“Help her!” Horror seared through Moth Flight’s body as she spotted the blue-gray she-cat lying in the ditch beside the dirt track. Blood darkened the she-cat’s neck, spreading fast through her thick fur. Her flanks trembled as she struggled for each shallow breath.
Other feline shapes moved around Moth Flight, hazy in the pale dawn. She snapped her head around as a hiss sounded beside her. A huge dark tabby reared and smashed his forepaws down onto a smaller black-and-white tom. “Why don’t you help her?” Moth Flight begged. But neither cat seemed to hear. The tom scrabbled desperately at the earth as the tabby pinned him down.
Moth Flight’s thoughts spun. Is this a battle?
But the other cats weren’t fighting.
Ginger fur flickered like flame through the ditch as a young tom raced to the she-cat’s side and crouched beside her. Two frightened faces peered over the top of the ditch, ears twitching.
Blood was seeping onto the ground from the she-cat’s neck.
“She’s dying!” Moth Flight yowled to the fighting toms. But they only snarled at one another more viciously.
Dread shadowed her heart. Moth Flight raced toward the injured she-cat, her paws moving soundlessly over the earth. Early sunlight struck her flank, but made no shadow on the earth beyond.
