Tallstar’s Revenge

As Sparrow neared, Talltail reached up and grabbed the rogue’s pelt. Sinking his claws into the dense fur, Talltail hauled him into the narrow ditch. Stones battered his flanks and the earth shook beneath him. Foul wind tugged his fur. He shuddered with terror, his flesh shrinking beneath his pelt as the monster hurtled past.

“Sparrow?” Talltail scrambled backward and looked at the cat squashed beneath him.

Sparrow lifted his head. “We’re alive!”

Talltail tried to stop himself from trembling. Dawn was lighting the sky. More monsters would be coming soon. “We have to get out of here.” Could they make it to the end of the gorge without meeting another?

Sparrow seemed to guess what he was thinking. The rogue’s gaze flicked past Talltail. “What about that way?” he suggested.

Talltail wriggled around in the narrow space. Sparrow had spotted a small tunnel that opened into the ditch. That must have been where the rainwater flowed out. Talltail padded toward it and sniffed the darkness. Fresh air washed over his muzzle. “Good idea.” He beckoned Sparrow with a nod and started to duck inside.

He paused when there was no sound of paw steps following. Looking back, he saw Sparrow staring wide-eyed at the mouth of the tunnel, fur bristling and claws unsheathed. Talltail looked at the tunnel, then at Sparrow again. A pang of sharp emotion—pity, sorrow, even guilt—stabbed his belly. The last time Sparrow had entered a tunnel, he had barely escaped—and the other cat had died.

“Come on,” Talltail mewed. “It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”

Sparrow took a step forward. His fur still stood on end.

“Stay close to me,” Talltail told him. “You’ll be fine.” He ducked his head and walked into the tunnel. The sides were round and smooth, made of hard, gray stone rather than hewn from wet earth. Talltail’s claws skittered on the surface. Sheathing them, he padded cautiously on. He could hear Sparrow’s pelt brushing the walls behind him. Darkness swallowed them and Talltail quickened his pace. He told himself that this tunnel would not collapse, that they would be out soon because he could feel air being funneled toward them, rich with the scent of grass. For a moment, he imagined how terrifying it must have been for Sparrow when the gorge tunnel collapsed around him. Talltail knew what it was like to feel mud and earth raining down on him, but when he had been in a tunnel accident, every other cat had made it out alive.

“You’re doing great,” he called over his shoulder.

“Thank you.” Sparrow’s mew echoed close behind, his breath warm on Talltail’s hindquarters.

Talltail felt numb. Because of him, Sparrow had nearly died falling off the cliff. And now, because of him, Sparrow was alive. This wasn’t what he had planned. He felt like he was walking in another cat’s body.

Sparrow’s muzzle touched his tail-tip. “I’m sorry your father died.” The rogue’s words were hardly more than a breath, but they rang around Talltail like spiraling wind. “It was an accident. Sandgorse saved my life. And I’ll never forget him.”

Of course Sandgorse saved him. Talltail’s throat tightened.

“When we don’t know the truth, we invent stories to fill the gaps,” Sparrow went on quietly. “Sometimes it’s the only way we have to make sense of our lives.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what really happened?” Talltail asked. “At the time?”

“I didn’t think you’d believe me,” Sparrow confessed. “You were so angry—so determined that someone must be to blame.”

Talltail didn’t argue. It was true.

The end of the tunnel glowed ahead, small at first but growing with each paw step until they emerged into dazzling, cold daylight. Talltail blinked as his eyes adjusted after the gloom. They were close to the Thunderpath, but the gorge was gone and meadows stretched away on either side. Sparrow stood still, taking deep breaths of the sparkling air.

“Where are we?” Talltail mewed.

Sparrow flicked his tail. In the distance, woodland nestled between two gently rolling hills. “The camp’s up there.” He jumped a swathe of long grass and pushed through a hedge. Talltail bounded after him.

They walked in silence across frosty fields until they reached the trees. Sparrow seemed to know his way and Talltail was happy to let him lead, scrambling over logs and sliding into dips as he tried to keep up. He scented the camp as they neared a patch of silvery bracken. Orange fur flashed in front of it.

Talltail broke into a run. “Jake? Is that you?”

Jake was pacing back and forth, his eyes like huge moons. He stopped when Talltail reached him. “What happened?” he demanded.

Talltail glanced at Sparrow as the rogue caught up with him. Jake blinked in surprise.

“You didn’t do it!” Jake breathed after Sparrow had padded past and pushed through the bracken.

Talltail sat down wearily. “No.”

“Why not?”

“Sandgorse saved him.”

Jake’s eyes clouded with confusion. “He saved him?”