The Forgotten Warrior

Leaving his littermate to return to his den, Lionblaze brushed through the thorn tunnel and headed to the slope above the hollow. Wind blew into his face and flattened his fur to his sides as he gazed out over the lake. It looked so peaceful, the water glittering in the sunlight, surrounded by rustling green leaves. Yet Lionblaze felt it was overshadowed by the Dark Forest and his knowledge of what was coming.

The acrid scent of fox dung trickled into Lionblaze’s nose. He followed it until he reached the clearing where Cherrypaw and Molepaw had been training.

Phew, what a stench! Ivypool certainly did a thorough job.

He searched along the edges of the bramble thickets until he discovered paw prints and scraps of fur clinging to the thorns, which showed him where the apprentices had hidden from the fox. Squeezing under the brambles, Lionblaze tried to work out what the young cats might have seen from their hiding place. Bramble tendrils cut off his view in most directions, but there was a gap low down, level with a scared apprentice’s sight line. Through it he could see a hazel bush a few tail-lengths away that looked like a place where the mysterious rescuer might have been crouching.

Lionblaze wriggled out from underneath the brambles, hissing with annoyance as thorns raked his fur. Underneath the hazel bush the debris was disturbed as if a cat had stood there, and a few snapped twigs lay on the ground, but there were no clear paw prints.

The cat must have been a bit smaller than me to get under there, Lionblaze thought. Too bad there are no scraps of fur left behind. And I can’t smell a thing over this awful reek of fox.

There was nothing more to be learned in the clearing. After a moment’s thought, Lionblaze headed for the border with the unclaimed forest, then turned toward WindClan, since the intruder had been seen there. Scanning the ground carefully as he padded along, he spotted a place where the leaf-mold had been churned up, as if a pounce and a brief struggle had taken place there.

Sniffing carefully all around, Lionblaze couldn’t find any signs that the prey had been eaten where it was caught. Then he stiffened, spotting tiny drag marks leading toward the border. Following them paw step by paw step, sometimes almost losing the trail among grass and leaves, Lionblaze finally reached the border. The drag marks continued; passing the ThunderClan scent markers, he found scattered feathers a few fox-lengths outside the boundary, in unclaimed forest.

So this cat killed prey, but knew enough to take it across the border before they ate it. Lionblaze’s heart started to beat faster. This is a cat who knows about the territories! It’s confident hunting and moving around here, but it doesn’t want to be found.

Lionblaze sat beside the feathers, wrapped his tail around his paws, and tried to think. If the intruder was living in this area, she had food and water, but she would need shelter, too.

Not too far from here, if they want to keep an eye on ThunderClan, but not so close that scent would stray across the border while they’re resting…

Rising to his paws again, Lionblaze ventured a little farther into the unknown woods. He soon came to a bramble thicket, which looked like a possible shelter for a loner.

No, he thought, eyeing it carefully. I wouldn’t live there. It would be too hard to escape, and a cat could be on top of me before I heard them.

Searching farther, his pelt prickling with the feeling that he was very close to his quarry, Lionblaze came to a clearing where the ground was uneven and moss-covered rocks jutted out of the ground. Beneath one of the biggest boulders was a hole, like the entrance to a tunnel. Lionblaze set his paws down as lightly as if he were stalking a mouse. Reaching the hole, he stretched out his neck and took a sniff. Dampness and earth flooded his scent glands, but there was the scent of cat as well, though he couldn’t identify it among all the other scents.

He was crouching down to enter when another thought occurred to him. Wait. I wouldn’t shelter in there unless I knew there was another way out.