Firestar’s Quest

“Petal is a kittypet,” Rainfur explained. “She lives downriver”—he waved his tail toward the opposite side of the gorge—“with an old Twoleg who hardly ever feeds her. She used to sneak out to meet me, and I used to catch prey for her. I tried to persuade her to come and live with me, but she was scared, especially when she found out she had kits coming. She thought the Twoleg would care for them.”

“When he didn’t care for her?” Sandstorm asked, shocked.

Rainfur shook his head helplessly. “I couldn’t persuade her.

But now that the kits are born the Twoleg is just as bad, if not worse. Petal is getting weaker and weaker, and she hasn’t enough milk to keep the kits alive. You’ve got to help us!”

Leafdapple glanced at Firestar. “I think we should go.”

“Just a moment.” Without waiting for Firestar to answer, Sharpclaw stepped forward, giving Rainfur a suspicious look.

“If your mate could sneak out to see you, why can’t she sneak out now, and bring the kits with her?” To Firestar he added, “I think he might be setting a trap for us.”

Rainfur’s neck fur began to bristle. “Why would I want to do that?” he meowed. “She can’t get out because the Twoleg has blocked the gap she used.” A shiver ran through him, and he clawed the ground in frustration. “They’re all going to die, and I don’t know what to do!”

“We’ll come,” Firestar decided. “How many kits?”

“Two,” Rainfur replied, blinking in shocked relief.

“Okay,” meowed Firestar. “Sharpclaw, Leafdapple, Patchfoot, you come with me. That’ll be enough to distract the Twoleg and carry the kits out. Sandstorm, you’re in charge until I get back.”

“Fine.” Sandstorm’s tail curled up. “Good luck,” she added.

Rainfur led the SkyClan patrol downstream, and across the river by the tree trunk. They climbed the cliff and crossed the SkyClan border scent marks, still heading downstream.

This was new territory to Firestar; he pricked his ears, all his senses alert, but nothing disturbed the quiet of the woods.

Eventually Rainfur halted, raising his tail in warning. “The Twoleg nest is just beyond here,” he explained, nodding toward a clump of brambles. “We need to be careful the Twoleg doesn’t see us. He’s thrown things at me before now.”

Firestar took the lead, creeping around the bramble thicket with his belly fur brushing the grass. He paused when the Twoleg nest came in sight, scanning it carefully. A wooden fence surrounded it, but it was partly broken down, with bushes crowding up against it on both sides. Beyond it the nest was dark and silent. Firestar could pick up strong scents of Twoleg and cat, but he couldn’t see any movement.

“Okay, come on,” he murmured over his shoulder. “But keep quiet.”

He crept forward again, following the Twoleg fence until he came to a gap in the bottom, where he slid into the garden.

He found himself among thick bushes, so overgrown that hardly any sunlight penetrated their branches. Beyond them was a stretch of long, ragged grass, leading up to the nest itself. Twoleg flowers edged the grass, but they were straggling and overgrown, not neat like in most Twoleg gardens.

Creepers were growing up the walls of the nest, and Firestar spotted a hole in the roof. It looked almost as derelict as the abandoned nest, where he and Sandstorm had stayed on their way upriver.

“Twolegs live here?” Leafdapple whispered from beside Firestar’s shoulder.

“That’s where Petal is.” Rainfur pointed with his tail toward a gap in the wall of the nest.

Firestar heard a faint mewing, and made out a pale blur behind the hard transparent stuff that filled the gap.

“There she is!” Rainfur mewed. He shot past Firestar and leaped onto the ledge outside the hole in the wall.

“Idiot,” Sharpclaw muttered. “He’ll get us all caught.”

But almost at once Rainfur leaped down again and slunk back to rejoin the group, barely visible in the long grass. “She wants to come with us,” he reported. “But we have to get her out first.”

Staying alert for any Twoleg noise, Firestar turned to the rest of his patrol. “Any ideas?”

Sharpclaw surveyed the nest with narrowed eyes. “Maybe we should take a look around the other side. We need a way of getting in.”

“But Rainfur said the Twoleg keeps Petal shut up,” Leafdapple pointed out. “That suggests there won’t be anywhere to get in or out.”

“Then we have to make the Twoleg open the door.”

Firestar glanced at each of his warriors in turn: Patchfoot looked blank, and Sharpclaw was tearing impatiently at the earth beneath his paws. Rainfur kept casting anxious glances back at the nest, while Leafdapple’s eyes were thoughtful.

“Some cat will have to get in there,” she mewed. “If Petal’s as weak as Rainfur says, she won’t be able to carry the kits out.”

Firestar could think of a couple of ideas, but he wanted the SkyClan cats to come up with their own solutions. They would never become independent if they relied on him for everything.

“What would fetch the Twoleg outside?” he prompted.