Turtle Tail sat beside him, her tail wrapped neatly over her forepaws, and sighed with contentment. “I’d like to stay here forever.”
Drowsing, Gray Wing lost track of time until a voice from the bottom of the rock roused him.
“Hey, you up there!”
Side by side, Gray Wing and Turtle Tail peered over the edge. To his surprise, Gray Wing saw the plump tortoiseshell who had been watching him and Clear Sky when they came to the hollow, looking up with a cheerful gleam in her yellow eyes.
“I’m Bumble,” she announced confidently. “I’m a housecat—though I guess you’d call me a kittypet. Can I come up?”
“Sure,” Turtle Tail invited with a wave of her tail.
To Gray Wing’s eyes, the plump tortoiseshell didn’t look as if she would be able to climb, but within a couple of heartbeats she had heaved herself to the top of the boulder beside them.
“Hello,” Turtle Tail greeted her. “I’m Turtle Tail, and this is Gray Wing.”
“Wow, aren’t you skinny?” Bumble meowed, examining the two mountain cats with a frank gaze. “Haven’t you managed to catch anything to eat?”
“We’ve come a long way,” Turtle Tail responded; Gray Wing was amused to see she looked slightly ruffled. “There wasn’t always time to hunt.”
Bumble blinked curiously. “A long way? How long? From the other side of the moor?”
“Farther than that,” Gray Wing replied.
“You know those jagged rocks on the horizon? Highstones?” said Turtle Tail.
The kittypet’s eyes stretched wide with astonishment. “You came from there?”
Turtle Tail shook her head. “No, from the other side of Highstones. We traveled for many, many sunrises.”
“Why?” Bumble sounded completely flummoxed.
“There wasn’t enough prey to feed all of us where we came from,” Gray Wing explained. “And in the cold season, we would often get stuck in the really deep snow.”
“And sometimes cats got carried off by birds.” There was a gleam in Turtle Tail’s eye, as if she was enjoying shocking this kittypet. “Huge birds—far bigger than the ones around here.”
“That sounds so hard!” Bumble exclaimed. “You must have been cold and hungry and scared all the time. No wonder you came to live here.” She looked around her with a happy flick of her tail. “It’s nice.”
“But you don’t live here, do you?” Turtle Tail asked. “You live with Twolegs. That’s… weird.”
“Weird?” Bumble’s whiskers twitched. “It’s great! My housefolk’s den is so cozy, and there’s always plenty of food, and nothing to be scared of.”
“But what do you do all day?” Turtle Tail asked.
“Sleep, mostly,” the kittypet said. “Or play with my housefolk’s kits. And if I get tired of that, I come here.”
“The wild cats don’t bother you?” Gray Wing asked.
“No. They know I’m no threat to their hunting.”
For a while all three cats lazed in the sun. Gray Wing enjoyed the warmth on his fur, but after a while his growling belly reminded him that he hadn’t eaten since the day before.
Turtle Tail gave him a prod. “We should hunt,” she mewed.
“I’m glad I don’t have to do that!” Bumble gave them a friendly nod and scrambled down the rock. “See you later!”
“What a boring way to live,” Turtle Tail commented, jumping to the forest floor.
Gray Wing hesitated before following her; the rock underneath his paws had been a pleasant reminder of the mountains.
Together the two cats headed back toward the open moor.
“I can’t get used to hunting under trees,” Turtle Tail confided to Gray Wing. “They’re too noisy, and I’m afraid of crashing into them.”
“True,” Gray Wing agreed. “It’s impossible to concentrate on prey.”
Turtle Tail padded on in silence for a while, then murmured, “I wonder if we’ll ever see Bumble again.”
“I doubt it,” Gray Wing responded. “She won’t want to talk to ferocious wild cats like us. We might eat her!”
Turtle Tail let out a mrrow of amusement. A heartbeat later she stiffened. “Rabbit!” she whispered.
By now they had left the trees behind and were climbing up the swell of moorland toward their hollow. The rabbit was hopping about not far from the crest, nibbling the grass.
Both cats sprang forward. But the scratches on Gray Wing’s flank slowed him down, and Turtle Tail surged ahead. The rabbit bolted, vanishing over the crest of the hill, with Turtle Tail racing after it.
When Gray Wing reached the top he looked down to see Turtle Tail standing over the body of the rabbit. “Great catch!” he meowed as he bounded down to join her.
After they had eaten their prey, Gray Wing and Turtle Tail headed back to the hollow. Clear Sky and the rest of the hunting cats caught up as they arrived. Clear Sky was dragging a squirrel, Moon Shadow had a thrush, and the others were carrying mice.
“You should have seen Clear Sky chase that squirrel!” Jagged Peak mumbled around his mouthful of prey. “He went right to the top of the tree!”
Clear Sky’s eyes gleamed with pride. To Gray Wing, his brother looked more like his old self. Maybe the cloud of Bright Stream’s death is starting to lift at last.
Tall Shadow dipped her head to the hunting cats as they carried their prey to the bottom of the hollow and set it down. “Congratulations. You’ve done very well.” As the other cats gathered around, she added, “Thank you, Stoneteller, for sending us to this place where we can find prey.”
While the cats were eating, the sun began to sink behind Highstones, flooding the sky with scarlet. Gray Wing relaxed, glad that, for once, the cats were at peace with one another. Gazing at the landscape, which was starting to feel more familiar, he began to let himself believe that they might have reached the place that Stoneteller promised.
Gray Wing paused at the edge of the moor and looked down at the tops of the four great oak trees. Already they were lusher than when he had first seen them. The sun was shining, the air was full of fresh scents, and he could see new plants springing up all around.
I can’t believe how rich the growth is! It was never like this in the mountains.
Stretching his muscles, Gray Wing ran just for the joy of it, circling the edge of the moor, then heading toward the edge of the gorge. He had avoided the river ever since he had startled Clear Sky into falling, but he remembered the excitement of the thundering water and the rocks that brought the mountains so vividly into his mind.
Gray Wing hadn’t gone far when he heard the squeal of a terrified rabbit and, farther away, the yowl of a hunting cat. He halted as he saw the rabbit come tearing over the crest of the moorland, with the two cats he had met before—Gorse and Wind—close behind. Gray Wing’s instincts told him to join the pursuit, but he wanted to avoid hostility, and dug his claws firmly into the soil.
The rabbit flashed past him, followed by Wind with Gorse a couple of tail-lengths behind. Suddenly the rabbit dived between two stones and vanished into a barely visible hole in the ground. Gray Wing let out a gasp of astonishment as Wind, without breaking stride, dived down the hole after it.
Gorse skidded to a halt. “That’s not fair!” he panted. “You shouldn’t keep going underground just because you’re skinny!”
Gray Wing padded over to the gray tabby tom, who turned to him with a wary look in his eyes. “It’s okay,” Gray Wing meowed. “I’m not looking for a fight. What did you mean, going underground?”
“You saw what she did,” Gorse replied, angling his ears toward the rabbit hole. “She’s so scrawny she can fit down there.”
At that moment Wind reappeared, puffing as she heaved herself out of the hole with the rabbit in her jaws.