“No, I’m not.” Brambleclaw spoke quietly. “Though none of us will get very far if they collapse. But if we rest here now we can get an early start tomorrow and reach the mountains before nightfall.”
The warriors went off to hunt among the ferns and brambles at the edge of the wood. Lionpaw and Breezepaw flopped down side by side on the moss between some tree roots and fell instantly asleep.
Hollypaw would have liked to join them, but there was something else she had to do first. Tottering on exhausted legs, she forced herself farther into the wood until she spotted a mouse scuttling across the open space between two bushes. As she pounced, it darted under a heap of dead leaves; she scrambled after it and managed to trap it between her claws.
That was a really messy kill, she thought, though she was almost too tired to care.
Picking up the limp body, she padded back to the edge of the wood where Purdy was crouching, his paws tucked under him as he gazed with slitted eyes across the valley.
One amber eye opened wider as she approached. “What d’you want?” he asked. Hollypaw had expected him to be hostile, but his voice was gentle, even friendly.
“I brought you this.” She dropped the mouse in front of him. “Food, and something else.” She scraped the grass with one forepaw, suddenly embarrassed. “I… er… I couldn’t help noticing you’ve got lots of ticks,” she stumbled. “I’ll get them off, if you like.”
Purdy raised one hind leg and scratched vigorously behind his ear. “I wouldn’t say no.”
Carefully Hollypaw extracted the mouse bile, trying not to gag at the dreadful smell. Fetching a scrap of moss to soak it up, she explained to Purdy, “This is what medicine cats do in the Clans. I was a medicine cat apprentice for a while, so I learned how.”
“That’s certainly some smell,” Purdy meowed, turning his face away as Hollypaw began dabbing the bile on the ticks that swelled among his rumpled tabby fur. But he kept still and let out a sigh of relief as the creatures started to drop off.
“Don’t your Twolegs take care of your ticks?” Hollypaw asked as she worked.
Purdy shook his head. “My Upwalker died. I’ve found a few others who feed me now an’ then, but they don’t mess with my pelt. It don’t bother me none,” he added unconvincingly.
Pity for him clawed Hollypaw’s belly. So he’s not even a kittypet anymore! Just a loner who’s getting old. “There, I’m done,” she told him.
A rumbling purr started up in Purdy’s chest. “Thanks, that feels a whole lot better,” he meowed. “So that’s what you learn when you’re a medicine cat, eh? At least the Clan cats get one thing right.”
“We’re all sorry about today,” Hollypaw mewed quietly.
“We’re really grateful for what you did, coming to rescue us like that.”
“’T’weren’t nothin’,” the old cat responded. “Takin’ on them dogs, it made me feel young again.”
“I think there’s a lot we could learn from you,” Hollypaw told him.
The old cat just gave an amused snort and bent his head to devour the remains of the mouse. Hollypaw curled up beside him in the long grass, and the sound of his contented purr filled her ears as she slept.
Chapter 18
Jaypaw tried to sink his claws into the bare rock. The wind buffeted him, threatening to hurl him off the narrow ridge of stone where he clung, terrified. Above his head were the stars, cold and glittering; around his paws nothing but shadows, blotting out everything but a few tail-lengths of rock, sharp as a cat’s spine.
Somewhere in front of him the shadows parted and a cat paced toward him. Jaypaw recognized the lumpy, hairless body and sightless eyes of Rock. The ancient cat drew closer, balancing as easily on the thin claw of stone as if the forest stretched all around him.
“I’m here, just like you said.” Jaypaw tried not to let his voice quiver. “You told me to come to the mountains, remember?”
Rock shook his head. “There should be three of you.”
“There are three of us,” Jaypaw protested, glancing back over his shoulder to see if he could spot Lionpaw and Hollypaw. “I must have left them behind on the climb. They can’t—”
His last word rose into a terrified yowl as his paws slipped on the rocky ridge. He clawed frantically, but he couldn’t get a grip on the smooth stone. He felt himself plunging into the shadows, down and down…
“Wake up!” Jaypaw felt a paw jabbing him in the ribs. It was Lionpaw. “For StarClan’s sake, you’re thrashing around like a dying fish.”
Relief flooded over him. He was safe in his makeshift nest at the edge of the forest, and Lionpaw was with him. Tasting the air, he picked up Hollypaw’s scent nearby and relaxed even more, shaking off the last clinging cobwebs of the dream. He struggled to his paws and arched his back in a long stretch. The chill of dawn crept into his pelt, and he could hear the other cats stirring around him.
“Brambleclaw says we can hunt,” Lionpaw mewed, “but we have to be quick. There’s a long way to go if we’re going to reach the mountains by nightfall.”
Jaypaw was crouched on the dewy grass devouring a vole when he heard Tawnypelt’s paw steps. “It’s time to leave,” she announced.
He gulped down the last couple of mouthfuls and padded over to join the other cats.
“Purdy, it’s been great traveling with you again,” Brambleclaw was meowing. “And we’re especially grateful to you for rescuing those mouse-brained apprentices. But we can’t ask you to go any farther from your home.”
Calling out last good-byes to Purdy, the cats set off through the trees. Lionpaw and Hollypaw came to pad along beside Jaypaw, their pelts brushing his on either side.
In contrast to the days before, they padded on in tense silence as the sun climbed above the trees.
Suddenly Hollypaw’s tail on his shoulder brought Jaypaw to a halt. He could feel the sun warmer on his pelt and a whisper of breeze stirring his whiskers. They must have reached the other side of the forest.
“It’s amazing!” Hollypaw whispered.
“What?” Irritation pricked at Jaypaw’s pelt, annoyance that he couldn’t see whatever it was Hollypaw was mewing about.
“The mountains.” It was Lionpaw who replied, his voice awestruck. “They’re vast!”
“It’s this huge wall of stone,” Hollypaw explained. “All gray and steep and bare, apart from a few cracks with grass growing in them. Jaypaw, I wish you could see. It goes up forever!”
“I can’t even see the top,” Lionpaw added. “It’s hidden in the clouds.”
“Home.” Brook’s whisper came from just in front of Jaypaw. He sensed her mingled longing and fear; the same tension came from the other Tribe cats. They must be scared of what lay ahead, facing intruders in the place they had always thought of as theirs and theirs alone.
“Tribe of Endless Hunting.” The low murmur came from Night. “Watch over us and guide our paw steps.”
Jaypaw shivered. Can StarClan still see us here? Even though he knew that one day he would have more power than StarClan, he felt exposed and vulnerable under an indifferent sky.
“We’ve made good time,” Talon meowed. “We can climb up to our cave before dark.”
“Are you sure?” Squirrelflight’s voice was doubtful.
“Remember the apprentices aren’t experienced climbers. We don’t want to be stuck out on the mountain overnight.”
“Are we going to be held up by the apprentices again?”