Bluestar's Prophecy

Feeling her fur spike with anger, Bluefur returned to the hunt. Now she could smell rabbit. Tiny drops of fresh dung littered the top of the boulders, reminding her of the old apprentice trick of telling kits they were tasty berries. She followed the scent trail toward the leafy bank that spilled onto the top of Snakerocks. Silently she crept across the stone, her whiskers stiff with excitement.

Something white was twitching beneath a bush up ahead.

Bluefur tensed and dropped into her hunting crouch. Drawing herself silently forward, she breathed in so her belly didn’t brush the leaves. The rabbit scent made her mouth water.

“Watch out!” Thistlepaw was yowling yet again. What was the mouse-brain playing at this time? Bluefur blocked out the noise. Nothing was going to stop her from getting the rabbit.

It bobbed deeper into the bush.

Bluefur followed, slowly pushing her head between the leaves. There it was, grazing on the soft shoots that sprouted from the middle of the bush. Bluefur unsheathed her claws, stilled her tail, and leaped.

She landed squarely on the rabbit and made the killing bite before it realized what was happening. A twitch, then another, and it was dead. Bluefur dragged it out from the bush, pleased at the weight of it. It would feed the elders and Leopardfoot.

“DOG!” Thistlepaw’s shout suddenly pierced her ear fur. There was fear in his wail this time. Bluefur’s pelt stood on end as she smelled the dog stench and heard giant clumsy paws thundering on the forest floor only tail-lengths away. With the rabbit still in her jaws she launched herself at the nearest tree trunk, scrabbling up it like a squirrel, her neck straining from the weight of her catch. Jaws snapped below her and she flicked her tail out of the way just in time as the dog jumped around the base of the tree, snarling and snapping, its eyes wild with excitement. Bluefur scrambled higher, her claws gouging bark, sending it showering down as the dog stretched its forepaws higher up the trunk. Heart thudding, she scanned the forest. She could make out Robinwing’s brown pelt on a branch of a tree nearby.

“Thistlepaw!” Adderfang was calling.

“Up here.” The answer came from somewhere level with her head, and Bluefur guessed the apprentice was safely up a tree as well. She wanted to check whether Smallear was okay, but there was no way she could call out without dropping the rabbit. She was relieved when Adderfang yowled the warrior’s name instead and Smallear replied, sounding breathless but intact.

“Safe!”

“Bluefur?” Adderfang was calling for her now. Bluefur tightened her grip on the rabbit, unable to reply. How would she get down? This dog would never give up the promise of cat and rabbit. The blood tang must already be singing on its tongue.

A Twoleg barked. The dog froze, then growled with annoyance as the Twoleg barked again. Whining, the dog finally dropped to the ground and lolloped away.

Her jaws aching from the pull of the rabbit, Bluefur waited until the swishing of both Twoleg and dog had faded; then slowly, shakily, she let herself drop, paw over paw, down the trunk. She landed on all four feet, claws burning, and hurried back to the top of Snakerocks.

“Bluefur!”

Her Clanmates were circling in the clearing below, calling anxiously.

Quickly she bounded down the rocks and flung the rabbit at their paws. “Sorry,” she panted. “Couldn’t answer before.”

Robinwing’s eyes glowed. “Nice catch!”

“Didn’t you hear my warning?” Thistlepaw demanded angrily. “I was calling for ages. I heard that dog coming tree-lengths away.”

“I heard it!” Bluefur snapped. She wasn’t going to admit she had ignored it. “But what could I do? I had a mouth full of rabbit.”

Smallear trotted to the roots of an ash tree and dug a sparrow from the leaves that had drifted in a cleft. Adderfang scooted up Snakerocks and retrieved a freshly killed shrew from between two boulders.

“What about my mouse?” Bluefur asked Thistlepaw. Her heart was slowing down and her legs had stopped trembling. She wanted to get back in charge of this patrol.

“Don’t worry, it’s safe,” Thistlepaw retorted, his eyes glittering. He dug in the soil and unearthed the mouse.

“Well done,” Bluefur congratulated him. “I think we have enough.”

“Back to camp?” Robinwing asked.

Bluefur nodded. She picked up her rabbit and headed back toward the ravine.

Thistlepaw was muttering under his breath as she passed him. “What’s the point of making me guard if no one takes any notice?”

“I climbed a tree as soon as you yowled,” Smallear objected.

“Stop complaining.” Adderfang shooed his apprentice forward. “We all escaped.”

“And kept our prey,” Robinwing added.