They’re catching up!
Ahead of the cats was a sharp, shiny barrier covered in thorns.
“Don’t go that way!” Shaded Moss shrieked, swerving across the dogs’ path and hurtling toward the shelter of a line of bushes.
Faster and faster the cats ran. Wind plastered Gray Wing’s pelt to his body, and grass scraped his belly fur. Falling Feather was dropping behind, and he doubled back to give her a shove, half carrying her toward the bushes. He risked a glance aside, and saw that Clear Sky was helping Jagged Peak.
The bushes loomed ahead, bristly and dark and solid-looking. Gray Wing couldn’t see any way through, but there was no time to hesitate. With Falling Feather beside him, he hurled himself in, battling against the densely packed branches, his fur tearing as thorns caught at it. He closed his eyes to protect them from the spines.
As he forced his way out the other side the roar of a monster assaulted his ears, and he was blasted in the face by spray kicked up from its round, black paws. Blinking, he tried to see where he was. Other cats were lurching out of the bushes close by.
“Wait!” Gray Wing shrieked.
But his warning came too late. Shaded Moss plunged out of the bushes, across the narrow strip of grass that edged the Thunderpath, and straight into the path of a roaring monster. Gray Wing heard a sickening thud as Shaded Moss’s body was flung into the air.
The monster growled on, leaving nothing behind but a terrible, deafening silence.
Chapter 12
Horror almost overwhelmed Gray Wing, but he threw himself forward to stop any of the other cats from running straight onto the Thunderpath. “Shaded Moss is hurt!” he yowled, blocking Tall Shadow as she appeared. Then he rushed to intercept Jackdaw’s Cry, who was shouldering his way out of the thorns.
Glancing swiftly in both directions, Tall Shadow darted onto the Thunderpath and grabbed Shaded Moss by the scruff, dragging him into long grass. Gray Wing stopped each cat on their way out of the bushes, and shoved them toward where their leader’s body lay. Monsters roared past behind him, blurring his vision and filling his ears until they ached.
Clear Sky was the last cat to emerge, thrusting Jagged Peak in front of him. His eyes widened when he saw Shaded Moss’s body, while Jagged Peak let out a wail. They followed Gray Wing to the broken cat.
Cloud Spots was bending over him, prodding him gently with one paw. After a few heartbeats he looked up. “He’s dead,” he announced.
“No!” Rainswept Flower threw herself down beside her father, pushing her muzzle into his fur.
Gasps of horror and disbelief came from the other cats. Gray Wing stepped forward and rested his muzzle on Shaded Moss’s head. He still felt warm, his fur dusty and ruffled. A thin trickle of blood ran from his nose and mouth, but otherwise he might have been sleeping.
Pure grief stabbed through Gray Wing, sharper than thorns. Shaded Moss brought us so far. How can he leave us now?
Clear Sky padded quietly up to Rainswept Flower and gave her a gentle nudge. “Come on,” he murmured. “We can’t stay here. It’s not safe.”
Rainswept Flower gazed up at him, her blue eyes blazing with anger and grief. “I’m not leaving him to the monsters!” she shrieked.
“There’s nothing you can—” Clear Sky began.
Shattered Ice interrupted him. “Rainswept Flower is right. This is no place to abandon Shaded Moss. We can carry him across the Thunderpath.”
Gray Wing cast a glance at the bushes they had come through. He could still smell the dogs. There was no going back that way.
Shattered Ice, Dappled Pelt, and Moon Shadow stepped up to carry Shaded Moss’s body. Gray Wing helped them, while Clear Sky kept watch for monsters. At last there was a gap in the continual roaring, and they were able to set out across the hard, black stone, all the cats crowding anxiously around their leader’s body. Gray Wing saw Shaded Moss’s tail dragging limply on the ground, and grief surged over him.
My poor Tribemate…
Together Gray Wing and the others carried Shaded Moss into a stretch of deep grass, under the shelter of a line of bushes.
“There are no stones here.” Rainswept Flower’s voice shook. “We can’t bury him like we would in the mountains.”
Dappled Pelt touched Rainswept Flower’s ear gently with her nose. “We can use sticks from these bushes, and soft grass. It will be a good enough pelt for him now.”
Rainswept Flower hesitated for a heartbeat, then gave a tiny nod. She and Dappled Pelt stayed close beside her father, while the rest of the cats set off to forage.
Gray Wing noticed Clear Sky walking rigidly, alone, his eyes staring at nothing. He’s thinking about Bright Stream, Gray Wing guessed. She had no stones or sticks to cover her body—wherever she ended up. He wished desperately that he could apologize to his brother, but once again the words stuck in his throat like a tough piece of prey.
Gathering some twigs and large leaves torn from a bush, Gray Wing carried them back to Shaded Moss’s body. But as he began to lay them on the dead cat, Rainswept Flower reached out her tail to block him.
“Wait,” she mewed. “Please can I stay with him a while longer?”
As the cats returned, they set down their bundles of sticks and leaves and sat around Shaded Moss’s body.
“Good-bye,” Rainswept Flower whispered. “You were the best father any cat could have. I’ll never forget you.”
“And no cat could have led us better,” Tall Shadow added, ducking her head awkwardly toward Rainswept Flower. “You brought us out of the mountains.”
When she had finished speaking, other cats began to add their memories.
“You taught me how to stalk prey.”
“You kept going when any other cat would have given up.”
“You believed in this journey, and made the rest of us believe, too.”
Gray Wing stretched out his neck until he could touch Shaded Moss’s head with his nose. “Thank you for your courage,” he mewed. “We will carry on our journey in your memory.”
“And in Bright Stream’s,” Clear Sky put in, his blue eyes filled with sorrow.
Turtle Tail nodded. “We miss her, too,” she murmured. “She was strong and confident, but so gentle.”
“She would have been a wonderful mother to your kits,” Dappled Pelt added.
Jagged Peak said nothing, but pressed himself against Clear Sky’s side.
Night fell, but the cats stayed clustered around Shaded Moss. Pale dawn light began chasing away the stars, as Rainswept Flower laid the first twig on her father’s body. The rest of the cats followed, covering him in silence, then padded away toward where the sky was brightening, with Rainswept Flower in the lead.
Though grief had brought the cats together, they were each locked in their own private misery. Even Jagged Peak had stopped complaining. Tall Shadow still limped on her injured paw, though she gave no sign of the pain she must have felt.
The sun trail took them across several grassy spaces and through a cluster of Twoleg dens. The shrill barking of a dog startled them, but their grief was stronger than fear—all they could manage was a halfhearted scamper to the next wooden wall, scrambling over it to a stretch of open ground on the other side.
Looking around, Gray Wing realized that they had come to the end of the Twolegplace. Ahead, Highstones was outlined against the sky; anticipation tingled through his paws as he saw how close the peaks were.