Crowfeather's Trial

Crowfeather padded over to Breezepelt, avoiding the sleeping bodies of his Clanmates, keeping his head turned away from the empty nest of moss and bracken where Nightcloud used to sleep. His son wanted to find Nightcloud even more than he did. He’d want to go. But by the time Crowfeather reached his son’s nest, Breezepelt had settled down a little, and Crowfeather changed his mind.

It would be unkind to wake him now. Besides, there will be less chance of getting caught if I go alone.

Hesitantly he stretched out a paw and held it just above his son’s shoulder, not quite touching. He almost drew it back, but then he laid it on Breezepelt’s fur, murmuring, “It will be all right.”

He was rewarded by seeing Breezepelt sink into a deeper sleep, though his ears twitched now and again, and he let out faint whimpers. Crowfeather left him and slipped away to the edge of the camp, waiting for the first light of dawn to touch the moor.

As soon as he could make out the line of the ridge above the camp, and the memorial pile of stones, Crowfeather rose to his paws and slid silently out of the camp, stepping as lightly as if he were stalking a mouse. As soon as he was well clear, where no cat was likely to hear him, he picked up his pace and raced down the hill toward the tunnels.

A strong drive to find Nightcloud gave strength and energy to Crowfeather’s limbs. He pushed away any thought of the risks he was taking, except to feel glad that he hadn’t taken Breezepelt with him. He didn’t want to expose his son to any more danger. He’d already been through enough.

Am I worrying about finding Nightcloud because I want to protect Breezepelt? he asked himself. Nightcloud and I weren’t on the best terms when she disappeared, but his life will surely be easier if I bring her back… If nothing else, he won’t have to beat himself up over losing her.

He considered the question for a long time, but he wasn’t sure of his own intentions. He knew he owed Nightcloud a great debt, too… Perhaps I need to repay her for the way things ended between us. Either way, he couldn’t leave her out here. He had to find her — dead or alive. At least then they’d know what happened to her.

Crowfeather didn’t enter the tunnels on the WindClan side. Instead he skirted the steep bank and the dark, gaping holes as he followed his own scent trail back to the border stream. With every paw step he kept his ears pricked and his jaws parted to pick up the faintest sound or scent of the white stoats, but nothing disturbed the silence of the night.

Every hair on his pelt prickled with apprehension as he bounded lightly across the stepping stones and onto ThunderClan territory.

If the ThunderClan cats find me here, after what happened yesterday, he thought, then I’ll really be in trouble. Still, it would be worth it, if he could bring Nightcloud home.

It was too early for the dawn patrol, but Crowfeather stayed alert in case there was a cat or two out for some night hunting. He slid furtively through the undergrowth, shivering as the frosty grass scraped along his pelt. He reached the tunnel entrance where he and Breezepelt had met the ThunderClan cats, but he couldn’t pick up even the faintest trace of Nightcloud there.

His belly was churning as he moved on to where he thought he could find another entrance. He didn’t know this territory well, and every heartbeat that passed made him fear that an unexpected ThunderClan patrol would find him.

The first birds were beginning to twitter as Crowfeather approached the next tunnel entrance, low down between a couple of rocks that jutted out of the forest floor. There he stopped, quivering. A tail-length from the nearest boulder he picked up a scent: faded and stale, but unmistakably Nightcloud’s.

She was here.

Hope sprang up inside Crowfeather at finding proof that Nightcloud had left the tunnels alive, that the stoats hadn’t killed her. Breezepelt was right. She is a fierce warrior…

Then he saw a smear of blood on the rock. No!

She was wounded, then… but how badly? If she escaped from the tunnels, why didn’t she come home? For a moment Crowfeather wondered whether it had something to do with the way he and Nightcloud had argued, then gave his head a dismissive shake.