As Rainswept Flower raced to join them, Gray Wing spotted a flicker of movement and saw Jagged Peak emerging from his nest. “Can I come too?” the young cat asked.
Gray Wing shook his head. “No,” he responded gently. “Stay in the hollow and build up your strength.”
Jagged Peak looked stricken at his refusal, his tail trailing on the ground as he turned away.
“Jagged Peak, wait!” Rainswept Flower turned back and went to touch noses with the little gray tom. “When we come back, I promise I’ll help you with your exercises.”
“I’m sick of exercising,” Jagged Peak meowed, his voice shaking. “It’s so boring!”
Rainswept Flower glanced at Gray Wing, who was waiting with Turtle Tail near the top of the hollow. “I’ll be back soon,” she assured Jagged Peak. “We all will. Really, you’re not missing out on anything special.” Touching the young cat’s nose again, she headed back toward Gray Wing.
As they turned to leave, Gray Wing could feel Jagged Peak’s gaze boring into his back. “That was kind,” he commented to Rainswept Flower.
Rainswept Flower blinked at him. “I think we all should do more to help Jagged Peak,” she suggested. “It’s no good constantly telling him that he can’t do things.”
“You may be right,” Gray Wing admitted, with a twinge of guilt. “Thanks for being so sensitive.”
The tabby she-cat twitched her whiskers. “It was nothing.”
The three cats left the hollow side by side, and headed across the moor in the direction of the river. Gray Wing reveled in the warm breeze that ruffled his fur, and the scent of fresh growing things that wafted along with it. They passed a moorland pool where reeds waved gently and sunlight glittered on the surface of the water.
As they were picking their way up a slope covered with gorse bushes, a rabbit suddenly darted across their path, its eyes wide with terror, then vanished into the gorse before any cat could try to intercept it.
“Hmm… ,” Gray Wing commented. “Where there’s a fleeing rabbit, there’s bound to be—there she is!”
As he spoke, the rogue she-cat Wind emerged from one of the bushes, her brown pelt untidy and a disgusted expression on her face. “Stupid creature!” she spat. “I nearly had it!”
Gray Wing let out a mrrow of laughter. “You must be getting slow in your old age!”
Wind slid her claws out threateningly, which amused Gray Wing even more. He knew very well that Wind wouldn’t attack him; they had come a long way since their first hostile meeting when Gray Wing had killed the rabbit Wind and her friend Gorse were chasing.
As if Gray Wing’s thought had called him up, Gorse appeared now, a skinny tabby shape slipping out from the shelter of the bushes. Turtle Tail glanced at Gray Wing, looking cautious and worried, as the cat stepped forward. Of course! She never knew the two rogues well when she lived on the moor.
“It’s okay,” Rainswept Flower reassured her, brushing Turtle Tail’s shoulder with her tail-tip. “Gorse and Wind are our friends.”
Gray Wing remembered talking to Tall Shadow a few moons ago, discussing whether it would be a good idea to invite the rogues to join them in the hollow. In the end, Tall Shadow had decided against admitting them. But who knows what the future holds? Gray Wing asked himself. I won’t say anything to Gorse and Wind now, but maybe in a while…
“How has the hunting been?” Gray Wing asked Wind. He admired the way she would dive down into the tunnels to hunt the rabbits in their own burrows. She knew the whole network of tunnels that lay beneath the moor.
And that might be useful one day.
Wind gave a snort of disgust. “There’s plenty of prey,” she replied, “but hunting is becoming… complicated.”
“Why don’t you say it straight out?” Gorse demanded, with the beginnings of a snarl. “Clear Sky is refusing to let us hunt in the forest. Can you believe it? How dare Clear Sky tell us where we can and can’t hunt?”
Wind nodded in agreement. “The problem is, all the hunting around here is awkward now. One argument after another.” Flicking her tail angrily, she added, “The other day I met a couple of other rogues—Thorn and Dew—at the edge of the moor. They’d never been exactly friendly, but we mostly left each other alone, and we were happy with that. But that day we ended up chasing the same hare. It was big enough to feed all of us, and there was a time we would have shared it.”
“That’s right,” Gorse put in. “But this time Thorn and Dew dragged the prey away. They threatened to claw our pelts off if we came anywhere near it.” He shook his head in confusion. “It never used to be like this. Not until…” He glanced at them.
Gray Wing saw Rainswept Flower’s tail begin to twitch, and she took a pace forward. “Are you blaming the mountain cats?” she demanded.
Turtle Tail gave Gray Wing an anxious look, as if she expected a fight to break out. Gray Wing rested his tail-tip on her shoulder. “It’ll be fine,” he murmured, hoping he was right, and realizing that he would have to report this to Tall Shadow.
Gorse’s neck fur began to bristle, but Wind shouldered him away and faced Rainswept Flower. “We’re not blaming you,” she meowed. “At least, not all of you.” Letting out a sigh, she turned to Turtle Tail. “I know you, don’t I?” she meowed.
“Yes, this is Turtle Tail,” Gray Wing responded. “She left the moor for a bit”—no need to tell them she lived as a kittypet—“but she’s back now.”
Wind narrowed her eyes and gave Turtle Tail an assessing look. “I think she’s okay,” she mewed to Gorse. “Should I show you some of the best hunting areas around here?” she added to Turtle Tail. “You need to know, if times are going to get more difficult.”
“Yes… yes, thanks,” Turtle Tail stammered, looking taken aback. It must be hard for her, realizing that life out here isn’t as perfect as she’d imagined.
But once again Gray Wing was impressed by how kind and friendly Wind could be, even in the midst of her own troubles.
Rainswept Flower obviously realized it, too. “I shouldn’t have taken offense,” she mewed, blinking apologetically. “It’s just that… well, you’re right that times are more challenging now.”
Wind twitched her whiskers. “It’s okay.”
Gorse and Wind led the way toward the river, following a tiny stream that trickled along a deep cleft in the moorland, a place where the mountain cats had never hunted before. The stream was edged with long grass and ferns that overhung the water.
“This place is no good for rabbits,” Wind explained as Gray Wing gazed around in amazement. “But you can generally find a mouse or two, or a vole, where the plants grow thickest.”
“Thanks for showing us,” Gray Wing responded, enjoying the dazzle of sunlight on the ripples and the gentle gurgling sound the water made. “Why haven’t we searched for prey here?”
Wind stifled a snort of laughter. “You just have to know where to look!”
“And now this way.” Gorse leaped across the stream and scrambled up the side of the cleft onto the open moor again. “There are always a few rabbits around here,” he panted as he waited for the others to join him. “You can see some of their holes over there,” he added, pointing with his tail toward a steep rocky bank with a few scrawny bushes clinging to the thin soil between the stones.
Gray Wing tasted the air. Gorse was right; there was a strong smell of rabbit, and he spotted several piles of their droppings among the grass.