Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14 Every muscle in Jaypaw's body was yowling with exhaustion as he finished sniffing around the elders" den to make sure that every scrap of the tainted bedding had been removed. He stumbled back into the clearing and padded up to Leafpool. "It's okay," he reported. "Why don't you get some rest?" his mentor meowed. "Brambleclaw and Cinderheart have just brought us some fresh moss." Jaypaw opened his jaws to protest that he could keep going as long as any cat, then thought better of it. His job and Leafpool's was finished for now; there was no reason why he couldn't catch up on his sleep. But tired as he was, his paws were itching and his mind whirling; he knew his thoughts would keep him awake. "Thanks," he replied, "but I'd like to go out for a while." "Fine." Leafpool sounded faintly surprised. "Be careful, won't you?" "Sure." Jaypaw wished she wouldn't keep trying to mother him. He had Squirrelflight for

第十四章 松鸦爪嗅遍长老巢穴，确认所有沾了病气的垫料都被清理干净后，全身上下每一块肌肉都累得快要叫苦了。 他跌跌撞撞走回空地，慢慢挪到叶池身边。 “都弄好了，”他汇报道。 “你怎么不去休息一会儿？” 他的导师轻声说。 “黑莓掌和炭心刚给我们带来了新鲜苔藓。” 松鸦爪刚张开嘴要反驳说自己能和任何猫一样撑下去，转念又改了主意。 眼下他和叶池的工作都已经做完了； 他完全可以回去补一觉。 可尽管累得不行，他却坐不住，脑子里也乱哄哄转个不停； 他知道这些乱糟糟的念头会让他睡不着。 “谢谢，”他回答，“我想出去走一会儿。” “去吧。” 叶池的声音带着一丝惊讶。 “你小心点，知道吗？” 知道啦。 松鸦爪真希望她别总把自己当小孩子照顾。 他本来有松鼠飞

that; Leafpool was just his mentor. He took off at a trot through the tunnel, where he passed Whitewing and Birchfall returning with bundles of bedding, and headed for the lake. Pushing through the last of the undergrowth, Jaypaw paused at the top of the bank overlooking the water. He could hear the soothing lap of waves on the shore, and the faint scrape of pebbles. Scenting carefully, he made his way to the hollow under the tree roots where he had hidden the stick. As he laid his paws on the scratch marks, the whispers of the long-ago warriors rose up around him. He strained to hear them clearly, but just as before, they stayed out of his reach. "Rock, don't you have a message for me?" he meowed aloud. His head spun with thoughts of everything that had happened: the mysterious appearance of Sol, and the fake sign that had become real and driven him from ShadowClan; the terrible sickness, and Firestar taking the sick cats away from the stone hollow... Jaypaw felt as if he were a leaf spinning in eddies of wind.

照顾他，叶池只是他的导师而已。 他快步跑过地道，路上碰见白翅和桦落抱着垫料往回走，之后便朝湖边去了。 挤过最后一丛灌木，松鸦爪在岸边坡顶停下，俯瞰着湖面。 他能听见波浪柔柔拍着岸边的声响，还有鹅卵石轻轻滚动的沙沙声。 他小心嗅着路，走到树根下的凹洞，那是他藏那根木棍的地方。 他把爪子放到那些刻痕上，远古武士的低语声就在他四周响了起来。 他使劲想要听清楚，可和之前一样，那些声音总模糊不清，抓不住。 “岩石，你有话要带给我对不对？”他大声问道。 他脑子里转着所有发生过的事：神秘出现的索尔，那个弄假成真、把他赶出影族的假预兆； 可怕的瘟疫，还有火星把生病的猫带出石谷…… 松鸦爪觉得自己就像一片被旋风卷得不停打转的叶子。

It's all escaping from me, like prey running too fast. I'm supposed to have power, but I can't control anything. "Has it always been like this for the Clans?" he murmured. "Fighting one battle after another? And some battles no cat can win. I wonder if it was sickness that drove the first cats away from the lake?" Yet again he ran his paws over the scratches, the record of the cats who had emerged victorious from their test in the tunnels, and of those who had never come out. The whispers wafted around him like faint puffs of breeze, but Jaypaw still couldn't make out their meaning. "What's the use of you if I can't hear you?" he protested. "Speak up a little, please. Tell me how to fight the sickness, or what I can say to Lionblaze to make him fetch the catmint." But the gentle whispering didn't change. Sighing, Jaypaw lay down with his chin on the stick, and closed his eyes. Damp soaking into his belly fur woke Jaypaw. His muscles felt stiff and cramped with cold as he raised his head and looked around. He was in the

所有事我都抓不住，就像猎物跑得太快追不上。 我明明该拥有力量，可我什么都掌控不了。 “族群一直都是这样吗？”他喃喃道。 “打了一仗又一仗？ 还有些仗，根本没有猫能赢。 我在想，最早的猫是不是也是因为瘟疫才离开这片湖的？” 他又一次用爪子摩挲那些刻痕，这些刻痕记录着从地道试炼里胜出的猫，也记录着再也没能出来的猫。 低语像微风一样在他四周飘着，可松鸦爪还是听不出它们到底在说什么。 “我听不到你说话，你还有什么用？”他不满地说。 “请你说大声一点。 告诉我怎么对抗瘟疫，告诉我该怎么跟狮焰说，让他去采猫薄荷。” 可那轻柔的低语声还是没有变化。 松鸦爪叹口气，趴下来把下巴搁在木棍上，闭上了眼睛。 肚子皮毛浸到的湿气弄醒了松鸦爪。 他抬起头四下张望，肌肉被冻得僵硬抽筋。 他现在身在

underground cave, lit by a trickle of daylight from the roof far above his head. The river flowed past him a couple of tail-lengths away. Jaypaw staggered to his paws. He expected to see Rock, but the ledge where the ancient cat usually crouched was empty, and there was no sign of him anywhere in the cave. Soft paw steps sounded behind Jaypaw; he spun around to see a ginger-and-white tom standing at the entrance to one of the tunnels. His green eyes looked haunted and somber, as if he couldn't shake off the memory of drowning when rain flooded the tunnels. "Fallen Leaves!" Jaypaw exclaimed. "I didn't think you would come back." Aching loneliness vibrated in the ancient cat's voice. "Are you going to stay with me this time?" Sympathy stabbed Jaypaw, sharp as a thorn in his pad. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be trapped down here, alone, for countless seasons. The last time he had seen Fallen Leaves, the ancient cat had saved his life, and the lives of his littermates and WindClan cats, when floodwaters had risen while they were looking for

一处地下洞穴，一缕天光从头顶很远的洞顶渗下来，照亮了这里。 河流在离他几条尾巴远的地方静静流过。 松鸦爪摇摇晃晃站起身。 他本来以为会看见岩石，可那只远古猫常蹲的岩架上空空的，洞穴里到处都找不到他的踪影。 松鸦爪身后传来轻轻的脚步声； 他猛地转过身，看见一只姜黄加白色的公猫站在一条地道的入口。 他的绿眼睛带着挥不去的忧伤阴郁，好像永远忘不掉雨水淹没地道时溺水的记忆。 “落叶！” 松鸦爪惊叫道。 “我没想到你还会来。” 这只远古猫的声音里，满是痛苦的孤独。 “这次你会留下来陪我吗？” 松鸦爪心里涌起一阵强烈的同情，尖得像爪垫扎了一根刺。 他没法想象，独自困在这儿无数个季节是什么滋味。 上一次他见到落叶，他们外出搜寻时洪水突然暴涨，这只远古猫救了他、他同窝手足还有风族猫的命，当时他们正在找

the lost kits. "What happened to your Clanmates?" Jaypaw asked. "Why did they leave the lake?" Fallen Leaves looked down at his paws. "I don't know. I only knew that they had gone. Sharpclaws stopped coming into the tunnels, and the only sound from the moor was the wind. I have been on my own here for so long, I have lost count of the moons." He raised his head, his green eyes pleading. "You and your friends were the first cats I had seen down here since.... since I came in." "I have to know why they left!" Jaypaw meowed; he couldn't explain it, but he was certain that the fate of those long-ago cats was bound up with the prophecy. Meeting Rock, finding the stick, feeling the whispers of ancient cats around him when he went to the Moonpool: None of that had happened by chance, he was sure. He bounded toward the tunnel that led up into ThunderClan territory, brushing aside Fallen Leaves, who stared after him in dismay. "Wait!" Fallen Leaves called out. "I thought

失踪的幼崽。 "你的族猫们到底出什么事了？" 松鸦爪问道。 "他们为什么要离开这片湖？" 落叶低头看着自己的爪子。 "我不知道。 我只知道他们已经走了。 锐爪再也不来隧道了，荒原上只剩下风的声音。 我一个人在这儿待了太久，早就记不清过了多少个月了。" 他抬起头，绿色的眼睛满是恳求。 "你和你的朋友是我进来之后……在这里见到的第一批猫。" "我一定要弄清楚他们为什么离开！" 松鸦爪出声道； 他说不清楚缘由，但他确定，这些很久以前的猫的命运，和那个预言紧紧绑在一起。 遇见岩石、找到那根木棍、去月池时感受到古猫在身边低语：这一切都不是偶然，他十分肯定。 他朝通往雷族领地的隧道奔去，推开了落叶，落叶惊愕地望着他的背影。 "等等！" 落叶大声喊道。 "我还以为

you were going to stay with me." "I have to know what happened," Jaypaw insisted with a last glance over his shoulder. The drowned cat was standing at the end of the tunnel, his eyes wide and distressed. Jaypaw forced anger to stifle his pity. "How can I stay with him?" he muttered as he padded forward into the thick blackness of the tunnel. "There are too many things I need to find out. I can't spend all my time hanging out with a dead cat!" He expected to emerge in the woods above the hollow, awake and blind once more, or perhaps find himself on the lakeshore with the stick. Instead, daylight began to gleam on the walls ahead of him, growing stronger as he padded on. He could hear the sound of leaves rustling in the wind. "I must be still dreaming," he whispered. His paws tingling, Jaypaw headed for the light. Rounding a curve in the tunnel, he saw a circle of daylight ahead of him. Excited voices broke the silence. "Is it him?"

你会留下来陪我的。" "我必须弄清楚发生了什么，"松鸦爪坚持道，最后回头瞥了一眼。 这只溺亡的猫站在隧道尽头，眼睛圆睁，满是悲痛。 松鸦爪用怒火压下了心中的怜悯。 "我怎么能留下来陪他？" 他低声嘟囔着，向前走进隧道浓重的黑暗中。 "我有太多事情要查清楚了。 我可不能整天耗在一只死猫身上！" 他本以为会走出到山谷上方的树林，醒来后重新变回失明的样子，或是发现自己拿着木棍站在湖岸。 可没想到，前方隧道壁上开始泛起日光，他越往前走，光线越亮。 他能听到树叶被风吹得沙沙作响。 "我一定还在做梦，"他轻声低语。 爪子微微发麻的松鸦爪朝着光亮走去。 转过隧道的弯道，他看见前方有一圈日光。 兴奋的说话声打破了寂静。 "是他吗？"