Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1 "Look out!" Lionpaw lashed his tail. "ShadowClan warriors behind us!" Hollypaw whipped around, her black pelt standing on end. "I'll take them!" Lionpaw glanced at his brother. "Scent anything, Jaypaw?" "More warriors coming!" the gray tabby warned. His blind, blue eyes were round with alarm. "Prepare for attack!" "We'll ambush them as they come through the camp wall!" Lionpaw ordered. He jerked his head toward Hollypaw. "Can you handle those three?" "Easy!" Hollypaw rolled onto her back then sprang to her paws, claws glinting in the afternoon sun. Lionpaw darted forward and crouched behind the prickly wall of thorns. "Quick, Jaypaw! Beside me!" Jaypaw scooted over and dropped into an attack crouch. "They're coming!" A tabby warrior trotted through the entrance.

第一章 "小心！" 狮爪甩了甩尾巴。 "影族武士在我们后面！" 冬青爪猛地转过身，黑色的皮毛都炸了起来。 "我来对付他们！" 狮爪瞥了一眼弟弟。 "你闻到什么了吗，松鸦爪？" "还有更多武士来了！" 这只灰斑猫警告道。 他失明的蓝眼睛圆溜溜的，满是警觉。 "准备进攻！" "等他们穿过营地围墙，我们就伏击他们！" 狮爪下令道。 他猛地偏头看向冬青爪。 "你能对付那三个吗？" "小菜一碟！" 冬青爪翻了个身，接着猛地站起身，爪子在午后阳光下闪着光。 狮爪冲上前，蹲在带刺的荆棘墙后。 "快点，松鸦爪！ 到我这儿来！" 松鸦爪挪过来，伏低身子做好进攻姿势。 "他们来了！" 一只斑纹武士小跑着穿过了入口。

"Now!" Lionpaw screeched. He hurled himself at the warrior. Jaypaw scrambled between the enemy's paws. With a grunt of surprise, the invader tripped and tumbled onto his side. Lionpaw was on him in an instant. "Enough!" Squirrelflight's sharp mew rang around the small clearing. Lionpaw stopped pummeling Brambleclaw's back with his hind legs and stared at his mother as she hurried through the gap in the bramble wall. "But we're pretending ShadowClan is attacking!" Jaypaw skidded to a halt. "We'd almost won!" Brambleclaw got to his paws, shaking Lionpaw off. "Good ambush," he purred. "But you know you're not meant to be playing here." Lionpaw slid to the ground. "It's the only good place to practice a surprise attack," he mewed sulkily. He looked around the half-finished den; its bramble walls jutted out from the side of the warriors" den. Once branches had been pushed over the top to form the roof, an opening would be made to join the old den with the new one. Hollypaw padded toward them, leaving her imaginary foes behind. "We're not getting in

"动手！" 狮爪尖声喊。 他猛地扑向那名武士。 松鸦爪钻到敌人的爪子中间。 入侵者惊讶地闷哼一声，绊倒在地，滚到了一边。 狮爪立刻扑到了他身上。 "够了！" 松鼠飞尖利的叫声响彻了小片空地。 狮爪停止用后腿猛踹黑莓掌的背，盯着急匆匆穿过荆棘墙缺口走来的母亲。 "可是我们在玩影族进攻的游戏呀！" 松鸦爪猛地刹住脚步。 "我们差点就赢啦！" 黑莓掌站起身，抖开了狮爪。 "伏击得不错，"他咕噜着称赞道。 "但你也知道这儿不能玩游戏。" 狮爪趴到了地上。 "这儿是练习突袭最好的地方了，"他闷闷不乐地说。 他环顾着这个没建完的巢穴； 它的荆棘墙从武士巢穴的侧边伸出来。 等树枝铺到顶上当屋顶后，就会开个口把新旧巢穴连起来。 冬青爪丢下想象中的敌人，朝他们走过来。 "我们没有挡着

anyone's way," she pointed out. She fluffed out her fur against the wind. Newleaf sunshine had taken the chill from the hollow, but the afternoon had brought with it a breeze from the mountains that reminded Lionpaw that leaf-bare was less than a quarter moon behind them. "What if every apprentice decided to practice their battle moves here?" Squirrelflight demanded. "The walls would be broken in no time and all Birchfall's and Graystripe's hard work would be wasted." "We need to expand the warriors" den before you and the other apprentices become warriors," Brambleclaw added. "It's already too crowded." "Okay, we get the point!" Jaypaw lifted his chin. His fur was ruffled and bits of leaves were sticking out of his pelt. "Look at you!" Squirrelflight licked Jaypaw roughly between the ears. "You've made yourselves filthy," she scolded, "and we'll be leaving for the Gathering soon." Lionpaw began to wash the dried leaf-dust from his chest before his mother started on him. Jaypaw ducked away from Squirrelflight's

任何人的路呀，"她指出。 她抖了抖毛，抵挡着风。 新叶的阳光已经带走了山谷的寒意，但下午吹来了山间的微风，提醒狮爪，秃叶季过去才不到半个月。 "要是每个学徒都来这儿练战斗招式怎么办？" 松鼠飞质问道。 "围墙用不了多久就会坏，桦落和灰条的辛苦就全白费了。" "在你和其他学徒成为武士之前，我们得扩建武士巢穴，"黑莓掌补充道。 "这里已经太挤了。" "好了好了，我们懂了！" 松鸦爪抬起下巴。 他的毛乱糟糟的，皮毛上还沾着碎树叶。 "看看你们！" 松鼠飞粗粗地舔了舔松鸦爪的耳朵中间。 "你们把自己弄得脏死了，"她责骂道，"我们很快就要去森林大会了。" 狮爪赶紧开始清理胸口沾的干叶灰，免得妈妈也来碰他。 松鸦爪躲开松鼠飞的

tongue. "I can wash myself, you know," he complained. "Leave them be," Brambleclaw meowed to his mate. "I'm sure they'll smarten themselves up before we leave." "Of course we will," Lionpaw promised. There was no way he was going to let the other Clans see him looking like a hedgehog. This would be the first Gathering the three of them had attended together. "We've been looking forward to this for ages. Haven't we, Jaypaw?" Jaypaw flicked his tail. "Yeah, right." Lionpaw flexed his claws. Why did Jaypaw have to be grumpy all the time? This would be his first Gathering ever. He must be looking forward to it. He had missed the last two, once as a punishment and once because his medicine duties had kept him in camp. Lionpaw knew his littermate well enough to know how important it was to be able to do what the other cats did, despite his blindness—and that included going to Gatherings. "Hurry up! Out of here, before Firestar notices!" Squirrelflight ordered, herding her kits

舌头。 "我自己能洗，你知道的，"他抱怨道。 "别管他们了，"黑莓掌对伴侣说。 "出发前他们肯定会收拾干净的。" "我们当然会，"狮爪保证道。 他才不会让其他族群看到他像刺猬一样乱糟糟的。 这可是他们三个第一次一起参加森林大会。 "我们盼这个盼了好久了。 对不对呀，松鸦爪？" 松鸦爪甩了甩尾巴。 "哦，是啊。" 狮爪活动了一下爪子。 松鸦爪怎么老是这么闹别扭呀？ 这可是他第一次参加森林大会啊。 他肯定也很期待的。 他错过了前两次，一次是受罚，一次是要留在营地做巫医的工作。 狮爪很了解这同窝弟弟，他知道哪怕失明，能像其他猫一样做事对他来说有多重要——包括参加森林大会。 "快点！ 出去，别被火星发现！" 松鼠飞一边下令，一边把孩子们

toward the gap in the wall. "Go and find something on the fresh-kill pile. You've a long night ahead." Lionpaw's tail pricked with excitement at the thought of the Gathering. He could almost smell the pine scents of the island. But Hollypaw's eyes glittered with worry. "I hope the other Clans don't pick on us again. Do you know if Millie's coming? Perhaps she should stay behind this time." When Graystripe had returned to the Clan two moons ago, he had brought with him his new mate, Millie, a kittypet whom he had met while the Twolegs held him captive. He had trained her as a warrior and in return she had helped him make the long, perilous journey to the lake in search of his lost Clan. Her kittypet roots made her an easy target for the other Clan's jibes, and she wasn't the only ThunderClan cat who was taunted for not being Clanborn. "Millie can take care of herself," Squirrelflight pointed out. "Besides, the contest seemed to have smoothed things over a bit," Brambleclaw added.

朝围墙的缺口走去。 "去猎物堆找点吃的， 接下来可是漫漫长夜哦。" 一想到要去森林大会，狮爪的尾巴兴奋得翘了起来。 他几乎都闻到小岛上的松木香气了。 可冬青爪的眼睛里闪着担忧。 "希望其他族群别再找我们麻烦了。 你知道米莉来不来吗？ 要不然这次她还是留下吧。" 两个月前灰条回到族群时，带回了他的新伴侣米莉，这是他被两脚兽囚禁时结识的宠物猫。 灰条训练她成为武士，而米莉帮他走完了危机四伏的漫长旅途，回到湖边寻找失散的族群。 她的宠物猫出身让她轻易成为其他族群嘲讽的靶子，雷族不止她一个非族生猫遭受过这种刁难。 "米莉能照顾好自己，"松鼠飞说道。 "再说，那次比赛已经让关系缓和不少了，"黑莓掌补充道。

"But for how long?" Hollypaw mewed. Lionpaw knew his sister had never been entirely convinced that the daylight Gathering would heal the rifts between the Clans. The four Clans had competed in friendly contests to test their skills, pitting their apprentices against one another in an effort to put aside growing distrust and border tensions. Lionpaw remembered the day for a different reason, though: He and the WindClan apprentice Breezepaw had fallen into an old badger set and nearly suffocated in choking sand before Jaypaw had found them. "You're always fretting about something," Jaypaw snorted at Hollypaw. "It's like living with an anxious owl." "Newleaf is here now," Squirrelflight pointed out. "There's more prey running around, so the Clans should be less prickly." Hollypaw glanced at Jaypaw. "Some cats are still prickly even with a full belly!" "Hush." Squirrelflight nudged her with her nose. "Go and eat." "I was only telling the truth!" Hollypaw started forward, but Jaypaw barged past her. She let out a

"那又能维持多久呢？" 冬青爪轻声说道。 狮爪知道，妹妹从来没有完全相信日间森林大会能弥合族群间的裂痕。 四个族群举办了友好的技能比拼，让学徒们相互较量，希望放下日渐增长的不信任和边界冲突。 不过狮爪对那天的记忆完全不同：他和风族学徒棘爪掉进了旧獾洞，差点闷死在呛人的黄沙里，最后是松鸦爪找到了他们。 "你总是瞎操心，"松鸦爪对着冬青爪哼了一声。 "简直就像跟一只忧心忡忡的猫头鹰住在一起。" "现在绿叶季都来了，"松鼠飞说道。 "猎物变多了，族群们也就不会那么针锋相对了。" 冬青爪瞥了松鸦爪一眼。 "有些猫就算吃饱了照样尖酸刻薄！" "别闹了。" 松鼠飞用鼻子碰了碰她。 "快去吃东西吧。" "我说的本来就是实话啊！" 冬青爪刚往前走，松鸦爪就猛地从她身边挤了过去。 她发出一声