Firestar’s Quest

The ginger tom halted, glaring at him. “What now?”

“We must stick together,” Firestar explained, drawing the rest of the patrol into a huddle around him with a gesture of his tail. “If they separate us, we’re finished. We have to get outside, where we won’t be trapped.”

He had hardly finished speaking when the first wave of rats crashed over them. Facing outward, lashing out with claws and teeth, the patrol began to force a way through them, back toward the gap where they had entered. There was a second gap, but it was on the far side of the barn, and even more rats blocked their way to it. Firestar reminded himself that he had six lives to lose, while the cats around him had only one; he would have to fight harder to match their courage.

Rats swarmed around them, climbing on top of one another in their eagerness to sink in claws and teeth. But there were too many of them; they hadn’t the space to fight effectively. Firestar took a bite on one foreleg and a few nasty scratches around his head, but with the patrol tightly clustered together the rats couldn’t attack from behind, couldn’t attack at all without coming within reach of the warriors’ furious defense.

The gap was only a couple of tail-lengths away; Firestar began to hope that they would make it out into the open.

Then he heard a fearsome screech from outside. Rainfur leaped through the gap, with the rest of the patrol streaming behind him, and fell on the rats from behind.

Firestar let out a yowl of frustration. “No! Get back!”

The outside patrol obviously thought they had to come to the rescue; instead, they were putting every cat in worse danger. Screeching knots of cats and rats writhed on the floor in front of the gap, making it harder to get out. The outside patrol was already separated, each one fighting alone against a swarm of rats.

Before Firestar could yowl an order, his own patrol sprang apart, leaping to help their Clanmates. The whole barn exploded in blood and rage. The warriors’ furious screeches mingled with the dying screams of the rats, yet where one fell, two more took its place. Firestar spotted Clovertail batting rats away with both forepaws; Sharpclaw and Cherrypaw fought side by side, forcing their way through wave after wave of attacking rats.

“Out! Every cat get out!” Firestar screeched.

Sandstorm leaped across a cluster of snarling rats and landed at his side. “Sorry!” She gasped. “I couldn’t stop them from coming in.” She bared her teeth at a rat as it scuttled toward her; it flinched and spun around, right into Firestar’s outstretched paws. Fierce satisfaction surged through Firestar as he clawed its life out; whatever the end might be, it was good to fight side by side with Sandstorm again.

Gradually the SkyClan cats won their way back to the gap.

Leafdapple shoved Sparrowpaw out and followed him.

Patchfoot slipped out after her, then Shortwhisker. Clovertail shook off one rat with its fangs in her shoulder, struck another across the side of the head with one paw, and sprang out into the open. For the first time, Firestar let himself hope that they would all get out.

He spotted Sharpclaw and Cherrypaw side by side a couple of fox-lengths away, in the midst of a ring of dead or dying rats. “Out!” he yowled, waving his tail at the gap.

Sharpclaw snapped something at Cherrypaw; she opened her jaws to argue, and while she was distracted a rat leaped onto her back. She staggered, her claws skidding on the blood-soaked floor, then collapsed on one side. Sharpclaw leaped for her, tearing the rat off her back and shaking it fiercely before tossing it aside. Hauling his stunned apprentice to her paws, he clawed a way through the horde of rats, driving them back like leaves in the wind. With relief, Firestar saw mentor and apprentice disappear through the gap.

For a heartbeat he thought that only he and Sandstorm were left in the barn. Then he spotted Rainfur still two or three fox-lengths from the gap, in a circle of rats that was gradually closing on him. Rainfur glanced back to see where the gap was, and at that moment a huge rat leaped at him and fastened its fangs in his throat. The SkyClan warrior vanished under a heap of squirming bodies.

“Get out!” Firestar ordered Sandstorm. “I’ll help Rainfur.”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Sandstorm replied.

There was no time to argue. Firestar sprang forward, leaping over one rat and knocking a second out of his path, to fling himself on the creatures that were attacking Rainfur.

The gray warrior was barely visible under the mass of rats.

They split apart at the sound of Firestar’s furious yowl, and Rainfur scrambled to his feet, only to be pulled down again.

Firestar landed among them, clawing and spitting. He bit down on the neck of one rat, and it slumped to the floor.

Another fell back, writhing and squealing, its blood spurting as he raked his claws across its eyes and muzzle. He had almost reached Rainfur when more rats surged around him, and a weight landed on his back, carrying him off his paws.