"You cal yourselves warriors?" Brambleclaw's voice was scathing. "That was pure panic. The horses were inside their nests. There was no danger until you decided to hurl yourselves into the path of a monster."

"Sorry," Lionblaze muttered. Searing shame swept over him, hot as a forest fire. Brambleclaw's harsh words stung al the more painful y because he knew the deputy was right. They had acted like apprentices on their first venture out of the camp.

Hazeltail's head was hanging in shame, and Hol yleaf had turned away, lifting each paw in turn to shake the dirty water off her fur. Lionblaze knew how much it meant to her to uphold the warrior code; she must be furious with herself for being spooked like that. And what about you? he demanded silently.

The bravest warrior in ThunderClan, scared of a horse that isn't even loose?

Brambleclaw let out a long sigh and relaxed. "Al right. Let's see about getting across here."

Lionblaze heard the roar of another monster as the Clan deputy padded forward cautiously to the edge of the Thunderpath. The gleaming creature leaped past in a blaze of light; from the other direction, an even bigger monster came barreling along with a throaty growl, its round black paws as big as boulders.

How are we ever going to cross? We'll be squashed flat!

He could see that Hazeltail and Hol yleaf were stil scared, their fur on end and their eyes wide with alarm. He knew he must look just the same. He braced himself to force his paws to carry him across the hard, black surface of the Thunderpath.

"Come up here beside me," Brambleclaw directed them calmly. "We'l cross one at a time.

Brackenfur, you can go first, to show them how it's done."

Brackenfur twitched his ears in acknowledgment.

"It's not so bad," he told the younger cats kindly. "The Thunderpath in the old forest was much bigger than this."

Birchfal 's fur bristled. "Then I'm glad we don't live there anymore!"

there anymore!"

Brackenfur padded up beside Brambleclaw and waited for another monster to sweep past. Its roar died away in the distance.

"Okay, go," mewed Brambleclaw.

Brackenfur leaped forward, his golden brown pelt almost vanishing in the swirling snow. When he reached the other side, everything was stil quiet.

"Hol yleaf, go!"

Taking a gulp of air, Hol yleaf hurled herself across the Thunderpath. Lionblaze dug his claws into the ground, trying to stop himself from shaking, until he saw her reach Brackenfur's side safely.

The growling of another monster was approaching through the snow. Lionblaze flinched back as it came into sight: a huge creature in glaring colors. His heart raced even faster when he saw several Twolegs in its bel y as it flashed past.

Did it eat them? Will it eat us?

"Lionblaze, now you go."

Summoning al his courage, Lionblaze stepped up beside Brambleclaw and launched himself forward.

For a few heartbeats his world was ful of the choking stink of the monster that had just passed by, and the black stuff scraped his pads as he raced across.

Then he was standing on a narrow strip of grass between the Thunderpath and a prickly hedge, and Hol yleaf was pressing her pelt against his.

"We did it," she murmured.

"You know, Birchfal is right," Lionblaze whispered back, as his heartbeat gradual y calmed. "If the old Thunderpath was worse than this, I wouldn't want to live near it, either!"

A moment later Hazeltail joined them, and then Birchfal . A stream of monsters fol owed, leaving Brambleclaw marooned on the other side. Final y the last of the monsters disappeared, though Lionblaze could stil hear their roaring in the air.

Brambleclaw bounded out onto the Thunderpath, racing for the other side. Another monster appeared in the distance, and Birchfal screeched, "Look out!"

The Clan deputy didn't break stride. Long before the monster swept past, he was safely across, among his Clanmates.

"See, nothing to it." He flicked an ear dismissively.

"Now let's keep going."

The wet leaves and debris under the branches of the hedge plastered themselves to Lionblaze's bel y fur as he flattened himself to crawl into the next field.

A strong scent flooded over him as he struggled to his paws on the other side. He felt as though he ought to remember it, but the memory slipped away from him like an elusive piece of prey.

"What are those?" Hazeltail asked nervously, angling her ears toward the center of the field.

Lionblaze peered through the snowflakes. Ahead of them, clustered together in smal groups, were several huge animals with black-and-white pelts. As he examined them, one of them raised its head and let out a low, mournful sound.

"Cows!" Hol yleaf exclaimed, coming to stand beside her brother. "You remember, Lionblaze. We saw them on the way to the mountains."

"Cows-of course." Lionblaze's mind flew back to the time when they had encountered the old loner, Purdy. He had shown the cows to them as they passed a farm; his mother-no, Squirrelflight-had told them the massive creatures weren't dangerous, provided they didn't step on you.

"The cows are okay," Brambleclaw reassured Hazeltail, as he emerged from the hedge. "They won't attack us."

Hazeltail gave him a doubtful look, and as Brackenfur took the lead across the field, Lionblaze was inclined to share her concern.

The cows gathered around them, gazing down at them with huge liquid eyes. Lionblaze was far closer to their stony feet than he wanted to be, and he didn't like the looks of the big curved claws sticking out of their heads. Fighting techniques wouldn't be much use against animals this size. The cows bent down and sniffed at the cats' fur with hot, wet breath; Lionblaze thought he was going to choke on the strong reek of their scent, and their doleful moaning almost deafened him.

As Brackenfur led them calmly through the forest of legs, one of the long, swishing tails gave Hol yleaf a stinging slap in the face. She leaped backward, cannoning into Lionblaze.

"Fox dung!" she snapped.

Lionblaze steadied her until she got her balance.

"I'm starting to wonder if this is such a great adventure," she muttered, with a glance at Hazeltail, who nodded vigorously in agreement. "The journey to the mountains was much easier than this, even with the dogs in the barn."

And there was some point to that journey, Lionblaze added silently. We weren't just looking for a cat I know isn't a murderer.

Leaving the cows behind, the cats trekked through the snow toward the other side of the field. Lionblaze tasted the air for Sol's scent, but he couldn't pick up a trace of it.

I can't smell anything except cow, he grumbled silently. I can barely find my own Clanmates!

To his relief, he soon made out the next hedge, looming black against the swirling snow. The patrol plodded up to it and halted in the shelter of the thickly packed thorns.

"We'l never get through there!" Birchfal exclaimed, his eyes wide with dismay. "We'l be ripped to pieces."

"No, we won't," Brambleclaw mewed. "We just need to look for a place where the hedge is thinner."

He began to lead the way along the bottom of the hedge. I hope we don't have to go back, Lionblaze thought miserably, trying to shake the snow off his pelt.

His heart fel even further when he made out the roar of another Thunderpath, somewhere on the other side of the hedge. "Not again!" he muttered.

At last Brambleclaw halted. "This might do." He pointed with his muzzle at a spot in the hedge where two arching branches left a tiny gap between them.

"Lionblaze, wil you give it a try?"

Lionblaze nodded and stepped forward, testing the width of the gap with his whiskers. Then he flattened himself to the ground and dragged himself forward. Thorns raked across his back, and he felt his fur snag on them as he struggled through to the other side and scrambled to his paws.

"It's okay," he cal ed.

As Hol yleaf and Birchfal fol owed, Lionblaze looked out over a vast white landscape. The ground sloped gently down to the Thunderpath he had sloped gently down to the Thunderpath he had heard: It was much wider than the first one, with monsters roaring up and down in both directions.

Glaring Twoleg lights edged it on both sides.

We'll never get across that! he thought despairingly.

A startled yowl distracted him; spinning around, he saw Hazeltail emerging from the hedge and pawing frantical y at her muzzle.

"I've got a thorn in my nose!" she wailed.

"Let me see." Hol yleaf padded up to her. "Keep stil , and stop clawing at it."

Hazeltail sat down, her eyes fil ed with pain. The thorn was a huge one, firmly embedded in her nose.

Bright blood wel ed out around it.

Lionblaze watched his sister using the medicine cat skil s she had learned long ago from Leafpool.

Hol yleaf licked the area around the thorn and got a good grip on it with her teeth. Pul ing firmly, she drew out the thorn and spat it onto the ground. More blood gushed out of Hazeltail's nose and splashed onto the snow.

"Ouch!" Hazeltail protested.

"We real y need some water to rinse the blood away and close the wound," Hol yleaf meowed.

Lionblaze glanced around, ready to fetch some for her, but there was no sign of any streams....

"Press your muzzle into the snow," Hol yleaf instructed Hazeltail. "That wil stop the bleeding."

Blinking doubtful y, Hazeltail dipped her head and buried her nose in a patch of clean white snow. "It's very cold!" came a muffled meow.

"Stay there a bit longer," Hol yleaf urged. "I promise it wil help."

I hope it will, Lionblaze thought, or Hollyleaf could just be freezing Hazeltail's nose off. He could see how worried his sister looked as she watched her Clanmate.

Hazeltail kept her face pressed into the snow for several long moments, then lifted her head. Clumps of white clung to her face, making her look as if she were turning into Cloudtail, with his long, snow-colored pelt. "I-it doesn't h-hurt so much now," she reported through chattering teeth.

Hol yleaf bent forward to inspect the wound left by the thorn. Careful y she brushed the snow away with her paw. The injury looked like a neat, clean hole, almost sealed up already. "I think that did the trick,"

she meowed.

"Wel done." Brambleclaw's rumbling purr sounded behind Hol yleaf. Lionblaze saw him blinking warmly at her with the same fatherly pride in his eyes that Smoky had shown when he was watching Hazeltail.

Hol yleaf turned away; Lionblaze knew how much she must want to respond, but she couldn't. Once Brambleclaw's approval had meant so much to al of them. But not anymore. Whatever skills we have, they didn't come from you.

The snow was starting to ease off, but the cloud covering the sky made it impossible to tel where the sun was. Maybe it's nearly sunset, Lionblaze thought, shivering. Straight ahead lay the huge Thunderpath, and beyond it the land stretched flat as far as they could see, unbroken except for a smal copse in the middle of the openness. Beyond it, over to one side, Lionblaze made out a mass of twinkling lights.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing with his tail. "It looks as if a lot of stars have fal en down to earth."

"No, that's lots and lots of Twoleg nests, al together," Brackenfur explained.

Hazeltail gasped. "I didn't think there were as many Twolegs as that in the whole world!"

"I hope we don't have to go near them," Birchfal added.

Hazeltail nodded, while Lionblaze muttered, "We're not kittypets." He felt as if he was trying to convince himself.

Brambleclaw and Brackenfur led the way down to the Thunderpath and crouched at the edge, one at each end of the line of cats. Monsters growled past, their blazing lights reflecting off the wet black surface.

"This time we'l al cross together, once there's a big enough gap," Brambleclaw decided. "When I say run, run as if a whole tribe of badgers was after you."

Lionblaze tried desperately to hide his fear as he waited for the deputy's signal. This was far worse than the Thunderpath they had crossed earlier. It seemed as if the stream of monsters would never end!

Next to him, Hazeltail was quivering too, and beyond her, Birchfal 's fur was bristling as if he faced a horde of enemies. On Lionblaze's other side, Hol yleaf worked her claws furiously in the ground, Hol yleaf worked her claws furiously in the ground, her eyes fixed on Brambleclaw as she waited for the command to cross.

Why do I have to be brave all the time?

Lionblaze asked himself miserably. I shouldn't have to be, not now we know the prophecy wasn't about us. As far as we know, we could be kittypets!

Horror and shame swept over him at the thought.

He was so wrapped up in his dismay that he almost missed Brambleclaw's yowled signal: "Now!"

CHAPTER 6.

Hollyleaf leaped forward with her Clanmates. As they reached the middle of the Thunderpath, she heard the roar of another monster in the distance, rapidly growing louder. Dazzling light angled across her as the huge creature seemed to leap out of nowhere. Hol yleaf ran even harder, pushing with her paws against the hard surface to drive herself faster and faster to the other side.

A terrified screech split the air. When Hol yleaf gained the safety of the grass beyond, she spun around to see Hazeltail rigid with fear, crouching in the middle of the Thunderpath in the path of the monster.