Finally Leafstar led the way across a Thunderpath and down another alley which soon led out into a wide open space with a couple of monsters crouching at one side. Hawkwing examined them with narrowed eyes, and decided with a grunt of relief that they were sleeping.
“I don’t remember this place at all,” Waspwhisker mewed, gazing around in confusion.
“Nor do I,” Cherrytail agreed. “We’ve never been here before.”
Leafstar lashed her tail a couple of times in frustration. “We’ve been following the sun so far,” she pointed out after a moment’s thought. “If we keep on doing that, then we should be okay.”
“And when the sun is gone?” Waspwhisker asked sharply.
Already the sun had almost disappeared behind the rooftops of the Twolegplace, though red streaks in the sky showed where it was going down. Hawkwing could see that it wouldn’t be there to guide them for much longer.
“We’d better get a move on,” Leafstar meowed. “This way.”
But as the Clan leader headed for the entrance to another alley that led directly toward the sun, a dark shape appeared on top of the wall, outlined against the scarlet light. It leaped down into the mouth of the alley, and Hawkwing could see it was a brown tom with a short tail. He braced himself, ready if the newcomer should attack, and glanced around sharply to check for any other approaching enemies.
The tom blinked, a friendly look in his amber eyes as he faced Leafstar and the SkyClan cats. “Hi,” he meowed.
“Shorty!” Leafstar exclaimed. Hawkwing relaxed when he heard relief in his leader’s voice. “Greetings! How are you?”
“Fine,” the brown tom, Shorty, replied. “Hey, I see some familiar faces here!”
The older SkyClan warriors crowded around him, echoing Leafstar’s greeting. Hawkwing exchanged a glance with Pebbleshine. “This must be one of the cats who came to live in the gorge,” he murmured.
“Sparrowpelt! Cherrytail… and Waspwhisker!” Shorty’s voice was warm, as if he was meeting again with old friends. “And this hulking great creature is little Rabbitkit?”
“Rabbit leap now,” the warrior mewed proudly. “And this is Plumwillow.”
“But what are you all doing here?” Shorty asked, when the excitement had died down. “Leafstar, this must be almost all of your Clan.”
“This is all my Clan,” Leafstar responded, her tone bleak once more. “Rogues attacked us in the gorge and drove us out. M any cats were killed or scattered, and the rest of us have been forced to look for a new place to live.”
For a moment, Shorty was silent in shock. “That’s terrible news,” he murmured at last. “You must let us help you.”
“How can you do that?” Leafstar asked.
“Well, at least we can offer you somewhere to spend the night,” Shorty replied. “It’s getting dark, and this is no place to be wandering around, not if you don’t know where you are.”
While they had been talking the last traces of sunlight had vanished from the sky, and the alleyway ahead was plunged in gloom. Hawkwing didn’t like the idea of setting one paw step into those ominous shadows.
“I wanted to move on quickly,” Leafstar meowed. “But perhaps you’re right, Shorty.”
“But only for one night,” Echosong put in, stepping up to her Clan leader’s side. “This is not where StarClan wants us to be.”
Leafstar dipped her head. “Of course. Lead on, Shorty.”
The brown tom’s amber eyes gleamed in the gathering darkness.
“Great!” he exclaimed. “I’ll show you the best way out in the morning. And you’ll meet some more old friends,” he added, giving his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks. “I’m with Cora now.
We have kits.”
“That’s wonderful news,” Leafstar purred. “I’d love to see Cora again.”
Shorty gave a wave of his stumpy tail. “Follow me, then.”
He led the SkyClan cats across the open space and down a narrow Thunderpath at the far side.
“Do you think Leafstar is right to trust this cat?” Pebbleshine murmured to Hawkwing as they followed. “He might be leading us into a trap.”
“He sounds friendly enough,” Hawkwing responded.
“It’s easy to sound friendly. But there were cats watching us on the way in, and they didn’t feel friendly at all.”
“They could have been the other group,” Hawkwing pointed out. “Dodge’s cats.”
Pebbleshine’s tail-tip twitched uneasily. “M aybe.”
Shorty led the way along the Thunderpath until it came to an end and the cats emerged into another open space. Here the ground was covered in coarse grass with a few scrubby bushes here and there, and even one or two stunted trees. Hawkwing had stopped expecting to see anything green and growing, but the open ground was still washed with the acrid scents of Twolegs and monsters.
“Do you think this is their camp?” he whispered to Pebbleshine.
Shorty raised his voice in a loud yowl. “Stick! Coal! Look who’s here!”
Hawkwing stiffened, forcing his shoulder fur to lie flat as more cats emerged from the shelter of the bushes, fluid shadows in the twilight. As they drew closer he made out a skinny brown tom with a torn ear, and a more powerful black tom.
Leafstar nodded to the newcomers. “Stick. Coal.”
“Greetings,” the skinny tom, Stick, responded. “What brings you here, Leafstar?”
Hawkwing had just enough time to notice the chilly nature of the exchange before Shorty burst in with a reply. “This is all of SkyClan, Stick! Rogues have driven them out of the gorge.”
Stick’s whiskers twitched in surprise. “Really?”
“That’s just terrible!” A new voice broke in, a graceful white she-cat who came bounding up with a plump tabby tom just behind her. “You remember me, don’t you—Snowy? And this is Percy.”
“I remember you both.” Now there was more warmth in Leafstar’s tone. “It’s good to see you again.”
The plump tabby dipped his head. Scars around one of his eyes gave him a fearsome look, but his voice was friendly as he meowed, “Welcome.”
While they were talking, Shorty had dashed off, and now he returned with a slender black she-cat. Three kits—two tabby toms and a black-and-white she-cat—frisked around their paws.
“Cora!” Leafstar exclaimed. “How are you?”
“Fine, thank you.” Cora stretched forward to touch noses with the Clan leader. “Shorty says that you’ve been driven out of your territory. That’s terrible!”
Leafstar let out a sigh. “Yes, but StarClan is guiding us to a new home.” Hawkwing guessed that she didn’t want to talk about her Clan’s troubles with these Twolegplace cats. “So these are your kits?”
“Yes.” Cora’s eyes shone proudly. “The two tabbies are
Branch and Stone, and the she-cat is Night. Kits, come and meet
Leafstar.”
The three kits, who had been happily play-fighting, straightened up and dipped their heads to Leafstar, gazing at her with wide eyes.
“Shorty and I have told them all about you and your Clan,” Cora meowed. “But we never expected to see you here. Are you planning to stay?”
“Just for the night, with your permission,” Leafstar replied. “I know there are a lot of us, but we can help you hunt.”
“Good idea.” Stick waved his tail, beckoning more cats forward until they stood in a ragged half-circle behind him. To Hawkwing they looked younger—more like his own age and Pebbleshine’s—and he guessed they hadn’t yet been born when Leafstar and the others had visited the Twolegplace to fight against Dodge.
Stick moved among them, rapidly giving orders and splitting the cats into patrols, mixing his own cats with SkyClan. Hawkwing found himself with Pebbleshine and a couple of strangers.