Ashfur came to join Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw; his words were indistinct because he carried a mouthful of mice, dangling by their tails.
Brambleclaw beckoned with his tail to Rainwhisker, who had just brought down a blackbird; the young warrior came trotting over with a satisfied look on his face and a feather on his nose.
“A badger—maybe more than one—has been here,” Brambleclaw meowed. “We can’t go back to camp without checking it out.”
“You mean, follow the trail?” Rainwhisker mewed in alarm. “Are you sure?”
“We have to find out if it’s left our territory. Squirrelflight, can you tell which way it went?”
Squirrelflight nosed at the scent the badger had left in the grass. “That way.” She pointed with her tail.
Brambleclaw padded over to sniff the trail. “Keep quiet, all of you. I don’t want them to know we’re here until we see how many there are and decide what’s best to do. We’re lucky that the wind’s in the right direction, so it won’t carry our scent to them.”
The cats left their prey among the roots of the oak tree, scratching earth over the pile until they could come and collect it later. Then with Brambleclaw in the lead, they set out after the badger.
The trail led them deeper into the forest, in the direction of the ShadowClan border. Here and there were freshly turned patches of earth, as if the badger had been digging for grubs. Squirrelflight felt a pang of concern for her friend Tawnypelt and the rest of ShadowClan; if they failed to track the badger down in their territory, some cat would need to warn Blackstar.
The scent grew steadily stronger, a powerful reek that swallowed up all other scents of the forest. Squirrelflight felt her fur stand up along her spine. It looked as if ShadowClan would be safe after all; the badger was still close by.
Suddenly Brambleclaw halted in the shadow of a boulder and held up his tail as a sign for the others to stay back. He clawed his way silently up the rough stone until he could poke his head above it and see to the other side.
Instantly he ducked down again. Squirrelflight crept forward until she could peer around the side of the boulder.
The ground on the other side was flat and pebbly, leading to a scattering of more smooth grey boulders. Between two of the rocks there was a gaping hole flanked by piles of freshly dug earth; Squirrelflight almost sneezed as a harsh scent reached her from the damp soil, a mingled reek of badger and fox. The badger must be building a set in an old fox den, she thought.
In front of the hole, three badger cubs scuffled about, making high-pitched fretful noises as if they didn’t like having to trek through the forest in daylight. Squirrelflight stared, her neck fur rising in horror, then she slid back to join Ashfur and Rainwhisker in the shelter of the rock.
“There’s a whole family of them!” she hissed. “Great StarClan, they’ll be all over the territory in a couple of seasons!”
Ashfur looked puzzled. “It’s unusual for a badger to move with cubs.”
“Maybe they were forced out of their old home,” Rainwhisker suggested.
Brambleclaw slid down from the top of the boulder and crouched beside them. “We can’t do anything until we know how many adults there are,” he meowed. “We’ll stay here and keep watch. Don’t do anything unless I say so, OK?”
All three cats nodded, though Squirrelflight seethed at the way Brambleclaw was ordering them about like wet-eared apprentices.
“Badgers mostly come out at night,” Brambleclaw went on. “If they’re in the set now, there’s not much we can do. No cat is going in there.” His amber gaze rested on Squirrelflight.
“I’m not stupid!” she hissed.
“I didn’t say you were,” Brambleclaw retorted. “But there are times when you do stupid things.”
Ashfur took a breath as if he were going to leap to her defence, but she flicked her tail at him for silence. “Really, it’s not worth it,” she muttered.
“If we find there’s just one fully-grown badger with the cubs, we’ll attack,” Brambleclaw mewed. “We can’t let them settle in our territory. Four of us should be able to cope with one badger. Hawkfrost managed to drive one off, after all. This could even be the same badger.”
Squirrelflight’s neck fur began to rise again at the mention of Brambleclaw’s half-brother. It was bad enough that Brambleclaw refused to admit that Hawkfrost was untrustworthy, without having him held up as a model of courage and fighting skill as well.
“We might drive it into ShadowClan territory,” she pointed out.
“Then ShadowClan’s warriors will have to deal with it.” Brambleclaw’s eyes were intense, and his voice cold. “We have to protect our own Clan first.”
“And if there’s more than one badger?” Ashfur wondered.
“Then we’ll gather as much information as we can and report back to Firestar. Find somewhere to hide where you can see the mouth of the set.”
Squirrelflight returned to her vantage point in the clump of fern. The badger cubs were still scuffling in front of the pile of earth. The sun climbed higher, and Squirrelflight would have dozed off if hunger hadn’t gnawed at her belly. The squirrel she had shared with Ashfur seemed a long time ago, and she thought longingly of the heap of fresh-kill left under the oak tree.
Her jaws gaped in a yawn, and she clamped them shut again as an even stronger reek of badger flooded into her mouth. The undergrowth on the far side of the clearing rustled briefly before the ferns parted to reveal a powerful, broad-shouldered body and a long muzzle with a white stripe down the middle. The female badger lumbered into the clearing and her three cubs scampered up to her. She dropped a mouthful of beetles onto the ground and the cubs gulped them up with high-pitched cries of joy.
Brambleclaw sprang on top of the boulder and let out a challenging yowl. The female badger’s head shot up and she roared in defiance, showing two rows of sharp yellow teeth.
Brambleclaw yowled again. “Attack!” He leapt from the boulder, landing among the cubs who scurried out of the way, yelping with fear. They huddled together in the mouth of the set, staring at the warrior with wide, scared eyes.
Ashfur hurtled out of his hiding place further around the clearing, with Rainwhisker hard on his paws. Squirrelflight pelted forward to stand beside Brambleclaw. “Get out!” she hissed at the badgers, even though she knew they wouldn’t understand what she was saying. “This is our territory!”
Brambleclaw lashed at the badger’s muzzle with both forepaws. She reared backward, swiping at him with massive claws, but Brambleclaw dodged the blow.
Squirrelflight ran forward until she was close enough to rake her claws down the badger’s side; blood welled out of the clawmarks and she shook her paw fiercely to dislodge the trapped black fur. She ducked to avoid the snapping jaws, then darted back just as Ashfur dashed in from the other side. The badger swung her head from side to side as if she couldn’t decide which swift-moving target to attack first.
This is easy! Squirrelflight thought. She’s too slow and clumsy!
She
