Leafstar could not meet that intense stare. She turned her head away, and Billystorm let out a small trill of satisfaction, as if he recognized that she had agreed.
Down below, Sharpclaw was gathering the patrol together, ready to head downstream. Echosong had emerged from her den and was distributing traveling herbs to give the warriors strength for their journey.
“It’s time to go,” Leafstar mewed.
She leaped down from the Rockpile; as Billystorm was about to follow he checked and pointed with his tail at a dead mouse that she had left lying at the very summit of the rocks. “You forgot your fresh-kill.”
Leafstar glanced back. “Some other cat will eat it.” StarClan, please take this food and watch over us.
Sharpclaw flicked his ears in surprise at Billystorm’s presence as he and Leafstar joined the patrol. Leafstar nodded, braced to argue with her deputy, but he made no comment.
“Stick, you lead the way,” he ordered, waving his tail at the Twolegplace cat.
Stick padded downriver until he could cross by the stepping-stones. As the patrol lined up to follow, Cora paused in front of Leafstar.
“Thank you for doing this,” she meowed.
“Thank us all later,” Leafstar responded.
She was waiting for her turn to cross when Echosong came over to her with a mouthful of traveling herbs. She looked even more troubled than when she had told Leafstar about the sign on the previous day. Leafstar knew that she felt entirely responsible for SkyClan’s getting involved in the problems of the Twolegplace cats.
“I know this is what StarClan wants us to do,” Leafstar reassured her, wishing that she felt as certain as she sounded. “They will watch over us.”
Echosong nodded, though her troubled gaze did not clear. “May StarClan light your path,” she whispered as she stretched forward to touch noses with her Clan leader. “I will await your return.”
Leafstar dipped her head and joined the long line of cats who were crossing the river and climbing the trail that led out of the gorge.
The sun rose before the cats had gone far along the edge of the cliffs. The pale blue of the sky deepened; fluffy white clouds floated across it on a gentle breeze. Leafstar silently thanked StarClan that they had good weather for traveling.
As sunhigh approached they left the forest behind and the cliffs sank away until the cats were walking along a pebbly path beside the river. There was a roaring in the air that gradually grew louder.
“What’s that?” Leafstar asked.
“A waterfall,” Cora replied.
Leafstar’s paws tingled. “Do we have to climb down it?”
The black she-cat shook her head. “No, there’s another way, but it took us ages to find it when we were on our way here.”
She had hardly finished speaking when the patrol came to the top of the waterfall. The river fell over it in a smooth curve and plunged into a pool far below that churned and foamed, filling the air with fine mist. Jagged rocks poked out of the water on either side. Beside the river the ground fell away in a sheer cliff; Leafstar scanned it, but she could see hardly any paw holds that would help a cat trying to climb down, nothing but a few scrubby bushes too far apart to be of any use.
“This way,” Stick called, waving his tail. He led the patrol along the top of the cliff until it gradually began to slope down, and the ground sprouted gorse and thick clumps of heather rather than bare rock, slick with moss.
“We can get down here,” the brown tom announced. “Follow me and watch where you’re putting your paws.”
The cats straggled out into a long line as they followed Stick down the slope. The ground underpaw was treacherous; there were unexpected dips and hollows, and places where the ground crumbled away under the weight of a single paw. Leafstar found it tough to force her way through the tightly woven heather stems, and the thorns of the gorse bushes raked her pelt. Every cat was exhausted by the time they reached the bottom and headed back to the river.
“Let’s rest,” Sharpclaw suggested. “And we might take some time to hunt.”
Leafstar nodded, though the Twolegplace cats didn’t look happy; she guessed that they wanted to force the pace as much as they could, to get back to their home all the sooner.
But that’s not going to happen. What use will it be, if we’re all worn out when we get there?
When they went on, the path beside the river became smooth and sandy, easier on their paws. They passed a clump of elder bushes, and followed a curve to see several Twoleg nests standing beside a round, shallow pool.
“Is that your Twolegplace?” Sparrowpelt asked Shorty.
“No, ours is much bigger than that,” Shorty told him, adding discouragingly, “and we’ve got a long way to go yet.”
Stick led them away from the river, skirting the Twoleg nests in a wide circle. Twilight was gathering by the time they came to a small Thunderpath and halted at the edge.
“At least when it’s getting dark you can see the monsters’ eyes,” Waspwhisker murmured.
But everything was dark and quiet, and they crossed the Thunderpath without any problems.
“It’s time we made camp for the night,” Leafstar announced when they reached the other side. “Stick, do you know any good places?”
“Yes, but we’ll have to get away from these Twoleg nests first.”
Stick brought them to a spot where the riverbank sloped down steeply and there were hollows among the roots of trees that shaded the water. Leafstar fell asleep with the gentle gurgle of the current in her ears.
The cats rose at dawn; there was plenty of prey among the trees, and they hunted successfully before carrying on. Not long after sunhigh they came to open fields, with Twoleg nests here and there at a safe distance. Leafstar relaxed and enjoyed the warmth as they padded through lush grass at the edge of the river.
“What are those?” Shrewtooth whispered, waving his tail at a group of huge short-haired animals who stood in the grass several fox-lengths away; their pelts were black and white, and they chewed placidly as their gaze followed the cats.
“Cows,” Shorty replied. “Don’t worry; they’re not dangerous.”
But even Leafstar felt doubtful when a couple of the beasts padded over and snuffled curiously at her and her Clanmates. Their feet are so big and hard, like yellow rocks! Sharpclaw snapped out an order to pick up the pace, and to Leafstar’s relief the cows didn’t follow them as they bounded away.
Sliding under a fence made of shiny tendrils strung between wooden uprights, the patrol came to a field that at first glance seemed to be empty. The ground sloped upward to the horizon; the rough clumps of grass were shorter, with the occasional outcrop of rock.
“I don’t like this,” Rockshade muttered to Egg. “It’s too quiet.”
Almost before he had finished speaking, the silence was broken by the barking of a dog. The cats froze; the sound grew rapidly louder, and the dog bounded over the brow of the hilclass="underline" a massive creature with a rough, gingery pelt. Its tail flapped and its barking rose to a high-pitched yapping as it made for the cats.
“Run!” Shrewtooth yowled.
But there was nowhere to run to. The field stretched away, empty in all directions. There were no fences or walls in sight, not even a tree to climb.
“No!” Leafstar ordered, aware that at any moment the patrol would panic and scatter. “Hide—here, under the bank.”
Sharpclaw went first, launching himself over the grassy edge before any cat had a clear idea of what they might find there. “It’s all right!” he yowled when he was out of sight. “Come on!”
Leafstar stood guard, her claws extended and her lips drawn back in a snarl as the dog hurtled toward her. “Stay back, flea-pelt!” she spat.