Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 Cinderpelt could tell Fireheart nothing more, nor suggest what the evil in the forest might be. "StarClan wouldn't repeat the warning if it weren't important," she meowed, her troubled blue gaze resting on Fireheart. "All we can do is keep watch." "At least Bluestar is back safely." Fireheart tried to encourage her, but it was a poor effort. Both cats were aware of the shapeless, voiceless threat hanging over the Clan they loved. In the days that followed, Fireheart did his best to set up a system of patrols that would give the Clan ample warning if ShadowClan or RiverClan decided to attack. There were barely enough warriors for the regular patrols and sentry duties, and Fireheart felt his fur grow thin with worry as the season moved on. The rain gave way to crisp, dry weather, but there was a thin rime of frost on the ground each morning and the remaining leaves dropped steadily from the trees. The brief recovery of the forest was over, and prey became scarce again. One morning, about half a moon after the

第十六章灰姑娘再也不能对火心说什么了，也说不出森林里的恶魔是什么。 “如果不是重要的事，星族是不会重复这个警告的。”她喵喵地说，不安的蓝色目光落在火心身上。 “我们所能做的就是放哨。” “至少蓝星号安全回来了。” 火心想鼓励她，但没有用。 两只猫都意识到，一种无形的、无声的威胁笼罩着它们所爱的氏族。 在接下来的日子里，火心尽了最大的努力建立了一个巡逻系统，以便在暗影氏族或河流氏族决定进攻时给予氏族充分的警告。 这里几乎没有足够的战士来执行常规的巡逻和放哨任务，随着季节的推移，火心感到自己的皮毛越来越薄。 雨停了，天气清脆干燥，但每天早晨地面上都有一层薄薄的霜，树上剩下的叶子也在不断地掉落。 森林的短暂恢复结束了，猎物又变得稀少了。 一天早晨，大约半个月后

confrontation with WindClan, Fireheart was about to lead out the dawn patrol with Brackenfur and Cloudpaw when Bluestar came padding from her den. "I'll lead the patrol this morning," she meowed, and went to wait by the entrance to the camp. "Bluestar leading a patrol?" muttered Cloudpaw. "That ought to go well. Watch out for flying hedgehogs!" Fireheart aimed a cuff at the side of his head, but he couldn't help feeling as surprised as his apprentice that Bluestar should start taking up Clan duties again. "Show some respect," he ordered. "She's your leader, and she's been ill." Cloudpaw grunted. Fireheart was about to join his leader when an idea struck him. "Listen, Cloudpaw, you want to be a warrior, don't you?" The white cat nodded eagerly. "Well, then, this is your chance to impress Bluestar. We'll take another apprentice as well. Go and find Swiftpaw." Cloudpaw's eyes lit up with excitement, and he dashed off toward the apprentices' den. Fireheart watched him go, then turned to

在与风氏族的对抗中，火心正准备带着布雷肯弗和云爪带领黎明巡逻队，这时蓝星从她的巢穴里冲了出来。 “今天早上我来带队巡逻，”她喵喵地叫着，然后走到营地门口等着。 “蓝星带队巡逻？”云爪喃喃地说。 “那应该会很顺利。小心会飞的刺猬！”火心将一只袖口对准了他的头部，但他还是忍不住像他的徒弟一样感到惊讶，因为蓝星又要开始承担部落的职责了。 “放尊重点，”他命令道。 “她是你们的领袖，她病了。” Cloudpaw哼了一声。火心正准备加入他的首领，突然他有了一个主意。 “听着，云爪，你想成为一名战士，是吗？”白猫急切地点点头。 “那么，这是你给蓝星留下深刻印象的机会。 我们还要再收一个徒弟。 快去找Swiftpaw。”云爪兴奋得两眼放光，朝徒弟的窝冲去。 火心看着他离开，然后转身

Brackenfur. "Can you get Longtail?" He knew the pale tabby warrior would be pleased to have a chance to show off his apprentice's skills. "He's due to go out on hunting patrol—you don't mind swapping duties with him, do you?" "No, that's fine, Fireheart." Brackenfur disappeared into the warriors' den, and a moment later Longtail appeared. The two apprentices joined their mentors, and all four cats padded over to where Bluestar was waiting. Her tail twitched. "Sure you've got the right cats, Fireheart?" she inquired acidly. Without waiting for a reply she led the way out of the camp and up the ravine. As he followed the blue-gray she-cat toward the RiverClan border, Fireheart could almost imagine that the last few seasons had never happened, and he was still a young warrior going out on patrol without any of the responsibilities that troubled him now. But the fire-scarred forest reminded him that there was no going back. The frost was beginning to melt as the sun rose over the river, though the leaves still crackled beneath the cats' paws as they padded through

Brackenfur。“你能找到长尾巴吗？”他知道这个白斑猫战士会很高兴有机会展示他的学徒技能。 “他要出去执行狩猎巡逻任务——你不介意和他交换任务吧？”“不，没关系，火心。” 布拉肯弗消失在战士们的洞穴里，不一会儿，长尾巴出现了。 两个学徒加入了他们的导师，四只猫都蹑手蹑脚地走到蓝星等着的地方。 她的尾巴抽搐了一下。“火心，你肯定抓对猫了吗？”她尖刻地问。 不等回答，她就带路出了营地，爬上了峡谷。 当他跟着蓝灰色母猫朝河族边境走去时，火心几乎可以想象，过去的几个赛季都没有发生过，他仍然是一名年轻的战士，外出巡逻，没有任何现在困扰他的责任。 但被大火烧毁的森林提醒他，没有回头路可走。 当太阳从河上升起时，霜冻开始融化，但当猫蹑手蹑脚走过时，树叶仍然在猫爪下发出噼啪声

the shadows. As they went, Fireheart tested the two apprentices on what they could see and scent, hoping to demonstrate their hunting abilities to their leader. They answered confidently, but Bluestar gave no sign that she had heard. The ThunderClan leader paused when they came within sight of the river and stood gazing at the opposite bank. "I wonder where they are," she murmured, almost too quietly for Fireheart to hear. "What are they doing now?" Fireheart did not need to see the sadness in her eyes to know that she was thinking of Mistyfoot and Stonefur. He glanced uneasily at the other cats to see if they had noticed, but Swiftpaw and Cloudpaw were sniffing at an old water-vole hole, while Longtail was watching the movements of a squirrel high in the branches of a tree. After a few moments Bluestar turned and followed the border upstream toward Sunningrocks. Fireheart noticed that she kept casting glances into RiverClan territory. But everything was quiet. They saw no RiverClan cats at all. Eventually Sunningrocks came within sight.

的阴影。一路上，火心测试了两名学徒的视觉和嗅觉，希望向他们的首领展示他们的狩猎能力。 他们自信地回答，但蓝星没有表现出她听到了的迹象。 当他们看到河的时候，雷族首领停了下来，站在那里凝视着对岸。 “我不知道他们在哪儿。”她低声说，声音小得火心几乎听不见。 “他们现在在干什么？”火心不需要看到她眼中的悲伤，就知道她在想雾脚和斯通弗。 他不安地瞥了一眼其他的猫，看它们有没有注意到，但雨爪和云爪正在一个旧水鼠洞里嗅着，而长尾巴则在树枝上观察一只松鼠的活动。 过了一会儿，蓝星转过身来，沿着边界逆流而上，朝桑宁岩走去。 火心注意到她不断地向河族的领地投射目光。 但一切都很安静。他们根本没有看到河族的猫。 终于，太阳岩进入了视线。

The smoothly sloping boulders seemed deserted. Then, as Fireheart watched, a cat climbed up from the opposite side and stood silhouetted against the sky. Fireheart stopped dead, his fur prickling with the sense of danger. Though he could not make out the color of her fur, there was no mistaking that aggressive stance, the arrogant tilt of her head, and her long, winding tail. It was Leopardstar. A couple of other cats had joined Leopardstar, and as the ThunderClan patrol drew closer, Fireheart recognized Stonefur, the RiverClan deputy, and the warrior Blackclaw. "Bluestar!" he hissed. "What are RiverClan doing on Sunningrocks?" But Fireheart felt his heart sink with dread when he saw the way that Bluestar was looking at the RiverClan deputy—not the challenging glare of a leader faced with enemy cats on her territory, but the admiring gaze of a queen who has seen her beloved kit become a noble warrior. Bluestar padded forward until she reached the base of the rock where Leopardstar waited.

平缓倾斜的巨石似乎无人问津。 接着，在火心的注视下，一只猫从对面爬了上来，站在天空的映衬下。 火心停了下来，他的毛因危险的感觉而刺痛。 虽然他看不清它皮毛的颜色，但它那咄咄逼人的姿态、傲慢地歪着的头和又长又卷的尾巴是毫无疑问的。 是豹星。其他几只猫也加入了豹星的行列，当雷霆族的巡逻队越来越近时，火心认出了河族的副手石弗和勇士黑爪。 “蓝星！”他嘶嘶地说。“河族在太阳岩上干什么？”但当火心看到蓝星看着河族代表的眼神时，他的心因恐惧而沉了下去——这不是一个领袖在自己的领土上面对敌人的猫时发出的挑战的目光，而是一个女王看到她心爱的kit成为一名高贵的战士时发出的钦佩的目光。 蓝星蹑手蹑脚地向前走，一直走到岩石底部，豹星就在那里等着。

Fireheart followed. "What do they think they're doing?" Cloudpaw muttered indignantly behind him. "Sunningrocks is ours!" Fireheart shot him a warning glance to keep silent, and the apprentice dropped back beside Swiftpaw and Longtail, while Fireheart went to stand at Bluestar's shoulder. "Good day, Bluestar," Leopardstar meowed, her voice confident. "I've been waiting since moonset to see ThunderClan cats, but I never hoped that one of them would be you." There was an edge of mockery in her tone, and Fireheart winced that the head of his Clan could be scorned so openly by other leaders. "What are you doing here?" Bluestar asked. "Sunningrocks belongs to ThunderClan." But her voice was low and unchallenging, as if she did not really believe what she was saying—or did not care. "Sunningrocks has always belonged to RiverClan," Leopardstar retorted, "even though we allowed ThunderClan to hunt here for a while. But ThunderClan stands in our debt after the help

Fireheart紧随其后。“他们以为自己在做什么？”云爪在他身后愤怒地嘟囔着。 “太阳岩是我们的！”火心向他投去警告的一瞥，让他别出声。学徒退到雨爪和长尾身边，火心则去站在蓝星的肩膀旁。 “你好，蓝星，”豹星喵喵地叫着，声音很自信。 “从月落开始，我就一直在等着看雷霆家族的猫，但我从没想过其中一个会是你。” 她的语气中带着一丝嘲弄，火心畏缩了一下，他的氏族首领竟然会被其他首领如此公开地蔑视。 “你在这儿干什么？”蓝星问道。 “太阳岩属于雷电族。” 但她的声音很低，没有挑战性，好像她并不真的相信自己在说什么——或者根本不在乎。 “太阳岩一直属于河流氏族，”豹星反驳道，“尽管我们允许雷霆氏族在这里狩猎了一段时间。 但是雷霆氏族欠我们的人情