“The territory adjustments will begin first thing tomorrow,” Clear Sky continued. “At dawn I will personally summon the cats I have chosen to help me on this first expedition. For now, you should all get a good night’s sleep. Who knows what lies ahead of us?”
Excited mewing broke out again as the cats moved away to their resting places. Clear Sky remained on the tree stump until the gathering had broken up. Then he beckoned with his tail. “Thunder! Over here!”
Surprised and a little intimidated, Thunder sprang to his paws and bounded across the clearing to the stump.
Clear Sky leaped down to meet him. “Come with me,” he meowed. He led the way to a sheltered spot among the roots of an oak tree just outside the camp. Glancing around to make sure they weren’t overheard, he continued, “Thunder, there’s a reason why I’ve been taking you out in the morning for training. I want you to be part of the first group that sets out at dawn to mark the new borders.”
Thunder couldn’t stop himself from gaping. “Me?”
His father nodded. “I’m calling on you to do your duty. It’s a great honor—are you up to it?”
Thunder felt as if he was being torn in two. He wasn’t sure that it was right to expand the territory, and yet he wanted desperately to prove himself to his father.
“I… I know the forest needs time to recover from the fire,” he stammered. “But I haven’t seen any cats struggling to find something to eat.”
Clear Sky turned his head away with that same look of anguish. Thunder waited, realizing that he had said the wrong thing, until his father returned his attention to him, looking deep into his eyes. Thunder tried not to shrink beneath that brilliant blue gaze.
“Of course, you can’t see the signs of starvation,” Clear Sky explained patiently. “You’ve never had to struggle for food. You can’t possibly recognize the slow, cruel progress of hunger.”
“But—” Thunder tried to interrupt, knowing perfectly well how easy it was to find prey, and how hunting patrols never came back empty-pawed.
Clear Sky ignored his interruption. “I know it only too well, from my time in the mountains,” he continued. “One day a cat looks healthy, and then after a few sunrises you can count their ribs. I’ve already seen some of the early warning signs.” He dug his claws hard into the ground. “I won’t let the mountain tragedies of hunger visit any of my cats!”
Thunder saw how deeply moved his father was, and regretted that he had ever questioned him. We’ve only been together two moons, he thought. I have to learn to trust his judgment.
“Of course I’ll come with you tomorrow,” he meowed, trying to sound excited. “I’ll do everything I can to help.”
Clear Sky dipped his head and touched Thunder’s ear briefly with his nose. “Then we’ll meet at dawn. You will be the first cat to mark the new territory boundary.”
Chapter 24
White mist curled through the trees, drenching the grass and undergrowth and striking a chill across Thunder’s pelt as he padded through the camp. Clear Sky was waiting for him at the edge of the clearing, his gaze distant, fixed on something only he could see.
A deeper cold invaded Thunder’s body, as if all the blood in his veins were turning to ice. What is my father planning?
As Thunder reached his father’s side, Clear Sky acknowledged his presence with a nod, but made no move to leave. Thunder sat silently beside him; embarrassment flooded over him and he shifted on his haunches as his belly rumbled with morning hunger.
A heartbeat later, a rustle in the long grass announced the arrival of Petal.
“Good,” Clear Sky meowed. “Let’s go.”
He led the way out of the camp and through the trees, heading in the direction of the clearing with the four oak trees. Will he try to include that in his territory? Thunder wondered as they crossed the old boundary.
But Clear Sky halted at the edge of a stream, still far short of the four oaks, its banks edged with lush growth of ferns and brambles. “This will be our new boundary,” he announced. “Thunder, you may have the honor of setting the first scent markers.”
Thunder heard a derisive snort from Petal, as if she thought the honor should have been hers, but he forced himself not to react.
Relieved that for once his task didn’t involve fighting, Thunder began working his way along the bank of the stream, setting the markers as he went. Soon he came to a large bramble thicket that grew so close to the water’s edge, he had to circle around it and set the markers on the landward side.
Clear Sky let out a hiss of annoyance. “Can’t you get any closer to the stream?” he asked.
Yes, if I want the thorns to tear my pelt off, Thunder thought, but didn’t dare say so out loud. “Okay, I’ll—” he began, only to break off as a gray-and-white she-cat leaped out of the thicket in front of him, her lips drawn back in a snarl.
“Get out of here, dungface!” she spat.
For a heartbeat Thunder stared at her, too taken aback by her aggressive stance to react at all.
“Well?” Clear Sky growled from behind him. “What are you waiting for? Do what you have to do.”
Thunder crouched to spring, but in the same heartbeat the gray-and-white cat swiped him hard across the side of the head, throwing him off balance. His ears rang with the force of the blow as he scrabbled to regain his paws. A hot flash of humiliation passed through him.
“Leave this to me!” Petal snarled, diving past him. “I know this cat!” She flung herself on the gray-and-white she-cat, and the two of them rolled over together at the edge of the thicket, spitting and clawing at each other, paws and tails flailing. The forest echoed with their furious screeches.
Thunder managed to stand at last and gave his pelt a shake. He knew he should help Petal, but the two she-cats were locked so closely together that if he had tried to strike he would have risked injuring his denmate. He started to pad forward uncertainly, until a voice made him freeze.
“Don’t,” Clear Sky meowed. “This isn’t your fight.”
Thunder’s father was watching the skirmish from a couple of tail-lengths away. He looked calm, as if he was used to seeing cats grappling together with such ferocity.
“Petal has a history with this cat,” he explained after a moment. “Her name is Misty. When Petal and her brother were kits their mother died. They asked Misty for help, and she refused. Petal has never forgotten that.”
“I can’t blame her,” Thunder murmured. I might have been that kit, if it hadn’t been for Gray Wing.
Meanwhile Petal had managed to pin her opponent down. Misty writhed under her paws, her green eyes glaring in rage. Both cats were bleeding from scratches along their sides, and blood was trickling down Misty’s muzzle.
“This is our territory now,” Petal hissed. “Get out of here, and no cat will hurt you.”
“No chance, mange-pelt!” Misty snarled. Heaving herself up, she threw Petal off and jumped on top of her. Her teeth snapped as they met in Petal’s ear. Petal let out a shriek, lashing out with her hind paws, but she couldn’t make contact.
“Fox dung!” Clear Sky bounded forward and flung himself into the battle, thrusting Misty aside so that she had to let go of Petal. Between them they pinned Misty down again, with Petal lying across her hindquarters. Clear Sky kept one paw clamped on her shoulder while the other was raised to strike at her throat.
“Give her a chance to leave!” Thunder gasped, before the killing blow could fall.
Clear Sky flicked him a glance. “She’s had a chance. Will you leave quietly?” he asked Misty.