“Just passing through,” Jingo replied calmly.

“Well, get a move on,” the kittypet growled. “I’m going home for some sleep. I don’t want to listen to that racket all day. Those dogs wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t brought them.”

Anger lit up Lionblaze’s eyes, and he began to push forward along the edge of the wall to stand beside Jingo. Hollyleaf’s fur prickled. Starting a fight here would probably end with both cats falling off the wall into the waiting jaws of the dogs.

Brambleclaw raised his tail to halt Lionblaze. “Stay out of it, unless the kittypet attacks,” he ordered. “Let Jingo handle it.”

Lionblaze obeyed, but he kept his furious gaze fixed on the kittypet.

“You’re the one who’s holding us up,” Jingo replied, still calm. “If you weren’t stuck there in the way, we’d be long gone.”

The blue-furred tom let out an angry snort, but said nothing more. Instead he leaped down into the Twoleg territory, raced across to the nest, and vanished through a small hole in the door.

Hollyleaf relaxed; they had more important things to do than teach kittypets some manners. Still with the dogs following, they padded farther along the wall until they came to another corner.

“This is where we can get rid of the dogs,” Jingo told them. Turning the corner, she led the way along a narrow wooden fence between two Twoleg dens. There was no way for the dogs to follow, even though they tried to push themselves into the gap at the foot of the fence. Their frustrated yelping sounded behind Hollyleaf as she and her Clanmates approached the nest.

“This way—and watch where you’re putting your paws.” Jingo sprang up onto a narrow, flat area above the entrance to the Twoleg nest, then clawed her way up a creeper that grew alongside it until she reached the edge of the Twoleg roof. “It’s not hard!” she called down, beckoning with her tail.

“And hedgehogs can fly!” Birchfall muttered.

But when it was Hollyleaf’s turn to climb, she realized that Jingo was right. The creeper had thick, twisted stems that created plenty of paw holds, and it was strong enough to bear even the weight of Brambleclaw and Lionblaze. But the edge of the roof felt unsteady, and Hollyleaf tried unsuccessfully to dig her claws in, terrified that the wind would blow her off.

“Where now?” Brambleclaw panted as he hauled himself over the edge to stand beside Jingo.

As an answer, the brown tabby she-cat began scrambling up the steep slope of the roof. “This is a good shortcut,” she meowed.

“We can’t go up there!” Hazeltail gasped. “We’ll fall!”

“If Jingo can do it, we can do it,” Brackenfur declared firmly. “Up you go, Hazeltail. I’ll be right behind you.”

Slipping and scrabbling, the Clan cats clawed their way up the slope to where Jingo was sitting with her tail curled round her paws, at the very top of the roof next to a couple of tree stumps made of stone.