“The tunnel opens out down here,” Fallen Leaves called back over his shoulder. He must have heard her stumbling from side to side.
Hollyleaf realized she could see her companion’s outline against a paler shade of gray. The sound of water echoed down the tunnel, not exactly splashing but a soft liquid murmur that could only be the underground river. Hollyleaf broke into a trot, squeezing past Fallen Leaves and bursting into the huge cavern. It was filled with dusky light and to Hollyleaf, after being trapped in the dark for so long, it seemed as familiar and welcoming as her den in the hollow. In front of her was the river, tame and quiet between its shallow stone banks, and there was the ledge high up on the wall where Lionblaze had boasted of standing.
“Your brother and the she-cat played up there,” Fallen Leaves remarked, coming to stand alongside her.
He means Lionblaze and Heathertail. Hollyleaf felt a stir of discomfort. Was Fallen Leaves’s impression of the Clans based on cats hiding out of sight and breaking the warrior code? To change the subject, she nodded toward a tunnel on the far side of the river. “That leads to outside, doesn’t it?” It was strange to think that a short walk would take her back into the heart of ThunderClan.
“It used to,” Fallen Leaves meowed, “but it’s blocked by mud now. Do you remember that tunnel over there? That’s where you found the kits.”
Hollyleaf looked at the yawning black mouth, close to the edge of the river. She shivered as she recalled the desperate search for the lost WindClan cats, while far above them Onestar and Firestar prepared to wage war over their disappearance.
“The tunnels aren’t scary once you get used to them,” Fallen Leaves reassured her. “I’ll show you, but first you should eat.” He padded to the edge of the river and paused for a moment, his gaze fixed on the black water sliding past. Suddenly one of his front paws shot out and scooped a trembling silver fish onto the rock. It flapped madly until Fallen Leaves killed it with a single strike. “Here,” he meowed, pushing it toward Hollyleaf.
“Er, don’t you want to eat, too?” Hollyleaf suggested, hanging back from yet another fishy meal. If she’d been born in RiverClan, she would have chosen to starve by now!
Fallen Leaves shook his head. “No, this one’s for you. Eat it up; then we can explore.”
Grudgingly, Hollyleaf gulped down the fish. It didn’t taste too bad this time, and when she drank from the river, the cool, sharp tang of the water was refreshing. Fallen Leaves was waiting for her at the mouth of the darkest tunnel. He beckoned to her with his tail before trotting into the shadows. Hollyleaf followed more slowly, taking one last glance back at the half-lit cave before surrendering to the blackness.
She could hear paw steps ahead, ringing confidently on the stone. “It’ll get lighter soon,” Fallen Leaves called back to her. Hollyleaf broke into a trot, glad to get some warmth into her bones. Suddenly her nose brushed something soft, and she slowed down to avoid crashing into Fallen Leaves’s haunches. She sniffed, trying to get a fix on his scent, but all she could smell was cold, damp stone. Had Fallen Leaves been in the tunnels for so long that he’d taken on the scent of his surroundings?
Fallen Leaves put on a burst of speed and Hollyleaf ran to keep up with him. The walls of the tunnel emerged from the shadows and she could see the outline of the cat in front of her. Hollyleaf couldn’t tell where the light was coming from, and for once she didn’t instantly look down to check where she was putting her paws. She knew the floor was smooth and level here—no loose pebbles had tripped her up so far, and there hadn’t been any sharp inclines.
Fallen Leaves turned to look at her, his eyes gleaming in the semidarkness. “Okay to go a bit faster?” he meowed. There was a hint of challenge in his voice.
“Of course!” Hollyleaf replied. Her injured leg wasn’t aching in the slightest, and she was ready to use muscles that had been kept still for too long.
She hardly had time to take a breath before Fallen Leaves raced away. His ginger-and-white pelt was almost instantly swallowed up by the shadows beyond the reach of the pale light. This time Hollyleaf didn’t think twice about following him. Her whiskers quivered with the effort of feeling for the walls on either side, and she kept her weight low over her paws so that she could adjust to changes in the floor of the tunnel. It started to slope down steeply, so Hollyleaf rocked backward until her front paws were doing little more than feeling the way, keeping her balanced on her haunches. After a while her hind leg began to hurt, but then the tunnel flattened out and Hollyleaf was able to run at full-pelt again. She could hear Fallen Leaves ahead of her, and she was starting to know when the tunnel curved or hit an incline from the sound of his paws.
When they burst into a small cave that was filled with sunlight from a crack in the roof, Hollyleaf was almost disappointed. The cats stopped for a moment, panting.
“That was fun!” Hollyleaf gasped.
“You’re doing really well!” Fallen Leaves purred admiringly.
“Thanks!” Hollyleaf looked around. “Where are we? I mean, in relation to outside?”
“We’ve come to the other side of the hills,” Fallen Leaves explained. “That tunnel over there”—he nodded to a gap in the wall—“leads out if you follow the scent of trees when you reach the fork.”
Hollyleaf tipped back her head and stared at the ceiling. Pointed stone blades hung down, ringed with delicate lines. A drip of water clung to each tip. She didn’t know the territory above them, not if it was beyond Clan boundaries. But it was weird to think that caves like this, and long winding tunnels, had been beneath her paws all the time.
“We should head back,” Fallen Leaves meowed. “You don’t want to hurt your leg. Come on, let’s go a different way.”
Before Hollyleaf could protest that her leg was fine, he darted into a side tunnel. “Wait for me!” Hollyleaf squeaked playfully. She raced into the darkness, stretching her neck until her muzzle bumped against cold fur. “Caught you!” she teased.
Fallen Leaves chirped with amusement. “We’ll see about that!” He lengthened his stride and pulled ahead.
Hollyleaf leaped forward, but her toe caught on a loose stone and she stumbled. Regaining her balance, she stopped to listen. Fallen Leaves’s paws sounded faintly somewhere down the tunnel. Hollyleaf set off, but almost at once she crashed into the wall because she was so busy straining her ears for footsteps. She paused and shook her head. Focus! She straightened her whiskers with a flick of her paw and started trotting down the tunnel. She could definitely hear Fallen Leaves ahead of her. A breeze on her face revealed a tunnel leading off to one side. Hollyleaf instinctively turned her head to look but it was so dark she couldn’t see any change in the shadows around her. She fought down a pulse of alarm and sniffed the empty space where the side tunnel began. There was no trace of warmth or fur, no sign that Fallen Leaves had gone this way. Had he kept to the main tunnel, then? Hollyleaf pricked her ears. The silence pressed around her, heavy as water filling her ears. She forced herself to walk forward, and jumped as she heard the faintest sound of paw steps. She stopped, straining to listen. The footsteps had stopped. Hollyleaf looked down at her paws, even though she couldn’t see them. Mouse-brain! She’d been listening to the echo of her own steps. She was completely alone in the darkness.
A wail rose in her throat and she swallowed to keep it down. Her pelt stood on end and she felt her paws start to tremble. Surely Fallen Leaves would notice she wasn’t behind him? Or would he assume she’d found a different way back? She’d been running so confidently after him. Hollyleaf took a step forward and her head thudded against rock. Reeling, she jumped sideways and hit her shoulder against the opposite wall. Had the tunnel shrunk? Were the walls closing in on her, slowly crushing her to nothing?