Free Dovewing's Silence by Erin Hunter

ill.”
    Sandstorm’s eyes clouded. “It cost him a life, too,” she recalled.
    â€œDo you think we’ll do that again, if more cats start coughing?” Dovewing asked as she scraped a stringy piece of meat from between her teeth.
    Sandstorm shook her head. “I doubt it. I don’t want to infect anyone else, but it wouldn’t help to be in that drafty old den. Better for all of us to be close to the medicine cats.” She looked down at her paws as if she’d lost her appetite, and Dovewing felt bad for making her think back to that terrible time of sickness.
    She glanced around the clearing. Although it was sunhigh,the sky was thick with clouds and the breeze smelled of rain. The cats huddled over their food, their fur blown all ways so that they resembled pine cones more than sleek, well-groomed warriors. A flash of movement caught Dovewing’s eye. Blossomfall was slipping through the barrier, not using the usual gap but forcing a new way at one side of the entrance. The fur pricked along Dovewing’s spine. Was Blossomfall trying not to be seen? She battled briefly with a stir of suspicion and cast out her senses, trying to picture the she-cat on the other side of the barrier. She felt the familiar jolt of dismay as no pictures appeared in her mind, and nothing came to her above the sounds of her Clanmates eating. She shook the feeling away. Where is Blossomfall going ? There was only one way to find out.
    Nodding to the other cats around the squirrel, she stood up. “I’m just going to the dirtplace,” she whispered to Bumblestripe to deter him from following her. She used the normal gap through the barrier, noting with relief that it was becoming less prickly. Outside the hollow, the trees clashed in the rising wind, and even though most of the leaves had fallen into heaps on the ground, little daylight seeped down to the forest floor. Dovewing trotted through the shadows, following Blossomfall’s scent trail on the leaf mulch. Her heart was pounding and she kept her ears flattened, listening for sounds of danger. The buzzing noise had stopped but her senses still felt dull and heavy, and the half-lit forest seemed far more daunting and secretive than it ever had before.
    Suddenly there was a rapid crackle behind her andBlossomfall pounced on Dovewing’s haunches, knocking her over. Dovewing scrambled to her paws and spun around. “What did you do that for?” she cried.
    â€œYou were following me, weren’t you?” Blossomfall challenged. “Why would you do that? Don’t you trust me?” Her fur was fluffed up and her voice was harsh with anger.
    Dovewing looked down at her paws, flushed with shame. “I . . . I was just wondering where you were going.”
    Blossomfall flicked her tail. “You may as well come with me, since you clearly think I’m up to no good.” She turned and bounded through the trees.
    Dovewing raced to catch up, feeling branches slap her face as they hurtled through the undergrowth. They emerged into a burst of daylight on the old thunderpath. Blossomfall didn’t slow as she swerved and headed along the pale stone to the tumbledown Twoleg den. To Dovewing’s surprise, she skidded to a halt beside the ivy-covered den and vanished along its side. Dovewing paused. Is she meeting a Dark Forest cat? She thrust the thought away. Blossomfall had done nothing to make any cat question her loyalty since the Great Battle! Dovewing trotted after her Clanmate and found her bent over the dark brown soil behind the abandoned den. She was poking at some shriveled plants with one paw.
    â€œI’m looking for catmint,” the she-cat hissed through gritted teeth. “Satisfied? I know Jayfeather and Leafpool grew some here, and I wanted to see if there was any left. Our Clanmates are getting sick, and we have to find a way to make them better before we have to dig any more burial holes!”