Sorry that I've been out of action for a while guys, I've had a lot going on during my few days off work, but i did finally get around to finishing chapter 10, so here it is. As usual, the OC's are mine, but Buck, Rudy, and any other Bluesky characters are strictly theirs, not mine. Also, please leave comments/reviews because they help writers like myself have the motivation to keep writing. Cheers mates. XP
Ivory had to press her face against Rufus' shoulder to keep herself from breathing too loudly and giving away everyone's hiding positions. She and Rufus had Collette and Tessa with them, and luckily their instincts had kicked in the moment Buck had indicated for them to duck into the brush on the sides of the path. Now they all waited, tense and scared, as three large carnivores tromped their way along the path. They were huge, at least four times the size of the usual raptors that were around these parts.
Ivory knew that realistically, they couldn't have been very big compared to most dinosaurs. She'd heard that Rudy was the size of a mountain, though she figured it was an exaggeration. All the same, these were large and dangerous. It looked to be a gang of juveniles that had stuck together for survival until they outgrew each other.
Ivory glanced up long enough to see Buck and Lucy on the other side of the path, with Ruby next to them, all poised for attack, and the other kits behind them huddled between some entangles roots.
She looked to her side to see Tessa poised in a similar position as her older sister Ruby, tail twitching impatiently. Collette was tugging at her triplet impatiently, with fear-widened eyes. Ivory matched Collette's expression, and grasped Tessa's wrist, shaking her head sternly. Tessa, realised she was being watched, scowled at her fiercely.
Rufus must have noticed the almost-argument happening beside him, and drew his attention away from the dinosaurs that were still passing lazily by. Spotting Tessa being difficult, he grabbed her by the scruff and then lifted his knee and put her beneath it, gently enough not to hurt her, but strongly enough to keep her in place. She was about to complain, loudly, when Rufus clamped one of his paws over her jaws, silencing her. Ivory felt bad at the treatment, but she knew Rufus was only doing it because if he didn't, they'd catch the attention of something that would devour them all in one bite.
Eventually the predators moved off, and the family gave a collective sigh.
Rufus let Tessa go, who immediately started to complain, but a few quiet, warning words from Buck silenced her, making her realise the danger she'd almost put them in.
"Either you're slipping Buck, or they were travelling way too far south." Rufus said. "I've never seen anything like that this close to the village."
"I ain't slippin'." Buck said with a shake of his head, "You're righ', they travel farther North from here, along the flatter land."
"Why are they here then?" Ivory asked.
"It means they're avoiding something." Lucy said, and turned to her husband, "And Rudy's in the East these days."
Buck nodded. "Easy picking prey around Lava Falls, with all the new young trampin' around."
"You mean babies!?" Ivory said. "Rudy eats baby dino's?"
"Rudy eats baby anythin', and grown-up anythin'. Apart from trees. I tricked him into chompin' the top of a tree once, and he didn' appreciate it much."
"Three guesses as to why." Ruby said drolly with a raised eyebrow. Buck shrugged as if actually confused at the prospect of a blood-thirsty carnivore not taking to the taste of veggies, then looked to the West, the way they were travelling.
"Maybe they were goin' towards somethin'." Buck said thoughtfully. "Tracking prey, or maybe they've been pushed out of their territory and are lookin' for new turf."
"Does that mean not all the 'safe spots' along your trail aren't necessarily safe anymore?" Ruby asked, crossing her arms.
"Nowhere is strictly safe, but it means there might be more unpredictable activity from the dino's, but we can avoid them easily." Lucy explained. Ivory always felt better when Lucy explained something. She didn't lie, or sugar-coat it, but she certainly didn't prank or joke about it like Buck did. She just said the truth with a pinch of optimism. A pinch.
"The kits are tired," Rufus said, "And Tessa's mad and tired, should we stop soon?"
Buck looked around them. "Not here, let's go a little further in." he indicated south, towards the village. He took them only a few dozen feet into the jungle until he found a thick clump of Peppermint trees. These had many branches close to the ground, and the bark was rough and easier to climb for the kits.
As Rufus and Ruby helped the kits up the tree, Buck, Lucy and Ivory stood watch, Ivory in the tops of the tree branches. Along their journey's, Buck and Lucy had both commented on her vision, claiming that it was perfect, and she could spot things many miles away if she concentrated hard enough.
As she sat in the top branches of the tree, every now and then glancing at the skies to keep an eye out for Pterosaurs, and she saw unusual movement in a few trees near theirs. After watching for a little while, she could definitely see shapes moving along branches towards them, but couldn't quite make them out.
Realising that it didn't matter what they were, they could still be a danger, Ivory pulled her head back into the canopy and started jumping from one branch to another, making her descent quickly. She couldn't yell to Buck from where she was, it might freak the kits out and alert the intruders that she knew they were there.
She landed next to Lucy as Lucy did a circle of the tree trunk.
"Lucy, there's something coming towards us, from the village side." Ivory said hurriedly.
"Did you see what it was?" Lucy asked, immediately making her way in that direction.
"No, but they're small enough to be mammals."
"What's goin' on?" Buck asked, appearing beside them.
"We think there's villagers approaching." Lucy said seriously. Ivory had noticed how Lucy had stepped up to many of the roles that Buck would typically have, and Ivory suspected that Lucy wasn't fully convinced Buck was back in shape after being run with a sword many month ago.
"It's probably jus' some scouts." Buck said cheerfully.
"Or it could be spies, sent from my family. They might be tracking us and planning a kidnapping." Ivory said.
Buck laughed and nudged her shoulder, "Good one." He said.
She turned to him with a frown. "I'm serious. My father used to do it all the time, he had to kidnap a few of my aunts back from where they had hid after running away, and kidnap a few bastard children my uncles had spawned, so he could raise them as our family guards. He had a few assassins too."
"What the f…" Buck trailed off, then shook his head. "Alrighty then, looks like it migh' be a less friendly visit."
It ended up being a very friendly visit. The intruders turned out to be some of Buck's best pupils from the Scouts, and good friends of Toby. They dropped from the tree with wide smiles, an average sized dappled grey and black rat, and a Least Weasel, the smaller cousin Mustela of normal Weasels.
"Buck! It's good to see you alive." Said the female rat, clasping arms with Buck as she approached.
"Good t' be alive Dent." Buck laughed.
"Dent?" Ruby asked, and snorted a laugh. "Weird name, even for a rat. How'd you earn that one?"
"Guess." The rat smiled, and Ivory could see a slight difference in one side of the rat's jaw, realising that there was literally a dent in the bone, even the skin and bone had grown along with it.
"And this here is Minnie, one of my best trackers!" Buck said proudly, clapping Minnie on the back fondly.
"Not for long, you should see the students Trudy's whipping into shape." Minnie said, who then spotted Ivory. "Oh, hey, you're Brendis' sister, right?"
"Uh, yes." Ivory said nervously.
"Whoo!" Dent whooped, "You gotta hear what's been going down at the village. Did you know your brother's down from the above ground?"
"Yeah, we did actually. What's happening?" Rufus asked before Ivory could.
"It's kind of a long story," Minnie said, "we were going to make camp soon, until I noticed your tracks a few k's back."
"Come on then, park with us for the nigh'!" Buck said, punching his student lightly in the arm. "Tell us what's been goin' on."
Ivory saw Rufus's ear slightly twitch while he watched Buck say this, and she suspected he was thinking the same thing as her; that Buck was worried. Buck was unpredictable in how he expressed his concern, but usually he tried to hide it from the younger kits.
At Buck's suggestion, they all climbed the selected tree together, and sat in the centre where most of the largest branches met. Where some of the family members couldn't fit, they laid or sat on the branches nearest to the centre, where Buck sat with Lucy and the two scouts.
Ivory and Rufus sat on one of the thickest branches directly above and behind Lucy and Buck, looking down on the conversation.
Ruby left and came back with some bundles of fruit for everyone, and handfuls of tomatoes, which were more common in this area than in their home section of the jungle. The kits ate first, but as usual, grew silent and fascinated by strangers. Only Bluey was calm enough, sitting on Buck's knee, to be anywhere near them. Otherwise, the other five kits clung to their older siblings and stayed on the higher branches.
Buck passed his past students some food, and all of them settled down to hear what the girls had to say.
"So, what's happening in the village that's so crazy?" Lucy asked. Ivory watched Buck, and he munched into his food. It was strange to see him be a listener instead of the story teller.
"Well…" Dent said, glancing at Minnie, and they grew a little more sombre than they had been a few short minutes ago. "We actually heard talk about a task force that Brendis put together of his best soldiers, and brought a tracker with them from above ground."
Lucy frowned, like the rest of the family, and asked, "What for?"
"Me." Ivory said, only just realising how far her brother was willing to go to get her back to the above ground world, to where she had never really belonged. Dent looked up at her and nodded.
"Apparently the apple didn't fall very far from the tree." Rufus grumbled next to Ivory, which she briefly laughed at, feeling that her joviality was slightly desperate.
"But the trackers would be useless down here, wouldn't they? If all they knew was snow and sleet." Ruby said on the branch above Ivory and Rufus, but Minnie shook her head regretfully.
"They might not have the snow that they're so used to, but they have dirt, mud, and plants, and more organic things to trap scents, instead of just snow." She explained. "The thing they would have to watch out for is the dino's, and the environment, and the higher possibility of rain washing your scents away. It's even."
"That's not the only thing." Dent said regretfully, "Trudy and Jeremy have been stirring some trouble too."
"Wha'?" Buck asked, speaking for the first time during the conversation. Trudy was like a sister to him, his first real apprentice and one of his best warriors. Unfortunately, she had a few anger management issues, but it was never something anyone couldn't handle.
"Yeah, they've been giving those Above ground soldiers a piece of their minds. At first, we just thought it was random drinking spots, they'd get rowdy and then an argument would start, then escalate really quick." Dent took a bite of her tomato, "Turns out Trudy and Jeremy were doing it with a little more intent, they told us themselves."
"That's not something we have to worry about too much." Lucy said calmly, "There's fights all the time in the village, and they have a right to have a go at the above-grounders."
"They may be above-grounders, but it's not like they were involved with the Tyrants or the Accused, they're just my families guard is all." Ivory said. She didn't feel any particular attachment to her family's guard or soldiers, but she didn't find it fair to just assign blame unreasonably.
Lucy's eyes hardened at her comment. "That's true Ivory, but they still came down here, once again, to cause trouble. What's even worse is that it's trouble directly involving you."
"We're safe out here aren't we? They tried finding us last time in the wilderness, I doubt they could find us this time." Ivory said.
Out the corner of her eye, she saw Rufus and Buck exchange a glance, but pretended not to notice.
"Fine, we'll forget all that." Ruby interrupted from above them. "You see any dinos lately?"
Minnie frowned, "That's not very specific, we see them all the time." She raised an eyebrow and looked to Buck, obviously hoping for some clarification.
"We mean 'ave you seen 'em doing anythin' unusual." He answered, leaning forward.
Minnie and Dent looked at each other with wide eyes. Dent matched Bucks posture, leaning forward.
"We have actually, a huge pack of raptors came weirdly close to the village the other week, but they kept heading West, they didn't even try to attack the village."
"How huge?" Rufus asked.
"50 strong at least."
The family gasped.
"50 strong! That's insane!" Buck said.
"It's impossible." Rufus growled. "Raptors would tear each other apart in those numbers."
"They seemed to have a few leaders, bigger and older ones that were driving them, and ending squabbles." Minnie said.
Buck's eye widened, "Was there a really big one, with a scar down 'is side, real nasty temper?"
Dent nodded immediately, "Yeah, he was definitely one of the largest. You know him?"
"Taino." Buck whispered. "He should be East this time o' year, like Rudy."
Ivory, who'd been watching the scene with growing curiosity and concern, felt her tail start to curl around her, but Rufus' body was in the way. Once upon a time her tail might have flinched away, but she was too comfortable with him now, and apparently, he was just as comfortable as her, because her put a reassuring paw on her shoulder.
"So, what's happening?!" Ruby growled accusingly.
"This isn't good." Lucy said quietly, looking to her husband.
"Even Wraith didn' cause this much trouble." Buck grumbled. He rubbed his face, and then fixed his gaze on the ground on front of him.
"Honey?" Lucy asked her husband calmly.
It took a few quiet moments, but he finally replied.
"Okay, Ivory, Rufus, you 'ave t' go back home."
"What!?" Rufus yelled. "No way, you can't just dump us!"
"You two 'ave to take the kits and ge' back home t' safety, no arguing!" Buck yelled back. Bluey looked up in fright, and scrambled up a nearby branch to his other siblings.
"I'm telling you it's not happening." Rufus' ears flattened against his head.
"An' I'm telling you it is!"
"What exactly do you think you're going to do? Interrogate a couple of dinosaurs?"
"We'll follow their tracks backwards, see where they came from an' find ou' why they've been comin' this way."
"And why can't we come?" Rufus crossed his arms stubbornly.
"The kits will slow us down, an' you need to ge' Ivory somewhere safe. The easiest place to defend is either back home, Devil's mountain or Toby's secret caverns."
"The safest place would be with you and Lucy."
"Not anymore!"
Rufus' eyes narrowed, while everyone else's widened.
Buck growled deep in his throat. "Not anymore." He said, a lot quieter. His paws clenched into rough, scarred fists. "You know it Ruf, I'm no' gonna be able to protect ya from 'em. Dinosaurs I can figh', bu' I'll be useless against other mammals. You're the only one tha' can guard her now."
"I can guard myself too you know." Ivory said, growing more frustrated with the amount of testosterone being flung around the tree.
"I need you t' guard the kits, I need him to guard you. If anythin' you say abou' your brother is true, he'll threaten the kits t' get leverage on you."
Ivory blinked at the new realisation. "You're right. He'll...do anything." She deflated, feeling something dull and yet familiar settle into her. "I..I have to get away from you guys."
"What? No!" Rufus said, whirling to face her. "They're not going to just scare you away from us."
"Ruf is righ' Ivory, there's no need for that." Buck said.
"My brother is going to hurt whoever he can to drag me back above ground, what's wrong with just going with him?"
"You would have given up! You're running away." Rufus said, and Ivory turned her face away.
"I'm just facing reality Rufus, you have to as well."
"Calm down, all of you." Lucy said swiftly, standing up. She looked to Ivory. "You're not turning yourself in. Rufus and you can take the kits to the cave systems, while Ruby comes with us to backtrack the dino's. You two," She turned to Dent and Minnie, "You're going to cover Ivory and Rufus' tracks all the way until they're safe, and make sure Brendis' family guard are thrown off."
"Yes Ma'am!" Dent and Minnie saluted.
"You can give them orders?" Ruby asked, clearly impressed.
Buck rubbed his head and turned his head to look at Ruby, grumbling, "As my mate an' the head healer of the village, she has every right t' give 'em orders, and take over authority of council members even, if she sees fit."
"Seriously?" She asked.
"That's incredible." Ivory said quietly. "What about Trudy and Jeremy, how much influence do they have?"
"Not much without Buck in the village. They're directly under him, while I have independent power, being the head healer." Lucy said, looking slightly smug.
"Why is that so in the first place?" Rufus asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because it's been whole-heartedly agreed that healing should be prioritized to harming, by everyone." Lucy answered. "As a result, healers can take control of a battle situation, including calling halt's and offers of peace as well as retreat, but not surrenders."
Rufus made a sound of approval.
"Lucy," Ivory said quietly, lifting her head which had hung in frustration, "Please, just let me go to my brother and calm everything down, let me settle this-,"
"No, going to him will settle nothing, because Ruby and Rufus would rush in and rescue you, killing anyone who got in their way." Lucy said, lifting her head to where Ruby sat.
Ruby scowled, "Damn Lucy, someone would think you're a mind reader."
"Hm, so that's why you didn't object to Ivory turning herself in." Dent said.
All eyes turned to Ivory then, and her teeth clenched, but eventually she relaxed, knowing there was no way she could get away from this. If she tried running away, they would track her. If she tried objecting, they would just keep fighting her. She finally knew what having a family was like, and it was at the worst time.
"Fine. But if they manage to find us, I'm going with them so that no one gets hurt, got it!"
Everyone nodded but Rufus.
"Wait a second," Minnie said quietly, and everyone turned to her. She put a knuckle on her chin in thought, her brow furrowed in concentration. "What if we could do something to stop them from going after you in the first place."
"You mean getting rid of all of Brendis' trackers?" Rufus asked.
"No, you psychopath, something negotiable." She looked at Ivory. "Tell me, are you eighteen?"
Ivory frowned at the question, but nodded. "Yeah, I turned eighteen a few days after Ruby and Rufus."
"Hey, you didn't tell us that!" Ruby snapped.
"Didn't really matter, you guys had a collective party, so I just thought it could be mine as well without telling anyone." Ivory said with a shrug.
"Hm," Minnie thought more, and everyone settled down around her.
"What are you thinking?" Dent asked her.
"Well, see, the reason the council haven't really been able to do anything is because technically, the matter is that of the Above-grounders. You weren't born here Ivory, and don't have any true blood family here, so technically your brother has at least the right to track you down as head of the family, as long as he's convinced them he's not going to kidnap you. Even if they don't strictly believe him, they can't do anything."
"So, what's your point?" Ruby said, sounding bored.
"Well, I know you've already been faced with this, but what if you did something that gave you a family down here, not just metaphorically."
Ivory's eyes widened. "You mean get married!"
"Only temporarily, as an illusion, and then your brother's role here ends and he has to go back home without you, and then you just 'divorce,'."
Ivory thought back to facing an arranged marriage, to Cabe, who at the time was known as one of the youngest openly gay mammals of the village by most of its inhabitants. She remembered escaping into the wild with the Wilde family and him.
His voice rang in her head lightly, from all those months ago, "you know Ivory, if this had all gone the other way, I'd just like to say I wouldn't hate being married to you."
"I think that'll do just the trick." Ivory said. The more she thought about it, the more of what Minnie has said made sense. "Yeah. Well, it looks like Cabe and I are getting married after all."
"Cabe!?" Everyone yelled.
"Who exactly did you have in mind!?" Ivory snapped at them.
Everyone paused, and she felt their eyes wish to flick to Rufus.
No. That kind of attention, that kind of pressure, would only scare him away from me.
"We were thinking my brother of course!" Ruby snapped back, and Ivory turned to her with wide eyes.
I should have known Ruby would be honest, no matter how brutal it was going to be.
"Why not?" Rufus said calmly, and even Buck's jaw dropped in surprise. Rufus looked at them all seriously. "Brendis won't buy it if she marries Cabe, everyone knows he's just about as gay as a rainbow unicorn. Brendis was the one I took Ivory from, he'll be more convinced if it's us."
Everyone was silent, before Dent deadpanned, "That's gotta be the lousiest proposal in history."