“We’re not going there, are we?” Hawkwing asked. “We don’t want to get mixed up with Twolegs.”
“That’s exactly where we’re going,” Darktail replied. “It’s a
Twoleg barn, sure, but the Twolegs abandoned it long ago.”
Like the badgers abandoned the dens in that clearing?
Hawkwing thought, instantly wary. But he kept his suspicions to himself, only resolving to be very careful as he and the rest of the patrol approached the den.
“Why are we going there?” Firefern asked, putting on speed to pad beside Darktail and Hawkwing.
“Because I think it might be one of the places where Firestar and his kin took refuge,” Darktail replied. “They might even still be there, but if they have moved on, we might be able to find traces of them.”
“Cool!” Firefern meowed.
Hawkwing’s pads prickled with excitement. He hadn’t realized that they could be so near to meeting with the other Clans. What will they think of us? What will we say to them?
Darktail led the way through the bushes, the thorny branches scraping the cats’ sides as they wriggled through the gaps. The copse lay a few tail-lengths ahead, in a tangle of ferns and bramble.
The air was still full of prey-scent, but Hawkwing wasn’t thinking about hunting anymore, when they might be so close to the end of their quest.
Then as they drew nearer to the trees, Hawkwing caught a flicker of movement in the branches. Instantly he froze.
“Darktail!” he called out in a hoarse voice. “Up ahead—”
Then he broke off as Darktail bounded forward, obviously relaxed, and called out, “Toad? Toad, is that you?”
At the sound of Darktail’s voice a skinny, mottled brown tom jumped down from one of the trees and trotted forward to meet
Darktail. “Hi,” he mewed, stretching out his neck so that the two cats could touch noses. Darktail mewed a happy greeting, his whiskers twitching with excitement.
“It looks like they’re old friends,” Hawkwing murmured to Firefern.
“Yes, we are,” Darktail responded, glancing over his shoulder as the rest of the patrol caught up with him. “I’m sorry, friends, let me introduce you—this is Toad. We’ve known each other for ages!
Toad and Rain and I have often hunted together in the past—isn’t that right, Rain?”
Rain nodded. “Right. Hi, Toad. It’s good to see you again.”
Toad nodded. “So what are you doing in these parts?” he asked. His glance raked over the SkyClan cats. “And who are these?”
“M ore friends of ours,” Darktail replied, settling down comfortably in the shelter of a clump of ferns and wrapping his tail around his paws. Rain sat beside him, and beckoned with his tail for the other questing cats to join them.
“We’re looking for even more cats,” Darktail continued to Toad. “A big group of them. Have you seen any unfamiliar cats around here?”
“Funny you should say that.” Toad raised one hind paw to give his ear a vigorous scratch. “I did see a whole crowd of them—
strong cats, well fed, with glossy fur. It was weird… I’ve never seen so many traveling together in a group.”
Excitement blazed through Hawkwing like fire licking through dry bracken. The spark that remains! His earlier apprehension at the sudden appearance of another rogue was swallowed up and forgotten. “They sound like Clan cats!” he exclaimed. “Could they have been Firestar’s kin?”
Toad twitched his whiskers dismissively. “I’ve never heard of any cat called Firestar,” he replied. “But I kept my distance. I just know that they camped for a while, here in this barn, and they weren’t rogues.”
Hawkwing’s paws itched to sprint straight to the barn. We were right all along!
“Come on!” he urged Darktail, springing to his paws and kneading the ground in his eagerness to get going. “Let’s hurry!”
“Hang on a moment.” Sagenose flicked out his tail to stop
Hawkwing from bounding toward the barn.
Irritated, Hawkwing opened his jaws to protest, then saw the doubt in his Clanmate’s eyes. He sat down again, saying nothing.
“As I understand it,” Sagenose went on, “the other Clans have an awful lot of cats between them. Would they all fit in that barn?”
“Good question,” Harrybrook put in. “And how long have they lived there? According to Ravenpaw, they left the forest many, many moons ago.”
“Well, it’s a big barn,” Toad responded. “And it would take many moons for that many cats to find a suitable place to live.”
“Of course, we don’t have all the answers now,” Darktail replied with an unconcerned flick of his ears. “Perhaps some Clans have splintered off. Perhaps their numbers have dwindled… but surely we should check out the barn, at least?”
The SkyClan cats glanced at each other, Hawkwing struggling to conceal his impatience.
“Do you know if the Clan cats are still there?” Sagenose asked Toad.
The skinny rogue shrugged. “They may be,” he replied. “I noticed them when they first moved in, but I haven’t been back there in a while.”
“Why don’t we just go and look?” Hawkwing demanded.
“What do we have to lose?”
Sagenose gave a grunt of agreement. “Okay, but let’s all stay alert. We need to be ready if there’s any trouble.”
“It’ll be fine,” Darktail mewed easily. “Toad, come along with us. Perhaps we can introduce you.”
Toad padded alongside as Darktail led the questing cats toward the barn. As he drew closer, Hawkwing couldn’t work out what he thought of the place. His fur began to bristle as he spotted a monster crouching beside a wall of reddish rock, only to lie flat again as he realized it must be dead: Its insides were blackened and shriveled as if fire had roared through it.
Hawkwing shivered. Even for a monster, that’s a cruel way to die!
There were no sounds coming from the barn, which made
Hawkwing think Darktail must be right, and that the Twolegs who built it had abandoned it long ago. But when he opened his jaws to taste the air and pick up the traces of the Clan cats, strong Twoleg scents flowed in.
Would Firestar’s kin really hide out here, so close to Twolegs?
Hawkwing glanced at his Clanmates, who were all creeping around the barn, sniffing eagerly for the cat scent they hoped to find. Warily he padded over to join them, but the scent of Twolegs was swamping everything else. And there was another scent, cutting through it; alarm jolted through Hawkwing as he identified it.
“Dogs!” he yowled.
At the same moment the doors of the barn burst open. Two huge dogs sprang out, then skidded to a halt. Their jaws were parted and their tongues lolled as they let out bone-chilling howls.
Two vicious-looking Twolegs were holding them back by long tendrils fastened around their necks.
For a heartbeat Hawkwing and the other cats froze with terror.
One of the Twolegs growled something, and to Hawkwing’s horror both Twolegs let go of their tendrils. The dogs were free!
“Run!” Darktail screeched.
Hawkwing spun around and raced away, his Clanmates pelting alongside him, with Darktail and the other rogues just ahead.
“Follow me—make for the trees!” Darktail yowled. “Dogs can’t climb!”
Hawkwing’s paws barely touched the ground as he hurled himself toward the copse. He could hear the dogs barking behind him, and imagined he could feel their hot breath on his hindquarters. His heart pounded at the thought of their vicious teeth meeting on his tail.
Toad was the first cat to reach the nearest tree. At once he swarmed up the trunk and balanced on a low branch. Darktail clambered up beside him. Hawkwing leaped up into another tree next to them. Digging his claws into the fork where he crouched, he looked around and gasped with relief as he saw Firefern, Harrybrook, and Sagenose safe among the branches of a third tree on the other side of Darktail.