Twilight

Chapter 9

"Hey, Squirrelflight!"

Squirrelflight looked up from the mouse she was eating beside the fresh-kill pile. Her fur was ruffled uncomfortably by a cold wind. The weather had been gray and blustery for several days and the promise of early greenleaf had vanished.

"Want to go for a hunt?" Cloudtail asked, strolling up to her. "Brackenfur and Spiderleg are coming."

"Great!" Squirrelflight replied.

Brackenfur was talking to Ashfur and the two apprentices near the thorn tunnel. He seemed to be giving them an order, waving his tail for emphasis. Then Ashfur led the two apprentices toward the elders' den, while Brackenfur strode over to join Squirrelflight and Cloudtail.

"Ashfur is going to supervise Larchpaw and Birchpaw while they do their duties for the elders," he explained. "Longtail is busy helping collect supplies to reinforce the nursery right now then he's going to join them out on a practice hunt. Besides, those two are always asking to train together."

Squirrelflight could understand why. There are no other apprentices and the two had been alone in the nursery since the Clan came to their new territory. Squirrelflight remembered how much fun it had been to train with others when she was an apprentice. Her best friend then had been Shrewpaw, who had been killed by a monster before they started their journey to the lake; she would have liked to train with Leafpool as well as Cloudtail and Swiftpaw, but right from a tiny kit her sister had seemed to know that her path led to the medicine cat's den.

Swallowing the last gulp of mouse, Squirrelflight sprang to her paws. "Where are we going?" she asked, licking a paw and swiping it over her jaws to remove the traces of fresh-kill.

"I thought we might try the stream close to the lake," Brackenfur replied. "There's good cover there, plenty of places for prey to hide. Where's Spiderleg?" he added.

Before Cloudtail could answer, the long-legged black warrior pushed his way out through the branches of the warriors' den and bounded across the clearing. "What are we waiting for?" he demanded.

"You." Cloudtail flicked his tail over Spiderleg's ear. "Let's go."

Wing thrashed the branches above their heads and almost flattened the ferns as the four cats headed toward the stream. Squirrelflight shivered as if tugged her fur the wrong way, but there was something exhilarating about it too, as if it would make her senses keener and her paws run faster. Gradually she quickened her pace until she was racing through the woods with her tail streaming out behind her.

"Wait for us!" Brackenfur called.

Cloudtail was running alongside her, his white pelt almost brushing hers, and Brackenfur caught up on her other side. With a yowl of triumph Spiderleg flashed past all three of them, his long legs eating up the ground.

"Don't go too far ahead!" Cloudtail panted. "You'll scare all the prey."

Squirrelflight slowed down; the run had stretched her muscles and made her feel she had enough energy for anything. They caught up with Spiderleg near the top of the bank that led down to the stream; he twitched his tail, warning them to keep silent, and Squirrelflight saw that he had spotted a starling. He dropped into the hunter's crouch, waggling his hindquarters as he crept up on the bird. He was ready to pounce when suddenly the wind changed, parting the grasses that had concealed Spiderleg from his prey. The starling let out a loud alarm call. Spiderleg leapt, but the bird fluttered away from his outstretched forepaws and vanished into a tree.

Spiderleg turned back to his Clanmates with his tail drooping. "Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for," Brackenfur meowed to the younger warrior. "It was just bad luck, the wind changing like that."