“That would have been a great idea,” Sharpclaw commented drily, “if you hadn’t just told every cat what you’re going to do.”
Sparrowpelt shrugged. “You asked for suggestions.”
“So I did.” Sharpclaw twitched his whiskers. “Okay, I’ll give you a moment to decide what your team will do, and when I say ‘now,’ start racing.”
Leafstar watched as the two groups huddled together, whispering urgently while casting suspicious glances at their rivals.
“This is going to be really useful for us,” Stick remarked. “It’s the sort of thing that would help us get to a bit of prey before another cat.”
“Or a good sleeping place,” Shorty added.
Leafstar nodded, remembering back to when she had been a loner, without a Clan to support her or a den that she could really call her own. “Life’s much better when you’re not on your own,” she murmured, half to herself.
Cora opened her jaws to respond, but just then Sharpclaw yowled, “Now!”
The two groups of cats exploded outward like seeds from a gorse pod. Tinycloud let out a screech and raced for the tree, ducking around Waspwhisker’s outstretched paws, but before she got within reach she was bowled over by Bouncefire. The two littermates rolled over together in a whirl of flailing paws and tails.
Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw worked as a team to weave their way past Petalnose, who didn’t seem to know which cat to attack first. Leafstar thought they had a clear run to the tree, until Billystorm came charging up, swatted Frecklepaw aside with one blow of his paw, and shouldered Ebonyclaw away. Petalnose wrapped her paws around the black she-cat’s neck and dragged her over onto her back.
Leafstar heard Cora gasp, and saw her and Shorty wince as the battling cats tumbled into the dust, attacking one another with piercing caterwauls.
“It’s all right,” she reassured them. Pride warmed her from ears to tail-tip as her Clanmates showed off their strength and courage. And Sharpclaw knows exactly how to get the best from them. “All claws are sheathed when they’re training. And they have to learn to land lightly and get back onto their paws before an enemy can strike a death blow.”
“That’s a good move,” Stick pointed out, angling his ears to where Sparrowpelt had just intercepted Waspwhisker a couple of tail-lengths from the tree, hooked his paws out from under him, and leaped on top of him, pummeling him around the ears with his forepaws. “I’ll have to remember that one.”
Sharpclaw, who was standing nearby, dipped his head to acknowledge the loner’s praise. “Our young cats learn that move almost as soon as they’re apprenticed,” he meowed. “We can teach you, if you want.”
“We’re here to learn,” Stick responded.
Leafstar realized that she hadn’t seen Snookpaw in the middle of the combat. Glancing around, she spotted the tip of a black paw poking out from the bottom of a heap of boulders between the fighting cats and the tree.
A heartbeat later, Snookpaw appeared, creeping along the ground in his best hunter’s crouch. The other cats were too preoccupied to notice him. A tail-length from the tree he sprang into the air and landed just beside the trunk as if he was pouncing on prey.
“I did it!” he yowled triumphantly, stretching his paws up the trunk to score his claws down the bark. “I won!”
The tussling cats broke apart, Waspwhisker’s group spinning around to stare at the apprentice, while Sparrowpelt’s patrol wore identical smug expressions, as if they’d just caught a plump thrush.
Sparrowpelt licked his paw and drew it over one ear. “Well done!” he told Snookpaw. “I knew they’d never spot you sneaking up like that if we kept them busy.”
“Mouse dung!” Bouncefire exclaimed. “I never thought of that!”
Billystorm bounded over to his apprentice and stretched his tail over the young cat’s shoulders. “Good job,” he meowed.
“Yes, very well done.” Sharpclaw’s voice had an edge to it, as if he wasn’t pleased that a daylight-warrior had taken the most important part in his group’s strategy. “Let’s try something else, shall we?”
He gestured with his tail for the cats to gather around him. Leafstar saw that two long, striped hawk feathers lay beside his paws; as the cats approached he pushed them forward.
“This time,” he began, “you have to take one of these feathers right up to the top of the thorn tree. The cat who gets there first wins.”
“Then we should have a feather each,” Tinycloud objected.
“No,” Sharpclaw explained patiently. “This is still an exercise for patrols. You have to decide whether you send one cat up the tree with the feather, or try to do it all together.”
Sparrowpelt nodded. “I get it.” He beckoned with his tail to summon his patrol to the other side of the sand.
“Would you like to join in?” Leafstar asked the visitors.
The thee cats looked at one another, then nodded; Leafstar thought that Cora and Shorty both seemed slightly reluctant.
“Good,” Sharpclaw mewed. “Stick and Cora, you join Waspwhisker’s patrol, and Shorty, you go with Sparrowpelt.”
The visitors moved off, but before he joined his group Stick halted and glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t you ever join in?” he meowed to Leafstar.
“Sometimes,” she replied, surprised by what seemed like a challenge. Flicking her tail at Sharpclaw, she added, “Let’s do it.”
Her deputy nodded. He padded over toward Waspwhisker’s patrol, leaving Leafstar to join Sparrowpelt.
“What do you think we should do this time?” she meowed quietly, dipping her head to Sparrowpelt to show him that he was still in charge.
“They’ll expect us to do something sneaky,” the tabby tom began, “so I suggest we go straight for it. Petalnose, you take the feather and climb as fast as you can. The rest of us will try to keep Waspwhisker’s patrol out of your fur.”
Petalnose nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
Leafstar tensed as she waited for Sharpclaw to give the signal to start. Energy coursed through her muscles. I haven’t felt like this in moons, she thought. I love training with my Clan.
“Now!” Sharpclaw yowled.
Grabbing the feather in her jaws, Petalnose raced for the tree, veering around Mintpaw as the apprentice tried to stop her. Leafstar realized that all of Waspwhisker’s patrol, except for Mintpaw and Bouncefire, were heading for the tree. Sharpclaw was in the lead with the feather.
Leafstar flung herself into the crush, slamming into Ebonyclaw and carrying the black she-cat off her paws. She ducked underneath a blow from Stick, realizing that the scrawny loner had good instincts even without training. The blow she had avoided could have been better aimed, but he was strong, and not afraid to challenge a Clan leader.
Petalnose and Sharpclaw reached the tree at the same moment. Petalnose flung herself up the trunk, but Billystorm grabbed Sharpclaw’s tail in his jaws as the deputy sprang upward and dragged him down again. Sharpclaw passed the feather rapidly to Frecklepaw before battering at Billystorm with all four paws to break his grip.
Bouncefire jumped on Cora as she tried to reach the tree; Leafstar saw how the she-cat let herself go limp under his paws, then heave herself up and throw him off.
Nice move. Bouncefire should have been expecting that!
With a loud screech, Mintpaw dashed up to Shorty and swiped a paw across his face. The tabby tom stumbled, off balance, but managed to stay on his paws. He wasn’t fast enough to catch Mintpaw, though; the gray apprentice whirled around and headed off Sparrowpelt as he tried to break through to support Petalnose.
By now, Petalnose was halfway up the tree and climbing well. Frecklepaw, Ebonyclaw, and Waspwhisker were scrambling up together a little way below, passing the feather from one to the other, while Sharpclaw had thrown off Billystorm and was racing to overtake Petalnose.