Leafpaw saw Cody bristle. “Cody’s a friend!” she mewed, leaping to her defence.
“I didn’t say she wasn’t,” Sasha meowed. “I’m just trying to work out who’s who in this place.”
Mistyfoot explained: “They’re mostly rogues, but there are a few other forest cats here.” Gorsetail, Brightheart, and Cloudtail meowed greetings as Mistyfoot went on, “Cody’s the only kittypet, as far as we know.”
“Have any of you worked out a way to escape from this foxhole?” Sasha asked.
“Not yet,” Mistyfoot admitted.
“Even StarClan hasn’t given us a clue,” Leafpaw added.
“StarClan!” In the shadows, she saw Sasha curl her lip. “Do you Clan cats still believe in that nonsense after what’s happened to the forest?”
“Of course we do!” Leafpaw hissed.
“Well, say a prayer for me, little one,” Sasha sighed unexpectedly. “I think we’re all going to need as much help as we can get.”
Sunhigh passed, and the tepid warmth of the afternoon sun began to fade.
“Here comes the Twoleg again,” Cody called to the other cats.
Over the distant grumbling of the Twoleg monsters, Leafpaw heard footsteps outside and instinctively crouched at the back of her cage. The nest door opened and the Twoleg came in carrying the food pellets.
“There’s no way you’ll persuade that Twoleg to let us out of here by purring at it,” Leafpaw whispered to Cody as the Twoleg began opening the cages and putting in more food.
“I guess not,” Cody shrugged. “But it won’t hurt to make him trust me.”
As she spoke a hiss exploded from the cage next to her. The Twoleg leaped backward from Coal’s open door. Blood trickled down its forepaw as it stamped around the nest, spitting in rage. Leafpaw strained to see Coal through Cody’s cage. She could just make out his shadowy outline as he flattened himself against the floor. The blood pulsed in her ears as she glanced over her shoulder at the Twoleg. It had stopped screeching and was staring menacingly at Coal. Suddenly, with a vicious cry, it thrust its paw back into the cage, and Leafpaw heard the tom screech in pain. Muttering, the Twoleg slammed the door shut.
Leafpaw shuddered. What had the Twoleg done?
When the Twoleg opened Cody’s door and tipped pellets into her pot, the kittypet shied away. She was not purring at it now.
As soon as the Twoleg had gone, Leafpaw yowled, “Are you OK, Coal?”
A muffled groan came from the cage beyond Cody’s. “That stinking Twoleg!”
Leafpaw sniffed the air and smelled the warm tang of blood.
“It looks bad,” Cody whispered to Leafpaw. “There’s blood on the floor of his cage.”
“Where are you hurt?” Leafpaw asked Coal.
“I’ve cut my leg,” replied the rogue. “That badger-pawed Twoleg shoved me against something sharp.”
Leafpaw thought quickly. What did Cinderpelt use to stop bleeding? “Can any cat reach a cobweb?” she called. “Come on; we have to help him!”
“There’s one near me,” answered Gorsetail. “I think I can reach it. Hang on.”
Peering down, Leafpaw saw Gorsetail’s tawny paw reach out from a cage below her. A large cobweb stretched from the floor of the nest to the top of his cage. He reached toward it, squeezing his foreleg through the hole in the side of his cage. Finally he managed to plunge his paw into the thick tangle and drag it down. Twisting his foreleg round, Gorsetail held the cobweb as far up towards Leafpaw as he could.
Leafpaw flattened herself against the cage and pushed her paw through the shiny floor. It scraped against her fur but she clenched her teeth and forced her leg through a little more until she could take the wad of sticky cobweb from Gorsetail. She pulled it quickly into her cage and then began passing it to Cody. “Give him this!” she urged, squeezing the last pieces of cobweb through with her paws.
Cody nodded, unable to talk because she was holding a wad of cobweb in her mouth. As she dragged it into her cage, some of it stuck to the sides of the hole, wasting a few of the precious threads.
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