Firefly | Shelha Series 5 | ✔

Back in Time

Heat burned up through Sethral's body. For a moment, she could see the Vipra in Shai's body, and even the chill she couldn't rid her body of was temporarily alleviated. There was something choppy about the story, making it harder to understand than the last ones.

"I think it's second-hand," said Silversand. "She's telling what she heard from the second canopy Forestairs. Their dances are a little different. Can a dance have an accent?"

"Well, it's a language, so I don't see why not."

Silversand frowned at the progressing story. "Radar's doing pretty much what we guessed. And they really hate him. But they're also scared of him... I think Radar's probably the only creature from outside that they're actually scared of. It's really spooking them that he had a Forestair skeleton."

"So why can't he control them, then?"

"Because there's nothing he can do to them by revealing them. Nobody survives coming here, and even if they did, they wouldn't find Forestairs that didn't want to be found. It's not like the South Forest... those ones have a lot less to hide in. They're trapped by the winter weather on the Western Shield and the dry season in the Far South, and they're really close to the Lowlands. It's the Lowland creatures that would come after them if they knew they were real."

Silversand did not seem to realize how sophisticated that reasoning was, so Sethral just smiled at her for a time while she continued to watch the story. She supposed Silversand did have all the pieces to put that together. She had lived in the Western Shield, the Lowlands and the South Forest, and had visited the Far South, too. And now she knew Forestairs. This was not the clumsy, daft creature who had first joined the renegades.

"Silver?"

"Yeah?" The cat glanced over.

"I'm really glad to have you around."

Silversand looked surprised for a moment, then smiled back, then got distracted by the story again. "Oh! He's reached here... he used fire, too, Seth. To hold back the Negrilaw while he locked up the skeleton. And then the Forestairs couldn't get it back without breaking the lock, and they couldn't break the lock without warning the Negrilaw, and the they couldn't hold back the Negrilaw without fire, and they can't make fire. That's why they needed us."

"All that for fire."

"Well, and breaking locks. They're not very good at that either. And it was a big one. Oh, it's another story again. I think... it's Winter arriving south. It's in the South Forest Forestair accent now. I wonder if they all pass stories around."

Sethral half listened for the interest of hearing the story from a Forestair perspective, though it was much the same as it would have been from hers. There was even the same amount of focus on Radar. Radar terrified everyone equally, it seemed.

"The Ghost is a Forestair," said Silversand. "He got shot."

Sethral opened her eyes. "What?"

"He got shot." Silversand was staring wide-eyed at Shai. "Bringing a letter to the herd... just before..." Her voice quavered. "Seth, that's why we never heard about the creatures who took Jay. They had allies stationed outside the fort, and they shot the Ghost. He had to run, and he followed us and helped look after us instead, but he got sick... Whipper!"

Whipper jumped awake.

Silversand rounded on him. "You treated a Forestair in that cave Halo turned us away from?"

Whipper's eyes were big. "He didn't want me to tell anyone."

Silversand sat down. "That was the Ghost."