Birchfall bundled through first, followed by Hazeltail and Hollyleaf, and Lionblaze squeezed through after them. He let out a yowl of alarm as he crashed hind legs over head into brittle grass. Head spinning, he staggered to his paws to see Brambleclaw already beside him and the strange she-cat scrambling through the hole.

“Brackenfur?” he asked anxiously.

A screech answered him as the ginger tom hauled himself through the fence, paws flailing as he tugged at his tail. “Fox dung!” he gasped, collapsing on the grass. “That flea-ridden brute bit me!”

Brambleclaw gave his Clanmate’s tail a quick sniff; Lionblaze could see that some of Brackenfur’s fur had been stripped off, but there didn’t seem to be any blood.

“You’ll be okay,” the deputy decided. “Where now?”

The she-cat’s reply was drowned out by a flurry of barking. The fence creaked and bent as the dogs flung themselves against it.

In the Twoleg nests around them, lights began to appear in the dark holes in the walls. Lionblaze heard a Twoleg shouting angrily, but the dogs went on barking and pounding at the fence. His belly lurched when he saw that the small brown-and-white dog had stuck its head through the gap and the wood around it was starting to splinter.

The dark tabby she-cat darted forward and slashed her claws at the dog’s nose. Yelping, it pulled back.

“That’ll teach you,” she meowed with satisfaction. To the cats she added, “Quick, follow me!”

They raced after her to the entrance of a Twoleg nest. Brambleclaw skidded to a halt.

“We can’t go in there!” he protested. “It’s a Twoleg nest.”

“Fine!” the tabby snapped. “Stay out here and get eaten.” She squeezed through the skinny gap at the side of the flat piece of wood blocking the opening and disappeared.

Brambleclaw and the rest of the patrol exchanged confused glances; then the deputy shrugged and raised his tail, signaling his Clanmates to follow. Lionblaze paused to look back across the grass, and saw that the small dog was still scrabbling at the gap. It had managed to get its shoulders and one paw through the hole.

Lionblaze felt his fur bristle and grow hot again as he braced himself to fight. He could almost taste the blood and hear the terrified yelping as his claws ripped into his enemies’ pelts.

Then he heard a crash and a Twoleg shouting; it sounded much closer than before. The dogs’ fierce barking turned to frightened yelps; the little dog struggled backward to free itself from the hole in the fence, then vanished.

Lionblaze’s fur lay flat again as the noise died away. He started to feel disappointed that he hadn’t managed to try out his battle skills against the dogs, then jumped as Brackenfur nudged him.

“Come on,” mewed the ginger tom, angling his ears toward the entrance to the nest. “What are you waiting for?”

The other cats had already gone inside. Lionblaze pushed his way through the gap, with Brackenfur close behind him. He found himself in a small, straight-sided den; his Clanmates huddled together in the middle, casting nervous glances around them. He tasted the air: There was a strong scent of cat, but only a very faint, stale trace of Twoleg.