Warriors: Dawn of the Clans #1: The Sun Trail (12 page)

“Is every cat okay?” Shaded Moss asked.

“I’m a bit worried about Hawk Swoop,” Dappled Pelt replied. “She had a nasty shock back there.”

“It was my own fault,” Hawk Swoop replied, giving her chest fur an embarrassed lick. “I’m fine now.”

“It’s great to be under the trees,” Turtle Tail remarked as they set out again. “The monsters can’t see us here.”

“And with all this thick stuff, we don’t have to hear them,” Jackdaw’s Cry agreed.

But Gray Wing felt uneasy as he made his way through the undergrowth. Plants seemed to be grabbing at his paws, as if trying to trip him. And there were noises all around him: birds calling, branches creaking, prey scuffling in the undergrowth. He longed for the silence and clear air of the mountains.

“How much farther?” Shattered Ice complained, proving that Gray Wing wasn’t the only cat having problems. “I’ve got so many thorns in my paws I think I’m turning into a gorse bush!”

“Yes, and how can we hunt birds when we can’t see the sky?” Quick Water added.

“Stop behaving like kits!” Moon Shadow barged his way through the ferns. “Just smell the prey! We could eat just by keeping our mouths open and letting it fall in.”

“I want to go farther before we stop for the night,” Shaded Moss called back. “There’s no time to hunt yet.”

Moon Shadow let out an annoyed hiss.

“I think we should see how far these trees go,” Clear Sky said. “I’ll climb one.” Without waiting for a reply, he bounded to the nearest tree and leaped almost halfway up the trunk before digging his claws into the bark.

“Wow!” Turtle Tail stared after him. “I always knew he could jump, but that’s amazing!”

Only a few moments passed before Clear Sky scrambled back down again. “I couldn’t get high enough to see,” he meowed. “I need a taller tree.”

Padding onward, every cat examined the trees on either side until Shaded Moss halted in front of a huge one with gnarled roots and dense branches. “Try this one,” he suggested to Clear Sky. “I think it must be an oak . . . my mother used to tell me about the trees where the Tribe lived before.”

Clear Sky sprang into the tree with another mighty leap, and Tall Shadow followed, though she had to start climbing farther down the trunk.

“I want to go too!” Jagged Peak squealed excitedly. “I can climb!”

“Stay on the ground,” Shaded Moss ordered.

Jagged Peak’s tail-tip twitched irritably, but he didn’t argue.

Gray Wing tipped back his head to watch Clear Sky and Tall Shadow until they vanished among the dense, leafless branches. A moment later, a triumphant yowl sounded from high up in the tree.

“Clear Sky has reached the top,” Jagged Peak mewed, an envious look in his eyes.

Twigs tumbled to the ground as Clear Sky and Tall Shadow reappeared, jumping down and catching their breath.

“The trees end not far from here,” Clear Sky panted.

“Great!” Turtle Tail exclaimed, with a satisfied swish of her tail. “I want to see the sky again.”

“And what did you see beyond the trees?” Shaded Moss asked.

“Oh . . .” Clear Sky looked disconcerted. “I’m not sure. It looked a bit misty.”

Gray Wing saw his brother exchange a meaningful glance with Tall Shadow, and wondered what the two cats were keeping back. But he knew very well that there would be no point in pressing Clear Sky with more questions; their old ease and closeness was gone.

With Shaded Moss and Clear Sky in the lead, the cats padded on through the trees toward the brightening light that heralded the edge of the woods. But before they emerged into the open, Shaded Moss halted. Gray Wing pushed forward with the other cats to see what was going on.

A flat path wound through the trees, clear of undergrowth. Gray Wing tasted the air, and sniffed along the grass at the edge, but found no familiar smells.

His friends were looking just as bewildered. The scents didn’t seem to be prey; Gray Wing felt no prickle of instinct telling him to hunt. Instead, his neck fur bristled and his paws tingled as if he wanted to run.

“Which way should we—”

Hawk Swoop’s question was cut off by a loud volley of harsh noises from farther down the path, drowning out the sounds of the woods.

“A dog!” Shattered Ice exclaimed.

“What’s a dog?” Jagged Peak asked, gazing down the path in the direction of the noise.

“An animal you don’t want to meet,” Shaded Moss replied, drawing the group closer together with a wave of his tail. “We used to see them in the valleys sometimes in the warm season, but we always stayed out of their way.”

As he finished speaking, a huge brown animal bounded around a curve in the path and halted, its lips drawn back in a snarl.

Shaded Moss yowled, “Scatter!”

The cats fled, diving into clumps of fern or scrambling up trees. Gray Wing pushed Jagged Peak into a bramble thicket and followed him in, clawing desperately at the thorns to make a space where they could hide.

No!
he thought a moment later.
We should have kept running, but now we’re trapped
.

He tugged helplessly at the tendrils that curled around him. A tail-length away, the dog snuffled along the edge of the thicket. Gray Wing knew it would find them at any moment.

Then he heard another sound: high-pitched, clear, and crisp, with a note of anger. The dog whined in response. Gray Wing peered out of the brambles and saw a tall, thin creature walking on its hind legs, with a loose, multicolored pelt and a strange, pink, hairless face.

Jagged Peak popped up his head behind Gray Wing. “Oh, wow!” he exclaimed. “Is that a Twoleg? It’s so weird!”

The Twoleg didn’t seem to notice the scent of the cats. It padded up to the dog, seeming to have no problem balancing on its two hind paws, then fastened a soft tendril to the dog’s neck and dragged it away.

The dog whined again. It didn’t want to leave, straining toward the clumps of fern where the other cats were crouching.

No cat moved for a moment after the Twoleg and the dog had vanished down the path. Then gradually they began to emerge from their hiding places.

“I’ve never seen anything so awful in my entire life!” Falling Feather was shaking so much she could hardly stand. “Did you see its teeth?”

“It’s okay.” Jackdaw’s Cry comforted her, giving her ear a gentle lick. “It’s gone now.”

Gray Wing could see that even Shaded Moss was struggling to stay calm. “We were bound to come across Twolegs and dogs sooner or later,” he meowed. “And we survived, so let’s keep going.”

All the cats were happy to plunge back into the deep woods, leaving behind the trail with its dog-stench. But they were tired of the struggle through the thick undergrowth, and the thorns that seemed to lie in wait to attack their paws and muzzles.

“I thought we’d never get here!” Gray Wing exclaimed, finally emerging at the edge of the trees.

But he realized that while they were in the woods a persistent cold drizzle had started to fall, soon soaking their fur as they stood under the outlying trees.

“This is even worse than snow!” Quick Water complained.

Gray Wing stared ahead, his heart beginning to pound as he gazed at what lay ahead.
This is what Clear Sky saw from the top of the tree!
A collection of square, hard-edged blocks of stone lay in front of them, some taller than trees, with shiny square holes in the sides. A wave of unfamiliar scents washed over him. Some were warm and tantalizing, making his belly growl, while others made him curl his lip in disgust. He recognized the scent of Twolegs that had clung around the earthen path behind them.

“These must be Twoleg dens,” Shaded Moss suggested.

“And this is a Twolegplace!” Shattered Ice added. “Misty Water told me about them, but I thought she was making it up.”

Gray Wing thought they must be right; he could see a few Twolegs, heads ducked against the rain, running between the blocks of stone.

“Now what do we do?” Cloud Spots asked. “I don’t want to go any nearer.”

“Neither do I,” Falling Feather agreed. “There might be more dogs!”

Shaded Moss pointed with his tail, beyond the dens, to where the sharp peaks they were heading for were barely visible through the low clouds and rain. “That’s where we’re heading,” he meowed. “To the place where the sun rises. But it’ll be dark soon. We should find shelter for the night among the dens, where it’s dry.”

Hunched against the rain, the cats
crossed a grassy space and reached a broad path of dark stone leading toward the Twoleg dens.

“This is a Thunderpath,” Tall Shadow meowed, halting at the edge. “There’ll be more monsters.”

But everything was quiet. Shaded Moss led the way along the Thunderpath, keeping to the edge, and the rest of the cats followed, their fur bristling.

Suddenly a throaty growl sprang up and a monster headed toward them, slowly at first and then with gathering speed.

“It’s spotted us!” Rainswept Flower screeched.

“This way!” Gray Wing saw a much narrower path leading between two high walls of red stone, and raced toward it. “Follow me! The monster won’t be able to reach us down here!”

The cats streamed after him, just in time as the monster bore down on them. It passed by with a roar of frustration, its eyes glowing with a harsh yellow light.

“It missed us!” Turtle Tail mewed with relief. “Gray Wing, you were brilliant.”

“We still need to find somewhere safe and dry to spend the night,” Gray Wing pointed out. Bright lights like tiny suns were appearing in the dens, casting yellow squares onto the path. The shadows seemed much darker by contrast.

Taking the lead, Gray Wing walked down the narrow path, feeling trapped and suffocated between the high walls. It opened out into a square stone clearing surrounded by smaller dens. Glancing around, Gray Wing saw that one was gaping open, and padded cautiously up to it. Inside it was dark, and the reek of monsters was so strong he could hardly breathe.

“This must be a monster’s den,” Jagged Peak suggested, creeping up beside Gray Wing and staring wide-eyed into the darkness.

“The smell is stale and old, though,” Gray Wing mewed. “Maybe the monster doesn’t use it anymore.”

Rainswept Flower bounded past him into the den and looked around. “We’ll stay here tonight,” she announced briskly. “At least it’s out of the rain, and we can take turns keeping watch.”

Shaded Moss nodded as he came to stand beside his daughter. Gray Wing saw how his tail drooped, and his eyes were full of weariness.
It can’t be easy for Shaded Moss
, he thought.
Leading us and being responsible for everything.

“You look tired,” Rainswept Flower murmured, pushing her nose into her father’s shoulder fur. “Get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch.”

“I’ll join you,” Gray Wing offered at once.

“But I’m hungry,” Quick Water protested as she padded into the den. “Aren’t we going to hunt before we sleep?”

“It’s too dangerous here,” Clear Sky pointed out. “And we haven’t smelled any prey since we left the woods.”

“We should have hunted earlier, when I wanted to,” Moon Shadow snapped.

“He’s right,” Hawk Swoop added. “It was a stupid decision to come into this Twolegplace.”

“No, it was our best chance of shelter,” Tall Shadow pointed out, her tail lashing irritably. “Away from dogs and all the things that were watching us from among the trees.”

Gray Wing agreed silently.
We may be safer than we would be out in the open, but this is still a ghastly place. Dawn can’t come soon enough for me.

He sat at the opening of the den beside Rainswept Flower, looking out into the clearing. Gray Wing’s ears rang with the growl of distant monsters, shrieks of Twolegs, dogs barking—and then a yowl that made his fur stand on end.

Cats!

Rainswept Flower leaned over to whisper into his ear. “I never thought about what would happen if we met other cats! Do you think they’re . . .
kittypets
?”

Gray Wing remembered the elders’ tales of cats who chose to live with Twolegs, eating their food and sleeping inside their dens. Back in the cave, Gray Wing had thought the stories were just thistlefluff from the elders’ brains. But here, where everything seemed so crowded and dangerous, he could imagine they were true.

“What do you think kittypets are like?” he asked Rainswept Flower. “Will they understand us?”

“Surely they’d envy us?” Rainswept Flower responded. “We’ve seen more than they ever will.”

Gray Wing listened to his rumbling belly and looked down at his filthy pelt.
Are we
really
enviable right now?

The yowls came no closer, and eventually Gray Wing felt sleep drifting over him. The louder roaring of a monster roused him and he saw it enter the clearing, its yellow eyes raking the walls.

Rainswept Flower and Gray Wing shrank back into the mouth of the den.

“Has it spotted us?” Gray Wing asked, struggling to control panic. “Are we in
its
den?”

“Distract it!” Rainswept Flower ordered, springing to her paws. “I’ll get the others.”

Gray Wing’s belly trembled with terror.
Distract it? How
?

But before he could make a move, the entrance to another den gaped open and the monster crawled inside. The den mouth glided shut behind it with a clang and the growling stopped.

“That was close!” Gray Wing exclaimed. “It must have gone to sleep.”

Rainswept Flower met his gaze with horror-filled eyes. “Then all these other dens could have sleeping monsters inside!” she whispered.

Gray Wing nodded. “Why do the Twolegs have their dens so close to the monsters? Aren’t they scared?”

Rainswept Flower shrugged, not replying, and settled down to watch once more. Gray Wing, still quivering from shock, thought he would never close his eyes again; but the next thing he knew, Rainswept Flower was prodding him in the side.

“It’s time you changed places with another cat,” she told him. “Get some proper rest.”

Gray Wing stumbled to the back of the den and woke Hawk Swoop by tripping over her. “It’s your turn to go on watch,” he told her.

“Okay, fine,” she mewed drowsily, and got up to join Rainswept Flower, who rose in her turn and fetched Jackdaw’s Cry before curling up to sleep.

Gray Wing lay down where Hawk Swoop had been, feeling her warmth on the dusty floor, and closed his eyes.

A heavy paw landing on his tail woke him, and he looked up to see Moon Shadow in the pale gray light filtering into the den.

“Sorry,” Moon Shadow mewed. “I’m going hunting.”

Gray Wing nodded, wondering if he ought to go as well, but too weary to make his legs move. “Good luck,” he said, watching Moon Shadow leave the den with a murmured good-bye to Turtle Tail and Shattered Ice, who were standing guard.

When he had gone, Gray Wing drifted into sleep again. He dreamed that he stood on the cliff top with Quiet Rain, gazing out over a vista of sunlit mountain peaks.

But the vision was shattered by a dreadful yowling.

Gray Wing sprang to his paws as Shattered Ice and Turtle Tail began scrambling out of the den. “Moon Shadow is being attacked!” Shattered Ice meowed urgently.

Gray Wing raced out of the den with the others. He could hear Moon Shadow on the other side of a wall at the far side of the clearing, screeching in fury. The voices of two other cats mingled with his shrieks, as if all three were battling.

Gray Wing, Tall Shadow, and Clear Sky raced across the clearing, outpacing their denmates, and leaped on top of the wall. Fur bristling, Gray Wing looked down and saw Moon Shadow rolling over and over on a wide stretch of grass, lashing out with teeth and claws as two cats raked at his fur.

Those are kittypets?
Gray Wing thought, appalled, as he took in their plump bodies and the tendrils around their necks.
None of the elders ever said kittypets were fierce!

Gray Wing plunged down and landed on top of the nearest kittypet, a huge, fluffy black-and-white tom. Clear Sky and Tall Shadow hurled themselves at the other, a ginger she-cat.

The black-and-white kittypet flipped over, slamming Gray Wing onto the ground, and slashing at his ears. Infuriated by the stinging pain, Gray Wing reared up and snapped at the kittypet’s throat, closing his teeth instead on a mouthful of fur. Choking, he felt forepaws battering at his shoulders.
This kittypet isn’t as soft as he looks!

Spitting out the fur, Gray Wing brought up his hind paws and struck out at the kittypet’s belly, glad of his sharp claws and the wiry strength of his muscles.

The kittypet squirmed away, lashing out at him with clumsy blows that hardly connected. Gray Wing struggled to his paws as Moon Shadow barreled past him, butting the kittypet in the side with his head. Faced with two enemies, the black-and-white kittypet turned tail and ran. Panting, Gray Wing glanced around to see Clear Sky and Tall Shadow chasing off the ginger she-cat.

Both kittypets swarmed up a thin wall of wood on the far side of the grass. It wobbled under their weight, but they kept their balance as they turned and hissed.

“Rogues aren’t welcome here!” the ginger she-cat warned. “If you’re not gone by tonight, you’ll be in big trouble.”

With a final snarl, both kittypets disappeared down the other side of the fence.

“Good riddance!” Moon Shadow yowled after them.

“What were you doing,” Tall Shadow mewed, “going off on your own like that? Are you flea-brained?”

“‘Rogues’?” Clear Sky interrupted. “What did those kittypets mean—‘rogues’? Is that their name for cats who don’t live with Twolegs?”

Gray Wing was just as confused, though glad that they could understand what the kittypets were saying. His muscles ached from the fight, and the ear the big tom had slashed was dripping blood.
Are we going to have to fight cats all the way to our new home?
he wondered. It was a daunting thought.
In the mountains there were no cats to fight. It was just us
.

He and his friends clambered back over the wall. The other cats were huddled together in the mouth of the den.

“Who knew kittypets would fight?” Jackdaw’s Cry mewed. “In the elders’ tales, they’re all scaredy-sparrows!”

“Maybe you should have talked to them,” Rainswept Flower suggested. “You could have explained that we’re just passing through.”

Clear Sky rolled his eyes. “Oh, yeah? While they were clawing our throats out? They weren’t in the mood for conversation!”

Shaded Moss listened to the exchange, his paws shifting uneasily. “We have to get out of this place as soon as we can,” he announced. “We can’t afford more fighting.”

He set off at once and the others followed, the younger cats stumbling with tiredness. Gray Wing brought up the rear with Turtle Tail, both of them tense and watchful.

Shaded Moss led the way along narrow stone paths between the Twoleg dens, crossed quiet Thunderpaths and raced through enclosed stretches of grass. Gray Wing realized that Shaded Moss was determined to travel in a straight line, toward the peaks they had seen.

While they were crossing one stretch of grass beside a Twoleg den, the air was split by an outburst of shrill barking. Every cat froze in horror. Then, as he looked around, Gray Wing spotted the dog: a little white creature trapped behind a clear shiny sheet that blocked the entrance to the den.

“Look at that!” Moon Shadow meowed, taking a pace toward it. “Hey, flea-pelt! Wouldn’t you like to get at us?”

“Flea-brain!” Cloud Spots shoved Moon Shadow roughly after the others, who were already moving on. “What if the Twoleg lets it out?”

As he followed his denmates, Gray Wing kept a lookout for kittypets. He didn’t see any, but their scents were everywhere.

It was a relief to reach the edge of the Twolegs’ dens and gaze out again across open landscape. The rugged peaks were in plain view now.

“They’re not as big as the mountains,” Quick Water mewed, sounding disappointed.

“Stoneteller wouldn’t have sent us to live somewhere just the
same
, would she?” Dappled Pelt observed. “Our new home will be completely different.”

“I miss the mountains,” Falling Feather whispered.

Gray Wing rubbed his paws over the hard black stone at the edge of the Thunderpath. He sympathized with the young white she-cat. Picturing the cats they had left behind, he wondered how they were.
If only there were a way to let them know that we’re safe!

“Come on!” Jagged Peak suddenly began marching ahead. “We’re not going to get anywhere if we stand around all day.”

Gray Wing suppressed a small
mrrow
of amusement at the young cat’s confidence as he and the others followed. Clouds covered the sky, so there was no sun to guide them, but the outline of the peaks was clear enough.

After the noise and reek of the Twolegplace, it was soothing to be back in the open, surrounded by soft grass and animal scents and sounds. Soon they reached another line of bushes; Moon Shadow swerved off and plunged into the branches. He emerged a moment later with a small brown bird in his jaws.

Dropping the bird on the ground, Moon Shadow took a mouthful then pushed the remains toward Shaded Moss.

Shaded Moss raised a paw to stop him. “Thanks, but let’s all hunt for ourselves,” he meowed. “There’s enough prey here.”

A shiver of excitement ran through the cats as they split up. Gray Wing headed into the open grass, searching for signs of movement. He spotted Clear Sky leaping into the air after a bird, and Jagged Peak with his nose down on a scent trail.