Hawkwing’s Journey

Chapter 21

Hawkwing stood on the edge of a shallow stream, gazing at the walls of the Twolegplace on the opposite side. All around him spindly hazel trees rustled in the wind. The ground underpaw was damp, and Hawkwing shivered as the chill struck upward through his pads.

Two sunrises had passed since SkyClan had set out, and so far their journey had been easy. Though Hawkwing still felt the bitter loss of his way of life in the gorge, excitement was tugging his paws onward to find the new home by the water where they would meet the other Clans.

But I guess we still have a long way to go, he thought. And I think our journey is about to get a whole lot harder.

“This is the Twolegplace where we fought the battle against

Dodge,” Leafstar meowed. “We must travel through it quickly, and hope we don’t meet any of the cats who live here.”

Hawkwing’s ears pricked alertly at his leader’s words. The huge battle had been fought before he was born, but he had heard the story many times while he was still in the nursery. Some of the cats from the Twolegplace had traveled upriver to the gorge, and lived with SkyClan as warriors until they revealed they had come to ask for help.

A vicious tom named Dodge was terrorizing them and their friends, and they weren’t strong enough to fight him off. Leafstar had led some of her warriors into battle in the Twolegplace, defeated Dodge, and forced him to agree to share the territory.

Almost like they were two neighboring Clans, Hawkwing thought.

“We don’t have to avoid all the cats,” Rabbitleap objected in response to Leafstar’s order. “Some of them were our friends. I was only a kit then, but I remember when they lived with us. They were friendly!”

Leafstar gave a doubtful snort. “It wasn’t as simple as that,” she replied. “I don’t want any more to do with those cats. So let’s go, before they spot us.”

A few fox-lengths downstream a fallen tree stretched across the water. Leafstar led the way to it and padded confidently across, then turned to wait for the rest of her Clan.

As Hawkwing followed he shuddered at the gurgling sound of the current just below his paws, recalling the stepping-stones where Snipkit had fallen to her death. He kept a careful eye on Curlypaw and Fidgetpaw, wondering if their memories would make it harder for them to cross safely.

This stream is too shallow to drown in, he reassured himself. If some cat did slip, they would just end up damp.

After a moment’s hesitation, both the apprentices padded over without any trouble, and Leafstar set out at the head of her Clan, farther into the Twolegplace.

A narrow alley led directly ahead, the walls on either side so high that they let in little daylight. Every hair on Hawkwing’s pelt rose in apprehension as the shadows swallowed him up.

Before he had gone many paw steps Hawkwing realized that this was nothing like the Twolegplace where the daylight warriors lived. The stone path felt slimy underpaw, and weird Twoleg rubbish lay scattered in all directions. The reek of Twolegs, monsters, and crow-food—and other things Hawkwing preferred not to think about—filled the air and almost choked him.

Hawkwing’s pelt prickled more strongly still once he became aware of cats watching him and his Clanmates as they penetrated deeper among the Twoleg dens. He could scent the cats, but he never saw them; the air crackled with hostility.

Curlypaw came to pad alongside him, so close that their pelts brushed. “I don’t like this,” she murmured. “Is it far to the other side, do you think?”

“I don’t know,” Hawkwing replied. “Just stick close to me, and you’ll be fine.”

He let out a trill of welcome as Pebbleshine bounded up to pad along on Curlypaw’s other side.

“We’re a whole Clan,” the mottled she-cat meowed reassuringly. “These Twolegplace cats had better not mess with us.”

Hawkwing hoped that she was right. We still haven’t recovered from the battle in the gorge, he thought. The last thing we want is another fight.

M ore alleyways branched off on either side, and sometimes the cats had to cross a Thunderpath. Leafstar seemed less confident as she continued, as if she wasn’t sure of the way any longer.

Hawkwing recalled that she had only visited this Twolegplace once before.

It’s so big and confusing here, I wouldn’t be surprised if Leafstar couldn’t remember.

Waspwhisker and Cherrytail, two of the cats who had accompanied Leafstar on that first expedition, walked beside her at the front of the group. At every corner or place where the path divided they would pause to discuss their route, before heading onward.

Hawkwing began to feel even more uneasy. The sun was going down, and he realized that they would be stuck in this horrible place overnight. I won’t be able to sleep a wink, that’s for sure!

Finally Leafstar led the way across a Thunderpath and down another alley which soon led out into a wide open space with a couple of monsters crouching at one side. Hawkwing examined them with narrowed eyes, and decided with a grunt of relief that they were sleeping.

“I don’t remember this place at all,” Waspwhisker mewed, gazing around in confusion.

“Nor do I,” Cherrytail agreed. “We’ve never been here before.”

Leafstar lashed her tail a couple of times in frustration. “We’ve been following the sun so far,” she pointed out after a moment’s thought. “If we keep on doing that, then we should be okay.”

“And when the sun is gone?” Waspwhisker asked sharply.

Already the sun had almost disappeared behind the rooftops of the Twolegplace, though red streaks in the sky showed where it was going down. Hawkwing could see that it wouldn’t be there to guide them for much longer.

“We’d better get a move on,” Leafstar meowed. “This way.”

But as the Clan leader headed for the entrance to another alley that led directly toward the sun, a dark shape appeared on top of the wall, outlined against the scarlet light. It leaped down into the mouth of the alley, and Hawkwing could see it was a brown tom with a short tail. He braced himself, ready if the newcomer should attack, and glanced around sharply to check for any other approaching enemies.

The tom blinked, a friendly look in his amber eyes as he faced Leafstar and the SkyClan cats. “Hi,” he meowed.

“Shorty!” Leafstar exclaimed. Hawkwing relaxed when he heard relief in his leader’s voice. “Greetings! How are you?”

“Fine,” the brown tom, Shorty, replied. “Hey, I see some familiar faces here!”

The older SkyClan warriors crowded around him, echoing Leafstar’s greeting. Hawkwing exchanged a glance with Pebbleshine. “This must be one of the cats who came to live in the gorge,” he murmured.

“Sparrowpelt! Cherrytail… and Waspwhisker!” Shorty’s voice was warm, as if he was meeting again with old friends. “And this hulking great creature is little Rabbitkit?”

“Rabbit leap now,” the warrior mewed proudly. “And this is Plumwillow.”

“But what are you all doing here?” Shorty asked, when the excitement had died down. “Leafstar, this must be almost all of your Clan.”

“This is all my Clan,” Leafstar responded, her tone bleak once more. “Rogues attacked us in the gorge and drove us out. M any cats were killed or scattered, and the rest of us have been forced to look for a new place to live.”

For a moment, Shorty was silent in shock. “That’s terrible news,” he murmured at last. “You must let us help you.”

“How can you do that?” Leafstar asked.

“Well, at least we can offer you somewhere to spend the night,” Shorty replied. “It’s getting dark, and this is no place to be wandering around, not if you don’t know where you are.”

While they had been talking the last traces of sunlight had vanished from the sky, and the alleyway ahead was plunged in gloom. Hawkwing didn’t like the idea of setting one paw step into those ominous shadows.

“I wanted to move on quickly,” Leafstar meowed. “But perhaps you’re right, Shorty.”

“But only for one night,” Echosong put in, stepping up to her Clan leader’s side. “This is not where StarClan wants us to be.”

Leafstar dipped her head. “Of course. Lead on, Shorty.”

The brown tom’s amber eyes gleamed in the gathering darkness.

“Great!” he exclaimed. “I’ll show you the best way out in the morning. And you’ll meet some more old friends,” he added, giving his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks. “I’m with Cora now.

We have kits.”

“That’s wonderful news,” Leafstar purred. “I’d love to see Cora again.”

Shorty gave a wave of his stumpy tail. “Follow me, then.”

He led the SkyClan cats across the open space and down a narrow Thunderpath at the far side.

“Do you think Leafstar is right to trust this cat?” Pebbleshine murmured to Hawkwing as they followed. “He might be leading us into a trap.”

“He sounds friendly enough,” Hawkwing responded.

“It’s easy to sound friendly. But there were cats watching us on the way in, and they didn’t feel friendly at all.”

“They could have been the other group,” Hawkwing pointed out. “Dodge’s cats.”

Pebbleshine’s tail-tip twitched uneasily. “M aybe.”

Shorty led the way along the Thunderpath until it came to an end and the cats emerged into another open space. Here the ground was covered in coarse grass with a few scrubby bushes here and there, and even one or two stunted trees. Hawkwing had stopped expecting to see anything green and growing, but the open ground was still washed with the acrid scents of Twolegs and monsters.

“Do you think this is their camp?” he whispered to Pebbleshine.

Shorty raised his voice in a loud yowl. “Stick! Coal! Look who’s here!”

Hawkwing stiffened, forcing his shoulder fur to lie flat as more cats emerged from the shelter of the bushes, fluid shadows in the twilight. As they drew closer he made out a skinny brown tom with a torn ear, and a more powerful black tom.

Leafstar nodded to the newcomers. “Stick. Coal.”

“Greetings,” the skinny tom, Stick, responded. “What brings you here, Leafstar?”

Hawkwing had just enough time to notice the chilly nature of the exchange before Shorty burst in with a reply. “This is all of SkyClan, Stick! Rogues have driven them out of the gorge.”

Stick’s whiskers twitched in surprise. “Really?”

“That’s just terrible!” A new voice broke in, a graceful white she-cat who came bounding up with a plump tabby tom just behind her. “You remember me, don’t you—Snowy? And this is Percy.”

“I remember you both.” Now there was more warmth in Leafstar’s tone. “It’s good to see you again.”

The plump tabby dipped his head. Scars around one of his eyes gave him a fearsome look, but his voice was friendly as he meowed, “Welcome.”

While they were talking, Shorty had dashed off, and now he returned with a slender black she-cat. Three kits—two tabby toms and a black-and-white she-cat—frisked around their paws.

“Cora!” Leafstar exclaimed. “How are you?”

“Fine, thank you.” Cora stretched forward to touch noses with the Clan leader. “Shorty says that you’ve been driven out of your territory. That’s terrible!”

Leafstar let out a sigh. “Yes, but StarClan is guiding us to a new home.” Hawkwing guessed that she didn’t want to talk about her Clan’s troubles with these Twolegplace cats. “So these are your kits?”

“Yes.” Cora’s eyes shone proudly. “The two tabbies are

Branch and Stone, and the she-cat is Night. Kits, come and meet

Leafstar.”

The three kits, who had been happily play-fighting, straightened up and dipped their heads to Leafstar, gazing at her with wide eyes.

“Shorty and I have told them all about you and your Clan,” Cora meowed. “But we never expected to see you here. Are you planning to stay?”

“Just for the night, with your permission,” Leafstar replied. “I know there are a lot of us, but we can help you hunt.”

“Good idea.” Stick waved his tail, beckoning more cats forward until they stood in a ragged half-circle behind him. To Hawkwing they looked younger—more like his own age and Pebbleshine’s—and he guessed they hadn’t yet been born when Leafstar and the others had visited the Twolegplace to fight against Dodge.

Stick moved among them, rapidly giving orders and splitting the cats into patrols, mixing his own cats with SkyClan. Hawkwing found himself with Pebbleshine and a couple of strangers.

“Where’s Curlypaw?” he asked, glancing around as the patrols began to move off.

“I saw her going with Fidgetpaw and Bellaleaf,” Pebbleshine replied.

“M ouse dung! I wanted her with me.” Hawkwing’s pads prickled with anxiety at the thought of his apprentice wandering off by herself in this dark and unfamiliar place. Then he reminded himself that she wasn’t alone; she had two Clanmates with her, and Twolegplace cats who knew their way around.

She’ll be fine, he told himself, though he wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Hi, I’m Foggy,” one of the strange cats mewed. He was a long-furred gray tom; jerking his head toward the other, a small tortoiseshell, he added, “This is Suzy.”

“Hi,” Pebbleshine responded.

“Are you ready?” Suzy asked briskly. “We’ll show you some good places to hunt.”

Hawkwing realized for the first time how hungry he was.

“That sounds good to me,” he replied. “Lead the way.”

“I’ve never hunted in a Twolegplace before,” Hawkwing mumbled around the rat that he was carrying by the scruff. “It’s so weird.”

Pebbleshine was dangling two mice by their tails. “We did all right, I suppose,” she meowed. “I never thought we’d find any prey. But it’s still not as good as hunting in a forest.”

Hawkwing yearned for the feeling of grass underneath his paws and the rustle of wind in the trees above his head. “At least this is only for one night,” he pointed out. “We’ll manage… Just as long as no cat expects me to eat this rat. It tastes foul.”

“I’ll take it off your paws,” Foggy put in, glancing over his shoulder from where he and Suzy were padding ahead. He had caught a mouse, and Suzy had a blackbird. “There’s good eating on one of those.”

Yuck! Hawkwing thought.

When he and his patrol returned to the stretch of empty ground where the Twolegplace cats had their camp, more of the cats were gathering around one of the twisted trees in the center. Hawkwing spotted Leafstar and Stick with Sparrowpelt, Shorty, and the black tom called Coal. He padded over to join them, depositing his prey on a nearby heap for the cats to share.

“How are things here with you?” Leafstar was asking Stick as Hawkwing came into earshot.

Stick shrugged. “Dodge kept to his side of the border at first, but we’ve had a few skirmishes lately. I’m afraid he’s up to his old tricks.”

“Things are getting really bad, just like before,” Shorty agreed.

“Cora and I are scared for our kits.”

“You need to scent-mark the border,” Leafstar told him. “And make sure that cats who cross it learn not to do it again.”

“We’re not a Clan!” Stick’s eyes flashed at her.

Hawkwing blinked in surprise at Stick’s hostile tone, then turned away as Pebbleshine offered him one of her mice. The two cats settled down close to Sparrowpelt to eat.

“Why don’t Leafstar and Stick like each other?” Hawkwing asked the senior warrior in a low voice.

Sparrowpelt swallowed a mouthful of thrush. “When we defeated Dodge, Stick wanted Leafstar to kill him. Leafstar wouldn’t do that. Stick was furious, and she was angry with him because he didn’t know how to treat a defeated enemy. She warned Dodge to stay on his own side of the border, and we left.”

“It doesn’t sound as if Dodge is doing that anymore,” Pebbleshine commented.

Sparrowpelt shrugged. “That’s Stick’s problem.”

Finishing his mouse, Hawkwing glanced around to see that most of the hunting patrols had returned. But he didn’t see Curlypaw.

“I’m getting worried,” he murmured to Pebbleshine. “Where is she?”

His mate rose to her paws and gave the assembled cats a careful scrutiny. “Well, Bellaleaf and Fidgetpaw aren’t here either,” she meowed. “M aybe they—”

She broke off as a screech split the night. Bellaleaf raced out of an alleyway on the far side of the barren ground. Her fur was bushed up, and her eyes were wild; blood was trickling from a scratch above her eye. Fidgetpaw followed her more slowly, limping on three legs.

“Leafstar! Leafstar!” Bellaleaf yowled.

The Clan leader sprang up and wove her way rapidly out of the group of cats to meet Bellaleaf. “What’s happened?” she demanded.

“Oh, Leafstar, it’s terrible!” Bellaleaf gasped. “They took

Curlypaw!”