Sunrise

“So we’ve found a different way of moving around our territory,” Jingo went on. Gracefully she leaped up onto the top of the Twoleg fence. “Ready?” she called, glancing over her shoulder at the Clan cats.

Brambleclaw quickly leaped up beside her, followed by the rest of the patrol. Jingo set off, balancing easily on the narrow fence, then turning a corner to pad past several Twoleg dens, with a small Thunderpath on the other side.

Hollyleaf stiffened as the door to one of the Twoleg nests opened and a little white dog bolted out; its high-pitched yapping filled the air.

“It’s okay,” Jingo reassured the Clan cats. “That’s a housedog. It’s a stupid nuisance, just like all the others, but it’s not dangerous like the wild dogs.”

Hollyleaf had to take her word for it, but as she watched the dog bounding along the bottom of the fence and scrabbling about in the earth under a bush, she was glad that she wasn’t down below where it could get at her. She dug her claws more firmly into the narrow strip of wood under her paws and focused on the tip of Lionblaze’s tail.

The fence came to an end at a row of small dens with flat roofs. “These are monster nests,” Jingo told them, leaping up onto the nearest roof.

“Monsters have nests?” Hazeltail exclaimed.

“Sure.” Jingo waved her tail to where a Twoleg was approaching at the edge of the Thunderpath. “Watch.”

The Clan cats jumped up onto the roof beside her and watched the Twoleg as it opened the door of one of the dens and vanished inside. A moment later they heard the throaty growl of a monster. It nosed its way out of the den and headed down the Thunderpath, with the Twoleg in its belly.

“Great StarClan, this is where they sleep!” Birchfall’s neck fur was bristling.

“Yes, but they can’t climb up here,” Jingo meowed. “Let’s get on.”

The patrol easily bounded across the flat roofs until the cats came to another fence and more Twoleg dens. Daylight was strengthening and a stiff wind had sprung up; Hollyleaf gripped with her claws at every step, scared that she would be blown off her skinny perch. So this was what Jingo meant by not setting paw on the ground. Not flying, but staying high up, out of reach of the wild dogs. She tried to imagine not daring to set paw on the ground in the forest, and having to leap from tree to tree to avoid being chased and killed.

No cat should be forced to live like this.

At the next corner, the fence gave way to a wall built of red stone; the top was wider and it was easier to pad along. The Thunderpath here was wider too, with stone trees growing at both edges, and a few monsters prowling along it. Every so often the wall was interrupted by a lower section of wooden fence; Jingo slid down onto it, padded quickly across, and leaped up onto the wall on the other side. The Clan cats followed. Hollyleaf’s pelt prickled with fear as she remembered how the dog pack had leaped the low fence the day before; but no dogs appeared, and every cat reached the other side of the wooden fence safely.

Farther along the wall, Jingo halted; peering past her, Hollyleaf saw that one of the wooden sections had been swung back, leaving a gap between their stretch of wall and the next. As if at a signal, a flurry of barking broke out somewhere behind them, and a gust of wind brought the scent of dogs.

“We’ll have to jump,” Jingo decided. “Get back a bit; leave me space for a running start.”

Once the Clan cats had shuffled backward, Jingo bounded along the wall and took off from the end in a powerful leap, landing neatly on the other side. The Clan cats glanced at one another; Hollyleaf could see that Hazeltail and Birchfall were both looking nervous.

“I’ll go next,” she meowed, deciding it would be better to get this over with than to watch her Clanmates go ahead of her. She hurtled along the wall and into the air before she could think about the wide gap and the nearby dogs.

Her paws hit the red stone of the wall and Jingo jumped forward to steady her.

“Well done,” the brown tabby mewed. “Move along to give the others space.”

Hollyleaf squeezed past her, turning in time to see Brackenfur leaping easily across the gap. Birchfall followed him; the young warrior’s front paws landed on the wall, but his hind paws dangled down. His eyes were huge with fear as the barking grew louder and two dogs raced round the corner. Quick as lightning, Brackenfur grabbed Birchfall’s scruff in his teeth and hauled him the rest of the way; his tail whisked up just in time, out of reach of the leading dog’s teeth.

Birchfall shuddered. “Thanks, Brackenfur. I thought I was dog food for sure.”

Hazeltail was shivering on the other side of the gap, gazing down in terror at the barking dogs as they reared up on their hind legs and scrabbled at the wall. “I can’t, Brambleclaw,” she whispered. “I just can’t. I know I’ll fall.”

“No, you won’t,” the Clan deputy assured her. “You’re good at jumping. You’ll be fine.”