Sign Of The Moon

Chapter 16

“Come on, move your tail, Mousewhisker! We haven’t got all day!”

Ivypool’s ears flicked up at the sound of Brambleclaw’s cheerful yowl. She was crouching among the ferns at the entrance to the apprentices’ den, watching as a soft milky light strengthened in the sky above the hollow, and the warriors began to emerge for the dawn patrols.

The ThunderClan deputy shoved Mousewhisker in front of him as they slid out of their den between the beech branches; the younger cat spun around and playfully swiped at him, his paw missing Brambleclaw’s nose by a mouse-length. Ivypool sighed as she listened to the happy buzz of waking cats. The day was cool and gray and damp, but the air was full of the scent of leaves and growing things. In the last few days the sun had shone, buds on the trees had begun to unfold, and new shoots had poked through the earth. The fresh-kill pile was well stocked for the first time in moons.

But Ivypool couldn’t share her Clanmates’ excitement about the arrival of the new season. Since Dovewing left for the mountains, her sleep had been broken; she couldn’t get used to being alone in the den, and uneasiness prickled in her pelt like a whole nest of ants.

Heaving a sigh, Ivypool padded out into the clearing, where Brambleclaw was assigning the cats to patrols. Cloudtail was emerging from the warriors’ den, his jaws stretched wide in an enormous yawn, while Dustpelt slid out more quickly and arched his back in a long stretch. Whitewing and Brackenfur were stalking around each other, looking as if they were maneuvering for a mock fight. Sorreltail watched them, licking one paw and drawing it over her ears.

Ivypool’s gaze flicked around the clearing, but she couldn’t spot Blossomfall. Where is she? Did she go to the Dark Forest last night? Ivypool dug her claws into the earth floor of the clearing. With so little sleep, she hadn’t visited the Dark Forest for the last couple of nights, but she was sure that the bitter and bloody training sessions were still continuing. So far, she hadn’t had the chance to talk to Blossomfall about what she was doing there.

Perhaps today I should.

“Hey, Ivypool!” Lionblaze called. “Cinderheart and I are doing a border patrol. Do you want to come with us?”

“Great. Thanks.”

“We’re going along the ShadowClan border—” Lionblaze began, but Ivypool’s attention was distracted as she spotted Blossomfall stumbling out of the warriors’ den with Bumblestripe at her side. The young she-cat looked ruffled and exhausted, and she was trying not to limp.

I know all the signs, Ivypool thought, wincing.

Hazeltail stepped forward to intercept Blossomfall as she headed toward Brambleclaw. “Blossomfall, are you okay?” she asked, concern in her eyes.

Blossomfall halted. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“I don’t think you’re fine at all,” Hazeltail responded sharply. “Hey, Millie!” She waved her tail at Blossomfall’s mother, who was crossing the clearing toward the medicine cat’s den. “I think Blossomfall is sick.”

“What?” Millie glanced at Blossomfall. “Oh, she’s fine. I have to go check on Briarlight.”

Ivypool spotted a flash of anger in Blossomfall’s eyes as her mother spoke, but Millie was clearly unaware of it as she bounded away and disappeared behind the bramble screen.

“Blossomfall, I was going to send you to patrol the WindClan border with Bumblestripe, Sandstorm, and Thornclaw,” Brambleclaw announced, padding up to the tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat. “But you don’t look as if you could scare off a dead leaf this morning. Your patrol had better go hunting instead.”

Blossomfall nodded, but Bumblestripe’s tail drooped in disappointment. “I went hunting twice yesterday,” he told Brambleclaw. “I was looking forward to a border patrol.”

Brambleclaw gave the young tom a hard stare. “Last time I looked, it was the deputy’s job to organize patrols.”

Bumblestripe muttered something under his breath, scuffling loose earth with his forepaws. Seizing her chance, Ivypool bounded up to his side. “I’m in a border patrol with Lionblaze and Cinderheart,” she mewed. “I don’t mind swapping—if that’s okay with you, Brambleclaw.”

“Feel free,” the deputy responded dryly. “Maybe I should just go back to my nest and let you sort yourselves out?”

“Thanks, Ivypool!” Bumblestripe brightened up and ran off to join Lionblaze and Cinderheart, who were getting ready to leave. Ivypool watched as the two warriors padded side by side toward the thorn tunnel, envying the easy friendliness between them. Bumblestripe caught up to them, and all three cats vanished into the forest.

“Right.” Sandstorm swished her tail. “Let’s get moving. I thought we’d try around the Twoleg nest. I don’t think a patrol has been there for the last day or two.”

As they emerged into the forest, Sandstorm and Thornclaw took the lead, while Ivypool found herself padding along the old Thunderpath beside Blossomfall. The young tortoiseshell was breathing hard, and still trying not to limp; Ivypool spotted a torn claw on one of her forepaws.

“Was it tough in the Dark Forest last night?” she asked, feeling a little awkward to be questioning a more experienced warrior. “Were you—?”

“Hush!” Blossomfall exclaimed, angling her ears toward the two cats ahead of them. “We can’t talk here.” With an obvious effort she quickened her pace to draw ahead, and Ivypool followed, wondering if there was any way to get Blossomfall alone.

Outside the old Twoleg nest, Sandstorm picked her way through the clumps of herbs Jayfeather had planted, sniffing delicately at the new growth. “The catmint is starting to sprout,” she meowed, “but there’d be a lot more of it if ShadowClan hadn’t forced us to give them some.”

“Sorry,” Ivypool muttered. She still felt guilty that ShadowClan had kept her imprisoned until they could exchange her for herbs.

At least Dovewing isn’t seeing Tigerheart anymore. We can’t trust him, because he’s in the Dark Forest. But then, so am I, she added, feeling an icy trickle down her spine. And Blossomfall…

“Ivypool, wake up!” Ivypool jumped as Thornclaw gave her a flick around the ear with his tail. “Stop daydreaming. Did you hear what Sandstorm said to you?”

Embarrassed, Ivypool shook her head.

“She wants you to head up the slope on the other side of the Thunderpath,” the tabby warrior explained, pointing with his tail. “There should be plenty of squirrels up there, hunting for their stores of nuts underneath the oak trees.”

“And we’ll scour the Twoleg nest,” Sandstorm added, her green eyes gleaming. “There should be mice in there, or I’m a badger.”

She padded toward the entrance to the den, almost immediately disturbing a mouse that scuttled frantically for a gap in the wall. Thornclaw leaped after it, cutting it off from its refuge. It turned back, and ran straight into Sandstorm’s waiting claws.

“What did I tell you?” she mewed, her voice full of satisfaction as she scratched earth over her prey.

“What are you two waiting for?” Thornclaw flicked Blossomfall and Ivypool away with his tail. “Or is this an apprentice training session?”

“He’s so bossy!” Ivypool muttered as she headed up the steep slope. Blossomfall let out a puff of agreement, already laboring as she hauled herself through the thick undergrowth. Once they were out of sight of the Twoleg nest, Ivypool stopped. “Do you want to rest for a bit? I know what hunting at night can be like,” she added warily.

Blossomfall met her gaze. “I don’t think we’re supposed to talk about it.”

Who swore you to secrecy? Ivypool wondered. Tigerstar? Hawkfrost? She twitched her tail in frustration. If Blossomfall refused to talk about the Dark Forest, there was no chance of discouraging her from going there.

Blossomfall was already struggling on through the undergrowth, and Ivypool had to follow her, brushing past a clump of nettles and ducking under the low-growing boughs of a hazel bush. Ivypool padded up to her, brushing aside a bramble tendril so that she could stand facing her. “How did you know it was there?”

There was a glimmer of anger in Blossomfall’s eyes, and an edge in her voice as she replied. “I was invited, okay? By Hawkfrost. He said it was a chance to be a better warrior than I could be just training with my Clanmates, and he was right. I bet he told you exactly the same thing.” She turned away and headed up the slope again, glancing over her shoulder to add, “Now, can we just get on with hunting?”

Ivypool’s mind whirled as she hurried after her. Does Blossomfall really not know the purpose of the Dark Forest? To wage war against all living Clans? She wanted to tell Blossomfall the truth, to warn her to stay away from the Dark Forest for her own sake. But if she did that, she would have to admit that she was a traitor to the Dark Forest, spying on behalf of ThunderClan.

If I’m going to save the Clans, will I have to let Blossomfall continue, and maybe die there?

“Hold on!”

Ivypool was dragged out of her dark thoughts by Blossomfall’s voice up ahead. The tortoiseshell warrior had paused at a spot where the trees thinned out; bounding forward, Ivypool found herself at the edge of the clearing where Icecloud had fallen into the tunnel. She could see the pile of sticks that Dustpelt and Brackenfur had placed there, weaving them together to cover the hole.

Her pads prickled with curiosity. She had passed this place before on patrol, but this was her first chance to have a closer look at it. She exchanged a glance with Blossomfall, seeing her own excitement reflected in the other cat’s eyes.

“Shall we?” she prompted.

Blossomfall nodded, and the two she-cats padded down the slope side by side. Reaching the hole, Ivypool stretched out her neck to sniff at the covering. Blossomfall gave the woven sticks a nudge with her head, and let out a trill of surprise as the whole covering shifted to one side.

“Hey, look,” she meowed, pushing it farther. “We can see right down into the tunnel! Let’s explore!”

A weird feeling crept over Ivypool as she gazed down into the hole. She felt strangely reluctant to go near it. “What about hunting?”

“We can hunt later,” Blossomfall replied, her eyes sparkling. Fueled by excitement, she seemed to have thrown off her earlier exhaustion. “Let’s explore!”

While Ivypool remained standing beside the hole, fighting against the apprehension that had seized her, Blossom fall searched through the long grass and came back dragging a branch. “Help me lower it,” she puffed, pushing one end into the hole. “Then we can use it to climb.” She scrambled down as soon as she and Ivypool had maneuvered the branch into position, with the narrow end resting on the lip of the hole.

“Come on!” she called to Ivypool. “The tunnel goes on forever, all the way under the hill!”

Still reluctant, Ivypool edged her way into the hole, feeling the branch bounce beneath her paws. She dug in her claws, but the bark was dry and crumbly. She was no more than halfway to the bottom when it gave way and she felt her paws slipping from under her. Letting out a startled screech, Ivypool crashed down into the hole with the branch falling on top of her. Scrabbling her way through dry leaves and twigs, she gazed up at the ragged scrap of blue sky above her head. There was no way to climb out now.

“We’re stuck!” she whispered.

Shadows wreathed around her, and every hair on her pelt rose. She couldn’t explain it, but she was certain that there was something terribly wrong down here. Chilly darkness loomed from the mouth of the tunnel and somehow she knew that they weren’t alone.

Blossomfall’s eyes were gleaming in the half-light. “Now we have to keep going,” she mewed delightedly.

“But it’s dangerous!” Ivypool protested.

Blossomfall snorted. “What’s the worst that can happen? We might lose the use of our legs?”

They padded farther into the tunnel, with the light from the hole fading behind them. Blossomfall glanced back to where they could just make out the remains of the branch lying on the tunnel floor. “There’s no point in going back. We might wait for ages for some cat to pass by the hole,” she pointed out. “And when they do, we’ll get into major trouble. There must be another way out, right?”

As she followed her Clanmate into the darkness, Ivypool hoped that they weren’t making a huge mistake. But in spite of her misgivings, she couldn’t help beginning to share Blossomfall’s excitement. When Icecloud fell into the hole, she was hauled out right away. She had never been this far underground.

We’re the first cats to set paw down here, ever!

By now the two she-cats were padding along in complete darkness, their pelts brushing the side of the tunnel. Their path twisted and turned until Ivypool lost all sense of which way they were facing. Now and again she was aware of other tunnels leading off the main one, and she shivered at the thought of plunging even deeper into the hill.

“I can feel a tiny draft of air,” Blossomfall, in the lead, reported after a while. “That should lead us to a way out.”

They plodded on; Ivypool’s pads were aching from walking on the cold, hard rock by the time she realized that she could see her Clanmate’s head and pricked ears outlined against a pale light up ahead. “We’re getting somewhere!” she mewed.

Blossomfall picked up the pace and Ivypool bounded after her, almost bumping into her when she stopped dead. Peering around her Clanmate, Ivypool saw that the tunnel ended in a huge cave, its walls soaring far above their heads. A dark river ran through it, and on the opposite side a wide ledge was cut into the rock.

“This is the strangest place I’ve ever seen,” Blossomfall whispered, venturing a little farther in.

Light was angling down through a tiny hole in the cave roof, too high above their heads for the cats to think of climbing out that way. Padding forward cautiously, Ivypool bent her head and lapped up a mouthful of water from the river.

“That’s cold!” she exclaimed, stepping back and twitching her whiskers to shake off the drops.

Glancing around while Blossomfall drank, Ivypool felt a strong sensation of being watched, as if a cat’s gaze was boring into her back from the ledge in the cave wall. She whipped around; the ledge was empty, but the feeling wouldn’t leave her. Her pelt crawled.

“We shouldn’t be here,” she mewed, her voice sounding unnaturally loud in the echoing cave.

“Why not?” Blossomfall looked up, swiping her tongue around her jaws. “There’s no cat here to tell us to go away.”

“Then who left those?” Ivypool’s voice rasped in her throat as her gaze fell on fresh paw prints dimpling the damp sand at the edge of the river, a couple of tail-lengths from where she and Blossomfall were standing. Every hair on her pelt bristled and she slid out her claws, scraping them on the rock.

“There are cats living down here!”