Moonrise

Chapter 10

Moonlight shone into the cave, turning the waterfall into a sheet of rippling silver. Stormfur felt as though the day had lasted a moon, and now even the shallow, sandy dips in the cave floor were looking as comfortable as his nest among the reeds back home.

Stoneteller had returned and showed the forest cats to sleeping hollows at the side of the main cave, their curved sides lined with a sparse layer of moss and feathers. "You may rest here," he meowed. "Stay many days—for as long as you want. You are all welcome here."

Once he was gone, Brambletuft beckoned with his tail for all his friends to gather around. "We need to talk," he mewed. "How long do you think we should stay here?"

Crowpaw's tail lashed from side to side. "I don't know how you can ask that!" he rasped. "I thought we were on a mission. What about taking Midnight's news to the forest?"

"Crowpaw's right," Stormfur meowed, stifling a brief stab of annoyance that he had to agree with the WindClan apprentice. "I think we should leave as soon as we're strong enough."

"Me too," mewed Tawnypelt. "Leaf-bare's coming, and there'll be snow up here."

"But what about your shoulder?" Brambletuft reminded her. Since their plunge over the waterfall, she'd been limping on three legs, and a trickle of blood ran down her shoulder, seeping between her claws. "We've got to stay until the rat bite is better. We'd all get on faster after that."

Tawnypelt's neck fur bristled. "I knocked it again, that's all. If you think I'm holding you back," she spat, "then just come out and say so."

"Brambletuft didn't mean that." Feathertail brushed her side comfortingly against Tawnypelt's flank, taking care to avoid the injury. "That's more than just a knock. It looks like you've done as much damage as before, and it won't heal if we don't rest."

Swiftpaw looked thoughtful. "It definitely sounded as if the Tribe was unwilling to let us leave. If they've lived here for so long, and something is now frightening them, it's likely we'll meet whatever it is later on. Are we sure leaving so soon is the best option when we don't know these mountains?"

The other cats looked uneasily at one another. Stormfur admitted to himself that the thought had crossed his mind too. Part of him wanted to stay safely in the cave for as long as they could, if the alternative was unknown terror among the rocks and precipices of the mountains.

"It'll be risky whenever we leave," Crowpaw pointed out. "Okay, I agree about Tawnypelt, but let's get Stoneteller to fix her shoulder, and then go."

"That's all very well," Squirrelpaw broke in, her green eyes glittering in the moonlight. "But we're all assuming we can leave whenever we want."

"What do you mean? They wouldn't dare stop us!" Crowpaw exclaimed.

Squirrelpaw snorted. "I'll bet you my next piece of fresh-kill that they would. Look over there."

She flicked her ears toward the cave entrance. A cave-guard was seated on either side, making no secret of the fact that they were keeping an eye on the newcomers.

"Perhaps they're guarding the cave from enemies outside," Feathertail meowed.

"We could always try leaving," Crowpaw suggested, the tip of his gray-black tail twitching. "Then we'd see what happened."

"No." Brambletuft's voice was firm. "It would be mouse-brained to leave right now. We're all tired out, and we need to sleep. Tomorrow we'll see how Tawnypelt's shoulder is, and figure out when we can leave."

There was a murmur of agreement. Not even Crowpaw wanted more trouble just then, and it was not long before the forest cats were settling into their sleeping hollows, huddled together against the curious stares that darted at them from all around the cave.