Chapter 3

When Ragged Peak returned to the group, he found them all sharing tongues and eating mice. "Where'd you find all that fresh-kill?" Ragged Peak asked.

"The Twoleg dens are full of them." Moon Sky meowed.

"You mean you went into the twoleg dens?! Ragged Peak Yowled.

"No, they're just all around them." Moon Sky responded quickly.

"Oh- okay." Ragged Peak meowed. He looked around and saw lots of smooth brown sticks all next to each other. "We have to cross that!?" Ragged Peak yowled. Solar Song nodded and landed on top of it with a powerful leap. Ragged Peak tried to replicate what Solar Song did but fell short. Then Ragged Peak felt a sharp, stinging pain in his leg.

"It's okay Ragged Peak, you are still young, Moon Sky can help you-" Solar Song meowed, but was cut off by Ragged Peak. "Help!" Ragged Peak Whimpered. "My leg!"

"What happened?" Rose Wing asked.

"He fell and I think he hurt his leg." Solar Song observed.

"E-earlier a cat fell on me and hurt my leg and now I fell and I think it's broken!" Ragged Peak sniffled.

"Where did that happen?" Moon Sky asked from the back of the group.

"O-over there." Ragged Peak sniffled, pointing his paw. Moon Sky started the way Ragged Peak pointed "Wait! He's friendly!" Ragged Peak mewed after him urgently.

Moon Sky turned around and headed back towards the group with a sigh. "Shame." He meowed. "I wanted a fight." Everyone hopped over the sticks. Moon Sky grabbed Ragged Peak by the scruff and hopped over. "Thanks." Ragged Peak sighed exhausted from the pain and started limping along, even though it was excruciating.

Two sunrises had passed and they came across the edge of the forest. When they left the small forest they were in, much too small to live in, there were enormous mountain peaks far ahead.

"Woah!" Ragged Peak mewed astonished. "Do we have to climb Those?" He asked anxiously.

"Yes." Solar Song mewed "Follow me everyone." As they slowly climbed the mountain, they found a clump of tall trees. They decided to rest and go hunting. Everyone went out Except Ragged Peak and Rose Wing. Ragged Peak started pacing around the hard rock anxiously. He could almost taste the delicious mice the hunting parties would bring back. The silence between him and Rose Wing felt weird. He would always talk to her, but it seemed neither were in the mood to. Moon sky padded through the entrance with a mouse in his jaws.

"It's for you." Moon Sky Meowed.

"Thanks Moon Sky." Ragged Peak said. He had a few mouthfuls of the stringy mouse, and got up to keep climbing the mountain. It took very long to reach the peak. When they finally reached the peak of the mountain, Ragged peak started to feel sick and tired, and slowly started to close his eyes.

"What should we do with him?" A strange deep voice asked.

"I don't know, he seems dead." A voice said, that Ragged Peak could tell was a She-Cat. Ragged Peak jumped at the words, but he couldn't move. He tried to let out a yowl of distress, but all that came out was a low, quiet grunt.

"He's alive!" the She-Cat Exclaimed.

"Let's finish the job." the deep voiced cat growled, and unsheathed his claws

"No!" the She-Cat yowled. "He's just a kit!"

"So?" the deep voice meowed.

"Hawk!" The She-Cat mewed. "You are so vicious!" "I'm going to get cobwebs to stop the bleeding." I'm bleeding? Ragged Peak thought. then looked down to see his matted red fur. He let out a silent wail. The She-Cat came back with the cobwebs and started wrapping some around his belly.

Hawk let out a sigh. "You're always too soft on outsiders." Hawk leaped off of something Ragged Peak could not see. How did I get here? Ragged Peak wondered.

"Storm, get me those marigold leaves." The She-Cat asked.

"Alright Leaf." Storm meowed. Ragged Peak then realized there was a whole crowd around him. Where am I? He wondered. There were so many questions swirling in his mind that he could not ask.

"What should we do with him then?" Hawk asked the group of

Cats.

"Kill him!" a voice meowed.

"Yeah!" another meowed in approval.

"No!" Leaf yowled. "Anything else!"

"Well?" Hawk asked. "Any other ideas?"

"How about he must leave before midnight?" Storm said, returning with the marigold leaves.

"That is far too quickly." Leaf replied. "He has to heal." "Midnight tomorrow.

"Midnight tomorrow." Hawk agreed. Midnight tomorrow.