Jayfeather scraped energetically at the snow around her until she was able to scramble out. “Thanks,” she gasped. “Have you found—?”

She broke off with a wordless wail of anguish as she saw her father. Struggling to his side, she crouched beside him and began to lick his injuries. Jayfeather could see scratches from the bird’s claws on her back, too, but if she was in pain, she wasn’t showing it, too caught up in concern for Chasing Clouds.

In the dim light, Jayfeather noticed something growing in the hole where Half Moon had been lying. Bending down, he sniffed and recognized the scent of ragwort. That’s good for strength, he thought, remembering what he had learned about mountain herbs on his previous visit to the Tribe. It should help with shock. Craning his neck down into the hole, he managed to nip off a few stems and carried them back to the others.

“Here, eat these,” he ordered, setting the herbs down in front of them. “They’ll make you feel better.”

All three cats looked up at him, then bent their heads to lick up the herbs.

They’ve been through too much to wonder how I know about plants that grow here, Jayfeather guessed, wondering if there were any cobwebs around to stop bleeding. The cave would be the best place to look.

“We should go back,” he meowed. When none of the cats moved, he gave Stone Song a prod. “Come on. Do you want to die out here? Give up when we already came this far? We need to have faith.”

Stone Song looked at him with dull eyes. “Faith? Faith in what?”

Jayfeather flinched, wishing he could call upon StarClan, or the Tribe of Endless Hunting. But those names would mean nothing to these cats. Are there any ancestors watching us right now?

“We should have faith in ourselves,” he told them, trying to put conviction into his voice. “We came this far. We will survive. We must give ourselves time.”

Stone Song blinked. “We might not have time. The mountains might kill us first.”

Jayfeather thought of all the generations of cats to come, all the seasons when the Tribe would live in the mountains until they were discovered by a patrol of cats who had journeyed to visit the sun-drown-place.

“You do have time,” he mewed. “I promise.”

Yowls of horror broke out from the cats in the cave as Jayfeather and Stone Song struggled back through the entrance, practically carrying Chasing Clouds between them while Half Moon limped behind.

“What happened?” Jagged Lightning demanded. “Were you attacked by a fox?”

“No, a bird,” Stone Song replied.

“A bird?” Whispering Leaves pressed up behind Jagged Lightning, gazing at Chasing Clouds’s injuries with horrified blue eyes. “A bird did that to you?”

“It was a really big bird,” Chasing Clouds muttered.

More of the cats were gathering around, jostling one another to get a good look, letting out exclamations of fear and despair. Owl Feather’s kits came bouncing up, sniffing curiously at Chasing Clouds, then shrank back close to their mother as they caught the tang of blood.