“That was close!” Molepaw gasped.
Jayfeather realized there was definitely another cat under the bush. But the brambles blocked his view and in the shadows he could make out nothing more than a vague shape. He strained to catch a scent.
“Ow!” Molepaw squealed. “You’re pressing too hard!”
Jayfeather’s vision vanished, leaving him in darkness again. “Sorry,” he muttered, frustrated to be thrown out of the young tom’s memory just when he thought he might have learned something. “Okay, you can go.”
When the two apprentices had scampered off, Jayfeather padded into the clearing to discover that the patrols had returned. Poppyfrost was in the middle of the hollow with Cherrypaw and Molepaw. Other cats had gathered around her, listening to the apprentices retell their adventure.
“What?” Poppyfrost screeched. “A fox nearly ate you? This is dreadful! Brambleclaw, what are we going to do about it?”
“Calm down, Poppyfrost,” the deputy meowed. “There’s no harm done—”
“Don’t tell me to be calm!” Poppyfrost retorted. “My kits could have been eaten!”
“I know it’s worrying.” Brambleclaw’s voice was reassuring. “I’m surprised there’s a fox in the territory at all. It hasn’t been long since we chased the last one out, and I wouldn’t have expected it to come back so soon.”
Jayfeather padded across, wanting to discuss the mysterious cat who had rescued the apprentices, but in the tumult around Poppyfrost no cat wanted to listen.
He shouldered his way into the group and became aware of Ivypool beside him, shrinking in a wave of guilt. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
“I think this was my fault,” Ivypool replied miserably. Raising her voice to make herself heard, she meowed, “I think I might have brought the fox into the territory.”
“How?” Firestar demanded.
Jayfeather located the Clan leader bounding over from the Highledge; the other cats quieted down as he confronted Ivypool.
Ivypool began by describing how she and Jayfeather had found the marigold plants eaten by rabbits. “So I went to find some fox dung and put it on a stick,” she went on, her voice shaking. “I put the dung around the plants to frighten the rabbits off. The fox must have smelled it and followed the trail over the border. I’m really sorry,” she finished.
“Mouse-brain!” Cloudtail commented loudly.
“Yes, you nearly got my kits killed!” Poppyfrost hissed.
“Hey, that’s not fair.” Lionblaze thrust his way forward to stand beside Jayfeather and Ivypool. “How was Ivypool to know what would happen? We don’t normally train up there.”
“That’s right,” Sorreltail added. “And we’ll all be glad of the marigold once it grows back.”
More voices broke out, talking all at once so that Jayfeather couldn’t make paws or tail of the argument. Finally, Firestar’s yowl rang out.
“That’s enough. What’s done is done.” As the noise began to die down, he added, “Now we need to focus on regular patrols to make sure the fox doesn’t come back.” He let out a snort. “And keep a lookout for strange cats hiding in bushes!”
Jayfeather could tell that his leader was only half joking. Strange things were happening, and the Clan needed to be extra vigilant. Molepaw’s memory was still fresh in Jayfeather’s mind, and he knew there had been a cat on the cliff top.
“Hey, Dovewing,” he meowed, picking up her scent as the Clan cats separated. “What was that you were meowing about earlier? What did you hear happening on the cliff top?”
He sensed Dovewing’s defensiveness as she halted and faced him. “Nothing,” she replied.
“Not the first attack?” Jayfeather persisted.
“No.”
“And what about afterward? Were there any signs of a cat you weren’t expecting to find?”
“No!” Dovewing burst out. “I didn’t hear anything, okay? Stop expecting me to look after the whole Clan!”
She turned her back on Jayfeather and stalked off. A moment later Lionblaze’s scent wafted over Jayfeather, and his littermate came to stand beside him.
“What’s going on?” Lionblaze asked.
“I think the apprentices were right,” Jayfeather told him. “There is an intruder.”
Alarm surged through Lionblaze; Jayfeather could imagine his neck fur fluffing out. “I’ve got to get a patrol together to track it down,” he meowed.
“No, wait.” Jayfeather reached out and curled his tail around his brother’s foreleg. “If this cat saved the apprentices, then I don’t think she’s any threat. In fact, I don’t think she was a threat to begin with.”
For a moment Lionblaze said nothing; Jayfeather could almost hear thoughts buzzing in his head like bees in a hollow tree. He knew Lionblaze would reach the same conclusion as he had. “Really? You think so?” Lionblaze mewed at last. There was an undercurrent of hope in his voice, as well as nervousness.
“We didn’t find her in the tunnel,” Jayfeather pointed out.
“Would she really come back?”
Jayfeather took a long breath. “We learned long ago that we didn’t know her as well as we thought. Maybe she would.”
Chapter 6
“Climb higher! Higher than that!”
Twigs lashed across Ivypool’s face and raked through her pelt as she clawed her way up the tree.
“Faster!” The insistent yowl came from the ground below. “Higher! Now jump!”
“Great StarClan!” Ivypool muttered, digging her claws into the bark of the trunk. “I’ll break my neck if I jump from this high up.”
She and the cats with her were so far up the tree that the trunk was starting to bend under their weight. There wasn’t enough room for four cats to climb safely.
Ivypool risked a glance downward, peering through the gloom of the Dark Forest. She could hear the sounds of cats training all around her, until the noise of fighting almost drowned out the slimy rustling of the leaves. I wonder if Birchfall is here? And how many other ThunderClan cats?
Below she could just make out Shredtail, who was in charge of the training exercise, sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree. Antpelt stood beside him. He had been Shredtail’s apprentice when he first came to the Dark Forest, but now he was a full warrior; it was he who was doing all the yowling.
“That mangepelt loves throwing his weight around,” Breezepelt hissed, clinging to the trunk beside Ivypool. “Just because he died doesn’t make him more important!”
Hollowpaw of RiverClan was trying to balance on a thin branch just below Ivypool, his eyes shut tight as he let out a low moan of terror. His Clanmate Minnowtail scrambled past him and headed for the top of the tree, almost knocking Ivypool off her precarious perch.
“Hey, watch it!” Ivypool growled, envying the RiverClan cat’s light, strong body and confident movements.
“Minnowtail, you won!” Shredtail yowled from below. “You don’t have to jump. The rest of you, I want to see you jump now!”
Ivypool took a deep breath. I don’t have any choice… Spotting a pile of dead leaves underneath the tree, she launched herself into the air. All the air was driven out of her body as she hit the ground, and before she could struggle to her paws Antpelt was on top of her, holding her down. His amber eyes glared into hers.
“Too slow, mouse-brain!”
Ivypool heaved at him, bringing up her hindpaws to batter at his belly. “I can’t believe you’ve forgotten how I helped you,” she panted. “Thistleclaw wounded you so badly on the woodpile that you died, remember?”
“Who cares about the past? This is my Clan now!” Antpelt hissed, slashing his claws toward her throat. “I deserve to be here.”