Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 Lionpaw pushed his way through clumps of long grass wet with dew; he shivered as the moisture soaked his fur, and blinked sleep from his eyes. Clouds lay low over the forest, though a growing brightness above the trees showed where the sun was rising. The dawn patrol was heading toward WindClan territory. Ashfur and Berrynose had drawn slightly ahead, discussing something in voices too low for Lionpaw to catch. After a few moments Berrynose glanced over his shoulder. "Don't lag behind, Lionpaw," he meowed loudly. "And watch out for fox traps." "Watch out yourself," Lionpaw muttered. The cream-colored tom had been a warrior for three whole days, and already he was acting like a mentor. But he needn't think I'm going to obey his orders! Lionpaw let himself drop even farther behind. His paws were tingling with memory as he rounded a bramble thicket and saw the entrance

第二章 狮爪挤过沾满露水的长草丛向前走； 露水浸湿了他的皮毛，他打了个哆嗦，眨掉眼中的睡意。 低云笼罩着森林，树顶上方越来越亮，显示太阳正在升起。 黎明巡逻队正朝着风族领地前进。 灰毛和莓鼻稍稍走在前方，低声讨论着什么，狮爪听不清内容。 没过一会儿，莓鼻回头瞥了一眼。 "别掉队，狮爪，"他大声说道。 "还要小心狐狸陷阱。" "你自己才要小心，"狮爪小声嘟囔。 这只乳黄色公猫成为武士才整整三天，就已经摆出一副导师的架子了。 但他别以为我会服从他的命令！ 狮爪故意落得更远了。 他转过一丛黑莓，看到入口时，爪子随着记忆一阵发麻。

to the tunnels. It looked like a disused rabbit hole, half-hidden by bracken, but once it had led down to a cave with an underground river and then up again into WindClan territory. Pain stabbed Lionpaw's heart as he remembered how he used to plunge into the tunnels at night and meet Heatherpaw in the cave. He wished they could go back to the time when she had been Heatherstar, leader of DarkClan, and he was her loyal deputy. He hesitated outside the entrance for a heartbeat, then couldn't resist squeezing through it and crawling along the tunnel until he came to the avalanche of mud left behind when the tunnels flooded. He opened his mouth, but all he could taste was wet soil and worms. "Lionpaw! I know you're in there!" Berrynose called. "Come out now!" For a moment Lionpaw felt like ignoring him, but he realized how stupid that would be. He didn't want to stay in this damp, stifling hole. Slowly he wriggled backward until he could stand up and shake the mud out of his fur. Berrynose was standing in front of him, cream- colored fur bristling. Ashfur was a couple of tail

通往隧道的入口。 它看上去像是废弃的兔子洞，大半被蕨草遮住，可从前它能通到一处有地下河的洞穴，再往上走就到风族领地了。 想起从前总在夜里钻进隧道，去洞穴见石楠爪，狮爪的心猛地一阵刺痛。 他真希望能回到过去：那时她是暗族族长石楠星，他是她忠诚的副族长。 他在入口外犹豫了一刹那，还是忍不住挤进去，顺着隧道往前爬，一直爬到隧道洪水留下的泥堆前。 他张开嘴，可只尝到湿泥土和蠕虫的味道。 "狮爪！ 我知道你在里面！" 莓鼻喊道。 "赶紧出来！" 有那么一瞬间狮爪想要不理他，可他明白这么做太愚蠢了。 他本来就不想待在这个潮湿闷人的洞里。 他慢慢向后蠕动，直到能站起身，抖掉皮毛上的泥。 莓鼻站在他面前，乳黄色的皮毛根根竖起。 灰毛就在几尾巴

lengths away; his blue eyes were calm and unreadable. "What do you think you're doing, exploring in a dangerous place like that?" Berrynose demanded. "What if the roof had fallen in? You'd expect us to dig you out, I suppose, like last time." Lionpaw had almost suffocated when he fell into an old badger set during the daylight Gathering. But that was completely different. And anyway, Berrynose hadn't been the one to dig him out. "Stop ordering me around," he snapped. "You're not my mentor." "Then stop behaving like a stupid kit!" Lionpaw dug his claws into the ground to stop himself from taking a swipe at the arrogant tom. "Don't call me a kit," he growled. "Your scent hasn't faded out of the apprentice den, and you're already—" "That's enough," Ashfur interrupted. "Berrynose, I'll do the mentoring, thanks. But he's right, Lionpaw. There's no point in sticking your nose down every hole between here and WindClan. Unless there were any suspicious

身长开外，他的蓝眼睛平静得看不出情绪。 "你看看你在干什么，怎么去这么危险的地方探险？" 莓鼻质问。 "要是洞顶塌了怎么办？ 你肯定要我们挖你出来，就像上次一样，对吧？" 之前白天集会时，狮爪掉进旧獾洞差点憋死。 但那和现在完全不一样。 再说了，上次挖他出来的也不是莓鼻。 "别对我呼来喝去，"他厉声说。 "你又不是我的导师。" "那你就别像傻小猫一样胡闹！" 狮爪把爪子扎进地里，才忍住没挠这只自大的公猫。 "别叫我小猫，"他低吼。 "你见习生窝的气味都没散，你就已经——" "够了，"灰毛打断了他们。 "莓鼻，导师的工作我来做，不用你操心。 不过狮爪，他说的没错。 没必要在这儿和风族之间，把鼻子伸进每个洞里瞎探。 除非那里有什么可疑的

scents down there." "No. But there might have been!" Lionpaw defended himself. Ashfur made no comment, except for an impatient twitch of the tail. "Let's get moving." Lionpaw gave Berrynose a final glare and padded after his mentor. He could still feel a tug of longing for Heatherpaw, drawing him down into the caves. But he knew he would never walk there again—and not just because mud had blocked the tunnels. He wanted to be the greatest ThunderClan warrior ever. And he couldn't be that if his best friend was a cat from another Clan. "Jump! High as you can—now!" Lionpaw leaped into the air, twisting as he landed so that he was facing his opponent. He managed to land a blow on Poppypaw's haunches before she scrambled around to face him. Flashing a glance toward the edge of the clearing, he could just make out the shadow of a tabby-striped pelt and the gleam of amber eyes. Thanks, Tigerstar!

气味留在那儿呢。" "没有。 但说不定之前就有啊！" 狮爪为自己辩解。 灰毛没说话，只是不耐烦地甩了甩尾巴。 "我们继续出发。" 狮爪狠狠瞪了莓鼻最后一眼，跟在导师身后走去。 他依然能感觉到对石楠爪的思念，拉扯着他回到那处洞穴。 但他清楚自己再也不会去那儿了——这不只是因为泥土堵住了隧道。 他想成为雷族有史以来最厉害的武士。 而如果他最好的朋友是别族的猫，他就成不了最厉害的武士。 "跳！ 尽你所能跳高点——快！" 狮爪纵身跃起，落地时扭过身子，正好面向对手。 他成功拍到罂粟爪的后腿，之后罂粟爪才慌忙转身面对他。 他飞快扫了一眼空地边缘，隐约看到虎斑猫的影子，还有一双琥珀眼睛的亮光。 谢谢你，虎星！

Poppypaw sprang at him, and Lionpaw launched himself forward, slipping underneath her with his belly brushing the moss. Hooking her hind legs out from under her, he planted his forepaws on her belly as she rolled over. "Well done, Lionpaw." Ashfur gave him a nod of approval, though there was no warmth in his blue eyes. What am I doing wrong now? Lionpaw wondered. He had understood Ashfur's annoyance with him when he was spending every night in the caves with Heatherpaw. Then he'd been almost too tired to put one paw in front of another during the day. But I'm training well now. I'm working really hard! "I've never seen that last move before." Thornclaw, Poppypaw's mentor, padded up to the two apprentices. "Where did you learn it?" "Er... I just figured it out, I suppose," Lionpaw mumbled. He had learned the move from Tigerstar, during a training bout with Hawkfrost. The two shadowy cats visited him so often, he felt as if he always had voices in his ears, telling him to jump

罂粟爪朝他扑来，狮爪立刻冲上前，滑到她身下，肚皮蹭过了苔藓。 他把罂粟爪的后腿从身下勾开，在她翻倒时将前爪按在了她的肚皮上。 “干得好，狮爪。” 阿什弗朝他赞许地点点头，可他蓝色的眼睛里没有一丝暖意。 我现在到底哪里做错了？ 狮爪暗暗纳闷。 之前他夜夜都和石楠爪待在山洞里，他明白阿什弗为什么厌烦自己。 那时候他白天累得连前爪都没法放到后爪前面，连路都走不动。 可我现在训练得很认真啊。 我真的非常努力！ “我从来没见过你最后那招呢。” 罂粟爪的导师棘爪迈步走到两个学徒身边。 “你从哪儿学的这招？” “呃……我大概是自己琢磨出来的吧，”狮爪嘟囔道。 这招是虎星教给他的，是他和鹰霜对练的时候学的。 那两只带着黑影的猫时常来找他，他感觉耳边总响起声音，叫他跳得

higher, strike harder, twist out of the way. The constant practice had made his muscles harder and stronger. He knew without any cat telling him that his battle skills had improved faster than any other apprentice's. But it was difficult sometimes to explain where the skills came from. "You can let me up now," Poppypaw mewed. "Oh, sorry." Lionpaw stepped away from her and she bounced to her paws, shaking scraps of moss from her fur. "Will you teach me how to do that?" "Sure. When a cat leaps at you, you need to flatten yourself, but keep moving forward." "Like this?" Poppypaw tried to imitate the move. "Yes, but a bit faster." While the young tortoiseshell she-cat practiced, Lionpaw glanced toward the edge of the clearing again. But the ghostly presence of Tigerstar was gone. Lionpaw maneuvered a long tendril of bramble through the tunnel into the stone hollow, tugging hard as it snagged on the thorns. His paws were

更高，出击更猛，闪身躲开。 不间断的练习让他的肌肉变得更结实更强壮。 不用别的猫说，他也知道自己的格斗技巧进步得比任何学徒都快。 可他有时候很难说清这些技巧是从哪儿来的。 “你现在可以放我起来了吧，”罂粟爪喵声道。 “哦，对不起。” 狮爪从她身边退开，罂粟爪一下子蹦起身，抖掉皮毛上的碎苔藓。 “你能教我出这招吗？” “当然可以。 要是有猫朝你扑过来，你得伏低身体，同时继续往前冲。” “像这样吗？” 罂粟爪试着模仿这招。 “对了，不过速度还要再快一点。” 这只年轻的玳瑁色母猫练习时，狮爪又朝空地边缘望了一眼。 可虎星那幽灵般的身影已经不见了。 狮爪拖着长长的荆棘枝穿过隧道进了石洼地，荆棘勾住刺的时候他就用力拽。 他的爪子已经