16. Found Forgiveness
Red woke from a sleep that was surprisingly untroubled, he knew he was likely to die that evening however his dreams were free from the nightmares he normally faced. He felt energised, his legs were light and his thoughts were clear and concise. He'd not felt like this since he was a carefree cub back at his parents' earth. It was daytime outside, and the light cast from the gap above the boulder filled most of the chamber in a bright glow, all except for a strange black shadow that appeared on the back wall of the chamber just above where Red had been sleeping. Red was puzzled and he followed the outline of the shadow to the boulder, lifting himself up on his back legs he stuck his snout into the gap and peered through. There perched on the rock and fast asleep was Boss. Red lined his mouth up with the Robin and then cleared his throat as loudly as he could. "Ahem!" Red bellowed at the top of his voice. Boss woke immediately, dazed and clutching at his chest the little robin slipped and fell off the back of the boulder, Red began to laugh.
"That was not funny!" cried a croaky and out of breath voice from behind the boulder.
"It looked it from this side," said Red as he climbed back down to the ground.
Boss hopped back up on top of the boulder, one wing raised pointing out towards the exit and the site of the trial beyond. "What was that?"
Red shrugged. "The truth."
"The truth?" Boss was so incensed his voice had climbed a whole octave in pitch. "The truth just got you killed son!"
"Probably," acknowledged Red.
"Probably?" the robin started bouncing up and down he was so angry. "You care that little? Why did I even bother wasting my time trying to help you!"
"You don't kill a piece of yourself, you learn to own it, or it learns to own you. You told me that." Red looked up at Boss "I did those things, all of them. I wasn't someone else just because I lost my memory, I was me."
"Chief controlled you, like he did everyone else," said Boss.
Red shook his head. "I had control over myself the whole time, I did what I did because I liked it."
"He set the targets, he told you what to do!" continued Boss, his wings waving around uncontrollably.
"I could have stopped, I could have left anytime, he could never have prevented it," said Red "I had nothing to stay for other than the tasks I was given, I wanted to complete them."
"But why?" asked Boss, his anger replaced with confusion.
"Because maybe I am every bit the monster they say I am!" said Red as he bounded up to the boulder and thrust one of his front legs through the gap, pointing it out through the exit of the earth. "I found something I was good at, no, something I was the best at. It was the first time in my life that I made sense, I thought I finally understood what I was and why I existed!"
"You don't believe that, and neither do I," said Boss shaking his head.
Red pulled his leg from the gap and returned to the centre of the chamber. "Maybe you should."
"What now?" asked Boss.
"Either you use the past as a tool and learn from it or it controls you and you end up back in the same places you've already been. I'm tired of going backwards, I either go forwards or it all ends," answered Red as he closed his eyes to go back to sleep.
Red was awoken late in the evening as he had been the previous night. The four fox jailers escorted him through the cold and out to the floodlights at the centre of the dump. He passed dozens of other foxes along the way, all seemingly travelling in the same direction. When he arrived at the lights he found it difficult to believe what he was seeing, hundreds of foxes were arrayed at the back of the lit-up circle. They were split into two groups by a dividing line of foxes standing back-to-back with each other. As Red got closer he began to recognise members of each group, one half were northern foxes the other were all southern foxes. As he entered the circle a mass of voices, both jeering and cheering broke out amongst the gathered foxes. The jailers pushed Red to the centre of the lights under the building where the four elders and Scout stood. As he looked up at the foxes he noticed that perched along the flat tops of most of the other prefab buildings were rows and rows of birds, including both Boss and Talon.
The elder vixen and Scout took a step forward, each raising a paw, the chattering from the animals present immediately ceased.
"We are gathered here today to pass sentencing on the fox Red, Outcast to the southern among you and Beast to those from the north," announced the vixen "Red you have plead guilty to all charges, this has been acknowledged and taken into account in your sentencing." The vixen looked across at Scout and nodded her head.
Scout paused for a second, looking out across the vast array of faces that stretched out before him. "Red, it is the judgment of the five northern elders that you be cast out, exiled from this land…" Scout trailed off as an angry roar of voices erupted from the Northern foxes present, both Scout and the elder vixen held up a paw until the voices reduced in volume enough that Scout could continue. Scout leapt down from the building and crossed the ground over to the line of foxes that divided the two factions. "Aren't you all tired of being angry? Of being so filled with hate and loathing that it is all you think about? Look at yourselves!" said Scout, his commanding voice had returned. "This conflict, it's consumed us for far too long. Do any of you even know how it started? No? My great grandfather started it, in almost this exact spot. He disagreed with a judgement of this court and look where that got us, years of infighting, hundreds of us dead, and for what?" Scout looked between the faces present, most had dropped, a few however had not. His gaze rested on the face of the scarred fox leader, Scout could see a fire in his eyes that he knew no words would quench. Scout felt a nudge from a fox next to him, the elder vixen had joined him in the crowd, she smiled and nodded at him to continue. "It is the judgement of this court that Red be exiled from this land at dawn tomorrow, never to return."
Red didn't know what to think, he lifted one of his paws, it was shaking uncontrollably. Before he could calm himself he felt a shove from behind as the four fox jailers whisked him away from the court and back to his cell. They left him in the middle of the cell chamber but this time they did not push the boulder back to block him in. Red lifted his paw again, it still shook.
"You know what that means right?" said Scout as he entered the cell.
"I was afraid?" replied Red.
"Yes, but why? asked Scout "you weren't ready for it to end, your life is unfinished."
"How did you-" Red started before Scout interrupted.
"Save your life?" a smile spread across Scout's face "I didn't, you saved your own. I mean I might have told the other elder's that you would plead guilty, and maybe worked out a deal to save your life if you did. But really, you did the hard part."
"You, an elder?" Red shook his head "I'm surprised this place isn't falling down already."
"There's still time for that, come with me." Scout led Red out past the boulder and down the tunnel that led to the right from the atrium outside Red's cell. The tunnel was long and constantly curved to the right as it circled around the edge of the northern fox earth. Red noted that the journey took the pair past multiple chambers with cells very much like the one Red had spent the best part of two months trapped inside. Eventually the tunnel exited into a large cavernous chamber with no apparent exit.
Scout drew to a stop in the middle of the chamber. "This is where we part ways."
"In an empty den with no exit?" said Red "your jokes are about as funny as mine."
"Please," Scout snorted as he paced over to the far wall of the chamber. He raised a paw and pushed it into the dirt in front of him, it passed through like the wall was made of sand.
"Where does that go?" asked Red.
"Into the forest to the north, my farther had it dug when he was planning his attack, it never got used, until now I guess. You need to go, follow it, push hard to clear the town and the land that surrounds it. There are still foxes here who disagree with the sentencing, they will come after you, I've done all I can to protect you from them, the rest is up to you."
"You know, your new plans are a lot better than your old plans," said Red with a smile.
"They were always good plans, you were just too much of an idiot to see it," replied Scout with a chuckle "find White Deer Park, find the vixen." Scout put a paw on Red's shoulder. "Never look back, if they see you here again, they will kill you."
Red felt a stone form in his throat. "I'll do my best."
"My big dumb brother is the strongest and bravest fox there is, so I know he will do much better than that." said Scout as he backed away towards the entrance to the chamber, a beaming smile on his face.
Red wavered for a moment, he knew this would probably be the last time the two foxes would see each other. "See you when I need another plan, little brother." Red turned away, plunging his head and body through the soft wall and into the tunnel beyond.