CHAPTER 23
Fireheart padded warily¹ through Tallpines towardthe Twolegplace. Heavy rain had fallen the night before, so that wet ash and burned debris² clung to his paws. All his senses were alert, not for prey³, but for any sign that the dark threat in the forest would emerge to attack his small group of cats as it had attacked Swiftpaw and Lostface.
The injured she-cat was following Fireheart now, with Cloudtail at her side, while Graystripe brought up the rear, watchful⁴ for anything that might come upon them from behind. They were on their way to visit Cloudtail’s mother, Princess. The young warrior⁵ had insisted on bringing Lostface with them.
“You have to leave camp sooner or later,” he had meowed. “We’re not going anywhere near Snakerocks. I’ll make sure you’re safe.”
Fireheart was amazed at how much Lostface trusted Cloudtail. She was obviously terrified by the thought of venturing outside the shelter of the camp. She jumped at every sound, every crackle of leaves under her paws, yet she kept going, and Fireheart thought he saw in her a return of the courage she had shown when she was Brightpaw.
When they came in sight of the fence at the end of the Twoleg gardens, Fireheart signaled with his tail for his companions to stop. He could not see Princess, but when he opened his mouth to taste the air, he caught her scent⁷.
“Wait here,” he told the others. “Keep a lookout⁸ and call me if there’s trouble.”
Checking again to make sure there were no fresh scents⁹ of dogs or Twolegs, he raced across the stretch of open ground and leaped up to the top of Princess’s fence. A flash of white among the bushes in her garden alerted him, and a moment later his sister appeared, picking her way fastidiously across the wet grass.

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