“Mine, too.” Lionblaze had been afraid that his worries and the strangeness of their surroundings would keep him awake, but when his aching body curled up among the dead leaves, he felt exhaustion pressing on him like a heavy pelt. As he drifted into sleep, he could still hear the distant roaring of the sun-drown-place.

CHAPTER 9

Jayfeather woke when a cold breeze ruffled his fur. “We need more bedding in here,” he grumbled to himself as he scrambled out of his bare nest. “It’s as drafty as sleeping on top of the ridge in WindClan territory!”

He lifted his head to sniff the scents of early morning. There was a strong tang of herbs in the air; as Jayfeather bent his head to give his pelt a quick grooming, he located Leafpool in front of the storage cave. She was making up leaf wraps of tansy, and beside her there was a fresh mixture of juniper berries and daisy leaves to ease the pain of Mousefur’s aching joints.

“Should I take those for you?” Jayfeather offered, padding up behind his mentor.

Leafpool jumped. “Don’t creep up on me like that! You frightened me out of my fur.” She carefully patted the herbs together, then added, “No, I can manage. I want you to go over to the nursery and check every cat there, and the bedding, for fleas. I spotted Briarkit scratching yesterday.”

Jayfeather turned away, resentment seething beneath his skin. “Am I a medicine cat or an apprentice?” he muttered, loud enough for Leafpool to hear, but the she-cat did not respond.

He called a greeting as he pushed through the brambles into the nursery, and then he started to check for fleas.

“Oh, thank you, Jayfeather,” Millie meowed. “I’m sure I’ve a couple in my pelt somewhere. It’ll be such a relief to get rid of them.”

“You need a change of bedding,” Jayfeather told her, tracking down a flea in Briarkit’s neck fur and spearing it with a claw. “I’ll get Foxpaw and Icepaw to deal with it.” Unless Leafpool expects me to do that as well, he added grumpily to himself.

“Right, you’re done,” he told Briarkit. “Blossomkit, I’ll—”

He broke off with a startled yelp as claws stabbed into his tail. Wrenching it free, he spun around and picked up the scent of Toadkit.

“I pretended your tail was a mouse,” the little tom told him proudly. “I caught it, too!”

Jayfeather bared his teeth. “Just keep your claws to yourself!”

“There’s no need for that,” Daisy protested. “He was only playing.”

Jayfeather bit back a sharp retort and went to check Blossomkit and Bumblekit for fleas. Toadkit wriggled away from Daisy and bounced up to him, interest sparking from him as Jayfeather parted Blossomkit’s pelt.

“Can you eat fleas?” he mewed. “Do they taste yucky?”

“Why don’t you try one and find out?” Jayfeather suggested.

“You be a flea and I’ll eat you!” Blossomkit squeaked, pulling away from Jayfeather and leaping on top of Toadkit. Jayfeather staggered as the two wrestling kits piled into him.