Dark River

bone.

Something worth chewing, at last. She lay beside the halfrock with Poppypaw and Honeypaw, newleaf sunshine warming her pelt. For the first time in days, she pushed away her worries about the coming battle and enjoyed the familiar scents of home.

“So what are they like?” Poppypaw lay beside her, idly hooking a freshly killed sparrow from one paw to another.

“RiverClan, I mean?”

“The elders are grumpy, the warriors are bossy, and the kits are a nuisance,” Hollypaw replied with her mouth full.

“Pretty much the same as us.”

Poppypaw purred. “Don’t let Brackenfur hear you saying that,” she warned. “You’re in enough trouble as it is.”

“Look!” Honeypaw sat up and stared at the medicine den.

Leafpool was leading Cinderpaw slowly out into the clearing.

Cinderpaw was limping, hardly touching the ground with her injured leg, but the rushes and cobwebs were gone. Her leg looked thin, the fur pressed flat against the skin from being bound up so long, but her eyes were bright with excitement.

“Hollypaw!” Leafpool called across the clearing.

Hollypaw leaped to her paws, gulping down a last mouthful of mouse, and hurried to greet Cinderpaw. She flicked her

tail over her friend’s ears. “You’re better!”

“Not completely,” Leafpool warned. The medicine cat’s eyes glittered with worry. “But she’s fidgeting around in the den so much, I thought she’d better get some fresh air.”

“Can we go out into the forest?” Cinderpaw mewed.

“No!” Leafpool bristled. She stared at Hollypaw. “I thought you could help Cinderpaw get some gentle exercise.”

She emphasized gentle as though she were teaching Hollypaw a new word.

“Of course!” Hollypaw kneaded the ground.

“Stay in the clearing,” Leafpool ordered. She glanced at Cinderpaw. “And be careful!”

“She’s acting like a badger with sore stripes!” Hollypaw whispered as Leafpool padded back to the medicine den.

“I know,” Cinderpaw purred. “She worries too much. She thinks if I breathe too hard I’m going to be crippled for life.”

Hollypaw sniffed Cinderpaw’s leg. It smelled strongly of comfrey. “How does it feel?”

“Stiff and sort of delicate,” Cinderpaw mewed. “But it doesn’t hurt anymore. I just have to be careful.”

“Can you put weight on it?”

Cinderpaw slowly pressed her pad down onto the ground.

She winced and then her face relaxed. “Not bad.” Gingerly she padded forward, then walked more easily to the middle of the clearing. Stretching out her forelegs she pressed her chest toward the ground. “It’s great to be outside again.”

Hollypaw hurried to the honeysuckle bush where she had left a pile of moss after cleaning out the elders’ den. She tore

a small clump away with her teeth and rolled it into a ball.

“Can you still catch?” She tossed the ball across the clearing. Her heart lurched. What if Cinderpaw stretched up to catch it? Could her hind leg take the strain?

Cinderpaw let the ball land in front of her and hooked it up with a claw. “Not if you throw as badly as that,” she retorted. She tossed the moss ball back to Hollypaw.

Hollypaw leaped and batted it back. This time Cinderpaw lifted a forepaw and stretched up on three legs to catch the ball between her teeth.

“Nice one!” Hollypaw raced back to her friend.

“I’ve been practicing in the den with Jaypaw,” Cinderpaw mewed, dropping the ball at her paws.

“He’s been playing with you?” Hollypaw was surprised.

Jaypaw always seemed so serious when he was in the medicine den.

“Sometimes,” Cinderpaw told her. “But only to keep me quiet.” She looked at the ground. “Actually, I don’t think he likes having me around.”

“Nonsense!” Hollypaw mewed. “How can a medicine cat resent his patients?” She butted Cinderpaw on the shoulder.

But she could guess just how grouchy Jaypaw had been with Cinderpaw. If only he could hurry up and learn a bit of kindness from Leafpool!

“Can we play?” Foxkit and Icekit came hurtling from the nursery.

Foxkit swiped the moss ball away from Cinderpaw. His fluffy pelt glowed like autumn leaves in the afternoon sunshine.

“Hey!” Icekit skidded past him, knocking the moss ball away.

Foxkit lunged after her. “I got it first!” He tumbled her to the ground.

Hollypaw darted behind the squirming bundle of orange-and-white fluff and picked up the moss ball. “Now neither of you has it.” She flung it over the two kits, and Cinderpaw reached up with a forepaw and snagged it with a claw.

“That’s the trouble with being no bigger than a hedgehog,”

Cinderpaw teased. “You can only catch worms!” She flicked the ball back over the kits’ heads for Hollypaw to catch.

Icekit and Foxkit leaped into the air, reaching for the ball as it flew over their heads.

“You’ll have to jump higher than that!” Hollypaw called.

“Not if you can’t throw it!” Foxkit dashed at Hollypaw and leaped onto her back. He scrabbled at her fur, making her stagger sideways.

Icekit grabbed the moss ball from her paws. “Trying to steal our prey!” she hissed.

Foxkit dug his claws into Hollypaw’s pelt. “Thief!”

“She must be a WindClan warrior!” Icekit cried, dropping the moss ball and throwing herself at Hollypaw. “Attack!”

“Help!” Hollypaw pretended to yelp in terror as she tus-sled with the two kits but, though she was playing, an icy chill shivered deep in her belly. Even the kits were ready to fight WindClan. The coming battle was waiting like a fox in the shadows.

,

Chapter 17

Jaypaw plucked at the moss in the bottom of his nest, softening it before he curled up for a good night’s sleep. Cinderpaw was already snoring, worn out by her game with Hollypaw. She would be moving back to the apprentices’ den before long, and the medicine de

Good

n would be quiet again.

. Outside,

the thorn barrier rustled. The last patrol was returning, their unhurried paw steps a signal that everything was fine.

Jaypaw heard water sloshing. Leafpool was soaking a wad of moss in the pool to leave beside Cinderpaw’s nest in case the apprentice woke thirsty in the night. “I think we should take a look at the catmint by the old Twoleg nest tomorrow,”

she meowed. “I want to see if there’s much new growth.”