((Well, I'm not sure I liked this chapter…I think I'm sabotaging myself, actually. I can't really explain why I would be sabotaging myself, as it would ruin the whole plot, but I thought I'd tell whoever's listening that I'm sabotaging myself. My character's personalities are doing something strange…mutating perhaps? Strange how, even though I created them, I really don't have complete control over them. Pff…now I sound all philosophical. Anyway, I'm sorry if they don't seem realistic in this chapter. I suppose I tried to show that even thought Redsplash really is pretty much antisocial, she's still Fatefiend's friend…and then I went and tried to show that they're all still really young, and I think it blew up in my face. Oh, well, perhaps I'm just being a bit too harsh to myself.
Anyway, so I tried to force myself through this chapter as fast as I could without ruining it. I'm attempting to get the chapters up reasonably quickly now, as I've pretty much just been writing on this whenever the mood strikes me, and that's not fair to people who actually read what I write. So, yeah, I tried to get through with this one quickly. Didn't work that way though, eh?))
Fatefiend woke before the others, and blinked blearily at the rising sun from where he lay, curled around the ashes of the fire that he had killed last night. For what seemed an eternity he just lay there, watching the world without having to react to it, but, eventually, he knew he would have to get up. Still, knowing that you have to do something and actually doing it are two very different things. He listened, still half asleep, to the sounds of the others as they slept. Redsplash was not snoring now, which meant she was having nightmares, and, if the muffled whimpers Root was emitting were any indication, the squirrel's dreams were not exactly pleasant either. Darkclaw was deathly silent…but then, that was how the wildcat always was, unless he was dolling out morbid monologues.
With an internal sigh, Fatefiend decided he might as well get up. And when he did, he screamed like a lost little bear cub screaming for it's mother while being torn to shreds.. A lost little female bear cub screaming for its' mother. He fell back the few inches he had managed to sit up, and panted harshly as the pain from his stomach and ribs kept him pinned, twitching oddly, to the sand. A rushing sensation filled his mind, and the entire peaceful blue of the sky darkened and faded. Blinking rapidly, he mouthed silent objections as the pain began to, slowly, lessen.
Seconds after he regained control of his sense of hearing, he could hear Redsplash and Root screeching their little hearts out, just as Fatefiend had moments before. And he knew that, whatever monster was currently devouring his guts, was feeding off of the other two, and yet couldn't force himself to care. He closed his eyes and pressed his skull back against the sand, biting his lower lip viciously to keep himself quiet. After all, the pain was bad enough without adding a sore throat to list. It probably only lasted for a minute or so, but that did not matter at all. Pain was still pain, and Fatefiend had felt worse only because his father was a sadist.
In the tiny aftershocks of an earthquake of pain, Fatefiend lay sprawled in the sand, panting. Perhaps five minutes after the pain finally faded, Darkclaw's scowling face appeared over him. "Idiots. I suppose it never occurred to you that after running for hours your muscles might be a bit sore?" He bared fangs dangerously at the three of them. "And none of you had better scream like that again."
Silence fell and then Fatefiend, with Redsplash coming in only a second later, began to scream like an opera singer being stabbed with stabbed to death with needles. Needless to say, Darkclaw did not appreciate this, and, within seconds, had rendered them both unconscious by kicking them both very hard in the skull.
It took a full hour for the squirrel to crawl soundlessly over to where Darkclaw sat, brooding over the ashes of the fire. Darkclaw glanced up at him and, as an incentive to keep quiet, lifted a fox leg to his lips and tore a long strip of flesh off the bone. This proved too much for Root after such a long ordeal of crawling seven feet, and the squirrel fainted dead away.
"What strange company you keep, Darkclaw." Called a voice, accompanied by the fluttering of wings.
Darkclaw glanced to his right to see a hawk landing beside him. "Have you got a message?" He demanded roughly, tossing the meat at the squirrel's unconscious form.
"Not quite." The hawk replied, glancing around questioningly at the three unconscious beasts.
"Then get out of here." Darkclaw growled, his ears flattening against his skull.
"Temperamental today, are we?" the hawk replied mockingly. When Darkclaw swiped at him with his claws fully out, the hawk only managed to escape being torn into shreds by some miracle of fate and reflexes.
"Darkwing, I am far from in the mood to deal with anything but a dead body." Darkclaw informed the startled hawk with an expression one might call full of malice.
"The Ghost has appeared again." Darkwing informed him, much more somber now that the wildcat had attempted, in a way, to kill him.
"Has he?" The wildcat seemed more interested than murderous for the first time all day. He looked at the hawk with less anger, and his ears pricked forward instead of lay flat.
"Yes. On his way to Salamandastron, just like your little band of the brainless." Darkwing informed him with a nod. "I overheard one of his close friends say that the Ghost wished to meet the badger lord and request something from him. Some kind of weapon, I think."
"A weapon? The Ghost? I thought he only wanted peace." Darkclaw replied, filing the insult about his intelligence away for time when he had the energy to reply in kind.
"Oh, he's gotten downright brutal lately. I heard he failed in some kind of venture, or lost something he would have liked to keep found. No creature knows much about him, I'm afraid. Currently goes by the name 'Fallen,' actually. Oh, and, by the way, he was recently held captive in your very own castle."
"What?" Darkclaw demanded, very surprised by this news. He wondered how he could not have known this. Was his little venture around the world with Redsplash and her cronies really keeping him so distant from the rest of the world that his contacts had stopped giving him news altogether? This would not do. Not at all. It sounded like some creatures needed little reminders of his existence. He would begin with that in a moment.
"Oh, yes, was kept in your very own dungeon." Darkwing informed him, seeming to take special delight in Darkclaw's not knowing. "Bluefang had him captured as the otter was walking past the castle. Wanted to hire him as an assassin, or something of the like, and the otter spat in his face. So, Bluefang had him tossed in the dungeon and ordered him executed the next day. Your sister set Fallen free in the middle of the night, and Bluefang raged for weeks about it. Threw his own sister in the dungeon for about half an hour until she broke out and threatened to barbecue him if he tried it again." Here the hawk laughed cheerfully. "Quite a power struggle going on you home, Darkclaw. Too bad you've been forced to miss it."
"You're awfully cheerful, Darkwing." Darkclaw remarked, his smile perhaps flashing a few too many fangs, but a smile none the less. "Is there any reason?"
"Yes, actually, the eggs have recently hatched. Sorrowsong and I have five fledglings, and not one of them was born unhealthy." Darkwing was practically beaming.
Darkwing lunged, pining the hawk's fragile wingtips to the ground and effectively holding the hawk in place. He growled softly and brought his face just out of reach of Darkwing's dangerous beak. "How lovely it is to hear of the birth of young ones at such a troubling time for me and my kin. If you ever insult my family or myself by daring to mock me again, I will hunt down each of your fledglings and rip the feathers from their wings before throwing them off a very high cliff. Now, since you are rather useful when you want to be, I won't kill your family for the insults I've just heard, but if you ever insult my family or myself again, than any threat I have ever made against you and your family will be carried through, Darkwing. Don't forget who I am and what I can do simply because you have children now." Darkclaw paused for just one second, and then he was back, sitting angrily by the ashes, as if nothing had ever happened.
Darkwing stood up and flapped his wings several times, sending sand on the squirrel as he checked to see if any important feathers had been damaged. "I see you haven't lost your…poetic…way of threatening others, Warheart Prince." The hawk murmured darkly.
"Never." Darkclaw returned sharply. "Now, travel to the mountain of Salamandastron and find out their current troubles. I will be traveling that way with the others. Meet me along the way, and don't take too long getting back because you are visiting those children of yours."
Darkwing let out a shriek and flew into the air, leaving the four of them behind in contempt. Only when he was beginning to go out of sight, did he turn towards the mountain of Salamandastron, turning his back towards his hatchlings. Oh, well, he would see them again. And, besides, Darkclaw made no empty threats.
"Well, there you go, Red. We should've let them eat us." Fatefiend remarked to the otter, who was sprawled next to him, currently using his shoulder as a pillow.
"Eh. Who said they wanted to eat us? Maybe they just wanted to worship us as their gods." Redsplash replied in a lazy voice, yawning halfway through.
"Who chases their gods through the forest throwing weaponry at them?" Fatefiend questioned curiously.
"It's religion. Beasts get crazy about religion."
"Oh, right. Right." Fatefiend answered agreeably, nodding slightly.
"Are you two planning to just lie there all day?" Root demanded as he walked towards them, carrying their lunches of sandwiches and cold water carefully, but rather discontentedly.
"You should try it, squirrel. It's really relaxing." Fatefiend yawned.
"Should I feed this to you, or do you think you'll be able to handle it?" Root returned sarcastically, as he held the plate with three sandwiches out towards them.
"Eh. I suppose I can sit up for this." Redsplash admitted and, with a sigh that turned into a hiss of pain, slowly sat up. Fatefiend, relieved of her weight on his shoulder, followed suit, wincing.
"Ah, I knew running was a killer." The ferret mumbled as he took a sandwich and a swig of water out of the canteen.
"You didn't even run." Redsplash replied, skeptically instead of irately.
"Are you joking? 'Bout halfway through, Darkclaw dropped me and said if I didn't run, I'd be killed. Great loveable furry thing he is, just dropping me like that." Fatefiend took a bite out of his sandwich and chewed it viciously, anger at this terrible injustice written all over his face.
Redsplash snorted. "Aw, poor little dear. Do you need a hug?"
"Yes, actually." Fatefiend replied, sniveling like he was actually hurt.
"Root!" Redsplash shouted, getting the attention of the snacking squirrel, who looked up at her with a bit of something hanging onto his lip doggedly. "Ferret needs a hug."
Root and Fatefiend exchanged a long look, before both, simultaneously, going back to their lunch. Redsplash snickered at them darkly until Fatefiend poured a bit of water into his paw, and sent droplets flying into her face. The otter, terribly indignant, responded by hurling a bit of bread at him. Fatefiend grabbed the lettuce out of Root's sandwich, and hurled it at Redsplash. Lettuce leaf smacked into her face and stayed there, and Root, objecting loudly through a mouthful of sandwich, lunged towards Redsplash, in a doomed attempt to get his food back. So, it was pretty much Root's fault that the sand meant to hit Fatefiend landed in Root's eyes. Still, no one told Root and he responded by throwing sand at her, but, blinded as he was, his aim wasn't exactly that good, and his fist ended up slamming into Fatefiend's still slightly-swollen jaw.
The bewildering water-food-sand-fist fight that resulted from this was anything but serious, as, every five seconds, one of them would yelp at the pain from their sore muscles, and another would fall over laughing. Still, it wore them all out, and when the confusion that was the fight ender, Redsplash was using Fatefiend's stomach as an elbow rest, and kicking sand at Root, who was sprawled, panting, on the sand, holding the empty water canteen in front of his eyes in order to keep the sand out of them. Fatefiend, needless to say, was not that happy about his poor stomach muscles being abused by Redsplash's elbow, and was voicing his opinion rather loudly, which caused Redsplash to laugh, resulting in poor aim.
"Truce!" Fatefiend called out, "I call a truce!"
"You'd better." Redsplash responded, laughing happily, as she removed her elbow form his stomach and, before he could stand up and begin kicking massive amounts of sand at her, reemployed his shoulder as pillow again, and yawned heartily.
"It's amazing you two have lived this long." Root remarked as he slithered over closer and then collapsed, looking over at them tiredly.
"Oh, we wouldn't be acting like this is we didn't know Darkclaw was watching our every move." Fatefiend replied quietly. "Got to make the old wildcat think we've got no survival skills of our own."
"You know he only pretends to go away, and then watches?" Root asked, shocked.
"Oh, we've known about Darky's odd little stalker-habits for a very long time." Redsplash answered with a lazy shrug. "Fatefiend figured it out, and then told me."
"Hmm. That's interesting." Root replied neutrally, as he let out a yawn and let his eyes flutter closed.
"Yes…there's a lot Darkclaw thinks we don't know that we do." The ferret added cryptically. Root's eyes snapped open, and he stared at them, wondering if they knew about Darkclaw's plot to kill the badger lord.
"Fatefiend," Redsplash started sleepily, her tone taking on a strange drawling to it now. "Have I ever seen a hawk?"
"A hawk?" Fatefiend asked curiously, looking at her as best he could without disturbing her.
"Yes. Big. Mostly black. Large beak…sharp-looking claws." Redsplash described the bird.
"Talons." Fatefiend corrected mildly. "They don't have claws. They have talons."
"Oh. I should probably care." Redsplash admitted, her voice more yawn than words now.
Fatefiend laughed quietly. "Yes, you probably should. And, no, you've never seen a hawk…that you told me about, anyway. I suppose you might have seen one before we met."
Redsplash's eyes narrowed in momentary thought. "No…" she muttered. "I remember back then. I remember all of that. It's the slave years that I can't always remember. I was just wonderin' if I'd ever seen a hawk."
"Were you now? And why was that?" Fatefiend asked, obviously humoring her as she started to fade into the strange world of dreams.
"Cuz I saw one…" Redsplash murmured. "Think it was a dream…saw it talkin' to Darkclaw about some otter that wasn't me."
"There are other otters?" Fatefiend joked. "Who knew?"
"Who cared?" Redsplash corrected and then, with a final yawn, she was out.
Fatefiend snorted and turned his gaze on Root. "Looks rather naive asleep, don't she?"
Root glanced lazily over at the otter. "Except for the scars."
"Eh. Everyone's got scars. Some run deeper than the others, and some run so deep that you can't even see them."
"What kind of scars run so deep you can't see them?"
"Scars form wounds you never suffered physically. You've got 'em, definitely. Anything that wakes you up screamin'…it's all scars for wounds on the inside. Redsplash's got some that'll get 'er eventually. They're like a poison, sometimes. If you don't get rid of the poison, it'll eat away at you. Drives you mad sometimes, and other times it just makes you go bad. Evil. Happened to my dad, you know. He wasn't so evil when he was born. Raised to be good, actually. My grandparents were farmers, not killers. Rulers of a small village somewhere in the far east."
"What happened?" Root questioned quietly, not wanting to wake Redsplash or Fatefiend out of whatever stupor that was making them act almost…friendly. Maybe near-death experiences made them saner…
"He never told me. Bad things must've happened. Or, you know, his ancestry got him in the end."
"I thought you said his parents were good."
"Oh, yes, both of 'em. But, they were the only good ones in the bunch. Their parents, and their parents' parents' parents…murderers, torturers, backstabbing maniacs, all of 'em. Goes all the way back to Jarijifax the Foul. Evil breath and evil intentions."
"Lovely."
"Eh. It's family. Blood. Got all of my family in the end. Even my grandparents died fightin' the bad fight. There're something's you're born with, you know? You can't fight what you were born to be."
"So, you think you'll go evil?" Root asked, "In the long run?"
"I don't know. I suppose you could say I am already. I've killed, and I've tortured, but I don't like to think I am. I always used to tell my father I hoped I die before I became like him. Back then I was pretty sure I didn't have a choice if I would go evil. Maybe I really don't."
"Doesn't seem fair."
"No, but I don't care as much as I should. As long as Red's alive and I've got food and wine, I'm perfectly happy. Eh, it's a bonus if I get immortality and infinite power, but I don't want to ask too much. There are sober creatures out there, you know."
"You're sober."
"Only technically." Fatefiend responded with a wink.
"You're crazy."
"Course I am. What's the other option? Not one I'd like to think about. Anyway, stop talking so I can go to sleep. You bore me with your seriosity."
"'Seriosity' is not a word, Fatefiend."
"Do you see what I mean?" Fatefiend demanded and then, yawning, gave a slight wave of his paw and closed his eyes, falling to dreams.
"Brighteye, now why do you constantly attempt to escape?"
"I didn't mean it. I really didn't. Just let me go. Please?"
"Go where?"
"Anywhere. I just want to go away."
"Of course you do. Who wants to be a slave? I don't. Do you?"
"No…"
"I wouldn't think so. But, you see, there is an order to this world, and without that order it would fall apart. Some of us are born to have power, and some of us are born to loose it. I, for instance, was born to have power and to, in some beast's eyes, abuse this power."
"You're a monster."
"Am I? Is that what you think? Now, really, Brighteye, with your family's reputation I expected something a bit deeper than that. Your mother understood much better than any of the other creatures I've ever encountered."
"My mother told me you were monster."
"That's a lie. What did I tell you about lying?" The monster sighed. "In the absence of your parents, I feel it is my unfortunate duty to teach you the basic rules of life. Are you listening?"
"Do I have to?"
"Well, I could always dig your ears out of your skull."
"No, no, please don't do that."
"Fine, then listen. Now, most otters would tell you that there is a good and a bad…a black and a white and nothing can cross that line. Most tyrants would tell you that there was no black and white, no good and bad, but power and those who have it and those who don't. They would tell you that those who don't have power deserve to be hurt and murdered, and that, since they have power, they have the right to do whatever they want whenever they want to. But, Brighteye, I am not most tyrants. Still listening?"
"Yes…"
"Good. Life is all how you look at it. You might hate being cut and burned, but there are some beasts out there who love it. We call them masochists. And there are some who like to cut and burn others, and we call them sadists. Most would tell you that I am a sadist, but, really, I'm not near as shallow as that. There are those that enjoy both their own pain and the pain of others. Those beasts are called ' sadomasochists.'"
"Are they monsters like you?"
"You just love that word, don't you?"
"It's the truth."
"Truth is relative, my dear cub, and in here all that matters is how I want the truth to relate. Now, listen closely. Sadomasochists are all those good beasts out there. All of those fighting for freedom and honor and- your favorite-truth. None of them would admit it, but it's absolutely true. Honor, freedom, truth, love, loyalty, all of those lovely things come with a price. And it's not the type of price that's easy to pay off. Those things will take all you have…they'll take your pride, your mind, your soul…your life…To want any of those you have to be a masochist. To want freedom from pain you have to worship it first. That's what we call ironic."
"I don't want to hear this."
"I don't want to care and, between the two of us, what I want matters is the only want that matters. Right, anyway, I have explained the masochist part, but not the sadist part. Good beasts are always out to kill something else. Even the peaceful ones are always wishing death and dismay to us poor mistreated evil beasts. If given half the chance, they would kill us all. And half of them are sure we don't deserve an easy death. Not that they would have the stomach to kill us slow, but it's the will, not the willpower, that counts. Do you understand?"
"I don't want to hear this. I don't want to hear any of this."
"Am I poisoning you're do-only-good mindset? Are your parent's words becoming hard to hear now that your own opinions are starting to form?"
"Stop it!"
"Really, Brighteye, you're pathetically easy to manipulate. If you ever do escape, you're going to be just like the rest of us vermin. Oh, what would your family think if they knew their last living member was ruining their legacy?"
"I'll kill you. Someday I'll kill you."
"And thus is birthed the sadist in you, Brighteye, and at such a young age. How marvelous. Now, let's see if we can bring out the masochist in you, hmm?"
Redsplash's eyes snapped open and she looked around, confused and bewildered. Where was she? Where was the Nameless One's castle? How had she gotten free? What was this ground? Sand? What? What?
She looked around and, to her horror, saw the Nameless One asleep in nearly the same spot she had just vacated. Smothering a scream, she crawled backwards quickly, and nearly ended up in the clutches of a gigantic wildcat, that opened a demonically green eye and gave her a glare. Brighteye vaulted to her feet and bit her lip to hold back a sob, unable to understand what was going on.
"Redsplash, if you insist on jumping around in the middle of night, would you mind not nearly landing on me next time?" The wildcat rumbled darkly.
Redsplash? What…And then Redsplash remembered, and hated the weak memory that had just been in control of her body. With a dark growl, she stalked away from the rest of them. Away from Darkclaw who she had, for the briefest second, feared. Away from Root who she currently despised. Away from Fatefiend, her only friend, who she had thought was her greatest enemy. She definitely did not feel like staying anywhere near the others now.
Fuming, she stalked several minutes away from them and threw herself down in the sand, grinding her teeth the entire time. How she hated who she had once been. That particular memory she despised with the special kind of hate reserved for the many tortures she had endured that had left their permanent marks on her mind. And that one was special, too, because it was the only thing she remembered from the first twenty days she had been captured. That one and one other, but…no…there was no way she would drag up that memory. No, never again. If she had to forfeit sleep tonight, then so be it. That memory would stay buried. Forever.
The pitch-black darkness pulsed dangerously, foreboding. It was the dream again, Root knew it was, but knowing something bad is happening does not make that bad thing any less terrifying…in fact, it often makes it worse. The black blankness closed in around him, chaining him in a hellish place where everything was real, but nothing ever made sense. This place…it was worse than ever before. He could feel something, a flicker of a memory dancing just beyond his reach, and that hurt worse than anything else. To know that he did know something, anything, about his past, but couldn't understand what that flickering meant…that was a torture of the cruelest kind. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he understand his own thoughts?
His paw reached out blindly, searching for the thing he knew would be there. It was always there. A wall of some sort, he knew, but it always seemed to twitch and squirm beneath his paw. Strange, now, how a quiet sense of nostalgia was buzzing in the back of his mind…almost as if…almost as if he was beginning to remember something…Moving forward blindly and biting back screams at the pain from his legs and slashed left paw, he continued with the dream, paying more attention to the feeling that something was being remembered than to the nightmare that ruled his mind.
And then, abruptly, a light came into being. He was so surprised that he nearly woke up, but, no, it wasn't so shocking as it had been last time. His eyes did ache, though, from the abuse of going from darkness to light. And then…then there was a voice, full of humor and concern. "Do you do this to yourself every couple of nights, then?"
And then, like once before, came the sound. Something dripped, slowly, heavy, and he could hear the harsh breathing of someone who had no air to loose. And…then came the screams. Wails that seemed to rip the very air with their sharp pleading. Dying cries that screamed the unfairness of pain at a twitching wall that did not care, in a place full of darkness that breathed in the torture and laughed.
"Now, really, mate, stop that!" Came the voice, loud and commanding.
And then…and then Root realized the beast screaming was him, and his throat burned with the pain of screaming so loud…but it was impossible to stop, because, suddenly, he remembered. He remembered everything and nothing, nothing in the world could be so terrible. And he screamed because finally, finally he knew what he was. And he was a monster.
Root sat up, breathing heavily, and never, for as long as he remembered, had he ever felt more like crying. Because it was all gone. All the memories, and the understanding…it was gone. For a second, he had understood and, yes, it had been terrible, but he had known. It was like giving a couple the baby they longed for and then smashing the cubs brains out right in front of them. Torture so painful could not be comprehended, so he lay back in the sand and tried not to cry.
It was such a bitter thing, to have what you wanted most and then have it torn away. Root could not be whole, could not even be anything but a shadow of what he was, until he knew. That's all he wanted, really. Not wealth, or a family, or even a very long life, though any of those would be very nice. All Root wanted was to know who he was. Was that really such a terrible thing? What was it, in his past, that had been so bad he'd been forced to forget I? What could ever be so bad that it would be worse than the not knowing? Nothing. Nothing ever could be worse, and, for a moment, Root had had what he wanted.
He forced his eyes shut, and reminded himself to breathe. Perhaps, if he went back to sleep…perhaps then he would remember. Maybe…maybe…So he attempted to force himself to sleep, but that, as most know and could have told him, never works. Eventually, though, he did fall to sleep, but, just to spite himself, he did not dream at all.
"Ferret, get up." Commanded the wildcat's sinister voice in Fatefiend's ear.
"Dark…?" Fatefiend murmured questioningly, blinking slowly awake. The sun had not yet risen and the stars showed no signs of fading yet. "Dark, this had better be deathly important."
"The otter has demanded we all get on the move." Darkclaw replied. "She has started walking."
Fatefiend said up, wincing as his muscles complained, and saw Redsplash stalking in a vaguely southeast direction. "Isn't she goin' the wrong way?" Fatefiend slurred sleepily.
"Yes." Darkclaw replied and then moved to wake up Root.
"Red!" Fatefiend screamed at the top of his lungs, which, although he was still mostly asleep, was about as loud as any creature that walked the earth could scream. Redsplash whirled around so fast she nearly fell over, and Root, who Darkclaw was about to kick awake, sat straight up and let out a startled shout.
"What?" Redsplash bellowed back."
"You're goin' in the wrong direction!" Fatefiend screamed.
Redsplash let out a string of obscenities and began stalking in the correct direction. With a yawn, Fatefiend fell backwards and curled slightly on his side, prepared to go back to sleep. Root, blinking blearily, fell in beside Redsplash as Darkclaw picked up all the packs and followed. On her way past Fatefiend, Redsplash pulled the stopper out of the mostly full canteen of water, and emptied it all over the lightly snoring ferret.
"Red, if you weren't the best friend I've ever had…I would kill you." Fatefiend grumbled viciously as he trudged along in the sand, following Redsplash who was leading them all as if she knew where she was going, which, of course, she didn't.
"You would try." Redsplash corrected grumpily. The venture to Salamandastron was almost over, or so Darkclaw had told her.
"No. I would kill you." Fatefiend argued, brandishing an apple at her back. "I would take this apple and beat you over the head with it, until you died. And then I would spit on your carcass and get some sleep!
"Stop whining, Fatefiend." Redsplash answered without even looking back at him over her shoulder. "It makes you more pathetic than you actually are."
The apple, or, technically, the apple core, thumped against her back a mere second after the words passed her lips. "I am not pathetic!" Fatefiend roared angrily.
Redsplash turned around, grabbed the apple core, and hurled it. It slammed into Fatefiend's forehead, spraying juice all over his face. "Then stop complaining!" She bellowed.
"Have I ever woken you up before dawn to go wading through some stupid sand that makes it impossible to walk?" Screamed the ferret. "No! And I would appreciate it, if you never did this again!"
"You know, Fatefiend, if you're going to act like this, you might as well leave and go somewhere by yourself!" Redsplash screamed back.
"Oh, right! And go where, huh? Oh, I know. I'll curl up and die and go the damn Dark Forest. It can't be any worse than being here!" Roared the ferret.
Redsplash pushed him so hard he fell over. She then proceeded to kick at his ribs, all the while insulting his ancestry and the general shape of his facial features at the top of her lungs. Root, who had been walking behind even Darkclaw-who was almost out of sight of the other two-arrived in full sprint at this time and tackled Redsplash, carrying the otter with him as momentum sent him flying for several long seconds, Redsplash spewing curses the entire time.
When they landed, Redsplash kneed him in the gut and proceeded to pummel him heartily. Root responded by pushing her away from him, and then rolling in the opposite direction. "Stop this!" The squirrel shouted at the otter. It did no good, though, because she lunged at him, landed on his stomach forcing all the air out of his lungs, and began to punch his face again. Several seconds went by in which time Root attempted to shove her away, and during which Redsplash just continued to hit him over and over again.
"Aaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!" Came a thunderous screech and Root grunted as something landed hard on Redsplash, forcing her to, once again, slam into his stomach. For a second, Root couldn't breathe at all, and then Fatefiend had pulled Redsplash off the squirrel and jumped to his feet. Redsplash was on her way to sitting up, when the ferret jumped and landed, hard, on the otter's stomach. Emitting a strange sound of strangulation, Redsplash managed to flip him off her, and he landed hard on the sand, therefore having the air forced out him.
All three of them lay there, forcing air into their abused lungs as their still-sore stomach muscles screamed at them. There was no sound but the shifting of the sand and the harsh pants of all of them. Minutes passed as they lay there, unable to get up or catch their ever-elusive breathe. They heard the sound of Darkclaw approaching and did not bother to react, but stayed just as they were and attempted to remember how to breathe.
All three of them looked up at him as he passed them by, hoping he would manage, somehow, to give them back the air they needed. However, all he did was roll his eyes. "Idiots." He snapped and shook his head, obviously wondering how he ever managed to end up in the company of said idiots.
"What's that noise?" Fatefiend demanded curiously at about three hours past lunchtime. It sounding vaguely familiar, like he had heard it a lot before, but he couldn't quite place it…
"It's the ocean, you dolt." Redsplash retorted sharply.
"Aw, is wittle Wed still upset because I beat her up?" Fatefiend taunted happily.
"The ocean…" Root breathed. "I don't think I've…I've never seen the ocean…"
"Nothing much to see, actually." Fatefiend told him, in a much better mood than before. "Just a whole bunch of blueish greenish brown water that hides sharks and induces nausea and often vomiting. They call it seasickness. Red's got a whole story to tell about seasickness. Go for it, Red. Tell the squirrel."
"I'll squeeze your neck so hard your head'll pop off." Redsplash grumped at him, obviously in an even worse mood than she had been in this morning.
"Huh, must not be in a story-telling mood today." Fatefiend observed thoughtfully, "Anyway, this was the part of our lives when Darkclaw had pretty much kidnapped us and was taking us back to the Nameless One to-and we didn't know about this-betray us to my father in order to get his sister back." Fatefiend's eyes flashed darkly for a minute. "Speaking of that…"
"That was over a season ago." Darkclaw snapped moodily, looking a bit annoyed by all this.
"Well, yes, but you never even apologized!" Fatefiend remarked loudly. "You sold us to my father and you never even said you were sorry!"
"I don't say things that I don't mean." Darkclaw growled, "And, besides, I saved your life."
"No, you did not. Red saved my life." Fatefiend jerked his paw at the stalking otter.
"I found you, the otter, and some other otter sitting in the middle of the hallway dying, and I got you three out of there alive."
"Havoc died." Redsplash growled suddenly, glaring at Darkclaw over her shoulder.
"I did not say I kept you three alive." Darkclaw argued back. "I said that you three were alive when I got you out of the Nameless One's castle."
"Oh…well, all right then." Fatefiend remarked, "Now, Root, as I was saying…we were going over and ocean, or had just started going over an ocean, and Red over there just suddenly started looking a bit green. And Darkclaw says 'You look green. Are you seasick?' and the captain goes 'Otters never get seasick' and Darkclaw says 'I think they do' and the captain says 'I bet they don't' and Red goes 'I'll take that bet' and then runs over to the side of the ship and vomits up all over the ocean. It was great."
Root stared at the ferret blankly, unable to believe he had just said all that without ever once taking a breath. Redsplash was practically stomping her feet with every step now, and Darkclaw was still a bit annoyed at the mention of the past in which he had betrayed them. None of this seemed to occur to Fatefiend, though, who was laughing uproariously at the vomiting story.
"Um, yes…very funny." Root agreed uneasily. He might have been forced to endure more of this, when, suddenly, the sand in the distance turned blue. At first he did not understand, and then he saw it was moving. It was an ocean.
"Are you really leaving then?"
"What, you think I would stay here and be ruled by him?"
"He is not as bad as you think. Really. He has promised us treasures beyond…oh, beyond reckoning."
"And none of it's real, Khilijara. He will betray you, and I will not stay behind and wait for the dagger to dig it's way into my back."
"You're a bastard sometimes, you know?"
"Oh, yes, love you too."
"Why are you going by ocean? It's unnatural. It's water."
"Exactly why he won't think of following me across it. Promise you won't tell him?"
"Oh, I might tell him, if you don't come back soon enough."
"I won't come back at all."
"Then, yes, I will tell him. But…I will give you a head start of five days. For old time's sake."
"For old time's sake then."
"Root! Are you still alive?" Fatefiend's voice brought Root out of whatever strange echoing memory that had just claimed his mind.
Root shuddered and then shook his head, to clear away the lingering feelings of a bitter goodbye. "Oh, what? Yes. Yes, I'm fine."
"Really, mate, you looked dead for a few seconds. Dead standing up…looked kinda funny, actually…"
"Glad my expression amused you." Root responded curtly.
"Well, anyway, mate, like we were just saying," Fatefiend said a bit uneasily, "We've practically arrived at our destination."
"I thought we were going to Salamandastron…not an ocean." Root replied, frowning.
"And what exactly, squirrel, do you think that is?" Darkclaw demanded with a malevolent grin as he gestured at something over Root's shoulder.
The squirrel turned quickly and saw it. The mountain he had followed these lunatics for days to see. It was gigantic, and impressive. No matter how disturbed he was by that little memory-vision of his, he could feel the awe growing in him that the mountain inspired. But the awe vanished quickly, and all that was left was a sense of approaching danger. That insane voice whispered to him feelings…and all of those feelings were warnings. Something bad was going to happen soon, and Root could feel it in his stomach…a danger just waiting to attack and, unlike before, this time even the voice seemed frightened into near silence by the imminent destiny.