5. Visions.
Even the greatest and most complicated patterns start from a mere couple of threads sticking together. When destinies of several creatures intertwined on the faraway island of Ergaph, the future that started to emerge was so far beyond their straightforward goals, that they couldn't have possibly imagined it in their wildest dreams. Even those rare few living creatures, who had the ability to glimpse the designs of fate, were hardly able to comprehend what was truly happening. Yet those creatures, in whatever corner of the land they were, at least knew that something is afoot.
A misshapen figure far in the south peered in a yellow, sulfurous bonfire and laughed when dancing flames started taking shapes for a fleeting couple of moments. A champion in the east awoke, after seeing a dream that wasn't really a dream. A great bird in the north flew through the middle of thunderstorm oblivious of the risk, driven by things unseen to others. And before the creatures of destiny even met, a Badger Lady on the western coast started noticing signs of the doom that was prophecised countless seasons ago.
Maybe because of that or maybe by sheer coincidence, the night of the autumn day, on which Ewalt the mouse agreed to fight for Marroch the ferret, was a night of merriment and festivities in the great mountain fortress of Salamandastron. The first autumn storm swept the coast unusually early in this turn of seasons – good news for fighting hares of the Long Patrol. There were no safe anchorages to shelter a corsair ship during a storm between the outlet of the River Moss in the north and the wild southwestern lands, so it was reasonable to assume that any corsairs or freebooters, who might be out in the sea, are turning their ships towards their home havens now. And, as it happened, just a day before a big group of Patrollers returned home after fortuitously intercepting a seavermin slavers' raid down south before they could flee back to the ships with their prisoners, and trashing the foe soundly. Therefore, Lady Violet Wildstripe decided that a feast is in order, to celebrate a triumphant ending for the seasons of danger.
Tonight Salamandastron hummed with sounds of rambunctious songs, wild dances, enthusiastic toasts, friendly scuffles, and, of course, with clatter of dishes and goblets. Hares certainly knew how to enjoy themselves with abandon, and this was doubly true for Long Patrollers.
However, this apparently wasn't true for the Badger Lady herself. After seeing that the feast is well underway, she quietly slipped from the main halls of the mountain to go away and up, all the way to a small stone balcony high in the mountain slope serving as an observation platform – and as one of her favorite spots. Yet if she truly hoped to enjoy some solitude, those hopes were soon dashed, as swift steps echoed across the narrow stone ladder leading to the balcony, and Captain Aldwin, a big, black-eared, flippant-looking, hare, waltzed into, bearing a tray with a pile of pies, a bottle of cider and a couple of cups on one paw. Despite the captain's un-captainlike gallop, and the fact that a considerable amount of cider already was within him, the tray remained as steady, as if it was safely placed on a table.
"Oh, here you are. I couldn't help but notice, you were hardly eatin' or drinkin' anythin' today! What a sort of feast it is, if our fair Ruler doesn't feast, wot? The Long Patrol will be the flipplin' laughingstock of the whole world, if we allow our Badger Lady to go famished, I say! So, here I am, forgive my impudence." He carefully placed the tray on top of the stone parapet and bowed.
Lady Violet Wildstripe couldn't help but smile. She knew Aldwin since he was a babe, they were close friends, and a bit of unwanted persistence was not something for what she could get angry at the jovial hare. "I appreciate the thought, Aldwin. I am... just not in the mood for wild merriment today."
The Badger Lady picked a slice of rhubarb pie, more to avoid disappointing her friend than because she wanted to eat.
"If I'm allowed to tell, you're hardly ever in the mood for anything that is merry, cheerful and joyous, since the last spring, if not before. Blinkin' shame! What's wrong, I wonder?"
Violet ate in a regal manner, taking small bites and chewing carefully, that was why she avoided chocking on the pie. Now, she expected that Aldwin, who knew her better than any other hare, will sooner or later notice the melancholy she wanted to conceal, but suddenness and directness of his question took her by surprise. She answered slowly. "If I say that there's nothing wrong, that would be a lie. If I could say what is wrong, you, my old friend, would be first to hear that. Your concern warms my heart, but there are things that should not be revealed to anybeast, not even you. Yet."
"Prophecy things, wot? Ill omens?" Aldwin seemed unperturbed, and when Violet just nodded, he sighed deeply. Then he took the bottle of cider and filled both cups. "There ain't no ill thought, that a cup of jolly good ale can't banish, as my father said. A cup of cider can help too, I guess."
The black-eared hare took a large gulp from his own cup and continued. "Besides, what's the point worryin' about prophecies, wot? Never understood that, my Lady."
Violet was intrigued by that remark. "And why is that?"
Aldwin waved his paw across the dark vastness of the night-time horizon that stretched before them, feebly illuminated only by a few lights glimmering from the windows of the mountain halls down below, and Violet's own small lamp. "As I recon from the old stories you told us, when I was a leveret, prophecies always are tricky – you think they mean one thing, but they can bally well mean another! Even if they tell that you'll stand triumphant over your foe, they might just forget to add, that the foe will be down, but not out! And if a prophecy foretells misfortune… well, I'm not the wise Lady of the Mountain here, to tell if we can fool it, avert the disaster. But if we can, let's just do it! And if we can't, big deal! Death awaits everybeast too, but you don't see us all gloomy because we can't live forever, wot?"
"It's all about what we do while we're alive." Violet finished the idea for him, and sipped some cider, before continuing. "Now, Aldwin, imagine this. You and your Gallopers are facing seavermin ten times your number, and there is a village's worth of goodbeasts making a run for the Fire Mountain behind you – they cannot outrun corsairs without a good headstart. Fortunately, you stand in a narrow pass in a seashore bluff, and a band of good warriors can hold it for many hours, before vermin find trailways up the bluff and kill you all. Seavermin also can rout if their captain falls, so if you and every one of your hares, all charge them at once and try to break through to him, there is a small chance of winning and surviving. Yet if this chance fails, then the villagers are doomed. And those vermin are just a vanguard of a much bigger fleet, and you need to warn me about it, and even if you hold the pass, the villagers might be running not fast enough to escape. So what will you do?"
Captain Aldwin scratched his ear nervously, realizing that he's being tested and there must be some sort of moral lesson in Badger Lady's conundrum. Before he managed to come up with an answer, Violet continued: "Not an easy question? Neither was the one placed before me, when I entered the Secret Chamber of Badger Lords on the shortest day of the last winter season. Beasts think that I know no fear or hesitation, but to you I can admit, that whenever I stepped there, I dreaded to see my own doom, like Boar the Fighter saw his. But I was wrong. Simply knowing when and how I will perish would have been much easier."
Aldwin laughed without much joy in his voice, and bowed again. "Please forgive this flippin' fool, for doing you scant justice. I should have known the strength of a Badger Ruler better!"
"No offense taken." Violet put her paw on the hare's shoulder, and straightened him, to look into his eyes. "But promise me one thing. I know that no hare is more faithful, true and loyal to me than you, my friend. Unfortunately, one day soon you might be forced to choose between this loyalty and your duty as a Long Patrol captain. Promise me, that if that time comes, you will choose the duty!"
Aldwin took a step back. He tried to find his saber for a second, then remembered that, of course, hares usually don't wear weapons at feasts, and used his empty cup to imitate a military salute. "Does my Lady even need to ask? I, my mind, heart and blade, are yours to command, come what may!"
"They are. I trust you to remember that, if the time comes. But for now…" Violet smiled. "Let us talk of this no more and enjoy our little feast."