Firefly | Shelha Series 5 | ✔

Chapter Seventy-Seven: The Canyon

Something was banging the vines, snapping at her in a language she didn't know. Sethral scrambled to the back of her cage. The cool stone wall did little to soothe the sudden, petrifying adrenaline. The white Watermouse from yesterday threw her a food package, then moved to Ryatzi's cage and lifted his spear to bang it too.

"Don't!" gasped Sethral.

Too late. The heavy wood slammed the vines, which were hard like trees and carried the tremors right through the cage. Ryatzi was on his paws in an instant. He backed against the wall with his hackles up and his mouth half open, showing his teeth and trying to breathe. The white Watermouse levelled the spear at him. Sethral ran forwards and pulled up short as the spearpoint was suddenly in her cage. Spear-knocker growled something at her in his language, then jabbed the point at her. She backed away. He repeated the short word and jabbed again. Only when Sethral was at the back of her cage did he seem satisfied. He withdrew the spear, angled it at Ryatzi again with what sounded like a threat, then walked down the line of cages towards Silversand and Whipper. Ryatzi collapsed against the wall. He had not been given a food package.

They were only half finished eating when white Watermice suddenly appeared all up and down the ledge outside. Several held ropes and collars of some tough jungle material, and nearly all of them had bows. There was a sharp word, and all the arrows pointed at the renegades. There they held. Sethral could not move. One twitch might be one twitch wrong, and all of those arrows would find their mark. She scarcely noticed the white Watermouse fiddling with the cage's outside until a round section of it swung open like a door. Bowstrings creaked tighter. A creature carrying ropes and a harness climbed inside, followed by a companion. They circled her so the arrows would still have a clear shot if she did something wrong.

The white Watermouse carrying the harness held up a loop of it that was undoubtedly a muzzle. Sethral stayed still. When he sensed she was cooperating, the creature slid the muzzle on, then slung a loop over her head and another around her neck. In a few deft movements he had secured things all down her back. Sethral yelped in pain as he yanked her bound wing. He turned to the creatures outside the cage and did a little backwards step-dance. Spear-knocker stepped back in reply. The creature beside her started undoing the straps Whipper had woven to bind the wing to her back. Sethral bit back tears as he pulled her wing open. Spear-knocker pointed his spear at both her wings and chattered sharply. Sethral beat the good one. Spear-knocker jabbed his weapon harder.

She couldn't. Even when she pressed through the pain and tried to move her sprained wing, it was too stiff to twitch. Sethral lay down and rested her forehead on her claws as a growing dizziness threatened to make her pass out. Spear-knocker's paws shuffled as he stepped a line back from the cage again. The creature beside Sethral refolded her wing across her back and replaced the straps. There was more fiddling and tugging around the harness. When she could look up again, the two creatures around her had attached leads to several parts of it. Her good wing had also been bound. At Spear-knocker's command, one of the creatures tugged her upright. Several took the other ropes, and she was led out of the cage. Silversand and Loki were on the ledge outside, also harnessed and muzzled. 'Whipper?' flicked Sethral.

'They didn't try to catch him,' Silversand flicked back. 'He was being too aggressive.'

'Did he get food?'

'No.'

So they were trying to starve Ryatzi and Whipper into submission. Ryatzi would sooner waste to death than be put back in a collar, Sethral knew, but he could also last a lot longer without food than Whipper could. Their leads were tugged, and the three renegades were led down the long, slanting ledge. Sethral glanced as inconspicuously as she could at Whipper's cage as she passed it. The Forester was balled up in a back, upper corner. She could not see his face.