Nightclaw: Blood Moon Apex

Chapter 20: Igniting A War

General Urs, General Peşte, and General Râsul all arrived at Vultur's Cave using the wood-and-rope elevator that Nightclaw and Vultur had utilized earlier. By then, Nightclaw had been retrieved, Valeria and the rest of the rescue party had already left, Esther's gas had already dissipated, and Lily had already killed both the eagle shaman and the bear warrior who were the first two members of their community to see Nightclaw.

"No.....no, no, no, no, no!" Peşte wailed as she ran over to Vultur's unresponsive husk and tried to rouse her, discovering—to her horror—that Vultur was now missing an arm. "Wake up, General! Wake up!"

Meanwhile, Urs and Râsul checked the pulses of the two shamans at Vultur's side......unfortunately, the absence of their pulse combined with the round bullet holes in their heads made it undeniably clear that they were dead.

Absolutely fuming, Râsul left the shamans' side, approached the wooden table with all of the Native American artifacts on it, hoisted it off the ground, and threw it against the wall with a grunt of anger, reducing it to nothing but splinters in the process. "WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TRUSTED THE ORDER!" the Lynx Avatar roared. "OR THEIR ALLIES! Now two of our own are gone! And......and Vultur may be, too!"

Peşte still held out hope, attempting to resuscitate Vultur with chest compressions. Her vision became distorted by her accumulating tears, but she kept going.

"You can't leave us....." she sniffled. "You led us this far......it was your heart and strength that got us here. You believed we could make a better future for all beasts.....that we could create a world where they wouldn't be hunted......it can't end here.....it just can't. We would follow you anywhere, to the ends of the Earth and back.....WAKE UP!"

Peşte's raw grief even shook the usually-laid-back Urs to his core, and he felt like he might break down as well. Still, the Bear Avatar knew when enough was enough. Approaching Peşte's side, he gently placed a paw on her scaled shoulder and slowly pulled her away from Vultur's body, with the Fish Avatar continuing to cry all the while.

Though Râsul still remained as angry as ever, there was no one around for him to take his frustration out on. No werewolves from the Order, no humans, and no sign of Nightclaw's allies. So instead, he shifted his temperament, choosing to mourn his fellow General's passing alongside the others. Still, he was arguably the one who vented the most. "This is inexcusable....." he growled. "Who will take command now?!"

Peşte violently broke free of Urs's grip and went back to try and revive Vultur.

"Peşte....." Urs said gently.

"No!" the Fish Avatar declined.

"Peşte, listen....."

"She's still here! She just has to be!"

"She's gone!" Urs exclaimed in a firm yet sad tone, hoping to make Peşte see that her efforts were a lost cause. "Come.....she left me instructions on what to do in case she ever fell. It's time that we all start to plan her funeral."

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In the spirit world, which resembled an endless, flourishing plain bathed in the warm glow of moonlight, General Vultur laid face-down in the grass blades. Soon, she successfully woke up and willed herself into a standing position despite her immense physical pain.

Her first act was to analyze herself; the last thing she had remembered was taking a massive beating from the werewolf Nightclaw, whose Order she had hoped to form an alliance with. Instead, upon learning of Vultur's drastic measures, the werewolf had instead opted to brutally maul her with great aggression; ferocity the likes of which Vultur had never seen before in her entire life.