Still suspicious, Lionpaw scrabbled up the bank.

Ashfur was waiting there. “WindClan have obviously gone home,” the gray warrior meowed. “We’re wasting our time.”

“Yeah,” Hollypaw agreed quickly. “Let’s go.”

Lionpaw glanced sideways at her. What’s she up to?

But Ashfur was already trotting away through the trees. Hollypaw chased after him. She found something. But why’s she hiding it? The thought nagged as Lionpaw pounded after his Clanmates.

“Wait!” he called to Ashfur, a few tail-lengths ahead.

Ashfur halted and turned.

Hollypaw spun around, her pelt bristling. “What is it?”

“I heard something on the border,” Lionpaw lied. “I want to go back and check.”

Ashfur tipped his head to one side. “What did you hear?”

“I can’t be sure,” Lionpaw mewed. “Probably nothing, but I’d like to be certain.”

“I’ll go with you,” Hollypaw offered, tail tip twitching.

“I’ll be fine on my own,” Lionpaw promised.

Hollypaw looked skeptical.

Lionpaw didn’t meet her gaze. “I’ll probably have caught up with you by the time you reach camp.”

“Go on, then,” Ashfur meowed. “But if you see anything suspicious, come and report it at once. No silly heroics. This is too serious.”

“Okay,” Lionpaw promised. He turned tail and raced back to the thicket of brambles. Hollypaw had made the tiny opening larger. It was easy for him to wriggle inside, but the thorns still tugged his pelt as he followed the twisting path his littermate had made through the bush. At least it was dry inside.

A smell hit his nostrils. Fox! Was that what Hollypaw was so worried about? Why didn’t she tell Ashfur? He pushed on more cautiously through the thicket, remembering the time he had sneaked out of camp with Hollypaw and Jaypaw. They had been only kits, but they had been determined to find the fox threatening their Clan. They had tracked it all the way to its den. He shivered at the memory. How did they possibly believe they could have chased it away when they were so small? In the end, it had chased them.

As the scent grew stronger now, he realized that it was stale. No fox had been here for a while. Suddenly the brambles thinned out and the ground opened into a smooth-edged hole. Hollypaw had found a fox’s den! It hadn’t been used in a while, by the smell of it.