Firestar took the lead, creeping around the bramble thicket with his belly fur brushing the grass. He paused when the Twoleg nest came in sight, scanning it carefully. A wooden fence surrounded it, but it was partly broken down, with bushes crowding up against it on both sides. Beyond it the nest was dark and silent. Firestar could pick up strong scents of Twoleg and cat, but he couldn’t see any movement.
“Okay, come on,” he murmured over his shoulder. “But keep quiet.”
He crept forward again, following the Twoleg fence until he came to a gap in the bottom, where he slid into the garden.
He found himself among thick bushes, so overgrown that hardly any sunlight penetrated their branches. Beyond them was a stretch of long, ragged grass, leading up to the nest itself. Twoleg flowers edged the grass, but they were straggling and overgrown, not neat like in most Twoleg gardens.
Creepers were growing up the walls of the nest, and Firestar spotted a hole in the roof. It looked almost as derelict as the abandoned nest, where he and Sandstorm had stayed on their way upriver.
“Twolegs live here?” Leafdapple whispered from beside Firestar’s shoulder.
“That’s where Petal is.” Rainfur pointed with his tail toward a gap in the wall of the nest.
Firestar heard a faint mewing, and made out a pale blur behind the hard transparent stuff that filled the gap.
“There she is!” Rainfur mewed. He shot past Firestar and leaped onto the ledge outside the hole in the wall.
“Idiot,” Sharpclaw muttered. “He’ll get us all caught.”
But almost at once Rainfur leaped down again and slunk back to rejoin the group, barely visible in the long grass. “She wants to come with us,” he reported. “But we have to get her out first.”
Staying alert for any Twoleg noise, Firestar turned to the rest of his patrol. “Any ideas?”
Sharpclaw surveyed the nest with narrowed eyes. “Maybe we should take a look around the other side. We need a way of getting in.”
“But Rainfur said the Twoleg keeps Petal shut up,” Leafdapple pointed out. “That suggests there won’t be anywhere to get in or out.”
“Then we have to make the Twoleg open the door.”
Firestar glanced at each of his warriors in turn: Patchfoot looked blank, and Sharpclaw was tearing impatiently at the earth beneath his paws. Rainfur kept casting anxious glances back at the nest, while Leafdapple’s eyes were thoughtful.
“Some cat will have to get in there,” she mewed. “If Petal’s as weak as Rainfur says, she won’t be able to carry the kits out.”
Firestar could think of a couple of ideas, but he wanted the SkyClan cats to come up with their own solutions. They would never become independent if they relied on him for everything.
“What would fetch the Twoleg outside?” he prompted.
“Fighting cats!” Sharpclaw exclaimed. “Rainfur, you said the Twoleg throws stuff at you if he sees you outside. He’ll have to open a door to do that.”
“Brilliant!” Rainfur’s eyes were gleaming. “Then the rest of us can slip inside to help Petal.”
Firestar nodded. “Right. Sharpclaw and Patchfoot, you do the fighting. Make as much noise as you like, but wait for my signal. Leafdapple and Rainfur, come with me.”
With the rogue and the tabby she-cat just behind him, Firestar slipped through the long grass until he stood below Petal. She was gazing out with her nose pressed to the shiny window.
Rainfur jumped up beside her again and beckoned Firestar with his tail. “Come on,” he meowed. “Tell her what she has to do.”
Motioning to Leafdapple to stay where she was, Firestar leaped up onto the ledge beside the rogue. Every hair on his pelt tingled with pity as he got a good look at Petal for the first time. Her pelt was such a pale gray that it was almost white, and she was so gaunt with hunger that Firestar could see every one of her ribs. Her blue eyes were wide and pleading.
A bit of the transparent stuff had broken away, leaving a gap big enough for a cat to squeeze through, but it was blocked by a piece of wood, trapping Petal and the kits inside.
“Rainfur says you’ll help my kits,” Petal mewed, putting her mouth close to the edge of the wood.
Firestar quickly told her what he and the other warriors had decided to do. “Once the door is open, the three of us can get inside,” he told her. “We’ll bring you and the kits out, and join the others. Just be ready to run when I tell you.”
Petal nodded. “I’m ready now.”
“Okay, let’s do it.” Firestar jumped down into the grass again beside Leafdapple. As soon as Rainfur joined them, he waved his tail to where he could see Sharpclaw and Patchfoot crouching at the edge of the bushes.
Immediately Sharpclaw let out a fearsome screech.
Patchfoot joined in with an eerie caterwauling. The two toms sprang at each other and rolled over together in the grass, their yowling and hissing growing louder and louder.
A moment later Firestar heard a Twoleg voice coming from the nest, bellowing in rage.
“It’s working!” Leafdapple whispered.
The door of the nest flew open. A Twoleg emerged, his pelts tattered and his eyes bulging with fury. He had some Twoleg things clutched in each hand. Still bellowing, he flung one of them at the battling cats; it flew over their heads and crashed into the bushes.
“Now!” Firestar yowled.
He led the other two cats along the wall of the nest until they reached the door and slipped inside. Firestar recognized a Twoleg kitchen, and drew his lips back at the stench of rotting Twoleg food that rolled out to meet them.
Rainfur flicked his tail toward an inside door that stood half-open. “This way.”
As Firestar followed him he heard another thump from outside and an even louder screech. StarClan help us! he prayed, hoping that the Twoleg hadn’t managed to hit one of the warriors.
Beyond the door was a small, dark den. Petal was crouching over a wooden nest beside the wall. A filthy Twoleg pelt covered the bottom; on it lay a gray kit and a pale gray tabby, squirming and mewling helplessly. An empty bowl stood beside the nest, with traces of kittypet food crusted inside and a couple of flies buzzing around it.
“Poor little scraps!” Leafdapple exclaimed, bending over to nose the two kits gently.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Petal asked, her eyes wide with fear. “My Twoleg will see us!”
“Your Twoleg has other things to think about,” Rainfur told her. “Come on.”
Petal gripped one of the kits in her jaws by the scruff, then stood up and headed for the door, staggering slightly.
“Give me the kit,” Firestar directed. “Leafdapple, you take the other one. Rainfur, help Petal.”
When he had the kit in a firm grip he signaled with his tail for the others to follow him outside. But as they slipped out of the nest a shadow blocked the light from the outer door.
The Twoleg stood there, yowling and waving his forepaws.
Firestar flashed a glance at Leafdapple and the two of them split apart, dodging past the Twoleg on either side. A huge, hairless pink paw swooped down on Firestar, but before it could grab him Rainfur flung himself at the Twoleg, slashing the paw with his claws. The Twoleg let out a screech of pain. Looking back over his shoulder, Firestar caught a glimpse of Petal raking her claws down the Twoleg’s hind leg.
Firestar shot through the outer door into the garden.
Setting down the kit, he signaled to Leafdapple to join the other warriors in the bushes. Then he whirled to join the fight, but Rainfur and Petal were already fleeing out of the nest behind him. Snatching up the kit again he raced for the fence, where Sharpclaw was waiting beside the gap. He shoved Petal and Rainfur through to Leafdapple. By now, the Twoleg was lumbering across the garden toward them.