Moth Flight slipped out of camp, relieved to be away from the curious gazes of ShadowClan. Juniper Branch had watched her pass, stretched on a soft patch of grass. Raven Pelt had been sorting through the prey pile, glancing up to see her duck through the entrance.
“This way.” Sun Shadow headed past a stretch of mossy ground and hopped over a fallen tree. One of the spindly twigs jutting from the trunk scratched Moth Flight’s belly as she leaped after him. She winced as she landed.
“Are you hurt?” Sun Shadow halted.
“Just a scratch.” Moth Flight didn’t care. Grazed flesh hurt far less than the loss of Micah.
“Get Pebble Heart to look at it when we get back.” Sun
Shadow started walking again.
“I might find some horsetail and dock while we’re out. That should stop it getting infected.” Moth Flight hesitated as Micah’s words flashed in her mind. If you chew dock leaves and horsetail stems into a paste, you can smear it deep into a wound. Fresh grief swept over her.
Sun Shadow paused at the top of a pine needle–strewn slope and glanced over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”
Moth Flight shook out her fur. “I want to go back to my nest.”
“You can.” He disappeared over the rise. “After we’ve caught a frog.”
Moth Flight hurried after him.
Tall pines towered around her, shielding the sky. Sunlight glimmered between the branches, but the forest floor was cold and damp. She bounded down the other side of the slope and caught up with Sun Shadow as he reached a stretch of shady woodland rutted with ditches. He paused at the first and she stopped beside him.
“I know what it’s like to lose the cats you love.” He kept his gaze fixed ahead.
She jerked her muzzle toward him. “You do?”
“I came from the mountains to find my father.” Sun Shadow appeared to be scanning the ditches, his eyes narrowing as he searched for movement. “He was dead when I got here and the cat I traveled with—Quiet Rain—died shortly after we arrived.”
You didn’t lose your mate, though. Moth Flight shifted her paws.
He went on. “Suddenly I was alone, far from my home and from the cats I’d grown up with.”
“Tall Shadow’s kin, isn’t she?” He wasn’t entirely alone.
“She’s kin,” Sun Shadow conceded. “But she wasn’t like my kin back in the mountains. She’d become a forest cat.
Everything was so different here from what I’d known. Most of the cats couldn’t even imagine what it was like to hunt the peaks. Or to never be warm.” He turned and met Moth Flight’s gaze. “I felt like a stranger. Like no one knew how I felt. It was like being trapped beneath ice, mouthing words to cats who couldn’t hear what I said.”
Moth Flight blinked at him slowly. Did he actually understand the pain in her heart? “Do you still feel that way?”
“No.” Sun Shadow’s solemn gaze lit up. “It got better as time passed. I’ve grown to love it here. My Clanmates feel like kin now. We quarrel sometimes, but we look out for each other no matter what. And the hunting is good and, when newleaf comes, and the oak woods turn green and the wind from the moor brings the scent of heather blossom, I am glad I came.
And I feel I have gained more than I’ve lost.”
Moth Flight’s shoulders drooped. “I’ll never feel like I’ve gained more than I’ve lost.”
“Maybe not.” Sun Shadow leaped the ditch and padded forward. “But you will come to value what you still have, and what you may have in the future.”
Could that ever be true? Moth Flight followed him, the forest floor turning spongy beneath her paws as pine needles gave way to moss. Water squelched between her claws.
“Wait!” Sun Shadow dropped his voice, signaling to her to halt with a flick of his tail.
She followed his gaze and saw a green shape hopping along the edge of a ditch a few tail-lengths ahead. A frog.
“Do you want to catch it?” Sun Shadow whispered.
“I’m not the greatest hunter,” she admitted.
“If you miss this one, we’ll find another.”
Moth Flight glanced at him, suddenly aware of how comfortable she was in his company. “Micah would have liked you,” she murmured.
“I think I would have liked him too.” His eyes glowed as he returned her gaze.
She turned toward the frog and dropped into a hunting crouch. Lift your tail. Gorse Fur’s words rang in her ears. She crept forward, pleased that the soft moss absorbed her paw steps. A tail-length from the frog, she paused and fixed her gaze on its glistening green body. She forced herself not to shudder.
The frog hopped another muzzle length and paused. They’re dumber than rabbits, Moth Flight thought. Can’t it smell me?
She wondered if the pine-scented air was disguising her scent.
“Hurry up!” Sun Shadow hissed. “They’re not as slow as they look!”
Moth Flight kneaded the moss with her hind paws, preparing to jump. Then she leaped, her paws slapping the moss a whisker behind the frog. It jumped, tracing a high arc across the ditch.
Moth Flight blinked as it soared away. Bounding over the ditch, she tried to catch it again, her paws sending up water-spray as she splatted the ground half a tail-length behind it. It jumped again, changing direction. Moth Flight spun and tried to knock it from the air, but it had swerved and she landed flat on her belly.
Black fur flashed past her as Sun Shadow flew across the ditch and landed expertly on the frog. He held it down as it squirmed, its flippers churning desperately. “Do you want to give the killing bite?”
Moth Flight screwed up her nose. “No, thanks.”
Sun Shadow ducked and killed it, snapping its spine with a crunch. As he straightened, she saw his whiskers twitching with amusement.
“What?” She ruffled her fur.
“You looked funny, that’s all,” he purred. “I can tell you’ve never hunted frogs before.”
Moth Flight sniffed. “I bet you couldn’t catch a rabbit.”
“Probably not,” he meowed warmly. “But you still looked funny, like a kit chasing its tail.”
Moth Flight purred, pleasure rising in her without warning. I must have looked pretty dumb. Then she stiffened. Her purr dried in her throat.
Sun Shadow watched her, his gaze darkening. “Come on,” he mewed briskly. “Let’s take this back to camp and you can taste it.”
“I’m not hungry.” Moth Flight turned toward the camp.
“A mouthful won’t hurt.” Sun Shadow picked up the frog between his jaws and padded after her.
They padded back to camp in silence. How could I have purred? Guilt ripped her belly. It’s like I’m already forgetting him. Suddenly she wanted to cling to her grief. It was all she had left of Micah now. She ducked first through the bramble entrance.
“You caught one!” Tall Shadow greeted them, lifting her tail happily as she crossed the clearing toward them.
Sun Shadow dropped the frog. “Moth Flight doesn’t want to taste it.”
Tall Shadow padded around her. “We can’t send you back to your Clanmates without having tasted frog,” she meowed.
“What will you have to boast about?”
Moth Flight lifted her gaze wearily to the ShadowClan leader. “I don’t want food.” She padded across the clearing and nosed her way into Sun Shadow’s den. Curling deep into her nest, she closed her eyes and let sadness sweep over her. So what if Sun Shadow had gotten used to his new home? How could she betray Micah by getting used to life without him?
Chapter 24
