Jayfeather murmured agreement. “We’re near the farm where Lionblaze and Hollyleaf had trouble with dogs,” he meowed. “Let’s keep a good lookout.” He gave Dovewing a hard gaze as he spoke.

Squirrelflight led the way along the hedge until they came to a gap between two bushes, big enough for a cat to squeeze through.

“Dovewing, you go first,” Jayfeather ordered.

“Who’s leading this patrol, Jayfeather?” Squirrelflight inquired. Turning to Dovewing, she added, “Okay, but be careful.”

Dovewing knew why Jayfeather had chosen her. She was already sending a tendril of her special senses through the hedge and into the field beyond. No dogs. But some other weird animals…oh, I know! Sheep. She remembered seeing them in the distance on her visit to WindClan. They won’t do us any harm.

Flattening herself on her belly, she crawled through the gap, feeling thorns rake through the fur on her back. Rising to her paws on the other side, she found herself facing two big white woolly animals, with sharp hooves and placid, incurious faces.

It feels strange seeing them so close, she thought. They look a bit mouse-brained.

“Dovewing?” Squirrelflight’s voice came anxiously through the hedge. “Are you okay?”

“Fine!” Dovewing replied. “You can come through.”

Jayfeather appeared next, shaking his ruffled pelt as he rose to his paws and stepped into the field. Foxleap followed him, and lastly Squirrelflight, panting as she pulled herself through the clustering thorns.

“See?” she mewed triumphantly as she straightened up. “I’m not stuck!” Then she looked disconcerted.

It’s like she was talking to a cat who isn’t here, Dovewing thought.

Shaking her head as if to clear it, Squirrelflight led the patrol along the line of the hedge. The field was huge; Dovewing couldn’t even see the other side. Everything’s so big here, she thought, suppressing a shiver. I can’t even see the edges of the sky.

Suddenly loud barking clattered into her ears. She froze, astonished for a heartbeat that the rest of the patrol were quietly plodding on. The scent of dog filled her nostrils. Then she realized that her special senses were giving her advance warning. “Dog!” she yowled. “Take cover!”

Squirrelflight whipped around, gazing across the field. “Where?”

“Over there.”

As Dovewing stretched out her tail to point, a dog appeared at the crest of a gentle rise in the middle of the field. Yapping loudly, it raced toward the cats, its tail flying and the wind ruffling its black-and-white pelt.

“Fox dung!” Squirrelflight hissed. “Dovewing, Foxleap, get Jayfeather into the hedge.”

Foxleap was already pushing Jayfeather into the bushes. Dovewing spotted a branch where the thorns weren’t quite so thick, and slid into the hedge beside Jayfeather. “Put your paws there,” she ordered, guiding him with her tail. “Now climb!”

As Jayfeather hauled himself upward, spitting annoyance, Dovewing glanced back to see Squirrelflight standing with her back to the hedge. Her fur was fluffed out so that she looked twice her size; her back was arched and she was snarling as the dog galloped closer.