"Odd, but not unpleasant," Mousefur mewed. "I'd have clawed Leafpool's ears off if she fed me something disgusting! It tasted cold, like frost on fur, and fresh like grass, even though it was dry and dusty-from right at the back of Leafpool's store, I'd guess."

"How weird." Jayfeather gave the twig another crack. "It's not like Leafpool to get herbs muddled up."

Mousefur snorted. "She was al over the place, trying to help Squirrelflight care for you kits! The fuss she made, any cat would think Squirrelflight was the first queen ever to give birth!"

"Real y..." Jayfeather murmured.

Quickly finishing his examination of Longtail's fur -and finding a real flea, which he crunched between his teeth-he said good-bye to the elders and headed into the forest to gather moss. As he tugged mouthfuls of it from between the roots of a tree, he wondered what Mousefur's mystery herb could have been. It was strange that Leafpool hadn't told Mousefur what the herb was or who it had been meant for. And stranger stil that Leafpool, who was always so careful, had made a mistake.

I need to find out what the herb was, Jayfeather thought, gathering up his moss to carry it back to the camp.

When he returned to the medicine cats' den, he found that Leafpool had already gathered more bedding while he was talking to the elders. "Did you bedding while he was talking to the elders. "Did you go to RiverClan to find that moss?" she demanded.

"Or have you been mooning about in the forest again?"

"Uh...no." Jayfeather dropped his bundle and started to arrange it in his own nest. "I thought I'd check on the elders first." When Leafpool didn't respond, he added, "Mousefur told me a weird story.

She said you gave her a funny-tasting herb once, mixed up with her tansy."

A pulse of alarm came from Leafpool, but she mewed, "I don't remember that. When was this?"

"Oh, a long time ago." Something told Jayfeather not to be too specific. He didn't want his mentor to know that he had been asking questions about his birth. "Do you know what it was?"

Leafpool let out an annoyed hiss. "How am I supposed to know that? For StarClan's sake, do you think I don't have more important things to worry about?"

"I was just-"

"If you're so bored that you have to start asking about something that happened last leaf-bare, I can soon find you something to do. We're stil short of moss in here, so you can get on with that."

"Okay." Jayfeather was glad to leave. But I never mentioned last leaf-bare, he thought as he padded across the clearing. He had sensed his mentor's fear, too. Leafpool was lying. She knows what the herb was, and she knows it's important. I must be getting close to the truth-and Leafpool doesn't want me to find it.

CHAPTER 13.

Hollyleaf blinked in surprise when she woke among the stone wal s of the Twoleg nest instead of under the branches of the warriors' den in the ThunderClan camp. Then she remembered their journey to find Sol, and how Jingo had brought them to this abandoned Twoleg nest to save them from the dogs.

As Hol yleaf sat up, her brother yawned and stretched. "I don't like this place," he muttered. "It's time we left."

Hol yleaf murmured agreement. It wasn't right for warriors to be so close to al this Twoleg stuff, even though there were no Twolegs here.

The pale light of dawn flooded into the den through the gap in the wal . Looking around, Hol yleaf saw that Birchfal and Hazeltail were stil asleep.

Brackenfur was perched on the ledge under the gap where Hussar had sat the night before. There was no sign of Brambleclaw, but a moment later he sprang up from outside and squeezed through the gap to sit beside Brackenfur.

"Al 's quiet," he reported. "But there's a strong smel of dog."

Hol yleaf twitched her whiskers; she could pick up the rank scent even here.

"We have to get moving," Brackenfur meowed.

"Have you seen Jingo?"

Brambleclaw shook his head. Speckle and her kits were curled up in a furry heap on one of the soft boulders, while Fritz and Pod were sleeping on the other. There was no sign of the other Twolegplace cats.

"She'l be here somewhere." Brambleclaw jumped down inside the nest. "I think we can trust her."

He padded over to prod Birchfal and Hazeltail awake. As the two younger warriors were blinking sleep away, Jingo padded in through the entrance to the den.

"Good, you're ready," she mewed, with a brisk nod of greeting. "Let's go."

She led the way into the Twoleg territory through the gap in the wal . "This journey's going to be a bit different," she warned the Clan cats when they were al in the raw, damp air of the leaf-bare morning. "We won't be setting paw to the ground until we get where we're going."

Hol yleaf shot a startled glance at her Clanmates, and saw that they were al looking equal y surprised.

How could they get anywhere if their paws didn't touch the ground? Was Jingo expecting them to fly?

"It's not safe to walk around on the ground since the battle with the dogs," Jingo explained. "The dogs lie in wait for us and hunt us like prey."

Shuddering, Hol yleaf leaned closer to Lionblaze.

"That's exactly what happened to us yesterday."

Her brother nodded; his amber eyes were gleaming and his claws flexed as if he was imagining his chance to slash a dog that attacked him or his Clanmates. Better to stay out of their way, Hol yleaf thought.

"So we've found a different way of moving around our territory," Jingo went on. Graceful y she leaped up onto the top of the Twoleg fence. "Ready?" she cal ed, glancing over her shoulder at the Clan cats.

Brambleclaw quickly leaped up beside her, fol owed by the rest of the patrol. Jingo set off, balancing easily on the narrow fence, then turning a corner to pad past several Twoleg dens, with a smal Thunderpath on the other side.

Hol yleaf stiffened as the door to one of the Twoleg nests opened and a little white dog bolted out; its high-pitched yapping fil ed the air.

"It's okay," Jingo reassured the Clan cats. "That's a housedog. It's a stupid nuisance, just like al the others, but it's not dangerous like the wild dogs."

others, but it's not dangerous like the wild dogs."

Hol yleaf had to take her word for it, but as she watched the dog bounding along the bottom of the fence and scrabbling about in the earth under a bush, she was glad that she wasn't down below where it could get at her. She dug her claws more firmly into the narrow strip of wood under her paws and focused on the tip of Lionblaze's tail.

The fence came to an end at a row of smal dens with flat roofs. "These are monster nests," Jingo told them, leaping up onto the nearest roof.

"Monsters have nests?" Hazeltail exclaimed.

"Sure." Jingo waved her tail to where a Twoleg was approaching at the edge of the Thunderpath.

"Watch."

The Clan cats jumped up onto the roof beside her and watched the Twoleg as it opened the door of one of the dens and vanished inside. A moment later they heard the throaty growl of a monster. It nosed its way out of the den and headed down the Thunderpath, with the Twoleg in its bel y.

"Great StarClan, this is where they sleep!"

Birchfal 's neck fur was bristling.

"Yes, but they can't climb up here," Jingo meowed. "Let's get on."

The patrol easily bounded across the flat roofs until the cats came to another fence and more Twoleg dens. Daylight was strengthening and a stiff wind had sprung up; Hol yleaf gripped with her claws at every step, scared that she would be blown off her skinny perch. So this was what Jingo meant by not setting paw on the ground. Not flying, but staying high up, out of reach of the wild dogs. She tried to imagine not daring to set paw on the ground in the forest, and having to leap from tree to tree to avoid being chased and kil ed.

No cat should be forced to live like this.

At the next corner, the fence gave way to a wal built of red stone; the top was wider and it was easier to pad along. The Thunderpath here was wider too, with stone trees growing at both edges, and a few monsters prowling along it. Every so often the wal was interrupted by a lower section of wooden fence; Jingo slid down onto it, padded quickly across, and leaped up onto the wal on the other side. The Clan cats fol owed. Hol yleaf's pelt prickled with fear as she remembered how the dog pack had leaped the low fence the day before; but no dogs appeared, and every cat reached the other side of the wooden fence safely.

Farther along the wal , Jingo halted; peering past her, Hol yleaf saw that one of the wooden sections had been swung back, leaving a gap between their stretch of wal and the next. As if at a signal, a flurry of barking broke out somewhere behind them, and a gust of wind brought the scent of dogs.

"We'l have to jump," Jingo decided. "Get back a bit; leave me space for a running start."

Once the Clan cats had shuffled backward, Jingo bounded along the wal and took off from the end in a powerful leap, landing neatly on the other side. The Clan cats glanced at one another; Hol yleaf could see that Hazeltail and Birchfal were both looking nervous.

"I'l go next," she meowed, deciding it would be better to get this over with than to watch her Clanmates go ahead of her. She hurtled along the wal and into the air before she could think about the wide gap and the nearby dogs.

Her paws hit the red stone of the wal and Jingo jumped forward to steady her.

"Wel done," the brown tabby mewed. "Move along to give the others space."

Hol yleaf squeezed past her, turning in time to see Brackenfur leaping easily across the gap. Birchfal fol owed him; the young warrior's front paws landed on the wal , but his hind paws dangled down. His eyes were huge with fear as the barking grew louder and two dogs raced round the corner. Quick as lightning, Brackenfur grabbed Birchfal 's scruff in his teeth and hauled him the rest of the way; his tail whisked up just in time, out of reach of the leading dog's teeth.

Birchfal shuddered. "Thanks, Brackenfur. I thought I was dog food for sure."

Hazeltail was shivering on the other side of the gap, gazing down in terror at the barking dogs as they reared up on their hind legs and scrabbled at the wal . "I can't, Brambleclaw," she whispered. "I just can't. I know I'l fal ."

"No, you won't," the Clan deputy assured her.

"You're good at jumping. You'l be fine."

"If you fal , I'l leap down and fight the dogs,"

Lionblaze promised.

With a despairing look at both of them, Hazeltail moved back a couple of fox-lengths and bounded up moved back a couple of fox-lengths and bounded up to the end of the wal . Both dogs hurled themselves at her as she leaped, but she cleared the gap with a tail-length to spare, and was welcomed on the other side by a quick lick on her ear from Birchfal .

Lionblaze fol owed and then Brambleclaw, and the cats set off again, with the dogs pacing alongside a fox-length below, whining and yelping in frustration at not being able to reach their prey. Hol yleaf wondered if there was any way of shaking them off.

The Twolegplace wouldn't last forever. Sooner or later they would have to come down to the ground, and then they would be ripped to pieces.

"Where do you think you're going?"

A new voice came from up ahead: Hol yleaf spotted a huge blue-furred tom standing nose to nose with Jingo. He had the sleek, wel -fed look of a kittypet, but his neck fur was beginning to fluff up and his blue eyes were unfriendly.

"Just passing through," Jingo replied calmly.

"Wel , get a move on," the kittypet growled. "I'm going home for some sleep. I don't want to listen to that racket al day. Those dogs wouldn't even be here if you hadn't brought them."

Anger lit up Lionblaze's eyes, and he began to push forward along the edge of the wal to stand beside Jingo. Hol yleaf's fur prickled. Starting a fight here would probably end with both cats fal ing off the wal into the waiting jaws of the dogs.

Brambleclaw raised his tail to halt Lionblaze.

"Stay out of it, unless the kittypet attacks," he ordered. "Let Jingo handle it."

Lionblaze obeyed, but he kept his furious gaze fixed on the kittypet.

"You're the one who's holding us up," Jingo replied, stil calm. "If you weren't stuck there in the way, we'd be long gone."

The blue-furred tom let out an angry snort, but said nothing more. Instead he leaped down into the Twoleg territory, raced across to the nest, and vanished through a smal hole in the door.

Hol yleaf relaxed; they had more important things to do than teach kittypets some manners. Stil with the dogs fol owing, they padded farther along the wal until they came to another corner.

"This is where we can get rid of the dogs," Jingo told them. Turning the corner, she led the way along a narrow wooden fence between two Twoleg dens.

There was no way for the dogs to fol ow, even though they tried to push themselves into the gap at the foot of the fence. Their frustrated yelping sounded behind Hol yleaf as she and her Clanmates approached the nest.

"This way-and watch where you're putting your paws." Jingo sprang up onto a narrow, flat area above the entrance to the Twoleg nest, then clawed her way up a creeper that grew alongside it until she reached the edge of the Twoleg roof. "It's not hard!"

she cal ed down, beckoning with her tail.

"And hedgehogs can fly!" Birchfal muttered.

But when it was Hol yleaf's turn to climb, she realized that Jingo was right. The creeper had thick, twisted stems that created plenty of paw holds, and it was strong enough to bear even the weight of Brambleclaw and Lionblaze. But the edge of the roof felt unsteady, and Hol yleaf tried unsuccessful y to dig her claws in, terrified that the wind would blow her off.

"Where now?" Brambleclaw panted as he hauled himself over the edge to stand beside Jingo.

As an answer, the brown tabby she-cat began scrambling up the steep slope of the roof. "This is a good shortcut," she meowed.

"We can't go up there!" Hazeltail gasped. "We'l fal !"

"If Jingo can do it, we can do it," Brackenfur declared firmly. "Up you go, Hazeltail. I'l be right behind you."

Slipping and scrabbling, the Clan cats clawed their way up the slope to where Jingo was sitting with her tail curled round her paws, at the very top of the roof next to a couple of tree stumps made of stone.

"It's great up here," she mewed as Hol yleaf struggled up the last fox-length to join her.

"Sometimes I come just to look."

You come up here even if you don't have to?

Hol yleaf felt as if her claws had been worn away in the desperate climb. A sharp ridge stretched away in both directions; it felt far too narrow to balance on.