“Good job,” Bramblestar mewed, padding up to him. “Are you okay?”
Cloudtail let out a disgusted snort. “I’ve got every thorn in the bush stuck in my pelt,” he hissed. “But apart from that I’m fine.”
With Thornclaw and Squirrelflight helping, Bramblestar managed to push the hawthorn bush into the stream above the log so that the current shoved it firmly against the tree trunk.
“It worked!” Poppyfrost exclaimed.
“Let’s hope so,” Bramblestar muttered. “There’s still a long way to go.”
Balancing carefully, Squirrelflight ventured out onto the bush. The branches sagged under her weight, but she stayed on her paws. “I think it’ll be okay,” she reported. “But we’d better have the lightest cats out here, and the rest should stay on the bank.”
Poppyfrost leaped forward, but she was a bit too eager. The bush shifted under her weight and she almost slid backward into the stream until she dug in her claws and hauled herself into position beside Squirrelflight.
“Not you,” Bramblestar meowed to Snowpaw as the apprentice got ready to follow the two she-cats. I’m not going to risk losing another apprentice. The young cat looked disappointed, so Bramblestar added, “I need a cat to keep watch. Let us know if you see any warriors coming up from WindClan.”
Snowpaw brightened up immediately. “Right, Bramblestar!” He puffed out his chest and stood on the bank just downstream of the tree trunk, his ears pricked and his gaze fixed on the WindClan side of the torrent.
Meanwhile Bumblestripe, Ivypool, and Jessy scrambled out onto the hawthorn bush, the branches dipping dangerously under the weight of so many cats. Ivypool’s hind paws slipped and water slopped over her hindquarters. She let out a hiss of annoyance as Bumblestripe steadied her.
“I can’t even shake my pelt when I’m perched out here!” she grumbled.
Bramblestar, Thornclaw, and Cloudtail remained on the bank. “Okay, is every cat ready?” Bramblestar called.
“Just get on with it, before this bush gives way,” Squirrelflight grunted.
Bramblestar braced himself. “When I say push… push!”
Digging in with his hind paws to hold himself steady, Bramblestar heaved at the end of the tree trunk. Cloudtail and Thornclaw strained beside him. At first he thought nothing was happening, but then he felt the log shift slightly under his paws.
“It’s moving!” he gasped.
The cats on the bush threw all their weight against the tree. It shifted again, then with a grating sound slipped free of the rocks that held it and crashed into the stream with a massive splash that soaked the cats’ pelts.
“Back to the bank!” Bramblestar yowled.
With the tree trunk gone, the hawthorn bush was already tossing on the current. The cats who were balancing there pushed off in massive leaps for the bank. Jessy landed neatly, then whirled around to help Squirrelflight, who had been farthest away. The ThunderClan deputy was scrambling frantically among the branches as the bush started to roll over in the clutch of the rushing stream.
“I can manage!” she panted, clawing her way through the dense thorns.
Bramblestar leaned out and fastened his teeth in her scruff to haul her the last tail-length onto the bank. Squirrelflight’s paws had scarcely touched solid ground when the current finally swept the bush away and rolled it over and over downstream. Bramblestar looked around to make sure that all his Clanmates were safe. Every cat was spattered with mud, their pelts soaked through and torn by the prickly bush, and yet the light of triumph shone in their eyes.
“We did it!” Ivypool yowled. “WindClan can’t get across here anymore.”
“They might find another place higher upstream,” Bramblestar pointed out, “but ThunderClan should be safe for a while. Great job, all of you.”
Squirrelflight nodded. “Let’s get back to camp.”
Bramblestar felt worn out and battered as he led the way down the hill, back onto ThunderClan territory. But success had set his paws buzzing with new energy, and for the first time since the storm had broken he began to feel hopeful that they might get through this.
“You two can set scent markers along the bank of the stream,” he told Ivypool and Poppyfrost. “We’ll make it clear to WindClan that we’re taking back our territory.”
“I’ll help too!” Snowpaw chirped.
Bramblestar watched with satisfaction as his Clanmates left enough ThunderClan scent to swamp the remaining traces of WindClan. Let’s hope they’ve learned their lesson. After all, it’s not like they can’t drink from the stream on their own side.
“You know,” Cloudtail meowed as he padded along beside Bramblestar, “it feels weird to be completely cut off from WindClan like this. Back in the old forest, Firestar and Tallstar were such good friends. It’s a pity that’s all changed, now that Onestar is leader.”
“I know.” Bramblestar sighed. “Especially since Onestar got on well with Firestar when he was Onewhisker.”
“I appreciate that we’re separate Clans,” Cloudtail went on, “but these days the WindClan cats look at us as if they want to rip our fur off. It bothered Firestar, too.”
“Tell me more about Firestar,” Jessy begged, bounding up to join them. “You all seem to respect him so much.”
“There was never a cat like Firestar,” Cloudtail told her. “I’m proud to be his kin.”
Jessy’s eyes stretched wide. “You’re his kin? Does that mean you were a kittypet too?”
Cloudtail nodded, looking faintly embarrassed, and from somewhere behind him Bramblestar heard a snort of amusement from Thornclaw.
Cloudtail ignored it. “My mother was Firestar’s sister, a kittypet called Princess,” he explained to Jessy. “She never wanted to leave her Twolegs, but she was proud of Firestar for making his home in the forest, so she gave one of her kits to him to bring up.”
“And that was you?” Jessy prompted. “Wasn’t it awfully hard, leaving your mother and learning to live in the forest when you were only a kit?”
“It was tough,” Cloudtail admitted. “There was a lot to learn, and I missed my Twolegs and their den.”
And their food, Bramblestar thought, remembering the stories he had heard.
“So why didn’t you go back?” Jessy went on.
Ouch! Bramblestar knew that Cloudtail would find that hard to answer. When Cloudtail was an apprentice, he had kept sneaking into a Twoleg nest to eat kittypet food, until the Twolegs shut him inside to stop him from straying. The whole Clan knew how Firestar and some of his Clanmates had risked their lives to rescue him. But Cloudtail became a loyal warrior, Bramblestar reminded himself. He earned his place in ThunderClan.
“I got used to it,” Cloudtail replied. “I wouldn’t live anywhere else now.”
“Are there a lot of kittypets in the Clans?” Jessy went on.
Cloudtail’s tail-tip twitched as if he was getting irritated by the flow of questions, but he answered readily enough. Maybe he’s relieved not to be talking about himself anymore, Bramblestar thought.
“No, the Clans don’t usually welcome kittypets,” the white warrior meowed. “Firestar was different, because he’d been a kittypet himself.”
“That’s right,” Thornclaw added, bounding forward to catch up to them. “And they’re very unpopular in the other Clans. Whatever you do, don’t cross the border into any other Clan’s territory. They’d chase you off as soon as look at you. And you might end up leaving some of your fur behind.”