by Erin Hunter
“I’m Bramblestar.” He angled his ears toward the other cats, who were approaching along the fence. “Those are Graystripe, Dovewing, and Thornclaw.”
“What weird names!” Minty mewed, wrinkling her nose.
Bramblestar didn’t comment. When his Clanmates jumped down onto the monster’s back, he stood up and shook the water from his pelt. “What do we do with this kittypet now?” he asked quietly.
“I don’t see why we have to do anything,” Thornclaw meowed. “We’ve saved her life. What she does next is up to her.”
“You can’t leave me here!” Minty wailed. “My housefolk and my littermates have gone. What will I eat?”
Fish, with all this water, Bramblestar was strongly tempted to answer, but he stopped himself. It’s not her fault she’s so helpless.
“We can’t leave her here,” Dovewing whispered. “She’ll starve or freeze. She’s a kittypet; they can’t look after themselves.”
“Can I come home with you?” Minty begged, fixing a wide-eyed blue gaze on Bramblestar. “Where do your housefolk live? Did their houses escape the flood?”
Bramblestar exchanged a glance with Graystripe. “We don’t live with Twolegs,” he explained. “We’re wild cats, from the Clans by the lake.”
Minty’s eyes stretched even wider. “Wow, I’ve heard of them!” she exclaimed. “I mean, you. But you’re supposed to be dangerous. You eat bones and kill trespassers!”
Bramblestar sighed. “We really need to stop these rumors. We won’t eat you, we promise,” he continued. “We don’t eat cats. Just mice and birds and squirrels, just like you.”
Minty uttered a little shriek and looked as if she was going to pass out. “I don’t eat those!” She gave her tail a flick. “I don’t think I want to come with you after all.”
Thornclaw shrugged, his whiskers twitching. “Okay. Stay put. Your choice.”
Minty hesitated. “Why don’t you stay here?” she suggested after a moment. “The house is really comfortable, and there must be some of my food in the kitchen.”
“No, that’s impossible,” Bramblestar meowed. “Our Clanmates need us.”
“There are more of you?” Minty squealed. Her tail drooped. “I don’t know where my housefolk keep my food. It’s probably ruined by the water anyway.” She put her head on one side, thinking, then announced, “Okay, I’ll come with you.”
“You’re not doing us any favors,” Dovewing muttered. “Don’t act like we’re begging you to come.”
If Minty heard the comment, she didn’t react to it. She stared at Bramblestar. “You promise the other cats won’t eat me?”
“Oh, no,” meowed Thornclaw. “There’s not enough meat on you to be a decent meal.”
Minty squeaked, and Bramblestar tapped Thornclaw with his tail. “Don’t torment her. Minty, you won’t be eaten. But we’ve got a long way to go, so you need to be prepared for a difficult journey.”
Minty shrugged. “It won’t be difficult for me. I go outside every day.”
Bramblestar blinked. That’s not exactly forest training, but I guess it will have to do. He turned to the fence. “Leap up there,” he encouraged Minty, “and we’ll follow.”
Minty peered up at the fence. “It’s awfully high,” she mewed.
“For StarClan’s sake!” Thornclaw spat. “Have you never climbed a fence before?”
“Of course I have!” Minty retorted, stung. “It’s just that . . . Well, I used to climb up by the creeper there.” She pointed with her tail over to the other side of the enclosed space, where a plant with thick, glossy leaves was growing up the fence.
“Well, you can swim over to the creeper, or jump up here,” Dovewing told her.
Minty blinked uncertainly. “You’ll help me, won’t you?” she asked Bramblestar.
“We’ll all help,” Bramblestar promised. “Dovewing, you hop onto the fence and grab Minty when she jumps.”
“Okay.” Dovewing bunched her hindquarters and propelled herself onto the fence in a graceful bound. Bramblestar suspected she was showing off.
“Come on,” he mewed to Minty. “You can stand on me to get a bit nearer if you like.” He crouched at the side of the monster nearest the fence and winced as the kittypet dug her claws into his back to heave herself onto his shoulders. Bramblestar forced himself to take her weight and stand straight, lifting her as high as he could. “Now jump!”
He felt Minty’s paws scuffling for balance, then a vigorous shove as she sprang upward. Shaking his pelt, he looked up to see her clawing frantically at the wood, while Dovewing leaned down and grabbed her by the scruff. A moment later she stood beside Dovewing on the fence.
“Great,” Thornclaw growled. “Now can we get moving?”
Bramblestar let Graystripe lead the way along the fence-top while he brought up the rear, just behind Minty. He wanted to be close enough to help her if she slipped. But to Bramblestar’s surprise she trotted along more confidently than the Clan cats, not at all fazed by the narrowness of the fence. Of course, she must have done this often, visiting her friends in the other dens.
When they reached the corner of the fence and Graystripe turned toward the Thunderpath, Minty halted and stared at the vast stretch of flooded ground. “There’s so much water!” she exclaimed. “Parsnip and his housefolk are gone, and my housefolk, and all the housefolk and the cats! I’m the only one left!” She sounded lost and small, as if she hadn’t realized the extent of the disaster until now.
Graystripe glanced over his shoulder at her. “It’ll be okay,” he comforted her. “They’ll come back and look for you when the flood goes down.”
Minty nodded, but Bramblestar wasn’t sure whether she believed him.
Finally they arrived at the end of the fence where they had first heard Minty’s cries, opposite the drowned monster on the Thunderpath. Here the water still reached halfway up their legs, and Minty was starting to look scared again.
“We can’t go any farther,” she mewed.
“Yes, it’s fine,” Bramblestar told her. “We have to swim over to where you can see that drowned monster, then get onto the fence, and that takes us to dry ground.”
Minty turned to him with her blue eyes wider than ever. “Swim?”
Thornclaw let out a hiss of annoyance. “Don’t tell me you can’t swim!”
“I don’t know,” Minty replied. “I’ve never tried.”
Bramblestar took a deep breath. “Graystripe, you go first. Dovewing, swim on that side of Minty, and I’ll swim on this side. Thornclaw, follow us. Minty, I promise we’ll get you across, okay?”
“Okay . . . I guess.”
Graystripe launched himself into the water, powering toward the monster with strong sweeps of his paws. Minty clung to the fence until Dovewing gave her a shove. She plopped into the water with a startled squeak. With Bramblestar on one side and Dovewing on the other, the kittypet splashed furiously, wasting far too much effort, but somehow she managed to propel herself forward.
“Hey, I can swi—” she squealed. The last word was cut off as water slopped into her mouth. She started spluttering, and Bramblestar steadied her with a shoulder underneath her until she caught her breath.
Bramblestar knew that he was getting tired, and guessed that his Clanmates felt the same. The swim to the drowned monster seemed twice as far as it had on the way out. If we hadn’t stopped to help Minty, we’d be back on our own territory by now. He was exhausted by the time they stood safely on ShadowClan territory. It was an effort to make his paws move along the waterline, beside the drowned pines.
“Is this where you live?” Minty asked, and added politely, “It’s . . . er . . . very nice.”
“No, this is where ShadowClan lives,” Graystripe told her. “We’re ThunderClan.” He waved his tail toward the other side of the lake. “We live over there.”
“What?” Minty screeched. “I can’t walk that far! My legs will fall off!”
Bramblestar looked at her. “You’d bett
er hang on to them,” he teased her. “Or Thornclaw might find he has a taste for kittypets after all.”
Minty let out a yelp and raced ahead, glancing back over her shoulder at Thornclaw with a look of terror in her eyes.
“What did you say that for?” Thornclaw looked bemused. “When did I ever eat kittypets?”
“Just show your fangs,” Dovewing muttered. “At least she’s moving!”
Minty waited for them to catch up, though she stayed as far from Thornclaw as possible, and padded beside the Clan cats as they headed toward the open stretch of grass.
“How many cats live by the lake?” she asked. “Do you all live together? And do you really eat mice and squirrels and yucky stuff like that?”
“I don’t know exactly how many cats there are,” Bramblestar replied. “Lots. Each Clan has its own camp, where they live together. And yes, we catch our own prey and eat it. You will too, while you’re staying with us.”
Minty shuddered. “Never!”
Bramblestar exchanged a glance with Thornclaw, guessing that the golden-brown warrior was thinking the same thing. Wait until she gets hungry!
“It’s really dark under these trees, isn’t it?” Minty chattered on. “I wouldn’t like living here. Is it dark in your territory, too?”
Graystripe shook his head. “ThunderClan territory is more open than this.”
“I can’t wait to see it!” Minty mewed with an excited little skip. “Ooh, look, a squirrel! Are you going to catch it?”
“No,” Bramblestar told her. “We’re allowed to cross ShadowClan territory, but not to take prey here. The ShadowClan cats would be furious.”
Minty watched the squirrel dart across the gap between two pines and scramble up into the branches. “Will we meet any ShadowClan cats?” she asked. “I wish we could. It’d be fun!”
Dovewing rolled her eyes. “Trust me, it wouldn’t. Why don’t you save your breath for walking?”
Minty gave her an injured look, but said nothing more.
Bramblestar was thankful that so far they hadn’t met any ShadowClan patrols. His pelt was prickling with apprehension at the thought of bringing a kittypet into his Clan. ThunderClan doesn’t need more cats. It needs to strengthen and protect the ones it has.
But Bramblestar couldn’t have left Minty to starve. He padded over to the kittypet, who was nervously eyeing a fallen tree in her path.
“Just hop on top of it,” he meowed, “and then jump down on the other side. It’s not that high.”
He leaped up to show her, and grabbed her to help her up the last couple of mouse-lengths as her hind paws scuffled against the trunk.
I just hope my Clanmates understand why I’ve brought a stranger home with me.
All four ThunderClan cats let out a sigh of relief as they crossed the border into ThunderClan territory. Their scent marks were faint against the smell of mud and water, but there were no fresh ShadowClan scents. Following the edge of the flood, Thornclaw led them up the slope until they were just below the ridge. It was hard going, pushing through the soaking undergrowth on paws that were tired and heavy as stone.
“We’re on ThunderClan territory now,” Graystripe told Minty, “and we’re just going past the flooded camp.” He veered down the slope and vanished into a clump of thorns.
Bramblestar followed, nodding to Minty. “Come on, you can see where our home used to be.”
He waited for her to join him at the edge of the cliff. Bramblestar felt his heart beat faster as he stared into the hollow. The sheer gray cliffs now encircled nothing but a pool of black, swirling water. He pictured the dens, the fresh-kill pile, the half stump where the apprentices liked to play. Were they all still there, under the water?
Or had every trace of ThunderClan been washed away?
CHAPTER 12
“It’s even more flooded than my home!” Minty exclaimed. “Where do you live now?”
“You’ll see,” Bramblestar told her. “It’s this way.” He turned away from the cliff, feeling a stab of grief for the lost camp, and forced his way back through the thorns. It was a steep climb to the tunnel, and he heard Minty puffing behind him, though to her credit she didn’t complain. Bramblestar wondered if she realized he and the others had traveled twice this distance in one day.
Several cats were outside the tunnel entrance. Daisy, Purdy, and Squirrelflight were spreading out bundles of wet moss and bracken to dry in the weak sun. A little farther off, the three younger apprentices and their mentors were watching closely while Ivypool and Spiderleg demonstrated a battle move.
As Bramblestar and his patrol trekked up the last few fox-lengths of the slope, every cat looked up.
Squirrelflight leaped to her paws. “Thank StarClan you’re okay! Did you find out about the other Clans?”
More cats emerged from the tunnel and crowded around the patrol.
“Did RiverClan survive?”
“How far do the floods stretch?”
It was Spiderleg who first noticed Minty. “Who’s this?” he demanded. “Bramblestar, why have you brought another cat here?”
“Another mouth to feed,” Berrynose added with a disapproving twitch of his whiskers. “Haven’t we got enough trouble, providing for our own cats?”
Minty stared around her with huge blue eyes, daunted by the number of cats and the hostility from the two toms.
“Her name is Minty,” Bramblestar meowed, his tone cold as he raked his gaze over Spiderleg and Berrynose. “We rescued her from the flooded Twoleg dens near RiverClan territory.”
“Twoleg dens?” Sandstorm’s ears flicked up in surprise. “You mean this is a kittypet?” She stretched her neck forward and sniffed Minty’s fur. “You don’t smell like one,” she commented.
“I—I’ve been swimming,” Minty stammered.
“Her housefolk left her behind,” Bramblestar explained. “She’d have drowned or starved if we hadn’t helped her.” Then he remembered that he was Clan leader. He didn’t have to justify his decisions. “Take her inside, make a nest for her, and find her something to eat,” he ordered.
“We’ll do that,” Amberpaw offered, pushing through the knot of warriors.
“Yeah, come on.” Snowpaw curled his tail around Minty’s shoulders. “We’ll look after you.”
Bramblestar watched the apprentices lead Minty away. The young cats were bubbling with curiosity.
“Are you really a kittypet?” Dewpaw asked, giving the black-and-white she-cat a fascinated stare. “What’s it like, living with Twolegs?”
“Is it true you don’t have to catch your own food?” Amberpaw mewed.
Purdy was standing beside the tunnel entrance. “You come wi’ me,” he meowed kindly to Minty. “You can make a nest beside mine. I was a kittypet once, y’know. I’ll tell you all about it. . . .”
Bramblestar followed them into the tunnel to make sure that Minty wasn’t too overwhelmed. Dewpaw and Snowpaw fetched more bedding and spread it out on the floor between their own nests and Purdy’s.
“There!” Snowpaw mewed. “It’s a bit wet, but it’s not too bad when you get used to it.”
Minty gasped when she saw the scanty heap of moss and bracken. “I can’t sleep on that!” she exclaimed. “At home I have a basket! And a blanket!”
The three apprentices looked at one another. “We don’t know what those are,” Amberpaw meowed. “But look, I’ve got some feathers in my nest. You can have them if you like.”
“Th-thank you.” Minty gave her nest a dubious look as Amberpaw generously added the feathers.
Bramblestar was distracted from Minty’s troubles as Squirrelflight and Leafpool walked into the tunnel and came up to him.
“There’s a real problem with the bedding,” Squirrelflight began. “Everything’s soaking wet, and cats are getting aches from sleeping on the cold stone floor in the tunnels.”
“Well, we can’t sleep outside,” Bramblestar told her. “It might rain again.”
Squirrelflight
and Leafpool exchanged a glance.
“That’s true,” Leafpool meowed. “But we need to find some decent dry bedding or we’re all going to catch whitecough.”
As if to prove her words, a hacking cough sounded from where Briarlight was lying, deeper inside the tunnel. Bramblestar blinked, peering into the shadows. Jayfeather was crouched beside the dark-pawed she-cat, concern visible in every line of his body, while nearby Millie anxiously scuffled her claws on the rock floor.
Bramblestar felt heavy with worry as he headed outside. Where do they expect me to get dry bedding? Out of my ears?
Cloudtail was trudging up the slope, dangling a couple of mice from his jaws. Brightheart, Rosepetal, and Blossomfall followed him; Brightheart was carrying a squirrel, while Rosepetal and Blossomfall both had starlings.
“I think the prey is starting to come back,” Cloudtail reported when he had dropped his catch on the fresh-kill pile. “Better than yesterday, anyway.”
“Good,” Bramblestar mewed, grateful for any scrap of good news. There was already prey on the pile; hunting patrols must have been out earlier, too. “Squirrelflight, can you take charge of doling it out? There should be enough for every cat to have something.”
Squirrelflight nodded and set about efficiently dividing up the catch, while Brightheart helped carry each share to their Clanmates.
Minty stared in horror as Brightheart dropped a starling in front of her.
“I’m not eating that!” she declared, screwing her nose.
“It’s tasty,” Amberpaw reassured her. “And when you’ve eaten it, you can add the feathers to your nest.”
Minty just turned away with her nose in the air.
“Okay, I’ll have it if you don’t want it,” mewed Dewpaw, who had already gulped down his portion of squirrel.
“You will not,” Brightheart told him, gently shoving the apprentice away. “Queens and elders eat first, remember. Purdy, would you like it?”
The old tabby shook his head. “No, thanks, that mouse was plenty for me.”
“Then I’ll take it back to the fresh-kill pile for later,” Brightheart meowed. “Minty, if you change your mind, ask me and I’ll fetch it for you.”