Alderpaw flailed his legs in the surging water, terrified as the cold, unfamiliar touch enfolded him. The current was so fast that he was swept away, not knowing which way was up.
A heavy, rushing pressure filled his ears, and when he tried to open his eyes, he was blinded by dark water. Desperately he kicked and kicked, pain growing in his chest until he thought he would lose consciousness.
Then his head broke the surface. Gratefully he took a gulp of air and thrashed his legs with the flow of the current to keep himself afloat.
He glanced around to see if he could spot
Needlepaw, but there was no sign of her.
It’s still too dark to see much, he thought, hoping that she was somewhere near him in this chaos of water.
He strained his ears to catch her cries, or calls from his Clanmates on the bank, but the river rushing in his ears cut off all other sounds.
The current seemed to be moving faster than ever. Looking ahead, Alderpaw saw the tumbled surface abruptly come to an end, with nothing but gloomy sky beyond. The roaring in his ears grew louder.
A waterfall!
Alderpaw knew that he had to reach the bank. He kicked out across the current, struggling to drag himself to safety, but the force of the water was too strong.
I’m not going to make it. This is where I’m going to die.
Then Alderpaw felt his forepaw snag on something jutting out of the water. Somehow the contact pulled him toward the bank, and as the surge lifted him for a heartbeat, he realized he was clinging to Needlepaw.
The sight of the bank so close gave Alderpaw fresh hope. “Keep going!” he gasped to Needlepaw. “We can do it!”
But however hard the two cats fought, the river was stronger. Alderpaw glimpsed the smooth curve of the water as it reached the falls and let out a yelp of alarm as he realized he was going over.
He found himself falling, torn away from Needlepaw, his body tossed and thrown about by the waterfall. His panic-stricken yowl was cut off as he slammed down onto the surface below and all the breath was driven out of his body.
Everything went black as Alderpaw sank deep into the water. Then light seared his eyes as he bobbed back up to the surface, dazed and struggling feebly, surprised that he was still alive. Something shoved him hard at the back of his neck, propelling him toward the bank. Soon he felt his paws touch mud, and he hauled himself upward, clambering clear of the water.
Turning, he saw Needlepaw dragging herself out after him, her fur plastered to her body.
Alderpaw collapsed onto his belly, his flanks heaving and shivering with cold, and with relief at having survived. Needlepaw sank down beside him.
Catching his breath at last, Alderpaw strained to catch any sight or sound of their companions. “I can’t hear the others,” he mewed. “Can you?”
Needlepaw just shook out her wet fur.
“No!” she yowled. “I don’t hear them—I can’t hear anything over the water. I told you I didn’t like it!”
Alderpaw turned an anxious circle, but all he could see were trees and sky. All he could hear was the running water. All he could smell was the wet dirt beneath him, and the fear wafting off both him and Needlepaw.
What do we do now? he wondered.
Chapter 20
At first Alderpaw lay in an exhausted stupor with Needlepaw by his side, but the thought of his Clanmates soon roused him. “We should get up,” he panted. “Try to figure out a way to get back to the others.”
Needlepaw gave her shoulder fur a couple of feeble licks. “I don’t know about you,” she meowed, “but I need to rest.”
“But we don’t know what happened to them!” Alderpaw asked, with a fretful look upstream. “We need to find them!”
And how are we going to find SkyClan now?
Needlepaw snorted. “You need to quit worrying about the others so much and start worrying about yourself. Let them find us.
Meanwhile, we need to rest.”
Alderpaw realized that Needlepaw was right. Staggering to his paws, he gazed around, only to see monsters dashing to and fro on a
Thunderpath a few fox-lengths away, with a row of Twoleg dens on the far side. The air was filled with the reek of monsters and Twolegs.
“I don’t believe it!” he groaned. “Twolegs everywhere!”
“It’s fine,” Needlepaw responded, waving her tail toward a tangle of elder bushes growing between the water’s edge and the Thunderpath.
“We can make a nest here. The Twolegs won’t find us.”
Hoping she was right, Alderpaw followed her as she thrust her way deep into the bushes and flattened a clump of long grass for a makeshift nest. His legs aching with weariness, Alderpaw curled up beside her.
Soon Needlepaw’s snores echoed around their den. But in spite of his exhaustion, Alderpaw found it hard to sleep. The sound and stink of the monsters was too close, and the events of their desperate escape from the rogues kept flickering through his mind.
Snuggling up to Needlepaw, Alderpaw filled his nose with her scent, trying to imagine that he was back in camp, snoozing in the apprentices’ den with Sparkpaw. Finally he slept.
When Alderpaw awoke, bright sunlight was filtering through the branches of the elder bushes. Anxiety stabbed at him as he saw that Needlepaw had vanished. The sound of Twoleg voices drifted into Alderpaw’s ears, and when he crept cautiously out of the bushes he spotted several Twoleg kits playing beside the nests, tossing something brightly colored to each other.
A wave of homesickness for the lake and the forest flooded over Alderpaw. Those kits are so noisy! When will we ever get a bit of peace?
Then the grass parted to reveal Needlepaw, trotting up to him with a plump sparrow clamped in her jaws. “Fresh-kill!” she announced, dropping it at Alderpaw’s paws.
“Thank StarClan you’re back!” Alderpaw exclaimed. “I was worried about you.”
Needlepaw flicked her tail. “No need.
Come on, eat.”
“What do you think we ought to do next?”
Alderpaw asked, his jaws watering as he gulped down warm bites of the sparrow. It was good to sit in the shelter of the bushes and let the sun warm his damp fur, but he knew they shouldn’t stay there any longer.
“Look for the others, I guess,” Needlepaw replied with her mouth full.
Alderpaw was glad that he didn’t have to argue with her. He couldn’t imagine turning for home without at least trying to find his Clanmates.
When they had finished eating, he and Needlepaw headed back upstream as far as the waterfall. “I guess we have to go this way,” he muttered, gazing up at the moss-covered rocks that jutted from the cliff face beside the cascading water.
“It doesn’t look too hard,” Needlepaw meowed, springing up onto the first of the rocks.
Not sure he agreed, Alderpaw followed. The river thundered down beside him, and his legs began to shake as he remembered how he had been swept away and almost drowned. The rocks were slippery from spray, and if he sank his claws into the moss, it pulled away and almost made him lose his balance. Needlepaw was climbing determinedly ahead of him, showering him with grit and drops of water.
Alderpaw was panting hard by the time he reached the top. He would have liked to rest again, but urgency gave strength to his paws as he thought about his Clanmates.
He and Needlepaw trudged on beside the stream, now and again calling out to their friends and casting back and forth as they tried to pick up their scent. Alderpaw began to grow discouraged as they drew closer to the gorge again. Maybe the rogues recaptured them.