Lionpaw pushed his way through clumpsof long grass wet with dew; he shivered as the moisture soaked his fur, and blinked sleep from his eyes. Clouds lay low over the forest, though a growing brightness above the trees showed where the sun was rising.
The dawn patrol was heading toward WindClan territory. Ashfur and Berrynose had drawn2 slightly ahead, discussing something in voices too low for Lionpaw to catch. After a few moments Berrynose glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t lag behind, Lionpaw,” he meowed loudly. “And watch out for fox traps.”
“Watch out yourself,” Lionpaw muttered. The cream-colored tom had been a warrior4 for three whole days, and already he was acting5 like a mentor6. But he needn’t think I’m going to obey his orders!
Lionpaw let himself drop even farther behind. His paws were tingling7 with memory as he rounded a bramble thicket8 and saw the entrance to the tunnels. It looked like a disused rabbit hole, half-hidden by bracken, but once it had led down to a cave with an underground river and then up again into WindClan territory. Pain stabbed Lionpaw’s heart as heremembered how he used to plunge10 into the tunnels at night and meet Heatherpaw in the cave. He wished they could go back to the time when she had been Heatherstar, leader of DarkClan, and he was her loyal deputy.
He hesitated outside the entrance for a heartbeat, then couldn’t resist squeezing through it and crawling along the tunnel until he came to the avalanche11 of mud left behind when the tunnels flooded. He opened his mouth, but all he could taste was wet soil and worms.
“Lionpaw! I know you’re in there!” Berrynose called. “Come out now!”
For a moment Lionpaw felt like ignoring him, but he realized how stupid that would be. He didn’t want to stay in this damp, stifling12 hole. Slowly he wriggled13 backward until he could stand up and shake the mud out of his fur.
Berrynose was standing14 in front of him, cream-colored fur bristling15. Ashfur was a couple of tail-lengths away; his blue eyes were calm and unreadable.
“What do you think you’re doing, exploring in a dangerous place like that?” Berrynose demanded. “What if the roof had fallen in? You’d expect us to dig you out, I suppose, like last time.”
Lionpaw had almost suffocated16 when he fell into an old badger17 set during the daylight Gathering18. But that was completely different. And anyway, Berrynose hadn’t been the one to dig him out.
“Stop ordering me around,” he snapped. “You’re not my mentor.”
“Then stop behaving like a stupid kit19!”
Lionpaw dug his claws into the ground to stop himself from taking a swipe at the arrogant20 tom. “Don’t call me a kit,” he growled22. “Your scent23 hasn’t faded out of the apprentice24 den9, and you’re already—”
“That’s enough,” Ashfur interrupted. “Berrynose, I’ll do the mentoring25, thanks. But he’s right, Lionpaw. There’s no point in sticking your nose down every hole between here and WindClan. Unless there were any suspicious scents26 down there.”
“No. But there might have been!” Lionpaw defended himself.
Ashfur made no comment, except for an impatient twitch27 of the tail. “Let’s get moving.”
Lionpaw gave Berrynose a final glare and padded after his mentor. He could still feel a tug28 of longing29 for Heatherpaw, drawing him down into the caves. But he knew he would never walk there again—and not just because mud had blocked the tunnels.
He wanted to be the greatest ThunderClan warrior ever. And he couldn’t be that if his best friend was a cat from another Clan1.
“Jump! High as you can—now!”
Lionpaw leaped into the air, twisting as he landed so that he was facing his opponent. He managed to land a blow on Poppypaw’s haunches before she scrambled30 around to face him. Flashing a glance toward the edge of the clearing, he could just make out the shadow of a tabby-striped pelt31 and the gleam of amber32 eyes.
Thanks, Tigerstar!
Poppypaw sprang at him, and Lionpaw launched himself forward, slipping underneath33 her with his belly34 brushing the moss35. Hooking her hind3 legs out from under her, he planted his forepaws on her belly as she rolled over.
“Well done, Lionpaw.” Ashfur gave him a nod of approval, though there was no warmth in his blue eyes.
What am I doing wrong now?Lionpaw wondered. He had understood Ashfur’s annoyance36 with him when he was spending every night in the caves with Heatherpaw. Then he’d been almost too tired to put one paw in front of another during the day. But I’m training well now. I’m working really hard!
“I’ve never seen that last move before.” Thornclaw, Poppypaw’s mentor, padded up to the two apprentices37. “Where did you learn it?”
“Er…I just figured it out, I suppose,” Lionpaw mumbled38.
He had learned the move from Tigerstar, during a training bout39 with Hawkfrost. The two shadowy cats visited him so often, he felt as if he always had voices in his ears, telling him to jump higher, strike harder, twist out of the way. The constant practice had made his muscles harder and stronger. He knew without any cat telling him that his battle skills had improved faster than any other apprentice’s. But it was difficult sometimes to explain where the skills came from.
“You can let me up now,” Poppypaw mewed.
“Oh, sorry.”
Lionpaw stepped away from her and she bounced to her paws, shaking scraps40 of moss from her fur. “Will you teach me how to do that?”
“Sure. When a cat leaps at you, you need to flatten41 yourself, but keep moving forward.”
“Like this?” Poppypaw tried to imitate the move.
“Yes, but a bit faster.”
While the young tortoiseshell she-cat practiced, Lionpaw glanced toward the edge of the clearing again. But the ghostly presence of Tigerstar was gone.
Lionpaw maneuvered42 a long tendril of bramble through the tunnel into the stone hollow, tugging43 hard as it snagged on the thorns. His paws were aching with tiredness. First the dawn patrol, then the training session, then, after a short break for a few mouthfuls of fresh-kill, Ashfur had set him to repairing the elders’ den. And it was only just past sunhigh!
As he dragged the bramble across the clearing, something heavy landed on the other end of it, bringing him up short and making him stumble. Dropping his end, Lionpaw glanced back to see Foxkit. The reddish tabby tom had sunk his teeth into the other end of the tendril and was battering44 it with his paws. A low growl21 came from his throat.
“ShadowClan are invading!” Icekit squealed45, dashing up beside her brother and leaping onto the bramble. “Get out of our camp!”
Whitewing halted on her way across the clearing, her neck fur beginning to bristle46, then carried on with a flick47 of her tail. Cloudtail thrust his head out of the warriors’ den, blue eyes wide with alarm. When he spotted48 the two kits49 he twitched50 his ears in disgust and disappeared.
“Hey, you’re disturbing every cat,” Lionpaw meowed. “And I need this to patch the elders’ den.”
“Can we help?” Icekit asked.
“Yes, we’ll be apprentices soon,” Foxkit added, letting go of the bramble.
“Okay, but be careful you don’t get thorns in your pads.”
Lionpaw went on dragging the tendril across the clearing. The two kits tried to help him tug it along, but they mostly got under his paws and made the task harder.
When they drew closer to the elders’ den, Foxkit and Icekit seemed to forget about helping51. Instead they dashed across to Mousefur and Longtail, who were sunning themselves at the entrance to the den.
“Tell us a story!” Foxkit demanded. “Tell us about the Great Journey. Tell us how the Twolegs—”
“No, I want to hear about the old forest,” Icekit interrupted.
Mousefur yawned. “You tell them something,” she mewed to Longtail. “Then maybe they’ll settle down and some cats can get a bit of sleep.” She closed her eyes and wrapped her tail over her nose.
Longtail sighed, then settled into a comfortable crouch52 with his paws tucked under his chest. He turned his face toward the kits, even though he couldn’t see them. “Okay, what do you want to hear about?”
“Tigerstar!” Foxkit’s fur bristled53 with excitement.
“Yes, Tigerstar!” Icekit added. “Tell us how he tried to take over the forest.”
Lionpaw saw Longtail’s tail tip flick as the blind cat hesitated. Curiosity clawed at him as he began weaving the length of bramble to block up a hole in the honeysuckle fronds54 that sheltered the den. He wanted to hear about Tigerstar as much as the kits did.
“Tigerstar was a great warrior,” Longtail began at last. “He was the strongest cat in the forest and the best fighter. When I was a young cat, I thought he would be the next leader of ThunderClan. I wanted to be just like him,” the pale tabby added awkwardly.
“But he was evil!” Foxkit burst out, round-eyed.
“We didn’t know that back then,” Longtail explained. “He killed Redtail, the ThunderClan deputy, but every cat believed that Redtail had died in battle….”
Lionpaw’s belly churned as he listened to the tale of blood and conspiracy55. It was hard to keep his paws moving, fixing the bramble into place, and to pretend that this was just a story to him, no more than it was to the kits. This was the cat who padded beside him through the forest, teaching him how to be a warrior!
“It was Tigerstar’s ambition that destroyed him,” Longtail concluded. “If he’d been willing to wait for power to come to him, he would have been the greatest leader in the forest.”
Lionpaw relaxed. There was no reason for him to avoid Tigerstar. The dark tabby couldn’t be ambitious now. He was dead; there was nothing left to plan for.
And he had never suggested that Lionpaw should break the warrior code. He had been angry when he discovered the meetings with Heatherpaw in the cave. All he wanted was to make Lionpaw a really good warrior. Perhaps Tigerstar was sorry for what he had done and was trying to make up for it by helping ThunderClan.
Lionpaw left the kits pestering56 Longtail with questions and padded thoughtfully out of the camp to fetch more brambles.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
clan
|
|
| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
hind
|
|
| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
warrior
|
|
| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
mentor
|
|
| n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
tingling
|
|
| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
thicket
|
|
| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
den
|
|
| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
plunge
|
|
| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
avalanche
|
|
| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
stifling
|
|
| a.令人窒息的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
wriggled
|
|
| v.扭动，蠕动，蜿蜒行进( wriggle的过去式和过去分词 )；（使身体某一部位）扭动；耍滑不做，逃避（应做的事等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
bristling
|
|
| a.竖立的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
suffocated
|
|
| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
badger
|
|
| v.一再烦扰，一再要求，纠缠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
kit
|
|
| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
arrogant
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
growl
|
|
| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
growled
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
scent
|
|
| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
apprentice
|
|
| n.学徒，徒弟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
mentoring
|
|
| n.mentoring是一种工作关系。mentor通常是处在比mentee更高工作职位上的有影响力的人。他/她有比‘mentee’更丰富的工作经验和知识，并用心支持mentee的职业（发展）。v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
scents
|
|
| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
twitch
|
|
| v.急拉，抽动，痉挛，抽搐；n.扯，阵痛，痉挛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
tug
|
|
| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
longing
|
|
| n.（for）渴望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
scrambled
|
|
| v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
pelt
|
|
| v.投掷，剥皮，抨击，开火 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
amber
|
|
| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
underneath
|
|
| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
belly
|
|
| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
moss
|
|
| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
annoyance
|
|
| n.恼怒，生气，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
apprentices
|
|
| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
mumbled
|
|
| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
bout
|
|
| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
scraps
|
|
| 油渣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
flatten
|
|
| v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
maneuvered
|
|
| v.移动，用策略( maneuver的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
tugging
|
|
| n.牵引感v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
battering
|
|
| n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
squealed
|
|
| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
bristle
|
|
| v.（毛发）直立，气势汹汹，发怒；n.硬毛发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
flick
|
|
| n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
spotted
|
|
| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
kits
|
|
| 衣物和装备( kit的名词复数 )； 成套用品； 配套元件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
twitched
|
|
| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
crouch
|
|
| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
bristled
|
|
| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
fronds
|
|
| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
conspiracy
|
|
| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
pestering
|
|
| 使烦恼，纠缠( pester的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |