bushes with blood as it hurried to catch up to its companion.
Graystripe padded out from the gorse, his fur hanging out in clumps and one ear stained with blood, but his eyes shining. Millie emerged beside him, followed by Tornear and Harepaw.
“Where’s Brambleclaw?” Ashfur called.
“Here!” Brambleclaw’s deep mew sounded from the heather on the slope above them. He bounded out from the springy bushes, Spiderleg, Nightcloud, and Owlwhisker following.
“WindClan owe you a debt of thanks,” Crowfeather meowed formally.
Brambleclaw dipped his head. “May we accompany you back to the camp? I want to be sure that all’s well there.”
Crowfeather narrowed his eyes, then nodded. “Follow us,”
he meowed, turning and heading away over the grass.
Lionpaw fell in beside Heatherpaw as they followed their mentors back to the WindClan camp. The rain was begin
ning to ease, but Lionpaw could still feel water running along his whiskers.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
She glanced at him with her soft gaze. “I’m fine.”
Lionpaw’s pelt was stinging from being scratched by the gorse, and his body ached where the dog had fallen on him.
He was thankful for the mossy earth that had softened the fall. But he was also proud of his scars. This time he had won them defending another Clan.
“You were very brave, leaping on the dog like that,”
Heatherpaw mewed. She pointed ahead with her muzzle.
“We’re here,” she told him.
Gorse and heather interlaced with pricking brambles formed a barrier around a dip in the earth. Lionpaw followed Heatherpaw as she wove her way through a complicated tunnel. Suddenly they emerged in a clearing open to the gray sky; around its edge, Lionpaw saw tunnels leading into the thick hedge, and he guessed that was where the dens were hidden.
As the patrol entered the camp, faces peered from the dens, and cats began to creep out into the open. A kit was squealing, its tiny cry filled with fear.
“Hush, Buzzardkit,” a queen soothed from somewhere deep inside the brambles.
Onestar slid out from a tunnel near to where the kit was still mewling.
“We chased them off,” Tornear reported.
“Good,” Onestar meowed.
“How are the kits?” Crowfeather asked.
“Frightened, but they’ll recover,” Onestar answered.
More WindClan cats began to emerge. Lionpaw recognized some from the Gathering. They stared warily at the ThunderClan cats.
“Firestar sent a patrol to help,” Crowfeather told Onestar.
The WindClan leader let his gaze slide over the ThunderClan cats. “WindClan thank you,” he meowed, dipping his head.
“We heard the dogs from the border,” Brambleclaw explained. “I hope you will forgive our crossing the markers, but we were not sure how many dogs threatened you.”
“Fortunately we knew they were coming, thanks to Barkface.” Onestar nodded to the brown medicine cat. “StarClan warned him, and we had a plan ready to draw them away from the camp.”
Lionpaw looked at Barkface in surprise. So Jaypaw had not been the only cat whom StarClan had warned about the dogs.
“Your plan was working,” Brambleclaw meowed.
“But we could never have chased off the dogs without you,” Heatherpaw put in. “The dogs were faster than I ever imagined.” She glanced sideways at Lionpaw. “Lionpaw saved me from one of them.”
Crowfeather instantly weaved between the two apprentices, blocking their view. “That was brave, Lionpaw, but WindClan is perfectly capable of taking care of its own cats.”
Lionpaw felt anger flare inside him. No other cat had been near enough to the dog to reach it before it had harmed Heatherpaw. “But—”
Ashfur silenced him with a warning twitch of his tail, and Lionpaw looked down at his paws.
The brambles shivered as Breezepaw raced into the camp.
“No damage to the barrier,” he called.
“Have you checked it all the way around?” Crowfeather asked.
Breezepaw glared at his father. “Of course! That’s what Whitetail ordered me to do.”
Nightcloud stepped forward. “You should have more faith in our son, Crowfeather,” she chided.
“Whitetail’s my mentor, not you,” Breezepaw added.
“Is that the kittypet?” A brown kit had crept out of the tunnel behind Onestar.
She was staring at Millie with round eyes. The other Clan cats turned to look at Millie, their expressions mistrustful.
“I’m training to be a warrior now,” Millie told the little cat.
“But you can’t ever be a real w—”
A mottled tabby queen hurried out of the tunnel. “Sedgekit, come away,” she called. “You’ll get wet out here.”
Sedgekit glared at her mother and stomped back inside.
“We should go,” Brambleclaw meowed. He dipped his head to Onestar. “Those dogs won’t dare come near this part of your territory again.”
“If they do, we can manage them by ourselves,” Breezepaw muttered.
“Breezepaw!” Nightcloud snapped. “Heatherpaw might have been hurt without this brave apprentice.” She blinked gratefully at Lionpaw.
Lionpaw glanced away, conscious that Heatherpaw wouldn’t have stumbled if he hadn’t distracted her.
“Do you need some herbs for your wounds?” Heatherpaw asked him.
Lionpaw shook his head. “Leafpool will treat them when we get home.”
Brambleclaw turned and headed out of the camp. The rest of the patrol filed after him. As they followed the twisting tunnel back up to the moorland, Lionpaw thought about what Jaypaw had said to Firestar. He had known that the dogs would come too; had Firestar really refused to believe his brother’s warning? Surely he would believe him next time—
Jaypaw had been right. But thoughts of his brother quickly slid away, to be replaced with the memory of heather-colored eyes and a soft voice asking if he needed herbs.
Chapter 22
Jaypaw shivered, his pelt damp from the rain. “I’m going to my nest,” he mewed, nodding good night to Hollypaw and Lionpaw as they finished their evening meal beside the halfrock.
Hollypaw looked up. “Already?”
“I’m tired.”
“You want to get out of the rain, more like,” Lionpaw joked.
Jaypaw growled. It wasn’t the dampness that made him want to leave; Lionpaw had been going on about the battle against the dogs for days, and Jaypaw didn’t want to hear it all again tonight. He already guessed that Lionpaw had taken off his cobweb dressings early so he’d have some scars to show his Clanmates.
Jaypaw thrust his way crossly through the bramble entrance to the medicine den. The only scars he’d ever
