Chapter Five, Part Two

Back in the hollow, Dovewing and Millie screamed in unison, “Evacuate!”

            Bramblestar sprung from his perch atop the Highledge near his den, Squirrelflight and Jayfeather on his heels. “What do you mean?” Jayfeather demanded, his blind blue gaze wild.

            Dovewing looked guilty, as if she was the one who caused all of this madness. She didn’t speak, so instead Millie did. “We were building a barrier, but the water broke through and flowed right past us!” she yelled at the top of her lungs. “Now it’s heading straight for the camp!”

            Beside the silver tabby, Dovewing’s eyes expanded. “Watch out!” she shrieked, and although she wasn’t facing the thorn tunnel, nor was there any sound of rapidly-moving water, she darted over to where she could climb up on the Highledge.

            Lilypaw was confused, but soon enough she heard that ugly, terrifying sound, and followed Dovewing upwards. The rest of the Clan pushed their way to the top, and somehow almost everyone was able to balance on the Highledge. Some cats were crammed in Bramblestar’s den, but Lilypaw was lucky enough to be in the heart of the group, squashed between Dewpaw and Bramblestar himself. Dovewing was directly behind her, breathing down Lilypaw’s neck. “It’s here,” the gray she-cat muttered.

            Lilypaw saw a cat was still down in the clearing just heartbeats before the water burst through the thorn tunnel. It was Graystripe. The gray elder was struggling to climb the rocks. He was nearly blind, and couldn’t see to get his way up there.

            Millie, who was crouched next to Dewpaw, yowled in despair and called for Graystripe to follow her voice. She was his mate, despite being a few seasons younger than him.

            The water broke through the thorn tunnel and gushed throughout the clearing. The water was rising fast. The cats at the edge of the ledge backed up, shoving more cats into the stuffy cave.

            Lilypaw heard Bramblestar yowl above the worried, anxious murmurs. “Cats in my den, if you can hear me, start digging on the back wall! It is earthen, and we should be able to escape through there!” The dark tabby apprentice picked up the sound of paws thumping against the vulnerable clumps of dry mud. Claws scratched against the only blockade that kept the ThunderClan cats from escaping to safety.

            By then Lilypaw had been shoved all the way in Bramblestar’s freezing cold cave. The stone froze her paws in time. She cringed in pain as one of her Clanmates, struggling to get through the crowd to the front to help dig, smashed her against a wall made of boulders melted together. Her shoulder smacked hard against the rock. Shaking it off, Lilypaw fixed her gaze on the progress of the diggers, one of whom- her father- she had a direct line of vision to.

            “I got it!” Brackenfur abruptly yowled, and the earth started to crumble before him. The golden brown tabby pushed into it harder, and eventually a gaping hole sat invitingly before the homeless Clan.

            Cats initiated to pour out of the stuffy cave, and soon Lilypaw had room to flex her shoulders, even her claws. She pulled in behind Thornclaw, who kept ramming his head into the cat ahead of him. “Hurry up!” the rude warrior demanded. “I don’t want to drown!”

            Wish you would, Lilypaw thought bitterly to herself, and suddenly realized that she was starting to behave a lot like Seedpaw now that her sister was absent. You are not a heartless cat that only thinks foul.

            Before long Lilypaw was the next cat to go. It was a fairly long jump: through the wide hole that Brackenfur and the other diggers had eventually created, there was a bulky tree branch extending out toward them like an inviting helping paw. It looked safe enough, and it was Lilypaw’s only choice besides drowning once the water flooded the cave or dropping the lengthy fall down, and they were nearly at the top of what used to be their hollow.

            She watched Thornclaw crouch down in a jumping position, and directly after that he leaped, landing on the tree limb safely. He shuttled along with two Clanmates that had been there to help him in case he had to scrabble up by one paw. Lilypaw gulped and tried not to glance down, although it was pretty hard not to.

            “Come on, you can do it. The rest of us are waiting,” a gentle voice encouraged her. At first Lilypaw thought it was Honeyfern in her head, but then she realized that it was Leafpool behind her.

            “Okay, I can do this.” Lilypaw took a breath, closed her eyes, bent her legs the way she had seen experienced old Thornclaw do. Then she did more of a hop over. I didn’t go far enough was her first thought as she sailed over as far as she could in midair. Suddenly Lilypaw felt her claws scrape bark, and she grinned, the butterflies fluttering out of her stomach. She had made it.

            Lilypaw climbed the rest of the way up and nodded to Thornclaw, who had been shoved back to help her when things didn’t look good for her. All Lilypaw could think was, I made it. I made it!

            She and Thornclaw stayed behind to assist Leafpool, and the brown tabby leaped onto the tree with them swiftly and easily without pressure. A few more cats went after her, including the three queens holding kits, then finally Tigerheart.

            Bramblestar leaned forward far ahead on the tree next door and counted his Clan. “Nearly all of us have made it,” he called, meaning Graystripe. “Now we will continue on. Our life at the lake is now behind us, and it is time for us to start a new adventure. I will call it… the Second Great Journey.”

            “The Second Great Journey,” Thornclaw breathed beside Lilypaw. “I remember the first one clear in my mind.”

            Leafpool nodded in agreement. “It was so tiring, and I was just a young apprentice full of energy then!”

            Lilypaw was already tired enough from the effort it took to make the pounce she did. I suppose another Great Journey it is.

            ThunderClan continued to balance, hopping from tree to tree. As they did so, Lilypaw hoped that they would find Seedpaw somewhere during the journey.