Hazeltail sat down, her eyes filled with pain. The thorn was a huge one, firmly embedded in her nose. Bright blood welled out around it.
Lionblaze watched his sister using the medicine cat skills she had learned long ago from Leafpool. Hollyleaf licked the area around the thorn and got a good grip on it with her teeth. Pulling firmly, she drew out the thorn and spat it onto the ground. More blood gushed out of Hazeltail’s nose and splashed onto the snow.
“Ouch!” Hazeltail protested.
“We really need some water to rinse the blood away and close the wound,” Hollyleaf meowed.
Lionblaze glanced around, ready to fetch some for her, but there was no sign of any streams….
“Press your muzzle into the snow,” Hollyleaf instructed Hazeltail. “That will stop the bleeding.”
Blinking doubtfully, Hazeltail dipped her head and buried her nose in a patch of clean white snow. “It’s very cold!” came a muffled meow.
“Stay there a bit longer,” Hollyleaf urged. “I promise it will help.”
I hope it will, Lionblaze thought, or Hollyleaf could just be freezing Hazeltail’s nose off. He could see how worried his sister looked as she watched her Clanmate.
Hazeltail kept her face pressed into the snow for several long moments, then lifted her head. Clumps of white clung to her face, making her look as if she were turning into Cloudtail, with his long, snow-colored pelt. “I-it doesn’t h-hurt so much now,” she reported through chattering teeth.
Hollyleaf bent forward to inspect the wound left by the thorn. Carefully she brushed the snow away with her paw. The injury looked like a neat, clean hole, almost sealed up already. “I think that did the trick,” she meowed.
“Well done.” Brambleclaw’s rumbling purr sounded behind Hollyleaf. Lionblaze saw him blinking warmly at her with the same fatherly pride in his eyes that Smoky had shown when he was watching Hazeltail.
Hollyleaf turned away; Lionblaze knew how much she must want to respond, but she couldn’t. Once Brambleclaw’s approval had meant so much to all of them. But not anymore. Whatever skills we have, they didn’t come from you.
The snow was starting to ease off, but the cloud covering the sky made it impossible to tell where the sun was. Maybe it’s nearly sunset, Lionblaze thought, shivering. Straight ahead lay the huge Thunderpath, and beyond it the land stretched flat as far as they could see, unbroken except for a small copse in the middle of the openness. Beyond it, over to one side, Lionblaze made out a mass of twinkling lights.
“What’s that?” he asked, pointing with his tail. “It looks as if a lot of stars have fallen down to earth.”
“No, that’s lots and lots of Twoleg nests, all together,” Brackenfur explained.
Hazeltail gasped. “I didn’t think there were as many Twolegs as that in the whole world!”
“I hope we don’t have to go near them,” Birchfall added.
Hazeltail nodded, while Lionblaze muttered, “We’re not kittypets.” He felt as if he was trying to convince himself.
Brambleclaw and Brackenfur led the way down to the Thunderpath and crouched at the edge, one at each end of the line of cats. Monsters growled past, their blazing lights reflecting off the wet black surface.
“This time we’ll all cross together, once there’s a big enough gap,” Brambleclaw decided. “When I say run, run as if a whole tribe of badgers was after you.”
Lionblaze tried desperately to hide his fear as he waited for the deputy’s signal. This was far worse than the Thunderpath they had crossed earlier. It seemed as if the stream of monsters would never end!
Next to him, Hazeltail was quivering too, and beyond her, Birchfall’s fur was bristling as if he faced a horde of enemies. On Lionblaze’s other side, Hollyleaf worked her claws furiously in the ground, her eyes fixed on Brambleclaw as she waited for the command to cross.
Why do I have to be brave all the time? Lionblaze asked himself miserably. I shouldn’t have to be, not now we know the prophecy wasn’t about us. As far as we know, we could be kittypets!
Horror and shame swept over him at the thought. He was so wrapped up in his dismay that he almost missed Brambleclaw’s yowled signaclass="underline" “Now!”
CHAPTER 6
Hollyleaf leaped forward with her Clanmates. As they reached the middle of the Thunderpath, she heard the roar of another monster in the distance, rapidly growing louder. Dazzling light angled across her as the huge creature seemed to leap out of nowhere. Hollyleaf ran even harder, pushing with her paws against the hard surface to drive herself faster and faster to the other side.
A terrified screech split the air. When Hollyleaf gained the safety of the grass beyond, she spun around to see Hazeltail rigid with fear, crouching in the middle of the Thunderpath in the path of the monster.
“No!” Hollyleaf yowled. “Hazeltail, run!”
Hazeltail was too panic-stricken to move. With a snarl of fury, Brambleclaw darted back onto the Thunderpath and grabbed her by the scruff, almost under the paws of the oncoming monster.
“It’ll kill them both!” Birchfall wailed.
The monster’s blazing eyebeams raked across the two warriors as Brambleclaw dragged his Clanmate across the black surface. Hazeltail’s legs dangled at first, as if she were dead; then in a heartbeat she scrambled to her paws and fled. Brambleclaw dashed after her, the monster almost on top of his haunches. For a heartbeat, Hollyleaf was certain that he would be crushed under the monster’s whirling paws; then it was roaring past them, and Brambleclaw was still running. Hazeltail collapsed onto the grass and Brambleclaw skidded to a halt beside her.
He let out a disgusted snort. “That was an example of how not to cross a Thunderpath.”
“I’m sorry.” Hazeltail sounded like a frightened kit. “I’m so sorry!”
The rest of the cats flopped down, panting. Even Lionblaze looked ruffled. Sol must be braver than any of us realized, Hollyleaf thought as she tried to calm her breathing. He made this journey all by himself!
Brackenfur padded up to Hazeltail and gave her a comforting lick. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We all make mistakes.”
“But I could have gotten Brambleclaw killed!” Hazeltail’s eyes were wide with horror. “Thank you, Brambleclaw. You saved my life!”
The fury in Brambleclaw’s eyes faded, and he blinked. “Just make sure I don’t have to do it again.”
“I promise you won’t.”
After allowing them a few moments to rest, Brambleclaw urged the patrol members to their paws again. “We can’t stay here,” he meowed. “Let’s head for the trees. There might be some prey there.”
The cats followed him as he struck out across the prickly grass. The snow had stopped, but it still lay thickly on the ground, clogging Hollyleaf’s paws as she limped after her Clan deputy. My fur’s so cold I think I’m turning into an ice cat, she thought, trying to shake the cold white clumps off her feet. A cold wind was blowing into their faces, catching up the loose snow and flinging it into her eyes. “Mouse dung, that stings!” she muttered.
As they drew closer to the copse, she could see that the trees were shorter than the ones on ThunderClan territory, and twisted into strange shapes. They looked like the bushes on WindClan’s moorland territory, bent double like hunched Twolegs. But as she tasted the air, Hollyleaf realized that the smells were more familiar than anything she had scented since she left the forest. The reek of the Thunderpath was dying away, and in its place she could pick up the scents of leaf and bark; water flooded her jaws as she recognized mouse, rabbit, and squirrel.