A screech woke her. It split the air and she jerked her head up. In the darkness, it took a moment to remember where she was. Another shriek sounded. With a sickening jolt, Squirrelflight realized that Leafstar wasn’t beside her. She scrambled from her nest and darted outside.
Snow had pinned Leafstar to the grass. Her pelt bushed, the white she-cat snarled at the SkyClan leader and pressed her shoulders harder against the earth. Leafstar struggled beneath her, hind paws churning. But Snow had twisted out of reach. The white cat glanced up as Squirrelflight skidded to a halt behind them. “I don’t like to start fights any more than Moonlight,” she hissed. “But I’m more than willing to finish them.” She let go of Leafstar and backed away, her ears flat.
Flurry and Sparrow had hurried from their den. Stone and Grass watched from across the clearing.
Moonlight padded toward them. “What’s going on here?”
“She tried to escape,” Snow hissed.
Leafstar pushed herself to her paws and shook out her pelt. Rage shone in her eyes.
Squirrelflight hurried forward. “She was probably just going to make dirt,” she mewed quickly.
“No, I wasn’t,” Leafstar growled.
“Get inside,” Squirrelflight hissed. Did she want more trouble? She smelled blood and saw that Leafstar was wounded. “You’re hurt!”
Leafstar snorted and turned toward the den. Squirrelflight’s chest tightened as she watched her limp inside. Snow was glaring at her, eyes glittering. Stone and Grass glanced nervously at each other.
Flurry stepped forward. “We can guard if you like,” she told Snow.
Sparrow pressed beside her. “You can get some sleep.”
Snow narrowed her eyes. “I’ll finish what I started,” she mewed ominously.
Moonlight flicked her tail. “Make sure your friend stays in her den,” she told Squirrelflight. “I don’t want any more disturbances tonight.” She turned back to her own den.
Squirrelflight followed Leafstar inside to find her lapping her hind paw. “Let me look at your wound.” Squirrelflight nosed her muzzle out of the way and inspected the ragged fur. Blood oozed from a deep scratch on her leg. Her heart sank. It would be harder to escape now that Leafstar was injured. “Make sure it’s clean,” Squirrelflight told her.
“What do you think I was doing?” Leafstar began licking it again.
Squirrelflight looked around the den, relieved to see cobwebs crowding between the branches above her head. She reached up and grabbed a pawful. “Dress it with these when you’ve finished cleaning it.”
“Thanks.” Leafstar took the cobwebs from her.
“Tomorrow we’ll see if we can get herbs to treat it.” Anxiety fluttered in Squirrelflight’s belly. Why hadn’t Leafstar waited, as they’d planned? “Were you planning to leave without me?”
“I was trying to see if there was an easy way out of the camp,” Leafstar told her. “If I’d found one, I would have come back for you.”
“Okay.” Squirrelflight believed her. Leafstar wouldn’t abandon another warrior. She sat down. Slipping away was going to be harder than she’d thought. Were they going to have to fight their way out of here? She forced her fur to remain flat. Fighting these cats would be dangerous. The Sisters seemed peaceful, but they were clearly willing to be aggressive if they needed to. “Next time you come up with an escape plan, tell me first.”
“I don’t know if there will be a next time.” Leafstar began wrapping cobweb around her paw. “I think we’ll have to wait for our Clanmates to rescue us.”
Squirrelflight met her gaze darkly. She didn’t want ThunderClan cats to get hurt because she’d made the mistake of coming here. Guilt wormed in her belly. She should never have gone behind Bramblestar’s back. “They might not watch us so closely tomorrow,” she mewed hopefully. “We might get away.”
Leafstar eyed her doubtfully. “These cats won’t let us go easily.”
Squirrelflight shifted her paws anxiously. Leafstar was right. Escaping was going to be hard. And even if they managed, she wondered what kind of reception would await her in the ThunderClan camp.
CHAPTER 5
Squirrelflight sat down and curled her tail over her paws. She yawned, sleepy after eating the fat vole Sparrow had brought her at sunhigh. Across the clearing Tempest, Stone, and Grass were digging earth from beneath a low gorse bush. Its thick branches spilled onto the grassy clearing, and the three cats had opened a gap in the front and were taking turns hauling dirt from around the central stem. Squirrelflight nodded to Leafstar. “It looks like they’re building a new den.”
“If Moonlight let us go, they wouldn’t need another den.” Leafstar lay outside the juniper bush where they’d slept for the past two nights. The wound on her leg was still raw. The Sisters had treated it with herbs and there was no sign of infection, but they had no hope of slipping away from the camp now. The Sisters watched them day and night, and even if they could escape unnoticed, there would be no way Leafstar could outrun a patrol if they were followed.
Besides, Squirrelflight had found she was content here. The Sisters had treated them well, sharing prey and accepting them as though they were new members of the group. Even Snow, who was still watchful, had begun to warm to them. Last night she’d brought poppy seeds to the den in case Leafstar’s wound kept her awake. Leafstar too seemed to be growing used to living in the valley camp. She’d stopped complaining about the crisp scent of the hills and the fact that fresh-kill here tasted more of sweet herbs than the dank flavors of the forest.
Squirrelflight wondered if ThunderClan or SkyClan had sent search patrols yet. The thought made her belly tighten. She felt sure by now that Bramblestar would be angry and she’d have to defend her reasons for coming here. And she felt guilty that the Sisters might face a patrol of hostile warriors because of her.
Flurry pushed her way through the ferns that masked the camp entrance. She was carrying herbs in her mouth. Squirrelflight tasted the air and smelled marigold leaves. The ginger-and-white she-cat crossed the clearing and stopped beside Leafstar. She dropped the herbs beside the SkyClan leader and shook out her pelt. “How does your leg feel?” she asked Leafstar.
“It’s sore, but it’s feeling better.” Leafstar moved her leg closer as Flurry leaned down to look at it.
Squirrelflight had been impressed by how many of the Sisters were skilled in using herbs. Sparrow, Flurry, Sunrise, and Hawk had all tended to Leafstar’s wound in turn. “Do you all know how to treat wounds?” She watched Flurry strip the marigold leaves from the stem.
“Of course.” Flurry kept her eyes on her work.
“The Clans have only a few medicine cats,” Squirrelflight told her.
“What if they get sick?” Flurry blinked at her. “Who looks after them?”
Leafstar stretched her muzzle forward to sniff the marigold. “They look after one another. And they have apprentices,” she mewed.
“I guess we’re all apprentices here,” Flurry explained. “The mothers teach their kits, and the sisters learn from one another.” She began to chew the leaves into a poultice.
Squirrelflight was beginning to get used to the strange way the Sisters addressed one another. The younger cats often referred to the older cats as Mother, whether a she-cat was their mother or not, and cats of a similar age called one another Sister. Names were used sparingly, except for the toms, who were only ever referred to by their names.
As Flurry began to lap the poultice gently into Leafstar’s wound, Moonlight padded into camp, trailing long honeysuckle vines from her mouth. Snow, Creek, and Sparrow followed, dragging more vines after them.