CHAPTER 20
Leafpool paused at the top ofa ridge1, trying to ignore the ache in her paws as she turned to look back. The lake and the trees were long gone; all around her stretched fold after fold of unfamiliar2 hills. She opened her mouth, picking up the sharp scent4 of moorland grass and a hint of rabbit. The sun was going down, but there was no sign of any trees or bushes where she and Crowfeather could shelter for the night.
The WindClan warrior7 followed her up the slope and stood close beside her. Warmth crept back into Leafpool’s tired legs as she felt his pelt8 brush hers. This cat could still give her courage and hope when everything else seemed strange and frightening.
And what about everything you’ve left behind? a small voice mewed inside her.
Leafpool tried to imagine what was happening in her Clan6. Firestar would be furious that she’d abandoned them without saying a word. Cinderpelt would have to find a new apprentice9. Squirrelflight would miss her so much…. A jolt10 of pain shook Leafpool, almost enough to make her turn her paws back toward the lake. But how could she go back now, when every cat knew what she had done, and that Crowfeather was with her?
Nothing mattered as long as she had Crowfeather. Her love for him tingled11 through her from ears to tail-tip; she had to keep on believing that her decision was the right one.
“Just a bit farther.” Crowfeather nosed her ear. “We need to find somewhere to sleep before it gets dark.”
“Okay.” Leafpool forced her paws to follow him along the ridge. They had been traveling all day, even though neither of them had gotten any sleep the previous night, and she felt more exhausted12 than she had ever been in her life.
When she caught up, Leafpool saw that just ahead the ground fell away into a rocky hollow. A tiny pool lay at the bottom, shaded by a couple of wind-scorched thorn trees.
“Thank StarClan!” she exclaimed. “Shelter and water.”
Summoning up her last scrap14 of energy, she bounded down the slope, paws slipping on the loose stones, until she could crouch15 beside the pool and lap from it. The memory of her last visit to the Moonpool flooded her mind.
Never again, the inner voice told her. You’re not a medicine cat anymore
But that didn’t matter either, Leafpool reminded herself. Spottedleaf had told her to follow her heart. She must be doing the right thing.
The gray-black warrior joined her beside the pool, peering into the water. “I can’t see any fish,” he commented.
His words reminded Leafpool how hungry she was. The only fresh-kill they’d had all day was a scrawny vole they had shared beside the stream not long after setting out. It seemed like moons ago now.
“You can catch us a rabbit in the morning,” she mewed, trying to ignore how faint the scent of rabbit had been. “You’re good at hunting on moorland like this. You can teach me how too.”
“Sure. You’ll soon learn,” Crowfeather replied. “But I don’t think we need to wait till morning. There must be some sort of prey17 around here.”
He stood with his jaws18 wide, tasting the air. Leafpool stood beside him, ears standing19 straight, until she heard the sound of a tiny creature scuffling under the thorn trees. A heartbeat later she spotted16 a mouse and dropped into the hunter’s crouch. With a purr of satisfaction she pounced20.
At the same moment a second mouse shot out of some dead leaves. Crowfeather grabbed it with one paw.
“There, what did I tell you?” he mewed, padding over to Leafpool so they could eat together.
They found a patch of sand between the roots of one of the stunted21 trees, sheltered from the wind by its twisting branches, and devoured22 the mice in a few famished23 gulps24.
“You were right about the prey,” Leafpool murmured, swiping her tongue around her mouth. “I’m glad you’re here. I would be so scared without you.”
“I’ll always look after you,” Crowfeather promised, resting his nose in her fur. “Tomorrow we’re bound to find somewhere better to live. After all, the Clans25 found the lake, and we don’t need such a big territory when it’s just the two of us.”
Leafpool nodded. “These hills can’t go on forever.” Can they?
“We’ll be fine. You’ll see,” Crowfeather assured her.
“I know.” Leafpool’s voice faded as she sank exhaustedly26 into sleep.
She was standing in a dark place, her paws cold on dew-drenched grass. She was surrounded by fearful snarling27, but she couldn’t see where it came from, even though she wrenched28 her head frantically29 from side to side. Then she realized that the darkness that surrounded her was a rolling cloud of black fog. It drifted apart for an instant to show her waves lapping the lakeshore. Her dream had taken her home. But the reek30 of blood engulfed31 her, and she saw that the water in the lake was a blood-red tide sucking hungrily at the land.
Before all is peaceful, blood will spill blood, and the lake will run red
Every hair on her pelt stood on end. She had left her Clan far behind. Why couldn’t she escape StarClan’s terrible prophecy?
The snarling died away, only to break out again behind her, louder than before. Leafpool spun33 around. The black fog still billowed around her, but she could see huge lumbering34 shapes moving within it. They were too blurred35 for Leafpool to make out, although she caught glimpses of blunt claws, snapping jaws, and small, malicious36 eyes. A huge dark mass loomed37 over her, and a claw slashed38 across her face, ruffling39 her whiskers and barely missing her eye. She leapt back and felt sticky liquid washing around her paws. The stench of blood filled her nose and mouth.
“StarClan help me!” she yowled.
Her eyes flew open. She was lying in the moorland hollow with thorn branches above her head and Crowfeather at her side. She drew a long breath of relief. Then she realized that the WindClan warrior was rising to his paws, his body rigid40 with tension as he stared into the darkness.
“Who’s there?” he called sharply.
Leafpool heard shuffling41 pawsteps coming closer. Crowfeather moved protectively in front of her; peering past him, Leafpool could just make out a dark, slowly moving shape like the ones in her dream.
Am I really awake?
Then a cloud moved away from the moon. Silver light washed down into the hollow, revealing a large, thick-furred creature with a broad white stripe down its pointed muzzle42. A badger43!
Crowfeather waved his tail. “It’s all right, Leafpool,” he meowed. “It’s Midnight.”
Still trembling, Leafpool gazed up at the old she-badger. Midnight lived beside the sun-drown-place; what was she doing here on the moor5? Leafpool padded forward curiously45. She had always wanted to meet the badger who had warned her sister and Brambleclaw that the forest was being destroyed by Twolegs, and all the Clans would have to leave. Without her, they would never have discovered the new place StarClan had chosen for them.
“Greetings, Crowpaw.” Midnight’s eyes were bright with surprise. “Even I not foresee meeting you here.”
“Greetings, Midnight,” Crowfeather meowed. “We didn’t expect to see you, either. And I’m not Crowpaw anymore,” he added. “My warrior name is Crowfeather…in memory of Feathertail.”
“Yes, she watches you still,” Midnight told him.
Leafpool winced46. Crowfeather seemed to sense she was feeling awkward, and he brought her forward with a gesture of his tail. “This is Leafpool,” he meowed. “Squirrelflight’s sister.”
Leafpool dipped her head. “It’s good to meet you at last, Midnight. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Your sister speak of you,” Midnight replied. “StarClan show you much of future also?”
“Yes, I’m a medicine cat.” Leafpool blinked. Not anymore.
The old badger glanced from her to Crowfeather and back again. “You flee, yes?” she demanded.
Leafpool stiffened47. Did Midnight know she and Crowfeather were running away from their Clans? Is that why she came to find them?
Before Midnight could reply, Crowfeather took a pace forward. “We hadto leave,” he explained. “We’re from different Clans, and there’s no way we could stay together if—”
“Wait.” Midnight raised a massive paw. “You mean here alone you are? Where rest of cats?”
“In their territories, by the lake.” Crowfeather pointed with his tail.
“Then you not know?”
“Know what?” Leafpool’s claws slid out in sudden panic.
Midnight lowered her head. “Is great trouble coming. Many of my kin3 with Clans are angry,” she rasped. “Cats drive them out of their place. Now they come to attack and drive you out, take back what once theirs.”
Leafpool drew in a sharp breath. “We drove a badger out of our territory,” she remembered. “A female with kits49.”
“And Hawkfrost chased one out of RiverClan,” Crowfeather meowed.
Leafpool hardly heard him. Her head spun as she plunged50 back into her dream of blood and slashing51 claws. “You say they’re going to attack the Clans?” she whispered.
“And whose side are you on, Midnight?” Crowfeather added harshly.
Midnight’s gaze met his. “I have no side. Cats, badgers52, in peace could live. I speak against attack, but my kin not listen to me. For many days now they talk of blood and revenge.”
Crowfeather drew closer to Leafpool. She could feel his body quivering. “What do they plan to do?” he asked.
“Many badgers gather. Your sets they will attack, kill many cats, drive out others.”
Our sets…She means our camps. Leafpool’s fur stood on end. She and Crowfeather would be safe out here, but the Clans they had left behind would be destroyed, their Clanmates murdered.
“No…” she whispered. “It can’t happen!”
“So what are you doing here?” Crowfeather asked Midnight.
“I go to warn Clans, tell them what is coming,” the old she-badger replied. “Will you help?”
Leafpool opened her jaws to speak, but Crowfeather interrupted. “No. We have left our Clans for good. There’s nothing we can do.”
“Crowfeather, no!” A shiver of horror passed through Leafpool from ears to tail-tip. “We can’t leave our Clans to die.”
Crowfeather’s amber53 eyes were full of pain. Gently he touched his nose to Leafpool’s muzzle. “I know,” he mewed. “But Midnight is going to warn them. They’ll be safe if they listen to her. What more could we do?”
“We—” Leafpool broke off, not sure she knew the answer.
“We’ve come too far,” Crowfeather insisted. “If we go back now, every cat will know what we’ve done. We won’t be able to leave again. Things will be the same as they ever were—worse, because we won’t be able to meet up like we used to. Every cat will be watching us, waiting for us to slip away. All this will have been for nothing.”
Leafpool gasped with pain, as if the claws of the badgers in her dream had torn her pelt away. She knew Crowfeather was right; they would lose everything if they went back now. Yet how could they keep going, when they knew what terrible danger their Clanmates were facing?
Midnight looked from her to Crowfeather and back again. Leafpool didn’t know how much the badger understood about the duties of medicine cats, or about the warrior code that said that cats from different Clans could not be together. But there was warmth and understanding in her gaze, as if Midnight somehow sensed the struggles they had gone through before they made the decision to leave.
“StarClan go with you,” the badger murmured. “Future rests in paws of warrior ancestors. All I can I will do.”
“Thank you,” meowed Leafpool.
She watched as Midnight lumbered54 away up the slope in the direction of the territory they had left. Her paws trembled with guilt55 and sadness; her Clanmates were in trouble, and she was deliberately56 choosing not to help them.
Crowfeather nuzzled her ear. “Let’s get some more sleep,” he meowed.
Leafpool curled up beside him under the thorn trees, but sleep refused to come. Her mind was filled with images of snarling badgers bursting into the ThunderClan camp, ripping apart her Clanmates.
StarClan be with them! she prayed.
Her dream had shown her how savage57 the attack would be. She remembered the dreams that the other medicine cats had described at the Moonpool, dreams of darkness and slashing claws. And now she had received the same message from StarClan. Leafpool’s pelt tingled; the starry58 warriors59 were still speaking to her. She hadn’t lied to Midnight when she said she was still a medicine cat.
She could tell Crowfeather wasn’t asleep either. He kept shifting restlessly, and once she heard him sigh. He pressed closer to her, as if trying to comfort her, or himself.
At last Leafpool drifted into a light, troubled sleep. She seemed to float in gray mist, with nothing to tell her where she was. Suddenly the emptiness was ripped apart by a shriek60 of agony.
“StarClan, help me!”
Leafpool leapt up, trembling, to see the thorn branches outlined against a sky growing pale with the first light of dawn. She had recognized the voice in her dream; it was Cinderpelt.
“Crowfeather!” she gasped. “I can’t stay here. We have to go back.”
Crowfeather lifted his head. His amber eyes were sad. “I know,” he meowed. “I feel the same way. We have to go and help our Clans.”
Relief flooded over Leafpool. She loved him even more at that moment because he understood, because he cared for his Clanmates as much as she cared for hers. Briefly61 she pressed her muzzle against his, with a purr that lasted no more than a heartbeat.
“Let’s go,” she meowed.
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1
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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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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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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pelt
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| v.投掷，剥皮，抨击，开火 | |
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apprentice
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| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
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jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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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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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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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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pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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gulps
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| n.一大口（尤指液体）( gulp的名词复数 )v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的第三人称单数 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
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clans
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| 宗族( clan的名词复数 )； 氏族； 庞大的家族； 宗派 | |
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exhaustedly
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| adv.exhausted（精疲力竭的）的变形 | |
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snarling
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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frantically
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| ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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reek
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| v.发出臭气；n.恶臭 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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lumbering
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| n.采伐林木 | |
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blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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malicious
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| adj.有恶意的，心怀恶意的 | |
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loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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slashed
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| v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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ruffling
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| 弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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43
badger
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| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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49
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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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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51
slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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52
badgers
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| n.獾( badger的名词复数 )；獾皮；（大写）獾州人（美国威斯康星州人的别称）；毛鼻袋熊 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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lumbered
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| 砍伐（lumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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starry
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| adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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60
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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