"So long as we stay on the outskirts," Hol yleaf muttered.

The patrol slunk cautiously over the edge of the gul y and made for the red blur of Twoleg nests on the far side of the open stretch of cliff. Lionblaze felt thankful that the noise of crashing water was dying away behind him, though the wind stil thrust at him.

The sun had vanished, swal owed up by the sun- drown-place, and shadows were stretching across the grass. Lionblaze's stomach growled, and he remembered that he hadn't had so much as a sniff of fresh-kil since early that morning.

"We'l look for prey as soon as we get to the Twolegplace," Brackenfur promised when he heard the rumble of Lionblaze's bel y.

the rumble of Lionblaze's bel y.

And what sort of prey will we find there? Lionblaze wondered. I'm not eating kittypet food!

As they drew closer to the Twoleg nests, Lionblaze grew more and more anxious; he could tel from his Clanmates' bristling fur and flickering glances that they felt the same. Something black swooped down on them with a high-pitched chittering sound; Lionblaze threw himself to the ground and rol ed over, his teeth bared and his claws extended, in time to spot a bat fluttering away and vanishing into the growing darkness.

Birchfal suppressed a smal mrrow of laughter. "I wish you'd caught it," he mewed. "Then we might al have had a bite to eat."

"A pretty smal bite for the six of us," Lionblaze growled.

Lights were beginning to appear in the Twoleg nests, and the sky above them was lit by an eerie orange glow. Lionblaze wrinkled his nose against the strange scents and felt his neck fur bristle at the harsh, unfamiliar sounds.

Beside him, Hol yleaf's eyes were glowing and her tail was fluffed out to twice its size. Even Brambleclaw and Brackenfur were moving more cautiously as the huge Twoleg dens loomed up ahead.

"I don't think Sol lives with Twolegs," Brambleclaw meowed, "so we're more likely to find him-or cats who have seen him-near the edge."

He led the way across a stretch of softer grass, and halted in front of a tal fence made out of flat strips of wood. Lionblaze tasted the air; among many smel s he couldn't identify, he picked up the scents of Twoleg and dog.

"Each Twoleg nest has a smal piece of territory attached to it," Brambleclaw explained. "It's enclosed by a fence made of wood or red stones. I think that's the Twoleg way of marking their borders."

"How does he know so much about it?" Hol yleaf muttered suspiciously.

"There was a Twolegplace in the old forest,"

Brackenfur told her. "Right up against our territory.

Don't you remember the story of how Firestar wandered away from his Twolegs and met Graystripe in the forest?"

Hol yleaf shrugged. "I guess."

Brambleclaw led the way alongside the fence, toward a gap that was flooded by orange light.

Before they reached it, loud barking exploded from the other side of the fence; Lionblaze jumped as two dogs slammed their bodies against the flimsy wood.

He exchanged an alarmed glance with Hol yleaf.

What if the fence gives way?

"Run!" Brambleclaw yowled.

The patrol bolted along the fence and swerved through the gap. As soon as he set paw on the hard black stone at the end of the fence, Lionblaze was engulfed in a beam of piercing white light. A monster was charging straight for them!

Some cat let out a screech of terror. For a heartbeat, Lionblaze spotted his Clanmates outlined against the glare from the monster's eyes. Then he leaped back to the side of the Thunderpath, landing with a thump in the middle of some thorns.

When he dared to look up, the monster had slowed down and was turning into a gap behind one of the Twoleg nests. Sharp orange light shone down from tal stone trees standing in lines along both sides of the Thunderpath. Just opposite, Lionblaze spotted Birchfal sprawled at the foot of the fence, and Brackenfur balanced on top of it, his back arched and his tail straight up and bristling. Hol yleaf and Brambleclaw emerged side by side from the deep shadows under a tree.

"Birchfal ?" Lionblaze cal ed softly. "Are you okay?"

To his relief, the young tabby tom scrambled to his paws and gave his whiskers a shake. "I've got al the warriors in StarClan inside my head," he meowed.

"That thing was fierce!"

The thorns where Lionblaze had landed grew beside another gap in the Twoleg fence. His bel y lurched when he spotted another monster in front of the Twoleg den. Then his breathing steadied and his heart slowed down as he realized that this monster was asleep.

On the other side of the gap, a shiny Twoleg thing had tipped over, spil ing out a pile of rubbish.

Lionblaze's nose wrinkled at the scent of crow-food.

Then the heap heaved and Hazeltail emerged from the middle of it, shaking debris from her pelt.

"I knocked the thing over," she complained, "and now I'm covered with al this yucky stuff."

Lionblaze padded across to help her. Clinging to her pelt were scraps of something that smel ed like a her pelt were scraps of something that smel ed like a plant, but they were cold and slimy, like herbs picked and left in the rain to rot. Cautiously he stretched out a paw to knock them off; Hol yleaf and Brambleclaw bounded up to help.

"They taste vile." Hazeltail licked her shoulder and swiped her tongue around her lips as if she was trying to get rid of a disgusting taste. "I'd rather eat fox dung."

Brackenfur padded up and stood at the edge of the Thunderpath, keeping watch for more monsters.

His fur stil hadn't settled down; Lionblaze noticed that Brambleclaw looked just as ruffled as he helped Hazeltail clean her pelt.

Seeing the senior warriors' confidence shaken made Lionblaze feel a bit braver. "There can't have been dogs in the Twolegplace near the old forest,"

he murmured to Hol yleaf. "Even Brambleclaw was surprised."

"I wonder what else wil surprise us," Hol yleaf responded.

Meanwhile Birchfal had crossed the Thunderpath and was nosing around in the heap of debris that had fal en out of the shiny Twoleg thing. "Hey, look at this!" he meowed. "Brambleclaw, can we eat it?"

Lionblaze wasn't sure at first what his Clanmate was dragging out of the pile of rubbish. It was smooth and pale and smel ed a little like fresh-kil , though it was no kind of prey that he had ever seen before. The stink of Twolegs clung to it as wel ; Lionblaze knew he didn't want to eat it, but at the same time his bel y growled at the thought of food.

Brambleclaw sniffed the thing careful y and nibbled a bit from one side. "It tastes a bit like blackbird," he reported after a moment. "I don't think it wil hurt us to eat it, and we need food."

"I guess that means he doesn't think we'l catch much prey around here," Hol yleaf whispered into Lionblaze's ear.

Brambleclaw clawed the Twoleg prey into fair shares for each cat. Birchfal checked the rubbish again, but he didn't find any more prey.

"This isn't bad," Lionblaze mumbled to Hol yleaf around a mouthful of the stuff, "if you ignore the scent of Twolegs."

Hol yleaf was crouched over her share, eating it in neat, rapid bites. "Huh! Give me a good plump vole any day."

With the edge taken off his hunger, Lionblaze felt stronger, but as Brambleclaw led them farther into the Twolegplace, he started to feel trapped. The red stone nests reared up on either side, closer than the wal s of the hol ow and higher than the trees in the forest. His pads ached from walking on the hard stone. How can any cat live here?

The orange glare from the stone trees cast the cats' shadows huge and wavering on the wal beside them as they slunk along the edge of the Thunderpath. Suddenly Hol yleaf stiffened, flicking out her tail to touch Brambleclaw on the shoulder.

"There's something up ahead!" she hissed.

Lionblaze froze as Brambleclaw raised his tail for the patrol to halt. He half expected the roar of another monster, but nothing broke the silence except for the patter of approaching paws.

Hazeltail drew closer to his side; Lionblaze could feel her pelt quivering. "What if it's a dog?" she murmured.

"Then we fight it." Lionblaze flexed his claws.

He relaxed with a sigh as a smal black-and-white cat appeared from around the next corner. It halted and stared at the patrol in horror, its back arched and every hair on its pelt standing on end.

Almost immediately the newcomer started to back away, its terrified gaze stil fixed on the forest cats.

Before it could turn and flee, Brambleclaw took a single pace forward.

"We're not going to hurt you," he cal ed, lifting one forepaw to show his claws were sheathed. "We just want to talk to you."

"That's what he said!" The little cat looked almost frightened out of its fur. "And look what happened!"

Before Brambleclaw could ask what it meant, the black-and-white cat spun and fled back around the corner where it came from. Brambleclaw launched himself after it, with the whole patrol hard on his paws, but when they rounded the corner, the Thunderpath was empty. Nothing moved under the harsh orange light.

"Mouse dung!" Brambleclaw spoke through gritted teeth.

"What in the name of StarClan was he talking about?" Brackenfur asked, looking mystified.

Lionblaze exchanged a glance with Hol yleaf. He could see she shared the idea that had instantly flashed into his mind: Sol!

flashed into his mind: Sol!

"I wonder who 'he' is," Brambleclaw mused aloud, his ears twitching as he surveyed the silent Thunderpath. "Could it be Sol, do you think?"

"I bet a moon of dawn patrols it is!" Birchfal mewed excitedly.

"We don't look anything like Sol," Brambleclaw continued, his tone thoughtful. "But we're strangers, just as Sol must have been."

"And what happened?" Hazeltail shivered. "From the way that cat behaved, it must have been something bad."

No cat replied. Lionblaze's bel y fluttered. His Clanmates were looking edgy, their eyes wide with fear, as if they expected to find Sol under the next fal en leaf.

Final y Brambleclaw broke the silence. "It's too late to go on looking now. Let's get some rest and start a proper search in the morning."

He led the way back around the corner and along the Thunderpath, past the fence where the dogs had tried to attack. Everything was quiet now, though the scent of dog was stil strong; Lionblaze slid out his claws, ready to rip them along the vicious creatures'

pelts. But there was no sound from behind the fence.

Eventual y they reached the stretch of soft grass and trees they had crossed on their way to the Twolegplace.

Lionblaze and Hol yleaf settled into a makeshift den among the roots of one of the trees; the rest of the patrol found places nearby.

"I'm so tired my paws could drop off," Hol yleaf mumbled, stretching her jaws in a huge yawn.

"Mine, too." Lionblaze had been afraid that his worries and the strangeness of their surroundings would keep him awake, but when his aching body curled up among the dead leaves, he felt exhaustion pressing on him like a heavy pelt. As he drifted into sleep, he could stil hear the distant roaring of the sun-drown-place.

CHAPTER 9.

Jayfeather woke when a cold breeze ruffled his fur.

"We need more bedding in here," he grumbled to himself as he scrambled out of his bare nest. "It's as drafty as sleeping on top of the ridge in WindClan territory!"

He lifted his head to sniff the scents of early morning. There was a strong tang of herbs in the air; as Jayfeather bent his head to give his pelt a quick grooming, he located Leafpool in front of the storage cave. She was making up leaf wraps of tansy, and beside her there was a fresh mixture of juniper berries and daisy leaves to ease the pain of Mousefur's aching joints.

"Should I take those for you?" Jayfeather offered, padding up behind his mentor.

Leafpool jumped. "Don't creep up on me like that!

You frightened me out of my fur." She careful y patted the herbs together, then added, "No, I can manage. I want you to go over to the nursery and check every cat there, and the bedding, for fleas. I spotted Briarkit scratching yesterday."

Jayfeather turned away, resentment seething beneath his skin. "Am I a medicine cat or an apprentice?" he muttered, loud enough for Leafpool to hear, but the she-cat did not respond.

He cal ed a greeting as he pushed through the brambles into the nursery, and then he started to check for fleas.

"Oh, thank you, Jayfeather," Mil ie meowed. "I'm sure I've a couple in my pelt somewhere. It'l be such a relief to get rid of them."

"You need a change of bedding," Jayfeather told her, tracking down a flea in Briarkit's neck fur and spearing it with a claw. "I'l get Foxpaw and Icepaw to deal with it." Unless Leafpool expects me to do that as well, he added grumpily to himself.

"Right, you're done," he told Briarkit. "Blossomkit, I'l -"

He broke off with a startled yelp as claws stabbed into his tail. Wrenching it free, he spun around and picked up the scent of Toadkit.

"I pretended your tail was a mouse," the little tom told him proudly. "I caught it, too!"

Jayfeather bared his teeth. "Just keep your claws to yourself!"

"There's no need for that," Daisy protested. "He was only playing."

Jayfeather bit back a sharp retort and went to check Blossomkit and Bumblekit for fleas. Toadkit wriggled away from Daisy and bounced up to him, interest sparking from him as Jayfeather parted Blossomkit's pelt.

"Can you eat fleas?" he mewed. "Do they taste yucky?"

"Why don't you try one and find out?" Jayfeather suggested.