash where rain was pooling on the stony bed.

Before Lionblaze could find a way to help him, he made out movement down below and Tigerheart appeared, clawing his way determinedly up the stack of logs. His mud-soaked fur stuck out in spikes, but his eyes gleamed with determination.

“Are you okay?” Lionblaze called out.

“No, I’m furious!” Tigerheart hauled himself onto the top of the dam. “I’d like to turn every one of those beavers into fresh-kill.”

“He’s okay,” Dovepaw murmured.

Lionblaze waved his tail at the ShadowClan cat, then began testing which of the logs around him could be dislodged next. They all seemed to be stuck fast, bound together with mud and twigs.

Then he heard Petalfur calling from farther down the mound. “Hey, we need some help down here!”

Heading toward the sound of the she-cat’s voice, Lionblaze was joined by the three kittypets. Their fur was plastered to their bodies and their eyes were wild with fear. But they didn’t hesitate, scrambling across the logs to answer Petalfur’s call.

I’ll never feel the same about kittypets after tonight, Lionblaze thought.

Petalfur and Toadfoot were clinging to the dam two or three tail-lengths above the pool. Rain stippled the surface while black water sucked at the lowest logs. A dark hole gaped in the mound beside Toadfoot and Petalfur, with a huge tree trunk poking out of it. “We pulled out some of the mud and twigs,” Petalfur explained. “If we can shift that trunk, I think a lot of the dam will go with it.”

“Okay, let’s try,” Lionblaze meowed.

Glancing around, he saw that Dovepaw and Tigerheart had also clambered down to join them. “Dovepaw, you’re the smallest,” he called. “Can you go right inside and push from there?”

Dovepaw gave him a tense nod and vanished into the hole. The rest of the cats lined up against the tree trunk and started to push. At first Lionblaze couldn’t feel it move at all.

“Harder!” he yowled. “Jigsaw, push more from your end! Toadfoot, can you wriggle underneath and pull out more of the mud?”

Gradually, as all the cats struggled and panted, the tree trunk began to shift. The outer end swung around; Lionblaze heard a crunching sound from inside the dam.

“Dovepaw, get out!” he screeched.