"Stormfur!"
Feathertail's heartbroken yowl echoed from the stones around them. Without a word she turned and ran along the gorge, searching franticly for a way down. Crowpaw and Tawnypelt were hard on her paws.
Squirrelpaw and Stormfur were gone. There seemed to be no end to the sheer stone walls. Still Feathertail stumbled along, her paws slipping on the treacherous rocks.
"Feathertail!"
It was Tawnypelt. The tortoiseshell she-cat gestured with her tail. Almost at her paws the rock face had crumbled, and Feathertail could see a gentler slope down to the river bank.
Tawnypelt carefully zigzagged her way downward. Feathertail sprang after her, ignoring Crowpaw's warning hiss. Her heart was hammering; they had to find the missing cats soon.
Or at least what had happened to them.
POV
Squirrelpaw twined her tail with Stormfur's, a purr rising in her chest. She knew this was forbidden, but the way it made her feel-how could it be wrong?
"Come and get some rest" Stormfur meowed, liking her ear. "You're exhausted."
"So are you" Squirrelpaw observed. His tail was dropping and he let out a rasping cough.
Squirrelpaw lead the way to the overhang she had sheltered under earlier. Stormfur flopped down at once. There was no bedding and no time to gather any, but the two cats were glad of any shelter from the cold mountain wind.
They drowsily shared tongues until Squirrelpaw fell asleep, her head resting on Stormfur's gray flank.
Cats flitted like shadows in the dusk outside the peaceful den. A large stocky tom with long fur waited silently as a slim she-cat padded over to him.
"All clear?" the tom growled.
The she-cat shook her head. "There are two cats asleep under there" she hissed. She angled her ears towards the overhang. "Half-drowned by the look of it."
The tom flicked his tail dismissively. "Deal with them. You know what to do" he meowed, fixing the she-cat with his pale amber gaze.
The she-cat nodded and slipped away as silently as she had come.
Other cats padded from the shadows, creeping up to the overhang. At a signal from the she-cat they leapt.
A heavy weight crashed into Stormfur's stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He was surrounded by cats; rogues by the scent. Their ribs stuck out of their scruffy coats, but Stormfur could sense the power in their lean muscles.
Catching his breath, Stormfur scrambled to his paws and backed against the rock face. Beside him Squirrelpaw was snarling, her ginger fur fluffed out so she looked twice her normal size.
A hefty tom barreled into Stormfur, throwing him into the ground. Stormfur kicked out with his hind legs. The tom flew into the rock wall and Stormfur was on him in an instant, sinking his claws into the winded cats flesh. The tom shrieked and scrambled away into the darkness.
Stormfur whirled around to help Squirrelpaw. The apprentice was pinned by a large tabby she-cat. Stormfur sprang at the rogues, but a massive paw swatted him out of the air and pinned him to the ground. He could only watch, horrified, at what the rogue did next.
The tabby she-cat slashed her claws across Squirrelpaw's unprotected belly. The apprentice shrieked with pain as the scarlet blood flowed, splashing onto the stones.
The massive tom let go of Stormfur, aiming a blow at his head that sent him reeling as the rouges turning and vanished silently into the night.