“I could have been in that!” she gasped. “You saved me!”
“Not exactly,” Bramblestar grunted, waving his tail to indicate the silver water all around them.
“But you did!” the she-cat insisted. “Thank you! My name’s Minty. What’s yours?”
“I’m Bramblestar.” He angled his ears toward the other cats, who were approaching along the fence. “Those are Graystripe, Dovewing, and Thornclaw.”
“What weird names!” Minty mewed, wrinkling her nose.
Bramblestar didn’t comment. When his Clanmates jumped down onto the monster’s back, he stood up and shook the water from his pelt. “What do we do with this kittypet now?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t see why we have to do anything,” Thornclaw meowed. “We’ve saved her life. What she does next is up to her.”
“You can’t leave me here!” Minty wailed. “My housefolk and my littermates have gone. What will I eat?”
Fish, with all this water, Bramblestar was strongly tempted to answer, but he stopped himself. It’s not her fault she’s so helpless.
“We can’t leave her here,” Dovewing whispered. “She’ll starve or freeze. She’s a kittypet; they can’t look after themselves.”
“Can I come home with you?” Minty begged, fixing a wide-eyed blue gaze on Bramblestar. “Where do your housefolk live? Did their houses escape the flood?”
Bramblestar exchanged a glance with Graystripe. “We don’t live with Twolegs,” he explained. “We’re wild cats, from the Clans by the lake.”
Minty’s eyes stretched even wider. “Wow, I’ve heard of them!” she exclaimed. “I mean, you. But you’re supposed to be dangerous. You eat bones and kill trespassers!”
Bramblestar sighed. “We really need to stop these rumors. We won’t eat you, we promise,” he continued. “We don’t eat cats. Just mice and birds and squirrels, just like you.”
Minty uttered a little shriek and looked as if she was going to pass out. “I don’t eat those!” She gave her tail a flick. “I don’t think I want to come with you after all.”
Thornclaw shrugged, his whiskers twitching. “Okay. Stay put. Your choice.”
Minty hesitated. “Why don’t you stay here?” she suggested after a moment. “The house is really comfortable, and there must be some of my food in the kitchen.”
“No, that’s impossible,” Bramblestar meowed. “Our Clanmates need us.”
“There are more of you?” Minty squealed. Her tail drooped. “I don’t know where my housefolk keep my food. It’s probably ruined by the water anyway.” She put her head on one side, thinking, then announced, “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
“You’re not doing us any favors,” Dovewing muttered. “Don’t act like we’re begging you to come.”
If Minty heard the comment, she didn’t react to it. She stared at Bramblestar. “You promise the other cats won’t eat me?”
“Oh, no,” meowed Thornclaw. “There’s not enough meat on you to be a decent meal.”
Minty squeaked, and Bramblestar tapped Thornclaw with his tail. “Don’t torment her. Minty, you won’t be eaten. But we’ve got a long way to go, so you need to be prepared for a difficult journey.”
Minty shrugged. “It won’t be difficult for me. I go outside every day.”
Bramblestar blinked. That’s not exactly forest training, but I guess it will have to do. He turned to the fence. “Leap up there,” he encouraged Minty, “and we’ll follow.”
Minty peered up at the fence. “It’s awfully high,” she mewed.
“For StarClan’s sake!” Thornclaw spat. “Have you never climbed a fence before?”
“Of course I have!” Minty retorted, stung. “It’s just that… Well, I used to climb up by the creeper there.” She pointed with her tail over to the other side of the enclosed space, where a plant with thick, glossy leaves was growing up the fence.
“Well, you can swim over to the creeper, or jump up here,” Dovewing told her.
Minty blinked uncertainly. “You’ll help me, won’t you?” she asked Bramblestar.
“We’ll all help,” Bramblestar promised. “Dovewing, you hop onto the fence and grab Minty when she jumps.”
“Okay.” Dovewing bunched her hindquarters and propelled herself onto the fence in a graceful bound. Bramblestar suspected she was showing off.
“Come on,” he mewed to Minty. “You can stand on me to get a bit nearer if you like.” He crouched at the side of the monster nearest the fence and winced as the kittypet dug her claws into his back to heave herself onto his shoulders. Bramblestar forced himself to take her weight and stand straight, lifting her as high as he could. “Now jump!”
He felt Minty’s paws scuffling for balance, then a vigorous shove as she sprang upward. Shaking his pelt, he looked up to see her clawing frantically at the wood, while Dovewing leaned down and grabbed her by the scruff. A moment later she stood beside Dovewing on the fence.
“Great,” Thornclaw growled. “Now can we get moving?”
Bramblestar let Graystripe lead the way along the fence-top while he brought up the rear, just behind Minty. He wanted to be close enough to help her if she slipped. But to Bramblestar’s surprise she trotted along more confidently than the Clan cats, not at all fazed by the narrowness of the fence. Of course, she must have done this often, visiting her friends in the other dens.
When they reached the corner of the fence and Graystripe turned toward the Thunderpath, Minty halted and stared at the vast stretch of flooded ground. “There’s so much water!” she exclaimed. “Parsnip and his housefolk are gone, and my housefolk, and all the housefolk and the cats! I’m the only one left!” She sounded lost and small, as if she hadn’t realized the extent of the disaster until now.
Graystripe glanced over his shoulder at her. “It’ll be okay,” he comforted her. “They’ll come back and look for you when the flood goes down.”
Minty nodded, but Bramblestar wasn’t sure whether she believed him.
Finally they arrived at the end of the fence where they had first heard Minty’s cries, opposite the drowned monster on the Thunderpath. Here the water still reached halfway up their legs, and Minty was starting to look scared again.
“We can’t go any farther,” she mewed.
“Yes, it’s fine,” Bramblestar told her. “We have to swim over to where you can see that drowned monster, then get onto the fence, and that takes us to dry ground.”
Minty turned to him with her blue eyes wider than ever. “Swim?”
Thornclaw let out a hiss of annoyance. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim!”
“I don’t know,” Minty replied. “I’ve never tried.”
Bramblestar took a deep breath. “Graystripe, you go first. Dovewing, swim on that side of Minty, and I’ll swim on this side. Thornclaw, follow us. Minty, I promise we’ll get you across, okay?”
“Okay… I guess.”
Graystripe launched himself into the water, powering toward the monster with strong sweeps of his paws. Minty clung to the fence until Dovewing gave her a shove. She plopped into the water with a startled squeak. With Bramblestar on one side and Dovewing on the other, the kittypet splashed furiously, wasting far too much effort, but somehow she managed to propel herself forward.
“Hey, I can swi—” she squealed. The last word was cut off as water slopped into her mouth. She started spluttering, and Bramblestar steadied her with a shoulder underneath her until she caught her breath.
Bramblestar knew that he was getting tired, and guessed that his Clanmates felt the same. The swim to the drowned monster seemed twice as far as it had on the way out. If we hadn’t stopped to help Minty, we’d be back on our own territory by now. He was exhausted by the time they stood safely on ShadowClan territory. It was an effort to make his paws move along the waterline, beside the drowned pines.