Sign Of The Moon

The whole bush started to shake as Chasing Clouds dug his claws harder into the branch, trying to tear it away from his daughter’s pelt. As Jayfeather watched, he glimpsed movement at the corner of his eye, and spotted a shrew darting out from the shelter of the bush.

“Yes!”

The shrew was heading straight for Jayfeather, but as he swiped at it, his paws felt slow and clumsy. He grabbed at it with claws outstretched, missing it by a whisker. The shrew veered away and dived into a gap between two rocks before Jayfeather could pounce again.

“Fox dung!” he exclaimed.

“Bad luck.” To Jayfeather’s surprise, Stone Song didn’t sound angry, or even particularly disappointed. “At least it shows that there is prey here,” he went on. “More than the puny little mouse Chasing Clouds caught this morning.”

Chasing Clouds had managed to free Half Moon from the thorns, and she backed out from under the bushes, shivering and craning her neck to see whether she had lost any fur.

“I don’t think there’s anything else under there,” Chasing Clouds meowed. “And the storm is getting worse. We’ll all freeze to death if we get lost out here.”

Stone Song nodded. “Let’s go back to the cave, and we’ll see if we can pick up some prey on the way.”

Taking the lead, he headed back to the top of the gully and then, instead of climbing to the ridge where Half Moon had nearly fallen, he made for a gap between the rocks. Jayfeather thought his paws might freeze to the ground as he followed, stumbling from rock to rock in an effort to find shelter from the wind. Suddenly the air grew darker above him and he let out a groan, wondering what more vile weather the mountains could throw at them. A heartbeat later a rank scent flooded over him and a screech sounded in his ears. The air was full of a storm of wings; horrified, Jayfeather looked up to see a huge brown bird swooping down on them, its talons extended toward Half Moon.

“Look out!” he yowled.

Chasing Clouds and Stone Song flung themselves sideways, out of the path of the bird. Half Moon leaped for the shelter of a rock, but her paws slipped on the ice and she fell with her feet flailing helplessly in the snow. With a triumphant screech the bird hurtled down and fastened its claws into Half Moon’s back. Desperately Jayfeather scrabbled toward her, his paws skidding over the icy rocks. The bird’s outstretched wings seemed to cover the whole sky as Jayfeather flung himself on Half Moon to hold her down, meeting her terrified gaze.

“I won’t let you go!” he gasped, feeling himself lifted into the air as the bird tried to take off again.

A long caterwaul ripped through the air as Chasing Clouds hurled himself at the bird, fastening claws and teeth into one of its wings, dragging it away from his daughter. The bird let go; Jayfeather and Half Moon hit the ground in a tangle of legs and tails. Looking up, the breath driven out of his body, Jayfeather saw the bird twist in the air, throwing Chasing Clouds off its wing. While the big cat lay half stunned, the bird swooped down again and gripped him by the shoulders in its cruel talons.

“No!” Half Moon shrieked.

Together Jayfeather and Stone Song sprang to Chasing Clouds’s side, and hung on to his legs as the bird tried to climb into the sky. For a moment Jayfeather thought it would carry all three of them away. Then they fell to the ground with Chasing Clouds landing heavily on top of them; scarlet blood began to flow over Chasing Clouds’s pale pelt where thorn-sharp claws had ripped his fur away.

The bird’s furious cry was lost in a louder rumble. Jayfeather looked up, dizzy from shock, and saw snow breaking away from the rocks above his head, pouring down toward them in a rolling cloud of white.

“Run!” he croaked feebly.

But the cats barely had time to struggle to their paws before the snow was upon them. Jayfeather lost his balance, tumbling over and over. The mass of snow thundered around him as it swept him down the mountain. The bird had vanished; he lost sight of the other cats. Nothing was left but a storm of white, roaring louder and louder until it blotted out everything.

What’s happening? Jayfeather yowled silently. Is this the end?

Chapter 16

“Come on, move your tail, Mousewhisker! We haven’t got all day!”

Ivypool’s ears flicked up at the sound of Brambleclaw’s cheerful yowl. She was crouching among the ferns at the entrance to the apprentices’ den, watching as a soft milky light strengthened in the sky above the hollow, and the warriors began to emerge for the dawn patrols.