DAWN. Эрин Хантер

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      “Give her time to recover,” Cody advised. “The new ones are always quiet.”

      “I don’t need time to recover,” came a furious hiss. “How dare they put me in here? If I could get out, I’d rip that Twoleg to shreds!”

      “What were you doing in the forest?” Mistyfoot asked.

      “I wanted to see my kits,” Sasha replied. “I had heard about the Twolegs destroying the forest, and I wanted to make sure they were safe.”

      “I saw Mothwing not long ago!” Leafpaw mewed. “She was fine. She’s going to be a medicine cat.”

      “Who’s that speaking?” Sasha called.

      “I’m Leafpaw, ThunderClan’s apprentice medicine cat,” Leafpaw told her. “I’m friends with Mothwing.”

      “Do you know Hawkfrost too?” Sasha demanded. “Is he safe?”

      Leafpaw did not answer. Her paws prickled as she pictured Sasha’s other kit. He had an icy-blue gaze like the sky in leaf-bare, and his shoulders were as broad and powerful as those of a warrior of twice his age and experience. Last time Leafpaw had met him, he had threatened to drag Sorreltail back to the RiverClan camp because she had strayed across the border by mistake. Luckily, Mothwing had persuaded him to let Sorreltail go.

      Mistyfoot called from her cage, “Hawkfrost was fine when I saw him last.”

      “Thank goodness,” Sasha breathed.

      The relief in her voice surprised Leafpaw. “She sounds as worried as a Clan queen would be!” she whispered to Cody through the web that separated them.

      “Of course.” Cody had been listening quietly to the exchange. “She’s talking about her kits—she’s a she-cat just like any other, after all.”

      “But she gave them away to be raised in RiverClan!” Leafpaw exclaimed, almost forgetting to keep her voice low.

      “Why didn’t she let her own Clan raise them?” Cody sounded puzzled.

      “Sasha’s not a Clan cat,” Leafpaw explained. “She’s a rogue.”

      “That’s right, call me names just because I choose not to live among the rest of you,” Sasha growled, overhearing. “Not that I care, as long as my kits are safe.”

      “I’m sorry,” Cody apologised. “This is such a small nest it’s hard not to get involved.” She glanced sideways at the cage next to hers where a tattered black rogue crouched without giving any sign that he had heard their conversation. “With some cats, at least,” she added pointedly. Leafpaw knew that Cody had been trying to befriend the black tom but had not managed to get any answer from him except his name—Coal.

      “You’re a kittypet, aren’t you?” Sasha asked Cody bluntly. “You sound too polite for a rogue, and you look too fat to be a Clan cat.”

      Leafpaw saw Cody bristle. “Cody’s a friend!” she mewed, leaping to her defence.

      “I didn’t say she wasn’t,” Sasha meowed. “I’m just trying to work out who’s who in this place.”

      Mistyfoot explained: “They’re mostly rogues, but there are a few other forest cats here.” Gorsetail, Brightheart, and Cloudtail meowed greetings as Mistyfoot went on, “Cody’s the only kittypet, as far as we know.”

      “Have any of you worked out a way to escape from this foxhole?” Sasha asked.

      “Not yet,” Mistyfoot admitted.

      “Even StarClan hasn’t given us a clue,” Leafpaw added.

      “StarClan!” In the shadows, she saw Sasha curl her lip. “Do you Clan cats still believe in that nonsense after what’s happened to the forest?”

      “Of course we do!” Leafpaw hissed.

      “Well, say a prayer for me, little one,” Sasha sighed unexpectedly. “I think we’re all going to need as much help as we can get.”

      Sunhigh passed, and the tepid warmth of the afternoon sun began to fade.

      “Here comes the Twoleg again,” Cody called to the other cats.

      Over the distant grumbling of the Twoleg monsters, Leafpaw heard footsteps outside and instinctively crouched at the back of her cage. The nest door opened and the Twoleg came in carrying the food pellets.

      “There’s no way you’ll persuade that Twoleg to let us out of here by purring at it,” Leafpaw whispered to Cody as the Twoleg began opening the cages and putting in more food.

      “I guess not,” Cody shrugged. “But it won’t hurt to make him trust me.”

      As she spoke a hiss exploded from the cage next to her. The Twoleg leaped backward from Coal’s open door. Blood trickled down its forepaw as it stamped around the nest, spitting in rage. Leafpaw strained to see Coal through Cody’s cage. She could just make out his shadowy outline as he flattened himself against the floor. The blood pulsed in her ears as she glanced over her shoulder at the Twoleg. It had stopped screeching and was staring menacingly at Coal. Suddenly, with a vicious cry, it thrust its paw back into the cage, and Leafpaw heard the tom screech in pain. Muttering, the Twoleg slammed the door shut.

      Leafpaw shuddered. What had the Twoleg done?

      When the Twoleg opened Cody’s door and tipped pellets into her pot, the kittypet shied away. She was not purring at it now.

      As soon as the Twoleg had gone, Leafpaw yowled, “Are you OK, Coal?”

      A muffled groan came from the cage beyond Cody’s. “That stinking Twoleg!”

      Leafpaw sniffed the air and smelled the warm tang of blood.

      “It looks bad,” Cody whispered to Leafpaw. “There’s blood on the floor of his cage.”

      “Where are you hurt?” Leafpaw asked Coal.

      “I’ve cut my leg,” replied the rogue. “That badger-pawed Twoleg shoved me against something sharp.”

      Leafpaw thought quickly. What did Cinderpelt use to stop bleeding? “Can any cat reach a cobweb?” she called. “Come on; we have to help him!”

      “There’s one near me,” answered Gorsetail. “I think I can reach it. Hang on.”

      Peering down, Leafpaw saw Gorsetail’s tawny paw reach out from a cage below her. A large cobweb stretched from the floor of the nest to the top of his cage. He reached toward it, squeezing his foreleg through the hole in the side of his cage. Finally he managed to plunge his paw into the thick tangle and drag it down. Twisting his foreleg round, Gorsetail held the cobweb as far up towards Leafpaw as he could.

      Leafpaw flattened herself against the cage and pushed her paw through the shiny floor. It scraped against her fur but she clenched her teeth and forced her leg through a little more until she could take the wad of sticky cobweb from Gorsetail. She pulled it quickly into her cage and then began СКАЧАТЬ