Whisper Thornpaw's Arc

Chapter 4 of 9

Whisper returned with her ring of odd keys jangling at her belt. She slid back down into the hollow tree and crouched in the dim. The kittens still circled the pillar, their small paws had worn looping tracks into the mud. She counted six shivering shapes, all wrong-sized, all lost. She stepped closer. Her tambourine hummed against her hip. A dark crystal above the keyhole woke at once, throwing cold blue light across the cavern floor. The kittens hissed. Their fur lifted. One swiped at her ankle and drew a thin red line. Whisper backed off. The crystal dimmed. The kittens slumped again. She understood. The tambourine and the crystal spoke to each other, and the noise drove the kittens wild. She could not reach the pillar while they guarded it. She climbed out and worked fast. She lashed two sticks into a frame, tied a small bowl beneath it, and crushed enchanted catnip into the dish. She hung soft charms from the crossbar so they swayed and chimed. She carried the lure to the far side of the hollow and set it down where the air felt warmer. The kittens lifted their heads. One stretched. Another mewed, sounding like a kitten again instead of a thing. They padded toward the bowl, tails twitching, and tumbled into a soft pile around it. Whisper held her breath and crossed the worn tracks alone. She stretched up on her back paws. She tried three keys before the fourth slid home. She turned it. The air went flat, like a held breath. Something deep in the stone clicked open. Then a voice drifted up through the pillar, thin as smoke. "Can anybody help me? I'm lost."