Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3 Squirrelpaw raced ahead of Brambleclaw and Stormfur toward the ravine where the ThunderClan camp lay. The stench of Twoleg monsters hung in the air, and her heart grew as heavy as a stone when she heard a rumbling roar up ahead. "They're here already!" she whispered. There was an unfamiliar slash of brightness where a gap had appeared in the trees that bordered the ravine. Before, the forest had crowded right up to the edge of the steep slope that led down into the camp. Squirrelpaw felt Brambleclaw's pelt brush hers as he crept alongside and peered out from the trees. "Go carefully," he murmured without looking at her. A broad trail had been gouged through the forest. The ground, once hidden by ferns and smoothed by many moons" pawsteps, was lumpy and muddy, churned up like the moorland. Their way to the ravine was blocked by monsters, roaring and growling as they chewed through

第三章 松鼠爪冲在黑莓掌和暴毛前面，朝着雷族营地所在的峡谷奔去。 空气中弥漫着两脚兽怪物的臭味，听到前方轰隆的吼声，她的心沉得像块石头。 "他们已经来了！" 她轻声说。 峡谷边的树林里裂开了一道缺口，露出一道陌生的光亮。 以前，树林一直蔓延到通往营地的陡坡边缘。 黑莓掌悄悄走过来，挨着她从树后往外望，松鼠爪感觉到他的皮毛蹭过了自己的。 "小心点走。"他轻声说，没看她。 森林里被挖出了一条宽阔的路。 原本被蕨类覆盖、被无数猫爪踩平的土地，现在变得坑坑洼洼满是泥浆，像荒原一样被翻搅得乱七八糟。 通往峡谷的路被怪物堵住了，它们一边轰鸣吼叫，一边啃咬着

more trees. Squirrelpaw shrank back under the bracken, flattening her ears. "Midnight warned us it would be bad," Brambleclaw reminded her. His voice was oddly calm, and Squirrelpaw pressed herself close to him, seeking comfort from the warmth of his fur. "We can't cross here," he went on. "It's too dangerous. We'll have to go around and approach the camp from the other side." "You lead the way," Stormfur suggested. "You know the forest here better than I do." He glanced at Squirrelpaw. "Are you okay?" Squirrelpaw lifted her chin. "I'm fine. All I want to do is get back to the Clan." "Come on then," mewed Brambleclaw, and he set off at a fast trot, away from the Twoleg devastation. They turned away from the monsters and sped through the trees. As she raced toward the sandy clearing where she had trained with the other apprentices, Squirrelpaw wondered grimly how the Clan could have survived with the Twolegs and monsters so close. The sun was high in the sky, and the training hollow was

更多的树木。 松鼠爪缩到蕨类植物下面，紧紧抿住耳朵。 "午夜早就警告过我们情况会很糟。"黑莓掌提醒她。 他的声音出奇平静，松鼠爪紧紧贴住他，从他温暖的皮毛上寻求安慰。 "我们不能从这儿过。"他接着说。 "太危险了。 我们得绕路，从另一边靠近营地。" "你带路吧。"暴毛提议。 "你比我更熟悉这儿的森林。" 他看向松鼠爪。 "你没事吧？" 松鼠爪抬起下巴。 "我没事。 我现在只想回到族群里去。" "那走吧。"黑莓掌喵声道，随后他快步小跑起来，离开了两脚兽破坏的这片地方。 他们转身躲开怪物，在树林里飞快穿行。 当松鼠爪朝着她以前和其他学徒一起训练的沙质空地跑去时，她满心不安地想，族群怎么可能在两脚兽和怪物离这么近的情况下活下来。 太阳高挂在天空，训练坑那里

crisscrossed with shafts of cold sunlight. She dug her paws into the soft ground and pushed on ahead of Brambleclaw and Stormfur, her chest tightening with fear as she tore along the trail that led to the gorse tunnel. Without hesitating, she ducked her head and raced into the thorns. "Firestar!" she yowled as she exploded into the clearing. It was completely empty. The whole camp was silent. No cat stirred, and the scent of the Clan was stale. On trembling legs, Squirrelpaw padded to her father's den underneath the tall gray rock where he normally stood to address the Clan. For one wild moment, she thought Firestar might still be there in spite of the danger that roared at the brink of the ravine. But his mossy bedding was damp and musty, unused for several days. Squirrelpaw slipped out of the cleft in the rock and found her way into the nursery. Kits and elders were always the last to leave the camp, and there was nowhere safer than in the heart of the bramble thicket that had protected many generations of ThunderClan cats.

横七竖八落着一道道冰冷的阳光。 她把爪子踩进松软的泥土，冲到黑莓掌和暴毛前面，朝着通往金雀花隧道的小路飞奔，胸口因为恐惧缩得紧紧的。 她没有犹豫，低下头冲进了荆棘丛。 "火星！" 她冲进空地的时候大声叫唤。 这里完全空了。 整个营地一片寂静。 没有猫走动，族群的气味已经淡得几乎闻不到了。 松鼠爪抖着腿，慢慢走到父亲巢穴所在的高大灰岩下面，火星平时就站在那里对族群讲话。 有那么一瞬间，她疯狂地想着，尽管峡谷边危险的吼声就在耳边，火星说不定还待在这里。 可他铺着苔藓的窝又湿又霉，已经好几天没人住过了。 松鼠爪从石缝里出来，走到了育婴室。 幼猫和长老总是最后才离开营地，而且这片荆棘丛保护过一代又一代雷族猫，这里比任何地方都安全。

There was nothing inside except the stench of a fox, almost hiding the faint scent of helpless kits and their mothers. Blind panic rose in her chest. There was a rustle of branches, and Brambleclaw appeared at her side. "F-fox!" she stammered. "It's okay," Brambleclaw reassured her. "The scent is stale. The fox must have been trying his luck, hoping the Clan had left unguarded kits behind. There's no sign of bl—of a fight," he amended hastily. "But where has the Clan gone?" Squirrelpaw wailed. She knew Brambleclaw had been about to say blood. It seemed impossible that the whole Clan could have vanished without some blood being spilled. Oh, StarClan, what happened here? Brambleclaw's eyes glittered with fear. "I don't know," he admitted. "But we'll find them." Stormfur joined them. "Are we too late?" he whispered hoarsely. "We should have come home quicker," Squirrelpaw protested. Stormfur shook his broad gray head as he

里面除了狐狸的臭味什么都没有，狐狸的臭味几乎盖住了无助幼猫和他们母亲残留的气味。 盲目的恐慌涌上她的胸口。 树枝一阵响动，黑莓掌走到了她身边。 "狐——狐狸！" 她结结巴巴地说。 "没事的。"黑莓掌安慰她。 "这气味已经不新鲜了。 这只狐狸肯定是来碰运气的，想着族群说不定会留下没人看管的幼崽。 没有打——打斗的痕迹。"他赶紧改了口。 "可是族群去哪里了呢？" 松鼠爪哭着喊道。 她知道黑莓掌本来想说血。 整个族群不流一滴血就消失不见，这简直不可能。 噢，星族啊，这里到底发生了什么？ 黑莓掌的眼睛里闪着恐惧的光。 "我不知道。"他承认。 "但我们一定会找到他们。" 暴毛走过来和他们汇合。 "我们是不是来晚了？" 他沙哑着嗓子轻声问。 "我们本该早点回家的。"松鼠爪难过得说。 暴毛摇了摇他宽大的灰脑袋，这时

looked around the abandoned nursery. "We should never have left in the first place," he growled. "We should have stayed and helped our Clans!" "We had to go!" Brambleclaw hissed, unsheathing his claws and sinking them into the moss. "It was StarClan's will." "But where have our Clanmates gone?" Squirrelpaw cried. She pushed past the other cats back into the clearing. She heard them follow more slowly, Stormfur cursing under his breath as a bramble scraped against his flank. The RiverClan warrior padded over to stand beside Squirrelpaw. He looked around the camp for a long moment, ignoring the scratch on his hind leg. "There's no blood anywhere, no trace of a struggle," he murmured. Squirrelpaw followed his gaze and realized Stormfur was right. Even out here, the camp showed no signs that the Clan had been attacked. Surely that meant the Clan had been unharmed when they left? "They must have moved somewhere safer," she meowed hopefully. Brambleclaw nodded.

环顾着这座被遗弃的育婴室。 “我们一开始就不该离开这里，”他低吼道。 “我们本该留下，帮助我们的族群！” “我们非走不可！” 黑莓掌嘶声说，他亮出爪子，深深扎进了苔藓里。 “这是星族的旨意。” “可我们的同伴都去哪里了？” 松鼠爪哭喊道。 她从其他猫身边挤过去，回到了空地上。 她听见他们慢慢跟了上来，荆棘刮到风皮的侧腹，他正低声咒骂着。 这位河族武士缓步走来，站在了松鼠爪身边。 他环视了营地好一会儿，完全没理会后腿上的抓痕。 “这里到处都没有血迹，也没有挣扎过的痕迹，”他轻声说。 松鼠爪顺着他的目光看去，发现风皮说的没错。 哪怕是这片空地，整个营地也完全看不出被袭击过的痕迹。 这是不是说明族群离开的时候全都安然无恙？ “他们一定是搬到更安全的地方去了，”她满怀希望地喵声道。 黑莓掌点了点头。

"We should keep looking for scents," Stormfur suggested. "They might give us a clue to where the Clan has gone." "I'll check Cinderpelt's den," Squirrelpaw offered. She charged down the fern tunnel that led to the medicine cat's clearing, but the hollow amid the sheltering ferns was as empty and silent as the rest of the camp. She skirted the edge, poking her nose into the bracken. Cinderpelt sometimes flattened out small nests here for sick cats, but there were no fresh scents now. She turned away and padded toward the split rock that formed one end of the clearing. This was where Cinderpelt made her own nest and kept her supplies of herbs safe and dry. In the shadows, the pungent smell of roots and herbs was as strong as ever, but there was only the faintest trace of Cinderpelt's scent, as stale as Firestar's had been in his den. Disappointed, Squirrelpaw backed out of the cleft and stared desperately around the clearing. A sudden, terrible realization clutched at her belly: Cinderpelt's scent was faint, but her sister's

“我们应该再找找踪迹气味，”风皮提议。 “说不定能帮我们弄清族群去了哪里。” “我去检查炭毛的巢穴，”松鼠爪主动说道。 她冲下通往巫医空地的蕨类隧道，可被蕨类遮蔽的凹洞，和营地其他地方一样，空无一人，寂静无声。 她沿着边缘探路，把鼻子伸进蕨丛里嗅闻。 炭毛有时候会在这里给病猫铺小窝，可现在完全没有新鲜的气味。 她转身离开，缓步走向空地尽头的裂岩。 这里就是炭毛铺自己窝、储存草药，保证草药干爽安全的地方。 阴影里，草根和草药的刺鼻气味还和往常一样浓，可只有极淡的一点炭毛的气味，就像火星巢穴里他的气味一样陈旧。 松鼠爪失望地从石缝退出来，绝望地环视着这片空地。 一个突如其来的可怕念头攥住了她：炭毛的气味已经淡得几乎闻不到，可她妹妹的