“Why do you want to join us?” Tall Shadow asked the three strangers. “You say you heard the cries and yowls of battle. Can’t you see that we’re injured? It will be no easy life with us. You may end up helping to tend the wounded.”
The three cats exchanged glances. Then Mouse Ear stepped forward. “Yes, we saw the fight last night and we can see now how you’ve suffered. But why should that mean we don’t want to share a home with you? We respect you for your bravery.”
Thunder’s pelt burned with shame to think that there had been witnesses to the horrors of the battle. He didn’t feel brave at all.
“We think you’re all very brave,” Mouse Ear went on. “We like living on the moor, but it’s hard when it’s just the three of us. And we think that you could benefit from having us around. I can fight off just about any cat. I even got the better of a badger once! And Holly is really good at sensing whether cats can be trusted.”
“It’s true,” Holly put in. “When you’re hard to please, like me, you definitely get the sense of which cats deserve the benefit of the doubt. And Mud Paws is an excellent stalker. Those paws will take him anywhere, as silently as a spirit-cat.”
“Spirit-cats?” Tall Shadow asked, pawing the ground. “What do you mean?”
Mouse Ear looked confused. “It’s just an expression we have,” he explained. “There aren’t really spirit-cats living here. That would be too weird,” he finished with a pretend shudder.
Thunder took care not to catch Tall Shadow’s eye. So these cats didn’t witness everything that went on last night. They didn’t see the spirit-cats.
Exhaustion rolled over him again like a dark cloud. All he wanted was to curl up in his nest. He could hear approving murmurs from his denmates, and see some of them nodding. “Come on, then,” he said to the three strangers. “You can accompany us.”
With a sweep of his tail he signaled his cats to get moving again. His limbs aching, every paw step an effort, he led the newcomers across the moor to the hollow.
Chapter 3
Gray Wing stood beneath the spreading branches of the four oaks, his gaze fixed on the earth that covered the cats who had fallen in battle. Though almost a moon had passed since then, he could still hear the yowls of defiance and the screeches of pain, as if that terrible struggle would never stop. The taste of blood remained in his throat, as if he had been jerked back into that dreadful time. But already the ground had settled, and grass had even begun to grow again in the bare earth.
In the future, no cat will have any idea that this is a burial place, he thought sorrowfully. But I’ll never forget. And I’ll make sure that the others remember these fallen cats… and Turtle Tail, too. She should not have died alone in the Twolegplace.
Slowly Gray Wing began to groom himself, licking one forepaw and drawing it over his ears. His wounds had healed and his breathing was almost back to normal, yet he knew that nothing would ever erase the scars in his heart.
“So much has changed,” he sighed aloud, “inside and out.”
Gray Wing felt that he couldn’t even lead a hungry cat to a pile of prey, much less take responsibility for their whole group. He knew some of his denmates would be glad to see him take up the leadership again, but nothing was further from his thoughts. Not without Turtle Tail’s support, he sighed inwardly.
Gray Wing pricked his ears at the sound of paw steps padding up behind him. Without turning his head, he knew that a cat had come to sit beside him.
“I never thought I’d see such death here.” Gray Wing recognized the voice of the loner, River Ripple. “This is my first time back since the battle.”
Gray Wing nodded his head in acknowledgment, his dark memories threatening to overwhelm him. He remembered the hopes he and his denmates had shared when they set out from the mountains, looking for a better home. His body shivered at the painful realization that the journey had led so many of them to their deaths. Turtle Tail, Bright Stream, Moon Shadow… and that wasn’t all.
Rainswept Flower, Hawk Swoop, Falling Feather, Jackdaw’s Cry—all gone.
“By next greenleaf,” River Ripple went on, his voice gentle, “this grave will be covered in wildflowers. You should not keep returning, day after day.”
Greenleaf… Gray Wing was momentarily puzzled. Ah, that’s the rogue cats’ name for the warm season. Recently the mountain cats and their descendants had begun using these terms, too.
Gray Wing twitched his whiskers. “How do you know what I’m doing?” he asked. “I thought you said you hadn’t been back here until now?”
River Ripple let out a soft mrrow of laughter. “Oh, Gray Wing, have you learned nothing? I may be a loner, but I know more than any cat. I see what you all do and where you go.” Gray Wing felt the brief touch of a tail-tip on his shoulder. “Stop tormenting yourself,” River Ripple went on. “There’s nothing for you here. Go back to the cats who love you.”
Gray Wing felt his throat tighten and when he managed to speak his voice was wet and raspy. “I can’t bear to think of them, all alone.”
“But they’re not alone,” River Ripple told him. “Didn’t you see them among the spirit-cats?
They’re not buried beneath the earth; they’re running with the stars.” He gave Gray Wing a gentle nudge. “Stop fretting—do you think your old friends are hanging around here, waiting for you to visit?
Of course they’re not. You must think of the living… they’re the cats who need you now.”
Gray Wing turned to face River Ripple, knowing that he was right. Something within him calmed.
“Thank you for being so kind,” he mewed, touching noses with the silver-furred tom. “Are you sure you won’t come to live with the rest of us in the hollow?”
River Ripple shook his head. “Thanks, but no.”
“Okay,” Gray Wing meowed. “But will we see you back here when we meet again?”
“Yes, I’ll come,” River Ripple answered. “I’ll be too curious to stay away. And in the meantime, if I catch you here again, I’ll be demanding the prey from your next hunt!”
In response, Gray Wing leaped away, racing through the trees toward the hollow. “You’d have to catch me first!” he called back over his shoulder.
When Gray Wing reached the edge of the hollow, he spotted Thunder at the far side, near the rock where Tall Shadow kept watch. Mouse Ear and Mud Paws were with him.
As he padded toward them, Gray Wing realized that Thunder was teaching the former rogues how to use the rabbit burrows when they were hunting. “Jump out like this!” he instructed, pushing off with his hind legs into a massive leap from a crouching start.
Gray Wing watched, the sight calling up the memory of when he was training Thunder, along with Acorn Fur and Lightning Tail. I still can’t believe Acorn Fur lives with Clear Sky now, Gray Wing thought sadly. He forced his mind into a happier path, recalling earlier practices—how Thunder used to trip over his large, white paws when he was a kit.
Not anymore.
Gray Wing let out a purr of satisfaction. Thunder had grown into a formidable cat. He’s come a long way. I can step back and know the group is safe.
A scamper of paw steps distracted Gray Wing from his thoughts as Sparrow Fur and Owl Eyes rushed past him, eager to join the training session.