Sunrise

Lionblaze and Berrynose climbed up onto the basking rocks, and Honeyfern joined them a few heartbeats later. The flat surface was warm where the elders had been lying, and bright yellow sunlight spilled down on it. Lionblaze stretched out and let the heat soak into his fur. I wish I could lie like this for ever, he thought, and never have to worry about anything again.

On the rock next to him, Berrynose and Honeyfern were sharing tongues and watching Millie’s kits playing in the clearing close by.

Berrynose bent his head close to the tabby she-cat’s ear. “We’ll have kits like that one day,” he purred.

Honeyfern looked up at him, blinking shyly. “I’d like that.”

Lionblaze was surprised at how gentle Berrynose sounded; he was used to the older warrior being a bossy nuisance, ordering around other cats if he thought he could get away with it. Maybe having Honeyfern as a mate would be good for him.

At least he might stay out of my fur.

The cream-colored warrior rasped his tongue over Honeyfern’s shoulder. “You’ll make a wonderful mother.”

Watching them together, a pang of loneliness gripped Lionblaze’s belly. Who is my mother? Why didn’t she want me? Closing his eyes, he wondered what she had been like, and whether she ever thought about the kits she had abandoned.

“Watch me! Watch me!” Blossomkit’s voice came from a little way across the clearing. “I can leap higher than any cat!”

“No, you can’t, I can!” Bumblekit argued.

Lionblaze opened one eye to see all three of Millie’s kits leaping and tumbling around, a couple of fox-lengths from the rocks where he and his Clanmates lay. Briarkit fell over and rolled so that she was next to a crack in the rock wall; leaping up, she balanced on her hind legs with her forepaws stretching up into the air.

“I bet you can’t do this!” she boasted.

In the same instant, Lionblaze spotted a long, dark shadow emerging from the rock behind the kit. It reared up against the gray stone, but Briarkit was too excited to notice. Lionblaze sat bolt upright.

Snake!

He bunched his muscles to spring, but Honeyfern was quicker. Leaping down from the rock, she bundled Briarkit out of the way. The snake arched its neck; before Honeyfern could move it struck down and buried its hooked fangs in her shoulder.

Honeyfern sprang backward with a screech of pain. “Help!”

CHAPTER 17

Hollyleaf pushed her way through the thorn tunnel with a vole and two mice dangling from her jaws. Her hunting patrol had done well, but her nose and paws were numb with cold as she padded over to the fresh-kill pile. The leaf-bare sun didn’t penetrate the shadows under the trees, and the ground there was still frozen.

She was dropping her prey on the pile when she heard a shriek from the base of the cliff, on the far side of the medicine cats’ den. Whirling around, she saw Lionblaze bolt into the middle of the clearing, his pelt bristling as if a whole Clan of enemies were on his tail.

“Help! Come quick!” he screeched. “Honeyfern’s been bitten by a snake!”

Icy terror coursed through Hollyleaf’s blood as she rushed across the clearing. They’d never had a snake in the hollow before! When she reached the cliff, she saw Briarkit cowering at the base of the rocks; the little kit was trembling, her eyes wide with shock. Millie bounded up and drew her away with her tail wrapped protectively around the kit.

Berrynose crouched beside Honeyfern, who was lying on her side with her paws splayed out; her breath came fast and shallow, and her eyes were full of terror. A thin line of blood on her shoulder showed where the snake had struck.

Sorreltail and Brackenfur raced across from the warriors’ den with the same look of horror in their eyes when they saw their wounded daughter. Cinderheart, Honeyfern’s littermate, was hard on their paws.

As they skidded to a halt, Sorreltail pressed her muzzle into Brackenfur’s shoulder. “No…oh, no…” she whispered. “I can’t lose another kit! Not after Molekit! Please, StarClan…”

“Where’s Poppyfrost?” Hollyleaf muttered to Lionblaze as her brother came running back. Sorreltail needed all her kits right now.

“Out on patrol,” Lionblaze replied. “She—”

He broke off as Leafpool pushed her way through the knot of cats. “Stand back and give me some room,” she ordered.

Berrynose glared at her. “I’m not leaving,” he snarled.

Ignoring him, Leafpool crouched beside Honeyfern and rested one paw on her shoulder. “Try not to move,” she meowed.

Hollyleaf waited expectantly for Leafpool to start helping Honeyfern. Surely she would know what to do? But she hadn’t brought any herbs with her, and she wasn’t doing anything more than sitting beside the trembling tabby warrior.