Willowshine jerked awake.
A few moments ago, her head had been filled with StarClan warriors, urging her on with soft voices, praising the warriors' strength and courage.
Now she could see barren plains filled with empty grasslands, starving, flea-bitten cats, and a massive beast that stumbled mindlessly next to a tiny tom who did not appear to be paying attention to anything else.
The grey she-cat looked around. The landscape was utterly unfamiliar-or was that an illusion brought on by the shadows of sunset?
A yowl sliced through her ears, and Willowshine let out a hiss in annoyance. Rowanclaw turned to his warriors.
"We might as well spend the night here," he mewed supremely. At once, the cats sank to the earth beneath them, letting out meows of relief. Only the two deputies, Squirrelflight, Tawnypelt, and Lionblaze remained standing. Willowshine padded over to hear their discussion.
"…I'm sorry," apologized Squirrelflight. "I've never seen this place before."
"Great StarClan! Are you saying we're lost?" demanded Willowshine.
Tawnypelt shifted slightly. "Not quite," she said dryly. "We can walk back the way we came until we hit the mountains again, and try to find the real route."
Lionblaze growled. "I don't see where we went wrong. We hit the cowplace yesterday, and we should be on the right path. But there should be a forest here."
Squirrelflight blinked. "You've got a good memory, Lionblaze," she mewed. The golden tabby ignored her, and she looked wounded.
"Did the Twolegs cut down the forest, maybe?" mewed Reedwhisker.
Rowanclaw snorted. "They couldn't have done it in a few suns, mousebrain."
Willowshine snorted. "Well, this is productive." She padded back to the cats, keeping her distance from the wolf. It was lying down now, but its eyes were still wide open.
"You-what's your name again?" she asked the little Tribe-cat who cared for the wolf.
"Rabbit That Leaps Over Stream."
"That's right. Well, do you know where we are right now?"
Rabbit blinked. "No. But if we don't reach your territories soon, I'll run out of herbs. I've only got enough for a few more suns. Not enough to backtrack." He shivered. "If that happens, you'll have to kill her yourselves." He nodded to the wolf.
"We'll get there in time," answered Willowshine firmly. Rabbit nodded. "If you say so."
Willowshine looked up. Reedwhisker was beckoning her with his tail, and she padded over. "What's wrong now?
"Spiderleg's picked up some fresh cat scent. Not us."
Squirrelflight looked anxious. "We didn't enter another cat's territory by mistake, did we? I was too busy sniffing for prey to check."
"Who cares? There's thirteen of us-fourteen if you count the runt. I think we can handle things, don't you?" growled Rowenclaw.
"Definitely." Lionblaze nodded. "So why don't we greet them? Maybe they can steer us in the right direction."
A new voice joined theirs, one with a strange accent.
"Well, there's a few things wrong with that little chat. Number one-what are you going to do for us? Number two-there may be fourteen of you, but only the runt looks like it's been fed properly. Number three-am I dreaming or are you aware of the fact that a giant wolf's here?"
Willowshine flattened her ears and leaped back. Where on earth did you come from?
Lionblaze was clearly thinking similar thoughts. "Who in StarClan's green meadows are you, and how did you get so close?"
The cat laughed. Recovered somewhat from her shock, Willowshine noticed he was a handsome golden tom with brilliant blue eyes. Next to him was a she-cat, with a pure black coat and sharp green eyes that looked as though they could skewer you. Willowshine frowned. The tom was utterly unfamiliar to her, but she thought she'd met the black cat before.
Of course-she looks a bit like Hollyleaf.
"I'm Saffron," mewed the tom, and he gestured to the she-cat. "This is my mate, Leaf."
"Leaf?" murmured Willowshine, looking at the black she-cat.
"Something wrong?" said Leaf haughtily.
"No, it's just that…you look like a cat I knew."
Leaf snorted. "I'll bet I do," she said ironically. Before Willowshine could question her meaning, she turned to Lionblaze. "As to why we're here? Safety."
Reedwhisker's eyes widened. "And what makes you think you'd find safety in a wolf's midst?" he grunted.
Saffron's bright eyes sparkled. "An owl never hunts in his own nest. And in return-we'll not only tell you where you are, we'll also tell you something really useful."
"Which would be…?" drawled Tawnypelt.
Leaf shook her head. "We don't deal in something-for-nothing trades."
The Clan cats looked at each other. "Fine, you can stay with us," growled Rowanclaw, "if you get us home."
"Done," purred Saffron. "As to the useful information…you're being followed. Not by us. A huge group of cats-larger than I've ever seen before. There's more than you, and trust me, they aren't starving by anyone's standards."
"Impossible," scoffed Lionblaze. "We would have sensed them."
Leaf turned her bright green gaze on him. "Jock," she muttered under her breath, but Lionblaze did not hear her. "You won't have smelled them because they move when you do and stop when you stop. Understand? They're not fools. They creep a little closer every hour."
"Why are they following us?" asked Reedwhisker.
"Now how would we know that?" mewed Saffron, sounding amused. "Could be that they're interested in your new friend. Or maybe they just want to know why such a large group of cats is wandering around the place, clearly lost. This isn't friendly territory."
"This isn't territory at all," grunted Lionblaze. Leaf rolled her eyes to the sky, mouthing her earlier insult. Saffron glanced at her, then looked back at the golden tabby.
"Out here, most cats don't really bother with scent marks. It's a pain having to renew them and it's not necessary. They mainly use physical landmarks as borders. Did you cross a stream?"
"You'll have to be a bit more specific than that," mewed Tawnypelt. "We've forded several, from memory."
"Well, streams are the most common boundary mark you'll find out here. So I think that's probably the group who owns this place."
"But then again," mewed Leaf, "maybe we're idiots and we don't know what we're talking about. So we'll leave it up to you."
"How do we know you're not with them?" demanded Rowanclaw, fur bristling.
"Well, for a start," mewed Saffron, in the tone of voice one might use to explain to a kit that the number after one was two, "if we were with them then we wouldn't be telling you they were following, would we?"
Rowanclaw opened his mouth in anger, but the two newcomers flicked their tails and dropped back to the throng of cats.
"Impertinent rogues!" he spat.
"But right, dear," mewed Tawnypelt, his mate. "Group up the cats and prepare them for a fight. They-"
"Cats coming this way!" Spiderleg howled from his sentry post. "Lots of cats!"
Willowshine raced over to the ThunderClan warrior. "Great StarClan, look how many there are!" she cried.
A surge of cats was racing towards them across the drying fields. They were eerily silent, the only noise coming from the pounding of their paws on the harsh earth. When they were less than a few fox-lengths away, they skidded as one and halted instantly.
A cat paced from their ranks. He was a huge brown tabby.
"You break our borders, we break your necks," he spat thickly. He turned his gaze upon the wolf, and Willowshine felt almost amused as she saw the shock play across his scarred face.
"You bring vermin as pets, then?" the tom growled.
What's a pet?
The golden rogue Saffron strolled calmly over. "They're doing an escort mission, friend," he said cheerfully. "They're just a bit lost."
The tom looked at Saffron as though he was rotting crowfood. "I do not care if they were trying to save the world, they are trespassers and we kill them and use their pelts for our nests."
Lionblaze fell gracefully into a fighting crouch. "You could try!"
The tom turned an identical expression on the warrior. He glanced back at his cats.
His order was surprisingly simple.
"Kill."