The Sun Trail

by Erin Hunter

  Moon Shadow nodded and dashed off.

  “Gray Wing, can you find me two long, straight sticks?” Dappled Pelt asked. “And a few lengths of bindweed.”

  “Right,” Gray Wing responded.

  He padded deeper into the wood, spotting bindweed twining around a fallen tree, and a tangled heap that he suspected was an old rook’s nest. He chose two straight sticks, and tore off some bindweed, then made his way back to Jagged Peak.

  “Thanks, Gray Wing,” Dappled Pelt meowed. “Jagged Peak’s leg is broken,” she continued, “but if we bind it up with these sticks, the bones will join again. I’ve never done this before, but I watched Stoneteller once when Sharp Hail fell off a rock. He was fine. You will be too, Jagged Peak.”

  “I hope so,” the little cat murmured.

  “Now this is going to hurt a bit,” Dappled Pelt warned him. “Some cat find him another stick to bite on.”

  After Clear Sky had shoved another stick between Jagged Peak’s jaws, Dappled Pelt straightened his injured leg and fastened the two sticks on either side of it with the lengths of bindweed. Jagged Peak let out a shrill wail and bit down on the stick so hard that it splintered.

  “Okay,” Dappled Pelt mewed. “The worst is over. You were very brave, Jagged Peak.”

  Moon Shadow reappeared with a mouthful of marigold, which Dappled Pelt chewed up. She trickled the juice into the gash on Jagged Peak’s leg.

  “He needs more of that every day,” she instructed Clear Sky. “And he could do with thyme for the shock, and poppy seed to help him sleep. Do you have any of that?”

  “We can find some,” Clear Sky replied. “But, will you stay and look after him? He needs you.”

  Dappled Pelt looked startled, exchanging a glance with Gray Wing. “I suppose so,” she agreed after a moment’s hesitation. “Gray Wing, help me carry Jagged Peak to his nest. Be careful not to jog that injured leg.”

  Jagged Peak was obviously in pain as they moved him back to his nest in the camp, and he was barely conscious by the time they settled him among the moss and fern.

  “Clear Sky is right; I do need to stay,” Dappled Pelt meowed, though she didn’t look happy about it. “Gray Wing, will you let Tall Shadow know where I am?”

  “Of course,” said Gray Wing. Bidding good-bye to her and to Clear Sky, he left the camp, trying to glimpse Storm as he padded past the elder bush. But all he could see was a pale blur that might have been her silver fur, lost in the shadows of her den. She didn’t call out to him.

  After Gray Wing left Clear Sky’s territory, he couldn’t stop worrying about Jagged Peak. There was no cat to tell him how his little brother was doing. Gray Wing wished he still had Turtle Tail to talk to.

  I’ve been missing her ever since she left to live with Bumble, Gray Wing realized. She hadn’t come to visit as she had promised, and though Gray Wing sometimes picked up her scent on the giant rock beneath the four oaks, he never saw her there.

  Sometimes I feel as if I’d lost one of my own paws.

  Dappled Pelt stayed with Clear Sky for the next half-moon. The sun was setting when she finally made it back to the hollow, shaking her pelt in annoyance as she padded down to join the others.

  “Honestly!” she exclaimed. “Any cat would think Clear Sky wanted to keep me a prisoner. I’ve been stuck in his . . . his camp, he calls it, with hardly enough room to stretch my paws.”

  “How is Jagged Peak?” Gray Wing asked.

  “He can use the leg again,” Dappled Pelt replied. “He’s still limping badly, but that should improve with time.” She flopped down beside Shattered Ice. “Oh, it’s good to be back!”

  “I’m really glad to see you,” Hawk Swoop mewed. “I’m expecting kits with Jackdaw’s Cry, and I was worried you wouldn’t be back in time to help me. Cloud Spots is great, but he’s not the most sympathetic cat on the moor.”

  “That’s great news!” Gray Wing purred, while Shattered Ice murmured congratulations.

  “With the cold season coming, it’s not the best time,” Dappled Pelt meowed. “But don’t worry, Hawk Swoop. Cloud Spots and I will make sure you’re fine. We’d better start gathering herbs to store,” she added. “Then we’ll have everything you need if there’s an emergency.”

  The day after Dappled Pelt’s return, Gray Wing went out on the moor to hunt with Jackdaw’s Cry, Rainswept Flower, and Shattered Ice.

  The sun had just cleared the horizon. A cold breeze blew across the moor and the grass was furred white with frost. The moorland pools and streams were rimmed with ice. Every cat’s breath puffed out in white clouds, and they fluffed up their fur against the chill.

  “I wonder if it snows here,” Rainswept Flower meowed. “It’s getting cold enough.”

  Jackdaw’s Cry nodded. “If it does, my kits will need better shelter. I wonder if we ought to move into the trees, just until the cold season is over.”

  “That might be asking for trouble from Clear Sky,” Shattered Ice grunted.

  Jackdaw’s Cry’s ears flicked up in protest. “Clear Sky doesn’t own the forest!”

  “Come on,” Gray Wing interrupted, uncomfortable with the hostility against his brother. “We’re supposed to be hunting. Who can catch the first rabbit?”

  To his relief, the two toms dropped the argument and all four cats spread out to cover a wide stretch of moorland, though they stayed within sight of each other. It was Rainswept Flower who spotted the first prey, breaking into a run to pursue a rabbit that pelted away from her toward a gorse-covered bank.

  Gray Wing took off after her, hoping to intercept the rabbit before it could escape into its burrow. But while he was still several tail-lengths behind, Rainswept Flower reached the top of a ridge and vanished down the other side. A heartbeat later Gray Wing heard her voice raised in a screech of alarm.

  “Rainswept Flower!” Gray Wing yowled.

  His heart pounding, he raced toward the spot where he had last seen her. He found himself on the edge of a hollow in the moor, almost surrounded by gorse bushes. More gorse and rocks lined the slope down to hummocky ground at the bottom; the grass that grew there was sparse. At one side was a large boulder, and in the center a stretch of loose, bare soil.

  “Rainswept Flower!” Gray Wing yowled again. “Where are you?”

  Shattered Ice and Jackdaw’s Cry panted up beside him. “What happened?” Jackdaw’s Cry demanded.

  “Rainswept Flower . . . just disappeared,” Gray Wing replied, still stunned at the speed with which she had vanished. Is there something down there that eats cats?

  “What’s that?” Shattered Ice asked, pointing with his tail.

  The loose soil in the middle of the dip was heaving. Suddenly Rainswept Flower’s head popped up. She scrabbled at the earth with her forepaws, but the sandy soil at the hole’s edge kept crumbling away. “Help me!” she yowled.

  Jackdaw’s Cry began to bound forward, but Gray Wing blocked him with his tail. “We have to be careful,” he warned, “or we might all end up down there.”

  Gray Wing led the way more cautiously into the hollow. “Are you okay?” he asked Rainswept Flower as he drew closer.

  “Fine,” she replied. “I’ve swallowed some soil, but I’m not hurt. There are rabbit burrows under here, stretching in every direction.”

  “Really?” Shattered Ice’s voice was sharp with interest. “Are there any rabbits?”

  Rainswept Flower shook her head. “All the scents are stale.”

  The ground gave way a little under Gray Wing’s paws as he reached Rainswept Flower’s side, but it bore his weight. “Push with your paws when I say ‘Now!’” he instructed her. Cautiously he leaned over and fastened his teeth in her scruff. “Now!”

  Rainswept Flower pushed upward as Gray Wing heaved. For a few heartbeats he thought they would both end up down the hole, but then Shattered Ice reached to grab Rainswept Flower’s shoulder on one side. Jackdaw’s Cry grabbed the other, and soon all four cats tumbled backward, safe on solid ground
again.

  “Thanks!” Rainswept Flower gasped, spitting out soil and shaking loose earth from her pelt.

  “We should get away from here,” Jackdaw’s Cry meowed.

  “Wait a moment.” Shattered Ice was peering down the hole where Rainswept Flower had fallen, scraping experimentally at the edge with his forepaws. “If we dig out this loose soil,” he explained, “we could get into the tunnels.”

  “Why?” Jackdaw’s Cry asked.

  Without replying, Shattered Ice plopped into the hole. There was silence for a moment, and then his voice came from a little farther away. “Rainswept Flower was right! There are lots of tunnels here. And the soil is soft. We could easily widen them so that we could fit down them.”

  “Gorse and Wind often hunt rabbits into their burrows,” Gray Wing meowed, beginning to see the possibilities.

  A gleam woke in Jackdaw’s Cry’s eyes. “You mean we could chase the rabbits all the way to their nests?”

  “Not only that.” Shattered Ice reappeared, and after a moment scraping at the loose soil on the edge of the hole managed to scramble out unaided. “The tunnels stretch a long way. If there’s a battle, we could travel in secret to other parts of the moor.”

  A shiver of horror traveled through Gray Wing as he fixed his gaze on Shattered Ice. “What are you meowing about—a battle? We’re friends with the other cats around here. Who would we be fighting?”

  Shattered Ice gave him a doubtful look, but Gray Wing turned away. “The tunnels will be useful, sure,” he mewed. “For shelter, and for hiding from foxes and Twolegs.”

  Rainswept Flower nodded. “We need to tell Tall Shadow about this. I’ll go and get her.”

  While they waited, Gray Wing and Jackdaw’s Cry went down the hole with Shattered Ice and began digging out some more of the tunnel system.

  “You’re right,” Gray Wing murmured, gazing down one of the black passages. “They seem to stretch a long, long way.”

  He watched anxiously as Jackdaw’s Cry plunged into the darkness, then reappeared backward, his paws scuffling the earth excitedly.

  “It could be done,” the black tom meowed. “We’ll need to dig air holes that will let light in too. And we could bring moss down for nests. Hawk Swoop and our kits would be safe and warm here.”

  As he was speaking the light suddenly faded. Gray Wing turned and managed to make out Tall Shadow’s head blocking the hole. A moment later she jumped down to join them.

  “This is great!” she exclaimed. “It’s just what we need. Have you scented any dogs or foxes down here?”

  Shattered Ice shook his head. “Only stale rabbit scent. I think the rabbits must have left when the tunnels started falling in.”

  “Hmm . . . we’ll have to be careful that they don’t fall in on us,” Tall Shadow mused. “All the same, I think we should move our whole camp down here. In the cold season we can make dens underground, and when the weather’s warm we can sleep under the gorse bushes.”

  Jackdaw’s Cry gave a little bounce of enthusiasm. “Great!”

  Over the next few days the cats moved across the moor to the new camp, digging out spaces for dens and transporting the bedding for new nests. Cloud Spots and Dappled Pelt carefully carried their store of herbs and found a safe place to keep them in one of the tunnels.

  Jackdaw’s Cry was the most skillful at exploring the burrows, finding several that stretched for long distances beneath the moor, and others with exits nearby among the gorse bushes and rocks on the slope of the hollow.

  Gray Wing still had mixed feelings about living underground, even for part of the time. He had to force himself into the enclosed, stifling spaces, but he could see the opportunities that the tunnels offered.

  The hollow was too exposed. Down here, we have shelter and we’ll be safe from foxes. A heartbeat later he added reluctantly to himself, And . . . just maybe, from other cats.

  Gray Wing was returning to the new camp, a rabbit dangling from his jaws, when he spotted two cats approaching from the forest. Dropping his prey, he waited for them.

  As the cats drew closer, he recognized Jagged Peak and Frost, the big white tom who had joined Clear Sky. Jagged Peak was leaning heavily against Frost for support, and Gray Wing could see that he was hardly putting his injured leg to the ground.

  It’s been more than a moon since Jagged Peak fell from the tree, Gray Wing thought worriedly. I’d have expected him to be able to walk properly by now.

  “Greetings,” Gray Wing meowed, dipping his head as Jagged Peak and Frost came up to him. “Have you come to visit?”

  Jagged Peak gave him a miserable look, while Frost didn’t acknowledge his presence at all. Helping Jagged Peak to lie on the ground, the white tom turned away without speaking and bounded back across the moor.

  Rude furball! Gray Wing thought. “What’s happening?” he asked Jagged Peak.

  At first Jagged Peak didn’t reply, glaring at Frost as he vanished into the distance. Then he glanced back at Gray Wing, giving his chest fur a couple of embarrassed licks.

  “Come on,” Gray Wing encouraged him gently. “You can tell me.”

  The young cat hesitated a moment longer. “It’s my leg,” he confessed eventually. “It isn’t healing well enough, and it looks like I’ll probably always limp.”

  He paused again; Gray Wing gave his ear a sympathetic lick.

  “Clear Sky says . . .” The words seemed to struggle out of Jagged Peak, “. . . that . . . because I can’t hunt anymore, I’m not contributing to the group. He says I have to leave his territory. I . . . I don’t think I can survive on my own, especially with the cold season coming. Gray Wing, can I come back to live with you?”

  “Of course you can!” Slow anger was beginning to burn in Gray Wing’s belly, but he hid it from Jagged Peak. “You’re welcome . . . and we’ve got a new camp now. Come and see.”

  Picking up his rabbit again, Gray Wing let Jagged Peak lean on his shoulder until they reached the hollow.

  Tall Shadow was there, investigating one of the burrow entrances with Jackdaw’s Cry. She turned and bounded up to Gray Wing as he and Jagged Peak staggered down the slope. “What’s all this?” she asked.

  Gray Wing explained, while Jagged Peak hung his head, looking desperately unsure of himself.

  “That’s terrible!” Tall Shadow let out a snort. “His own brother! Jagged Peak, of course you’re welcome here. And I’m sure we can do something to help that leg. Dappled Pelt and Cloud Spots are out right now hunting for herbs, but they’ll take a look at you as soon as they get back.”

  “Thanks, Tall Shadow,” Jagged Peak mewed, blinking gratefully.

  “Come sit under this gorse bush.” Gray Wing helped his brother to a sheltered spot and dropped the rabbit in front of him. “Help yourself, while I see about a nest for you.”

  There was a good pile of moss and bracken just inside the main tunnel entrance; Gray Wing dragged some of it into an unused side burrow, digging out some of the soil to make the space wider. Then he went outside again to get Jagged Peak.

  The young cat had finished eating, and looked up drowsily at Gray Wing. “It’s good of you to let me stay,” he murmured.

  Once Gray Wing had settled him into his new nest, Jagged Peak drifted off to sleep; the struggle across the moor had clearly exhausted him.

  Gray Wing waited until he was sure his brother was okay, then climbed out of the burrow again. “I’m going to talk to Clear Sky,” he told Tall Shadow, before leaving the hollow and bounding off across the moor.

  The path that led to Clear Sky’s camp was guarded by Fox, who drew back as Gray Wing appeared. Gray Wing was slightly disappointed; for once he was itching to sink his claws into some cat’s fur.

  When he reached the clearing, he found Clear Sky lapping from the pool at the center of the hollow.

  “I’ve just been talking to Jagged Peak,” he announced as he stalked up to his brother.

  Clear Sky raised his head and shook water droplets fr
om his whiskers. “I thought you might want to talk about that,” he admitted.

  “Have you completely lost your mind?” Gray Wing asked. “Jagged Peak is your brother, and he’s always been loyal to you!”

  Clear Sky nodded, but he didn’t look guilty at all. “I’m sorry Jagged Peak is hurt,” he began, “but the good of the group is what’s important. Every cat has to contribute, or none of us will survive. I gave Jagged Peak time to recover, but it doesn’t look like he’ll ever be able to hunt again.”

  “But he’s family!” Gray Wing protested, hardly able to believe he was hearing these words from his own brother.

  “That’s exactly why I had to be tough with him,” Clear Sky meowed. “The other cats won’t trust me if they think I’ll make exceptions to the rules for my own kin.”

  Horror and disgust overwhelmed Gray Wing. This isn’t Clear Sky! Not the brother I love so much!

  Hardly knowing what he was doing, Gray Wing leaped on top of Clear Sky, lashing out with his claws. Clear Sky bared his teeth in a snarl and clamped his forepaws around Gray Wing’s neck, lunging for his throat. Gray Wing fought him off with thrashing hind paws, but Clear Sky was too strong for him. Within a few heartbeats he lay on the ground, Clear Sky pinning him with one paw on his neck and another on his belly.

  Clear Sky gazed down at him, hostility flaring in his blue eyes, his chest heaving. “Get out of here,” he growled, stepping away from Gray Wing. “And don’t come back.”

  Gray Wing scrambled to his paws and headed out of the clearing. Grief and anger surged over him so that he brushed blindly through the undergrowth. When a cat appeared on the track in front of him, he almost launched himself into another attack, before he realized that it was Storm.

  “Gray Wing—what’s the matter?” she asked.

  Gray Wing gazed at her, forcing himself to calm down. Her belly was heavy with her kits, but her silver fur was as soft and shining as ever.

  “It’s Jagged Peak,” he explained. “I can’t believe Clear Sky would do that to him.”

  Storm nodded, her green eyes troubled. “I understand how you feel,” she mewed. “But Clear Sky would never have asked Jagged Peak to leave if he hadn’t known he could come to you. I know he seems cold, but he’s really not.”