Warriors: A New Beginning #1: The Beginning

Chapter 18

"The prisoner has escaped!"

That cry woke Wavepelt up. Her eyes flew open, and she saw Bushpaw sitting beside her.

"Did you stay awake all night?" she asked. "You look tired."

"I needed to keep watch!" Bushpaw protested.

"You know, you don't have to take care of me like I'm a kit," Wavepelt said, amused. She glanced at the rogue camp entrance, her face now more serious. "We need to move. Now."

Bushpaw nodded. "Do you need to lean on me?"

Wavepelt managed to stand up. She staggered forward a few pawsteps.

"No—" she started, then lost her footing and crumpled to the ground. Sighing, she stood back up. "I guess I do. It's better than yesterday, though."

She leaned onto Bushpaw and they quietly padded along the camp wall, and noticed that several rogues were beginning to run out of the camp.

"We'll need to be careful," she warned. "Any ideas on avoiding the guard?"

"Who says we have to do that?" Bushpaw's eyes glimmered with malice. "I have an idea."

***

"Really, Bushpaw?" Wavepelt was surprised. "You think that'll work?"

Bushpaw shrugged. "I think so."

They were at the back of the camp wall, constructed sturdily of brambles. They like brambles a lot, Wavepelt remarked. And it looks like they spent moons on this wall. Where could they have possibly gotten the resources?

"I'm starting it!" Bushpaw began digging a tunnel under the wall.

I still think that this idea won't work. Wavepelt couldn't imaging a cat digging a tunnel then squeezing through it to go under the wall. That was Bushpaw's idea. It could work, she admitted silently. But really?

"I'm done," Bushpaw announced.

"Already?" Wavepelt mewed skeptically.

"Of course!" the brown apprentice exclaimed. "Look for yourself."

He had dug a pretty good tunnel, passing under the wall and into the camp.

"We just have to slip under it and then, ta-da! We're in the camp," Bushpaw meowed. "I'll go first."

He stuck his head into the hole, along with his front paws. Slowly he moved forward, crouching, until his whole body had disappeared.

"I'm in the camp!" Wavepelt heard him say. "Your turn!"

"You're sure it's not too small?" Wavepelt asked worriedly.

"It felt like it could fit twice my size," Bushpaw answered.

"O-okay," Wavepelt said reluctantly. Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the tunnel. For a moment she saw nothing but darkness, then she could see Bushpaw at the end of the tunnel.

"Good!" Bushpaw exclaimed. "Now you just have to get out."

Wavepelt tried to slip out of the tunnel, but she wouldn't budge.

"I can't move!" she cried. "I'm stuck."

"I'll widen the tunnel." Bushpaw started digging next to the tunnel to make it bigger.

At the same moment Wavepelt heard voices.

"I scent her. With another cat."

"That must have been what freed her. They went this way."