Sign Of The Moon

Chapter 12

Lionblaze jumped onto a fallen tree trunk and arched his back in a long stretch, enjoying the feeling of sunlight on his golden fur. Buds were appearing on the trees, and in the clumps of dead brown bracken, vivid green fronds were beginning to unfurl. The branches seemed full of birdsong, and he could hear the scuffling of small creatures in the undergrowth.

Newleaf is almost here, he thought.

Behind him, his patrol emerged into the open: Cinderheart, ears and whiskers alert for the signs of prey; Toadstep, making more noise than a whole pack of badgers; and Rosepetal bringing up the rear.

“Right.” Lionblaze sprang down from the tree into the clearing on the other side. “This is a good place. Firestar asked Cinderheart and me to help you brush up your hunting techniques,” he added to the two younger cats.

“Oh, great!” Toadstep gazed at Lionblaze with shining eyes. “Will you teach us some fighting moves, too?”

“Please?” Rosepetal added eagerly.

“Another time, maybe.” Cinderheart gave her tail a flick. “Today we’re concentrating on hunting. Let’s see how much prey we can bring back for the Clan.”

Toadstep looked disappointed. “You’re the best at fighting,” he told Lionblaze. “ThunderClan’s so lucky to have you. I don’t think you’ll ever get hurt!” Brightening, he added, “I’m going to be like that one day. I’ll defend my Clan, and none of my enemies will be able to touch me!”

Lionblaze suppressed a sigh. If he tries to fight the way I do, he’ll get seriously injured. “Toadstep,” he began awkwardly, “you need to fight like yourself, not like me or any other cat.”

“But you’re so good, why wouldn’t I want to fight like you?”

Lionblaze’s pelt prickled with embarrassment. He cast a glance at Cinderheart, who was watching him with a sympathetic look in her blue eyes.

“Every cat is vulnerable,” he persisted. “Every cat has weaknesses. Part of being a good fighter is being aware of that and—”

“Watch this!”

Lionblaze broke off as Toadstep hurled himself at the fallen tree, battering it with his paws, scoring his claws down the bark and grabbing a protruding branch between his teeth.

“Stop!” Lionblaze yowled, bounding over to the younger cat and hauling him away by the scruff. “Throwing yourself into battle like that is the quickest way to get yourself killed.”

He stood over the younger warrior, who gazed up at him in shock. Lionblaze felt his anger spilling over, fueled by his resentment of the prophecy that had taken his life and twisted it without giving him any choice. I’d give up my fighting skills if I could just be an ordinary Clan cat…if I could have Cinderheart.

“Hey, Lionblaze, take it easy.” Cinderheart padded over and rested her tail-tip on Toadstep’s shoulder. “Toadstep is enthusiastic, that’s all.” Glancing at the young cat with a glimmer of amusement in her eyes, she added, “But you won’t get anywhere by trying to kill a tree.”

“Sorry, Lionblaze,” Toadstep stammered. “I only wanted to show you…”

“I know.” Lionblaze twitched his whiskers. “Just remember that every cat has limits, and you need to know what yours are.”

Toadstep nodded, withdrawing a pace or two into the clearing, his gaze still on Lionblaze as if he felt that the golden tabby was likely to spring at him without warning.

“Mouse-brained young idiot,” Lionblaze murmured to Cinderheart, his voice a soft, frustrated growl. “How do you think I would feel if he got his pelt ripped off trying to be like me?”

Cinderheart nodded understandingly. “You’ll sort him out,” she mewed.

Warmed by her response, Lionblaze turned back to the two younger warriors. “Right, let’s see if we’ve frightened off all the prey in the forest,” he began. “Can you scent anything?”

Toadstep raised his head at once, jaws parted to taste the air, while Rosepetal sniffed around the tangled roots of the fallen tree.

“Squirrel!” Toadstep exclaimed.

“Okay, but don’t tell the whole forest,” Lionblaze murmured. “The idea is that the prey doesn’t know we’re here.”

Toadstep ducked his head, forepaws scrabbling among the dead leaves. “Sorry. I forgot.”

“So where’s this squirrel?” Cinderheart asked.

Toadstep pointed with his tail toward a bramble thicket. The squirrel was almost completely hidden by a tangle of tendrils, only the tip of its tail visible. Toadstep had tracked it by its scent alone.

“Well done.” Lionblaze gave him an approving nod. “Now let’s see your hunter’s crouch. Both of you.”

Toadstep crouched down, and after a heartbeat’s pause Rosepetal padded to his side and joined him. Lionblaze and Cinderheart eyed their stance critically.

“Not bad,” Lionblaze told Toadstep, flicking his hindquarters with his tail. “Pull your hind legs in a bit farther. You’ll get more power in your pounce that way.”

“Rosepetal, that’s very good,” Cinderheart added. “Your weight’s nicely balanced.”

“Okay, we’ll practice hunting in pairs. Toadstep, it’s your squirrel,” Lionblaze went on, checking that the animal was still there. “You’ll creep up on it. Rosepetal, move over toward that tree”—he angled his ears toward an ivy-covered oak—“so if the squirrel tries to flee that way, you’ll be in the right place to catch it.”

Rosepetal nodded and began padding toward the oak, while Toadstep slid through the grass. He was almost within striking distance of the squirrel when one of his hind paws brushed against a bracken frond. The squirrel sat up, alert, at the faint rustling sound, then broke away from the thicket and fled across the clearing, straight toward Rosepetal’s oak.

Rosepetal reached out, but the squirrel shot past her a mouse-length from her paws and hurled itself up the tree. Rosepetal jumped and spun around, but by then only the shaking tendrils of ivy showed where the prey had gone.

“Fox dung!” Toadstep exclaimed, bounding over in a fury. “Rosepetal, you should have caught that!”

“Rosepetal, you have to focus,” Cinderheart admonished.

“Yes, anything could happen at any time.” Lionblaze looked sternly at the young warrior. “We have to be ready.”

“What could happen here?” Rosepetal flicked her ears dismissively as she looked around at the peaceful forest, the trees covered by the green mist of approaching newleaf. “Even the bees are sleepy!”

Her last few words were drowned by the screech of a cat from somewhere close by. “Help! Dog!”

Lionblaze froze. “That’s Bumblestripe!”

“Go!” Cinderheart urged him. When he cast a worried glance at the two younger cats she added, “I’ll keep them safe. Just go!”

Lionblaze leaped over the fallen tree and plunged through the undergrowth, back in the direction of the camp. His heart began to pound as he heard the deep-throated barking of a dog, a defiant cat-shriek cutting across it. Bursting out of a clump of bracken, Lionblaze halted at the edge of a clearing where Bumblestripe, his back arched and his pale fur bristling, stood nose-to-nose with a huge black dog.

“Stay back!” Bumblestripe yowled, stretching out one paw with claws extended. “Stay back or I’ll shred your ears!”

The dog’s mouth gaped, its tongue lolling out between sharp white fangs. It sprang at Bumblestripe; before Lionblaze could do anything, the young tom darted forward, away from the cover of the brambles behind him, and fled across the clearing with the dog snapping at his paws. Bumblestripe clawed his way up the nearest tree and balanced on the lowest branch, looking down. The dog jumped up at him, yelping; Bumblestripe’s dangling tail was no more than a mouse-length away from the deadly paws.

Lionblaze charged forward, letting out an earsplitting yowl. The dog stopped jumping and whipped around, fixing its yellow-eyed glare on him.

“Over here, mange-pelt!” Lionblaze jumped as a voice rang out beside him and he turned his head to see Toadstep scrambling to his side. “Come and get us!”

“You were supposed to stay with Cinderheart!” Lionblaze snapped.

Toadstep’s eyes were blazing. “I want to help you!”

“Get back!” Lionblaze shouldered the black-and-white tom back into the bracken. “Bumblestripe, you’ll be okay,” he called to his other Clanmate. “Try to climb a bit higher.”

He didn’t look to see if Bumblestripe obeyed. All his attention was on the dog. For a moment it had paused, looking baffled, its head swinging from Lionblaze to Bumblestripe and back again. Now it hurtled across the clearing, its jaws wide; Lionblaze could hear its panting breath.

“Stay there!” he hissed at Toadstep, who had lost his balance after Lionblaze shoved him, and was struggling to his paws in the middle of the bracken clump. Leaping out in front of the dog, Lionblaze swerved toward the other side of the clearing, hoping that he could draw it away from his Clanmates.

“No!” Bumblestripe screeched, bouncing on his low branch. “Don’t go that way—Briarlight is there!”

“What?” How could a crippled cat be out in the forest? He couldn’t see Briarlight, but the dog’s breath was hot on his tail, and there was no time to ask questions. Lionblaze knew that he could attack the dog and not be hurt, but that would give away too much with Toadstep and Bumblestripe watching. Especially Toadstep: He has to learn to be more defensive, not just blindly copy me.

As he doubled back, he spotted Cinderheart and Rosepetal at the edge of the clearing, with wide eyes and identical expressions of horror.

“Briarlight is over there!” Lionblaze yowled, gesturing with his tail.

Cinderheart gasped, then began to work her way around the edge of the clearing. The dog immediately veered away and raced after her with a flurry of excited yelps. Lionblaze hurled himself forward to intercept it, keeping his claws sheathed but brushing past its muzzle so that it picked up his scent and swerved away from the she-cats once again. Plunging into the trees, he led it away from the clearing, racing through the ferns in the direction of the lake, with the dog so close that he could hear the rasp of its breath and the pounding of its paws on the ground. He could have saved himself by climbing a tree, but he was afraid that if he did, the dog would turn back into the clearing where Briarlight was lying defenseless.

He could see the glitter of the lake through the trees ahead. And what then? he asked himself. Do I start swimming? His heart thumped and his breath became short; a sharp pain pierced his paw as he trod on a thorn, but he still raced on.

A bramble thicket appeared in front of him; Lionblaze leaped over the outlying tendrils. But he had misjudged the leap; one tendril wrapped around his paw and brought him crashing to the ground. With a startled yowl Lionblaze rolled over and over, halting only when he thumped into a tree. He tried to struggle to his paws, but the tendril was still gripping him tightly. The dog pounded into view, its eyes gleaming when it saw he was trapped.

StarClan help me! Lionblaze prayed.

A screech from overhead made him look up. To his astonishment he spotted Toadstep balancing on the branch of a beech tree. He must have followed us through the forest, like a squirrel!

The black-and-white tom leaped down in front of the dog, his tail lashing. “Come and get me, flea-pelt!” he challenged.

The dog turned on its haunches, its paws spraying turf and soil as it bore down on Toadstep. Horror at the thought of seeing his Clanmate torn apart gave Lionblaze extra strength. He wrenched himself away from the brambles, leaving tufts of golden fur on the thorns. Racing toward the dog, he caught its tail in his jaws and bit down hard, before turning and fleeing toward the lake.

The dog let out a howl of pain and pounded after him. Lionblaze glanced over his shoulder and saw it was no more than a tail-length behind, with Toadstep bounding along in the rear.

“Stay back!” Lionblaze yowled, but the young tom ignored his order.

With the dog snapping at his paws, Lionblaze exploded out of the bushes and onto the lakeshore. He thought of flinging himself into the water, but he knew that dogs could swim.

I’ll never get away from it!

Then he spotted a male Twoleg a few fox-lengths farther along the shore. He was calling into the trees, and waving a long tendril gripped in one of his forepaws. When he saw the dog, he let out an angry yowl. The dog skidded to a halt, then turned and trotted off in the direction of the Twoleg with its ears down. The Twoleg fastened the tendril to its collar and dragged it away.

Lionblaze watched it go, then circled back and joined Toadstep in the undergrowth at the edge of the shore. “Thanks,” he panted, flopping down in a clump of ferns. “It would have got me for sure if you hadn’t been there.”

Toadstep sank down beside him. “I couldn’t leave you to face it alone.”

“Exactly.” Lionblaze realized that he had a chance to drive home the point he had been trying to make earlier. “It’s a good lesson in not trying to tackle enemies by yourself. It’s always better to fight in pairs.”

The younger warrior nodded, his eyes wide with wonder. “Yeah, but you fell in that patch of brambles, and you still don’t have a scratch on you!”

“It’s a good thing I have a thick pelt,” Lionblaze mewed, glad of the excuse. Glancing at his flanks, he added, “And I think I left most of it on the thorns!”

When Lionblaze and Toadstep returned to the clearing, they found Cinderheart, Bumblestripe, and Rosepetal clustered around Briarlight. The she-cat was lying crookedly beneath a holly bush; Lionblaze guessed that Bumblestripe had shoved her under there when the dog first appeared.

“Has it gone?” Cinderheart asked, swinging around as Lionblaze and Toadstep approached.

Lionblaze nodded. “A Twoleg took it away.” Peering under the bush, he called, “Are you okay, Briarlight?”

“I would be, if you’d just get me out of here,” Briarlight retorted, sounding fed up and embarrassed.

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Cinderheart meowed. “We’ll get you out now that Lionblaze is here to help.”

“Oh, just drag me out like an old stick!” Briarlight snapped. “It’s not like you can hurt me any more, can you?”

“Take it easy.” Cinderheart reached under the bush to rest a comforting paw on the young she-cat’s shoulder.

Briarlight shrugged her off. “I’m going to get into so much trouble!” she wailed. “But I can’t stand to be stuck in that den any longer.”

“It’s my fault,” Bumblestripe admitted. “I’m the one who brought you out here.”

Lionblaze looked at the young warrior, impressed by his dedication to his littermate. It must have been a struggle to drag her all the way from the camp.

“I won’t let any cat blame you, Bumblestripe,” Briarlight insisted, her voice strained and high-pitched. “I talked you into it!”

This isn’t getting us anywhere, Lionblaze thought. Feeling uncomfortable in the face of so much emotion, he added, “We need to get both of you back to camp.”

Working together, Lionblaze and Cinderheart gently drew Briarlight out of the holly bush. Lionblaze crouched down so that the other cats could drape her over his back. He rose to his paws, unsteady under her weight, and set out for the hollow, with Bumblestripe and Toadstep steadying her on either side.

“There’s some thyme.” Cinderheart pointed with her tail to where a few green leaves were growing in the shelter of a rock. “It’ll calm you down, Briarlight, and help if you have any muscle pain after this.” She bounded across to the herb and brought back some leaves.

“Thanks, Cinderheart,” Briarlight mumbled as she chewed them up. “You know a lot about herbs.”

When the entrance to the camp was in sight, Cinderheart halted. “Lionblaze, let’s stop for a moment.” She angled her ears to where a trickle of water sprang up among some rocks, falling to make a tiny pool. “We’ll all feel better if we have a drink.”

Lionblaze padded over to the water’s edge and slid Briarlight off his back so that she could drink. “Toadstep, Rosepetal,” he meowed when every cat had lapped up a few mouthfuls, “you go back to the camp first. It’ll create more of a fuss if we all arrive together.”

“And there’s no need to mention the dog,” Cinderheart added. “I don’t think it will come back, so there’s no point in scaring every cat.”

“Toadstep,” Lionblaze mewed as the young cats began to move off, “you were very brave today.”

“Thanks, Lionblaze.” The young warrior glowed.

“You learned a good lesson about fighting as a team,” Lionblaze went on. “Remember that no warrior needs to be a hero. The most heroic actions take more than one cat.”

Toadstep nodded earnestly before bounding after Rosepetal and slipping through the thorns.

“Thank StarClan,” Lionblaze muttered to Cinderheart. It was a relief to talk to a cat who understood his fears about others trying to copy his actions. “I think he’s got the point.”

Cinderheart murmured agreement and turned to Briarlight, who was lapping at the little pool again. “What were you doing so far from the camp?” she asked gently.

“I wanted to look for herbs, to help Leafpool and Brightheart while Jayfeather is away.” Briarlight’s fighting spirit flashed in her eyes, and her voice rose to a wail. “I just want to be useful!”

Lionblaze felt a stab of pity in his heart.

“I know I’m not going to get better,” Briarlight went on more quietly, her claws digging into the moss at the edge of the pool. “But I—”

“You don’t know that,” Cinderheart interrupted. “It’s early days yet.”

Briarlight shook her head. “I know. And I have to find a way to live like this, as half a cat.”

“You’re not half a cat!” Bumblestripe protested, drawing his tail-tip down his littermate’s flank. “You’re just…different.”

“Yeah, but not in a good way.” Briarlight’s tone was matter-of-fact. “And I can’t see why the Clan should care for me when I don’t contribute anything. I’m not an elder; I haven’t had a lifetime of hunting and fighting that needs to be rewarded. I’d only just become a warrior!”

“We’ll find a way for you to be useful, I promise,” Cinderheart meowed solemnly. “You are different,” she added with a glance at Lionblaze. “Because you’re more determined and braver than any other cat I know.”

Briarlight’s eyes widened with excitement.

“I can’t promise things will change overnight,” Cinderheart warned, “but I’ll speak to Firestar, and to Jayfeather when he gets back, and they’ll figure out everything that you can do.”

“But no more leaving the camp without any cat knowing,” Lionblaze added.

The young she-cat nodded. “I promise.”

“For now,” Cinderheart mewed, “we’ll just say that you went out a little way. And we won’t mention any scary meetings with dogs! If Millie hears about that, she’ll never let you out of your nest again.”

“Okay,” Briarlight agreed.

“I’ll remind Rosepetal and Toadstep not to say too much,” Lionblaze put in.

“I’m really sorry for taking her out in the first place,” Bumblestripe meowed, giving his sister an affectionate lick on her ear.

“No, you did a good thing,” Lionblaze told him. “You listened to what your sister wanted, when the rest of the Clan tried to decide for her.”

Bumblestripe crouched down beside his littermate and she wrapped her forepaws around his neck. “We’ll get you home now,” he murmured, beginning to drag her in the direction of the hollow.

Lionblaze’s heart ached for the injured she-cat as he watched their slow progress. “That was exactly the right thing to say,” he meowed to Cinderheart. “You’ve given her hope.”

“So did you,” Cinderheart responded. “And I’m glad I didn’t have to see you fight that dog!”

“Thank StarClan it didn’t come to that!” For a heartbeat Lionblaze imagined he could hear the dog barking again, and feel its breath hot on his pelt. “I don’t fight for the fun of it, you know.”

“I’m so glad you don’t,” Cinderheart murmured.

“Well,” Lionblaze meowed awkwardly, “I’d better see if Brambleclaw wants me on patrol.”

“Me too,” Cinderheart agreed.

The gray she-cat stayed near him as they pushed their way through the thorns. Lionblaze stumbled, anxious that their pelts shouldn’t brush against each other. Cinderheart seemed to be squeezing herself into the thorns, as if she was embarrassed, too. Inside the camp, Lionblaze spotted Bumblestripe setting Briarlight down gently just outside the medicine cat’s den, while Millie burst from the warriors’ den and bounded across to her.

“Where have you been?” she demanded, crouching beside Briarlight and covering her with anxious licks.

“I just wanted to go out for a bit,” Briarlight replied. “Honestly, I’m fine.”

Lionblaze exchanged a glance with Cinderheart.

“She’ll be okay,” the gray she-cat mewed.

“Are you sure?”

“I’ll make sure.” Cinderheart’s voice was determined. “She’s my Clanmate. Oh, and Lionblaze,” she added as he headed for the warriors’ den in search of Brambleclaw. “You got something wrong, what you said to Toadstep. To many cats, you are a hero.”