Surprised, Alderheart blinked in gratitude at her offer. “Okay,” he mewed. “Let me treat your wound first, and then you can help, as long as you don’t move around too much.”

“Okay,” Velvet agreed.

Alderheart headed for the back of the den to the herb store in the cleft rock. He skirted Jayfeather’s nest, where Fuzzball was telling him all about the fire.

“The flames were so high—higher than our housefolk’s nest! The sparks flew right up into the sky. . . .”

Jayfeather had his eyes closed and his tail over his nose, as if he was pretending none of this was happening.

Alderheart returned to Velvet with a fat black root in his jaws. “This is burdock root,” he told her. “You can chew it up, if you like, but don’t swallow it. I’ll use it to make a poultice for your burn.”

Velvet sniffed the root, then licked the end of it. “Ooh, bitter!”

“I can do it if you’d rather,” Alderheart offered.

“No, I’ll do it. I’d like to learn new things while I’m here.”

Alderheart watched Velvet chewing a bite of the root, then asked her, “So you haven’t always been a kittypet?”

“No,” Velvet replied, spitting out the pulp. “My first housefolk went away and left me behind, so I was a stray for a couple of seasons, but then the weather got cold, so I found some new housefolk.”

“How did you do that?” Alderheart asked as he began to pat the burdock-root pulp onto Velvet’s burned leg.

Velvet let out a small mrrow of laughter. “I sat outside their den and meowed, and when they came out, I looked sad.” She raised her head with her eyes stretched wide and a pathetic expression on her face. “It worked.”

I’m sure it did. Alderheart couldn’t imagine Twolegs being able to resist such a pretty cat. Talking to her is really nice, he thought. But I’d better get back to work.

“Keep still,” he mewed, “and I’ll fetch some cobweb to bind the poultice in place.”

“It feels better already,” Velvet told him, with a long sigh of relief. “You must be a great medicine cat.”

Alderheart heard a snort from the direction of Jayfeather’s nest, but he took no notice.

Once Velvet’s leg was firmly bound up, Alderheart headed outside to see to the cats who were waiting for him. Velvet followed him.

“Can you take out a thorn?” Alderheart asked her.

“Oh, yes, no problem,” Velvet replied. “If you don’t mind?” she mewed, with a questioning glance at Birchfall.

Birchfall looked surprised, but for answer he sat down and stretched out the injured paw. “I’d put up with a badger if it could get rid of this wretched thing,” he meowed.

After making sure Velvet knew what she was doing, Alderheart was turning to Cherryfall when Sorrelstripe came padding over from the nursery.