GANG of HOPPERS
My brothers and I in the ZooKzin War
by Dori Hopps
Written by Dan Rush
(c) Zootopia 2016 Walt Disney Cooperation
(c) Alex Gray from Harmarist Sheath & Knife comics
Chapter 26
Madagascar part 6
January 14th, 2042
Zootopian Task Force Julian
March Column "Gouge Out"
Madagascar
29 miles Northwest of the port of Maramanga
twenty two miles Southwest of Bongalava
0900am The Moronagara Gare plains.
The Jeep left the ground and for a moment I was floating weightiness in the air with my head almost level with Powen's shoulder as he fought to keep his paws wrapped around the handles of the 50 caliber machine gun perched on the post lintle in the jeeps' bed. I swear I busted my poor tail bone coming down hard on my seat!
"DAMN IT OWEN! BE CAREFUL!" I screamed as I barely caught my medical pack before it flew out of the jeep! We were going "balls to the wall" with three other jeeps as we advance guarded for our march column as we picked up speed upon destroying the last of that Kzinti Division that had been fighting us for feet and inches over the last twenty four hours.
Nori occupied the passenger seat with Owen driving like a maniac and Ori holding on for dear life as he nibbled and bit the back of Nori's head rest. "Where the hell are we going Brother?!" Ori asked as he slap petted Nori off his head!
"You keep that up and you'll fly to the fricken moon!" Nori snapped as he bopped Ori off the head! "Owen?!" Nori asked Owen. "Just why in hell are you trying to total this jeep anyway?!"
Owen pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and pushed it into Noris' chest. "Change of orders from Captain Oakley, we have to secure a bridge over the Mangoro river ahead of us about seven miles! The Kzinti have been blowing bridges all up and down the river span and we have to grab this bridge and hold it so the flying column can have a place to cross! Everywhere else, the Division has to build bridges and this rivers' not being helpful. They expect us to collide with maybe a company or two of Rhekosentai with engineers...
Owen waved at Powen..."Pow Pow! Give Nori the "Ma Deuce" (50 caliber) and get up here in the side seat!"
Owen slowed down just enough to let Nori and Powen switch out. I snickered at Nori..."Don't you dare pull your pants down and start whacking off to that real gun in your paws you sicko!"
"Oh fluck you "Door Door"." Nori snickered back.
One of the larger of our three jeep squad filled with Wolves and Tigers came so close to us that I was getting hit with sand rocks from their wheels! The driver, a wolf Corporal named Darner, shouted across to Owen...
"SARGE? HOW MANY SHARP SHOOTERS DO YOU HAVE?!"
Owen gestured to Powen. "he's our best! What do you have in mind?!"
"Well someone better be focused on spotting and taking out their "trigger tigger" when we get to the bridge! I'll take my crew and bum rush the span to pull the explosive charges!" Darner growled.
"Sounds good!" Owen replied. He turned to Ori..."You get with the other two rocketeers in our squad and lay cover in case these bastards have armor with them!"
"Check!" Ori snarled as he fumbled around and got a pair of shoulder slings for his anti-tank rockets wrapped around his paw...
Owen yelled at Nori..."CHARGE UP NORI! TWO MINUTES OUT!"
"FLUCK YEAH!" Nori snapped back as he grabbed the charging handle and racked a fifty-mag into the breech of his "Ma Deuce"! He then kicked my shoulder..."you know where you should be." He snickered.
"Sniffing your ass?" I joked. My thoughts drifted...the world around me pausing for a moment as I thought of my wife. Last time I had anything from her was three weeks back from a short radio-gram message. Out here you didn't get cell phone, snail mail was being delivered by sea turtles and radio-grams didn't give much save...
"Well...ILY." And that was it. Still it was better than flat nothing. Of course Mom and Dad drifted in...once again had to put a paw to my mouth to keep myself from becoming a stupid babbling brook and scaring the snit out of my brothers. I suspected by now that Dad had reached the worst part of his affliction. Nori noticed me spacing out and kicked me with a foot...
"Stop day dreaming!" He snapped.
"I'm fine!" I slapped a paw back on his leg.
"I'd rather have my BAR." Nori said to me as he gripped the "Ma Deuce" tight and leaned back to better ride the rough movements of our jeep. "This beast is just a suppression gun...be lucky just to get one hit from it."
"You could make it better." I replied.
"When I have the time to tinker and a work shop." Nori said smirking. "Can't wait till this is over and I can get my state assistance money. Gonna go to "Zoo You" and have me a big beautiful machine shop with all the latest stuff, And right in the center? Gramp's old work horse lathing machine and Daddy's drill..."
Nori stopped to shake his head...
I pulled on his pant leg..."Come on Bear, Bear...working hours. Dad's in good paws, buck up."
"CONTACT FRONT!" Nori suddenly screamed and "WHAM!" The air around us thumped with the shocks of the "fifty cal" spitting death across the sand and scrub ahead of us!
Owen threw the wheel of our jeep hard over and spun the jeep into a sideways slide as we all but fell and flopped out of it! I landed on my medical back pack and scrambled for cover as the Kzinti ahead of us returned fire with their rifles and their own heavy machine guns!
Didn't take long for Nori to abandon the "beast" for his own BAR rifle! "I'm not standing to get my fool ass shot to snit! I'll hit better with this any day!
"Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!" Nori wasted a magazine, slapped a new one in and repeated sending rounds down range! "Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!Blam!"
We were seventy yards from the intended target, that bridge we had to take intact, and sure enough we'd run into a re-enforced motorized rifle battalion backing a company of engineers trying to hot wire the bridge for a quick demolition.
Owen snatched Powen by his shirt..."Get up there and spot the damn "trigger tiggers" Pow Pow! Keep them from pawing the detonation switch!"
Powen slap patted Owen off his helmet and took off running to be joined by another sharp shooter, a deer?! Sure enough that fleet footed equine snatched Powen by his pants belt and carried him and his M-14 like a football under all that shooting...and they didn't get hit!
Well...the poor deer was one less antler. I could see him swearing and shaking a hoof at the Kzinti across the river, such foolish bravery. His name was Rono, told me later that he hoped a record of strength and bravery would count for a courtship with a female he adored since fawn hood. Apparently he was being "up scored" by a charm rival.
Owen snatched my equipment harness and pushed me against Ori. "Stick with him!"
"Don't I get to vote?" I yipped as Ori grabbed my harness and jerked me into a run! "You don't get to vote in the Owen-tator-ship!" My rocket carrying brother snapped at me as we covered about fourty yards and dove into the dirt and rocks as a mortar round slammed into the ground and gave us ringing ears and bits of hot metal singing our fur coats...
Ori pulled a LAWS rocket tube from his shoulder, spun it in his paws as he extended it and popped up his aiming sites, brought it down to a "quick aim" against his shoulder and cut loose a rocket into the thin side of an onrushing Kzinti light tank!
"KABLANG!"
A muffled explosion and flames flying out of the entry hole and top hatch as the tank came to a stop at the mouth of the bridge entry confirmed a bulls eye crew kill!
"Move!" Ori screamed and we were all ass and tails to the front of the destroyed tank where Corporal Darner and his crew of wolves and Tigers joined up with us. Not far behind came Nori with two Tanuki "Koons" with their BAR's...
"What's the game here?!" Corporal Kisano, one of the Tanuki asked as he slapped a fresh magazine into his BAR. "Where do you want us?"
Nori stuck his head around the disabled tank and quickly ducked as a bullet "clang'd" off the tank body! "ENEMY FRONT!" He snapped as he flopped onto the ground, swung out his barrel bi-pod and started pouring fire down the length of the bridge from under the tank belly!
My mind suddenly flashes to the tank itself. This is a light tank, not a whole lot of armor, probably full of fuel and bullets are bouncing off the back of the thing where...you know? All the gasoline or Kerosine or whatever the Kzinti were using? Heck at one point I thought I smelled pure grain booze but whatever it was...my thought was like..."Hmmm? Perhaps we should not stay near this fricken "Zippo lighter" huh?"
And your's truly decides on a bold, brave act of stupidity to get everyone else's tails in gear...I rounded the back of the tank, ran onto the bridge, flopped behind a support beam and started pouring rounds from my burp gun!
Of course, that threw Nori into a panic which threw Ori into a panic which put the "kick" into everyone's ass which got the whole group surging onto the bridge and past my prone body with Nori slapping me off my helmet!
"You crazy little snit head!" Nori growled as he took a spot behind the beam ahead of me and continue to hammer his BAR rifle down range! "KISANO! NOKIMA! ROLLING SCISORS ON ME!" Nori snarls at the two BAR armed Tanuki and those three are running a flying "X" criss cross pattern across the width of the span to draw fire from the Kzinti and push them backwards.
"I love my fricken job!" Darner snapped at me as that wolf climbed over my body, over the railing of the bridge and down onto the underside where he and three other wolves were searching like crazy for the demolition charges the Kzinti had placed under our feet!
"Please Frith...please don't let us blow up...please don't let us blow up! Fluck!" I follow Nori as he's moving down the span and feel the heat blast of another of Ori's rockets as it screams not far from my head and connects with a sand bag pile the Kzinti had haste-fully thrown together for a heavy machine gun emplacement...BOOM!...Shattered Tiger bodies and guts fly through the air!
No time to care about that...look...look...wires? demo charges? Never mind the bullets around you...gotta find those wires...gotta find those charges...Please, please, please Frith, I don't want to become shreaded Hasenfeffer...
In all this noise and chaos, you distinctly hear two rifles cracking single shots at long pauses...I know it's Powen, I know his rifle by heart by now...there's a certain sound from it as the bullet casing flies from the chamber and the receiver is kicking a new round into the breech. Sounds like there's loose parts in the assembly and the whole rifle's about to fall apart, but that's how Powen has it "calibrated" and "dialed in" to his liking.
"BANG!...Clacka clack Kang!...BANG!...Clacka clack Kang!"
I feel a little less stressed out..."That's it brother...keep their stupid heads down. Don't let them blow us up? Please?! Come on Fritz! Bless every round down range LORD!"
I'm ripping wires down and chewing breaks into them with my teeth as Nori and the two Tanuki continue pressing forwards against the built up Kzinti infantry at the other end of the span, we're about half way across the bridge when a concussion goes off to my left and one of the Tanuki falls onto his back screaming as his paws and claws chew at his face! It's Nokima!
I scream for cover fire as I run to the fallen racoon dog, snatch his uniform harness and begin to drag him to the safety of a bridge support...
When the whole world turns white...
A blast of heat and the feeling of the bridge span surging upwards under my feet is telling me we fell short...the bastards got the opening they needed to mash the pickle button!
My ears ring like crazy...I'm thrown against a bridge support...my face gets cut open on my left cheek, a real nasty gash that I still have a scar from to this day...yet I'm still hanging on to Nokima as we crash back down on top of each other and a rush of smoke pours around us from under the span!
"Snit!" I shake my head, taste my own blood in my mouth and pat myself over..."Are we in the water? Did the span drop?!" I scramble to find my gun and my pack and through the smoke Nori comes running by into a prone drop pushing Kisano down with him!
"What the frick happened?!" I ask Nori.
"Like I'd know?!" Nori snapped back at me. "Didn't you hear the "Ka-Boom?!"
"I was too busy flying!" I snapped back. "Frick! I bet half the bridge is gone! Well? Half a bridge is better than no bridge." I said as I grabbed Nokima's paws to keep him from gouging his torn up face apart!
The firing had slackened a little...obviously the Kzinti thought they'd done their work and beat feet backwards off the span to see the bridge go sky high...except...as the smoke cleared...
"Son of a bitch." Nori said with shock. "Son of a bitch...we got enough charges off! The fricken span's still here!" Nori snatched Kisano to his feet and charged forwards again, the Kzinti had gotten their first crack at taking down the span and we weren't going to give them a repeat performance!
Up comes Powen and Rono..."Get him back, we'll hold things here!" Powen ordered me as I scooped up Nokima. Then my mind wonders...
Corporal Darner? Those guys were all under the bridge pulling charges! I got my answer as I was carrying Nokima back down the span to our side of the river. A wolf flopped over the bridge railing and spilled onto the deck minus an arm...obviously torn off by a chunk of flying steel.
I dropped Nokima and quickly went to work on "the stub" to keep the wolf from bleeding out...
"Darner?" I asked.
"Dead..." The wolf replied. "They're all dead. We almost got to the edge of the river and "BOOSH!"...the first charge went off just as Darner tried to drop it...looks like we got enough of them though huh?"
Corporal Darner...Private First Class Legland...Corporal Spale...Corporal Lauler...four wolves threw their lives away and saved our bridge. Two medics from our on-rushing march column met us at our end of the span...
"Sit down Dori." Passion the fox said as he guided me aside while two other rabbits looked after Nokima and the wolf. "I'm gonna have to staple this shut, you're bleeding pretty good. You ok? Can you understand what I'm saying?"
"Two plus two equals?...like nine?" I replied smiling.
"Wise tail." Passion replied smirking as he pulled out a medical wound stapler, cleaner and a local pain reducer..."Saw the explosion coming up..."
"I think we lost four or five wolves..." I replied. "They were pulling charges off the underside when the last of them went off." I snatched at Passion's tail and gripped it hard as he started working on my torn cheek...
"Wait a second! Damn! Don't get blood on it!" The fox yipped as he ripped a blanket from his medical pack to protect his ploom..."And don't pull it out of the roots Dori!"
"I'm sorry mammal but obviously?! This super fricken hurts!" I complained as I felt and heard the "Snap!" of every staple closing my flapping face wound.
"You jerk and you'll make it worse." Passion said as he patently put up with my gnashing and bitching.
Owen came running up once the march column had established itself. "You all right?"
"Oh yeah...a bridge blows up under our ass every day Owen, of course I'm just fine." I moaned.
"Is the span intact?" Owen asked.
"Yeah...the others are probably at the far end taking pock shots at the Kzinti. I imagine they're totally pissed." I said as Passion finished and I stood up. Then...Passion gave me a bewildered almost shocked look...
"You?...You better sit back down...um? Better yet? Lay down on your stomach?" Passion said as he took an arm. He gestured to Owen and Owen took my other arm...
"Do as he says Dori." Owen said with deep concern.
"What? What the fluck? Owen? Bro you're scaring the snit out of me here, what the fluck?"
They got me on my stomach and Owen got his own stomach with his face towards mine as I felt Passion pulling my pants down...
"Hey?! What the fluck?!" I yelped!
Owen rubbed my head..."You? You shouldn't look back there...um? You?...you don't have a tail anymore."
Sure enough...my bright and bushy was blighted and gonzo. Obviously when I got thrown around by the explosion on the bridge...my tail got severed from my butt. Leave it to Ori to come back from the bridge with sed body part waving in his paw...
"Um?...Someone lost this?" Ori said, not bothering to look down at my blood covered ass.
Owen simply pointed..."Go find the mess truck and get that thing on ice please?"
Surprise that I wasn't totally freaked out by the loss of my fluffy appendage. I just put my face to the ground and mumbled..."This is not my fricken day."
"I'm sure we saved it in time to have it sewn back on." Owen said as he lay and comforted me. It's not like it's a big loss thing you know? Not like a rabbit's tail has any real importance in our modern times, I mean, there's no need to wave it around in a doe's face and proclaim "I've got a very healthy and viral cock, let's fluck!" That's exactly what a cotton tail's for if you were a North Country "dumb dumb" wool rabbit. Now-a-days? Rabbit tails are just "trinket" bling to hang bobbles and dangles off of...Frith, I have seen some really "decked out" tails in the cities, most stupid and worthless things to ever spend money on is tail jewelery. Rabbits are just as vane as foxes. If I didn't get my tail re-attached? To me it wouldn't be a devastating loss, not like my wife was going to deny me sex because I ended up a "bob tail".
Passion stopped the bleeding and mended my stump so I could have the unit doctor put my fuzzy back on if I so wanted it. Ended up having it done because I didn't want to suffer the endless badgering of my brothers who saw my detached ploom as a dangerous omen of worse bad tidings.
Stopping at the bridge, our march column sat poised and waited for supplies to catch up as we planned our next move towards King Julian and his trapped subjects. One obstacle stood in our way and that was the first big urbanized community we would run into in the war, not that the village we previously ran through wasn't enough of a pain. Anijabe (Any-Jah-Bay) was 20 square miles of urban development, one of several modern towns King Julian built for economic development. The main road into the marshlands went right through Anijabe so our march column was going to link up with two wolf heavy strike battalions from our main force to capture it.
Evening brought the first real stretch of peace and quiet we'd had since we started rolling over Madagascar and as you might expect, Nori acted as if I'd been gravely wounded...
"Here you go." He said as he laid his own sleeping bag over mine. "Extra comfortable, just for you."
"Oh come on "Bear, Bear", my butt's not that sore." I huffed. "Relax? It was a simple stitch job. Yeah...I can't wag it but at least it's there." I said. I turned to Powen..."So? How many did you bag?"
Powen gave me a stink look back..."Bag? What am I? Bag? You think I'd keep a score card?"
"Wrong choice of words, that's all Powen. I'm sorry." I said.
"It's all right Dori." Powen replied as he took a deep sigh. "I don't want to keep count. I sure hope the service doesn't want me to keep track, last thing I want to be remembered for is the number of tigers I killed."
The young deer Marine who ran Powen to his shooting spot when we were storming the bridge plopped down with a bowl of veggies and a bottle of water next to us. "Mind if I join you fellahs?"
"Not at all." Owen replied as he gestured. "Powen told me you're a good sniper spotter. Damn good run you made too...minus an antler."
"They grow back eventually." Rono said as he rubbed the newly filed and rounded stub. "The other one's going to fall off soon. By the way? Good shooting Powen, where did you learn to shoot?"
"Naturally." Powen replied. "I just had a good nack for pointing and shooting. So tell me about this doe you're so enamored to get your teeth on her tail?"
Rono pulled a picture out of his shirt pocket. "That's Faline."
We all crane'd our heads to get a look and she was a stunner of a female deer..."My eyes are melting." Ori said as he rubbed his eyes then took a second look..."She's way too hot to look at!"
"Beautiful eyes." Owen remarked. "Then again? All you White tails have enchanting eyes."
"Thanks Sarge." Rono said with a sigh..."Yup...that's her...all light hoof and spell bound to an absolute dork. I don't see what she sees in that buck?"
"Always has to be a bitter rival in the life of your deer." Nori said as he worked to get a stubborn MRE packet open. "There's plenty of Doe's all over the place, you're a good physical specimen, does it have to be this doe or nothing?"
"Damn right she has to be!" Rono huffed. "I'm not going to lose her to that soft voiced charm specialist! Such a dork...I mean..."student engineer" really?! I was like thee top sprinter in our school from like 3rd grade into high school! Varsity team leader, excellent grades, a scholarship to "Zoo You" and that slimy little half of an African "Dic Dic" steals my girl! Must be his eye lashes or lips or something. The dork hasn't even grown out of his fawn spots yet and he's 19 and she's wrapped around his hoof fingers! What's that drooler got that I don't huh?"
"Minty fresh breath?" Ori snickered.
"Oh fluck you carrot muncher." Rono huffed back.
"You eat carrots too." Nori said as he pushed a paw finger into Rono's snoot. "Maybe it's your tough talk? I can tell you lack a few social graces."
"Poetry?" I blurted out.
Rono turned his head towards me..."Poetry?"
"Have you ever told Faline how you feel about her?" I asked.
"Are you kidding?" Rono asked. "Like a hundred times!"
"I mean?" I said. "Have you ever done it poetically? I mean...spoken it like you truely meant it?"
"What?" Rono asked as he cocked his head. "I love you and you mean a lot to me isn't enough?"
Ori got up from eating and wrapped an arm around Rono's shoulder..."You poor deer...what rules you more? Your package or your heart? Dori means...have you ever said love to her in poetry?"
Rono sighed..."Sheesh...do I look like I can do all that stupid mushy stuff?"
"Does your rival?" Owen asked.
"He doesn't need too!" Rono huffed!
"Then you need to learn how too." Ori replied. "Lucky for you, Dori and myself are pretty gifted.
I was about to tackle Ori and kick his snoot in. Self thinking? I actually suck at poetry, but Ori never lets a gift horse go when he can make a fast Zoo buck or two...
"This is your lucky day Rono." Ori said smiling as he petted the poor love sick white tail buck on his chest. "Myself and my brother Dori can craft for you such a lush love letter of poetry? Your rival will die from drowning in Faline's secretions of lust and anamorement..."
Nori leaned into Owen and whispered. "What a flucken bull snit artist." I almost blew everything trying not to laugh my ass off.
Ori rubbed his paws over Rono's snoot showing a face of deep care and concern...yeah right...hiding a scam takes a ton of work. "How about it Rono? One paycheck for a love letter that's gonna make your rival commit suicide maybe?...you gain?"
"Hell fricken yeah I'm gain!" Rono said as he shook my brother's paw. "When do we get started?!"
Ori gave Rono a forehead smooch..."After dinner. Fear not oh vibrant prince of the deer. Your love will return to you soon enough I promise."
You should have seen Rono prancing away like he was on a cloud, that got some "queer" looks from a few Marines. I in turn? Bopped Ori hard off the head!
"How? Why did you rope me into your scheme you silly twit?!" I yipped. "I don't know poetry for snit Ori?!"
"Oh come on!" Ori replied. "Your married! Of course you know poetry!"
"Ugh!" I huffed. "I could so fricken kill you right now Ori!"
"Relax Dori...I'm artistically inclined, no sweat. You and I together? We can totally come up with a drippy tome for an extra pay check." Ori snickered.
"As sick as you are, It'll be a sure disaster." Powen huffed. "You should go find Rono right now and eat your punishment."
"Such confidence." Ori snorted back at Powen. He then sealed my fate by snatching my paw and dragging me behind him..."Let's see if we can use a truck or one of the armored carriers to work inside."
"Ori? I swear, I am so going to kick your tail for this." I groaned.
"Hmmm?" My twisted brother looked back at me with a sly face. "I know the carriers have these thick bungie tie down straps? Good for whooping a tail."
"You sick..." I snorted. "Yeah...I'll break your butt good for this, trust me!"
And so we found one of the big "Deuce" trucks to sit in for like five hours till almost midnight jotting down, debating, arguing...there was one paw, scratch and bite fight...I swear Ori was sickenly enjoying these "spats" as we worked to come up with a tear drippy "sou flay" of a poem that might cause a female deer to loose all her moisture.
We finally agreed on our result around 11:45pm or so after another spat fest...me blotting a cut lip with some one's uniform shirt and Ori nursing a shiner with a wet...I...I won't tell you what that was..."
"Well?" Ori asked me as I read over the paper in my paws around three or four times...
"This part still sounds clunky..." I replied.
"Sheesh! You were right! You don't know a thing about poetry." Ori snorted as he took the paper out of my paws..."Clunky? You've been sniffing too much antiseptic."
"Though I think you've always been two screws short of a full table Ori? I never thought you'd be a rabbit who'd take an opportunity to take advantage of some poor love sick mammal to swindle him out of a pay check. Very disappointing brother..."
Ori snorted back at me..."Well if you felt this way from the start then why didn't you say anything or do anything to stop me?"
"Because I've seen deer when they get really pissed off and I don't want one of my brothers hanging off an antler point for some sick conversation piece...that's why."
I snatched the paper back and skimmed over it..."Gnah! Your grammar sucks."
What a way to go through a war right? I included the "odd ball" sort of moments to break up the periods of intense combat and absolute horror.
It was two months later, before we assaulted the Outback Islands chain, that Rono came running up...scooped Ori off his feet and smothered him in deer slime and silly kisses...
"OH YOU BEAUTIFUL, WONDERFUL AND SKILLFUL COTTON TAIL YOU!" Rono said with joy as he almost danced my screeching brother in the air by one arm!
"WHAT THE HELL MAMMAL!" Ori cried out!
"IT WORKED! IT WORKED! IT FRICKEN WORKED!" Rono yelped as he put Ori back on his feet and hugged him tightly..."It worked! You absolutely cleaver rabbit you!" Rono pulled out a wad of Zoo Bucks and crammed it into Ori's shirt. "All yours Ori."
"What? What did I do?" Ori asked bewildered. My brother had the attention span of a microbe, trust me.
"Your poem Ori..." Rono said as he clapped his hooves with joy. "Your poem worked! She never suspected it wasn't me, she bought it and told mister brainy buck to pack sand. We're going to be married when I get home!"
I threw an arm around Ori's shoulders and gestured my paw in a "gimme now" kind of wiggle fingers. "I never doubted you one minute brother!"
"You doubted me the whole time you silly rabbit!" Ori snapped at me. "You only get twenty percent!"
I smiled back saying that was just fine...
However...Rono...he didn't make it. A sniper got him on Small Mundy Island south of the Outback capital city. It was his rival Bambi who decided to name his first fawn with Faline "Ronostahl" or "The steel of Rono" in Rono's honor. Faline had the poem letter encased in a locket that she always wears around her neck, perhaps someday Ori and I might tell her the truth or perhaps it's for the better she never finds out.
Meanwhile...the war continued.
End of Chapter 26