Dawn

Chapter 18

“Look!” Rainwhisker yowled, making the cats jump. At the top of the rise that marked the beginning of WindClan territory, silhouetted against the gray sky, stood WindClan. They lined the crest of the hill like stones, waiting.

“Let’s go,” Blackstar ordered.

He plunged out of the shelter of the trees and hurried up the muddy slope, followed by his Clanmates. Squirrelpaw stared sadly at the forest, sinking her claws into the familiar rain-softened earth. All the RiverClan and ThunderClan cats lingered at the edge of the trees, as though leaving was harder than they had ever imagined.

“This is no longer our home,” Firestar reminded them gently. “Home is waiting for us at the end of our journey.” He began to pad away, lowering his head against the driving rain.

Squirrelpaw joined the other cats as they poured slowly out of the forest after him. Beside her, Brackenfur arched his back against the bracken fronds, brushing his scent on their dripping tips one last time.

“We thought you’d changed your mind,” Mudclaw growled as the three Clans neared the top of the slope.

“Mudfur was dying,” Leopardstar explained. “We waited until he had gone to join StarClan.”

Tallstar sat shivering beside his warriors. His ribs stuck out like gnarled twigs. As the Clans reached the top of the rise, he stood up, wincing at the stiffness in his limbs. “I’m sorry to hear about Mudfur,” he meowed.

“At least he died beneath Silverpelt, which is more than we will,” muttered Blackstar.

His words sent a shiver of unease down Squirrelpaw’s spine. “We saw Silverpelt at the sun-drown-place,” she objected.

“StarClan will be waiting for us when we arrive.”

Mudclaw’s tail twitched. “You saw stars, but were they our warrior ancestors or someone else’s?”

Squirrelpaw blinked, thinking of the Tribe of Endless Hunting who watched over the mountains. What if Mudclaw was right, and they were leaving StarClan behind as well as their homes?

Blackstar clawed the muddy ground. “Are we going or not?”

“We’re ready,” Tallstar replied.

The moorland that stretched ahead of them was unrecognizable, all the grass swept away to reveal bare, rutted earth.

Leopardstar stared across the broken ground. “Are there many monsters?”

“Too many,” Tallstar growled.

As the cats scrambled over the first stretch of exposed ground, Squirrelpaw soon began to struggle. The mud sucked at her paws, and her legs felt stone-heavy with exhaustion.

Brambleclaw clawed his way back to join her. “Come on; you can make it.”

“It’s okay,” she snapped. “I can manage.”

He blinked. “I know you can,” he meowed, and Squirrelpaw wished she hadn’t been so harsh.

Dustpelt was behind them, carrying Birchkit in his jaws.

Cloudtail struggled to his side. His pelt was streaked with mud, only his back kept white by the relentless rain. “I’ll take the kit,” he offered. He took Birchkit from Dustpelt’s jaws, trying not to let the swaying bundle drag in the mud. Dustpelt nodded his thanks and plunged down a muddy ridge to help Ferncloud, who was fighting to stay on her paws.

Crowpaw was carrying a kit too. He looked on the verge of collapse, but his paws kept moving, his eyes fixed on the ground in front of him.

Squirrelpaw heard the rumble of Twoleg monsters ahead, and their stench reached her even through the rain. She lifted her face, raindrops stinging her eyes, and saw Twolegs cluttering the horizon. “How will we get past?” she gasped.

“Can we go around?” Firestar yowled to Mudclaw.

“They’re everywhere on the moor,” Onewhisker called back. “This is the quietest place to cross, I promise.”

A monster with huge round paws and gleaming teeth roared across the landscape, while another churned up earth in its wake. Just beyond them, a small rocky outcrop rose from the mud.

“If we can make it that far, we’ll be safe for a while,” Mudclaw advised. “The Twoleg monsters can’t climb those.”

But they can crush them if they want, Squirrelpaw thought, remembering the Great Rock.

“You’re right; it could be our only chance. Let’s wait for these two monsters to pass and make a run for it.” Firestar glanced at the other leaders who each nodded their approval.

Squirrelpaw pressed her belly deeper into the mud, feeling the cold earth seep through her fur and drench her skin.

Cinderpelt crouched beside Tallstar, pushing a pawful of herbs toward him. The last of the traveling herbs, to give him strength, Squirrelpaw guessed.

As soon as the monsters rumbled past, Firestar gave the command to run.

The ThunderClan cats rushed forward. Squirrelpaw staggered blindly through the mud, keeping her eyes fixed on Brambleclaw’s tabby pelt. As long as he was in sight, she felt she would be safe. By the time she reached the rocks, she was panting with fear and exhaustion. Brambleclaw reached down and hauled her onto the ledge, where the others had already gathered. Firestar weaved among them, his orange fur turned brown by the mud. His eyes were fixed on the cats still struggling toward the outcrop.

Crowpaw reached the rock and held up the kit for Onewhisker to take before scrambling after it. Squirrelpaw heard a Twoleg shouting and turned to see it running unsteadily across the mud, waving its arms. It had seen the cats still heading for the rocks. Tawnypelt was among them, trying to drag a RiverClan apprentice out of the mud.

“Blackstar and Leopardstar must have hesitated before giving the order to run!” Squirrelpaw hissed.

The monsters were turning now, steering their paws toward the straggling cats.

“They’ll never make it to the rocks in time!” Brambleclaw gasped.

“We must go back and help them!” Firestar yowled.

Desperation drove every scrap of tiredness from Squirrelpaw’s body, and she leaped back down into the mud.

Firestar flashed ahead of her. She felt Brambleclaw’s pelt brush hers and then she spotted Crowpaw, pelting toward the RiverClan cats.

The monster’s roar made Squirrelpaw’s ears ring. She hurled herself among the RiverClan cats, reaching for an apprentice who was desperately trying to free himself from the mud. She plunged her teeth into his scruff to haul him out, and he raced away toward the rock.

“Thanks!”

Squirrelpaw looked up to see Stormfur watching her. He blinked gratefully and turned to yank another apprentice to its paws.

“My kit!” Dawnflower’s screech made Squirrelpaw spin around. One kit lay at the RiverClan queen’s paws. Another was racing panic-stricken straight toward a monster, too scared to see where he was going.

“I’ll get him!” Crowpaw lunged forward and grasped the kit in his jaws. Mud sprayed from his paws as he skidded back toward the outcrop.

Squirrelpaw scooped up the other kit and gave Dawnflower a fierce nudge. “Quick!” she hissed.

She reached the rock and bounded up, finding a shadowy crevice out of sight of the Twolegs. She fled along the gully with the kit swinging in her jaws until she emerged on the other side. Dawnflower shot out behind her, followed by Firestar and a stream of RiverClan cats, and finally Crowpaw emerged with the other kit. Dawnflower raced over and gratefully took the kit from him.

Squirrelpaw placed the other kit at her paws and looked around for her sister. “Leafpaw!” she called.

She was crouching beside Tallstar. The WindClan leader’s flanks heaved and his eyes looked wild with fear. “Hunted in my own territory!” he wheezed.

Leafpaw looked up when she heard Squirrelpaw’s call.

“Can you look at these kits?” Squirrelpaw asked. Leafpaw glanced uncertainly at Tallstar, but Cinderpelt appeared beside her.

“I’ll look after him,” she murmured.

Leafpaw hurried over and sniffed each kit. She pressed her ear against the chest of one and then the other. “They’re just scared and tired,” she concluded. “They’ll be fine.”

“Of course I’m fine,” squeaked one of the kits, a dark gray female. “That monster was never going to catch us.”

“Hush, Willowkit,” soothed Dawnflower. As she bent to wash the mud from her kits’ faces, the ShadowClan cats emerged from the gully.

“Is every cat with you?” Firestar called to Blackstar.

Blackstar nodded, too breathless to speak.

The Clans rested on the rocks for a moment, but another swath of churned-up moorland still lay between them and the grassy slope that led down to the meadows, and the Twolegs would be looking out for them by now. It wasn’t safe to linger too long near the monsters.

“We should stay closer together,” Firestar suggested. “Travel like a single Clan.”

“And who will give the orders?” Leopardstar demanded.

“You?”

Firestar shook his head. “That’s not important. I only meant it would be less dangerous if we were to stick together.”

“You have no idea where we’re going,” Blackstar argued.

“We have to trust the cats who’ve made this journey already, and each Clan has one of those. We can travel separately.”

“But you fell behind just now,” Firestar pointed out.

“RiverClan, too. We must stick closer together, at least while we’re near the Twolegs.”

Blackstar narrowed his eyes. “Closer together, yes,” he conceded. “But each Clan should follow its own leader’s orders.”

Squirrelpaw’s paws pricked with frustration. Fighting a bone-weariness that made her head spin, she gazed across the stretch of land between the rocky outcrop and the edge of the moor. There were yet more monsters in the distance, lumbering up and down like terrifying border patrols.

Brambleclaw padded up to her. “I’ve spoken to the others.”

His voice was low, and Squirrelpaw understood that by “others,” he meant Tawnypelt, Crowpaw, and Stormfur.

“We’ve agreed to keep to the outside,” he explained. “That way we can look out for trouble and help any cat who falls behind. Crowpaw and I will stay at the back. Stormfur will lead. You take one side, and Tawnypelt will take the other.”

Squirrelpaw nodded. “We’ve brought them this far—we have a responsibility to protect them,” he added, his eyes darkening with worry.

Squirrelpaw twined her tail with his. “We’ve done the right thing,” she whispered. “I’m still sure of that.”

“Are we ready?” Firestar yowled.

Slowly the cats gathered on the brink of the rocks, huddling close to their Clanmates. Only Brambleclaw, Crowpaw, Squirrelpaw, Stormfur, and Tawnypelt slipped away from their Clans to take up positions at the edge of the group.

Blackstar gave the order to move first, but Leopardstar, Firestar, and Mudclaw quickly followed, and the cats began to leap down from the reassuringly hard surface of the outcrop and back into the slippery mud.

They crept toward the monsters that guarded the edge of WindClan’s territory, keeping low and quiet. Squirrelpaw skirted one edge of the group, keeping her ears pricked for any unexpected Twoleg activity, as well as looking out for any cats falling behind.

Leafpaw fell in beside her. “Is everything okay?”

“I think so,” Squirrelpaw murmured.

“I meant are you okay?” Leafpaw persisted. “You don’t have to protect all of us, you know. We made our own decisions to come on this journey.”

Squirrelpaw blinked gratefully at her. “I know.”

As the Clans neared the monsters they slowed down, crouching so low that Squirrelpaw felt she had almost turned into a lump of mud. At least with the cats this filthy, they blended into the earth around them. The monsters were far away to one side and showed no sign of straying back here yet.

“There’s mud in my eye!” Birchkit squealed.

“Hush!” snapped Ferncloud, and Birchkit fell silent.

Squirrelpaw’s heart pounded. Only a few more fox-lengths and they would reach the crest of the slope that would take them away from this mud and the monsters. Suddenly she heard a sound that turned her blood to ice. A dog howled from somewhere near the monsters, and when she lifted her head to look, she saw it pelting toward them, its ears flapping and its giant paws leaping over the mud.

“Dog!” yowled Leopardstar.

“Run!” Blackstar commanded.

Squirrelpaw stared around in panic. There was no way the kits and elders could outrun a dog! As the other cats pelted forward, Firestar and the other leaders raced among their Clans yowling orders.

“Pick up the kits!” Firestar commanded.

“Help the elders!” hissed Leopardstar.

Squirrelpaw looked for Birchkit, but Rainwhisker had already scooped him up and was racing for the top of the slope. Ferncloud hurtled after him, but Squirrelpaw could hear the terrifying howls of the dog getting closer. The huge creature bounded easily over the rutted ground, bearing down on the cats even faster than the monsters had done.

Already the elders were falling behind, even though the other cats urged them forward with desperate yowls and nudges.

Squirrelpaw glanced back to find out where Brambleclaw was, and with a jolt of horror she watched him spin around and head straight toward the dog. Crowpaw and Tawnypelt raced beside him, hardly recognizable under the slick of mud that clung to their pelts. What were they doing?

Stunned, Squirrelpaw watched them charge toward the vicious snarling dog, and only when they got near did she understand what they were doing. Spreading out on Brambleclaw’s hissed command, they surrounded the great black hound; at once the creature slowed down, swinging its massive head from side to side as it figured out which cat to chase. Then it fixed its eyes on Crowpaw and headed straight for the scrawny black warrior. Instantly Crowpaw swerved toward Tawnypelt, his paws sliding in the mud. Tawnypelt shot past him in the other direction, yowling abuse at the dog as she dodged its snapping jaws. The dog hesitated, snarling, then set off after the ShadowClan warrior.

Squirrelpaw’s heart pounded with terror as she saw it gaining on her, but Brambleclaw was already racing up behind the dog. He raked its hind legs and swerved nimbly away as the dog spun around and gave chase.

The Twolegs had heard the commotion and one ran toward the dog, howling as Brambleclaw fled a fox-length ahead of the creature’s glistening fangs. Crowpaw had turned and was running for the dog again, hurtling past its nose and bringing it to a bewildered halt. The dog gazed around, its eyes gleaming with fury. Crowpaw spun on his hind legs and raced back again. The dog lashed out, its jaws snapping close to Crowpaw’s flank. The Twoleg howled again and leaned forward, reaching out with its paw.

Squirrelpaw’s breath stopped in her throat. Don’t let the Twoleg catch you! she silently begged Crowpaw. They couldn’t lose another cat this way! Then the Twoleg’s paw closed around the dog’s collar and dragged it away. Squirrelpaw felt dizzy with relief.

Crowpaw tore away from the Twoleg with Tawnypelt and Brambleclaw on his tail. “Run!” he screeched as he streaked toward Squirrelpaw. She spun around and raced after her Clanmates. Most of them had reached the top of the rise and were pelting down the other side. Squirrelpaw checked to see if any cat needed help, but the last elders, two ShadowClan cats weak with fear, were being half dragged, half pushed to safety by Russetfur and Stormfur. Squirrelpaw followed them as they stumbled over the crest of the hill and fled down the slope.

Not until she was halfway down did she realize that she had crossed the WindClan border and left Clan territory for the very last time. The scent markers had been washed away by the mud and the rain and the stench of the monsters.

Squirrelpaw forced herself not to look back. They had left their homes. The journey had truly begun.