Sign Of The Moon

But there was no answer, and the mournful sound went on and on. Gradually the roar of the waterfall replaced the distant cries, and Jayfeather became aware of soft whispering, much closer to him. The shadowy shapes faded into blackness as he woke from troubled sleep.

“Don’t worry, Lark.” Jayfeather recognized the voice of Brook’s kit Pine. “He’s blind! He won’t know we’re creeping up on him.”

Oh, won’t he?

Jayfeather tensed his muscles as he detected the pad of tiny paws on the stone floor of the cave, and heard a stifled mrrow of laughter. He waited as their scent grew stronger, and he sensed soft breath riffling the tips of his whiskers.

“Looking for something?” As he spoke, Jayfeather leaped to his paws.

Two high-pitched squeals bounced around the cave. He listened with satisfaction to the sound of paw steps skittering away.

“Mother, that weird cat scared us!”

“He’s going to eat us!”

Jayfeather’s satisfaction faded and his pelt grew hot with embarrassment. They’re only small. They didn’t mean any harm.

“Sorry!” he called out. “I wouldn’t hurt you, kits!”

He could still sense the young cats’ fear, and heard Brook’s gentle voice from the other side of the cave as she soothed them.

“Mouse dung!” he muttered.

“I wouldn’t worry.” Another voice spoke closer to him, and after a heartbeat’s thought Jayfeather recognized the voice of the prey-hunter Screech. “I saw them stalking you. They could do with a few lessons in respect.” Turning away, he added, “It’s hard for them. They’re strong and active, but they’re not allowed outside the cave at all until they become to-bes.”

Jayfeather nodded, reminding himself to apologize to Brook later. He climbed out of the dip in the cave floor where he had slept, and began to groom himself, hissing with annoyance at the downy feathers that clung to his pelt.

Give me moss any day!

“Hey, Jayfeather!” Dovewing’s excited voice broke in on his thoughts. “Crag has invited Foxleap and me to go on a border patrol.”

Jayfeather could feel how eager she was to get out of the cave and start exploring. “That’s good,” he mewed. “But be careful, and don’t forget to keep your ears open.”

Dovewing sighed. “I always do.”

Squirrelflight padded up with Brook. The two kits were behind them. Jayfeather could picture them peering at him, round-eyed, from the safety of their mother’s hindquarters.

“Brook and I are going hunting,” Squirrelflight announced.

“Stormfur is coming, too,” Brook added. “Talon and Bird will look after the kits, Jayfeather, so they shouldn’t bother you again.”

“We don’t want to stay in the cave,” Lark squeaked.

“Yeah, that blind cat might scare us again,” Pine added.

“Nonsense!” Stormfur meowed as he joined them. “You startled Jayfeather, that’s all. You should say sorry.”

“Sorry,” Pine muttered.

“We won’t do it again,” Lark mewed, then added to her brother in a whisper, “It was fun, though!”

“While we’re out,” Stormfur went on to the kits, “you can ask Talon to tell you the story of Sharptooth, and how I first came to the mountains with the cats from the Clans.”

“Yes!” Lark jumped up and down.

“That’s the best story!” Pine squealed, as both kits scurried off to where the elders made their nests.

Jayfeather was aware of an orderly bustle in the cave as the patrols gathered together and went out. No cat was giving them orders; they all seemed to know what to do and what their duties were without being told by a senior member of the Tribe.

Where’s Stoneteller? Shouldn’t he be supervising this?

But there was no sign of the Tribe’s old Healer. Jayfeather couldn’t even pick up his scent.

“Will you be okay, left behind?” Squirrelflight asked Jayfeather as her patrol was moving off.

“Yes, of course,” Jayfeather replied, wondering why she bothered to ask. No harm is going to come to me in here. He could sense Squirrelflight’s awkwardness, and wondered why she was delaying when Brook and Stormfur were already waiting beside the waterfall for their turn to take the path that led out onto the mountain.

“Jayfeather…” she began quietly after a couple of heartbeats, “have you worked out why we’re here?”

Jayfeather shook his head. “No,” he admitted. “I have no idea.”

Squirrelflight suppressed a sigh. He knew that she wanted to ask more, but just then Brook called to her from across the cavern.

“Coming!” Squirrelflight called back. “We’ll talk later,” she added to Jayfeather before she bounded away.

Once the patrols had gone, the cave fell quiet, except for the roar of the water; Jayfeather was growing so used to the sound that he hardly noticed it anymore. It’s so different from our camp, he thought. There’s always something going on there, even when the patrols are out. He went on with his grooming; before he had finished he heard the kits come bouncing back into the middle of the cavern, followed by the slower paw steps of Talon and Bird.

“Okay, we’re going to play a game,” Talon instructed, raising his voice over the excited squeaks of the kits. “This bunch of feathers is a bird.”