Me: This one will be a one shot, and may have a relation to a story I'm working on. I just didn't like their death because I thought Eyes High was brave and Shale sweet. And I didn't like the idea of Skywise ending up as an orphan. I don't own anything, or else, they wouldn't have died!
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Sending"
Eyes High were watching as the sun began to set.
"Look Skywise. The sun is going down and the stars will soon appear. You'll be born close as close to the stars as you can be, as I promised," Eyes High sent to her unborn son. Then she scented her recognized mate, Shale.
"Beloved!" The grey haired elf sent and began climbing the tree.
"Father… I don't think it's wise for them to be alone… the humans are back. They could find them," a fifty-five year old Rainstar said.
"Eyes High and Shale are high up in the trees. The humans won't see them or reach them." Bearclaw waved her off.
"Humans can climb trees too! I don't want them to be alone there! What if they do find them?" Bearclaw stared at his daughter outside recognition. She was more like Joyleaf than himself, except when it came to dream berries. Though she looked nothing like them, she was their daughter and many times he knew to listen to her.
"Fine, go. And say you feared the humans finding them, but do not disturb them under birth," he said.
"Can I take two wolves with me, my chief?" She had already defied him more than she should. She would have to tread carefully.
"Take Blackfell with you and Braveheart." And with that the chief disappeared.
"Blackfell! Braveheart!" and she hurried to where Eyes High and Shale was.
"Good. We're starving," Eyes High sent and moved so Shale could get into the nest.
"If I can't keep both of you fed now, how will it be when little Skywise comes out?" Shale joked.
"We'll know before dawn, Shale." The blonde elf sent happily. Shale put his ears against his mate's stomach and held her.
"I've decided you may stay, if you wish," she sent and Shale's heart swelled with happiness.
"Wish? You know it is what I want, more than anything," Shale sent back and in his thoughts he poured his feelings in, making Eyes High smile.
"Hurry Braveheart. We are almost there," Rainstar whispered into her wolfs ear. She could see it now. The tree they had built the nest.
"SHAAALEE!" she heard a scream. Braveheart ran faster and suddenly stopped. Rainstar saw Shale fall down the tree and land harshly on the ground. Then she saw Eyes High clumsily fall to her knees beside him, hesitant to touch him. She knew they were sending to each other. She then heard her call for her and the rest of the tribe.
"Run beloved…" she heard him whisper. "Don't stay… don't hold the baby back…" She gasped. Eyes High was in labor already.
Bearclaw turned as he saw Blackfell running into the clearing. He became concerned.
"What is it?"
"Humans! Baby!" was his answer.
"Wolfriders! Humans have attacked Eyes High and Shale!" he called and mounted Blackfell.
Humans ran into the clearing with spears raised. Eyes High drew her sword and their wolves attacked.
"Eye… Eyes High, don't!" Shale cried out. Their wolves died instantly as they were pierced by the spears. Rainstar could understand the human's language, but even if she did not have that ability the motive was clear enough. Suddenly two young humans grabbed Eyes High from behind and made her lose her sword from the pain in her stomach.
"No!" Rainstar whispered harshly. She was afraid of the humans, but the unborn baby and her tribemates came first.
"AYOOAH!" she howled as Braveheart jumped into the clearing. She jumped off her wolf and landed on a human, piercing his heart. He died instantly. The attack surprised the humans and Braveheart sank her teeth into another human's throat. Now there was just one left and the two children. The two trembled with fear as they held Eyes High closer to themselves, and the grown one looked both afraid and enraged that he was the only one left to fight.
"Today human, you die," Rainstar growled. Even Eyes High was afraid. She was acting too much like her father. Rainstar was known to have inherited most of Joyleafs habits, like thinking things through and trying to stop unnecessary bloodshed, but before her stood a Rainstar who wanted blood, and she wanted it now!
With another cry, she leapt and slashed him across his chest but it wasn't deep. The man turned and ran Braveheart right behind him to make sure he left. Then Rainstar turned to the two human children.
"Why?" she asked them in their own tongue as tears leaked out. This made the two gasp.
"Why do you hunt us so? What have we ever done to you? We only want to live in peace here." Sounds of her tribes howling echoed, and was closing in fast. The children trembled before her. Rainstar was having an internal battle with herself.
Should she kill them? They were the ones, who made Shale fall down the tree, but they were just children and Eyes High was in labor. Shale wasn't in the best of shape either.
"GO!" she growled and the two ran making eyes High fall to her knees.
"Eyes High! Are you alright?" Rainstar ran forward.
"I'm… alright until the… others get here… but Shale… something is wrong with… his back," she breathed heavily as Skywise did his best to come out.
"Shale? Speak to me!" Rainstar said as she kneeled beside him.
"My back… Don't move me. It hurts," he sent. She took his hand in hers but did not lift it from the ground.
"I'm so sorry. If I had just arrived sooner… then this wouldn't have happened." She sobbed.
"Don't… speak like that… Eyes High and Skywise is safe… that is all that matters," he spoke, and his words became stronger and then he gasped.
"Rainstar… you… heal me," he said. Her head snapped up and she watched as a dim glow encircled Shale, and it came from her hands.
"I… I am a healer?" Eyes High, who had managed to calm down the baby inside of her, now also kneeled beside them.
"Ayooah!" Bearclaw, Rain, Brownberry, Foxfur, Treestump, Redlance and Longbranch came out into the clearing.
"What's happened here?" the chieftain asked looking at the corpses of both men and wolves. Then he noticed Rainstars glowing hands and equally glowing Shale. "What's going on?"
"I can't believe it." Rain hurried forward to a still shocked Rainstar. "She heals him! She is a healer!" he called out in joy.
"I'm tired…" she mumbled. Rain put his hands carefully on Shale and began healing him himself.
"Ow," Eyes High groaned.
"High ones. I forgot. You're in labor!" Rainstar exclaimed. Foxfur and Brownberry hurried over to her.
"Shale… I want Shale…" she groaned in pain. Shale hurried over and sat behind her folding his hands over her stomach as she laid her arms around his neck. It didn't take long before Rain gave a cry of joy as he held up and handed Eyes High a bundle that cried tirelessly.
"He's as healthy as any cub could be!" he exclaimed and the two new parents relaxed.
"Come, Rainstar. See the life you just ensured would come," Shale said. Rainstar went over, and saw a small cute cub with silver hair and grey eyes. The cub turned silent as he stared at her. She held out her fourth finger and the cub grabbed it and squealed.
"He has a strong grip this one," she giggled as he drew her hand to him. He was so small and looked so vulnerable, but when he had grown up, she knew he would be strong.
"You won't tell him what happened here will you?" Rainstar turned her gaze to the pair with pleading eyes.
"Not if you don't want to," Eyes High said.
"Good. I don't want him to see me as a killer." Rainstar sighed.
"He may remember his birth, but he did not see what happened before. Let's cover his sight until we're out of this clearing," Shale said and helped Eyes High up. Rainstar offered them Braveheart and led them back home, while Longbranch, Bearclaw and Treestump got rid of the carcasses.
"Shale… I've changed my mind about being lovemates," Eyes High said. Everyone froze and Shale looked like he would cry any given moment. Eyes High had told him before that she wanted to be free and didn't want any lifemate, but she could accept being a lovemate to him. Now she didn't want to be that either? And how could she say that right after their son's birth?
"If the offer still goes, I would want… to be your lifemate," she breathed out. There, she had said it.
"YES!" Shale cried and the others sighed in relief. They had been worried there.
"How- how much longer?" A young Skywise asked making Rainstar giggle.
"The cub will come when it's ready, Skywise," Rainsong said.
"I'm sorry Rainsong. Can't wait to have a friend almost my age," the young elf replies.
"And I can't wait to have a little brother, cub," Rainstar said smiling.
"It's… alright right?" Skywise's nervousness and eagerness made Rainstar and Rainsong giggle more.
"There's no pain at all cubling. Only the pleasure of guiding him into a new world, you'll see… NOW" Joyleaf exclaimed. It didn't take as long as the humans do, to give birth to elfin children.
But, at that fateful moment, as the grown elves watch the birth, Skywise spots, by the merest chance, movements on the den wall… a jumping spider with venom so deadly and swift, the elves call it…
Skywise leaps up and imprison the spider in the cups.
"A spiritmaker!" Bearclaw gasps.
"Wheew," Skywise sighs in relief.
"Good job cub," Bearclaw praises him and takes the newborn cub with him outside and introduces him as Cutter, blood of ten chiefs, and the next chief after Bearclaw.
"Thank you sooo much cub! If you hadn't seen that spider, I would have lost my newborn brother!" Rainstar embraces the young elf making him blush.
"Anytime Rainstar. I can't lose my new friend either," Skywise replies.
When they leave Joyleaf behind to let her rest, they join up with Eyes High and Shale.
"Thanks to your little cub, my brother Cutter will become the next chief. You should be proud," She says and the two parents embrace their son.
"We always have been and always will be," they say and smiles too.
Me: That's it. I know it wasn't that good. I could have improved the battle scenes, but I wanted it to be a swift surprise! Read and review! And this won't be the last EQ story from me if you like it!