CHAPTER 18
Squirrelflight was on the dawn patrolwith Ashfur and Thornclaw, checking the ShadowClan border. Everything was quiet. The ShadowClan scent3 markings at the foot of the dead tree were strong and fresh.
“Not a thing.” Ashfur’s blue eyes gleamed with satisfaction. “You must have scared them off for good.”
Ashfur waved his tail to summon Rainwhisker, who had been renewing the ThunderClan scent markers farther up the border, and the patrol set off back to camp. The sun was rising as they emerged from the thorn tunnel. Golden rays slanted7 down into the stone hollow and the ground was dappled with shadows of fresh leaves. Stopping just inside the entrance, Squirrelflight arched her back in a long stretch and let the warmth soak into her pelt8.
“Squirrelflight!” Cinderpelt called to her from across the camp; the medicine cat was limping rapidly toward her. “Have you seen Leafpool this morning?”
Alarm flared9 in Squirrelflight’s belly10. “No,” she replied. “We were over by the ShadowClan border.” She almost added,and Leafpool only ever goes toward WindClan, but stopped herself in time.
Cinderpelt nodded, and Squirrelflight realized the medicine cat already knew what she had not put into words. “I saw her last night—” Cinderpelt broke off, twitching11 her ears. Squirrelflight stared at her. What was the medicine cat not telling her?
“When I woke up, her nest was cold,” Cinderpelt went on, “and her scent was stale. She hasn’t been here all night.”
Cinderpelt’s eyes narrowed and Squirrelflight flinched13. Would the medicine cat be angry that Squirrelflight had known her sister’s secret all along? “I’m sorry, Cinderpelt,” she began.
Cinderpelt stopped her with a dismissive flick14 of her tail. “It’s all right. I know she’s been visiting Crowfeather.”
“Crowfeather?” Squirrelflight felt every hair on her pelt bristle15. All she had known was that Leafpool had had some reason to sneak16 out of the camp at night. “That can’t be true! Crowfeather is in love with Feathertail.”
“Feathertail is dead. And it’s possible to love more than one cat in a lifetime. Squirrelflight, have you never noticed how they looked at each other at Gatherings17? Where did you think she was going all these nights?”
Squirrelflight stared at her, speechless with shock. Leafpool was a medicine cat! Then she remembered sensing her sister’s chaotic18 feelings of guilt19 and excitement, and she knew Cinderpelt must be right. Guilt flooded over her; she had been so distracted by her new friendship with Ashfur that she hadn’t tried hard enough to find out what was troubling her sister.
Cinderpelt’s whiskers twitched. “Perhaps.”
“Would WindClan accept her?”
“What do you think?” The medicine cat’s tone was dry. “Leafpool is a valuable cat for any Clan2. But we can’t be sure,” she added. “Last night, when Leafpool left the camp, I followed her. She saw me, and we quarreled. We both said things that should have been left unsaid. Perhaps she’s somewhere in ThunderClan territory, waiting until her temper has cooled before she comes back to camp.”
Cinderpelt spoke21 briskly, without betraying much feeling. Squirrelflight wondered if her coldness came from anger and disappointment at Leafpool’s betrayal. But as Cinderpelt turned away, Squirrelflight heard her mutter, “StarClan be with her, and bring her back safe!” The anguish22 in her voice revealed how much she had been torn apart by Leafpool’s disappearance23.
The camp was stirring around them. Daisy appeared at the entrance to the nursery, blinked lazily in the sunlight, then called her kits24 out. The three little scraps25 tumbled happily on the ground in front of her, squealing26 and batting each other with soft paws. On the other side of the clearing, Sandstorm slid out of the warriors’ den6, calling to Cloudtail and Dustpelt for a hunting patrol; the three cats loped across the clearing and out through the tunnel, waving their tails at Squirrelflight and Cinderpelt as they passed. A few moments later Whitepaw and Birchpaw emerged from the apprentices’ den, arguing about whose turn it was to fetch mouse bile for the elders’ ticks.
Squirrelflight knew it wouldn’t be long before some cat noticed Leafpool’s absence and started asking questions.
Squirrelflight ran after her. “No, don’t tell him or any other cat just yet. I’ll go out and look for Leafpool. Maybe I can bring her home before any cat notices she’s gone.”
Cinderpelt hesitated. Then her eyes seemed to focus again and she nodded. “Thank you, Squirrelflight. It’s veryimportant to find her. She’ll lose so much—her Clan, her kin1, her life as a medicine cat—if she doesn’t come back.” She looked away and added more quietly, “I don’t think she understands how much her Clan needs her.”
She headed straight for the WindClan border. In spite of what Cinderpelt had said, she didn’t believe Leafpool was sulking somewhere in ThunderClan territory. Leafpool never sulked…but maybe Squirrelflight didn’t know her sister as well as she thought.
She paused to taste the air, searching for a trace of Leafpool’s scent. “If I don’t find her on the border, I’ll have to go into WindClan territory,” she decided30 out loud.
“Go to WindClan? Why?”
Squirrelflight jumped. “Brambleclaw! You nearly frightened me out of my fur,” she gulped31, spinning around to see the tabby warrior27 stepping out from the shelter of a hazel thicket32.
“What were you saying about WindClan?” Brambleclaw persisted. “We don’t want to stir up trouble with them. Onestar’s prickly enough as it is.”
“I’m not looking for trouble!” Squirrelflight retorted. She was too shaken to lie about where she was going. “I’ve got to find Leafpool. Cinderpelt thinks she’s gone to WindClan so she can be with Crowfeather.”
Brambleclaw’s ears twitched. “But she’s a medicine cat.”
Squirrelflight glared at him. “Tell me something I don’t know.”
Brambleclaw still remained infuriatingly calm. “You’re right, we have to go after her,” he meowed. “We don’t want Onestar to think we’re driving our cats away.” As Squirrelflight let out a furious hiss33, he added, “And we want Leafpool back. She’s making a big mistake, leaving her own Clan.”
“She’s lost her mind!” Squirrelflight tore at the ground with her claws. “I’ve got to find her before Firestar finds out.”
“She hasto!”
“If she has really gone to join WindClan, it must have been a hard decision for her,” Brambleclaw pointed35 out. “It won’t be easy to change her mind.”
“But I have to try,” Squirrelflight protested. “And even if I can’t convince her, I need to know where she is.”
“Can you sense anything?” Brambleclaw asked. “You know, like when we were on our journey?”
Squirrelflight reached out with that strange sense she had always shared with her sister. She tried to picture Leafpool, and for a heartbeat she thought she picked up a trace of wind on the moorland, but then it was gone, leaving nothing but emptiness.
“I can’t see her anywhere,” she mewed wretchedly.
“You’ll come with me?” Squirrelflight stared at him in surprise.
“If you’re going to WindClan, you’ll need some cat with you,” Brambleclaw replied. “ThunderClan cats aren’t exactly Onestar’s favorite guests these days.”
Gratitude37 flooded over Squirrelflight like a warm wash of sunlight. Whatever she felt about Brambleclaw’s private ambitions, or his willingness to trust Hawkfrost, she couldn’t think of any other cat she’d rather have beside her right now.
They padded toward the border in silence; Squirrelflight was still feeling too stunned38 to speak. How could Leafpool think of giving up her life in ThunderClan? Didn’t her kin, her friends, her work as a medicine cat mean anything to her? What about StarClan? Did Leafpool have a choicenot to be a medicine cat? And what about Firestar? Squirrelflight’s pelt prickled as she wondered what she could possibly say to her father to explain where Leafpool had gone.
The sun shone down from a blue sky dotted with tiny puffs39 of cloud. Dew glittered on the grass and on strands40 of cobweb stretched precariously41 across thickets42 of bramble. New fronds43 of bracken were beginning to uncurl and everywhere Squirrelflight could smell the sharp, green scent of growing things. But even the rustle44 of prey45 in the undergrowth couldn’t distract Squirrelflight from her troubled thoughts.
Glancing sideways, she met Brambleclaw’s eyes and saw nothing but calm sympathy in his face. She realized he must understand part of what she was feeling because he too had lost a sister to another Clan.
“Did you feel like this when Tawnypelt left? As if nothing would ever be all right again?”
Brambleclaw waited until they had ducked beneath some low-hanging ferns before replying. “At first I felt so lonely I thought I wouldn’t be able to bear it,” he meowed. “But I knew I had to respect her decision. And we’re still friends, even though she is in a different Clan.”
But it’s not the same, Squirrelflight thought. And Tawnypelt wasn’t a medicine cat, chosen by StarClan to serve her Clanmates
They followed the stream upward on the ThunderClan side, tasting the air every few paces for any sign of Leafpool. When the trees gave way to bare moorland Squirrelflight picked up a faint trace, but it was stale, at least from the night before, and it stopped at the edge of the stream. “She crossed here,” she meowed to Brambleclaw.
The tabby warrior nosed the grasses that overhung the water, then nodded. “It looks like it.” He raised his head and gazed across the moorland. “Okay, WindClan it is.”
He led the way across the stream and Squirrelflight followed, splashing through brown peaty water that ran ice cold over pebbles46. On the other side they found more of Leafpool’s scent, mingled47 with a second cat’s.
“WindClan,” Brambleclaw meowed. “Crowfeather, I think.”
“He must have been waiting for her.” Squirrelflight’s last hope vanished, and for the first time she realized she might have lost her sister forever.
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1
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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scented
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| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
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5
twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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pelt
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| v.投掷，剥皮，抨击，开火 | |
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Flared
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| adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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12
blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
flinched
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
flick
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| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
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bristle
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| v.（毛发）直立，气势汹汹，发怒；n.硬毛发 | |
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sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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18
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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21
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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kits
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| 衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件 | |
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25
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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squealing
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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31
gulped
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| v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的过去式和过去分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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32
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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33
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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37
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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38
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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39
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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40
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41
precariously
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| adv.不安全地；危险地；碰机会地；不稳定地 | |
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42
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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43
fronds
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| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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44
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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45
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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46
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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47
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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