Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1 The moon was huge, a golden circle resting on a dark ridge of hills. Stars blazed above Hollyleaf's head, reminding her that the spirits of her ancestors were watching over her. Her fur prickled as something stirred on the ridge. A cat had appeared there, outlined against the moon. She recognized the broad head and tufted ears, and the tail with its bushy tip; even though the shape was black against the light, she knew the colors of its pelt: white with brown, black, and ginger blotches. "Sol!" she hissed. The outlined shape arched its back, then reared up on its hind paws, its forepaws stretched out as if it was about to rake its claws across the sky. It leaped upward, and as it leaped it swelled until it was so huge that it blotted out the moon and the blazing stars. Hollyleaf crouched, shivering, in darkness thicker than the deepest places of the forest. Screeches of alarm rose up around her, a whole Clan of hidden cats wailing their fear of

第一章 月亮好大呀，一轮金盘静静停在黝黑的山脊上。 冬青叶头顶星光闪烁，这让她想起祖先的灵魂正注视着她。 山脊那边有东西动了动，她的汗毛一下子竖了起来。 一只猫出现在那里，身影在月亮前勾出轮廓。 她认出了宽宽的脑袋、带毛簇的耳朵，还有毛茸茸的尾尖； 哪怕身影背光发黑，她也清楚对方皮毛的颜色：白底带着棕、黑、姜黄色的斑块。 “日神！” 她嘶声说道。 那个身影弓起背，用后腿直立起来，前爪朝前伸开，好像要挥着爪子扫过整片天空。 它向上一跃，跳的时候身体越变越大，大到遮住了月亮和所有闪烁的星星。 冬青叶缩着身子发抖，周围的黑暗比森林最深处还要浓重。 惊恐的尖叫在她四周响起，整整一族躲起来的猫都在哀嚎，它们害怕

the shadow cutting them off from the protective gaze of StarClan. Above the noise, a single voice rang out: "Hollyleaf! Hollyleaf! Come out!" Hollyleaf thrashed in terror and found her paws tangled in soft moss and bracken. Pale gray light was filtering through the branches of the warriors" den. A couple of fox-lengths away, Hazeltail was scrambling out of her nest, shaking scraps of moss from her pelt. "Hollyleaf!" The call came again, and this time Hollyleaf recognized Birchfall's voice, meowing irritably outside the den. "Are you going to sleep all day? We're supposed to be hunting." "Coming." Groggy with sleep, every hair on her pelt still quivering from her nightmare, Hollyleaf headed toward the nearest gap between the branches. Before she reached it, her paws stumbled over the haunches of a sleeping cat, half hidden under the bracken. Cloudtail's head popped up. "Great StarClan!" he grumbled. "Can't a cat get any sleep around here?" "S-sorry," Hollyleaf stammered, remembering that Cloudtail had been out on a late patrol the

这片阴影将它们和星族的庇护目光隔开来了。 喧闹之中，一个清晰的声音响起：“冬青叶！冬青叶！ 出来！” 冬青叶吓得拼命挣扎，才发现爪子缠在了软苔藓和蕨草里。 淡灰色的天光透过武士巢穴的枝桠渗了进来。 几狐身长外，榛尾正爬出自己的窝，抖掉皮毛上沾的苔藓碎。 “冬青叶！” 叫声又一次传来，这次冬青叶听出来了，是桦落在巢穴外不耐烦地叫她。 “你打算睡一整天吗？ 我们该出去打猎了。” “来了。” 冬青叶还睡眼惺忪，噩梦的余悸让她每根毛都还在抖，她朝着枝桠间最近的缺口走去。 还没走到，她的爪子就绊到了一只睡猫的胯部，那只猫半躲在蕨草下面。 云尾一下子抬起了脑袋。 “伟大的星族啊！” 他嘟囔道。 “这儿就不能让一只猫好好睡一觉吗？” “对、对不起，”冬青叶结结巴巴地说，她想起云尾昨晚参加了深夜巡逻，

night before; she had seen him return to camp with Dustpelt and Sorreltail while she was keeping her warrior's vigil. Just my luck. My first day, and I manage to annoy one of the senior warriors! Cloudtail snorted and curled up again, his blue eyes closing as he buried his nose in his fur. "It's okay," Hazeltail murmured, brushing her muzzle against Hollyleaf's shoulder. "Cloudtail's mew is worse than his scratch. And don't let Birchfall ruffle your fur. He's bossy with the new warriors, but you'll soon get used to it." Hollyleaf nodded gratefully, though she didn't tell Hazeltail the real reason she was thrown off balance. Birchfall didn't bother her; it was the memory of the dream that throbbed through her from ears to tail-tip, making her paws clumsy and her thoughts troubled. Her gaze drifted to the nest where her brother Lionpaw—no, Lionblaze now—had curled up at the end of his vigil. She wanted to talk to him more than anything. But the nest was empty; Lionblaze must have gone out on the dawn patrol.

前一晚； 她守武士就职夜礼的时候，亲眼看见他和尘毛、炭毛一起回到营地。 我可真倒霉。 我当武士的第一天，居然就惹恼了一位资深武士！ 云尾哼了一声，重新蜷起身子，闭上蓝眼睛，把鼻子埋进了皮毛里。 “没事的，”榛尾轻声说，用脑袋蹭了蹭冬青叶的肩膀。 “云尾就是刀子嘴豆腐心。 别让桦落惹你不开心。 他对新武士就是爱摆架子，你很快就习惯了。” 冬青叶感激地点点头，不过她没告诉榛尾自己心慌意乱的真正原因。 桦落并没有惹恼她； 是那个噩梦的记忆从耳朵到尾尖都揪着她，让她爪子发僵，心神不宁。 她的目光飘向哥哥狮爪——哦不对，现在该叫狮焰了——守完夜礼蜷睡的巢穴。 她现在最想做的事就是和哥哥聊聊这个梦。 可巢穴是空的，狮焰肯定已经去参加黎明巡逻队了。

Careful where she put her paws, Hollyleaf pushed her way out of the den behind Hazeltail. Outside, Birchfall was scraping the ground impatiently. "At last!" he snapped. "What kept you?" "Take it easy, Birchfall." Brambleclaw, the ThunderClan deputy and Hollyleaf's father, was sitting a tail-length away with his tail wrapped neatly around his paws. His amber eyes were calm. "The prey won't run away." "Not till they see us, anyway," Sandstorm added as she bounded across from the fresh-kill pile. "If there is any prey." Birchfall lashed his tail. "Ever since the battle, fresh-kill's been much harder to find." Hollyleaf's grumbling belly told her that Birchfall was right. Several sunrises ago all four Clans had battled in ThunderClan territory; their screeching and trampling had frightened off all the prey, or driven them deep underground. "Maybe the prey will start to come back now," she suggested. "Maybe," Brambleclaw agreed. "We'll head

冬青叶小心翼翼地落脚，跟在榛尾身后挤出了巢穴。 巢穴外，桦落正不耐烦地扒着地面。 “可算出来了！”他厉声说。 “什么事耽误这么久？” “别着急，桦落。” 雷族副族长、冬青叶的父亲黑莓掌，正坐在一尾远的地方，尾巴整整齐齐绕在脚边。 他的琥珀色眼睛十分平静。 “猎物不会自己跑掉的。” “没错，不过猎物看见我们还是会跑呀，”沙风说着从新鲜猎物堆那边跳了过来。 “要是这儿还有猎物的话。” 桦落甩了甩尾巴。 “自从那场大战之后，找猎物可比以前难太多了。” 冬青叶咕咕叫的肚子告诉她，桦落说的没错。 几天前，四大族群在雷族领地上打了一仗； 它们的尖叫和踩踏把所有猎物都吓跑了，要么就是赶去了地洞深处。 “说不定猎物现在已经慢慢开始回来了呢，”她说道。 “有可能，”黑莓掌赞同道。 “我们这就往

toward the ShadowClan border. There wasn't as much fighting over there." Hollyleaf stiffened at the mention of ShadowClan. Will I see Sol again? she wondered. "I wonder if we'll see any ShadowClan cats," Birchfall meowed, echoing her thought. "I'd like to know if they're all going to turn their back on StarClan, and follow that weirdo loner instead." Hollyleaf felt as if stones were dragging in her belly, weighing her down. ShadowClan had not appeared at the last Gathering, two nights before. Instead, their leader, Blackstar, had come alone except for Sol, the loner who had recently arrived by the lake, and explained that his cats no longer believed in the power of their warrior ancestors. But that can't be right! How can a Clan survive without StarClan? Without the warrior code? "Sol's not such a weirdo," Hazeltail pointed out to Birchfall with a flick of her ears. "He predicted that the sun would vanish, and it did. None of the medicine cats knew that was going to happen." Birchfall shrugged. "The sun came back,

朝影族边界前进。 那边原本就没多少争斗。" 一提到影族，冬青叶瞬间绷紧了身体。 我会再见到索尔吗？ 她暗自猜想。 "不知道我们会不会碰到影族猫，"桦落出声说，正好说出了她的心事。 "我想知道他们是不是全都要背弃星族，去跟着那个奇怪的独行猫了。" 冬青叶只觉得肚子里像坠了石头，沉甸甸的提不起劲。 两天前的那次集会，影族根本没有露面。 只有他们的族长黑星前来，身边只有最近才到湖边的独行猫索尔，黑星解释说，他的族猫不再相信武士先祖的力量了。 可这怎么可能对！ 一个族群没有星族要怎么活下去？ 没有武士守则呢？ "索尔才不是什么怪家伙，"榛尾晃了晃耳朵对桦落说。 "他预言过太阳会消失，结果真的发生了。 所有巫医都没提前料到这件事。" 桦落耸了耸肩。 "太阳又回来了，

didn't it? It's not that big a deal." "In any case," Brambleclaw interrupted, rising to his paws, "this is a hunting patrol. We're not going to pay a friendly visit to ShadowClan." "But they fought beside us," Birchfall objected. "WindClan and RiverClan would have turned us into crow-food without the ShadowClan warriors. We can't be enemies again so soon, can we?" "Not enemies," Sandstorm corrected. "But they're still a different Clan. Besides, I'm not sure we can be friends with cats who reject StarClan." What about our own cats, then? Hollyleaf didn't dare to ask the question out loud. Cloudtail has never believed in StarClan. But she knew without question Cloudtail was a loyal warrior who would die for any of his Clanmates. Brambleclaw said nothing, just gave his pelt a shake and kinked his tail to beckon the rest of the patrol. As they headed toward the thorn tunnel they met Brackenfur pushing his way into the hollow with Sorreltail and Lionblaze behind him. The dawn patrol had returned. As all three cats headed for the fresh-kill pile, Hollyleaf darted

不对吗？ 这也不是什么大不了的事。" "不管怎么说，"棘爪打断了对话，站起身来，"这是一次狩猎巡逻， 我们可不是去影族做友好访问的。" "可他们之前和我们并肩作战过，"桦落反对道。 "要是没有影族武士，风族和河族早就把我们变成乌鸦食了。 我们总不能这么快又变成敌人，对不对？" "不是敌人，"沙风纠正道。 "但他们终归是别的族群。 再说，我不确定我们能和背弃星族的猫做朋友。" 那我们自己族群的猫呢？ 冬青叶没敢把这个问题问出口。 云尾也从来不信星族啊。 可她毫无疑问清楚，云尾是忠诚的武士，愿意为任何族猫去死。 棘爪没说话，只是抖了抖皮毛，弯了弯尾巴示意巡逻队其他成员跟上。 他们朝荆刺隧道走去时，碰到了蕨毛正往山谷里走，身后跟着粟尾和狮焰。 清晨巡逻队回来了。 三只猫都往鲜猎物堆走去时，冬青叶窜了