I planted my paws more firmly on the grass. “No! I want to stay and fight!”
“Don’t be a mouse-brain,” snapped Brightheart. “This is no place for an apprentice. I want you where I know you’ll be safe.”
I looked up to the top of the hollow, which was circled with dense bushes. “There might be badgers up there, too,” I pointed out.
“You’ll be in the thickest patch of thorns I can find!” my mother hissed. “Stop arguing and follow me!”
“I want to fight!” I wailed.
There was a flash of white and Cloudtail appeared beside me. “What’s going on?”
“Whitepaw needs to leave the camp with Daisy and her kits,” Brightheart told him.
“But I want to stay!” I scowled.
“There isn’t time for this!” Brightheart spat. “Have you seen what’s happening?” She flicked her tail around the clearing, and I looked past her at a whirling storm of fur and teeth and claws.
Spiderleg and Sootfur were attacking a female badger from both sides, springing forward to land a claws-out blow on her ears before leaping out of the way as she swung her massive head toward them.
I turned back to my mother. “Let me fight,” I begged. “My Clanmates need me.”
“She’s right,” Cloudtail put in unexpectedly. “This is what she has trained for. We need all the warriors we can get right now.”
“She’s not a warrior!” Brightheart hissed, and in her eyes I saw her fear that I was too young, too small, too inexperienced.
“If I survive this, I will be,” I meowed softly.
My mother looked at me, then nodded. “Don’t let her out of your sight, Cloudtail,” she ordered without taking her gaze from me. Then she spun around and raced for the nursery, where Squirrelflight was standing guard.
Cloudtail opened his mouth to speak, but a huge shadow fell across him and he looked up, shutting his jaws with a snap. A badger loomed over us, fury gleaming in its tiny black eyes. With a roar, it struck out with one front paw and sent Cloudtail spinning across the clearing. I backed away, desperately trying to think of the battle moves I’d just learned. But I was aware only of the ground under my paws and the tip of my tail brushing against brambles. I thought how pale I must look against the dark green thorns, my white pelt shining like the full moon. I’m over here! Come and eat me!
The badger opened its jaws, revealing pointed yellow teeth and a lolling red tongue. I wondered if it would hurt much when the badger sank its teeth into me. Everything seemed to have gone quiet; had the rest of the fighting stopped?
“Leave her alone!” There was a screech somewhere behind the badger, and a heavy white shape launched itself onto the creature’s shoulders. Cloudtail! The badger reared backward and snaked its neck around, trying to bite him.
The noise of the battle crashed into my ears, and the ground beneath me trembled as bodies thudded around the hollow. I unsheathed my claws and sprang up, reaching for the badger’s tiny curled ears. The pelt was thinnest there, just like on a cat, so I stood the best chance of reaching skin.
I thumped against the side of the badger’s head and tried to catch hold, but my paws slipped off the stinking black fur. Looking down, I realized in horror that my claws were so filled with hair from Brackenfur’s pelt after our training session that I couldn’t sink them into the badger’s flesh.
I fell back to the ground with a thud and frantically yanked the fur out with my teeth. I rolled sideways, between the badger’s front and hind legs. Then sensing a pointed muzzle swooping down toward me, I leaped for its ear again, and this time my claws ripped into soft skin. I clung on, scrabbling with my hind legs against the badger’s shoulder.
Cloudtail was on the other side of the creature, staring up at me in amazement.
“Go help Brightheart!” I screeched. “You have to get Daisy’s kits out!”
To my relief, he whipped around and vanished into the throng of cats. Badgers reared among them like black-and-white islands looming over a swirling brown-and-tabby lake. Beneath me, my badger bucked and plunged downward, trying to flip me off. I wrenched my claws free from its ear, wincing as an arc of blood spattered across my eyes, and sprang away just as the badger crashed onto the ground.
I had never felt more alive. On the far side of the hollow, Squirrelflight led Daisy up the tiny path to the top of the cliff. Brightheart, Cloudtail, and Brambleclaw followed, each carrying one of Daisy’s kits. StarClan, please let them be safe, I prayed.
“Whitepaw!” There was a wail from the bottom of the cliff, and I saw my denmate Birchpaw crouching with his back to the stone as a male badger padded toward him. The badger moved slowly, knowing his prey was trapped.
“Climb, Birchpaw!” I yowled. His eyes met mine, huge and dark with terror, and for a moment I thought he had frozen to the spot, but then he turned and began scrabbling at the rock with his front paws.
“Reach higher!” I called, spotting a paw hold a mouse-length above his head. Birchpaw pushed with his hind feet and sank his claws into the dirt lodged in a crevice in the cliff. He hauled himself up, his haunches dangling behind him, and hung from one paw.
“Come on! Climb higher!” I hissed through my teeth, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hear me now.
Miraculously, Birchpaw found a place to grip with his hind paws and started to heave himself farther up the wall. But then his front leg twisted and his claws slid out of the crevice, and I watched in horror as my denmate slithered down, down, down, to where the badger waited for him with one paw raised for a killing blow.
“Birchpaw!” I screamed, and shut my eyes, waiting for the final strike.
There was a roar from the badger—not of triumph but of rage. I opened my eyes and saw the creature hunched over a crack at the foot of the cliff. There was a flash of light brown fur against the stone, and I realized that Birchpaw had somehow squeezed himself out of reach. Until the badger’s fury tore apart the stone and it launched itself on Birchpaw…
In three bounds, I reached the badger and crouched down by its haunches. Leap-and-hold. That was the only way I could inflict any real damage. Jump now, while it’s distracted.
“Help!” Birchpaw yowled from his tiny hiding place.
I pressed down with my hind paws and sprang onto the badger, landing with my paws on either side of its spine. I thrust my claws through the dense, bristly fur and kept my weight low as the creature reared up, twisting as it tried to bite me. I wasn’t here just to hang on; I needed to injure it enough to get it away from Birchpaw. Sinking in deeper with my hind claws, I released one front paw and slashed at the badger’s face as it turned toward me. My foot shot through the air and I nearly lost my balance. Clinging on, I tried again, and this time felt a satisfying wrench in my front leg as I made contact with the badger’s cheek and ripped a long wound from the corner of its eye to its jaw.
The creature bellowed in pain and hauled itself away from the foot of the cliff. I saw Birchpaw scramble out. He left a thick trail of blood and his face was swollen, but he was alive. His mother, Ferncloud, raced over to him and sheltered him with her body as they fled around the edge of the hollow.
I clung on to the badger as it plunged and snapped. You tried to kill my friend! I had saved Birchpaw’s life, but there was no time to savor the victory. I sliced again and again with my claws, scoring deep wounds through the badger’s pelt until my paws were tufted with black-and-white fur.
The creature started to sink to its knees and I braced myself, ready to jump free when it tried to roll over and crush me. The badger’s muzzle thudded onto the ground and it let out a long groan as it slumped onto its belly. I stayed crouched on its back, wondering if this was a new trick.