Chapter 12
Lionblaze jumped onto a fallen tree trunk and arched his back in a long stretch, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on his golden fur. Buds were appearing on the trees, and in the clumps of dead brown bracken, vivid green fronds were beginning to unfurl. The branches seemed full of birdsong, and he could hear the scuffling of small creatures in the undergrowth.
Newleaf is almost here, he thought.
Behind him, his patrol emerged into the open: Cinderheart, ears and whiskers alert for the signs of prey; Toadstep, making more noise than a whole pack of badgers; and Rosepetal bringing up the rear.
“Right.” Lionblaze sprang down from the tree into the clearing on the other side. “This is a good place. Firestar asked Cinderheart and me to help you brush up your hunting techniques,” he added to the two younger cats.
“Oh, great!” Toadstep gazed at Lionblaze with shining eyes. “Will you teach us some fighting moves, too?”
“Please?” Rosepetal added eagerly.
“Another time, maybe.” Cinderheart gave her tail a flick. “Today we’re concentrating on hunting. Let’s see how much prey we can bring back for the Clan.”
Toadstep looked disappointed. “You’re the best at fighting,” he told Lionblaze. “ThunderClan’s so lucky to have you. I don’t think you’ll ever get hurt!” Brightening, he added, “I’m going to be like that one day. I’ll defend my Clan, and none of my enemies will be able to touch me!”
Lionblaze suppressed a sigh. If he tries to fight the way I do, he’ll get seriously injured. “Toadstep,” he began awkwardly, “you need to fight like yourself, not like me or any other cat.”
“But you’re so good, why wouldn’t I want to fight like you?”
Lionblaze’s pelt prickled with embarrassment. He cast a glance at Cinderheart, who was watching him with a sympathetic look in her blue eyes.
“Every cat is vulnerable,” he persisted. “Every cat has weaknesses. Part of being a good fighter is being aware of that and—”
“Watch this!”
Lionblaze broke off as Toadstep hurled himself at the fallen tree, battering it with his paws, scoring his claws down the bark and grabbing a protruding branch between his teeth.
“Stop!” Lionblaze yowled, bounding over to the younger cat and hauling him away by the scruff. “Throwing yourself into battle like that is the quickest way to get yourself killed.”
He stood over the younger warrior, who gazed up at him in shock. Lionblaze felt his anger spilling over, fueled by his resentment of the prophecy that had taken his life and twisted it without giving him any choice. I’d give up my fighting skills if I could just be an ordinary Clan cat…if I could have Cinderheart.
“Hey, Lionblaze, take it easy.” Cinderheart padded over and rested her tail-tip on Toadstep’s shoulder. “Toadstep is enthusiastic, that’s all.” Glancing at the young cat with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes, she added, “But you won’t get anywhere by trying to kill a tree.”
“Sorry, Lionblaze,” Toadstep stammered. “I only wanted to show you…”
“I know.” Lionblaze twitched his whiskers. “Just remember that every cat has limits, and you need to know what yours are.”
Toadstep nodded, withdrawing a pace or two into the clearing, his gaze still on Lionblaze as if he felt that the golden tabby was likely to spring at him without warning.
“Mouse-brained young idiot,” Lionblaze murmured to Cinderheart, his voice a soft, frustrated growl. “How do you think I would feel if he got his pelt ripped off trying to be like me?”
Cinderheart nodded understandingly. “You’ll sort him out,” she mewed.
Warmed by her response, Lionblaze turned back to the two younger warriors. “Right, let’s see if we’ve frightened off all the prey in the forest,” he began. “Can you scent anything?”
Toadstep raised his head at once, jaws parted to taste the air, while Rosepetal sniffed around the tangled roots of the fallen tree.
“Squirrel!” Toadstep exclaimed.
“Okay, but don’t tell the whole forest,” Lionblaze murmured. “The idea is that the prey doesn’t know we’re here.”
Toadstep ducked his head, forepaws scrabbling among the dead leaves. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“So where’s this squirrel?” Cinderheart asked.
Toadstep pointed with his tail toward a bramble thicket. The squirrel was almost completely hidden by a tangle of tendrils, only the tip of its tail visible. Toadstep had tracked it by its scent alone.
“Well done.” Lionblaze gave him an approving nod. “Now let’s see your hunter’s crouch. Both of you.”
Toadstep crouched down, and after a heartbeat’s pause Rosepetal padded to his side and joined him. Lionblaze and Cinderheart eyed their stance critically.
“Not bad,” Lionblaze told Toadstep, flicking his hindquarters with his tail. “Pull your hind legs in a bit farther. You’ll get more power in your pounce that way.”
“Rosepetal, that’s very good,” Cinderheart added. “Your weight’s nicely balanced.”
“Okay, we’ll practice hunting in pairs. Toadstep, it’s your squirrel,” Lionblaze went on, checking that the animal was still there. “You’ll creep up on it. Rosepetal, move over toward that tree”—he angled his ears toward an ivy-covered oak—“so if the squirrel tries to flee that way, you’ll be in the right place to catch it.”
Rosepetal nodded and began padding toward the oak, while Toadstep slid through the grass. He was almost within striking distance of the squirrel when one of his hind paws brushed against a bracken frond. The squirrel sat up, alert, at the faint rustling sound, then broke away from the thicket and fled across the clearing, straight toward Rosepetal’s oak.
Rosepetal reached out, but the squirrel shot past her a mouse-length from her paws and hurled itself up the tree. Rosepetal jumped and spun around, but by then only the shaking tendrils of ivy showed where the prey had gone.
“Fox dung!” Toadstep exclaimed, bounding over in a fury. “Rosepetal, you should have caught that!”
“Rosepetal, you have to focus,” Cinderheart admonished.
“Yes, anything could happen at any time.” Lionblaze looked sternly at the young warrior. “We have to be ready.”
“What could happen here?” Rosepetal flicked her ears dismissively as she looked around at the peaceful forest, the trees covered by the green mist of approaching newleaf. “Even the bees are sleepy!”
Her last few words were drowned by the screech of a cat from somewhere close by. “Help! Dog!”
Lionblaze froze. “That’s Bumblestripe!”
“Go!” Cinderheart urged him. When he cast a worried glance at the two younger cats she added, “I’ll keep them safe. Just go!”
Lionblaze leaped over the fallen tree and plunged through the undergrowth, back in the direction of the camp. His heart began to pound as he heard the deep-throated barking of a dog, a defiant cat-shriek cutting across it. Bursting out of a clump of bracken, Lionblaze halted at the edge of a clearing where Bumblestripe, his back arched and his pale fur bristling, stood nose-to-nose with a huge black dog.
“Stay back!” Bumblestripe yowled, stretching out one paw with claws extended. “Stay back or I’ll shred your ears!”
The dog’s mouth gaped, its tongue lolling out between sharp white fangs. It sprang at Bumblestripe; before Lionblaze could do anything, the young tom darted forward, away from the cover of the brambles behind him, and fled across the clearing with the dog snapping at his paws. Bumblestripe clawed his way up the nearest tree and balanced on the lowest branch, looking down. The dog jumped up at him, yelping; Bumblestripe’s dangling tail was no more than a mouse-length away from the deadly paws.