Before they had gone very far, Jagged Peak halted. “I smell prey!” he announced.
Gray Wing glanced at him in surprise, sure at first that his brother must be wrong. He couldn’t see anything but, after a moment, he picked up a very faint scent trail. “Wow, you’re good at this,” he told Jagged Peak. “You’d better track it.”
He admired how his brother instinctively dropped into the correct crouch, and his light steps as he followed the scent trail. Gray Wing watched as the younger cat crept closer to a small pile of stones. A small mountain shrew shot out of the heap; Jagged Peak pounced, piercing it with his sharp claws.
“I got it!” he exclaimed in astonishment, as if he couldn’t believe his success. He bent down to take one bite and then pushed the rest of it over to Gray Wing.
“You caught it,” Gray Wing protested. “You should eat it.”
Jagged Peak shook his head firmly. “We share,” he mewed. “That’s the proper way to behave.”
Gray Wing dug in, then swiped his tongue around his jaws to catch the last juices. “Thanks,” he purred. “I feel so much better now.”
The next stretch of their journey meant slithering down a tricky stretch of boulders, where small stones skidded from beneath their paws. Gray Wing was thankful to come to a halt on a narrow ledge that led in the direction they wanted to go.
Then as he drew in a breath he realized that a familiar scent was bathing his muzzle. Jagged Peak picked it up at the same moment. “This is the path the others took!” he exclaimed, sounding as thrilled as if they had caught up with their friends already.
“Don’t get too excited,” Gray Wing warned, though his own paws were tingling. “There’s still a good way to go.”
The sun was behind them, casting long shadows ahead as it sank behind the mountaintops.
“We need to stop and find shelter for the night,” Gray Wing meowed.
“No,” Jagged Peak objected. “I want to keep going. We might not be able to see, but I can follow the scent trail!” He closed his eyes tightly and padded along the ledge with his nose to the surface of the snow. Gray Wing darted to one side, ready to catch him in case he came too close to the edge, but the kit walked confidently, his tail held high.
“See?” Jagged Peak mewed at last, halting and opening his eyes again.
Gray Wing gave in to his desire to find the other cats. “Okay. But we have to stop if it starts feeling too risky.”
Jagged Peak nodded eagerly, then set off in the lead.
The night was cloudy, and although the moon was still close to full it only shone fitfully. There were times when Gray Wing couldn’t see his own whiskers. Jagged Peak headed along the ledge, slowly and carefully, seeming certain of where the scent trail was leading him. Gray Wing followed a paw step behind, until suddenly he bumped into his brother. “What’s the matter?” he asked.
“I’m not sure,” Jagged Peak responded.
In the dim light Gray Wing could just make out that Jagged Peak was casting around as if he had lost the scent. At last he straightened up. “The trail veers off here,” he announced.
Gray Wing paused before replying, wondering if this was the point when they should stop and wait for daylight. But he knew Jagged Peak would argue. “Let’s follow it, then,” he mewed at last. “But be very careful.”
Jagged Peak led the way a short distance up the mountain, then began doubling back toward the ledge.
“What’s going on?” Gray Wing asked, with a hiss of annoyance as he set his injured paw down on a sharp stone. “Why not just go straight along the ledge? It would be a lot easier.”
“I don’t know,” said Jagged Peak as the stones gave way beneath his paws. He slid down, ending up on the ledge again. “But this is the way the other cats went.”
Gray Wing could detect the scents too, although not with Jagged Peak’s precision. Reaching his brother’s side, he looked back, puzzled. At that moment a ray of moonlight pierced the cloud cover, revealing a yawning gap behind them where the path had completely slipped away.
“Look at that!” he exclaimed, feeling his legs shake at the thought of what might have happened. “If it wasn’t for your tracking skills, we would have fallen!”
Jagged Peak’s eyes shone with pride, and he headed along the trail even more confidently.
Soon the young cat’s paw steps began to falter. Gray Wing’s own legs ached, and his sore pad was troubling him again. Jagged Peak must have been exhausted.
“We’ve done enough,” Gray Wing meowed. “We need to rest now. I’m sure we’ll catch up with the others tomorrow.”
Jagged Peak opened his jaws to argue, then sighed. “I am pretty tired,” he confessed.
Together the two cats curled up at the side of the path beneath an overhanging rock. Jagged Peak fell asleep almost at once, his whiskers twitching as if he was still following the scent trail in his dreams.
Gray Wing dreamed that he was back in the cave, with sheltering walls around him and the roof lost in shadows. The murmuring voices of other cats were all around him.
“It’s time we were moving off again,” Shaded Moss meowed.
“First, we should hunt,” Clear Sky objected. “My belly thinks my throat’s clawed out.”
“Whatever, just wake up Moon Shadow first,” Turtle Tail added.
More voices joined the debate. Gray Wing wondered vaguely why all the cats he could hear were the ones who had left the cave to follow the sun trail.
He opened his eyes to see the sun beginning to rise above the mountaintops, with wisps of cloud scattered across a pale blue sky. His jaws parted in a huge yawn and he stretched his stiff limbs, daunted by the thought of another day plodding through the snow.
Then he realized that he could still hear the voices from his dream. The mewing of several cats reached his ears—and then Clear Sky’s voice, raised clearly: “Well, Shaded Moss, we’re seeing the sun at last. It should be easier traveling today.”
“Jagged Peak! Jagged Peak!” Gray Wing leaped to his paws, weariness forgotten, and prodded his little brother in the ribs. “The others are here!”
Jagged Peak stared at him for a moment, his blue eyes still confused by sleep, then bounced up to stand beside him. “What are we waiting for?”
With Gray Wing in the lead they raced along the ledge and around a corner, their paws skidding on the hard snow.
“I’ve found their scent!” Jagged Peak announced excitedly.
At the same moment Gray Wing spotted the traveling cats a short way down the slope, milling around a hollow tree trunk. The first rays of the sun were just reaching them. More cats were emerging from inside the trunk, arching their backs for a good long stretch.
Then Bright Stream looked up and let out a yowl. “Look! It’s Gray Wing and Jagged Peak!”
The rest of the cats followed her gaze, then bounded toward the newcomers.
“Gray Wing!” Turtle Tail was one of the first to reach them. “It’s really you!”
“I can’t believe this!” Clear Sky exclaimed, joy in his eyes, as all the cats crowded around the two newcomers. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“You did well coming all this way by yourselves,” Tall Shadow added.
“But what are you doing here?” Shaded Moss asked.
The first astonished mews of welcome died away and Gray Wing saw some of the cats exchange flickering glances of anxiety.
“Is all well in the cave?” Bright Stream asked.
“Is Quiet Rain okay?” Clear Sky added.
“Every cat is fine,” Gray Wing reassured them.
Jagged Peak stepped forward, puffing his chest out proudly. “I came to find you!” he announced. “I voted to leave, remember? Then Gray Wing came after me.”