Sign Of The Moon

Chapter 15

“That’s enough.” Stone Song stepped between Jayfeather and Broken Shadows. His voice was firm but his eyes were sympathetic as he gazed at the grieving she-cat. “You were one of the cats who chose to come, Broken Shadows. And we all abide by the casting of the stones.” Laying his tail over her shoulder, he drew her away to the edge of the cave. “Let’s find you some fresh-kill,” he meowed. “And then you should rest. We’ll all feel better after a good sleep.”

Rising Moon followed them and stayed with Broken Shadows, while Stone Song returned to Jayfeather. “Are you okay?” he asked, sounding friendlier. “You must have had a hard time, following us on your own. Whatever made you stay behind by yourself?”

“I got scared.” Jayfeather offered the same lie that he had given to Half Moon.

“You?” Stone Song sounded incredulous. “But you were the one who wanted to leave! You convinced me that there was a place for us among these stone hills.”

“I know.” Jayfeather scraped his forepaws across the hard rock of the cave floor, hoping that his confusion would be put down to guilt and embarrassment. “That’s what scared me. I’d sort of taken responsibility, and I couldn’t face it. I’m sorry.”

“But you’re here now,” Half Moon murmured. “You didn’t want to leave us after all.” There was hope in her voice.

“That’s right. And even though I was scared, I never doubted what we were doing. This is the place where we’re supposed to be.” Suddenly a wave of exhaustion swept over Jayfeather. The light in the cave was gray; it could have been dawn or twilight for all he knew. He had no idea how he had come to be here among the ancient cats, or what he was supposed to do now.

While he stood trying to collect his chaotic thoughts, Chasing Clouds came plodding up, his fur still damp and clumped from the storm outside. “We need more fresh-kill,” he announced. “That means going outside to hunt.”

Jayfeather thought that the gray-and-white tom looked tired enough for a mouse to knock him over, but there was a look of determination in his blue eyes.

“And what about nests?” Whispering Breeze demanded. “Where’s all the moss? Or grass, or feathers? Are we supposed to sleep on bare rock?”

“We’ll take a look when the storm is over,” Stone Song promised. “But I don’t know what we’ll find up here to make nests.”

Whispering Breeze gave her whiskers an angry twitch, but said nothing more. Looking at her, and at all the other cats milling about in despair, Jayfeather felt a flash of panic. How will they survive here? Because they’re meant to stay, aren’t they? They’re Rock’s descendants; they have to settle here and form the Tribe of Rushing Water.

As if the thought of Rock had summoned him, Jayfeather was suddenly aware of the ancient cat’s presence at his shoulder, though he could see nothing. Soft breathing stirred the fur around his ear. “You helped them leave the lake,” Rock murmured. “This is their home now. You must make them stay.”

How? Jayfeather wanted to yowl the words aloud, but he knew better than to expect a straight answer from Rock. Besides, the presence of the ancient cat faded as soon as he had spoken. Jayfeather looked around once more. He couldn’t imagine how this pitiful collection of exhausted, dispirited cats could be transformed into the Tribe who made these mountains their home. Where do I begin?

“What about this hunting patrol?” Chasing Clouds’s voice broke in on his musing.

“I’ll come with you,” Stone Song meowed. “Half Moon?”

The white she-cat nodded. “I’m up for it.”

“I’ll come, too,” Jayfeather added, surprised at himself. You can’t hunt, mouse-brain, he reminded himself. But I can see here, he argued. And how hard can it be?

Half Moon gave him a glowing look and padded beside him as they headed out of the cave. In front of the screen of falling water, Jayfeather turned and looked back. The two elders, Cloudy Sun and Running Horse, were both stretched out, asleep or unconscious. Shy Fawn lay panting on one side, her belly swollen; Jayfeather could see that her kits weren’t far from being born. There’s no way she can travel any farther.

As Jayfeather watched, a small gray she-cat padded up and mewed something to Shy Fawn; Jayfeather recognized Dove’s Wing, who was his sister in this time. Something about her anxious sense of responsibility seemed familiar to Jayfeather, but he was distracted by Half Moon prodding him in the shoulder with one paw.

“Are you feeling up to hunting?” she mewed. “You look as if a badger fell on you.”

“I’m fine,” Jayfeather responded, and followed her along the path that led behind the falls.

Outside, the storm was still raging. Shiny gray ice held the mountains prisoner and the wind whined around the peaks, flinging ice crystals against the cats’ faces. Shards of it flew into their eyes and clung to their fur. Keeping his head down against the stinging blast, Jayfeather followed Chasing Clouds as he scrambled up a steep slope of loose pebbles opposite the waterfall. There was a terrifying moment as they crossed the ridge when Jayfeather was sure that the wind would carry him off his paws; he scrambled thankfully into the shelter of a rock, and the rest of the patrol huddled around him to catch their breath.

Jayfeather tried to remember what he could about the way the Tribe hunted. “What do they catch?” he muttered to himself. “Do they use regular hunting skills?”

“What?” Half Moon turned toward him, backing up a pace so that she could look into his eyes.

“Oh, I…I was just wondering what to do,” Jayfeather stammered.

Half Moon opened her jaws to reply, but a gust of wind caught her and sent her sliding across the icy rock. She let out a wail of alarm as she slipped over the edge and clung by her forepaws, trying vainly to dig her claws into the hard surface.

“Hold on!” Jayfeather meowed, darting forward to help her. He fastened his teeth into her shoulder and heaved, closing his eyes so that he didn’t have to see the sheer drop below Half Moon’s hindquarters. Terror on her behalf gave strength to his paws as he backed away from the edge, aware of Chasing Clouds pressing up beside him and grabbing Half Moon’s other shoulder.

Half Moon scrabbled frantically with her hind legs; with the others’ help she managed to drag herself back onto the rock, where she lay for a moment, trembling.

“Are you okay?” Chasing Clouds asked anxiously, leaning toward her so that she could use his shoulder to haul herself to her paws again. His blue eyes were sharp with fear; Jayfeather remembered that he was Half Moon’s father.

“Thanks, both of you,” Half Moon panted, blinking gratefully. “I’m fine. But let’s get off this ridge, before we’re all blown off.”

Chasing Clouds nodded and took the lead again, down into a steep valley where jagged rocks poked through the snow. Jayfeather followed, and realized that Stone Song was padding at his side.

“Maybe we’ve made a mistake,” the dark tabby tom confided, gazing at Jayfeather with worry in his blue eyes. “How can cats live somewhere when even the wind is our enemy?”

“We didn’t make a mistake!” Jayfeather insisted. “We are supposed to be here.”

But Stone Song didn’t look convinced.

Jayfeather’s belly felt hollow with anxiety as he struggled down into the valley through the snow and icy wind. Somehow I have to make them stay! I have to show them how the Tribe hunts. Inside his head he seemed to hear a derisive little voice. You’re going to teach these cats how to hunt? Are you completely mouse-brained? Jayfeather let out a growl deep in his throat. Who will do it if I don’t?

Peering through the swirling ice, he spotted a narrow gully leading away from the main valley. Steep rocky sides sheltered it from the worst of the wind, and farther down he could just make out a dark, bushy mass of thorns.

“Hey!” he called out to the patrol who had drawn a few tail-lengths ahead of him. “This looks like a good place to start.”

The other three cats slogged back to his side and followed his lead as he trudged down into the gully. Jayfeather felt a vast relief to be out of the wind, though the ground was covered with deep, powdery drifts of snow that clung to their fur as they thrust their way through.

“There might be small creatures sheltering under there,” he meowed, waving his tail toward the thorn thicket. “It’s worth a try, at least.”

“True,” Stone Song grunted. “Well spotted.”

Cautiously approaching the bushes, Jayfeather pricked his ears to listen for prey, and opened his jaws to taste the air. Though the wind still blustered among the rocks above his head, he thought he could pick up the tiny scratching sounds that meant mice or shrews might be moving around inside the thicket.

“Let’s hunt as a team,” he suggested, trying to remember what Lionblaze and Hollyleaf had told him about hunting with the Tribe on their last visit. “Two of us could go into the bushes and chase the prey out, and two of us stay here to catch it.”

“Good idea!” Half Moon mewed, flexing her claws with excitement. “I’m the smallest, so I get to go in!” Crouching down until her belly fur brushed the snow, she crept underneath the outermost branches. But as she tried to pull herself farther in, thorns snagged in the fur on her back, and however much she tugged, she couldn’t free herself.

“I’m stuck!” she wailed.

“Be quiet or you’ll scare the prey,” Stone Song told her.

“I thought that was the idea,” Half Moon muttered.

Chasing Clouds clawed at the branch with a raised forepaw. “Keep still,” he mewed, “and I’ll soon have you out of there.”

The whole bush started to shake as Chasing Clouds dug his claws harder into the branch, trying to tear it away from his daughter’s pelt. As Jayfeather watched, he glimpsed movement at the corner of his eye, and spotted a shrew darting out from the shelter of the bush.

“Yes!”

The shrew was heading straight for Jayfeather, but as he swiped at it, his paws felt slow and clumsy. He grabbed at it with claws outstretched, missing it by a whisker. The shrew veered away and dived into a gap between two rocks before Jayfeather could pounce again.

“Fox dung!” he exclaimed.

“Bad luck.” To Jayfeather’s surprise, Stone Song didn’t sound angry, or even particularly disappointed. “At least it shows that there is prey here,” he went on. “More than the puny little mouse Chasing Clouds caught this morning.”

Chasing Clouds had managed to free Half Moon from the thorns, and she backed out from under the bushes, shivering and craning her neck to see whether she had lost any fur.

“I don’t think there’s anything else under there,” Chasing Clouds meowed. “And the storm is getting worse. We’ll all freeze to death if we get lost out here.”

Stone Song nodded. “Let’s go back to the cave, and we’ll see if we can pick up some prey on the way.”

Taking the lead, he headed back to the top of the gully and then, instead of climbing to the ridge where Half Moon had nearly fallen, he made for a gap between the rocks. Jayfeather thought his paws might freeze to the ground as he followed, stumbling from rock to rock in an effort to find shelter from the wind. Suddenly the air grew darker above him and he let out a groan, wondering what more vile weather the mountains could throw at them. A heartbeat later a rank scent flooded over him and a screech sounded in his ears. The air was full of a storm of wings; horrified, Jayfeather looked up to see a huge brown bird swooping down on them, its talons extended toward Half Moon.

“Look out!” he yowled.

Chasing Clouds and Stone Song flung themselves sideways, out of the path of the bird. Half Moon leaped for the shelter of a rock, but her paws slipped on the ice and she fell with her feet flailing helplessly in the snow. With a triumphant screech the bird hurtled down and fastened its claws into Half Moon’s back. Desperately Jayfeather scrabbled toward her, his paws skidding over the icy rocks. The bird’s outstretched wings seemed to cover the whole sky as Jayfeather flung himself on Half Moon to hold her down, meeting her terrified gaze.

“I won’t let you go!” he gasped, feeling himself lifted into the air as the bird tried to take off again.

A long caterwaul ripped through the air as Chasing Clouds hurled himself at the bird, fastening claws and teeth into one of its wings, dragging it away from his daughter. The bird let go; Jayfeather and Half Moon hit the ground in a tangle of legs and tails. Looking up, the breath driven out of his body, Jayfeather saw the bird twist in the air, throwing Chasing Clouds off its wing. While the big cat lay half stunned, the bird swooped down again and gripped him by the shoulders in its cruel talons.

“No!” Half Moon shrieked.

Together Jayfeather and Stone Song sprang to Chasing Clouds’s side, and hung on to his legs as the bird tried to climb into the sky. For a moment Jayfeather thought it would carry all three of them away. Then they fell to the ground with Chasing Clouds landing heavily on top of them; scarlet blood began to flow over Chasing Clouds’s pale pelt where thorn-sharp claws had ripped his fur away.

The bird’s furious cry was lost in a louder rumble. Jayfeather looked up, dizzy from shock, and saw snow breaking away from the rocks above his head, pouring down toward them in a rolling cloud of white.

“Run!” he croaked feebly.

But the cats barely had time to struggle to their paws before the snow was upon them. Jayfeather lost his balance, tumbling over and over. The mass of snow thundered around him as it swept him down the mountain. The bird had vanished; he lost sight of the other cats. Nothing was left but a storm of white, roaring louder and louder until it blotted out everything.

What’s happening? Jayfeather yowled silently. Is this the end?