Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 Leafpaw stopped halfway up the slope and turned to watch her sister and the rest of the patrol make their way down to the lake. From the tingling of her own fur, she could tell how excited Squirrelflight was, not just at the prospect of exploring the new territory, but because she was with the friends she had made on the journey to the sun-drown-place once more. For a few heartbeats Leafpaw felt almost breathless with envy, wishing that she could have a bond that strong, based on that depth of trust and that many shared experiences, with another cat. Her gaze was drawn to the lean, gray-black shape of Crowfeather. Of all the others, he was the hardest to understand. Leafpaw wished she knew him better. He seemed the least willing to trust cats from another Clan, yet during the long journey through the mountains she had seen him put himself in danger over and over to help cats who weren't from WindClan. Leafpaw's pelt

第二章 叶爪在斜坡半中央停住脚步，转过身看着妹妹和巡逻队其他成员往湖边走去。 从自己微微发麻的皮毛就能看出来，松鼠飞有多兴奋——这不光是因为即将探索新领地，还因为她又和当初去太阳沉没之地旅途中结识的伙伴们待在一起了。 有好一会儿，叶爪嫉妒得几乎喘不过气，她多希望自己也能和另一只猫拥有这么牢固的羁绊，有着这么深厚的信任，还有那么多共同的回忆。 她的目光不由自主落在精瘦的灰黑猫鸦羽身上。 在所有猫里，他是最难读懂的那一个。 叶爪真希望自己能更了解他。 他看起来最不愿意信任别族的猫，可在穿越大山的漫长旅途中，叶爪亲眼见过他一次次不顾危险，帮助非风族的猫。 叶爪的皮毛

prickled, making her shiver from nose to tail. Something told her Crowfeather had an important path laid out by StarClan, but she had no idea where it might lead—nor was there any reason for StarClan to let her know the destiny of a cat from another Clan. She jumped as something brushed against her shoulder, and turned to see Cinderpelt gazing at her with wise blue eyes. "Do you wish you were going with them?" the medicine cat asked. Leafpaw hesitated. She was a medicine cat, not a warrior—her duties lay with her weak and exhausted Clan. So why did she feel a tug in her paws to follow the little patrol that was padding away along the line of the shore? Her mind flooded with an image of bounding after them to walk alongside Crowfeather, who was bringing up the rear; she drew in her breath sharply, almost able to feel his dark gray pelt brush against hers as they picked their way over the tufts of boggy grass. "Are you all right?" mewed Cinderpelt, looking at her closely.

突然绷紧，让她从头到尾打了个寒颤。 直觉告诉她星族给鸦羽铺就了一条重要的道路，可她完全不知道这条路通向何方——星族也没有理由告诉她一只别族猫的命运。 有东西蹭过她的肩膀，叶爪吓了一跳，转过身看见炭毛用睿智的蓝眼睛望着她。 “你也想跟他们一起去吗？” 这名巫医问道。 叶爪犹豫了。 她是巫医，不是武士——她的职责是留下来照顾虚弱疲惫的族猫。 那为什么她的爪子痒痒的，忍不住想跟着这支沿着海岸走远的小巡逻队呢？ 她脑海里闪过一幅画面：自己追上去，走在队尾的鸦羽身边； 她猛地吸了一口气，几乎都能感觉到，当他们走过沼泽里一丛丛野草时，他深灰色的皮毛蹭过自己的触感。 “你没事吧？”炭毛轻声喵问道，凑近仔细打量着她。

Leafpaw blinked. "Yes, I'm fine. Of course I don't want to go with the patrol. There's enough work for me here." "That's true," Cinderpelt meowed. "We have four Clans of exhausted cats to look after, and our stock of healing herbs barely amounts to a couple of leaves and a pawful of crushed berries." Leafpaw gulped, suddenly wondering if she should have gone with the patrol after all to look for new supplies of medicine. "We're going to meet with the other medicine cats," Cinderpelt went on. "We need to discuss what to do about finding new herbs, and how we are going to share tongues with our warrior ancestors when we are so far from Highstones." She gazed up at the sky, where the half moon drifted behind wisps of cloud, and her voice dropped to barely a whisper. "I hope we find another Moonstone place soon." She gestured with her tail, and Leafpaw saw her friend Mothwing, the RiverClan medicine cat, sitting in the shelter of a bramble thicket with Littlecloud, the medicine cat from ShadowClan. Around them, warriors and

叶爪眨了眨眼。 “没事，我很好。 我当然不想跟巡逻队走。 我这儿还有好多活儿要干呢。” “说得没错，”炭毛喵声说。 “我们四个族群都有一大堆疲惫的猫要照顾，可咱们存的药草加起来才不过几片叶子，一爪碎浆果而已。” 叶爪咽了口唾沫，突然琢磨着，自己是不是该跟着巡逻队去找新的药草储备。 “我们要去和其他巫医碰面，”炭毛接着说。 “我们得商量一下去哪里找新药草，还有我们离高石这么远，以后要怎么和武士祖先交流。” 她抬眼望向天空，半轮残月躲在一缕缕云后，她的声音轻得几乎像耳语。 “我希望我们能快点找到新的月石之地。” 她甩了甩尾巴示意，叶爪才看见她的朋友——河族巫医蛾翅，和影族巫医小云一起坐在荆棘丛的避风处。 在他们周围，武士们和

apprentices from all four Clans were dividing into groups as the hunting patrols prepared to leave. Cinderpelt waited until most of the patrols had gone before joining the other medicine cats. Leafpaw bounded over to touch noses with Mothwing. Mothwing blinked nervously at her. "I feel so helpless!" she murmured into Leafpaw's ear. "I have no supplies, and the cats are so tired and weak." Leafpaw wasn't surprised that her friend was anxious. Although Mothwing had trained as a warrior and received her warrior name several seasons ago, she had not been a medicine cat apprentice for as long as Leafpaw. The death of Mudfur before they left the forest meant that she had to take on all the responsibilities of a medicine cat before she had finished her training. Leafpaw felt a wave of gratitude that Cinderpelt was still alive, and young and strong enough to live for many, many more moons. She was in no hurry to lose her mentor, and she didn't envy Mothwing at all. But she reminded herself that Mothwing had been taught well, and she would

四个族群的学徒正分成小队，狩猎巡逻队正准备出发。 炭毛等大部分巡逻队都离开了，才过去和其他巫医汇合。 叶爪蹦过去，和蛾翅碰鼻打招呼。 蛾翅紧张地朝她眨了眨眼。 “我感觉好没用啊！” 她凑在叶爪耳边轻声说。 “我一点药都没有，大家还都又累又弱。” 叶爪一点都不惊讶朋友会焦虑。 虽然好几个季节前蛾翅就已经完成武士训练，得到了武士名，她做巫医学徒的时间可比叶爪短得多。 离开森林前泥毛就去世了，所以她不得不还没完成训练，就扛起了巫医的全部职责。 叶爪心里涌起一阵感激，幸好炭毛还活着，还年轻强壮，还能陪伴她好多好多个月。 她一点都不急着接手师父的位置，也完全不羡慕蛾翅的处境。 可她也提醒自己，蛾翅学得很好，她一定能

be able to ask the other medicine cats for advice if she needed to. Besides, in this new place they would all have things to learn. She gave Mothwing's ear a quick lick. "You'll be fine," she promised. "We'll all help you." Cinderpelt glanced around. "Where's Barkface?" "Still with Tallstar, I guess," Littlecloud replied. He let out a sigh. "I'm not sure there's much any cat can do for him now." Leafpaw flinched. It didn't seem fair that StarClan should summon the WindClan leader to join them when he hadn't even seen his Clan's new home. "Here he comes now." Cinderpelt twitched her ears to where Barkface was approaching with his head bowed and his tail trailing. "How is Tallstar?" Littlecloud demanded. Barkface heaved a sigh from the depths of his belly as he flopped down under the brambles beside the other medicine cats. "Sleeping," he replied. "He is very weak. The journey has been too much for him, and it is clear that StarClan is waiting for him to join them."

如果她有需要，完全可以向其他巫医征求建议。 再说了，来到这块新地方，大家都有新东西要学。 她飞快地舔了舔飞蛾翅的耳朵。 “你会没事的。”她保证道。 “我们都会帮你的。” 炭毛环顾了四周。 “树皮脸在哪儿？” “我猜他还陪着高星呢。”小云回答道。 他叹了口气。 “我觉得现在恐怕没有哪只猫能帮得了他了。” 叶爪不由得身子一缩。 高星连族群的新家园都没看到，星族就要召他离去，这实在太不公平了。 “他来了。” 炭毛侧耳听去，只见树皮脸垂着头拖着尾巴走了过来。 “高星怎么样了？” 小云连忙问道。 树皮脸重重叹了口气，瘫倒在其他巫医身旁的荆棘丛下。 “在睡觉呢。”他回答道。 “他已经非常虚弱了， 这趟旅程对他来说太吃力，星族显然已经在等着他归队了。”

"Isn't there anything you can do?" Leafpaw meowed. Barkface shook his head. "We may have traveled all the way from the forest, but Tallstar has a longer journey than all of us ahead of him. He has been a noble leader, but he cannot go on forever." "All the Clans will honor him," Cinderpelt murmured. She bowed her head for a moment and then straightened up, giving her fur a shake. "Meanwhile there are tasks that we must do." "We need to look for herbs," Mothwing meowed. "Disease could spread easily when we're all tired and hungry." "True," replied Cinderpelt. "Soon we'll go and search, and hope that StarClan leads us to what we need. But before that..." Her voice trailed off, and she scratched at the ground with her forepaw before she went on. "There may be a patrol out looking for new camps for each Clan, but we need more than that if this is to be our home. Where are the Clans going to gather at full moon? What about the Moonstone? It's many days" journey from here to Mothermouth."

“难道你什么都做不了吗？” 叶爪出声问道。 树皮脸摇了摇头。 “我们虽然一路从森林走到这儿，可高星面前还有一段比我们所有人都远的旅程要走。 他一直是位优秀的族长，可没办法永远走下去啊。” “所有族群都会铭记他的。”炭毛低声说。 她低头静了片刻，接着抬起头，抖了抖身上的毛。 “眼下我们还有必须完成的任务。” “我们得去找药草。”飞蛾翅说道。 “大家又累又饿，疾病很容易传开的。” “说得对。”炭毛回答。 “很快我们就会出发寻找，希望星族能指引我们找到需要的东西， 但在此之前……”她的声音低了下去，用前爪抓了抓地面，才继续开口。 “说不定已经有巡逻队在为各族找新营地了，但要让这里成为我们的家，我们需要的远不止这些。 满月的时候各族群要在哪里聚会？ 那月光石怎么办？ 从这里到母亲嘴要走好几天呢。”