“He’s missing a lot of training,” Sharpclaw commented.
Leafstar wondered if Billystorm would take offense at the veiled criticism, but the ginger-and-white tom just dipped his head in agreement. “I’ll make sure he catches up when he comes back.”
“See that you do,” Sharpclaw mewed.
Petalnose took her patrol toward the trail that led up the cliff. After hesitating for a moment, Leafstar decided to follow. It was a while since she had observed the apprentices in training, but what she really wanted to see was how the full Clan cats and the daylight-warriors worked together after the earlier tension.
When Leafstar reached the top of the cliff, she spotted Petalnose leading the patrol toward the nearest thicket, the apprentices barely visible in the long grass. As Leafstar bounded up to join them, she heard Mintpaw’s voice raised boastfully.
“We really scared that old Twoleg! You should have seen us.”
“And heard us,” Sagepaw added. “We yowled so loud, I’m surprised we didn’t wake you up in your Twoleg nests!”
Leafstar stiffened. Had the apprentices no sense at all, to taunt the daylight-warriors by bragging about the attack? Ebonyclaw’s tail-tip was flicking irritably from side to side; Frecklepaw was looking sulky, and Billystorm opened his jaws to speak, then obviously thought better of it.
“You kittypets missed an awesome patrol!” Mintpaw continued.
Leafstar’s paws itched to intervene, but it was up to the mentors to discipline their apprentices. She was surprised that neither Petalnose nor Waspwhisker said a word. They probably feel the same, she thought, biting back an angry comment.
“This patrol is too big for a successful hunt,” she meowed, padding up to join the others. “Billystorm, why don’t you come with me? Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw, too.”
“Good idea,” Billystorm responded instantly, with a flash of understanding in his amber eyes.
As he spoke, Leafstar spotted Mintpaw and Sagepaw exchanging a glance, their eyes gleaming. Now what’s their problem? she wondered, but neither apprentice said anything.
Petalnose nodded in reply to Leafstar’s suggestion, and led her remaining patrol farther into the thicket. Leafstar turned the other way, along the top of the cliff in the direction of the Twolegplace. She could feel the relief among the daylight-warriors as they followed her, and she wondered bleakly if her Clanmates would ever learn to work together.
“Right,” she began as they approached a stretch of bushes and thick undergrowth. “What I’d like to try today is working out ways of hunting as a group. We all do better if we cooperate. We—”
She broke off as Echosong emerged from some close-growing stems of fern with a bundle of herbs in her mouth. The medicine cat blinked with barely concealed surprise as she saw Leafstar’s patrol, and padded up to her Clan leader.
“Can I have a word with you?” she meowed, laying her bundle down.
“Of course.” Leafstar glanced at Billystorm. “Take the others into the bushes and see what you can find.”
Billystorm flicked his ears in acknowledgment, and vanished among the undergrowth with Ebonyclaw and Frecklepaw hard on his paws. Leafstar noticed that Frecklepaw glanced regretfully over her shoulder at Echosong as the ferns closed behind her.
“Well?” Leafstar prompted, fully prepared for Echosong to raise the question of an apprentice again.
“Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?” Echosong queried. Leafstar blinked at her in surprise. “I know there was trouble this morning,” the medicine cat went on, “but you won’t solve it by keeping the daylight-warriors separate from the others.”
Leafstar hadn’t noticed Echosong among the cats beside the river that morning, but she obviously knew all about the quarrel. “What else can I do?” she protested. “Wait until they start clawing one another’s ears off?”
“I don’t know,” Echosong admitted. “But splitting the cats up won’t help the tensions in the Clan. In the end, it’ll make them worse.”
Leafstar had a grudging feeling that her Clanmate was right. “Then what’s the answer? I don’t want to turn any cat away, but allowing daylight-warriors—okay, kittypets—into the Clan obviously isn’t working.” She lowered her head, feeling as if dark storm clouds had rolled across the sky to blot out the sun. “I sometimes wonder if Firestar was right to give me the leadership of SkyClan.”
“That’s mouse-brained,” Echosong mewed briskly. “StarClan chose you as our leader, not Firestar. And I know that there’s no cat in the Clan who could do it better. But Leafstar, you—” She broke off.
Leafstar wondered what the young she-cat wasn’t telling her. “Go on,” she prompted. “Say what you want to say.”
Echosong shook her head. “Nothing… nothing, really. Just—Leafstar, be careful of your own feelings, that’s all.”
She picked up her bundle of herbs and padded off toward the top of the trail, leaving her Clan leader staring blankly after her.
Be careful of my own feelings? What did she mean by that?
Chapter 23
“What do you mean, the Twolegs took Percy?” Stick spat, scraping his claws on the hard stone of the Twoleg alley.
Snowy’s ears were laid flat to her head with horror and distress. “He couldn’t run fast enough. They just grabbed him!” she wailed.
“I’m sorry!” Shorty panted, bounding up with Coal to join Cora and Snowy. “There wasn’t anything we could do to stop them.”
Coal’s neck fur was bristling and he drew his lips back in a snarl. “This means war!” he declared.
Cora nodded. “It’s mouse-brained to think that we can live alongside Twolegs. They’re our enemies!”
Stick narrowed his eyes. “It’s not the Twolegs,” he growled. “This is all Dodge’s fault.”
“What do you mean?” Shorty meowed.
Stick told them about the time he had come upon Skipper and Misha torturing the rabbit in the Twoleg garden. A shudder ran through him as he remembered his dream, his paws clogged with blood and fur. “The Twolegs won’t let cats attack their rabbits. I think Dodge arranged this so the Twolegs would drive us out.”
“But aren’t we going to fight for our home?” Coal hissed, his claws rasping against the smooth gray stones that lined the alley.
“Of course we are,” Stick retorted. “But not against the Twolegs. Dodge and his cats are the ones we have to fight.”
“I’ll rip their fur off,” Coal snarled. “I’ll—hey!” he mewed, breaking off. “Where’s Red? Did the Twolegs take her as well?”
“Red’s fine,” Stick growled. “She got away.” Before his friends could ask any more questions, he went on, “So how can we attack Dodge and his cats? Any ideas?”
The others looked at one another.
“It would be easier if we knew where they sleep,” Shorty commented.
“But we don’t,” Cora meowed.
Stick realized how clever Dodge had been. He had taken over the hunting grounds that Stick and his friends had thought of as their own, but he had given nothing away. The crow-food-eating mangebag has always stayed one step ahead. “Then find them!” he snapped.
“Do you want to wait until Red comes back?” Cora asked.
“No!” Stick wasn’t sure that she was coming back. “We don’t need her.”
His friends exchanged uneasy looks before heading off in different directions.
“No, I’ll go that way,” Stick ordered Snowy, shouldering the white she-cat away from the direction Red had taken. “You climb the wall and search behind the Twoleg nests.”
“Okay.” Snowy was obviously surprised, but she leaped the wall without arguing and disappeared down the other side.