Hawkwing gave a mock shudder. “M entor all three of you? Oh, StarClan, no!”
“M entors only have one apprentice at a time,” Plumwillow mewed briskly. “Besides, you’re too young to be apprentices yet.
And now it’s time for sleep,” she added. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
When Hawkwing had helped Plumwillow settle the kits in the nursery, he returned to the clearing to see Leafstar still sitting on the branch from where she had spoken to her Clan. Full darkness had fallen, and most of the other cats had already retreated to their dens.
“Leafstar, are you all right?” Hawkwing asked, leaping up to sit on the branch beside her.
Leafstar’s gaze was fixed on the lake, just visible through the trees, her eyes luminous pools of regret. Hawkwing’s pelt warmed with the depth of his respect for her, with a twinge of sadness as he recognized the massive burden of leadership resting on her shoulders in these dark times.
Being Clan leader must be like being a parent to all the cats in the Clan.
“I’m going to miss this place,” Leafstar murmured. “I wanted so much for it to be our home forever. But it isn’t.”
Hawkwing nodded in agreement. “Perhaps something even better is waiting for us,” he suggested.
“I hope so,” Leafstar responded.
But Hawkwing could see the doubt in her eyes.
Hawkwing padded through deep woodland, where sunlight slanting through the branches dappled the ground with golden light.
Though he didn’t turn his head to see her, he could feel
Pebbleshine’s pelt brushing his, and smell her sweet scent. He felt filled up with happiness like a pool after heavy rain.
A sudden throaty roar disturbed Hawkwing’s contentment. He glanced around sharply, half expecting to see a lion or a tiger from one of the elders’ nursery tales. As he looked, the trees seemed to grow dim, their outlines blurred, and there was no trace of Pebbleshine.
“Don’t go!” he yowled.
The roaring grew louder, and now Hawkwing recognized the sound of a monster. But there shouldn’t be monsters here! he thought, his pelt prickling with the first onset of panic.
Hawkwing jerked awake, and raised his head to see dawn light trickling through the branches that sheltered the warriors’ den, and his Clanmates stirring around him. The roaring continued, growing louder still.
I certainly won’t miss that! he thought. I wish we could find a camp far, far away from any Thunderpaths, so I never have to hear that sound again.
Then Rileypool poked his head into the den. “Come out, quickly!” he meowed urgently. “There are Twolegs in the forest!”
“Then come in here and hide.” Hawkwing’s jaws stretched in a massive yawn. “That’s what we usually do when Twolegs get too close. Twolegs are too stupid to see what’s right in front of them!”
“No, this is different,” Rileypool told him, his voice tight with tension. “There are too many of them, and—”
A yowl from outside interrupted him, followed by the heavy pounding of Twoleg paw steps. Hawkwing’s neck fur began to bristle in alarm. Cautiously he peered out of the den, and cold horror shivered through him from ears to tail-tip at what he saw.
Five Twolegs were tramping into the camp. They wore strange coverings on their paws and slick pelts the color of dandelions.
Even worse, each of them was carrying a long stick with something made of interlaced tendrils, like a huge cobweb, on the end of it.
By now Hawkwing’s Clanmates were pressing around him, trying to look out and gasping with fear at the sight.
“What are they doing?” Rabbitleap demanded, but no cat could answer him.
As Hawkwing watched, he spotted Fidgetpaw emerge from the medicine cat’s den and stand there stunned at the invasion.
Immediately one of the Twolegs swung his stick at Fidgetpaw, then lifted it with Fidgetpaw tangled inside the cobweb. The medicine cat struggled, but he couldn’t break free.
Horror crawled like ants through Hawkwing’s pelt as he watched. The Twoleg said something to one of his companions, and the two of them slapped paws. Then the second Twoleg rolled a tiny den into the camp, made of thin, shiny sticks. He opened one side, and the first Twoleg dumped Fidgetpaw inside.
“He’s trapped!” Hawkwing yowled.
He hurled himself out of the warriors’ den, his claws extended as he raced toward the invading Twolegs. His Clanmates poured out after him, snarling defiance.
But suddenly Leafstar was in their midst. “Don’t fight!” she ordered. “We can’t win. Run! M eet up in the long grass by the lake.”
“But they have Fidgetpaw!” Hawkwing protested.
“There’s nothing we can do!” Leafstar snapped back at him.
“Head for the lake!”
His heart wrenched at the thought of abandoning Fidgetpaw, but Hawkwing had to admit that she was right. These Twolegs with their weird pelts and sticks were impossible for them to fight.
He dodged around one of the cobweb-things, then halted as another Twoleg swung his stick around and scooped up Waspwhisker.
This can’t be happening! he thought as he stared at the Clan deputy, who was screeching and fighting in vain as the Twoleg carried him over to the shiny den.
“No!” Plumwillow yowled, giving Hawkwing a mighty shove.
“Run!”
Hawkwing pulled himself together. We have to save the kits!
He followed Plumwillow as she gathered her kits together. All three of them were staring open-mouthed at the Twolegs, as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, or didn’t understand.
“What are they doing?” Dewkit asked.
“You can see what they’re doing,” Plumwillow snapped, giving the little tom a shove. “Now go!”
Hawkwing helped her push the others along until the kits finally realized the danger they were in and scurried for the camp entrance. Once in the open they began to panic, scattering in three different directions.
“This way!” Hawkwing called.
Together with Plumwillow he managed to round up the terrified kits and head toward the lake. On the way there they spotted more
Twolegs standing beside two monsters on a small Thunderpath that led through the woods and down to the Twoleg dens. As
Hawkwing and Plumwillow ran past with the kits the Twolegs let out a roar and lumbered toward them.
“Quick! This way!” Hawkwing gasped.
He veered toward an outcrop of rocks, and spotted the entrance to a rabbit burrow half concealed among the boulders. He pushed the kits into the opening of the burrow, then dived in himself with Plumwillow. Hawkwing gestured to the kits to be silent, and they crouched there, wide-eyed, listening to the Twolegs tramping around the rocky outcrop.
Finally the heavy paw steps died away; Hawkwing peered out cautiously and saw the Twolegs heading back toward their monster.
“Okay,” he whispered. “We can go.”
Keeping low, their bellies pressed to the ground as if they were stalking prey, Hawkwing and Plumwillow led the kits toward the lake. Hawkwing’s fur was bushed up with fear, and with every paw step he expected to see one of the Twolegs’ cobweb-sticks swooping down to envelop the kits.
I can’t lose these kits too, he thought, remembering the lost
Pebbleshine and her litter. I have to save them!
Hawkwing felt as if whole moons were passing as they crept along, until finally they made it to the tall grass and collapsed there, panting.
Rileypool and Sagenose had already arrived at the meeting-place, their fur bristling and a wild look in their eyes.
“They took Waspwhisker!” Rileypool exclaimed disbelievingly.