Darkest Night

It skipped around a cluster of pinecones at the tip of the branch, digging its beak deep into the gaps. Twigpaw ducked low and drew herself along the bark. She moved each paw slowly, keeping them tucked in tight. As long as the sparrow didn’t look up, she’d be close enough to leap in a few more breaths. Slowly. Her thoughts stilled as she focused on her prey. Energy bunched in her hind paws. She drew in a long, slow breath, and then she leaped. Reaching forward, she swiped for the sparrow. Her paws brushed its feathers. As she uncurled her claws to hook it, the branch cracked beneath her.

With a yelp, she felt herself falling. The branch tumbled away, and air rushed around her. Heart lurching, she wailed. Hard wood hit her flank as she thudded against the branch below, and she twisted, trying to grip it with her claws, but she was already slithering down to the next one. It knocked the side of her head with such force that for a moment she saw stars. Pain scorched through her as she fell and landed with a thud on the ground.

“Twigpaw!” Sandynose’s alarmed cry sounded far away. “Are you okay?”

She struggled to free herself from the fog that was trying to drag her down like water. Her head throbbed. Her chest ached. She drew in a shuddering breath and blinked open her eyes.

Sandynose swam above her. The trees behind him seemed to sway.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, his eyes wide with panic.

She hauled herself to her paws, scanning her body, feeling for injuries. Her legs held her. Her body hurt, but she could breathe, and her mind was clearing. She shook out her fur. “I’m okay,” she gasped, still winded.

“Let’s get you back to camp,” Sandynose mewed. “Leafpool should check you over.”

The medicine den felt warm, screened from the mist and damp of the forest.

Twigpaw sat in its shade as Leafpool ran her paws over her spine and legs. “Nothing is broken.”

Sandynose shifted anxiously inside the entrance. “Will she be okay?”

“She was lucky.” Leafpool eyed the tom reproachfully. “There are easier ways to catch prey, you know.”

“I feel fine,” Twigpaw told her quickly. Sandynose was probably already mad at her for being so clumsy. The walk back to camp had revived her, and she felt clearheaded again. The only signs she’d had a fall were a few bruises beneath her pelt and stiffness, which was already easing.

“No dizziness?” Leafpool touched her nose to a spot behind Twigpaw’s ear.

“No.”

“There’s a little swelling here.”

“I guess I hit my head. But I hit so many other parts on the way down, I’m not sure.” She glanced guiltily at Sandynose. “I guess I’m not much of a SkyClan cat.”

“You’re not hurt,” he told her. “That’s all that matters.”

“You should rest here for a day or two,” Leafpool advised. “So I can keep an eye on you.”

The lichen behind Sandynose trembled as Finpaw stuck his head through. “What happened to Twigpaw? I saw Sandynose bring her here.”

“She fell out of a tree,” Leafpool told him.

His eyes widened and he blinked at Twigpaw in alarm. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Her heart lifted at the sight of him. How much warmer his yellow gaze was than his father’s.

“Will you sit with her while I collect herbs?” Leafpool asked the young tom. “I want to get some borage before this mist makes it too damp. I’ll be downstream, where it flows down to the lakeshore. Fetch me if Twigpaw seems unwell.”

Sandynose’s ears twitched. “I can sit with her,” he offered stiffly.

Leafpool swished her tail dismissively. “It’d be better for her to have someone her own age. She’s had a shock and needs distraction.”

Twigpaw’s heart swelled with gratitude to her old Clanmate. Had Leafpool guessed that spending the afternoon here with her mentor would be worse than falling out of the tree?

Leafpool nosed Sandynose out of the den, leaving Twigpaw alone with Finpaw.

“Why were you up a tree?” Finpaw sat beside her.

“Sandynose wants me to learn how to hunt like a SkyClan cat,” Twigpaw told him.

Finpaw rolled his eyes. “He’s obsessed with making every cat act like they are still in the gorge. He told me yesterday he was going to find a cliff so I could practice rock-climbing like a gorge cat. Doesn’t he realize we’re lake cats now? It would be better to learn how to swim.”

Twigpaw shuddered. “Let’s leave swimming to RiverClan.”

“But still,” Finpaw went on. “Pine trees are useless for climbing. They’re so tall and spindly, and there’s so much prey down here on the forest floor.”

Twigpaw wanted to agree, but she felt a tug of loyalty to her mentor. And she knew that, even though Finpaw might criticize his father, he loved and respected Sandynose. “I guess change is hard for older cats,” she mewed. “In ThunderClan, the elders were always complaining about young cats and their silly ideas. I tried to show Graystripe a new hunting move once and he just sniffed and said, ‘A mouse is a mouse. You don’t need new ways to catch them.’”