Time ticks like water in a still cave. After a turn of events out of their control, the renegades have scattered with a promise to reunite in a year and a season. They are not the only ones who have disappeared from the South Forest. While hope blos...
Whipper held his breath as two Leslanders walked by, but they passed his wall hideout without batting an eye. He dropped one more conifer twig beside the two already lying in Firebrand's bed. Two calls for a meeting, with no reply. If he had at least seen her in camp, this wouldn't make him so nervous.
Another Coppertail passed the wall. This one had the white pelt and clean-edged spots of a female Flatlander. Blue spots, almost the colour of Jay. A chill ran through Whipper's fur. He didn't want to think about Jay. Not right now.
The Flatlander vanished around the end of the wall. Whipper backpedaled through the boulders until he found a space large enough to turn around. A gap in the wall's other side afforded him a view of the path, and of the Coppertail pulling rank on an A-rank before standing in the path's middle to wait.
Before long, a second Flatlander was coming towards her. This one was a male, impossibly tall and the same blue as a sky struggling to hold off a storm chord's clouds. Leslanders skittered out of his way. None even came up to his shoulder.
"You're late," said the female.
"I am precisely on Lady Winter's time. You know she dislikes it when you are excessively early."
Whipper shuddered involuntarily.
"Is Cinder here?" continued the male.
"She just arrived. It'll be the three of us again."
"Azul will not be joining?"
"Lady Winter does not see the need to invite a third-rank. A lack of attendance is no reason to do away with power structures."
The male made a sound like he disagreed, but he did not retort. Both Coppertails made their way towards main camp.
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"Tikkiiiii!"
Silversand hunkered lower in the wall as Sonar hopped up and down.
Radar sighed. "Yes, Sonar, we can go look for Tikki. Where do you want to start?"
"Field!"
"Alright, you lead the way to the field." Radar looked gaunt and tired. He had returned the night before, after a three-quarter moon of absence. He had brought no slaves.
He was managing a smile for his brother, though, and Sonar beamed back. "Are you coming too?"
"Yes, I'm coming. You go ahead."
"Yay!" Sonar bounded outside. "Wait for me, Tikki; we're coming to get you!"
Radar slipped something under the edge of his nest and followed his brother. What had that been?
Silversand wriggled until she could reach her necklace chain. With claws and teeth she teased open a tiny pouch, then fished around in it until she came up with a clay pellet wedged between her toes. It made a satisfactory splunk in a puddle on the Vipra brothers' floor. Silversand counted thirty heartbeats, then started on thirty more.
