Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20 The mouse's tail slipped between Leafpaw's outstretched claws, leaving her to glare in frustration at the crevice where the tiny creature had vanished. She had left the camp to collect more herbs for Cinderpelt, and following Firestar's order that no cats were to go out alone, Sorreltail was with her. "Bad luck," the tortoiseshell warrior meowed sympathetically. "But it was pretty scrawny to start with." "It was prey," Leafpaw retorted. "I'd have caught it if I weren't so hungry that I can't see straight." She began backing out from underneath the bush. Suddenly she noticed its familiar dark green leaves for the first time, and the red berries that clung to its branches and lay scattered around the trunk. "Mouse dung!" she hissed. "And I've got the filthy stuff on my paws." "What's the matter?" Leafpaw backed out the rest of the way and

第二十章 老鼠的尾巴从叶爪张开的爪子间滑走，她只能沮丧地瞪着这只小生物消失不见的石缝 她出营地给炭毛采集更多草药，按照火星禁止任何猫单独外出的命令，栗尾陪她一同出行 “真不走运，”玳瑁武士同情地说道 “不过它本来就瘦得只剩一把骨头啦” “那可是我的猎物，”叶爪反驳道 “我要是没饿到看不清东西，肯定抓住它了” 她开始往后退，从灌木丛下钻出来 突然，她第一次看清了这丛灌木熟悉的深绿叶，还有挂在枝桠上、散落在树干周围的红浆果 “鼠粪！” 她嘶声骂道 “我的爪子上还沾了这脏东西” “出什么事了？” 叶爪完全退出来后

pointed at the berries with her tail. "Deathberries," she meowed. "I was so keen to catch the mouse that I never saw them." Sorreltail shivered. "Let's find some water and wash it off, quick." Leafpaw was puzzled to see the look of horror in her friend's eyes. Deathberries were pretty bad, but only if you ate them. Sorreltail was one of the bravest cats she knew, yet she looked thoroughly spooked by the sight of the berries, her ears lying flat and her fur bristling. "Are you okay?" Leafpaw asked as they padded on into the forest, keeping a lookout for a puddle where she could wash off any poison that might have gotten onto her pads. "I'm fine." Sorreltail blinked. "Did you know that I once nearly died from deathberries?" "No!" Leafpaw stopped, her eyes wide with shock. "What happened?" "It was when I was a kit, before you were born. I'd followed Darkstripe into the forest— you won't remember Darkstripe; he was Tigerstar's biggest ally in ThunderClan. When I spotted him talking to Blackstar—he was

用尾巴指了指那些浆果 “是死亡浆果，”她说道 “我刚才一门心思抓老鼠，根本没注意到它们” 栗尾打了个寒颤 “我们快去找水冲干净，快点” 看到朋友眼里满是恐惧，叶爪十分困惑 死亡浆果确实很危险，但只有吃下去才会中毒呀 栗尾是她认识的最勇敢的猫之一，可此刻看到这些浆果，她彻底吓坏了，耳朵平贴着头，毛都炸了起来 “你没事吧？” 叶爪一边问，一边和她往森林里走，寻找水坑冲掉爪垫上可能沾上的毒液 “我没事” 栗尾眨了眨眼 “你知道吗，我曾经差点死于死亡浆果中毒？” “不会吧！” 叶刹停住脚步，震惊地睁大了眼睛 “发生什么事了？” “那时候我还是幼崽，你还没出生呢 我跟着黑条进了森林——你肯定不记得黑条了 他曾经是虎星在雷族最铁杆的盟友 我撞见他和黑星说话——那时候他还是

Blackfoot then, Tigerstar's deputy—on our territory, he gave me the deathberries so I couldn't tell any cat what I'd seen." "That's terrible!" Leafpaw pressed her muzzle against Sorreltail's side. "It's thanks to Cinderpelt I survived," Sorreltail meowed. "Still, it's all over now. Whatever the Twolegs are doing to us, at least we don't have Tigerstar to worry about anymore." She spun around, her tail held high in the air. "Come on; let's get your paws clean. A deathberry poisoning is the last thing the Clan needs right now." Dark thoughts flew into Leafpaw's mind as she followed her friend deeper into the undergrowth. If Tigerstar really was the father of Hawkfrost and Mothwing, then perhaps that trouble wasn't all over. The roar of the Twoleg monsters grew louder as they approached the Thunderpath. At last they found a small pool in a hollow where Leafpaw dipped her paws several times and rubbed them on the grass until she was sure all traces of the deathberries were gone. All the

叫黑脚，是虎星的副族长——在我们的领地上，他逼我吃死亡浆果，就是怕我把看到的事告诉别的猫” “太可怕了！” 叶爪把鼻子贴在了栗尾的身侧 “幸好有炭毛，我才活了下来，”栗尾说道 “不过，这事都已经过去了 不管两脚兽现在对我们做什么，至少我们不用再担心虎星了” 她转过身，尾巴高高翘在空中 “走吧，我们快把你的爪子洗干净 现在我们族群最不需要的就是有人中死亡浆果的毒了” 叶爪跟着朋友往灌木丛深处走，一个不祥的念头钻进了她的脑海 如果虎星真的是鹰霜和蛾翅的父亲，那这场麻烦恐怕还没有结束 她们靠近雷路后，两脚兽怪物的轰鸣声越来越大 最后她们在洼地里找到一个小水洼，叶爪把爪子泡了好几次，又在草地上蹭了蹭，确定死亡浆果的痕迹全都清除干净了 所有的

same, she knew she would feel uneasy about licking her paws for many days to come. "There," she mewed. She had to raise her voice to make herself heard above the growling of the monster. "That should be okay. And look, there's a huge clump of chervil over there. Cinderpelt will—" She broke off with a terrified gasp as the roar of the monster grew suddenly louder, as if the whole sky were splitting apart with thunder. A vast, glittering shape broke through the undergrowth, crushing the chervil she had just spotted. Sorreltail let out a startled yowl and fled for the nearest tree, clawing her way up the bark and coming to rest in the first fork, her fur fluffed up until she looked twice her size. Leafpaw flattened herself in a hollow in the ground. She watched in frozen horror as the monster seized a half-grown ash tree and ripped it out of the ground with no more effort than she would have taken to dig up a burdock root. It lifted the tree high in the air, turning it in a huge, twisting limb as it stripped off the branches. Debris began to rain down around Leafpaw,

尽管这样，她知道接下来好多天，自己舔爪子的时候都会觉得不安 “好了，”她喵喵说道 她不得不提高音量，才能盖过怪物的轰鸣让对方听到 “应该没事了 你看，那边长着好大一簇峨参 炭毛她——”话没说完她就吓得倒抽一口冷气，怪物的轰鸣声突然变大，就像整个天空被惊雷劈开一样 一个闪闪发亮的巨大物体冲过灌木丛，把她刚看见的那簇峨参压得粉碎 栗尾吃惊地嗷叫一声，逃向最近的树，扒着树皮爬上去，停在第一个树杈上，她的毛全都蓬起来，看起来比平时大了一倍 叶爪把身体紧紧贴在地面的洼坑里 她吓呆了，眼睁睁看着怪物抓住一棵半大的白蜡树，轻轻松松就把它连根拔起，比她拔一颗牛蒡根还要省力 怪物把大树高高举在空中，用一个巨大扭转的机械臂掰掉了所有树枝 碎石碎木像雨一样落在叶爪周围，

pattering on the ground like hail. "Leafpaw!" Sorreltail's yowl cut through her fear. Her friend had leaped down from the tree, perhaps realizing there was no safety there anymore. She pelted across the open ground and nudged Leafpaw to her paws. "Run!" Leafpaw gave the monster one more terrified glance, to see it beginning to slice the tree into pieces. Then she was dashing through the forest behind Sorreltail, blundering into brambles and through deep troughs of mud in their mad rush to escape. When the roar had died to a faint rumble behind them, the two cats halted, panting. "They're taking more and more of our forest," Sorreltail gasped. "Soon there'll be nowhere left for us." Leafpaw stood trembling, looking back and half expecting the monster to burst through the trees in pursuit. "I hate them!" she spat. "They've no right to come here. What did we ever do to harm them?" "That's Twolegs for you," Sorreltail mewed. She was growing calmer, the fur on her shoulders

像冰雹一样噼里啪啦落在地上。 “叶爪！” 蕨尾的吼声冲破了她的恐惧。 她的朋友从树上跳了下来，大概意识到那儿再也不安全了。 她冲过开阔地，把叶爪拱得站起身来。 “跑！” 叶爪又惊恐地瞥了那怪物一眼，看见它正把大树劈成碎块。 接着她跟在蕨尾身后狂奔穿森林，拼命逃命时误撞荆棘，蹚过深深的泥坑。 等轰鸣声在身后减弱成模糊的隆隆声，两只猫才停住脚步，大口喘气。 “他们占了我们越来越多的森林，”蕨尾喘着气说。 “很快我们就没有容身之地了。” 叶爪站着浑身发抖，回头张望，生怕怪物会冲破树林追过来。 “我恨他们！” 她恶狠狠地说。 “他们根本无权来到这里。 我们做过什么伤害他们的事吗？” “两脚兽就是这副德行，”蕨尾轻声说。 她渐渐平静下来，肩上的毛

beginning to lie flat again. After a moment, she touched Leafpaw's ear with her tail-tip. "Come on, let's go and look for herbs near the RiverClan border. We'll get as far from those horrible monsters as we can." Leafpaw nodded, suddenly too scared to speak. She followed the tortoiseshell warrior through the forest, grief surging through her at the thought of the peaceful places that would never be peaceful again, the trees that would never again grow green in newleaf and cast their shade on the forest. StarClan must be grieving too, she realized, especially if they could do nothing to stop the destruction. "What are we going to do?" Sorreltail asked after a few moments. "I can't remember the last time I was full-fed... or any other cat in the Clan. Look at Ferncloud. She blames herself because Larchkit died, but it's not her fault at all." Leafpaw thought of gentle Ferncloud, grieving over her dead kit, and Dustpelt's misery as he tried in vain to comfort her. She thought of Dappletail, dead because hunger had forced her

开始重新平顺贴回身上。 过了一小会儿，她用尾尖碰了碰叶爪的耳朵。 “走吧，我们去河族边界附近找药草。 我们要离那些可怕的怪物越远越好。” 叶爪点点头，吓得一句话都说不出来。 她跟着这只玳瑁武士穿过森林，一想到原本宁静的地方再也不会安宁，那些大树再也不会在新叶季抽出绿荫、遮蔽森林，悲伤就涌上心头。 她意识到，星族一定也在悲伤，更何况他们无力阻止这场破坏。 “我们接下来该怎么办？” 过了一会儿，蕨尾开口问道。 “我都记不清上一次吃饱是什么时候了……族里哪只猫不是这样。 看看蕨云。 落叶崽死了，她一直怪自己，可这根本不是她的错啊。” 叶爪想起温柔的蕨云，为死去的幼崽悲痛，还有尘毛，拼尽全力也安慰不了她，满心苦楚。 她想起斑尾，饥饿逼得她