Wolf Warrior

Four

The next day, I climbed out of the bush and brushed twig fragments off my sky blue top.
"No point doing that, human. You're just going to get muddy again." A black bear from snowdrop army warned me.
"Do you have to call me 'human'? I have a name you know." I replied, slightly annoyed. The bear told me gruffly,
"Usually only high rank animals get names. And we don't know yours anyway." Then the bear plodded off gruffly.
I looked around and saw all of the animals, black cats, bears, eagles, wolves, bats and more, were assembled around tree trunks, eating, so I figured that's where they had breakfast and went over to join them. Whilst I sat at a tree trunk, nibbling blackberries that were placed on it, Brindlemark padded over to me. He nuzzled my shoulder in a friendly greeting.
"Slept well?" he enquired.
"No, not really - bushes are too scratchy." I answered honestly.
"Welcome to the wild, human. Oh and by the way, what's your name? Shadowberry told me you had one." Realising he was referring to the bear I'd met earlier, I answered,
"My name's Skye, Brindlemark."
Brindlemark nodded and told me,
"Skye, today is not going to be a relaxed day. But first, I need to tell you something. But not before breakfast."
Brindlemarks grey ears pricked up and he shot of to some moss, pounced and returned to the stump with a vole, freshly caught. I made a face as he gulped it down, licking his lips appreciatively.
"Yum, tastes like chicken." Brindlemark said, still licking his lips.
He waited until I had finished my meagre meal of nuts and fruit then said,
"Look around the tree stumps where everyone is. Which animal isn't there?"
Looking at the black cats, eagles, bats (yawning sleepily), foxes and wolves, I noticed none of the bears were there.
"Bears." I answered correctly.
"Yes." Brindlemark told me, "This is because the bears need more food than we can afford to forage for them. So the bears hunt for their own food and bring back anything spare. As a human, your diet is also larger than we can provide for you, so you must hunt for your own food."
I stared at Brindlemark worriedly. I had no idea how to hunt! In modern society, where a supermarket was on my doorstep, I didn't need to hunt... how on earth would I survive out here if I couldn't hunt my own food?
"Please don't stare at animals. Most take staring as you challenging them for a fight." Brindlemark informed me.
"Oh, sorry..." I replied, immediately looking away. I continued, "And I don't know how to hunt."
"Good. Because once you've learned to hunt, you can use the same method for attacking the enemy. You'll see later. For a few days you'll get your meals from here but tommorow you'll hunt." Brindlemark explained.
"So is that all you want to tell me?" I questioned. Brindlemark said no and answered,
"Skye, this'll be very hard to understand, but listen anyway."
I nodded and Brindlemark sat beside the tree stump in a relaxed way before continuing,
"As part of an army, we cannot afford to let you sit around all day. The enemy - The Nightstar army - will not let us rest. Nightstar army is constantly trying to attack and make us surrender to them and if we're off guard, there's serious consequences."
I pulled a face. Why was this all so serious? And were those horrible unicorns part of it too? Brindlemark nosed my leg, which had been hurt by the unicorn.
"The Nightstar army is made up of hound dogs, horses, unicorns, cats (except black ones), ferrets, libo cats - cats that turn into lions and tigers. They also managed to make 2 of our eagles go against us, so we've now got 2 double agents as well."
Brindlemark said all this wearily, whining,
"The Nightstar army is bigger than us and wears us out. But we can't let them win - they have plans to keep the forest to themselves, push us out, hurt you humans. This is why we thank the stars when fate brings along unexpected things like you, Skye."

I realised two things now. The first was the hounds message 'the enemy is the hero and the friend is the villain' now made sense. It was all to do with assumptions. Wild animals, especially wolves and bears, were often thought of as the enemy. When in fact they were being the hero here. The pets were often thought of as the friend but they were really far from that in this forest! Oh gosh, this was seriously messing up my assumptions.

The second thing was that Brindlemark was exhausted.The whole of Snowdrop army was worn out. They needed me and new recruits. But I wasn't useful - I couldn't even hunt for myself!
"But you are useful, although you don't think you are, Skye." Brindlemark continued, "One of the magical black cats saw into the future in a dream - you are to be an Archer and are destined to cause an ex machina in our favour, although I don't know if that will be true."

True was the last word I'd use to describe that future sighting - more like downright impossible.