Chapter Six

Sleep didn't come easily to Horty that night. He spent what seemed like countless hours tossing and turning in his bed, twisting his covers and pounding his pillow.

When sleep did come, the young hare's dreams were plagued with visions of his parents lying dead before him, with ferrets standing over them, laughing insanely, waving their blood-stained weapons about.

Then their ranks parted and Gerrith stepped forward, his handsome face grinning evilly. In his paw he held two deadly-looking swords; the blades stained crimson with the blood of Horty's parents.

Horty felt an overwhelming amount of hatred for the young ferret then, but soon it was all washed away and replaced with shock and horror. Windblade had appeared behind Gerrith, smiling the same evil, blood-thirsty smile as the ferret. The Badger Lord laughed wickedly as Gerrith began to strike at Horty with his two blades.

The young hare woke up with a start, shaking and sweaty all over. He blinked his eyes in the darkness, realizing that they were somewhat dry, as though he had been crying in his sleep. When Horty felt his pillow, he found that it was damp. This worried the young hare; Horty had never cried before; except for his parents when they died.

The young hare decided that sleep was out of the question; so he arose and clothed himself in a sand-colored smock. As he dressed, he noticed that it was still night out, and it wasn't going to be morning for a long while.

A full moon was shining forth through Horty's window, surrounded by twinkling stars. The young hare decided that he would go for a walk down on the beach.

The pale moonlight cast a strange whiteness over the shore, giving it a slightly eerie look. But Horty was not afraid; he had often walked out along the shore at night before. This was the young hare's favorite time of day, or night, rather.

It was so quiet and peaceful and dark. The smell of seasalt entered Horty's nostrils as he took a deep breath.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Horty almost jumped out of his fur!

"Oh, sorry; I didn't mean to scare you!"

Turning, the hare saw that the creature that had just spoken was . . . Gerrith!

Angry and flustered, Horty was unable to keep his tone civil. "What are you doing out here? Can't I go on a simple walk without you coming after me? You've made my life miserable enough already!"

The ferret appeared to be surprised. "What are you talking--"

"Humiliating me at sword-fighting and getting to gloat how you got to fight in a war while I'm locked up with all the young and old wasn't enough for you, eh?!" roared Horty, his face twisted up in wrath.

Gerrith looked bewildered. "What are you--"

"You humiliated me in front of all those creatures! In front of the hares! IN FRONT OF LORD WINDBLADE!!"

Gerrith shook his head, his brow furrowing. "I-I didn't mean to--"

"Ooh, but that's not enough either, huh?! No, you just skip off and make Lord Windblade soooo proud of you!"

"Horty--"

"You took everything from me!" the young hare screamed. He was unable to make himself stop; it seemed as though now every bit of anger and resentment that he had been bottling up for so many seasons was now wanting to get out. Horty had wanted to say this to the ferret that had killed his parents, but he decided to make do with the ferret he had now. "My parents, my friends, my talent, my honor, my chance at going to war, and you've even taken Windblade from me!"

"Horty--!"

"And now you've come to gloat about it! You, and all your kind, the vermin, they're all the same! Filthy murdering scum that love to see others suffer!"

"HORTY--!"

"OH, SHUT UP! I HATE YOU!" And with that, Horty turned and ran back up the beach toward Salamandastron, weeping and crying and stumbling all the way, leaving a startled and much hurt Gerrith standing alone in the darkness.

A/N: My apologies for keeping you all waiting. But, to make up for it, for all of you who asked me to update another chapter, I give you three. ;)

And btw, does anyone know how I would get the chapter title centered? I've tried and tried, but it won't stay in just the center!