Sign Of The Moon

“What could happen here?” Rosepetal flicked her ears dismissively as she looked around at the peaceful forest, the trees covered by the green mist of approaching newleaf. “Even the bees are sleepy!”

Her last few words were drowned by the screech of a cat from somewhere close by. “Help! Dog!”

Lionblaze froze. “That’s Bumblestripe!”

“Go!” Cinderheart urged him. When he cast a worried glance at the two younger cats she added, “I’ll keep them safe. Just go!”

Lionblaze leaped over the fallen tree and plunged through the undergrowth, back in the direction of the camp. His heart began to pound as he heard the deep-throated barking of a dog, a defiant cat-shriek cutting across it. Bursting out of a clump of bracken, Lionblaze halted at the edge of a clearing where Bumblestripe, his back arched and his pale fur bristling, stood nose-to-nose with a huge black dog.

“Stay back!” Bumblestripe yowled, stretching out one paw with claws extended. “Stay back or I’ll shred your ears!”

The dog’s mouth gaped, its tongue lolling out between sharp white fangs. It sprang at Bumblestripe; before Lionblaze could do anything, the young tom darted forward, away from the cover of the brambles behind him, and fled across the clearing with the dog snapping at his paws. Bumblestripe clawed his way up the nearest tree and balanced on the lowest branch, looking down. The dog jumped up at him, yelping; Bumblestripe’s dangling tail was no more than a mouse-length away from the deadly paws.

Lionblaze charged forward, letting out an earsplitting yowl. The dog stopped jumping and whipped around, fixing its yellow-eyed glare on him.

“Over here, mange-pelt!” Lionblaze jumped as a voice rang out beside him and he turned his head to see Toadstep scrambling to his side. “Come and get us!”

“You were supposed to stay with Cinderheart!” Lionblaze snapped.

Toadstep’s eyes were blazing. “I want to help you!”

“Get back!” Lionblaze shouldered the black-and-white tom back into the bracken. “Bumblestripe, you’ll be okay,” he called to his other Clanmate. “Try to climb a bit higher.”

He didn’t look to see if Bumblestripe obeyed. All his attention was on the dog. For a moment it had paused, looking baffled, its head swinging from Lionblaze to Bumblestripe and back again. Now it hurtled across the clearing, its jaws wide; Lionblaze could hear its panting breath.

“Stay there!” he hissed at Toadstep, who had lost his balance after Lionblaze shoved him, and was struggling to his paws in the middle of the bracken clump. Leaping out in front of the dog, Lionblaze swerved toward the other side of the clearing, hoping that he could draw it away from his Clanmates.

“No!” Bumblestripe screeched, bouncing on his low branch. “Don’t go that way—Briarlight is there!”

“What?” How could a crippled cat be out in the forest? He couldn’t see Briarlight, but the dog’s breath was hot on his tail, and there was no time to ask questions. Lionblaze knew that he could attack the dog and not be hurt, but that would give away too much with Toadstep and Bumblestripe watching. Especially Toadstep: He has to learn to be more defensive, not just blindly copy me.

As he doubled back, he spotted Cinderheart and Rosepetal at the edge of the clearing, with wide eyes and identical expressions of horror.

“Briarlight is over there!” Lionblaze yowled, gesturing with his tail.

Cinderheart gasped, then began to work her way around the edge of the clearing. The dog immediately veered away and raced after her with a flurry of excited yelps. Lionblaze hurled himself forward to intercept it, keeping his claws sheathed but brushing past its muzzle so that it picked up his scent and swerved away from the she-cats once again. Plunging into the trees, he led it away from the clearing, racing through the ferns in the direction of the lake, with the dog so close that he could hear the rasp of its breath and the pounding of its paws on the ground. He could have saved himself by climbing a tree, but he was afraid that if he did, the dog would turn back into the clearing where Briarlight was lying defenseless.

He could see the glitter of the lake through the trees ahead. And what then? he asked himself. Do I start swimming? His heart thumped and his breath became short; a sharp pain pierced his paw as he trod on a thorn, but he still raced on.

A bramble thicket appeared in front of him; Lionblaze leaped over the outlying tendrils. But he had misjudged the leap; one tendril wrapped around his paw and brought him crashing to the ground. With a startled yowl Lionblaze rolled over and over, halting only when he thumped into a tree. He tried to struggle to his paws, but the tendril was still gripping him tightly. The dog pounded into view, its eyes gleaming when it saw he was trapped.

StarClan help me! Lionblaze prayed.

A screech from overhead made him look up. To his astonishment he spotted Toadstep balancing on the branch of a beech tree. He must have followed us through the forest, like a squirrel!