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Chapter 17. Dedicated to the One I Love

by Pearl

While I'm far away from you, my baby,
I know it's hard for you, my baby,
Because it's hard for me, my baby,
And the darkest hour is just before dawn.

Pearl missed her granddaughter. She wanted more than anything to get out of this place and find her. But if she had to stay here for one night, it was somewhat consolatory to walk the halls of Sarkleyet's mansion and see that the storm had not left the old pine marten unscathed. The vixen could see where repairs had been attempted. It seemed that the patron of her old rival was not so high and mighty after all.

She had been perfectly civil to him in public as she always was. Now that she was alone however, her mind returned to the fact that he nearly ran her out of business while her competitors leeched off his funding.

Her wandering was not completely aimless. The vixen had been here before and there was one room she wanted to scrutinize more than any other: the ballroom. This was the place where she had attended so many business owners' Seasonday parties. It too had suffered damage, but looked as though it had not been high on the priority list to return to its former glory.

"What have we here?" Pearl whispered into the silence of the room after a cursory scan of the walls. A single shelf remained, hanging rather precariously with a blue and white pottery vase balanced on top. "Not very sturdy, that," she observed, and with a gentle prod of her paw she tipped the shelf ever so slightly.

The resulting crash brought a smile to her lips and several beasts running. The first to arrive was the master of the estate himself followed by a couple of servants who went right to work on removing the mess from his sight.

"Oh my dear Sarkleyet." The vixen altered her expression to match the concerned frown he wore. "It seems as if no beast escaped from the wrath of the sky and seas."

The marten crossed the room and looked disdainfully at the shards of the porcelain before he gave her an answer. "I believe your establishment was also. . . affected?" There was annoyance in his tone.

"We were fortunate enough to have a few of our patrons donate the means for the repairs." Pearl couldn't resist the smug smile that graced her muzzle. She had achieved her objective in striking a nerve. "It really doesn't matter all that much though because as you may have heard, I have decided to retire from the business."

"Yes." Sarkleyet watched as the mouse and squirrelmaid cleared away the last of the shattered pottery. "I had heard. A pity. Of course it is difficult to carry on with a business if one's employees leave because they can no longer tolerate bullying."

The servants hurried away without a backward glance at the arguing vermin.

The vixen's eyes widened and her tail bristled. "I will have you know that . . ." She wanted to lecture him on how everything she had done, even if she had been a little strict, had been to protect those girls from the likes of that alley cat Dirano.

The fact that her management practices were so widely known was a surprise, but she mastered herself, cleared her throat, and answered him with a piece of gossip of her own. "As difficult, I'm sure, as continuing business when all of your employees snuff out due to the effects of the experiments you're performing on them."

"Well what do you know?" The marten drawled, not letting her needling rattle his cool manor. "All you've ever done is herd a bunch of whores. You don't know anything about real power and responsibility!"

"Responsibility?" She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you've done a really good job of that. All those experiments you mess around with, it was probably you that brought the madness down on all of us."

To Pearl's surprise, he hesitated. Was it true then? Did the plague really have something to do with this Red Brandy nonsense? "Perhaps we should have called it 'Sarky's Madness'?" she added more accusingly.

"I don't have time for this," the marten sniffed. "I have a large organization to run. Why don't you go find some way to keep yourself occupied that doesn't break the furnishings?" He sauntered off towards the door but called back over his shoulder, "I'm sure your type of experience wouldn't be much help in planning an attack on the woodlanders' head quarters."

The headquarters? But that's where. . . "Wait!" she ran to stop him. "What do you mean?"

Sarkleyet turned curiously back to face her. "Surely you would like to see them wiped out as much as any of us? They did incarcerate you after all."

"Yes, of course, but they've got Sandy in that place!"

He smiled in mock pity. Of course he didn't know who Sandy was. Perhaps he thought she was one of the Oasis girls but his answer angered Pearl more than anything he could have said about her personally. "We must all make sacrifices, my dear."

"You . . ." the vixen couldn't think of a word vile enough to fit him, but once she saw Rekkua coming down the hall, it came to her in an instant. "Zattaka!"

He laughed as he continued on his way. "Colorful language."

Pearl would have followed after him and questioned him further if she hadn't been stopped by the monitor.

"You are t'e one who knew Zaika?"

"Y-yes." The vixen watched Sarkleyet walk off, still trembling a little and then tried to calm herself as she focused her attention on the other female. "It wasn't much, really. . . I was in the right place at the right time to help your uncle hide from the harbor patrol. We got to talking. . . He mentioned you. He told me that clan and family are the most important things we have." Pearl wished she had heard that advice long before and really listened to it.

"Pearl! Pearl!" The young fox called, aggravating his mother's headache.

She pulled herself off the chaise, determined not to waste the time she'd saved up for her son. "What is it, Jasper?"

"I just wanted t'talk to you, Pearl, an' show you somethin'." He was always so excited when his mother found the time for him.

The vixen blinked a couple of times to rid her vision from the fog of tiredness and drink so that she could really look at her son. "What did you want to show me?" she asked and then sobered quickly and reached out to gently touch the blue-black shiner around the kit's left eye. "Jas, what happened to you?"

"It was my friend Di. He called you a whore, so I belted 'im." Jasper smiled at her proudly.

Her first response was probably not the best. "You didn't tell him I'm your mother, did you?"

"No, of course not. You told me never to tell anybeast."

"Yes, of course." She patted his shoulder. "You're a good kit, Jas. Looks like you're good scrapper too, just like your dad."

Jasper batted away the paw that ruffled his ears. "Tell me about him, Pearl! Tell me about my dad the pirate!"

"Not now, Jas." Her headache was making its painful presence known again. "I'll tell you all about him after I've had a rest."

"T'at Zandy iz your family?" Rekkua tilted her head to the side questioningly. The sound of her voice jolted Pearl from the memory.

"Yes. She's . . . my kit." The vixen's voice almost broke. Perhaps all the pressure was finally getting to her, but for some reason she felt that she could trust some of the truth to this monitor. "The woodlanders took her away from me."

A string of Varan curses sprang from the lizard's lips and Pearl hurriedly led her back through the ballroom and outdoors to the veranda beyond so that Rekkua's raving would not disturb the others. "Filt'y Zattaka! T'ey dezerve deat'! T'ese woodlanderz took my brot'er and clanmate."

The vixen crossed to the stone railing that enclosed the portico, great chunks of which had crumbled away since the last time she had stood here. This spot had once looked over a grand garden but it had given way to a tangle of weeds and brush. "Don't worry," she answered softly but with determination. "We'll get them back, your family and mine."

"You go back to town, not zerch for brandy?" Rekkua asked.

Pearl snorted. "I wouldn't help ol' Sark for a boatload of pirate treasure. That damned marten can clean up his own mess."

A noise then came from the bushes that startled both of the females.

"What t'at?"

"Somebeast is out there. Who are you? Show yourself."

There was a moment of silence and then a voice called back in a horse whisper, "It's just the two of you there, right?"

Pearl looked around, caught Rekkua's eye, and shrugged. Then she answered, "Yes, we're alone. Why? Who are you? Why are you hiding there?"

Slowly a creature that may have once been a dog-fox stepped from behind the overgrown hedge. He was dreadfully thin, and there were great chunks missing from his coat where it looked like the fur had been scratched away by his own claws or teeth or even a blade. His wide staring eyes kept darting from side to side as if he thought somebeast would jump out at him at any second. Probably most alarming, though, was the fact that he was missing an ear. Every few seconds, he would bat at the space where his ear should have been, as if trying to shoo an insect or rid himself of an annoying sound.

The vixen gasped. It couldn't be . . . "Jasper?"

The martie shook his head. "No, no, I'm not him. . . knew him, yeah. He was with us for a bit . . . but it was . . ." He startled and looked around warily. ". . . He didn't make it. Some of us did, though . . . more'n you'd think. You sure there's no other beast here?"

"Quite sure." Pearl stepped forward without actually looking around. This creature had known Jas. Perhaps he had been with him when he died. Did he mention me in his dying breath? Of course I wouldn't know. I wasn't there for him then. I was never around when my son needed me. "If it's Sarkleyet you're worried about, he was here, but we argued and he went back to his study. Please tell me about Jasper."

"Who thiz Jazper?" Rekkua asked, reminding the vixen of her presence. The monitor didn't seem at all bothered by the fox's haggard appearance, though he skirted away from the lizard.

"He is . . . was . . . my son." Her voice broke. Her son was truly gone. She would never see him again and she hated herself for all the times she sent him away, telling him she was too busy.

"Yeah," the martie interrupted. "Yeah, Ms. Pearl. He said you was his mum."

"He told you?" She didn't even notice that the fox had called her by name. Perhaps Jasper had told these others so much about her that this one just knew who she was. Surprisingly it didn't anger her that Jas had revealed her identity. It warmed her heart to know that he would claim her.

"We don't none of us keep any secrets. Our old lives don't matter too much." He was still looking around with obvious paranoia and batting at his missing ear.

"You zay t'ere'z more of you?"

"Oh yes," he nodded frantically. "But that marten Sark can't know about us. No, no he mustn't know. He – he must never know about Nevyeer bein' our leader."

Pearl had been lost in her own memories of her son but at the mention of the name she gasped again. "Nevyeer's alive?"

"You won' tell 'im, will ya?" The dog-fox stepped forward, fear in his eyes as if he knew he had revealed something he shouldn't have. He grabbed her paw, pleadingly.

It was the vixen's instinct to pull away from this horror but she forced herself to stand. "No, o-of course not."

"That's right." He held on tightly to her paw and smiled a rather deranged smile. "You said you'd never help 'im. I heard ya. But you could help Nev. You could come and see 'im." The young fox started to pull the older female away with him.

"I couldn't," she pulled her paw away and heard Rekkua hissing defensively behind her. "I mean, not now. There's going to be an attack on the woodlander's headquarters."

The lizard's scaly claw gently pulled Pearl back toward the ballroom and away from the martie. "We have family t'ere. We muzt go to zee t'ey get free."

The dog-fox looked around once more, growing increasingly agitated. "But you will come? Nevyeer must know what Sark is up to. That's why I'm here. That's why we watch the mansion. You c-could tell him." He looked close to tears. "Then I wouldn't have to come back here."

Compassion was awakened in the vixen. This young creature was after all so very much like her Jasper. "I'll try."

And then he was gone, stumbling from shadow to shadow back down the path towards the town.

After a moment Rekkua spoke. "Your zon iz dead, Mz. Pearl. You gotta t'ink about your Zandy now."

The vixen knew her new friend was trying to be helpful. "Yes." She wiped away a tear.

"I go find out about attack zo we can get family back." The monitor gave Pearl what she probably thought was a reassuring smile but all those teeth were still a little frightening.

"Thank you, Miss Rekkua."

With that the vixen was once again alone. She didn't like being alone. The solitude did however, allow her to drop her mask and let loose the torrent of weeping that had been threatening to spill over since the woodlanders had wrenched Sandy from her arms.

The release was short lived. A deep voice behind her cleared it's throat and spoke out, "Madam?"

It was probably the surprise of it that caused Pearl to so completely fall back into her old way of addressing a male. She quickly wiped away her tears, ran her paws over her fur and clothing to make sure they were in place and turned to face him. Sensuously she asked, "Was there something I could do for you . . . Sheriff?"

"Whoa!" Brull threw up his paws in defense. "Uh . . . I didn't mean . . ."

"Fates!" she spun back away from him again, covering her face with her paws in embarrassment. "Of course you didn't . . . I shouldn't have assumed . . . I am sorry." She really had to get over this habit if anybeast was ever going to consider her fit to raise Sandy.

"No, I shouldn't have . . . uh . . . snuck up on ya like that. You've had a tough day."

"I have," she admitted, with a sheepish smile.

The rat laughed nervously. "That sorry excuse for a marten didn't help out the situation either."

"You heard that?" Pearl sighed. "No he didn't."

"Well if it makes you feel any better I'm not lettin' him send me on any damned fool quest either."

"You're not going after the Brandy with the rest of them?" Again he had surprised her.

"Gates no!" he exclaimed and then looked as though he wasn't sure if that was sort of language he should be using. "I was actually just sort of goin' around tryin' to see if I could convince anybeast else t'tell the scum he could do his own dirty work."

"Well you've found me." Pearl smiled, glad she had made another friend. "And Rekkua," she added swiftly lest he get the wrong idea.

"I'd certainly hate to be on her bad side." Sheriff Brull looked at the vixen for a second longer as if he were going to say something else and then he shrugged. "Well I'd better get on with it, if I'm going to convince anybeast else to come over to our side."

She nodded. "Of course."

"You. . . take it easy, Ms. Pearl. Don't worry, I've got it under control."

"Thank you."