Evan giggled as he and Timmy were out in the snow. The months passed by quickly and it was now winter in Thorn Valley. Both boys were growing older. Evan had reached Timmy's height when he first came and Timmy was nearly as tall as Kristy.
The boys were throwing snowballs at each other. They were supposed to be helping each other shovel the snow off the walk way, but Evan was more interested in having fun. Timmy was more interested in staring at the statue of Jonathan.
"Timmy?" Evan said when he noticed his cousin wasn't playing or shoveling.
He looked up to see Timmy sitting in front of the fountain in the town square looking at his father's statue. Timmy had been doing that a lot recently. He would just look at Jonathan's statue with a sad face.
"Timmy, what's wrong?" Evan asked.
"Just thinking about my dad", Timmy answered, his voice growing deep as he grew older.
"What about him? You're always thinking about Uncle Jonathan."
"I want to be as great as he was. I want everyone to know my name like they know my dad's. I want them to say 'Hey, that's Jonathan Brisby's son.' I just want that."
"You just want to be famous?" Evan asked. "That doesn't sound like a very good plan."
Timmy rolled his eyes and threw a snowball at his younger cousin. Evan giggled and threw a snowball back at him. The boys laughed as they played in the snow instead of doing their job.
"I don't see that snow shoveling itself", Kristy said.
"Mom", Evan gasped dropping the snowball in his hand.
"Sorry, Auntie Kristy", Timmy said picking up his shovel.
Kristy shivered and smiled as she stood in the snow watching the boys. Justin smiled and came to her, wrapping a scarf around her and putting his hands on her shoulders. She smiled and put her hands over his.
"Everything go alright with the council?" Kristy asked.
Justin nodded.
"Our scouts found an area for us to retrieve some food. It should be enough to tide us over until we can grow our own food."
"At least we're not stealing it this time", she sighed.
"We've had enough of stealing", Justin nodded.
"I'm glad you became the leader of the rats instead of Jenner."
He sighed and nodded as he wrapped his arms around Kristy to keep them warm. He didn't like thinking about what happened at the Brisby home. Jenner would've doomed the rats had he became the new leader. He was willing to lie, steal and kill in order to become the leader of the rats.
"Wait a minuteā¦"
Kristy looked up at Justin, confused. Justin turned and ran back inside the tree.
"Justin?" Kristy called, following him inside the tree.
That could be the answer to all those questions. Kristy said it herself. The prophecy sounded like nothing Nicodemus would say. Could it be Jenner that wrote the false prophecy?
"I think I know where this prophecy came from", Justin said. "You said this wasn't found among Nicodemus' things, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I guess", she answered.
"You said this did not match Nicodemus' handwriting, as well", he continued.
"Yes", Kristy answered. "Justin, what are you doing?"
Justin looked at the prophecy and looked through the old council books from the thorn bush. It was just as he thought. The prophecy matched Jenner's handwriting.
"Jenner wrote this prophecy", he answered.
"What are you talking about?" Kristy asked looking. "Why would Jenner make up some prophecy like this?"
"You remember how desperate Jenner was to be the new leader. He went so far as to lie, steal and kill. He must've written this to make the rats think Nicodemus was crazy, too crazy to remain the leader."
