Warriors: Dawn of the Clans #2: Thunder Rising Read Free Page A

you wouldn’t feel a dawn breeze ruffle your fur . . . it made no sense to Gray Wing. When she’d left, Gray Wing hadn’t been able to hide his sense of betrayal, and Turtle Tail had become cold and aloof.
    But it was clear that Turtle Tail’s new life suited her; she was plump and healthy-looking, with a glossy pelt and bright eyes that glowed as she gazed at Gray Wing.
    “And this huge cat is Thunder?” she asked, turning to the kit, who stood close by with his prey in his jaws, looking bewildered and a bit hurt. Gray Wing realized with a twinge of guilt that he still hadn’t praised him for his catch. “He’s grown! I remember how tiny he was when we brought him into the forest and named him.”
    When Thunder’s mother, Storm, had died in the debris of the Twoleg den, Gray Wing and Turtle Tail had been able to save Thunder, but his littermates and mother had been lost forever. Her fur was so soft, her eyes so beautiful  . . . Gray Wing’s tail drooped and pain stabbed through his heart. I’ll never see her again .
    “Look, Thunder has caught a bird! He’s going to be a great hunter.” Turtle Tail’s voice jolted him from his thoughts. When Gray Wing glanced at her, he saw instantly that she was being deliberately cheerful. It’s almost as though she could see what I was thinking. I suppose Turtle Tail knows me so well she even knows how to distract me if I’m sad.
    “So he is,” Gray Wing agreed, shaking himself.
    Thunder brightened at the praise, and the other two kits came crowding up. “We’re going to be brilliant hunters too,” Acorn Fur announced.
    “I’m sure you are,” Turtle Tail responded. Blinking, she turned to Gray Wing. “These must be Hawk Swoop’s kits. They’re big and strong, too. Look at them!”
    “Maybe you’ve been away longer than you realized,” Gray Wing meowed. But the hurt in Turtle Tail’s eyes made him immediately regret his words. “I mean, long enough for . . . well . . . ,” he stammered. “I missed you, Turtle Tail.”
    The she-cat’s eyes shone. “I missed you, too, Gray Wing.”
    He turned to the kits, suddenly aware that they were watching the two adult cats and drinking in every detail of the conversation. “This is Lightning Tail, and this is Acorn Fur.”
    “Good names,” Turtle Tail mewed, happiness returning to her face. “I’m Turtle Tail.”
    “Lightning Tail got his name because he’s always hanging around with Thunder,” Gray Wing explained. “They’re our own little storm in the making!”
    Turtle Tail’s eyes gleamed with amusement and she touched noses with each of the kits.
    “Go and play,” Gray Wing gently told them. He wanted to talk to Turtle Tail without the three of them listening in on every word.
    They didn’t need to be told twice. With yowls of pleasure the kits went racing off, chasing one another around the gorse bush.
    “How are you getting on in the Twolegplace?” Gray Wing asked, feeling suddenly awkward. He didn’t want Turtle Tail to think he was criticizing her again. “Did you make it through the cold season okay?”
    “Yes, it was nice,” Turtle Tail replied lightly. “Very cozy and comfortable. Bumble and I had extra company, too—not long after I went to live there, another cat came to join us.”
    “A rogue?” Gray Wing asked, finding that hard to believe.
    “Oh, no,” Turtle Tail replied. “The Twolegs went away, and when they came back, they were carrying a cat—a big tom. He told us he had lived with another Twoleg, but one day his Twoleg suddenly stopped coming to feed him.”
    You can’t trust Twolegs , Gray Wing thought, but he had the sense not to say it out loud.
    “So then the tom went to live in a place with a bunch of other cats. They were all really unhappy and whiny there, and he said that they could hear dogs barking close by. They were all cooped up together. Then the cat—they called him Tom, by the way—”
    “Tom?” Gray Wing interrupted. “They