Warriors: Dawn of the Clans #1: The Sun Trail (25 page)

Gray Wing set the kit down; Thunder looked half asleep, not really aware of where he was. “His name is Thunder,” he told Tall Shadow. “He is Clear Sky’s son.”

Hawk Swoop, her belly heavy with kits, took a pace forward. “Are you flea-brained?” she demanded. “Why did you bring him here? Clear Sky will use him as an excuse to attack us.”

“He won’t,” Gray Wing mewed quietly. “He didn’t want Thunder anywhere near him.”

As briefly as he could, he told them of Storm’s death and his meeting with Clear Sky. While he spoke, Hawk Swoop’s gaze softened as she looked down at the tiny kit. When Gray Wing had finished speaking, she nudged Thunder to his paws and curled her tail around him, pressing him close to her swollen belly. “Come, little one,” she murmured as she headed toward her tunnel-nursery. Glancing over her shoulder at Gray Wing, she added, “I’ll look after him.”

Tall Shadow gathered the other cats together with a sweep of her tail, then leaped onto the top of the tall rock at the far end of the camp.

“You all heard Gray Wing’s story,” she began. “Now we have to decide what to do with this kit. Can we keep him here?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Shattered Ice replied. “He’s a stranger. We’re not his kin—”

“
I’m
his kin,” Gray Wing pointed out. “So is Jagged Peak.”

“Yeah.” Jagged Peak spoke up from where he sat at the entrance to his den. “He has a right to be here.”

“But his closest kin is Clear Sky,” Shattered Ice retorted. “And how do we know that Clear Sky won’t change his mind and demand him back?”

“Then we send him back.” Rainswept Flower spoke impatiently. “If his father wants the poor little scrap, then that’s a good thing. But meanwhile, how is he supposed to survive if we don’t keep him?”

“It will be difficult to care for him,” Cloud Spots mewed thoughtfully. “He needs milk . . .”

“Hawk Swoop is near enough to kitting,” Dappled Pelt responded immediately. “She already said she would look after him. How can you—”

“I said it will be difficult.” Cloud Spots flicked his ears. “I never said we shouldn’t try.”

“But is any cat thinking of Hawk Swoop?” Jackdaw’s Cry sounded argumentative. “She’ll have her own kits to care for—my kits. It’s not fair to expect her to manage another one.”

Dappled Pelt glared at him. “She’s made her decision.”

“I have a right to—” Jackdaw’s Cry began.

Tired of the debate, Gray Wing padded to the front of the group of cats, just below the rock where Tall Shadow was standing. “If Thunder is Clear Sky’s son, then he is my kin,” he meowed determinedly. “This will be his home from now on. Drive him out, and you’ll lose me too.”

“Gray Wing!” Tall Shadow sounded shocked. “There’s no need for that.”

“Then let Thunder stay.”

Tall Shadow’s gaze swept across the cats below her. “Does any cat object to that?”

The cats glanced at each other. Rainswept Flower gave a decisive nod. “What sort of cats would we be if we refused to help him?”

No cat argued with her. Jackdaw’s Cry muttered something under his breath, but he didn’t speak his objection aloud.

“Then it’s agreed,” Tall Shadow announced. “Thunder is one of us.” She leaped down from the rock into the midst of her cats.

Gray Wing dipped his head to her in gratitude, then turned away and spotted Thunder sitting at the mouth of Hawk Swoop’s burrow. Clearly he had heard every word of the debate that had raged over his head, and he looked horrified, his eyes wide and scared.

Padding over to him, Gray Wing rested his muzzle on the little cat’s head. “You’re safe now,” he murmured reassuringly. “From now on,
I
will be your father.”

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Cherith Baldry

KEEP WATCH FOR

The mountain cats have begun to settle in their new home, but tensions are rising between Clear Sky and Gray Wing—and Thunder is caught in the middle.

The Sun Trail: Bonus Scene

Read on to see how the forest rogues reacted when their territory was invaded by the mountain cats. . . .

The badger drew back, its jaws
stained with blood, and let out a snarl at the two kits cowering in front of it. Scraps of fur were still snagged in its blunt claws. After a heartbeat that seemed to last for seasons, it turned and lumbered into the undergrowth. With a final flash of black-and-white fur it vanished, leaving only its overwhelming stench.

Petal threw back her head and lifted her voice in a wordless yowl. She tried to sound threatening, but all she could feel was grief and anguish for the cat who lay sprawled at her paws, her tabby fur torn away and her blood soaking the dead leaves underneath her mangled body.

“Stay away, filthy badger!” Petal’s brother, Fox, stood at her side, his brown fur bristling. “Don’t come back!” Petal could hear the tremor in Fox’s voice and knew that his whole body was shaking as violently as hers.

Like the badger will listen to a couple of kits,
she thought.
It could have snapped us up in a mouthful.

A chilly breeze blew through the forest, rattling the branches and sending a few more dead leaves to whirl through the air. Petal’s shivers increased as she felt claws of cold sinking through her pelt.

“What are we going to do now?” she asked.

Fox turned to her and touched her ear with his nose. “We’ll have to look after ourselves now,” he replied. “We’ll be fine. We have to be.” He turned his face away from the sight of their mother sprawled on the ground before them.

No, we won’t
, Petal thought. She could tell that Fox was trying to sound braver than he felt.
We don’t really know how to hunt. Mother never had the chance to finish teaching us.

Looking at Fox—he was strong and compact but still smaller than some of the prey they would need to hunt—she saw how unprepared they both were.
What chance do we have, alone in the forest?

She began to claw at the dead leaves, showering them over her mother’s body. After a heartbeat Fox joined her, and the two kits scratched at the debris on the forest floor until their mother was completely covered.

Who will look after us now?
Petal wondered as she sat with her brother. Then another thought tore through her.
Who will look after our mother?
She raised her face to the sky and closed her eyes. It was as though she were drowning; it was hard to breathe. Something that felt as heavy as a stone sat in her chest, where her heart had once been.
Will I ever know happiness again?

She opened her eyes, and looked again at the outline of her mother’s dead body beneath the leaves. “Stay safe,” she murmured. “Wherever you are now.”

“Come on,” Fox meowed, cleaning his claws. “We’ll go and hunt.”

He wouldn’t look Petal in the face, and his voice sounded matter-of-fact, but she knew he was only trying to help.
We have to survive now, on our own
, she thought.
He’s doing his best.

Side by side, Petal and Fox padded through the forest. Petal started at every unexpected sound from the undergrowth. She knew that Fox was just as scared, however much he tried to hide it. There was no knowing if that badger would attack again—it knew they were without protection now.

Petal’s belly growled hungrily. She tried to taste the air for signs of prey as their mother had taught them, but she couldn’t pick up any scents.
Am I even tasting the air in the right way?
she wondered, trying to remember her mother’s lessons.

Fox sniffed around the roots of an oak tree, a spot where their mother had often snapped up a mouse or two, but he found nothing.

“All the prey is snug down their holes,” he grumbled. “How are we expected to catch anything when it’s as cold as this?”

As the sun moved down the sky, Petal began to be afraid that her brother was right. Now and again she spotted a bird perched on a branch above their heads, and once a squirrel whisked up a tree trunk in front of them and vanished into a hole. None of the creatures seemed to be scared of them.

And why should they be?
she asked herself.
We’re only kits.

A familiar scent drifted past her. She halted, her nose twitching and her whiskers quivering. “Do you smell that?” she breathed out.

Fox sniffed the air. “Cats!” he exclaimed, his yellow eyes gleaming with excitement. “We’re saved! They’ll share their prey with us!”

He took off, scampering through the undergrowth in the direction of the scent. Petal scurried along behind him. A few heartbeats later they broke out into a clearing. Twilight was gathering, but they could still make out three cats curled up together in the shelter of a mossy boulder.

“Hi!” Fox meowed, skidding to a stop in front of them.

Petal halted at Fox’s shoulder, her excitement fading as one of the three—a skinny gray-and-white she-cat—sprang to her paws and faced them with fierce green eyes.

“What are you doing here?” she demanded, her lips drawn back in the beginnings of a snarl.

Petal took a deep breath. She had never seen such a hostile cat. The only cat they had really known was their mother.
And she was so kind and gentle, not like this cat at all!
“We . . . we’re on our own,” she stammered. “We were hoping for . . . looking for food.” She hoped they wouldn’t be forced to retell the story of their mother’s death—not so soon after . . . She shook herself.

Glancing at Fox, she saw that his fur had started to stand on end, reacting to the other cat’s hostility.
Calm yourself!
she willed him. They’d come here for help, not a fight.

The she-cat’s green gaze raked over them like a bunch of thorns. “Then you should look elsewhere,” she hissed. She slid out her claws, leaving Petal in no doubt about what would happen to the kits if they disobeyed.

The other two cats said nothing, but their eyes were hard and unsympathetic.

Petal and Fox backed away. “What’s the matter with her?” Fox muttered. “Why doesn’t she want us to stay?”

Petal shook her head. “I don’t know.” The world had become a colder place, even in the few moments since covering their mother’s body with dead leaves.

Petal and Fox turned away from the other cats. Petal tried not to hear the snarls behind them, warning them never to bother these cats again. Her drooping tail brushed the ground as she and her brother trudged on through the forest. The last of the light was fading fast; Petal shivered afresh at the thought of spending the night without their mother’s warm body curled around them.

Then there was a rustling in the undergrowth. “Look!” Fox whispered, pointing with his tail.

Petal gazed in that direction and spotted a squirrel nibbling on a nut at the foot of a nearby beech tree. At once both kits flattened themselves to the ground and began to creep up on it the way that their mother had taught them. Petal’s jaws began to water at the thought of sinking her teeth into the prey.

“Just
what
do you think you’re doing?” a voice growled behind them.

A lightning bolt of shock passed through Petal, and she sat up to see the gray-and-white she-cat standing over her.
How did she get here so quickly and silently?

Fox crept on for another paw step, and let out a squeal as the gray-and-white cat cuffed him around the ear.

At the same moment a big tabby tom flashed past them and flung himself on top of the squirrel as it tried to leap to safety up the tree.

“Hey!” Fox protested. “That was our prey!” But all he got was another cuff to the ears.

The gray-and-white she-cat pushed her face close to Fox’s. “All prey around here is
ours
,” she snarled. “Learn that now, before you get really hurt.”

Petal bristled in anger at the threat.
It’s not fair
, she thought, as the tabby tom padded past her, the body of the squirrel dangling limply from his jaws.
We saw it first!
But she was too scared to make her objection aloud.

The two cats melted back into the trees, happy to leave Fox and Petal with nothing to eat.
They don’t care that we’re just kits. They’re leaving us to die
, Petal thought as she watched them go.
We’re truly on our own.

“Come on,” she mewed to Fox, feeling her spine stiffen. “Let’s find somewhere else to hunt. I’m not going to let us starve to death!”

“Why were they so mean?” Fox pleaded, bringing up the rear. All his bravery had melted away.

“It doesn’t matter,” Petal snapped. “We learned a lesson today. From now on it’s just us. Just the two of us . . .”

They walked farther into the forest, as if they could leave all their pain and grief behind them. Petal didn’t care if she never saw another cat again.