Chapter 10
Hunched against the rain, the cats crossed a grassy space and reached a broad path of dark stone leading toward the Twoleg dens.
“This is a Thunderpath,” Tall Shadow meowed, halting at the edge. “There’ll be more monsters.”
But everything was quiet. Shaded Moss led the way along the Thunderpath, keeping to the edge, and the rest of the cats followed, their fur bristling.
Suddenly a throaty growl sprang up and a monster headed toward them, slowly at first and then with gathering speed.
“It’s spotted us!” Rainswept Flower screeched.
“This way!” Gray Wing saw a much narrower path leading between two high walls of red stone, and raced toward it. “Follow me! The monster won’t be able to reach us down here!”
The cats streamed after him, just in time as the monster bore down on them. It passed by with a roar of frustration, its eyes glowing with a harsh yellow light.
“It missed us!” Turtle Tail mewed with relief. “Gray Wing, you were brilliant.”
“We still need to find somewhere safe and dry to spend the night,” Gray Wing pointed out. Bright lights like tiny suns were appearing in the dens, casting yellow squares onto the path. The shadows seemed much darker by contrast.
Taking the lead, Gray Wing walked down the narrow path, feeling trapped and suffocated between the high walls. It opened out into a square stone clearing surrounded by smaller dens. Glancing around, Gray Wing saw that one was gaping open, and padded cautiously up to it. Inside it was dark, and the reek of monsters was so strong he could hardly breathe.
“This must be a monster’s den,” Jagged Peak suggested, creeping up beside Gray Wing and staring wide-eyed into the darkness.
“The smell is stale and old, though,” Gray Wing mewed. “Maybe the monster doesn’t use it anymore.”
Rainswept Flower bounded past him into the den and looked around. “We’ll stay here tonight,” she announced briskly. “At least it’s out of the rain, and we can take turns keeping watch.”
Shaded Moss nodded as he came to stand beside his daughter. Gray Wing saw how his tail drooped, and his eyes were full of weariness. It can’t be easy for Shaded Moss, he thought. Leading us and being responsible for everything.
“You look tired,” Rainswept Flower murmured, pushing her nose into her father’s shoulder fur. “Get some sleep. I’ll take the first watch.”
“I’ll join you,” Gray Wing offered at once.
“But I’m hungry,” Quick Water protested as she padded into the den. “Aren’t we going to hunt before we sleep?”
“It’s too dangerous here,” Clear Sky pointed out. “And we haven’t smelled any prey since we left the woods.”
“We should have hunted earlier, when I wanted to,” Moon Shadow snapped.
“He’s right,” Hawk Swoop added. “It was a stupid decision to come into this Twolegplace.”
“No, it was our best chance of shelter,” Tall Shadow pointed out, her tail lashing irritably. “Away from dogs and all the things that were watching us from among the trees.”
Gray Wing agreed silently. We may be safer than we would be out in the open, but this is still a ghastly place. Dawn can’t come soon enough for me.
He sat at the opening of the den beside Rainswept Flower, looking out into the clearing. Gray Wing’s ears rang with the growl of distant monsters, shrieks of Twolegs, dogs barking—and then a yowl that made his fur stand on end.
Cats!
Rainswept Flower leaned over to whisper into his ear. “I never thought about what would happen if we met other cats! Do you think they’re… kittypets?”
Gray Wing remembered the elders’ tales of cats who chose to live with Twolegs, eating their food and sleeping inside their dens. Back in the cave, Gray Wing had thought the stories were just thistlefluff from the elders’ brains. But here, where everything seemed so crowded and dangerous, he could imagine they were true.
“What do you think kittypets are like?” he asked Rainswept Flower. “Will they understand us?”
“Surely they’d envy us?” Rainswept Flower responded. “We’ve seen more than they ever will.”
Gray Wing listened to his rumbling belly and looked down at his filthy pelt. Are we really enviable right now?
The yowls came no closer, and eventually Gray Wing felt sleep drifting over him. The louder roaring of a monster roused him and he saw it enter the clearing, its yellow eyes raking the walls.
Rainswept Flower and Gray Wing shrank back into the mouth of the den.
“Has it spotted us?” Gray Wing asked, struggling to control panic. “Are we in its den?”
“Distract it!” Rainswept Flower ordered, springing to her paws. “I’ll get the others.”
Gray Wing’s belly trembled with terror. Distract it? How?
But before he could make a move, the entrance to another den gaped open and the monster crawled inside. The den mouth glided shut behind it with a clang and the growling stopped.
“That was close!” Gray Wing exclaimed. “It must have gone to sleep.”
Rainswept Flower met his gaze with horror-filled eyes. “Then all these other dens could have sleeping monsters inside!” she whispered.
Gray Wing nodded. “Why do the Twolegs have their dens so close to the monsters? Aren’t they scared?”
Rainswept Flower shrugged, not replying, and settled down to watch once more. Gray Wing, still quivering from shock, thought he would never close his eyes again; but the next thing he knew, Rainswept Flower was prodding him in the side.
“It’s time you changed places with another cat,” she told him. “Get some proper rest.”
Gray Wing stumbled to the back of the den and woke Hawk Swoop by tripping over her. “It’s your turn to go on watch,” he told her.
“Okay, fine,” she mewed drowsily, and got up to join Rainswept Flower, who rose in her turn and fetched Jackdaw’s Cry before curling up to sleep.
Gray Wing lay down where Hawk Swoop had been, feeling her warmth on the dusty floor, and closed his eyes.
A heavy paw landing on his tail woke him, and he looked up to see Moon Shadow in the pale gray light filtering into the den.
“Sorry,” Moon Shadow mewed. “I’m going hunting.”
Gray Wing nodded, wondering if he ought to go as well, but too weary to make his legs move. “Good luck,” he said, watching Moon Shadow leave the den with a murmured good-bye to Turtle Tail and Shattered Ice, who were standing guard.
When he had gone, Gray Wing drifted into sleep again. He dreamed that he stood on the cliff top with Quiet Rain, gazing out over a vista of sunlit mountain peaks.
But the vision was shattered by a dreadful yowling.
Gray Wing sprang to his paws as Shattered Ice and Turtle Tail began scrambling out of the den. “Moon Shadow is being attacked!” Shattered Ice meowed urgently.
Gray Wing raced out of the den with the others. He could hear Moon Shadow on the other side of a wall at the far side of the clearing, screeching in fury. The voices of two other cats mingled with his shrieks, as if all three were battling.
Gray Wing, Tall Shadow, and Clear Sky raced across the clearing, outpacing their denmates, and leaped on top of the wall. Fur bristling, Gray Wing looked down and saw Moon Shadow rolling over and over on a wide stretch of grass, lashing out with teeth and claws as two cats raked at his fur.
Those are kittypets? Gray Wing thought, appalled, as he took in their plump bodies and the tendrils around their necks. None of the elders ever said kittypets were fierce!