Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 Fireheart peered out from behind his rock. Tigerstar had spotted Graypool and had changed direction toward her. As the dark tabby approached, Graypool reared back in surprise and fell, only to struggle back onto her paws and face Tigerstar. The ShadowClan leader padded up to her and meowed something, but Fireheart was too far away to make out the words. Flattening his belly to the ground, he crept toward them, using all his hunting skills to stay undetected. Fortunately the wind was blowing toward him, so Tigerstar was unlikely to scent him. Fireheart was unwilling to meet the ShadowClan leader unless he had to. With any luck, Tigerstar was on his way to visit Leopardfur again and would help Graypool back to the RiverClan camp. Fireheart prowled closer, flattening himself against the turf until he reached the shelter of another rock almost on a level with the other two cats. Graystripe had said that Tigerstar had visited RiverClan the day before. Why should he need to return so soon?

第七章火心从他的岩石后面向外窥视。 虎星已经发现了格雷浦，并改变了方向。 当这只黑色虎斑猫靠近时，格雷浦惊讶地后退了几步，摔倒了，只是挣扎着用爪子站起来，面对虎星。 暗影氏族首领蹑手蹑脚地走到她跟前，喵喵地叫了几声，但火心离得太远，听不清他在说什么。 他把肚子贴在地上，蹑手蹑脚地朝他们爬去，用尽了所有的狩猎技巧，不被发现。 幸运的是，风向正对着他，所以虎星不太可能闻到他的气味。 除非万不得已，火心不愿见暗影氏族首领。 如果运气好的话，虎星正在去拜访利奥帕福的路上，并将帮助格雷浦回到河族营地。 火心蹑手蹑脚地走了过去，伏在草皮上，走到另一块岩石的掩蔽处，几乎和另外两只猫齐平。 灰条说虎星前一天去过河族。 他为什么要这么快就回来？

"Don't pretend you don't know me." Fireheart hardly recognized the quavering voice as Graypool's. "I know who you are, right enough. You're Oakheart." Fireheart stiffened. Oakheart was the name of the cat who fathered Mistyfoot and Stonefur, and took them to RiverClan when Bluestar gave them up. He had been killed in battle just before Fireheart joined ThunderClan, but he had looked a little like Tigerstar—a big tom with a dark pelt. With infinite caution, Fireheart raised his head to peer over the rock where he was sheltering. Graypool was crouched on a sparse patch of grass just above an outcrop of stones. She was looking up at Tigerstar, who loomed over her a couple of tail-lengths farther up the slope. "I haven't seen you for moons," Graypool went on. "Where have you been hiding yourself?" Tigerstar stared down at her with narrowed eyes. Fireheart waited for him to tell the elderly she-cat that she had made a mistake. His blood ran cold when Tigerstar just meowed, "Oh…here and there." What in StarClan's name is he playing at?

“别假装不认识我。” 火心几乎认不出那颤抖的声音是格雷普的。 “我完全知道你是谁。 你Oakheart。”Fireheart僵硬了。 橡树心是那只猫的名字，它生下了雾脚和石毛，在蓝星放弃它们后，把它们带到了河族。 就在火心加入雷霆家族之前，他在一场战斗中被杀了，但他看起来有点像虎星——一头深色皮毛的大汤姆。 火心小心翼翼地抬起头，朝他藏身的岩石上方张望。 格雷普蹲在一块稀疏的草地上，上面是一块露出地面的石头。 她抬头望着虎星，虎星在离她几尾远的山坡上隐约出现。 “我好几个月没见到你了。”格雷普接着说。 “你躲到哪儿去了？”虎星眯着眼睛盯着她。 火心等着他告诉年迈的母猫她犯了一个错误。 当虎星喵喵地叫了一声：“哦，这里和那里。” 他到底在玩什么《星际战队》？

Fireheart wondered. "You might at least have come to see me," Graypool complained. "Don't you want to know how those kits are doing?" The massive tom's ears pricked up, and his amber eyes glowed with interest. "What kits?" "What kits, he says!" Graypool broke into rusty laughter. "As if you didn't know! The two ThunderClan kits that you asked me to take care of." Fireheart froze. Graypool had just given away Bluestar's most deeply buried secret! Tigerstar's muscles tensed, and he gazed at Graypool more intently still, his interest clear in every line of his body. He thrust his head forward and meowed something so softly that Fireheart could not catch it. "Seasons ago," replied Graypool, sounding puzzled. "Don't tell me you've forgotten. You… No, Oakheart wouldn't need to ask that." She staggered forward a couple of steps to peer more closely at Tigerstar. "You're not Oakheart!" she exclaimed. "Never mind that," Tigerstar mewed

Fireheart很好奇。“你至少应该来看我。”格雷普抱怨道。 “难道你不想知道那些装备怎么样了吗？”大汤姆竖起了耳朵，琥珀色的眼睛里闪烁着兴趣的光芒。 “什么工具?”“他说，多棒啊！”格雷浦发出生锈的笑声。 “好像你不知道似的！”你让我保管的两套雷霆战队装备。” Fireheart愣住了。格雷普刚刚泄露了蓝星埋藏最深的秘密！虎星的肌肉绷紧了，他更专注地盯着格雷浦，他的兴趣在他身体的每一处都很明显。 他把头伸过去，轻轻地喵了一声，火心听不见。 “好几个季节以前。”格雷普回答，听起来很困惑。 “别告诉我你忘了。 你……不，奥克哈特不需要问这个。” 她摇摇晃晃地向前走了几步，更仔细地看了看虎星。 “你不是奥克哈特！” “没关系，”虎星叫道

soothingly. "You can still tell me all about it. What ThunderClan kits? Who was their real mother?" Fireheart was close enough to see the dazed look in Graypool's eyes. She put her head on one side, gazing confusedly at the ShadowClan leader. "They were beautiful kits," she meowed vaguely. "And now they're fine warriors." She broke off as Tigerstar thrust his muzzle into her face. "Tell me whose kits they were, old crowfood," he demanded, losing his patience. Fireheart stared in horror as, flustered, Graypool took a step back. Her paws slid from under her. She rolled down the steep slope in a scramble of legs and tail, and landed hard against one of the rocks that poked out of the turf. There she lay, and did not move again. Dismay and fury pulsed through Fireheart. As Tigerstar padded down to Graypool's motionless body and sniffed it, he sprang to his paws and raced across the slope. But before Fireheart reached him the ShadowClan leader spun around, without seeing his former enemy, and bounded away in the direction of Fourtrees and his own

安慰地。“你还是可以告诉我的。 什么雷霆战队套件？谁是他们真正的母亲？”火心离得很近，可以看到格雷普茫然的眼神。 她把头歪向一边，困惑地盯着影子氏族的首领。 “它们是漂亮的套装，”她含糊地喵喵叫道。 “现在他们是优秀的战士了。” 当虎星把它的嘴伸进她的脸上时，她停住了。 “告诉我这是谁的包，老乌鸦的食物。”他不耐烦地问。 火心惊恐地瞪大眼睛，格雷普慌张地往后退了一步。 她的爪子从身下滑了出来。 她在腿和尾巴的挣扎中滚下陡坡，重重地落在一块从草皮上伸出来的岩石上。 她躺在那里，一动也不动。 火心心中一阵惊愕和愤怒。 虎星爬到格雷普一动不动的身体旁，嗅了嗅，然后跳起来，飞快地跑过斜坡。 但在火心到达他之前，暗影氏族首领没有看到他以前的敌人，转过身来，朝着四棵树和他自己的方向跳去了

territory. Fireheart reached Graypool and gazed down at her. A trickle of blood came from her small gray head where it had struck the rock. Her eyes stared sightlessly at the sky. The she-cat was dead. Fireheart lowered his head. "Good-bye, Graypool," he mewed softly. "StarClan will honor you." He stood in silent grief, wishing he had known Graypool better. Her sharp tongue and noble heart reminded him of Yellowfang, and he would never stop feeling grateful to the RiverClan queen for sharing her deepest secret with him, even though he came from another Clan. His sad reverie was interrupted by the voices of two cats, and he looked up to see Mistyfoot and Graystripe racing toward him from the river. Mistyfoot let out a desperate wail when she saw the dead elder and flung herself down on the turf to press her nose against Graypool's side. "What happened?" asked Graystripe. In an instant, Fireheart decided to keep quiet about Tigerstar. Any mention of the ShadowClan leader would risk exposing the truth about

领土。火心来到格雷浦，低头看着她。 一滴血从她那撞在岩石上的灰白的小脑袋里流了出来。 她目不转睛地盯着天空。 母猫死了。火心低下了头。 “再见，格雷普。”他轻声叫道。 “StarClan会尊重你的。” 他站在那里默默地悲伤着，希望自己能更了解格雷普。 她的尖酸刻薄和高尚的心让他想起了黄牙，尽管他来自另一个氏族，但他始终感激河族女王与他分享了她最深的秘密。 两只猫的叫声打断了他悲伤的遐想，他抬起头来，看见雾脚和灰条从河边向他跑来。 雾脚看到死去的长者，发出一声绝望的哀号，扑倒在草皮上，把鼻子贴在格雷浦的侧面。 “发生了什么事？” 一时间，火心决定对虎星保持沉默。 任何提及暗影氏族首领的事都有可能暴露真相

Bluestar's kits, and Fireheart knew Graypool would never want that, not even within her own Clan. He glanced at the still gray body and asked forgiveness from StarClan for the half-truth he was about to tell. "I saw Graypool climbing the slope," he replied. "She slipped, and I couldn't reach her in time. I'm sorry." "It's not your fault, Fireheart." Mistyfoot looked up at him, her blue eyes filled with sorrow. "I have been afraid for a while that something like this would happen." She bent her head to touch Graypool's body again. Fireheart felt sympathy well up inside his chest. Graypool had taken Mistyfoot and Stonefur when Bluestar, their real mother, had given them up. Without Graypool they would have died. She had suckled them and reared them until they were ready to become apprentices. She was the only mother they had ever known, and no cat could have done more for them. "Come on, Mistyfoot." Graystripe gently nudged his friend. "Let's take her back to camp." "I'll help you," Fireheart offered.

蓝星的装备，火心知道格雷普不会想要的，即使是在她自己的部落里。 他瞥了一眼仍然是灰色的尸体，请求星族原谅他即将说出的半真半假的事实。 “我看见格雷普爬上斜坡，”他回答。 “她滑倒了，我没能及时抓住她。 我很抱歉。”“这不是你的错，火心。” 雾脚抬起头看着他，蓝眼睛里充满了悲伤。 “我一直担心会发生这样的事情。” 她低下头，又摸了摸格雷普的身体。 火心心中涌起了同情。 在他们的亲生母亲蓝星放弃了他们之后，格雷浦带走了雾脚和石头弗。 如果没有格雷普，他们早就死了。 她给他们喂奶，抚养他们，直到他们准备成为学徒。 她是他们唯一认识的母亲，没有一只猫能为他们做得更多。 “来吧，迷雾脚。”灰条纹轻轻地推了推他的朋友。 “我们带她回营地吧。” “我来帮你。”火心说。