Naming Clay

Chapter Three

There was a heartbeat of speechless silence, then the burrow area erupted in chaos. Everyone had something to say, barking over each other and scrambling to their paws. Some stood with their sharp snouts swinging, blinking at the sky as if the leopard would swoop down upon them at any moment. Others crouched, huddling together with wide eyes as if willing themselves to wake from this nightmare. Click pushed through the throng until she reached Clay, Haywood, and Suri. She pulled Clay into a fierce hug, wrapping her forepaws over his shoulders, and pressing his nose into her fur.

"Oh, its so dreadful, Clay." Click rested her snout on top of his head.

"Luff fe woo." He squirmed, his voice muffled by her pelt.

"Clay, honeybee, I can't understand you."

Clay pushed his mother, keeping her at arms-length and gasped. "Oh." Click fussed, sniffing at his shoulder. "Sorry, honeybee."

"It's alright." Clay offered a weak smile, but his thoughts were swirling and tinted with dread. He glanced at Haywood who looked sick to his stomach and Suri whose expression was stoic and knew they felt the same.

A subordinate male yelled to address Ripper. "Where did the attack happen?"

"On the No-End-"

"Where along the No-End Path?"

Ripper swallowed and sat back on his haunches. "The Edgelands we think, near the jungle."

A ripple of worried murmurs swept through the crowd. "We must move burrows then." The same subordinate male suggested.

"Yes." Shouted another meer.

"We should go at once." Someone else nodded.

"There will be no burrow move." Ripper shook his head. "Quiet is in too critical a state to be moved."

"But the Edge Burrow is in the Edgelands!" Squeaked a young female. "We can't stay here and wait for the leopard to come and eat us!"

"Yeah, now that it's had a taste of meer blood there'll be no stopping it." An elderly male shivered, his dread-filled gaze scanning the distance. The group burst into concerned barking.

"Alright, alright!" Ripper stood and lashed his tail. "We'll move burrows as soon as Quiet is well enough and not before. Is that clear?" His stern gaze travelled over the group. "No one gets left behind, not in the Powers." The murmurings quieted and Ripper cleared his throat. "Until then we stay close to the burrow, even to forage. And everyone avoids the No-End Path." Left unsaid was: in case we have to run for our lives from a huge clawbeast and hide in the tunnels.

Clay waited, expecting more information or more details about the plan, he supposed, but it never came. Ripper sat in a half-crouch, his claws spread, watching the gathering begin to dissolve. But that couldn't be right. There had to be more that they could do. They couldn't allow a leopard to roam free on their territory for Star's sake! Nowhere would be safe! All he could see were Quiet's bloody wounds, the stripes ripped into his chest. Quiet may have been horrible, the meer had almost killed him when he pushed Clay into that clay pit, but he didn't deserve to die like that. No meer did, and Clay couldn't fathom standing by and letting the same thing befall another groupmate...

His eyes flickered to his friends and mother. Click was working her jaw making tiny click, click, clicks, her eyes wide and nervous. Suri was speaking in hushed tones to Haywood, but their friend was staring hollowly at a barren shrub. What if one of them was next? Or Ripper? Or Marsh? What would the Powers do without leaders? Clay and Suri certainly weren't ready for that responsibility yet. If the elder was right, then the leopard would stop at nothing to hunt them all down...