“Of course,” she meowed calmly. “Four extra cats—”
A loud wail from Echosong’s den interrupted her. “My leg hurts!”
Leafstar realized that Sagepaw must have woken up. Echosong, who had been sitting at the entrance of her den, immediately vanished inside, with Petalnose hard on her paws.
“What’s that?” Cora asked, looking shocked. The other newcomers were wide-eyed, too, their pelts beginning to bristle.
“Nothing to worry about,” Leafstar reassured them. “One of our young cats had an accident earlier, but our medicine cat is taking care of him.”
“A medicine cat?” Coal echoed. “You mean you have a cat who looks after you when you’re hurt or ill? I’d like to learn more about that.”
Leafstar’s pelt was still prickling with pride in the way Echosong had dealt with Sagepaw’s injury. Surely there was no harm in sharing her skills with these visitors? “Yes, you can do that,” she told Coal. “Why don’t you go down to Echosong’s den and watch what she does? Tinycloud, go with him and tell Echosong I said it was all right for Coal to be there.”
The young white warrior dipped her head and waved her tail to beckon Coal. “Thank you,” he mewed to Leafstar, and padded off after Tinycloud. Leafstar noticed that Tinycloud managed to keep a tail-length ahead of the black tom, as if she didn’t want him getting too close to her.
Leafstar also noticed that Sharpclaw was staring at her with narrowed eyes, as if he was questioning her decision to let Coal into the medicine cat’s den.
Stop being so sensitive! she scolded herself. Sharpclaw is a good deputy. He was the one who said we should let the visitors see how we live in the first place.
Stick, Cora, and Shorty were looking expectantly at Leafstar. It was like being faced with three new apprentices. Did they really want to learn what Clan cats did? Leafstar tried to think of any reason why she couldn’t use the offer of free help in exchange for some hunting and fighting tips. With Harveymoon and Macgyver back in Twolegplace, there was room for some extra paws. Checking the fresh-kill pile, she saw it was still well stocked, so there was no point in sending them out on hunting patrols right now.
“Would you like to join a training session with our apprentices?” she suggested. “We all train together, because even warriors have to practice their battle skills.”
At the front of the gathered cats, Mintpaw gave an excited wriggle. “That would be great!” she exclaimed. “I can show them my best move.”
“You mean the one where you get sand in your face?” Snookpaw teased. “Sure, we’ll show them that one!”
Stick glanced at Cora and Shorty, then nodded to Leafstar. “I think we’d all enjoy that,” he meowed.
“Then let’s go.”
As soon as Leafstar spoke the three apprentices raced off up the gorge toward the flat training area just beyond the bend in the cliff. Fallowfern’s kits jumped up and pattered after them, only to be herded gently back by their mother.
“But we want to train, too!” Nettlekit protested.
“That’s right,” Plumkit added. “We know lots of battle moves!”
“You’re not even apprentices yet,” Fallowfern pointed out. “You’re too young.”
“Mouse dung!” Rabbitkit lashed his tail while Creekkit let out an annoyed hiss.
“Never mind, you can have your own practice by the pool,” their mother consoled them. “Just as long as you don’t fall in!”
The four kits let out squeaks of excitement and launched themselves toward the flat stretch of pebbles at the water’s edge, with their mother trotting rapidly behind them.
The warriors headed up the gorge after the apprentices, with Sharpclaw in the lead. Waspwhisker came down from his lookout post while Tinycloud and Petalnose emerged from Echosong’s den and bounded up to them. “Wait for us!” Tinycloud panted.
As Leafstar was preparing to follow, Billystorm paused beside her.
“Do you think some of us ought to hunt?” he asked, too softly for any other cat to hear. “There’ll be four extra mouths to feed tonight.”
Leafstar felt a stab of embarrassment that one of the daylight-warriors had needed to point this out. “Oh, thanks.” She also felt encouraged that the ginger-and-white tom had come up with the suggestion. Ever since Billystorm had caused an argument by leaving on the day of the snow, he had worked hard, as if he was trying to make up for a bad decision. “Do you want to lead a patrol?”
“I can’t,” Billystorm pointed out. “I have to supervise Snookpaw’s training.”
Leafstar nodded. “You’re right; that’s more important. Patchfoot,” she called, “will you lead a hunting patrol? Take Cherrytail, Shrewtooth, and Rockshade with you.”
Rockshade halted and glanced over his shoulder. “Do I have to?” he complained. “I wanted to join the training session.”
“When your Clan leader tells you to, then you have to,” Billystorm meowed sharply.
Rockshade gave him a glare as he fell in behind Shrewtooth and Cherrytail. “What would a kittypet know about it?” he muttered into Cherrytail’s ear, just loud enough for Leafstar and Billystorm to hear.
Leafstar opened her jaws, preparing a stinging rebuke, but Billystorm shook his head and she stayed silent.
“It doesn’t matter,” the ginger-and-white tom mewed. “Scolding him will only make him worse. Let’s go and see what those apprentices are doing.”
By the time Leafstar and Billystorm reached the training area, Sharpclaw was dividing the other cats into two groups.
“Sparrowpelt, you lead this one,” he meowed, “and Waspwhisker, you can lead the other.”
Leafstar padded to the edge of the broad stretch of sand where Cora, Stick, and Shorty were sitting.
“Do you do this all the time?” Cora asked, wide-eyed.
Leafstar shook her head. “Usually we train in smaller groups, or mentors practice battle moves with their apprentices. But Sharpclaw likes to work on bigger exercises now and again.”
“What do you want us to do?” Billystorm called to Sharpclaw, padding over to join his apprentice.
“You see this thorn tree?” Sharpclaw flicked his tail toward a dead and twisted tree that stood a few tail-lengths away from the edge of the training area. “Whichever cat touches the trunk first wins for their patrol.”
“I can do that!” Mintpaw leaped to her paws and bounded off in the direction of the tree, only to skid to a halt as Sharpclaw raised his tail to stop her.
“It’s not going to be as easy as that, Mintpaw,” the Clan deputy warned with a glint of amusement in his eyes. “While you’re trying to reach the tree, the other group will be trying, too. What do you think will happen?”
Ebonyclaw took a step forward. “They’ll try to stop us?”
Sharpclaw gave her a curt nod, while Leafstar felt pleased that one of the daylight-warriors had given the right answer.
“You’ll need to think about attack and defense,” he went on, addressing all the cats. “It’s not just about getting there first; you have to stop the other group beating you to it. Can you think of any moves that would be useful?”
“Claw their ears off!” Tinycloud meowed loudly.
Sharpclaw merely flicked one ear, while Bouncefire muttered, “Mouse-brain!”
Frecklepaw raised her tail. “We could choose one cat to run for the tree,” she suggested. “And then the others could get in the way when the other group tries to stop her.”
“Good idea!” Ebonyclaw praised her apprentice before Sharpclaw could comment.
“Or we could create a diversion,” Sparrowpelt meowed. “If one cat yowled, ‘Fox!’ its teammates could dash for the tree while the other cats were looking for it.”