Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 The sun was going down, casting long shadows across the clearing, by the time Fireheart went to look for Cinderpelt. He found the medicine cat in her den, checking her supplies of healing herbs, and sat just outside the entrance to talk to her. "Speckletail's kit?" she meowed when Fireheart had told her about Brackenfur's suspicions. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Yes, I can see what he means. I'll take a look." "You'll have to be careful of Speckletail," Fireheart warned her. "When I suggested she might let you check Snowkit, she practically bit my nose off." "I'm not surprised," remarked Cinderpelt. "No queen wants to believe her kits aren't perfect. I'll deal with it, Fireheart; don't worry. But not right away," she added, patting her store of juniper berries into a neater pile. "It's too late to disturb them tonight, and tomorrow I have to go to Highstones." "So soon?" Fireheart was surprised; he hadn't realized how quickly the days were slipping by. "Tomorrow night is the new moon. All the

第五章太阳下山了，在空地上投下长长的影子，这时火心去找灰姑娘。 他发现药猫在她的窝里，检查她的治疗草药的供应，并坐在门口和她说话。 “斑点尾巴的工具箱？”火心把布莱肯弗的怀疑告诉她后，她叫道。 她眯起眼睛，若有所思。 “是的，我明白他的意思。 我去看看。”“你得小心斑点尾巴。”火心警告她。 “当我建议她让你去看看Snowkit时，她几乎把我的鼻子都咬掉了。” “我一点也不奇怪，”灰姑娘说。 “没有女王愿意相信她的幼崽不完美。 我来处理，火心；别担心。 但不是马上，”她补充说，把她的杜松子拍得更整齐。 “今晚打扰他们太晚了，明天我还得去海斯通。” “这么快?”火心很吃惊；他没有意识到时间过得有多快。 “明天晚上是新月。 所有的

other medicine cats will be there too. StarClan will give me my full powers." Cinderpelt hesitated and then added, "Yellowfang should have come with me, to present me to StarClan as a fully trained medicine cat. Now I'll have to go through the ceremony without her." Her eyes grew wide and remote as she spoke. Fireheart felt that she was moving far away from him, into a land of shadows and dreams where he could not follow her. "You'll need to take a warrior with you," he meowed. "Last time Bluestar tried to go to Highstones, WindClan wouldn't let her pass through their territory." Cinderpelt looked at him calmly. "I'd like to see the patrol that would dare to stop a medicine cat. StarClan would never forgive that." Her expression changed and her eyes glinted mischievously. "You can come as far as Fourtrees if you like. Assuming you can spare the time from Sandstorm." Fireheart felt uncomfortable. "I don't know what you mean," he muttered. But he remembered leaving to go and eat with Sandstorm

其他药用猫也会在那里。 StarClan会给我全部的力量。” 灰姑娘犹豫了一下，接着说：“黄牙应该和我一起来，把我作为一只训练有素的药猫呈现在星族面前。 现在我得独自参加婚礼了。” 她说话的时候，眼睛睁得又大又远。 火心觉得她正在远离他，进入一个充满阴影和梦境的国度，在那里他无法跟随她。 “你需要带上一个战士。”他喵喵地叫道。 “上次蓝星想去高石镇，风氏族不让她通过他们的地盘。” 灰姑娘平静地看着他。 “我想看到巡警敢拦下一只药猫。 《StarClan》永远不会原谅这一点。” 她的表情变了，眼睛调皮地闪着光。 “如果你愿意，最远可以到四树树。 前提是你能从沙暴事件中抽出时间。” 火心感到很不舒服。 “我不明白你的意思。”他喃喃地说。 但他记得要离开去和沙暴一起吃饭

while Cinderpelt was telling him about her dream, and he guessed that the medicine cat had felt unfairly dismissed. "Sandstorm can lead the dawn patrol without me," he mewed out loud. "I'll come with you to Fourtrees." The next day dawned damp and misty. Tendrils of fog curled between the trees as Fireheart and Cinderpelt made their way to Fourtrees. The clinging white clouds dampened the sound of their pawsteps and beaded their fur with tiny droplets. In the silence Fireheart jumped at the sudden alarm call of a bird above his head. He felt half-afraid that they might lose their way in this eerily unfamiliar-looking forest. But by the time they crossed the stream and began to climb the slope to Fourtrees, the mist had begun to clear, and at the top of the hollow they emerged into bright sunlight. The four massive oaks stood straight ahead of them, their leaves turning red-gold with the approach of leaf- fall. Cinderpelt let out a noisy breath and shook the moisture from her fur. "That feels good! I was

当灰姑娘告诉他她的梦时，他猜药猫感到不公平地被解雇了。 “沙暴可以在没有我的情况下带领黎明巡逻队，”他大声叫道。 “我和你一起去四树树。” 第二天早晨，天气潮湿，雾蒙蒙的。 火心和灰姑娘朝四棵树走去，雾气卷须在树间盘旋。 粘粘的白云遮住了它们的脚步声，在它们的皮毛上缀满了小水滴。 在一片寂静中，火心突然听到头顶上一只鸟的鸣叫，跳了起来。 他有点担心他们会在这片陌生得出奇的森林里迷路。 但当他们过了小溪，开始爬上四棵树的斜坡时，雾已经开始消散，到了山谷的顶端，他们就出现在明亮的阳光下了。 四棵高大的橡树笔直地矗立在他们面前，随着落叶的临近，它们的叶子变成了金红色。 灰姑娘大声地呼了一口气，抖掉了皮毛上的湿气。 “感觉好极了！”我是

starting to think I'd have to scent my way to Highstones, and I've only been there once before, with Yellowfang." Fireheart too enjoyed the feeling of warm sun on his fur. He stretched luxuriously and opened his jaws to taste the air, hoping to pick up the scent of prey. Instead, the scent of other cats flooded over him. ShadowClan! he thought, his muscles tensing as his gaze flicked from side to side. A moment later he relaxed as he spotted Runningnose, the ShadowClan medicine cat, padding up to the hollow from ShadowClan territory with another cat beside him. This was no hostile warrior. StarClan raised medicine cats above the level of Clan rivalry. "It looks as if you won't have to travel alone after all," he meowed to Cinderpelt. They waited until the ShadowClan cats came up to them. As they drew nearer, Fireheart recognized the other cat. It was Littlecloud, a small tabby tom who had almost died in his Clan's recent sickness. He and another warrior, Whitethroat, had tried to seek refuge with

我开始想，我得靠气味才能找到去高石镇的路，而我以前只跟黄牙去过一次。” 火心也很享受温暖的阳光照在他皮毛上的感觉。 它舒展着四肢，张开嘴巴，嗅着空气，希望能闻到猎物的气味。 相反，其他猫的气味淹没了他。 ShadowClan !他想，他的目光左顾右盼，肌肉紧张起来。 过了一会儿，他放松了下来，因为他看到了流鼻，阴影家族的药猫，从阴影家族的领地向洼地走来，旁边还有一只猫。 这不是一个充满敌意的战士。 StarClan将药猫提升到了战队竞争的水平之上。 “看来你终于不用一个人去旅行了。”他对灰姑娘喵喵叫道。 他们一直等到影子家族的猫向他们走来。 当他们走近时，火心认出了另一只猫。 那是小汤姆，一只小虎斑猫，在他的家族最近的一次疾病中差点死掉。 他和另一名战士怀特瑟威斯特曾试图寻求庇护

ThunderClan. Bluestar had refused to take them in, but Cinderpelt had secretly sheltered them and cared for them until they were fit enough to travel back to their own territory. Whitethroat had died soon after, when Tigerstar and his rogues had attacked a ThunderClan patrol. A monster had cut the young cat down on the Thunderpath as he was fleeing from the fight. Reliving the shock of that moment, Fireheart was glad to see that Littlecloud at least looked strong and healthy again. "Hello, there!" Runningnose greeted the ThunderClan cats cheerfully. "Well met, Cinderpelt. It's a good day to travel." Littlecloud nodded respectfully to Fireheart and went to touch noses with Cinderpelt. "It's good to see you on your paws again," she meowed. "All thanks to you," Littlecloud replied. With a touch of pride he added, "I'm Runningnose's apprentice now." "Congratulations!" Cinderpelt purred. "And that's because of you too," Littlecloud went on enthusiastically. "When we were ill, you

ThunderClan。蓝星拒绝收留他们，但灰姑娘一直秘密地庇护他们，照顾他们，直到他们足够健康，可以回到自己的领地。 不久之后，当虎星和他的盗贼袭击了一支雷霆族巡逻队时，白喉死了。 当这只小猫从打斗中逃跑时，一只怪物在雷道上把它砍倒了。 回想起那一刻的震惊，火心很高兴地看到，至少小云看起来又恢复了强壮和健康。 “你好,那里!”流鼻涕高兴地迎接了雷霆家族的猫。 “很高兴见到你，灰姑娘。今天是旅行的好天气。” 小云儿恭恭敬敬地向火心点了点头，然后去摸了摸灰姑娘的鼻子。 “很高兴看到你又站起来了。”她喵喵地叫道。 “都要感谢你。”小云回答。 他略带骄傲地补充道：“我现在是流鼻鼻子的徒弟了。” “恭喜你!”Cinderpelt呼噜。 “那也是因为你。”小克劳德热情地说下去。 “当我们生病的时候，你

knew just what to do. And then you gave us healing herbs to take back to the Clan—and they worked! I want to do more stuff like that." "He has real talent," Runningnose mewed. "And it took courage to come back to us with the herbs. I'm only sorry Whitethroat didn't come back with him." "He didn't?" Fireheart asked, seizing the chance to find out how much the ShadowClan cats knew about the young warrior's fate. Sadly, Littlecloud shook his head. "He wouldn't come back with me to camp. He was scared of catching the sickness again, even though we had the healing herbs with us." He blinked as if the memory caused him pain. "We found his body beside the Thunderpath a few days later." "I'm sorry," Fireheart meowed. He wondered whether to tell him the truth about how Whitethroat had died, but decided it would be too harmful to reveal that Littlecloud's new leader had been partly responsible for his friend's death. It was clear that Whitethroat must have joined the rogues for a short time, and paid with his life. Cinderpelt pressed her muzzle comfortingly

知道该怎么做。然后你给了我们治疗草药让我们带回氏族——它们起作用了！我想做更多这样的事情。” “他真的很有天赋，”流鼻涕说。 “带着草药回来找我们需要勇气。 我唯一遗憾的是白喉没有和他一起回来。” “他没有?”火心问道，抓住这个机会想知道影子家族的猫对这位年轻战士的命运了解多少。 小云悲伤地摇了摇头。 “他不肯跟我一起回营地。 尽管我们带着治病的草药，他还是害怕再次得病。” 他眨了眨眼睛，仿佛这回忆使他痛苦。 “几天后，我们在Thunderpath旁发现了他的尸体。” “对不起。”火心叫道。 他不知道是否应该告诉他怀特瑟罗特是怎么死的，但又决定，如果透露利特克劳德的新领导人对他朋友的死负有部分责任，那就太有害了。 很明显，白喉一定加入过一段很短的时间，并为此付出了生命的代价。 灰姑娘安慰地压着她的嘴