“We’re not going to give up,” she announced. “We have to try again.”
“But what else can we do?” Sharpclaw asked, with a frustrated lash of his tail. “We didn’t manage to get through to the Twolegs, and I don’t see how we’ll ever be able to.”
“That’s right,” Sparrowpelt agreed. “It’s impossible to know the way that Twolegs think. They don’t seem to have any reason.”
Leafstar’s pelt tingled as the beginnings of a plan slid into her mind. “If we don’t know the way Twolegs think,” she began thoughtfully, “we’ll have to use the way cats think instead. The Twolegs were hunting for their kit; we’ll just have to help them.”
Chapter 28
“When we’re tracking prey, we follow a scent trail,” Leafstar mused, tasting the kit’s strong Twoleg scent. “Is there any way to lay one for the Twolegs?”
“There’s no point,” Harveymoon pointed out. “Twolegs have enormous noses, but their sense of smell isn’t worth a mouse-tail. Otherwise they’d know we were here!”
Leafstar admitted that the daylight-warrior had a point. “Then how can we let them know where their lost kit is?”
She wasn’t expecting an answer, but just then an excited cry came from Frecklepaw, who had been scrambling among the rocks at the foot of the cliff. “Look what I’ve found!”
Her voice woke Clovertail, who blinked and stretched her jaws in an enormous yawn. “That was the best sleep I’ve had in moons,” she meowed. “Leafstar, what’s going on? Are the kit’s parents coming?”
Leafstar explained what had happened in the Twolegplace while she padded over to Frecklepaw to see what the apprentice had discovered.
Clovertail stepped carefully out of the Twoleg’s grasp and followed, her whiskers twitching in disappointment. “Poor little kit,” she murmured. “We have to do something.”
“Look,” Frecklepaw repeated as the two she-cats approached. She pointed with her tail at a bright blue object lying between two rocks.
“What is it?” Leafstar asked, stretching out a paw to give the object a tentative prod. “It looks as if it’s made of Twoleg pelt-stuff.”
“It’s the kit’s backpack,” Frecklepaw told her. Her eyes shone with pride at being able to help. “Twolegs use them to carry stuff.”
Leafstar nodded. “I see. Like a very big leaf wrap.”
She gripped the edge of the backpack between her teeth and tugged it up onto the surface of the nearest rock. Several smaller objects fell out of it, scattering around the cats’ paws.
More of the Clan cats were starting to gather around, murmuring among themselves as they saw what Frecklepaw had found. The apprentices wriggled to the front, their faces alive with curiosity.
“Twolegs are weird,” Mintpaw mewed, dipping her head to sniff at a scrap of white pelt. “Why do they want to drag all this stuff around with them? What’s it all for, anyway?”
“That’s a hanky,” Frecklepaw told her importantly. “Twolegs wipe their noses with them.”
“Wipe their…?” Mintpaw’s eyes widened and she took a pace back. “You mean they don’t just lick it off? Yuck!”
“And what’s this?” Sagepaw asked, nosing at a round green thing that looked a bit like the backpack, but much smaller. Something inside it jingled when he moved it.
“Sorry, I don’t know,” Frecklepaw replied, her sense of importance suddenly deflating. “But this is a hair band,” she added, snagging her claws into a long pink thing and holding it up. “Twoleg females tie up their head fur with them.”
Egg gave the hair band a nervous sniff, while Mintpaw exchanged a glance with her brother.
“Hey, you should try that,” Sagepaw suggested, giving her a friendly shove. “Tie some bindweed around your head fur.”
“My head fur is fine as it is, thanks,” Mintpaw snapped.
Meanwhile Snookpaw had approached, carrying something long and glittery in his jaws. “Here’s her necklace,” he mumbled around it. “I guess it came off when she fell.”
“And what’s that for?” Mintpaw squeaked.
Snookpaw shrugged. “Dunno. My Twoleg female puts them around her neck. I thought maybe it was to stop her head from falling off.”
“That can’t be right,” Sagepaw murmured, puzzled. “This one’s head hasn’t fallen off—”
“That’s all very well,” Clovertail interrupted, rolling her eyes at Leafstar, who suppressed a mrrow of amusement. The apprentices could go on like this all day! “But what are we going to do with all of this? Does it help us at all?”
“I think it does, actually,” Leafstar replied slowly. “The Twolegs can’t follow a scent trail, but they can see all right, can’t they? We can use this stuff to lead them from Twolegplace to here, so that they find their kit.”
“Let’s hope they have some tracking skills,” Sharpclaw commented.
“Well, I can’t believe you’re going to so much trouble,” Petalnose meowed, gazing disdainfully at the scattering of Twoleg objects.
“Nor can I,” Sparrowpelt agreed. “It’s nothing to do with us. Why should we care whether the Twolegs find their kit or not?”
Clovertail’s eyes stretched wide. “I can’t believe you said that!”
Sparrowpelt shrugged. “I just think it’s too much trouble. We’re putting ourselves in danger, and for what?”
“Well, I think it’s a great idea!” Cherrytail glared at her brother. “Are we going now?”
Leafstar glanced up at the sky; the sun was starting to go down, and not much time was left if they were to lead the Twolegs to the gorge before dark. “Yes, right now,” she decided. “I’ll take the same patrol as before. We all know the way now. Each of you pick up something and follow me.”
“I’ll stay here, if that’s okay,” Sharpclaw meowed. “I’ve got a few ideas that might help when the Twolegs come to the gorge.”
Leafstar wondered for a moment what her deputy was planning, then told herself firmly that she couldn’t keep suspecting his motives, or nothing would get done. “Fine,” she mewed briskly. “We’ll see you later.”
Wincing at the strong Twoleg scent, Leafstar gripped the green jingly thing in her jaws, while the rest of the patrol gathered up the other objects. Billystorm picked up the backpack, dangling it between his forelegs like some weird piece of fresh-kill.
Leafstar led the way up the cliff face, scrambling over the rocks, for there was no clearly defined trail just here. Halfway up she came upon a round object made of Twoleg pelt-stuff, with a hard crescent shape sticking out at one side. It was about the size of a Twoleg’s head.
That must be to cover their head fur, she thought, pleased with herself for guessing as she grabbed it up and carried it with her.
Near the spot where they reached the top of the cliff, a straggling thornbush grew, thrusting its roots between the rocks. “Hang the backpack there,” Leafstar instructed Billystorm, gesturing with her tail at a jutting branch. “It’s big and bright. The Twolegs will be able to see it from a long way off.”
Billystorm nodded and did as she told him, though he didn’t speak to her. Leafstar’s heart ached all over again. This mission would feel much more exciting if we were still friends!
Working their way across the open ground between the gorge and Twolegplace, Leafstar and her patrol positioned the objects where they thought the Twolegs would easily spot them: on a tree stump, a flat rock, the top of a steep bank. Leafstar checked carefully that each object could be clearly seen behind them before she placed the next one.
Finally, Cherrytail scrambled up and left the hair band on an overhanging branch of a chestnut tree beside the Thunderpath, on the edge of the open ground. “Now what?” she panted when she jumped down again.