Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Sorrelkit was curled up in a mossy nest near the entrance to Cinderpelt's den. She raised her head as Firestar approached with the medicine cat, but her eyes were heavy and it looked as though she was finding it difficult to move. Sandstorm was crouched close beside her on guard duty. "Poor little scrap," she murmured to Firestar. "She nearly died. We've got to do something about Darkstripe." The pale ginger she-cat was looking as anxious as Cinderpelt; she would have heard Sorrelkit's story too, Firestar realized. He nodded. "You can leave Darkstripe to me." Settling down beside Sorrelkit, he mewed gently, "I'm glad to see you're awake, Sorrelkit. Can you tell me what happened to you?" The tiny tortoiseshell kit blinked up at him. "Sootkit and Rainkit were asleep in the nursery," she began in a faint voice. "But I wasn't sleepy. My mother wasn't watching, so I went to play in the ravine. I wanted to catch a mouse. And then I saw Darkstripe." Her voice shook and she hesitated.

Sorrelkit蜷缩在靠近灰姑娘洞穴入口的一个长满苔藓的巢里。 当火星带着药猫走近时，她抬起了头，但她的眼睛很沉重，似乎很难移动。 沙暴在她身边蹲守值班。 “可怜的小废柴。”她低声对火星说。 “她差点死了。我们得想办法对付暗条纹。” 那只淡黄色的母猫看上去和灰姑娘一样焦虑；她也会听到Sorrelkit的故事，Firestar意识到。 他点了点头。“你可以把黑条纹留给我。” 他在Sorrelkit身边坐下，轻轻地叫道：“我很高兴看到你醒了，Sorrelkit。 你能告诉我发生了什么事吗？”那个小小的玳瑁套装向他眨了眨眼睛。 “苏琪和雨琪儿在育儿室里睡着了。”她用微弱的声音说。 “但我并不困。我妈妈没在看，所以我就去峡谷里玩了。 我想抓一只老鼠。 然后我看到了‘暗条纹’。” 她的声音颤抖着，犹豫着。

"Go on," Firestar encouraged her. "He was coming up the ravine by himself. I knew he should have had Brackenfur with him, and I…I wondered where he was going. I followed him—I remembered the time he took Bramblepaw and Tawnypaw out of the camp, and I thought I might have an adventure like that, too." Firestar felt a pang of sadness as he remembered how Sorrelkit was always so bright and curious, getting into trouble because of her misguided courage. This limp scrap of fur didn't look at all adventurous now, and Firestar could only hope that with Cinderpelt's care she would soon be her lively self again. "I followed him a long way," Sorrelkit went on, sounding rather proud of herself. "I'd never been so far from the camp. I hid from Darkstripe too— he didn't know I was there. And then he met another cat—a cat I'd never seen before." "What other cat? What did it look like? What scent did it have?" Firestar questioned her urgently. Sorrelkit looked bewildered. "I didn't

“继续，”火星鼓励她。 “他正在独自爬上峡谷。 我知道他应该带着布莱肯弗，我……我想知道他要去哪里。 我跟着他——我记得他把蓝爪和汤爷爷带出营地的那次，我想我也可以来一次这样的冒险。” 当他想起Sorrelkit总是那么聪明和好奇，却因为她误入歧途的勇气而陷入麻烦时，火星感到一阵悲伤。 这条软绵绵的毛皮现在看起来一点也不冒险了，火星只能希望在灰姑娘的照顾下，她很快就会恢复活泼的样子。 “我跟着他走了很长一段路。”索瑞尔吉接着说，听起来相当自豪。 “我从来没有离开过营地这么远。 我也躲着暗条纹——他不知道我在那里。 然后他遇到了另一只猫——一只我以前从未见过的猫。” “别的什么猫？”它看起来像什么？ 它有什么气味？”火星急切地问她。 Sorrelkit看起来很困惑。 “我没有

recognize the scent," she mewed. Her nose wrinkled. "But it was yucky. He was a big white cat—bigger than you, Firestar. And he had black paws." Firestar stared at her as he realized whom she had seen. "Blackfoot!" he exclaimed. "Tigerstar's deputy. That was ShadowClan scent you smelled, Sorrelkit." "And what's Darkstripe doing, meeting the ShadowClan deputy on our territory?" Sandstorm growled. "That's what I'd like to know." "So what happened then?" Firestar prompted the kit. "I got scared," Sorrelkit admitted, looking down at her paws. "I ran back to camp, but I think Darkstripe must have heard me, because he caught up with me in the ravine. I thought he would be angry because I spied on him, but he told me how clever I was. He gave me some red berries for a special treat. They looked tasty, but when I ate them I started to feel really ill…. And I don't remember anything else, except waking up here." She sank her head on her paws again as she

认出这气味来，”她叫道。 她的鼻子皱了起来。“但是很难吃。 他是只大白猫，比你还大，火星。 他有黑色的爪子。”火星盯着她，意识到她看到的是谁。 “黑脚！” “Tigerstar副。你闻到的是影子氏族的气味，Sorrelkit。” “黑条纹在我们的地盘上和暗影家族的代表见面，这是干什么？”沙尘暴咆哮道。 “这正是我想知道的。” “后来发生了什么事？”火星提示工具包。 “我吓坏了。”Sorrelkit低头看着自己的爪子，承认道。 “我跑回营地，但我想暗条纹一定听到了我的声音，因为他在峡谷里追上了我。 我以为他会因为我监视他而生气，但他告诉我我有多聪明。 他给了我一些红浆果作为特别款待。 它们看起来很好吃，但是当我吃它们的时候，我开始觉得很不舒服.... 除了在这里醒来，我什么都不记得了。” 她又把头埋在爪子上

finished, as if telling the long story had exhausted her. Cinderpelt nosed her gently, checking her breathing. "Those were deathberries," she mewed. "You must never, ever touch them again." "I won't, Cinderpelt, I promise," murmured the tiny kit. "Thank you, Sorrelkit," Firestar meowed. He was angry but not surprised to discover that Graystripe had been right all along. The real shock was the news that Blackfoot had been seen on ThunderClan territory, and that Darkstripe had obviously arranged to meet him. "What are you going to do about Darkstripe?" asked Sandstorm. "I'll have to question him," Firestar replied. "But I don't expect he'll tell me anything." "He can't stay in ThunderClan after this," Sandstorm pointed out, her voice hard as flint. "There's more than one cat who would rip his throat out for a couple of mouse tails." "Leave him to me," Firestar mewed grimly. Cinderpelt stayed with Sorrelkit, who was drifting off to sleep again, while Firestar returned

结束了，好像讲了那么长的故事已经使她筋疲力尽了。 灰姑娘轻轻地用鼻子嗅了嗅她，检查她的呼吸。 “那些是死莓，”她叫道。 “你决不能再碰它们了。” “我不会的，灰姑娘，我保证。”小工具箱喃喃地说。 “谢谢你，Sorrelkit。” 他很生气，但发现格雷stripe一直都是对的，他并不感到惊讶。 真正让人震惊的是黑脚出现在雷霆族领地的消息，而暗条纹显然是安排与他见面的。 “你打算怎么对付暗条纹？”沙暴问道。 “我得问问他，”火星回答。 “但我不指望他会告诉我什么。” “这件事之后，他不能再待在雷霆部落了。”沙暴指出，她的声音强硬得像燧石。 “不止一只猫会为了几条老鼠尾巴而撕破自己的喉咙。” “把他交给我吧。”火星冷酷地叫道。 灰姑娘和Sorrelkit呆在一起，Sorrelkit又睡着了，而Firestar回来了

to the main clearing with Sandstorm. Many of the cats were still there, sharing tongues after the earlier meeting. Whitestorm was heading for the gorse tunnel with Goldenflower and Longtail. The patrol turned back and all the cats looked up, startled, as Firestar bounded to the top of the Highrock and yowled the summons to another meeting. His gaze sought out Darkstripe, but there was no sign of him. "Where's Darkstripe?" he meowed at Graystripe as his friend made his way to the base of the rock. "In the den," Graystripe replied. "Fetch him." Graystripe disappeared into the warriors' den, and emerged a moment later with Darkstripe and Brackenfur by his side. All three cats returned to the base of the Highrock, where Darkstripe sat and looked up at Firestar with a sneer on his face. "Well?" he asked. "What does our noble leader want now?" Firestar met his eyes steadily. "Sorrelkit is awake." For a few heartbeats Darkstripe held his gaze,

到沙暴的主要空地去。 许多猫还在那里，在早些时候的会议后分享舌头。 “白风暴”带着“小花”和“长尾”朝金雀花隧道走去。 巡逻队转过身来，所有的猫都吃惊地抬起头来，只见火星跳上海岩山顶，嚎叫着要开会。 他的目光寻找着“暗条”，但没有他的影子。 “黑条纹在哪儿？”当他的朋友向岩石底部走去时，他朝灰条纹喵喵地叫道。 “在书房里。”灰条纹回答。 “拿他。”灰条纹消失在战士的洞穴里，片刻之后，他带着黑条纹和蕨毛出现在他身边。 三只猫都回到了高地岩的底部，暗条纹坐在那里，抬头看着火星，脸上带着嘲笑。 “怎么样？”他问。“我们高贵的领袖现在想要什么？”火星注视着他的眼睛。 “Sorrelkit醒了。”“暗条纹”凝视了几下，

and then he looked away. "Have you called a Clan meeting to tell us that?" His tone was scoffing, but his fur had bristled uneasily at the new s. "Cats of ThunderClan." Firestar raised his voice. "I've called you together so that you can witness what Darkstripe has to say. You all heard what happened to Sorrelkit yesterday. She's awake now, and Cinderpelt says she'll be fine. I've talked to her and she confirms what Graystripe said. Darkstripe did feed her the death berries. So, Darkstripe"—his gaze went back to the dark warrior below—"what have you to say for yourself?" "She's lying," Darkstripe retorted. An angry hiss cam e from more than one of the cats around him, and he added, blustering, "Or she made a mistake. Kits never listen to what any cat says. She obviously didn't hear me properly when I told her not to eat them." "She's not lying or mistaken," Firestar meowed. "And she told me something even more interesting: your reason for feeding her the deathberries. She saw you meeting Blackfoot, the deputy of ShadowClan, on our territory. Would

然后他把目光移开。“你召集部族会议就是为了告诉我们这些吗？”他的语气是嘲笑的，但他的毛却不安地竖起来。 《雷霆之猫》。火星提高了嗓门。 “我把你们叫到一起，是为了让你们见证‘黑条纹’要说的话。 你们都听说了昨天Sorrelkit的事。 她现在醒了，灰姑娘说她会没事的。 我和她谈过了，她证实了格雷斯特所说的。 黑条纹确实给她吃了死亡浆果。 那么，“黑条纹”——他的目光又回到了下面的黑暗战士身上——“你有什么要为自己辩解的吗？”“她在撒谎。”暗条纹反驳道。 他周围不止一只猫发出愤怒的嘶嘶声，他咆哮着补充道：“也许她搞错了。 基特从不听猫的话。 当我告诉她不要吃的时候，她显然没有听清楚。” “她没有说谎，也没有搞错。” “她还告诉我一件更有趣的事：你给她吃死莓的理由。 她看见你在我们的地盘上，和影族的代表黑脚会面。 将