Tallstar's Revenge Read Free Page B

past them, heading into camp. Sandgorse! Tallkit lifted his tail as his father trotted into the clearing.
    The ginger warrior’s pelt was speckled with earth. “I’ve left a stack of sticks at the tunnel entrance,” he called to Woollytail.
    The gray-and-white tunneler lifted his nose. “Great!” he meowed. “We can start shoring up the roof this afternoon.”
    â€œYou’ll have to manage without me.” Sandgorse headed toward the Hunting Stones. “Tallkit! I want to show you something.”
    Tallkit blinked excitedly at his father. “What is it?” Was Sandgorse going to show him the moor? Tallkit slid off the rock and scrambled over the tussocky grass. He skidded to a halt at Sandgorse’s paws.
    Sandgorse licked a sprig of moss from Tallkit’s ear and spat it onto the grass. “It’s time you learned to dig.”
    Disappointment dropped like a stone in Tallkit’s belly. He didn’t want to dig. He wanted to see the moor and feel the wind in his pelt.
    â€œTallkit’s going to go worming!” Shrewkit jeered from the Hunting Stones.
    Tallkit spun around crossly. “Worms don’t dig !”
    â€œIgnore Shrewkit!” Barkkit stepped in front of his littermate. “He’s just teasing.”
    Sandgorse snorted. “Typical moor-kit, scared of getting sand in his eyes.” He headed for the tunnelers’ bracken patch. Tallkit scrambled after him and ducked under Sandgorse’s belly as he stopped beside Woollytail’s nest. Tallkit peeped out, relishing the warmth of his father’s fur on his spine.
    â€œDo you think sticks will be strong enough to hold up the roof?” Sandgorse wondered.
    Woollytail frowned. “They’ll do until we can roll stones into place.”
    â€œPerhaps we should take a different route to the gorge.” Above Tallkit’s head, Sandgorse’s belly twitched.
    Woollytail shook his head. “We can’t be far from clay now. It’ll be harder digging, but there’ll be fewer cave-ins.”
    Sandgorse glanced toward the elders’ den. Tallkit guessed he was thinking about Lilywhisker’s crushed leg. “Perhaps we should explore the rabbit warrens higher up. There may be a clay seam there we can dig into.”
    â€œBut we’ve made so much progress over leaf-bare,” Woollytail argued. “It’d be a shame to start again.” The tom’s muscular shoulders twitched. They were as wide and toned as Sandgorse’s.
    Will I have shoulders like that when I’m a tunneler? Tallkit’s gaze strayed across the camp to Cloudrunner and Aspenfall. They were much sleeker: built for speed, not strength. Tallkit wondered what it felt like to run across the moor with the wind rushing through his fur. Surely that would be better than being squashed underground? He imagined his ears and nose filling up with mud, and shuddered.
    â€œCome on, Tallkit.” Sandgorse’s mew broke into his thoughts. His father was heading for the moor runners’ nests. Tallkit scampered after him and followed him past the swishing stalks to a patch of bare earth behind Tallrock.
    â€œThere’s good digging here,” Sandgorse explained, running his paw over the ground. “This is where I first learned to tunnel.”
    Tallkit gazed down at the churned earth and wondered how many times this patch had been dug and refilled, ready for new tunnelers to practice. “Don’t you ever get bored of digging?” he mewed.
    â€œBeing a tunneler doesn’t just mean digging,” Sandgorse retorted. “Hollowing out new earthroutes is part of being a tunneler. But we patrol them, too, and it’s a great place to hunt, especially during leaf-bare. Don’t forget, that’s why Shattered Ice first tunneled through the rabbit warrens.”
    Tallkit already knew the legend of Shattered Ice. It was one of the first nursery stories