The Forgotten Warrior

To Ivypool’s relief, she felt her sister’s fear begin to ebb as they padded forward. She lost count of how much time had passed before she sensed that the passage was growing wider. She couldn’t feel the walls any longer, and the steep downward slope leveled out. There was hard stone beneath her paws, not close-packed earth, and the small sounds of their movement echoed eerily around them.

“Let’s stop a moment,” Dovewing mewed. “I think I can reach out now.”

Ivypool halted. All she could hear was the sound of their breathing, and the occasional drip of water, but she knew that the whole of this strange underground world would be open to Dovewing.

“Voices!” Dovewing whispered after a long, tense silence. “I can hear voices.”

“Where?” Ivypool asked.

“Let me go in front.”

There was enough space in the tunnel now for Dovewing to slip past her sister, and lead the way farther into the depths. Ivypool couldn’t see or hear anything; all she could do was follow her sister’s scent and the sound of her paw steps. The tunnel twisted in front of them, sometimes plunging deeper, sometimes leading upward again. Sometimes it felt as though they were turning back to follow their own trail. But Dove-wing walked without hesitating, taking side tunnels that were hidden to Ivypool, skirting pools and patches of broken rock.

Ivypool was acutely aware of the weight of earth and rock above their heads, and the cats who were sleeping above, not knowing that two Clan warriors were so far beneath them. With a shudder, she pushed these thoughts away.

Focus. Concentrate on what we have to do.

“You’re doing really well,” she told Dovewing encouragingly. “We’ll soon find out what’s going on.”

At last Ivypool thought she could hear the murmur of voices some way ahead of them. At first she thought she was imagining things. But as she followed in Dovewing’s paw steps, the sounds grew clearer. She felt every hair on her pelt rise as she began to make out some of the words.

“WindClan!” she whispered. “And Sol!”

“Shhh.” Dovewing’s voice was no more than a breath. “If you can hear them, they can hear us.” She led the way forward more cautiously, until the voices grew clearer still.

“I will lead you through the tunnels,” Sol was meowing. “I can bring you out above the ThunderClan camp. Those mouse-brains won’t know what’s happening.”

“Traitor!” Ivypool hissed, taking a pace forward.

Dovewing blocked her, and slapped her tail over her sister’s mouth. “Shut up and listen!”

“How do we know we can trust you?” Ivypool recognized Owlwhisker’s voice. “How do we know that you haven’t told ThunderClan to attack us?”

WindClan cats aren’t completely mouse-brained, Ivypool reflected.

“Of course I have.” Sol’s tone was scornful. “How else would I get them to trust me? But it’s WindClan that I’ll be leading into ThunderClan territory.”

Another WindClan cat spoke, the words too soft for Ivypool to make out. She leaned forward, and felt a pebble slip underneath her paw. The clinking sound it made seemed as loud as a crack of thunder.

Ivypool froze, but the damage was done.

“What was that?” Owlwhisker growled. “Who’s there? Is some cat eavesdropping on us?”

“Get us out of here!” Ivypool whispered into Dovewing’s ear.

But Dovewing didn’t move. “I followed the voices to get here,” she confessed. “I’m not sure of the way out.”

Ivypool heard movement from Sol and the WindClan cats. “They’re coming to look for us! We have to go.” But even as she spoke she was terrified at the thought of wandering blindly through the dark tunnels. Will we ever find our way out?

Before either of the she-cats could move, they heard paws padding toward them from the tunnel behind. Cat scent washed over Ivypool; she thought she ought to recognize it, but she was too scared to think clearly. She slid out her claws, her heart thumping in panic at the thought of being trapped between two enemies.

Then the newcomer spoke. “Come with me. Quick!”

“No way!” Ivypool hissed, bunching her muscles to spring. “You could be with them.”

“I’m not,” the strange cat mewed.

“Prove it,” Dovewing challenged her.

“I shouldn’t have to,” the newcomer replied irritably. “For StarClan’s sake, let’s go.”

Ivypool’s eyes widened in shock and she exchanged a glance with her sister, picking up the gleam of Dovewing’s eyes. “StarClan? Then you…”

“Do you want to get out of here or not?” the newcomer interrupted.

“Yes, we do,” Ivypool snapped back. “But how do we know you won’t lead us farther in?”

The strange cat let out a hiss of annoyance. “Because I’m a ThunderClan cat like you,” she replied, a darker shadow in the darkness of the tunnel. “My name is Hollyleaf.”

Ivypool felt her mouth drop open. “Hollyleaf? But you… you’re dead!”

“Obviously not,” the newcomer replied, with an edge to her voice. “And we don’t have time to stand here discussing ancient history. We have to leave now.”