Shang checked herself in the full body length mirror one last time. She wanted to look splendid for her final crush of the Leedsdown royal family. The gown she wore had been ransacked from Tyne Palace: it was Derynai Fioraja's wedding dress. She sniggered at the irony of it all, and clasped the final set of pearls around her neck. She then stepped out of the tent, to join her horde.
* * *
Tori laboriously climbed up the steep incline to a spot at the cliffside. John, Rivenna, Bocton, and Liam were standing in a circle, waiting for her. Before them, the entire collected army was amassed, standing silent, reverent in this ruin of ghosts. Bocton held his uillean pipes in solemn readiness, awaiting her word. She looked at him. "Are we ready?"
Liam nodded. "The army won't move a muscle unless y'say so. We've got an hour or so b'fore Shang's forces're due in the area. You're free."
Tori took a breath, and turned to face the creatures, all strangers, willing to fight and die for her and her cause and the wrong done to this place. "Friends," she began, her voice surprisingly strong for such a serious and trying occasion, "this glorious sunrise, for many, will be the last they every see. I am grateful, beyond words, for the sacrifice you are willing to make for the cause of justice. A great event is happening now, and being a part of what will surely be sung about for seasons to come will be a thing to speak of with pride to your great-grandchildren." She paused, shaking, unsure of what to say next.
"But first, there are also many who were never given the chance to see this sunrise. Remember them now with me. This is the Royal Funeral Hymn of the House of Llewllyn the Founder. This may be the last time it is ever played. Think of those innocents who were slaughtered, and may the memory of the injustice dealt to them by your opponents on this day give you strength, courage, and victory. I give you a final performance of 'Never An Absolution.' Thank you." She bowed, and backed away.
Bocton had never played so painfully beautifully. His pipes seemed to have life and breath of their own as they mourned in a heartwrenching aria. Rivenna's simple, additional vocals soared out to the very last rank, wordless melodies drawing tears to faces stolid and inwardly quaking. The wind blew through the silence after the lament, and the Vreeteerdan Dennes stood noiselessly, inert, afraid to shatter the spell.
Tori wasn't, though. A strange light in her eye, she gazed over the tops of the fighters' heads, on the horizon.
"Your enemy approaches!" she called, trance-like. "Give them no less than they would you! I can see their white bodies blotting on the warm grass like unwelcome ice! We are here to act: let us free ourselves!" She lifted up her fist, and howled, "Vreeeeeteeeeerdaaaaan!!!! That means 'freebeasts'! That is your battle cry! Hold this dear whilsts you fight: flesh is surprisingly fragile, but spirits are unbreakable! Let voices ring through the streets once more." Her chest began heaving up in down, the light in her eyes growing more and more war-like. Like cresting thunder, she bellowed, "Attaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!"
A wild, primeval roar began to slowly rumble throughout the rolling hills and shattered buildings. The warriors surged forwards, toward the foxes. Fate rushed out in front to meet them both. The battle was begun.
* * *
Tori raced through the stampeding warriors, trying to find John. He was towards the front of the action, fighting with Liam.
"John!" she yelled breathlessly. "John! John, wait!" She buffeted aside vermin, and made her way to the wolves. "John," she said when she reached him, "when this is all over, if we both still live, I want you to meet me at the cliffs, near the old court house. Please."
John dropped his hefty pike and exchanged his tight grip for her. "However this ends, we'll always be t'gether, love," he told her. She smiled up at him, tears beading her bright green eyes. Unexpectedly, though, he pushed her away. "Go now, Tori!" he yelled. "Find Shang! End this!" The Rubyhaer gulped, and nodded, darting off.
Liam looked nervously at John after she'd left, his paws soaking the leather-bound hilt of his borrowed sword. " 'Ave you ever done this before, mate?"
John shook his head. "Nah. But as they say, there's a first time for ev'rythin', eh?" He squared his shoulders, in determination not to reveal the terror he was experiencing. "C'mon, Liam, give 'em a piece of Manchester to remember!"
Liam did his best to put on a fearsome face, and, yelling at the top of his lungs, he charged headlong into the foxes, John at his shoulder.
"So, Liam, what was it you said about your dad when we first met yeh?" his friend asked calmly, operating his pike with surprising ease. He watched the tiny, silent foxes fall without a sound at each swipe: it was quite unnerving. He felt Liam's muscles become terribly taut against his back, and the anger in his voice was apparent.
" 'E was th'director of th'Manchester Symphony. A vermin underneath: 'e'd beat me mam Amberanne when 'e came 'ome. He'd beat 'er with all kinds o' classical instr'ments: violin bows, flutes, drumsticks, batons. No reason at all. AHH! Gotcha, yeh bastard! He'd bribe me brother Allen to help out so's that 'e wouldn't get whipped. She eventually left 'im: no one in 'igh society could understand et. HAH! TAKE THAT, SNOWY! They all thought she was-was a...harlot." He spat the word angrily, and drove his sword into the crowd of foxes. "THIS IS FER SIDNEY GALLAGHER, YEH SWINE!" Liam roared, oblivious of the wounds that frantic hordebeasts were inflicting trying to fight off his sudden fury. He bulldozed his way into Shang Widowmaker's army, leaving John alone, who smiled, despite himself.
"Good idea, takin' out y'personal devils on useless beasts like these!" he remarked, and whirled around to face the fox who'd been sneaking up to him, who'd thought John was ignorant of his presence. "Merry Christmas," John said cheerfully, clenching the pike as the fox's pale face drained.
* * *
Both armies knew that the battle had to be ending soon as scavenger birds began circling overhead like ominous omens. Only one side needed to interpret them as so, and it was obvious which one by the time the sun was near diving into the sea.
The light was strange and the last fleeting sounds were being muffled. Shang's troops were fleeing in every which direction, only to be met with determined Farnorders at every possible escape. The screams of foxes were drowning, and triumphant cheers were replacing them as sections of ground were regained and rested upon.
Tori still had not found Shang. Like a possessed madbeast, she raced around the wide open space, screeching the fox's name like a Fury. Ringo and Noel ran into her at the westernmost outskirts of the field, not a league away from the loch. Tori's fur was gleaming with blood: she resembled some sort of terrifying valkyrie, hell-bent on claiming her revenge. The two other wolves had tried speaking some sort of logic and sense into her as they tried to chase her down, but to no avail. She steadily sprinted inwards to the center of the battlefield.
"I feel her!" she'd cry, leaping over carcasses like an athlete. "Her time and mine are near!"
"Ringo," Noel panted to Ringo beside him, "we've got t'do somethin' 'bout that madbeast up there. She'll kill 'erself just tryin' t'run and find th'blasted Widowmaker!"
"Aye, yer right, Noely," Ringo agreed, gasping for air, "but try an' tell her that!"
* * *
John felt someone ram into him from behind, at the shoulder, knocking the breath from him. Helplessly, he watched as several vermin encircled him. "He's one o'their ringleaders, ain't 'e, Poe?" one asked a ferret. She nodded.
"He sure is. Come on, Shang'll want to see this one." He refused to yelp in the pain he felt as the foxes dragged him away.
At some point later, he was roughly thrown to the ground at someone's feet. "Here's one o' the rebel leaders, Widowmaker," the ferret Poe reported, administering a kick to John as she said it. "John O'Lennain, one of Tori's favorites!" Blearily, John looked up to see who was talking.
Shang sat before him, seated on what used to be a wall. Her two daughters flanked her. Behind them, he could see Gandreth perched on the remains of a statue of Leedsdown's first rulers, Tyne Gwyllym and Gwen Llewllynadd. "A favorite of the Rubyhaer, eh?" she repeated, interest in her hard green eyes. She lightly jumped off the wall and leaned down to John. John was gasping harshly for breath, and felt very much the many wounds he suffered. She smiled condescendingly. "So, wolf, thought your little rebellion could crush me, who crushed you first?! Hah!" She snickered evilly. "You wolves never fail to make me laugh!"
His eyes full of hate for the fox, John feebly lifted his head up. He curled his lip disdainfully.
* * *
"Tatyanna!" Shang said placidly, a surreal vision amidst the carnage. Her green-eyed elder daughter approached from behind, stepping over bodies.
"Mother?"
Shang tossed some of her clothes to the fox. "Put these on, and pretend to be me. I need to find the rebel leaders and get them myself, and anyone who sees me as myself will be on me like a shot."
Intoxicated by the seeming usurpation of power, the greedy vixen accepted. "With pleasure to serve you, Mother." Shang nodded pertly, and strolled off.
Rydahl the Hunter watched from behind the ruins of a statue as Tatyanna jogged away from her mother. He tested the blade of his curious club, and sniggered. The fox had promised him much...now was the time to act.
Tatyanna had just enough time to turn around and scream as the nightmarish wolverine took a single swing. One swing: then her severed head lay silent, jaw agape, the green eyes paling to a terrified, blank white.
* * *
Noel ran behind Ringo, who followed Tori. He could see up ahead, over the drummer's shoulder, Tori's target: Shang stood bold and defiant on a small rise, armed with an axe stolen from the body of a fallen Husky and dealing death to any, hordebeast or wolf, that came near her. Ringo suddenly put on an extra burst of speed: Noel could not see the expression of his face, but he knew it was one of blind horror as Tori rushed straight toward the gleaming axehead.
"Tori noooooooo!!!!!!!" he yelled, and rushed ahead of her, leaping into the swing of Shang's plundered arms. The breath was suddenly knocked out of him, and his eyes rolled around in shock as the confused Shang pulled her axe away.
With this, Tori howled with rage, and tackled the fox indiscriminately, wrenching away the murder weapon and screaming, "AAYYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!! RINGO!!!" She pulled Shang down onto the ground and held her fast as Noel sped up behind her to minister to Ringo.
The steel of the axehead had done its job well, tending to the boast that nobeast could withstand Northdog-forged armaments. Noel Gallagher crouched down next to the small wolf's head, oblivious of Tori's angered cursing of the fox a short distance away.
"Noel?" Ringo blinked, his eyes already clouding over. The Manchester wolf leaned over him, grasping his paw with worry.
"Yeah mate?"
"Branwen, where's Branwen?" Noel shook his head, wishing he could provide a different answer.
"I dunno. Haven't seen 'er since sunrise."
Tori, in between the many punches and cleavings she was giving to Shang, cried bitterly "I DIDN'T COME SOON ENOUGH, AND NOW YOU'LL MAKE UP FOR MY LOST TIME, SCUM!!!"
Ringo slumped back and sighed. Then he smiled peacefully. "Aw well, no matter, then." He reached up and draped his paw around Noel's neck imploringly, pulling him closer, knowing his voice was fading. "Listen, bury me by Loch Imnal, mate. Bloody marvelous place. So many willows..."
* * *
Tori watched her enemy's darting eyes. "What are you thinking, huh? Are you thinking of ways to cheat the death you so rightly deserve, yet that you dolled out to my innocent people?!"
"Lady," she replied frantically, "you wrong me!"
Tori seemed to consider this. "All right then, fox. Would you like to see sunset once again?" Shang nodded her head furiously. "Offer me everything," she said coldly. The fox groveled as best she could trapped underneath Tori's vice-like hold.
"Loot, plunder, slaves, your city rebuilt, your music, anything you say, just spare me, please!" The wolf lay there for moment, as if contemplating Shang's bribes. The fox began to become hopeful. She thought she saw the wolf's lips move. She lifted herself up slightly. "Hmm? What did you say?" Her captor glared disgustedly at her. With an angry swipe of her paw, Tori unexpectedly dealt a savage slash to Shang's exposed neck. The fox screamed: Tori ignored her as she growled through bared teeth,
"My music, my songs! You even tried to take that from us!!! Ayyahh! what a fool!!"
"Well then, what is it you want?!!!!!" she rasped.
Tori leaned close as Shang gasped for breath, the holes in her throat gaping like stares. "Give me life, give me pain, give me myself again..."
With a weak and shallow snarl, the Coldhearted One felt herself living up to her name as her pulse slowed. "I'll certainly give you pain, whelp!" she cursed at the red-furred wolf. With her last burst of energy, she shoved the long, piercing claws on her hindpaws into Tori's stomach, next to her left leg--- and tore. With an outraged cry, the wolf drew away from the Widowmaker and reached for the fallen Northdog's huge battleaxe. She seemed to drip herself in the slow motion that was Shang's last sight: the final, condemning vision of the raised axehead heading straight for her aching, struggling chest...
* * *
"AaaaaAaAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Noel Gallagher's deep-chested cry rang throughout the area as he, along with Gowran, Dyfed, and Kirkroan, plowed forward into the enemy. "Gowran, to yeh left, lookit!" he called as the Gael was busy fighting a rangy-looking weasel. His back was turned to another weasel, who was sneaking ever closer to him, an evil-looking daggar clenched in his teeth. "GOWRAN!!"
Gowran turned an instant too late. Cawfrent, the weasel, had already driven his weapon into his shoulder. With a scream, Noel and Eirann rushed at him from different sides. Overwhelmed, Cawfrent desperately slashed at the pair, striking Noel's face in several different places. One of the cuts gouged deep into the side of Noel's head, and suddenly the whole battlefield became black and quiet.