A Dangerous Path

Chapter 8

The sun was rising over the trees as Skyfall and her patrol approached Snakerocks, on the opposite side of the territory to the river. The fire had not reached this far; the undergrowth was still lush and greed, though leaves had begun to fall.

"Hold on," Skyfall meowed to Thornpaw as the apprentice dashed toward the rocks. "Don't forget there are adders around here."

Thornpaw skidded to a halt. "Sorry, Skyfall."

Since Bluestar had refused to make them warriors, Skyfall had made a point of spending time with all the apprentices in turn, including at least one of them in every patrol, in an attempt to show them that the Clan still valued them. Swiftpaw's scowl suggested that he was resentful of the delay, but Thornpaw did not seem to mind waiting for his full warrior status.

Mousefur, Thornpaw's mentor, padded up to him. "Tell me what you can smell."

Thornpaw stood with his head raised and jaws parted, drinking in the air. "Mouse!" he mewed almost at once, swiping his tongue around his mouth.

"Yes, but we're not hunting now," Mousefur reminded him. "What else?"

"The Thunderpath—over there." Thornpaw gestured with his tail. "And dog."

Skyfall, who had been lapping water from a hollow in the ground, pricked her ears. Tasting the air, she realized that Thornpaw was right. There was a strong scent of dog, and it was fresh.

"That's odd," she commented. "Unless the Twolegs were up very early, that scent should be stale. Last night at the latest."

She remembered Whitestorm's report of finding trampled undergrowth and scattered pigeon feathers near Snakerocks. The place had smelled of dog then, but that scent would not have survived for this long.

"We'd better take a good look around," she meowed.

Ordering Thornpaw not to leave his mentor, Skyfall sent the other cats into the trees while she crept closer to the rocks. Before she reached them, she was called back by Mousefur.

"Come and look at this!"

Skirting a bramble thicket, Skyfall joined the brown warrior and looked down into a small, steep-sided clearing. There was a stagnant pool of greenish water at the bottom, choked with fallen leaves. The sharp scent of crushed ferns reached Skyfall's scent glands, but it was barely noticeable under the overpowering stench of dog. Pigeon feathers were scattered all around, and scraps of fur that might have been squirrel or rabbit. A little way down the slope, Thornpaw sniffed at a pile of dog dung, and recoiled with a snort of disgust.

Skyfall forced herself to take in every detail of the scene. Twoleg dogs didn't usually stay in the forest long enough to leave this many traces, trampling the undergrowth and scattering the remains of prey until the forest reeked like a fox's hole. Seeing it with her own eyes made her realize that something was definitely wrong.

"What do you think?" asked Mousefur.

"I don't know." Skyfall was reluctant to voice her worries. "It looks as if there might be a dog loose in the forest, free from the Twolegs."

Was that what the Twolegs had been looking for? she wondered, suddenly remembered the three who had come in the monster when she was hunting in Tallpines with Sandstorm. But that had been a long way from here, on the other side of ThunderClan territory.

"What are we going to do?" Thornpaw piped in, looking unusually serious.

"I'll report it to Bluestar," Skyfall decided. "If there is a dog wandering around in our territory, we'll need to do something about it. Maybe we can lead it away somehow."