Chapter 25 Epilogue

EPILOGUE The long grass beside the Thunderpath parted and Firestar prowled into the open, the weakening leaf-fall sun shining on his flame- colored pelt. Beside him Graystripe sniffed suspiciously at the air. "Great StarClan, it smells foul today!" he exclaimed. Cloudtail and Sandstorm padded up to join them, and Leafpaw, the last member of the patrol, turned away from the clump of marigold she was examining. Cloudtail let out a snort of disgust. "Every time I come up here, it takes me all day to get the reek out of my fur," he complained. Sandstorm rolled her eyes but said nothing. "You know, there's something strange about today," Firestar meowed, glancing up and down the Thunderpath. "There aren't any monsters in sight, but the smell's worse than ever." "And I can hear something," Leafpaw added, her ears pricked. The wind carried a deep-toned roaring sound

尾声 雷路旁长长的草丛向两边分开，火星迈步走到空地上，落叶季渐弱的阳光照在他火焰般的皮毛上。 身旁的灰条满心怀疑地嗅着空气。 “伟大的星族啊，今天这味道太难闻了！” 他大声说道。 云尾和沙风走过来和他们会合，巡逻队最后一名成员叶爪，从她正观察的金盏花丛边转了身。 云尾厌恶地哼了一声。 “我每次来这儿，都要花一整天才能把皮毛里的臭味去掉，”他抱怨道。 沙风翻了个白眼，什么也没说。 “你发现没，今天有点不对劲，”火星开口说道，目光扫过雷路两端。 “一只怪物都看不见，味道却比以往任何时候都要臭。” “而且我还听到了什么声音，”叶爪补充道，竖起了耳朵。 风送来一阵低沉的轰鸣声

toward the group of cats, faint with distance but growing gradually louder. Cloudtail turned to his Clan leader with a puzzled look in his blue eyes. "What's that? I've never heard..." His voice trailed off and he stood gaping. Over a rise in the Thunderpath came the biggest monster any of the cats had seen in their lives. Sunlight dazzled off its gleaming body, and its shape rippled in the heat rising from the surface of the Thunderpath. Its throaty roaring grew and grew until it seemed to fill the whole forest. It came slowly, followed by another and yet another. Twolegs swarmed over them like ticks, yowling at each other, their words all but drowned by the roar of the monsters. Then as the leading monster drew abreast of the five watching cats, the unthinkable happened. Instead of going past it swerved, crunched over the narrow strip of grass that edged the Thunderpath, and headed straight for them. "What's going on?" Graystripe gasped as

朝着这群猫飘过来，起初遥远模糊，随后渐渐越来越响。 云尾转过身看向他的族长，蓝色眼睛里满是困惑。 “这是什么？ 我从来没听过……” 他的声音戛然而止，站在那里目瞪口呆。 雷路的坡后方驶来一只怪物，这是这群猫有生以来见过的最大的怪物。 阳光晃在它锃亮的身躯上，它的轮廓在雷路面升腾的热气中微微晃动。 它低沉的轰鸣越来越大，仿佛要填满整座森林。 它慢慢驶来，身后跟着一只又一只怪物。 两脚兽像蜱虫一样挤满了怪物，彼此大喊大叫，他们的说话声完全被怪物的轰鸣淹没了。 领头的怪物开到五只旁观的猫身旁时，不可思议的事情发生了。 它没有径直驶过，反而猛地转弯，轧过雷路边窄窄的草带，直冲冲朝着它们开过来。 “这是怎么回事？” 灰条倒吸一口冷气，

Firestar howled, "Scatter!" He dived for cover into a clump of bracken while his deputy fled deeper into the forest and turned to stare out from underneath a thornbush. Cloudtail shot up the nearest tree and crouched in the fork between two branches, gazing down. Sandstorm headed into a narrow gully with a trickle of water at the bottom, pausing to look back only when she reached the other side, her fur bristling in mingled shock and anger. Leafpaw followed her, and flattened herself in the long grass. The monster barreled forward on huge black paws that crushed everything in its path. As all five cats watched, frozen with horror, it rammed its shoulder up against an ash tree; the tree shook under the impact, and then, with a shriek like all the prey in the forest dying at once, its roots tore out of the earth. The tree crashed to the ground. The monster rolled on. The destruction of the forest had begun.

火星大吼道：“散开！” 他一头扎进蕨草丛躲起来，他的副族长逃进森林深处，转过身从荆棘丛下向外张望。 云尾窜上最近的一棵树，蹲在两根树枝的树杈上往下看。 沙风跑进了底有细流的窄沟，直到跑到对岸才停下回头看，她的毛发炸开，满是震惊和愤怒。 叶爪跟在她身后，把身子贴平在长草里。 怪物迈着巨大的黑脚掌向前猛冲，碾碎了路上的一切。 五只猫都吓呆了，眼睁睁看着它用“肩膀”猛地撞上一棵白蜡树； 大树被撞得猛晃，接着，一声仿佛森林里所有猎物同时死去的尖啸过后，树根从土里被扯了出来。 大树轰隆一声倒在了地上。 怪物继续向前驶去。 对森林的破坏，就此开始了。