Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 Fireheart sniffed warily at a path where the snow had been trampled down by Twolegs. Lights shone from the Twoleg nest, and somewhere close by he could hear a dog barking. He remembered Barley telling him that the Twolegs let their dogs off the chains at night. He just hoped that he could locate Ravenpaw before he and Graystripe were noticed. Graystripe slipped through the fence and padded up to him. The icy wind flattened his gray fur against his body. "Smell anything?" he asked. Fireheart lifted his head to taste the air, and almost at once he caught the scent he was searching for, faint but familiar. Ravenpaw! "This way," he mewed. He crept along the path, the hard surface icy under his paws. Cautiously he followed the scent to a gap at the bottom of a barn door where the wood had rotted away. He sniffed, drinking in the smell of hay and the strong, fresh scent of cats. "Ravenpaw?" he whispered. When there was no reply, he repeated, louder, "Ravenpaw?"

第二章火心警惕地嗅着一条小路，上面的雪是特立格踩过的。 特沃列格的窝里闪烁着灯光，他可以听到附近某个地方有狗在叫。 他记得巴利告诉过他，特立格家的狗晚上会把链子解开。 他只希望能在他和灰条纹被发现之前找到拉文爪。 灰条溜过篱笆，蹑手蹑脚地走到他跟前。 寒风吹得他的灰色皮毛紧贴在身上。 “闻到什么了吗？”他问。 火心抬起头来嗅了嗅空气，几乎立刻就闻到了他一直在寻找的气味，虽然微弱，但很熟悉。 Ravenpaw !“这边，”他叫道。 他蹑手蹑脚地沿着小路走，坚硬的地面在他的脚掌下结了冰。 他小心翼翼地顺着气味来到谷仓门底部的一个缺口，那里的木头已经腐烂了。 他嗅了嗅，吸进了干草的气味和浓烈的猫的新鲜气味。 “拉文爪？”没有人回答，他又提高了声音说：“拉文爪？”

"Fireheart, is that you?" A surprised mew came from the darkness on the other side of the door. "Ravenpaw!" Fireheart squeezed through the gap, thankful to be out of the wind. The scents of the barn flowed around him, and his mouth began to water as he detected the smell of mouse. The barn was dimly lit by moonlight filtering through a small window high under the roof. As his eyes adjusted, Fireheart saw another cat standing a few tail-lengths away. His friend looked even sleeker and better fed than when Fireheart had seen him last. Fireheart realized how scrawny and bedraggled he must look in comparison. Ravenpaw purred happily as he padded over to Fireheart and touched noses with him. "Welcome," he mewed. "It's good to see you." "It's good to see you," Graystripe meowed, pushing his way through the gap in the door after Fireheart. "Did you get WindClan back to their camp safely?" Ravenpaw asked. Fireheart and Graystripe had stayed with him during their journey to bring WindClan home.

“火心，是你吗？”黑暗中从门的另一边传来一声惊叫。 “Ravenpaw !”火心从缝隙里挤了过去，庆幸自己逃过了风。 谷仓的香味在他周围弥漫，当他闻到老鼠的味道时，他开始流口水。 月光从屋顶下高处的一扇小窗户里透进来，朦胧地照亮了谷仓。 火心的眼睛渐渐适应了，他看见另一只猫站在几尾远的地方。 他的朋友看起来比火心上次见到他时更苗条，吃得也更好了。 火心意识到，与之相比，他一定是骨瘦如柴，衣衫褴褛。 拉文爪轻轻地走到火心跟前，用鼻子碰了碰它，高兴地叫着。 “欢迎，”他叫道。“很高兴见到你。” “很高兴见到你。”灰条喵喵地叫着，从火心后面的门缝里挤了进来。 “你把风氏族安全带回营地了吗？”Ravenpaw问道。 火心和灰条纹在他们带风氏族回家的旅途中一直陪伴着他。

"Yes," mewed Fireheart, "but it's a long story. We can't—" "Well, what's going on here?" Another cat's meow interrupted them. Fireheart spun around, flattening his ears, ready to fight if this newcomer was a threat. Then he recognized Barley, the black-and-white loner who had willingly shared his home with Ravenpaw. "Hi, Barley," Fireheart meowed, calming down. "We need to talk to Ravenpaw." "So I see," Barley mewed. "And it must be important, to bring you across the moors in this weather." "Yes, it is," Fireheart agreed. He glanced at the former ThunderClan apprentice, the urgency of his mission prickling through his fur. "Ravenpaw, we haven't any time to waste." Ravenpaw looked puzzled. "You know you can talk to me as much as you want." "I'll leave you to it, then," Barley offered. "Feel free to hunt. We've plenty of mice here." He gave a friendly nod to the visiting cats, and squeezed out under the door. "Hunt? Really?" meowed Graystripe. Fireheart

“是的，”火心叫道，“不过这说来话长。 我们不能——”“喂，这是怎么回事？”另一只猫的喵喵声打断了他们。 火心转过身来，竖起耳朵，如果这个新来的人构成威胁，他就准备战斗。 然后他认出了巴利，那个黑白相间的孤独者，他愿意和拉文爪一起住在家里。 “嗨，巴利。”火心叫着，平静了下来。 “我们得跟拉文爪谈谈。” “我明白了，”大麦叫道。“在这种天气带你穿过沼地，一定很重要。” “是的。”火心表示同意。 他瞥了一眼这位前雷霆氏族学徒，他的任务的紧迫性刺痛了他的皮毛。 “拉文爪，我们不能再浪费时间了。” 拉文爪一脸迷惑。“你知道你想跟我说多少就说多少。” “那我就不打扰你了。”巴利提议道。 “尽情打猎吧。我们这儿有很多老鼠。” 他向来访的猫们友好地点了点头，然后从门底下挤了出去。 “狩猎吗?真的吗？” Fireheart

felt sharp pangs of hunger grip his belly. "Of course," mewed Ravenpaw. "Look, why don't you eat first? Then you can tell me why you're here." "I know Tigerclaw killed Redtail," Ravenpaw insisted. "I was there, and I saw him do it." The three cats were crouched in the hayloft of the Twoleg barn. Hunting had not taken very long. After the desparate struggle to find prey in the snow-covered forest, the barn seemed to the hungry ThunderClan warriors to be overflowing with mice. Now Fireheart was warm, and his stomach felt comfortably full. He would have liked to curl up and sleep in the soft, fragrant hay, but he knew that he had to talk to Ravenpaw right away if he and Graystripe were to get back to camp before their absence was noticed. "Tell us everything you remember," he urged, giving Ravenpaw an encouraging nod. Ravenpaw stared ahead of him, his eyes dark as he journeyed back in his mind to the battle at the Sunningrocks. Fireheart could see his confidence beginning to ebb. The black cat was

感到饥饿的剧痛攫住了他的肚子。 “当然。”拉文爪叫道。 “听着，你为什么不先吃呢？” 然后你可以告诉我你为什么在这里。” “我知道虎爪杀了红尾巴。”拉文爪坚持说。 “我当时在场，亲眼看到他干的。” 三只猫蹲在特沃莱格谷仓的干草堆里。 打猎并没有花很长时间。 在白雪皑皑的森林里拼命寻找猎物之后，对饥饿的雷霆族战士来说，谷仓里似乎满是老鼠。 现在火心暖和了，他的肚子也舒服地吃饱了。 他真想蜷缩起来，睡在松软芬芳的干草里，但他知道，如果他和格雷条纹想在被发现之前回到营地，就必须马上和拉文爪谈谈。 “把你记得的都告诉我们。”他催促道，朝拉文爪鼓励地点了点头。 拉文爪凝视着前方，眼睛发黑，仿佛在脑海中回想起了太阳岩之战。 火心可以看到他的信心开始衰退。 那只黑猫是

losing himself in his memories, reliving the fear and the burden of what he knew. "I'd been wounded in the shoulder," he began, "and Redtail—he was our deputy then, as you know—told me to hide in a crack in the rock until it was safe to get away. I was just going to make a dash for it when I saw Redtail attack a RiverClan cat. I think it was that gray warrior called Stonefur. Redtail knocked Stonefur off his paws, and looked as if he was about to sink in his claws for some serious injury." "Why didn't he?" Graystripe put in. "Oakheart came out of nowhere," Ravenpaw explained. "He sank his teeth into Redtail's scruff and pulled him off Stonefur." His voice shook as the memories flooded through his mind's eye. "Stonefur ran away." The cat paused, unconsciously crouching down as if he were scared of something very close by. "What next?" Fireheart prompted gently. "Redtail spat at Oakheart. He asked him if RiverClan warriors were unable to fight their own battles. Redtail was brave," Ravenpaw added. "The RiverClan deputy was twice his size. And

在回忆中迷失自我，重新体验他所知道的恐惧和负担。 “我的肩膀受了伤，”他开始说，“你知道，瑞泰尔当时是我们的副手，他叫我躲在岩石的裂缝里，等安全了再逃走。 我正准备冲过去，突然看到红尾巴攻击了RiverClan的一只猫。 我想是那个叫斯通弗的灰色战士。 红尾巴把石头毛从爪子上摔了下来，看起来它好像要被爪子夹住，受重伤了。” “他为什么不呢？”输入灰色条纹。 “奥克哈特不知从哪儿冒出来的，”拉文爪解释说。 “它咬住了红尾巴的颈毛，把它从斯通弗身上拽了下来。” 他的声音颤抖着，回忆涌上心头。 “斯通弗跑了。”猫停了一下，下意识地蹲下身子，好像被附近的什么东西吓到了似的。 “什么?”火心轻轻地提示道。 小红尾巴朝奥克哈特啐了一口。 他问他河流氏族的战士是否不能打自己的仗。 红尾巴很勇敢。”拉文爪补充道。 河族代表的块头是他的两倍。 和

then…then Oakheart said a strange thing. He told Redtail, 'No ThunderClan cat will ever harm that warrior.'" "What?" Graystripe narrowed his eyes until they were yellow slits. "That doesn't make sense. Are you sure you heard him right?" "Positive," insisted Ravenpaw. "But the Clans fight all the time," meowed Fireheart. "What's so special about Stonefur?" "I don't know." Ravenpaw shrugged, shying away from their searching questions. "So what did Redtail do after Oakheart said that?" asked Graystripe. Ravenpaw's ears pricked up and his eyes widened. "He flew at Oakheart. He bowled him right off his paws and underneath a rocky overhang. I…I couldn't see them, though I could hear them snarling. And then I heard a rumbling sound, and the rock collapsed on top of them!" He stopped, shivering. "Please go on," Fireheart mewed. He hated putting Ravenpaw through this, but he had to know the truth. "I heard a screech from Oakheart and I saw his

然后奥克哈特说了一件奇怪的事。 他对红尾巴说：“雷电族的猫永远不会伤害那个勇士。”“什么?”灰条把眼睛眯成了黄色的裂缝。 “这说不通。你确定你没听错吗？”“肯定。”拉文爪坚持说。 “可是氏族之间一直在打架。”火心喵喵地说。 “斯通弗有什么特别之处？”“我不知道。” 拉文爪耸了耸肩，避开了他们尖锐的问题。 “那么，在Oakheart说完这句话后，Redtail做了什么？” 拉文爪竖起了耳朵，睁大了眼睛。 他飞到了奥克哈特。他把它从爪子上摔了下来，摔在了一块岩石的下面。 我…我看不见他们，但我能听到他们的咆哮。 然后我听到隆隆的声音，岩石在他们上面倒塌了！”他停了下来，颤抖着。 “请继续说。”火心叫道。 他不愿意让拉文爪经历这些，但他必须知道真相。 “我听到奥克哈特传来一声尖叫，我看到了他的