Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-31986068-20160429231407/@comment-31986068-20170212002910

HIGHLIGHTED THIS RUBBISH

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Rain was not worried about Sparrow very much as she pigged out on some fresh malasada from the kitchen. She had obtained it after excessively drooling over a batch, having not eaten since yesterday morning. The Portugese rooster bragged about his mother’s special malasada recipe and how good he was at making it, and gave one to her.

Roe asked Rain where Sparrow was.

“Oh, she’ll turn up. She won’t mess up anything I’m sure, and even if she did she would do her best to fix it. Probably off hiding in a classroom or something.”

Roe did not seem to believe her, although, as Rain insisted, she had known her sister eleven years and Roe had only known her about sixteen hours.

However she began to grow worried as she finished her tenth malasada. What if she got in trouble?

Just then Sparrow burst through the cafeteria’s tapestry. Upon seeing Rain she ran towards her sister’s table and promptly smashed into a passing snow leopard.

Rain went over and helped untangle the leopard’s sheathed swords and cloth from Sparrow’s long hair.

“Thanks,” the snow leopard panted. She looked up and stopped on awe. “You’re one of the humans that-- the prophecy--”

The leopard’s paw rose to grasp Rain’s hand and shake it.

“My name’s Seshlen,” she said. “It’s an honor to meet you! I have a sister, Illaw. She’d love to meet you too! Would you mind stopping by the healer’s den in two hours?”

Rain smiled. “Sure. You probably know this, but my name’s Rain.”

Sparrow came up from behind Rain and shook her shoulders. “Hurry up! I have to tell you something!”

“In a minute, Sparrow,” she snapped in reply. Looking back at Seshlen, Rain apologized and promised she would go to the healer’s den as requested.

“What is it?” Rain asked irritably. “And where were you?”

“In the Shapeshifting Classroom!” Sparrow replied excitedly.

Rain’s expression changed. “Shapeshifting?”

Sparrow told her everything.

“Really!” Rain cried. “So I could transform into a wolf! Or an owl! I’ve always wanted to fly!”

“It takes practice,” Sparrow told her.

Before Rain could reply Roe entered from the kitchen.

“I want you to get a feel for our territory,” the cat said. “So I’m sending you on patrol with Oak, Milo, Alex and Deser.”

Sparrow then grew very excited and dashed off with Roe. Rain sighed and followed. She began to think, What if Brendan lied? What if he knew about these groups and shot that fox... on purpose?

Half an hour later, Rain and Sparrow sat by a classroom as they waited for Oak to return. Roe had told them she was off on a trip with her Orienteering mentor. Alex and Deser waited with them. Alex was busy asking deliberately stupid questions about Foraging to Milo, who turned out to be a very large blue moth.

Deser slumped next to Rain, sulking.

“Oak’s got a mentor all to herself. All the Orienteering apprentices do. They take whole trips away from the base for weeks at a time. The way Maxim’s so fragile I don’t know how he gets by.”

Alex stopped asking questions to a struggling Milo and looked over at Deser. “He doesn’t get by. He pounded his fists against the walls in the middle of the night when Oak was off having a whale of a time somewhere in Olympic?”

“No...”

“See, that’s the thing,” Alex grunted irritably. “Since your bed is on the other side of the wall, you sleep like a rock...”

Before they started bickering Oak appeared out of nowhere in the middle of a flat stone disc on the floor, in the center of the grand hall. The sabertooth used Milo to hit Alex and Deser over the head. “Let’s go,” she said briskly. Setting the bewildered moth down, she added, “Sorry Milo, it was necessary. Now that I think of it I should’ve just slammed their heads together.”

Rain and Sparrow put on their fur coats back in their room and began to climb the long staircase to the exit.

“Hold on,” Oak called. “Come over here.”

She was standing at the center of the stone circle again. They all went over.

Oak muttered something and suddenly they were all outside, at the foot of the mountain. Igikpak stretched down into another plain.

They wandered a ways before coming to a small stone circle. The circle had three symbols on it. One symbol was like an upside-down cross, with an imperfect square encircling it. The symbol seemed to be pointing to the clear, bright stream ahead.

“That’s the Druids’ territory, across the Cleansing Stream.” Oak spat out the last two words as if she had just eaten moldy bread. “The big circular stone here with the symbols is the Territory Divide.”

Oak pointed east of the stone. “Over there is the Shadowbringers’ territory. Those old gnarly oak trees make the border all the way to the Stream.”

“This is our territory marker,” Alex said. He grabbed several smooth, shiny stones from the bank of the cleansing stream and laid them out in an untidy line an inch away from the Territory Divide. “We own the stone, but not the big fat strip that is made up of the distance from the gnarly trees to the Land’s End Cave. Apparently,   according to the Druids’ logic, they own it.”

Alex looked over at Milo. The moth was lazily flying in circles about six inches off the ground.

“I could go for some tea right now mbhmmmhmhm,” he muttered, apparently unconscious.

Alex grabbed him and hit Deser over the head to wake Milo up.

Oak, Deser and Milo all slapped him at once.

Sparrow thought this was very funny but Rain was tired of it, so she went off to explore down the Stream. Something about how Alex shivered after Rain asked what Druid refugees were gave her a feeling of foreboding so she was careful not to stray across the line of stones that Alex had added onto earlier.

“A human,” said a calm, cold voice behind her.

Rain whipped around and saw no less than a patrol across the Stream. A brown lynx with large, piercing eyes and what appeared to be a half-metal face stared at her threateningly.

The patrol was headed by an ivory-white cat with glaring yellow eyes. Dark green vines crisscrossed her paws and around her face and body. A shattered white mask covered her right eye and some of her face.

The mask reminded her of a math chart about fractions with circles. The mask looked like a third, but it also covered some of the cat’s right ear. Cracks and vines ran across the mask.

“A human,” the cat repeated. The lynx nodded.

“The prophecy,” the latter hissed, taking a step forward. The white cat, smaller than him, growled, “Stop, Legion. It will happen soon enough...”

Rain took a step back and checked that she had not strayed over the line of stones.

“I wouldn’t go over there, if I were you,” the cat said. She pointed with her tail to a hill sloping down. The hill cut through the gnarled old oak trees.

The cat turned away and the rest of the patrol followed. But then she stopped and her head turned.

“I am Ingress,” she said in her cold tone. “Supreme Overseer of The Druids. Do not forget it in a hurry.”

And with a flick of her tail the patrol padded away into the distance.

Rain glanced over at the hill. She wanted to take Ingress’s advice even though she might as well have been her mortal enemy, but the hill seemed to call her.

Before she knew it, Rain was over the hill and into a chilly swamp filled with weeping willows and tall grasses.

And what looked like tombstones.

A sense of dread filled her from head to toe.

Suddenly, Rain heard snarling and something heavy leapt on top of her. She felt hot breath on her neck and sharp teeth, ready to slice into--

A very loud yell, louder than the snarling, filled the air and the weight was gone... As if it had been knocked off.

Rain turned around and saw a black wolf wearing feathers and some other rubbish-looking items. By the wolf was a young-looking girl, about Sparrow’s age. She appeared to be wearing a long cloak that made her look like a bird. In her hands were two long white rails which she was using to beat the wolf about the head.

The wolf yowled like a cat and was off like a shot across the swamp, the girl following close behind, yelling and waving the rails.

MORE PAIN YET TO COME