Path Of A Warrior

“This is a waste of time,” Tigerclaw muttered. “We should be attacking the camp, not wandering around at the edge of RiverClan’s territory.”

“Sunstar wants us to come from this direction,” Bluefur mewed sharply. “And we’re not planning to fight unless we have to.” The blue-gray she-cat looked preoccupied, her eyes searching the open plains of RiverClan’s territory as if there was something she was expecting, or hoping, to see. Tigerclaw narrowed his amber eyes at her balefully, but said nothing.

As Redpaw followed Frostpaw onto the bridge, he wrinkled his nose at the sharp, unnatural Twoleg scent. It smelled strange.

They were only a few paces across when a cry sounded in the distance. Stormtail’s head shot up. “That’s Smallear,” he meowed. “They’re fighting.”

Another agonized yowl made all the cats flinch. “Dappletail,” Bluefur observed tensely. “It sounds like she’s in trouble.”

“Come on!” Tigerclaw yowled. He began to run, easily shouldering past the apprentices. Redpaw tensed, running after him, the surface of the Twoleg bridge hard beneath his paws.

Tigerclaw was side by side with Bluefur at the front of the patrol when a sudden harsh screech came from above. A huge brown shape blocked out the sun, swooping down at them. Panicked, Redpaw dodged backward, but Bluefur and Tigerclaw were on their hind legs, their claws extended, swiping at the brown thing above them, which Redpaw could now see was feathered—a bird!

“Protect the apprentices!” Stormtail yowled, and the other warriors began aiming sharp-clawed blows at the bird, too.

The bird screeched again and rose out of their reach. Its yellow eyes glared at them beadily, and its tawny wings were spread wide. A hawk! Redpaw realized. Sparrowpelt had told him how dangerous the huge birds could be. “They’ll carry a kit off to eat if they can,” he remembered his mentor saying. “Or even a lone full-grown cat, but they’re no match for a whole patrol.” They’d attack smaller cats, Redpaw remembered, ones they could lift in their claws. He gulped, flinching. He and Willowpaw were the smallest cats here.

“Bunch together,” Poppydawn instructed, and Sparrowpelt and Stormtail hurried back toward the apprentices, herding them into a smaller, tighter group.

Redpaw couldn’t take his eyes off the hawk circling above them. Its long, sharp talons and the cruel curve of its beak looked horribly dangerous. He realized just how exposed they were on the bridge, with nothing between them and the vicious bird, no trees or bushes to shelter beneath.

“Run!” Bluefur yowled. She pointed her tail toward a small grove of birch trees near the far end of the bridge. “Get under those trees!”

Warm pelts brushed against Redpaw’s as the rest of the patrol began to run. Redpaw wanted to run with them, but he felt as if his paws were stuck to the Twoleg bridge. He crouched low, panting. I have to run.

He couldn’t run.

He looked up just as the hawk swooped lower, its huge wings fully extended. Redpaw backed away quickly, his paws scrabbling against the hard surface of the bridge. The space between him and the rest of the patrol widened.

I’m going the wrong way!

Everything was slowing down, everything except for Redpaw’s heart, which was beating faster and faster. He gasped for air, his paws feeling too slow and heavy to lift.

“Redpaw!” Willowpaw wailed from the other end of the bridge. The others had noticed at last that he hadn’t run with them. He’d been left behind.

If I run now, maybe I can still get away.

But the hawk was circling above him now, coming lower and lower. Redpaw could see the bright gleam of its beady eyes. He cringed back, flattening his body against the bridge.

“Run, Redpaw!” Sparrowpelt yowled. He and Tigerclaw were racing back toward Redpaw, their long strides eating up the distance between them, but the hawk was closer. It dived toward him, its talons extended. Redpaw couldn’t breathe.

A hawk will go for a lone cat.

And, with nothing to hide him from the diving hawk, Redpaw had never felt so alone.

Chapter Three

The hawk screeched, its shadow falling over Redpaw. It was so huge above him, so much larger than he was, that it could probably swallow him whole, he thought, his heart pounding hard. He squeezed his eyes tightly closed.

Redpaw whimpered, his ears pressed flat against his head.

The bird’s next screech was almost drowned out by a powerful snarl. Redpaw’s eyes snapped open just in time to see Tigerclaw slam into the hawk in midair, knocking it with a thud into the side of the bridge beside Redpaw.

The hawk slashed at Tigerclaw with its beak, giving an angry squawk. Tigerclaw dodged backward easily, using his big paws to pin the huge bird’s wings to the bridge. He began ripping away feathers, blood beading in red droplets across the bird’s brown wings. The hawk thrashed, almost throwing him off, but Tigerclaw held on.