Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 Fireheart waited until the only sound he could hear was the pounding of blood in his ears. Then he padded to the edge of the Thunderpath. It stretched ahead of him, wide and foul-smelling, but silent. Fireheart darted out. The ground beneath his paws felt cold and smooth. He didn't stop until he reached the grass on the other side. The air here was tainted by the acrid smell of the Thunderpath and its monsters, so Fireheart headed toward the hedge. Still, there was no trace of the WindClan cats. His heart sank. Suddenly a monster tore past, making Fireheart leap into the air with terror. He scrambled underneath the hedge and crouched, trembling, frantically wondering what to do next. Then he smelled it: the faintest trace carried on the wind that the monster had stirred up. WindClan had been here! Fireheart called as loudly as he could to Graystripe. There was a pause, then the sound of paws pounding across the Thunderpath to join him. "Have you found it?" puffed his friend.

第五章火心等待着，直到他唯一能听到的声音是血在耳朵里的砰砰声。 然后他蹑手蹑脚地走到雷道的边缘。 它在他面前伸展开来，宽阔而恶臭，但却无声无息。 火心冲了出去。它爪子下的地面摸起来又冷又光滑。 他一直走到对岸的草地上才停下来。 这里的空气被雷电之路及其怪物的刺鼻气味所污染，于是火心朝树篱走去。 然而，还是没有风氏族猫的踪迹。 他的心一沉。突然，一个怪物冲了过去，吓得火心一跃而起。 他爬到树篱下蹲了下来，浑身发抖，疯狂地想知道下一步该怎么办。 接着，他闻到了气味：风带着那怪物搅动的最微弱的痕迹。 风氏族来过这里！火心尽可能大声地呼唤灰条纹。 停顿了一下，然后是爪子穿过雷道的声音。 “你找到了吗？”他的朋友喘着气说。

"Not sure. I got a whiff, but I can't pinpoint it." Fireheart pushed his way through the hedge, Graystripe right behind him. He lifted his nose toward the open field ahead of them. "Have you any idea what's over there?" "No," replied Graystripe. "I shouldn't think any Clan cat has ever been this far before." "Except WindClan," muttered Fireheart darkly. Away from the confusing fumes of the Thunderpath, the trail was suddenly clear. WindClan had definitely come this way. The two cats struck out through the long grass, straight across the field. "Fireheart!" Graystripe sounded alarmed. "What is it?" "Look!" Fireheart stopped and lifted his head. He saw a Thunderpath ahead of them arching high into the air on massive stone legs, illuminated by the eyes of the monsters that moved along it. Another Thunderpath ran below, veering off into the darkness. Graystripe nodded toward a tall thistle. "And smell this!"

“不确定。我闻到了一点味道，但我不能确定是什么。” 火心推开树篱，灰条纹紧跟在他后面。 他抬起鼻子朝他们前面的旷野望去。 “你知道那边是什么吗？”“不，”灰条纹回答。 “我想以前没有一只家族猫能走这么远。” “除了风氏族。”火心阴郁地喃喃道。 离开了雷暴之路令人困惑的烟雾，踪迹突然清晰起来。 WindClan肯定是走了这条路。 两只猫穿过长草，径直穿过田野。 “Fireheart !”“灰条”听起来很惊慌。 “什么事？”“看!”火心停了下来，抬起头。 他看见前方有一条雷道，用巨大的石腿拱起，高高地伸向空中，被沿着雷道移动的怪物的眼睛照亮。 另一条雷道从下面跑过，转向黑暗中。 灰条朝一株高大的蓟点点头。 “闻闻这个！”

Fireheart inhaled the scent. It was a fresh WindClan marker! "They must have settled somewhere near here!" Graystripe murmured in disbelief. A pang of excitement twisted Fireheart's stomach. Both cats looked silently at each other for a moment. Then, without a word, they moved on toward the stinking Thunderpaths. Graystripe spoke at last. "Why would WindClan come to a place like this?" "I guess not even Brokenstar would want to follow them here," Fireheart answered grimly. He stopped. A thought was nagging at him. Graystripe paused beside him. "What is it?" "If WindClan is hiding so near the Thunderpaths," Fireheart meowed slowly, "they must be fairly desperate not to be found. They're more likely to trust us if we arrive in daylight than if we creep up on them in darkness." "Does that mean we can rest?" asked Graystripe, sitting down heavily. "Just until it's light," meowed Fireheart. "We'll find somewhere to hide and see if we can get some sleep. Are you hungry?" Graystripe shook

火心吸入了气味。 这是一个新的风之家族的标志！“他们一定是在这附近的什么地方定居下来的！”灰条难以置信地低声说。 一阵兴奋使火心的胃一阵痉挛。 两只猫沉默地对视了一会儿。 然后，他们一言不发地朝臭烘烘的雷霆谷走去。 灰条终于开口了。“风氏族为什么要来这种地方？”“我想，就连布罗肯斯塔也不会愿意跟着他们到这里来的。”火心冷酷地回答。 他停住了。一个念头在他心头萦绕。 灰条纹在他身边停了下来。 “什么事？”“如果风氏族藏在离雷暴之路这么近的地方，”火心慢慢地喵喵叫道，“他们一定非常不愿意被发现。 如果我们在白天到达，它们更有可能相信我们，而不是我们在黑暗中悄悄接近它们。” “这意味着我们可以休息了吗？”格雷斯特问道，重重地坐了下来。 “等天亮了再说。”火心叫道。 “我们找个地方躲起来，看看能不能睡一会儿。 你饿吗？”Graystripe摇

his head. "Me neither," Fireheart agreed. "I don't know if it's those herbs or because the stench from the Thunderpath is making me feel sick." "Where shall we sleep?" Graystripe looked around. Fireheart had already noticed a dark shadow in the ground up ahead. "What's that?" "A burrow?" Graystripe sounded puzzled. "It's too big for a rabbit. Surely there can't be a badger set here!" "Let's take a look," Fireheart suggested. The hole was larger than a badger set, smooth and lined with stone. Fireheart sniffed it, then put his front paws on its rim and peered cautiously inside. A stone tunnel sloped away, down into the ground. "I can feel air flowing through it," he meowed, his voice echoing away into the shadows. "It must come up somewhere over there." He ducked back out and pointed his nose toward the tangle of Thunderpaths. "Is it empty?" Graystripe asked. "Smells like it." "Come on then." Graystripe led the way into the tunnel. After a few fox lengths, the slope

他的头。“我也是。”火心同意。 “我不知道是因为那些草药的缘故，还是因为Thunderpath的臭味让我恶心。” “我们睡在哪里？”灰条环顾四周。 火心已经注意到前面地上有个黑影。 “那是什么?”“洞穴?”“灰条”听起来很困惑。 “这对兔子来说太大了。 这里肯定不会有獾！”“我们去看看。”火心建议道。 这个洞比獾洞还大，光滑，里面铺着石头。 火心闻了闻它，然后把前爪放在它的边缘上，小心翼翼地往里面看。 一条石头隧道向外倾斜，一直延伸到地下。 “我能感觉到空气从里面流过。”他喵喵地叫着，他的声音在阴影中回荡。 “它一定是从那边某个地方冒出来的。” 他又缩回去，把鼻子指向那片乱成一团的雷道。 “是空的吗？”Graystripe问道。 “闻起来像。”“那就来吧。” 灰条带路进了隧道。 狐狸走了几段后，下了坡

leveled out. Fireheart halted and sniffed the damp air. He could smell nothing but the fumes of the Thunderpath. A roaring noise rumbled overhead. Fireheart's paws trembled as the stone floor vibrated. Was the Thunderpath above them? He fluffed out his coat against the relentless draft and felt Graystripe's fur brush against him—his friend was circling, preparing to settle down to sleep. Fireheart crouched down and huddled beside his friend. He closed his stinging eyes and thought of the gentle forest breezes and the rustling of the leaves. Exhaustion fought briefly with a pang of longing to be at home in his den, before he gave in to the blackness that swam into his mind. When Fireheart opened his eyes again, gray light was glowing at the end of the tunnel. Dawn must be near. Fireheart's bones ached from the cold hard ground. He nudged Graystripe, who grunted. "Morning already?" "Almost," Fireheart answered, getting to his paws. Graystripe stretched and stood up too. "I think we should head that way," Fireheart meowed, craning his neck away from the light. "I

夷为平地。火心停下来，嗅了嗅潮湿的空气。 他什么也闻不到，只闻到了“雷道”的烟雾。 头顶上传来隆隆的咆哮声。 火心的爪子随着石头地板的震动而颤抖。 雷道在他们上面吗？ 他把外套抖松，挡住刺骨的寒风，感觉到灰条的皮毛拂过他——他的朋友正在打转，准备入睡。 火心蹲下来，缩在他朋友身边。 他闭上刺痛的眼睛，想着森林里柔和的微风和树叶的沙沙声。 在他屈服于涌进他脑海的黑暗之前，一阵渴望回家的痛苦与疲惫作了短暂的斗争。 当火心再次睁开眼睛时，隧道的尽头闪烁着灰色的光芒。 黎明一定快到了。火心的骨头因冰冷坚硬的地面而疼痛。 他推了推格雷斯特，后者哼了一声。 “早上了吗?”“差不多了。”火心回答，伸手去抓爪子。 灰条伸了伸懒腰，也站了起来。 “我想我们应该往那边走。”火心叫道，伸长脖子避开亮光。 “我

think this tunnel leads right under a Thunderpath. It might take us nearer to the…" His voice trailed off; he had no words to describe the tangle of Thunderpaths they had seen last night. Beside him Graystripe nodded, and together they began to pad wordlessly into the darkness. Before long Fireheart spotted light ahead of them. They quickened their pace until they were racing up a short, steep slope that led them into a world filled with gray dawn light. They had come up near the edge of a patch of barren, dirty grass. Thunderpaths enclosed it on two sides, and another arched overhead. A fire burned in the middle of the grass. A few Twolegs lay around it. One of them stretched and rolled over, and another grunted angrily in its sleep, but the noise and stench from the Thunderpaths didn't seem to wake them. Fireheart watched them warily, then froze as something else caught his eye: dark outlines that flitted back and forth in front of the flames. Cats! Could it be WindClan? Fireheart looked at the fire and the cats, and his mind flooded with the memory of his dream—the noise of the

我觉得这条隧道正好通到雷暴通道下面。 它可能使我们更接近……”他的声音变小了。他无法用语言来形容他们昨晚所看到的混乱的雷道。 在他身边，格雷斯特点点头，他们一起一言不发地向黑暗中走去。 没过多久，火心发现前面有亮光。 他们加快了脚步，跑上了一个又短又陡的斜坡，进入了一个充满灰色曙光的世界。 他们来到一片贫瘠肮脏的草地边上。 它的两侧是雷道，另一条在头顶上形成拱形。 火在草丛中燃烧着。 几只特立格在它周围躺着。 其中一只伸了个懒腰，翻了个身，另一只在睡梦中愤怒地哼了一声，但雷道的噪音和恶臭似乎并没有把它们吵醒。 火心小心翼翼地看着他们，然后又僵住了，因为另一个东西映入了他的眼帘：在火焰前面飞来飞去的黑色轮廓。 猫!会是WindClan吗？ 火心看着炉火和猫，他的脑海里充满了他的梦的记忆——猫的声音