Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27 Fireheart struggled desperately to get free, lashing out with his hind paws to claw tufts of fur from his enemy's belly. The ShadowClan leader barely moved. The reek of his scent was in Fireheart's mouth and nostrils, and his amber eyes glared into Fireheart's own. "Greet StarClan for me," he snarled. "Only after you!" Fireheart gasped. To his astonishment, Tigerstar released him. Lurching to his paws, Fireheart saw the ShadowClan leader double back and spring up the nearest tree. Before he had time to wonder what was going on, he heard a deafening howl and felt the ground shake under his paws. He spun around to see the pack leader looming over him, its dripping jaws wide. There was no time to run. Fireheart shut his eyes and prepared to meet StarClan. Pain stabbed him as sharp teeth met in his scruff. His limbs flailed helplessly as the dog lifted him from the ground and shook him from side to side. He twisted in the air, struggling to claw eyes, jowls, tongue, but his thrashing paws met nothing.

第二十七章火心拼命挣扎，想挣脱，用它的后爪猛力从敌人肚子上抓毛。 暗影氏族首领几乎一动不动。 他的气味在火心的嘴巴和鼻孔里弥漫，琥珀色的眼睛瞪着火心的眼睛。 “代我向星族问好。”他咆哮道。 “你先走！”Fireheart气喘吁吁地说。 令他吃惊的是，虎星放了他。 火心踉踉跄跄地站了起来，看见暗影氏族首领折了回去，跳上了最近的一棵树。 他还没来得及想到底发生了什么事，就听到一声震耳欲聋的嚎叫，感到地动山摇。 他转过身来，看到狼群的首领正逼近他，它那滴水的嘴巴张得大大的。 没有时间跑了。火心闭上眼睛，准备迎接星族。 锋利的牙齿嵌在他的颈背上，疼痛刺痛了他。 狗把他从地上抱起来，把他摇来摇去，他的四肢无助地摆动着。 他在空中扭动着，挣扎着去抓眼睛、下巴和舌头，但他那抖动的爪子什么也没碰到。

The forest spun about him. He was aware of more barking, and the stink of dog was everywhere. "StarClan, help me!" Fireheart let out a yowl of terror and despair. This was not just his death, but the end of his whole Clan. His plan had failed. "StarClan, where are you?" Suddenly a yowl sounded close by. Fireheart was flung to the ground, the breath driven out of his body. The grip on his neck loosened and was gone. Dazed, he looked up to see a blue-gray shape ramming into the side of the lead dog. "Bluestar!" he yowled. The force of his leader's impact had sent the dog staggering to the very edge of the gorge. Its barking changed to a high-pitched howl of terror as its huge paws scrabbled for a grip on the turf. The loose soil crumbled away under its weight and it fell, but as it disappeared over the edge its snapping jaws closed on Bluestar's leg, and wrenched her over as well. Two of the other dogs, hard behind their leader, could not pull up in time. Blindly they charged over the edge of the gorge and vanished, howling, while the remaining dogs skidded to a

森林在他周围旋转。 他听到了更多的狗叫声，到处都是狗的臭味。 “星族，帮帮我！”火心发出一声恐惧和绝望的嚎叫。 这不仅是他的死，也是他整个家族的终结。 他的计划失败了。“星族，你在哪里？”突然，附近传来一声嚎叫。 火心被摔在地上，喘不过气来。 他脖子上的手松开了，不见了。 他迷迷糊糊地抬起头来，看见一个蓝灰色的东西撞到了领头狗的侧面。 “蓝星！”领头狗的冲击力使它摇摇晃晃地走到了峡谷的边缘。 当它的大爪子在草皮上乱抓时，它的吠声变成了一种尖锐的恐怖的嚎叫。 松散的泥土被它的重量压得粉碎，它掉了下来，但当它消失在边缘时，它的利爪咬住了蓝星的腿，把她也拽了下来。 另外两条紧跟在领头狗后面的狗没能及时停下来。 他们盲目地冲过峡谷边缘，嚎叫着消失了，而剩下的狗则滑倒在地

halt, their fierce barks fading to piteous whimpers. Before Fireheart could force himself to his paws, they had backed away from the edge and fled into the forest. Fireheart staggered to the edge of the gorge and looked over. Water foamed white beneath him. For a heartbeat he glimpsed the gaping muzzle of the pack leader struggling among the waves, before it vanished again. "Bluestar!" Fireheart screamed. What had his leader been doing over here? He had sent her with the rest of the Clan to Sunningrocks. Too stunned to move, Fireheart gazed down into the river. Suddenly he saw a small gray head bob to the surface, paws thrashing wildly. Bluestar was still alive! But the torrent was sweeping her downstream, and Fireheart knew that she was too frail to swim for long. There was only one thing to do. Yowling, "Bluestar, hold on! I'm coming!" he launched himself down the steep side of the gorge and into the river. Water clutched Fireheart like a huge paw and buffeted him from side to side. The icy cold of the

停，他们凶猛的吠声渐渐变成可怜的呜咽声。 火心还没来得及站稳脚跟，他们就从悬崖边退了出来，逃进了森林。 火心踉踉跄跄地走到峡谷边上，往下看了看。 他身下的水泛起白沫。 刹那间，他瞥见狼群首领张开的口鼻在海浪中挣扎，然后它又消失了。 “蓝星!”Fireheart尖叫。 他的首领在这里做什么？ 他把她和氏族的其他成员送到了桑宁岩城。 火心呆呆地望着河水。 突然，他看见一个灰色的小脑袋浮上水面，爪子疯狂地抖动着。 蓝星还活着！但激流正把她向下游冲去，火心知道自己太虚弱，游不了多久。 只有一件事可做。 “蓝星，坚持住！”我来了！”他纵身跳下陡峭的峡谷，跳进河里。 水像一只巨大的爪子一样抓住了火心，把他从一边打到另一边。 寒冷的天气

torrent took his breath away. His paws worked furiously as he tried to swim, but the force of the current rolled him under. He had lost sight of Bluestar before he even entered the water; he could see nothing but the foam that bubbled all around him. As his head broke surface he gasped for air, managing to stay afloat as the racing torrent swept him downstream. Then he spotted Bluestar again, a few fox-lengths ahead of him, her fur plastered to her head and her jaws gaping. Kicking out strongly, Fireheart closed the gap between them, and as Bluestar began to sink again he fastened his teeth in her scruff. The extra weight dragged him down. All Fireheart's instincts screamed at him to let Bluestar go and save his own life. But he made himself hold on, while he forced his limbs to go on working and bring his drowning leader back to the surface. He almost lost his grip on her as something slammed into them, and he caught a glimpse of a dog rolling over in the current, its eyes glazed with terror as it floundered helplessly and vanished again.

激流使他无法呼吸。 他拼命想游，但水流的力量把他卷了下去。 他还没入水就看不见蓝星了；他什么也看不见，只看见周围的泡沫。 当他的头露出水面时，他喘着气，当湍急的洪流把他卷向下游时，他设法浮在水面上。 然后他又看到了蓝星，在他前面几英尺的地方，她的毛贴在头上，嘴巴张着。 火心使劲踢了一脚，缩小了他们之间的差距，当蓝星又开始下沉时，他咬住了她的颈背。 额外的重量把他拖了下去。 火心所有的本能都在尖叫着让他放了蓝星，保住自己的性命。 但他强迫自己抓住，同时强迫自己的四肢继续工作，把他溺水的领袖拉回水面。 他差点抓不住她，因为有什么东西撞到了他们身上。他瞥见一条狗在水流中翻滚，它无助地挣扎着，眼睛里充满了恐惧，然后又消失了。

A sudden shadow fell across them and was gone as the current carried them under the Twoleg bridge and away from the looming cliffs. Fireheart could see the river bank now and he struck out toward it, but his limbs were aching with weariness. Bluestar was a deadweight, unable to help herself. Fireheart knew that he could not let go of her to gulp in more air, and his senses began to spin away into darkness as his head went under again. Barely conscious, he made one more massive effort, thrusting at the water with his paws. But when he resurfaced he could not see the bank, and he had lost all sense of direction. His limbs stiffened with panic as he knew he was going to drown. Suddenly Bluestar's weight grew less. Blinking water out of his eyes, Fireheart saw another head bobbing in the water beside him, teeth firmly gripping Bluestar's fur. He recognized the blue- gray pelt and almost forgot to swim in his shock. It was Mistyfoot! At the same moment he heard Stonefur's voice from his other side. "Let go. We've got her now."

一个黑影突然落在他们身上，随着水流把他们从特沃莱格桥下带走，离开了若隐若现的悬崖，他们就消失了。 火心现在可以看到河岸了，他朝河岸走去，但他的四肢却因疲劳而疼痛。 蓝星是个累赘，无法控制自己。 火心知道他不能放开她去吸更多的空气，当他的头再次沉入海底时，他的感官开始旋转，消失在黑暗中。 他几乎失去了知觉，又作了一次巨大的努力，用爪子戳水。 但当他浮出水面时，他看不见河岸，他完全失去了方向感。 他知道自己要淹死了，吓得四肢僵硬。 突然，蓝星的重量减轻了。 火心眨了眨眼睛，看见另一个脑袋在他身边的水里晃来晃去，牙齿紧紧地咬住了蓝星的皮毛。 他认出了那张蓝灰色的毛皮，吓得差点忘了游泳。 是雾脚！与此同时，他从另一边听到了斯通弗的声音。 “放手。我们现在抓到她了。”

Fireheart did as he was told and let Stonefur take his place. The two RiverClan cats propelled Bluestar through the water toward the bank. Without the need to support the heavy she-cat, Fireheart managed to flounder after them until he felt the river bottom beneath his paws. On flatter ground now, carried by the river out of the steep- sided gorge, he was able to splash his way to the safety of the bank on the RiverClan side. Coughing as he gasped air into his straining lungs, Fireheart shook water from his fur and looked around to see what had become of Bluestar. Mistyfoot and Stonefur had laid the Clan leader down on her side on the pebbles. Water trickled from her parted jaws, and she did not move. "Bluestar!" Mistyfoot exclaimed. "Is she dead?" Fireheart asked hoarsely, staggering up to them. "I think she—" Stonefur was interrupted by a loud yowling. "Fireheart! Fireheart! Watch out!" It was Graystripe's voice. Fireheart turned to see Tigerstar racing across the Twoleg bridge with

火心照他说的做了，让斯通弗代替了他的位置。 两只河族的猫推着蓝星穿过水朝岸边走去。 火心不需要搀扶那只沉重的母猫，他奋力地跟在他们后面，直到他感到了脚掌下的河底。 现在，在平坦的地面上，河水把他带出了陡峭的峡谷，他能够溅起水花，安全地到达河族那边的河岸。 火心一边咳嗽，一边把空气吸进紧张的肺里，抖掉皮毛上的水，四下张望，看看蓝星怎么样了。 雾脚和石弗把氏族首领侧躺在鹅卵石上。 水从她张开的嘴巴里滴落下来，她一动不动。 “蓝星!”Mistyfoot喊道。 “她死了吗？”火心摇摇晃晃地朝他们走来，嘶哑地问。 “我想她——”一阵响亮的嚎叫打断了斯通弗的话。 “Fireheart !Fireheart !小心!”那是灰条纹的声音。 火心转过身来，看见虎星带着