Sunrise

Hollyleaf twisted around to stare in the opposite direction. After the edge of the forest, the mountains lay like a smudge of cloud on the horizon. She could make out gray slopes and cliffs, and peaks tipped with snow reaching up to the sky.

“Do you think we’re as high as we were in the mountains?” she asked wonderingly.

“Of course not.” There was a hint of scorn in Lionblaze’s voice. “It took us ages to climb up to the waterfall.”

Hollyleaf realized he was right, and yet the mountains seemed so close she could almost imagine leaping off the roof and landing on the ledge that led behind the waterfall to the cave where the Tribe of Rushing Water lived.

“I wonder what they’re doing,” she murmured, half to herself. “Will we ever see Stormfur and Brook again?”

No cat answered her. As soon as the rest of the patrol had reached the roof ridge, Jingo rose to her paws. “For this next bit, you have to be extra careful,” she warned. “Going down is far harder than going up. If you slip…well, just don’t slip, that’s all.”

Cautiously, in a half-crouch, Jingo led the way down the other side of the roof. Hollyleaf’s paws skidded on the smooth stone of the roof; there was nothing to hold on to, and the downward slope seemed to end in empty air. When she was halfway down, a big white bird swooped past her, letting out a raucous cry and filling the air with the beating of its wings. Hollyleaf froze, trying to dig her claws into the stone, until it was gone.

“I’m never doing this again!” Birchfall hissed behind her.

Hollyleaf was shaking by the time they reached the edge of the roof and perched on a narrow channel half choked with leaves and other debris. A couple of fox-lengths below was a flat roof, and just beyond that, a narrow Thunderpath.

“Is that another monster nest?” Hazeltail asked.

Jingo nodded. “We’ll have to come down to the ground here,” she meowed, “because we have to cross that Thunderpath. But I think we’re safe now. The wild dogs don’t often come this far.”

When she reached the grass beside the Thunderpath, Hollyleaf tasted the air. She could pick out the mingled scents of several dogs, but none of them were close by. And no monsters appeared as Jingo paused to listen, then waved her tail for the Clan cats to cross.

Once on the other side, Jingo jumped up onto another wall, this one built of gray stone. Padding along it, Hollyleaf saw that the Twoleg nests here were smaller, with narrower strips of grassy territory behind them. A couple of tiny Twoleg kits were playing on one of the patches of grass, but they didn’t notice the cats as they padded past.

“Is it much farther to Purdy’s nest?” Brackenfur asked. “I think every cat is getting tired and hungry.”

Hollyleaf muttered agreement. Every muscle in her body was aching, and her belly felt like a giant hole. The sky was covered with cloud, but she sensed it was long past sun-high, and no cat had eaten since the fresh-kill in the abandoned Twoleg nest the night before.

“Not far now,” Jingo responded. “We can—”

She broke off as a gust of wind swept across them, bringing with it a slap of icy rain. Birchfall let out a yowl of alarm. Hollyleaf flattened herself to the top of the wall, terrified that the wind would blow her off.

“This way!” Jingo ordered.

She ran along the top of the wall to the fence dividing the Twoleg territories. A bushy pine tree grew close to the wall; Jingo sprang up onto the nearest branch and forced her way in among the needles. Peering out, she called, “Come on! We need to shelter.”

Unbalanced by the buffeting wind, the Clan cats stumbled along the wall and climbed into the tree. Hollyleaf’s pelt was soaked by the time she reached it. The pine needles raked through her fur as she plunged into the branches, clawing for paw holds so she could climb higher.

“What does she think we are, squirrels?” Lionblaze gasped as he struggled upward. The branches dipped and swung under his greater weight, and Hollyleaf suddenly felt the whole tree spinning around. She drove her claws hard into the branch and closed her eyes until the dizzy sensation faded.

“I thought you came from a forest,” Jingo meowed, a tail-length above where Hollyleaf was clinging. “Aren’t you used to trees?”

“We don’t climb that often,” Brambleclaw replied. He had stayed lower down in the tree, just above the spot where it overhung the wall. “If we’re caught in the rain in the forest, we’d rather shelter among the roots of a tree, or under a bush.”

“Well, you learn something new every day,” Jingo responded, sounding amused.