Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24 Brambleclaw glanced wildly over his shoulder, but there was nowhere to flee except into the water; the difficult climb back to the hole in the cave roof would take too long. Guilt crashed over him with the cold force of the waves that had almost drowned him. All his visions, all his certainty, had led his companions to this dreadful place, where they would find no knowledge, no vision from StarClan, only a pointless and horrible death. What use were faith and courage now, when they were trapped like rabbits in a hole? Crowpaw had flattened himself to the ground and was creeping forward with his teeth bared in a snarl. Stormfur was edging around the badger to attack it from the side. Despairingly Brambleclaw knew that they were heading to meet their death. Even all six of them, weak and starving as they were and worn out by their travels and the struggle in the water, could not hope to defeat a badger. Caught as they were by the choking waves, it would not be long before

第二十四章 黑莓掌慌忙回头张望，可除了往水里逃，已经无处可去； 想要费力爬回洞顶的出口，时间根本来不及。 愧疚感像差点淹死他的冰冷浪涛，狠狠砸在了他的心头。 他所有的预感、所有的笃定，都把同伴领到了这个可怕的地方，在这里他们得不到任何启示，得不到星族的预示，只会白白落得惨死的下场。 如今他们像兔子一样困在洞里，信念和勇气又有什么用呢？ 鸦爪把身子贴紧地面，龇牙低吼着慢慢向前爬。 暴毛正慢慢绕到獾的侧边，准备从侧面发动进攻。 黑莓掌绝望地清楚，他们这就是去送死。 他们六只全都虚弱饥饿，被长途跋涉和水中的挣扎折腾得筋疲力尽，根本没可能打败这只壮硕的獾。 他们刚被令人窒息的浪涛困住，用不了多久，

the blunt claws and snapping jaws picked them off one by one. The badger had paused on the edge of the shadows that filled the back of the cave. Its powerful shoulders were hunched and its claws scraped on rock. Its head swung to and fro, the white stripe glimmering, as if it were deciding which of them to attack first. Then it spoke. "Midnight has come." Brambleclaw's mouth fell open, and for a moment he felt as if the ground had given way beneath him again. That a badger could speak, could say words he understood, words that actually meant something... He stared in disbelief, his heart pounding. "I am Midnight." The badger's voice was deep and rasping, like the sound of the pebbles turning under the waves. "With you I must speak." "Mouse dung!" Crowpaw spat. The WindClan apprentice was still crouched ready to spring. "Make one move and you'll have my claws in your eyes." "No, Crowpaw, wait—"

这只獾粗钝的爪子和尖牙利嘴就会把他们一个一个干掉。 獾停在了洞穴深处的阴影边缘。 它拱起强健的肩膀，爪子刮擦着岩石发出声响。 它来回晃着脑袋，身上的白条纹隐约闪光，好像在挑选第一个攻击的目标。 接着，它开口说话了。 "午夜已经来了。" 黑莓掌惊得张大了嘴，一瞬间他感觉脚下的地面仿佛又塌陷了。 一只獾居然会说话，还能说他听得懂、有实际意义的话…… 他难以置信地盯着它，心脏砰砰狂跳。 "我就是午夜。" 獾的声音低沉沙哑，像浪涛翻动卵石发出的声响。 "我必须和你们谈一谈。" "鼠屎！" 鸦爪啐了一口。 这名风族学徒依旧弓着身子，随时准备扑上去。 "你敢动一下，我就一爪子抓破你的眼睛。" "别动手，鸦爪，等等——"

The badger's throaty laughter interrupted Brambleclaw. "Fierce, is he not? StarClan has chosen well. But there will be no clawing this day. Here is talk, not fight." Brambleclaw and his companions uncertainly looked at each other, their tails bristling. Crowpaw put words to what they were all thinking. "Are we going to trust it?" "What else can we do?" Feathertail responded, blinking. Brambleclaw weighed up the badger again. It was smaller than the one he had seen at Snakerocks—probably a female—but no less dangerous for that. Believing what she said went against everything he had been taught as a kit. Yet so far she had made no move to attack them; he even thought that he could make out a gleam of humor in her eyes. He glanced back at his friends. Crowpaw, Stormfur, and Feathertail might have managed to fight well, but he and Squirrelpaw were exhausted from their near-drowning, while Tawnypelt had sunk down onto the floor of the cave with her injured shoulder held awkwardly,

獾低沉的笑声打断了黑莓掌的话。 "他可真凶猛，不是吗？ 星族选得很不错。 不过今天不需要动爪打打杀杀。 我们是来谈话，不是来打架的。" 黑莓掌和同伴们满心狐疑，互相看了看，尾巴都炸了毛。 鸦爪说出了大家心里都在想的话。 "我们能信它吗？" "我们还有别的选择吗？" 羽尾眨了眨眼，开口回应道。 黑莓掌重新好好打量了这只獾一番。 它比他在蛇岩见过的那只獾要小，大概率是母獾，但危险程度一点都没降低。 相信她的话，完全违背了他从小被教导的所有认知。 可直到现在，她也没做出任何攻击他们的举动； 他甚至觉得，自己能从她的眼睛里看出一丝幽默的光。 他回头看了看自己的朋友们。 鸦爪、暴毛和羽尾说不定还能好好打一场，可他和松鼠爪差点淹死，早就累垮了，褐皮则跌坐在洞穴地面，受伤的肩膀别扭地抬着，

and hardly seemed to be conscious. "Come," the badger rasped. "All night we cannot wait." Brambleclaw knew for certain that this was no ordinary badger. Never before had he heard of a badger who could speak in a language that cats understood—still less one that spoke of StarClan, as if she knew more of their wishes than any cat alive. "Feathertail's right," he hissed. "What choice do we have? She could have turned us all into crow-food by now. This must be what Bluestar meant in my dream when she told me to listen to midnight. She didn't mean a time at all." Turning to the badger, he asked out loud, "You are Midnight? And you have a message for us from StarClan?" The badger nodded. "Midnight am I called. And it was shown to me that here I would meet with you... though four were numbered to me, not six." "Then we'll listen to what you have to say," Brambleclaw told her. "You're right; four were chosen, but six have come, and all deserve to be

几乎都快失去意识了。 "过来吧，"獾沙哑地说道。 "我们不能等一整晚。" 黑莓掌可以确定，这绝对不是一只普通的獾。 他从来没听说过有獾能说猫听得懂的话，更别说还谈论星族，好像她比任何活猫都更清楚星族的意愿。 "羽尾说得对，"他低声说道。 "我们还有什么选择？ 她早就可以把我们全杀死喂乌鸦了。 蓝星在我梦里让我倾听午夜，肯定就是这个意思。 她根本就不是指时间啊。" 他转向獾，大声问道："你就是午夜？ 你还有星族带给我们的消息吗？" 獾点了点头。 "大家都叫我午夜。 我得到启示，会在这里遇到你们…… 不过我得到的数目是四只，不是六只。" "那我们就听听你要说什么，"黑莓掌对她说。 "你说得没错，原本选中的是四只，可来了六只，我们全都有权

here." "But make one wrong move..." Crowpaw threatened. "Oh, shut up, mouse-brain!" Squirrelpaw growled. "Can't you see, this is what we came here to find? "Listen to what midnight tells us." This is Midnight." Crowpaw glared at her through the gathering darkness, but did not reply. Midnight turned with the single word, "Follow," and headed for the back of the cave. Brambleclaw could just make out the dark opening of a tunnel. Taking a deep breath, he meowed, "Okay, let's do it." Stormfur took the lead, with Crowpaw just behind him; Brambleclaw hoped that the apprentice would stop looking for a fight long enough to hear what the badger had to say. Feathertail gently nudged Tawnypelt to her paws and lent her shoulder for support as she staggered into the tunnel. Brambleclaw exchanged a glance with Squirrelpaw and was surprised to see that in spite of her wet, exhausted state her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

就在这里。” “但你要是敢走错一步……”鸦爪威胁道。 “哎呀，闭嘴吧你，缺心眼的笨老鼠！” 松鼠爪低吼道。 “你看不出来吗？这就是我们专程来找的东西啊？ “好好听听午夜要跟我们说什么。” 这位就是午夜。” 夜色越来越浓，鸦爪怒瞪着她，却没有回话。 午夜只说了一句“跟我来”，就转身朝着洞穴深处走去。 荆爪勉强才看清隧道黑乎乎的入口。 他深吸一口气，喵声道：“好吧，我们出发。” 暴风毛打头阵，鸦爪紧跟在他身后； 荆爪希望这个年轻学徒别总想着找事，先安安静静听听这只獾要说什么。 羽尾轻轻拱褐皮起身，褐皮踉跄着走进隧道时，她让褐皮靠在自己肩膀上借力。 荆爪和松鼠爪对视一眼，惊讶地发现，尽管她浑身湿透、疲惫不堪，眼睛里却闪着兴奋的光。

"What a story we'll have to tell when we get home!" she meowed, getting up and trotting into the tunnel after Feathertail. Brambleclaw brought up the rear, with a final glance over his shoulder at the rocky teeth that framed the mouth of the cave and the waves that still surged back and forth. The last crimson rays of the drowned sun still stained the sky; in a single heartbeat Brambleclaw seemed to see an endless river of blood pouring down upon him, filling his ears with the screams of dying cats. "Brambleclaw?" Squirrelpaw's voice cut through the terrified sounds. "Are you coming?" The vision was gone; Brambleclaw found himself back in the wave-filled cave to see that the color was rapidly fading from the sky and a single warrior of StarClan shone down on him. Shivering, he followed his friends and Midnight. The tunnel sloped upward. Brambleclaw could see nothing in the pitch darkness, but he felt sandy soil beneath his paws, rather than pebbles or rock. As well as the wary cat-scent of his friends, there was a powerful reek of badger. Then he came out into another cave. Fresher

“等我们回家，可有好多精彩故事讲啦！” 她喵了一声，起身跟在羽尾身后，小跑进了隧道。 荆爪走在最后，回头最后望了一眼：洞口边缘怪石嶙峋像尖牙，海浪还在来回翻涌。 沉落的太阳，最后几缕绯红余晖还染透了天空； 就在一瞬间，荆爪仿佛看见无尽血河朝自己浇下来，濒死猫的尖叫塞满了他的耳朵。 “荆爪？” 松鼠爪的声音穿透了这些可怕的声响。 “你还走不走呀？” 幻象消失了； 荆爪回过神来，回到满是浪声的洞穴，眼见天色正迅速暗下去，一颗星族武士的星光照在了他身上。 他抖了抖身子，跟上朋友们和午夜的脚步。 隧道是向上倾斜的。 漆黑一片里荆爪什么都看不见，但爪子下摸到的是沙土，不是鹅卵石也不是硬石头。 除了朋友们警惕的猫味，还有一股浓烈的獾的气味。 接着他走了出去，来到了另一个洞穴里。 更新鲜的