Gray Wing let out a sigh. “I never thought he—”
A loud yowl interrupted him. Thunder looked up to see a long line of cats appearing at the top of the hill and sweeping down the slope toward them. Shattered Ice was in the lead; Thunder recognized Dappled Pelt, Jackdaw’s Cry, and Rainswept Flower. To his surprise, Wind and Gorse were with them too.
“It’s Shattered Ice!” he called to Jagged Peak in the tunnel. “He’s not a coward after all. He went for help.”
“Jagged Peak, you can come out now,” Gray Wing added.
Scuffling sounds came from the tunnel.
“It’s not easy, trying to back out of one of these little rabbit dens,” Jagged Peak grumbled. “Especially with a bad leg. I—” Coughing drowned out whatever he was trying to say.
“What’s the matter?” Gray Wing asked.
“Nothing.” Jagged Peak’s voice sounded muffled. “I just got a mouthful of dirt. It’s getting sort of dusty in here,” he added nervously.
There were grunts and noises of discomfort as Jagged Peak wriggled his way to the entrance. Thunder wondered whether it might have been a bad idea to shove him in quite so roughly. But what choice did I have?
There was a small yowl of displeasure, and then a noise that made Thunder much more worried—a creaking, groaning sound that came from the ground itself.
Gray Wing darted a glance to where Thunder had gone to sit on the bank above the hole. “Get away from there—quick!” he ordered.
Thunder leaped off. He crouched to look into the hole. More earth was dribbling down from the roof of the tunnel. “Jagged Peak, hurry!” he mewed.
“Come on, come on,” Gray Wing added, glancing anxiously at the bank. Thunder couldn’t believe it: The packed earth was sinking into a hollow before their eyes. The tunnel was…
A soft thump sounded. A cloud of dust billowed out into the open as the mouth of the burrow suddenly collapsed.
Jagged Peak was buried alive.
Chapter 6
This can’t be happening. Not to my brother… Gray Wing stared disbelievingly as the ground sank into a hollow and soil closed up the entrance to the tunnel. “Jagged Peak!” he yowled. His heart was pounding with fear as he flung himself at the mound of earth where the opening had been and began digging frantically.
Thunder was beside him, loose soil spraying everywhere as his paws scraped with all their strength.
But the earth was too soft. As quickly as they tried to dig out a hole, the loose dirt collapsed in on itself. His fear mounting, Gray Wing realized they were making very little headway.
How much more time do we have?
Gray Wing had only gone down a rabbit burrow once, when Wind was showing him how she hunted. He remembered how uncomfortable he had been, close to panic, and his heart broke for Jagged Peak, trapped beneath the weight of earth. He kept on clawing and digging, even while he was fighting despair.
“Jagged Peak, we’re coming!” he yowled, hoping the young cat could hear him.
There was a scuffling sound behind him and then Shattered Ice and the other cats were crowding around, all trying to reach the collapsed burrow and dig.
“Let us help,” Jackdaw’s Cry gasped, shoving in front of Gray Wing.
Gray Wing found his way blocked, and when he tried to get closer to the tunnel he was almost knocked off his paws by Rainswept Flower. She was clawing frantically, her paws moving in a blur. Cats were screeching in panic, and even though he realized they were trying to help, Gray Wing knew they were only making this worse.
Time’s running out, he thought, picturing Jagged Peak crushed down in the dark, his mouth choked with dirt.
Then a cat’s voice—Wind’s—rose up above all the others. “Get back, all of you! Let us deal with this!”
When the other cats paused, startled, Gorse and Wind sprang past them and began digging farther up the tunnel, above the place where Jagged Peak had been when it collapsed.
“We know these tunnels,” Gorse explained rapidly as they dug. “We’ll reach solid ground quicker this way.”
“There’s room for one more cat,” Wind added. “Jackdaw’s Cry, you’ll do. The rest of you keep away.”
Gray Wing worked his claws impatiently into the moorland grass. It seemed to take forever for the three cats to clear away the soil, but at last he glimpsed a patch of gray fur. “Jagged Peak!” he gasped, starting forward.
Wind raised her tail to halt him. She and Gorse leaned over the hole they had dug and carefully lifted out the limp form of Jagged Peak. His head lolled and his fur was caked with dirt; Gray Wing couldn’t see him breathing.
“He’s dead!” he choked out. I’ve already lost Clear Sky! I can’t lose Jagged Peak, too.
The mountain cats gathered around sorrowfully as Wind and Gorse laid Jagged Peak gently on the grass. He looked so small and thin, with his pelt plastered to his sides by soil. Gray Wing remembered how tiny Fluttering Bird had looked in death, and a pang of grief shook him from ears to tail-tip. Why do things like this happen? he asked himself.
“We all came safely through the cold season,” Dappled Pelt murmured, her tail drooping. “And now Jagged Peak dies like this.”
It’s my fault, Gray Wing told himself. I left the mountains to protect Jagged Peak. I’ve failed.…
“We can’t give up hope,” Wind meowed, her tone brisk and bracing. “He may not be dead.”
While she was speaking she slipped her paw into Jagged Peak’s mouth and clawed out some of the dirt; she gave his nose a lick, clearing that too. Gray Wing waited tensely, then let out a gasp of relief as Jagged Peak started to cough, gagging on the soil, and vomited some of it up. A heartbeat later his eyes blinked open and he rubbed at them feebly.
“He’s okay!” Rainswept Flower exclaimed. “Oh, Wind, thank you!”
Wind dipped her head. “You’re welcome.”
We owe these rogues so much, Gray Wing thought. I’m going to talk to Tall Shadow about letting them join us. We’d be crazy not to welcome such generous cats.
Wind and Gorse stepped back as the mountain cats gathered around Jagged Peak, using their paws and tongues to clean the earth off his pelt, and giving him comforting licks around his ears.
“No need to fuss,” Jagged Peak grunted as his strength began to return. He tried to pull away from his denmates and sit up. “I’m not a kit. I can groom my own fur.”
Gray Wing knew his young brother wasn’t trying to be rude and ungrateful; he understood that Jagged Peak was quivering with embarrassment because he hated to seem weak.
“You shouldn’t have been wandering around by yourself,” Jackdaw’s Cry meowed. “What if something happened and no cat was there to save you? You’re lucky that Thunder and Gray Wing were nearby.”
Jagged Peak flinched, and Gray Wing glared at Jackdaw’s Cry. “Jagged Peak has a brain,” he mewed. “He would have figured out a way to get away from those dogs if he had to.”
Jackdaw’s Cry opened his jaws to protest, then clearly thought better of it.
“It’s time we went back to the hollow,” Gray Wing meowed roughly.
Before any cat could move, Rainswept Flower turned to him, with a sidelong glance at Jagged Peak. She’d worked harder than any cat to free his brother from the collapsed tunnel.
“I think Jagged Peak should lead the way back, don’t you?” she asked.
That’s mouse-brained, Gray Wing thought, then a heartbeat later realized how clever Rainswept Flower was being. Taking the lead will give Jagged Peak his dignity back. “Good idea,” he agreed. “Jagged Peak, we all dashed here so quickly, we’re not sure of the best way back. Can you show us?”