“Now climb up again,” he instructed Dovepaw. “Imagine I’m a ShadowClan patrol.”
Ivypaw’s whiskers twitched. “A whole one?”
“Concentrate!” Lionblaze was in no mood for silliness. He was hungry and wet and frustrated. What did training apprentices have to do with fulfilling the prophecy? Wait, Jayfeather had said. But Lionblaze was tired of waiting.
Cinderheart flashed Lionblaze a puzzled look. “I’ll guide them up the tree and tell them what to do,” she offered.
Lionblaze hesitated. He didn’t like the thought of Cinderheart climbing trees after the accident that had nearly crippled her as an apprentice.
She rolled her eyes. “We’ll be careful!” She nosed Ivypaw toward the trunk of the oak and watched her scoot up to the lowest branch. Then she nodded to Dovepaw. “You next.”
Dovepaw darted behind the trunk. She reappeared a few moments later on a branch above his head. “Didn’t see me that time!” she called.
He looked up, surprised by her speed. “Very good.”
Cinderheart was scrambling after them. “This is an excellent branch for dropping from.” She peered down at Lionblaze. “If you land squarely on his shoulders, he’ll break your fall, and the surprise will give you long enough to get in a few good moves before he realizes what’s happened.”
“Can I try it?” Ivypaw mewed eagerly.
“I doubt if he’d be very surprised,” Dovepaw pointed out. “He’s staring straight at us.”
“Let’s try climbing onto the next branch,” Cinderheart suggested.
“I’ll wander around,” Lionblaze offered.
“Concentrate on where your paws go,” Cinderheart warned the apprentices. Leaves rustled over Lionblaze’s head. “The bark’s slippery. Use your claws to grip. Watch out!”
Too late. Ivypaw slipped from the branch with a yowl of surprise and plunged down straight onto Lionblaze.
He staggered, hoping his broad shoulders had broken her fall. “Are you okay?”
She scrambled off him and jumped to her paws. “Sorry!”
The shock on her face brought a purr to his throat, banishing his frustration. “I’m the one who’s supposed to be surprised, not you!” he teased.
Pelt ruffling with embarrassment, Ivypaw scrabbled back up the tree.
“Careful, Dovepaw!” Cinderheart warned. “That branch is too narrow. It won’t hold your weight!”
Wood cracked high overhead.
Heart lurching, Lionblaze looked up. “Dovepaw!”
The gray apprentice was gripping a thin, broken branch halfway up the tree. “I can’t hang on!” she wailed. Her paws were sliding down the narrow strip of wood.
“Try to land on the branch below!” Cinderheart called up to her as Dovepaw reached the tip of the branch and tumbled down onto the next. She scrabbled for a grip, yelping as she fell again.
“Keep your claws out!” Lionblaze yowled.
“I am!” Dovepaw cried as she slid from branch to branch like a pebble bouncing down a slope. “I can’t get a grip.”
Lionblaze relaxed. The branches slowed Dovepaw’s fall until she plopped out of the tree like a pigeon landing clumsily. She stood up and fluffed out her fur.
Lionblaze shook his head. “When Jayfeather told me it was going to rain today, he didn’t warn me it was going to rain cats!”
Dovepaw brightened as she saw the glimmer of amusement in his eye. “I’ll do better this time,” she promised, dashing back to climb the tree once more.
Lionblaze padded away through the trees. He could hear the leaves rustling overhead as Cinderheart guided them from one branch to another.
While he was waiting for their “surprise” attack, he decided to hunt. With leaf-fall setting in, any extra prey would be welcomed in camp. He sniffed among the rain-soaked roots of the oak. Fresh squirrel dung made him wrinkle his nose. He climbed silently around the wide trunk, moving snakelike over the roots twining from the ground. The scent dipped between them and ran a few tail-lengths along a dried streambed fracturing the forest floor.
Lionblaze froze.
Rooting beneath the oak’s dripping branches was a fat gray squirrel. Its back was toward him and it was so intent on nibbling a nut that it didn’t even pause to sniff the air as Lionblaze dropped into a hunting crouch.
Whiskers stiff, tail just skimming the leafy ground, Lionblaze crept closer. A tail-length away he paused, waggled his hindquarters, and pounced. The squirrel struggled in his paws for a moment until he snapped its spine with a fast, clean bite. Pleased, he sat up with the fresh-kill hanging from his jaws.
A swish sounded above him. He looked up, his mouth full of squirrel fur. Two shapes dropped, landing one after another on his shoulders. He spat out the squirrel as his legs collapsed beneath him.
“We did it!” Dovepaw’s triumphant mew sounded close to his ear.
Lionblaze shook her off, letting Ivypaw slither from his back. “Deafening the enemy,” he meowed, his ears ringing. “Great strategy!”
Cinderheart scrambled down the trunk, looking pleased. “You didn’t have a clue we were up there, did you?” She glanced at the squirrel lying at his paws. “Nice catch, by the way.”
“Can we try it again?” Ivypaw begged.
“Why not?” Cinderheart flicked her tail back toward the trunk. “Up you go.”
Ivypaw leaped for the tree, but Dovepaw had stiffened and was staring, ears pricked, into the trees.
She’s heard something! Lionblaze could see anxiety darkening his apprentice’s eyes.
“You climb with Ivypaw,” he told Cinderheart quickly. “There’s a hunting technique I’ve been meaning to show Dovepaw.”
“Can I learn it too?” Ivypaw called.
“One at a time is easier,” Lionblaze lied. “I’ll show you another time.”
Ivypaw shrugged. “Okay.” She leaped up the trunk and disappeared into the branches with Cinderheart.
Beckoning with his tail, Lionblaze guided Dovepaw away from the oak. “What did you hear?” he demanded once he was sure they were out of earshot.
“Dogs!”
The fur rose along Lionblaze’s spine. “In the forest?”
Dovepaw shook her head. “In WindClan territory.”
“That’s okay. Twolegs use dogs to chase sheep up there,” Lionblaze explained.
But Dovepaw’s eyes were still round. “They’re not chasing sheep; they’re chasing cats.” She stared in alarm at Lionblaze. “We have to help them.”
“No.” Lionblaze was firm. “WindClan cats are used to it. Don’t forget they can outrun rabbits if they want. They’ll be fine.”
“But Sedgewhisker is one of the cats being chased!” She froze, her eyes suddenly wild. “One of the dogs has caught up to her! It’s biting her!”
Lionblaze stiffened. “Where are her Clanmates?”
Dovepaw frowned. “They’re with her…” She spoke slowly, describing the scene as it happened. “They’re attacking the dog.”
Lionblaze let out a sigh of relief. “Then Sedgewhisker will be safe.”
“How do you know that?” Dovepaw hissed.
Lionblaze’s heart sank. He’d been waiting for something like this to happen. Dovepaw was clinging to the friendships they’d made on the long journey; Sedgewhisker had traveled with them to destroy the beavers’ dam. Dovepaw had to understand that they were back in their own territories now. “We’re home,” he told her. “Your loyalty lies with your own Clan. You can’t be as close to Sedgewhisker or the others as you were before.”
Dovepaw stared at him. “Why not?”