StarWatcher: Book 1 - The Rose and The River

Part 3 - Song of the River

By the time Brook and Flash had gotten almost to the river, a gentle rain had started to fall from a darkened sky that blotted out the starlight. Tonight was supposed to be a near full moon. The cold droplets pattered against the ground, mud squelching between their claws and matting their legs. Brook shook water droplets off of her face as they streamed down her head and around her shoulders. Flanking her, Flash shook a paw, flinging muddy droplets miserably, as he stepped in a puddle. "Not much further." The tawny fox promised. She focused her gaze on the distant forest that nearly molded with the dark sky. Twisting her neck to look back, wet black nose reflecting what little light there was, she identified the city glowing with light, trapped beneath the cover of the thick clouds. Her muzzle lowered. "C'mon, Flash. We're nearly there." He offered a short nod and shook his head, trying to rid it of water. This was to no avail, and water trickled down his face, dripping from his muzzle. As they carried on, they laid their ears flat and narrowed their eyes against the pelting drops.

* * *

Rain pattered off of the leaves overhead. The parched plants hungrily swallowed up every last drop. The puddle inside of the den grew as well, though not enough to be a problem. Rabbit finished, the two licked off their paws and pelts to get themselves dry. It was not much warmer inside than it was outside. Brook stretched her mouth open in a yawn. Flash looked up from his grooming and shivered a little bit before curling up, looking at her. She looked back at him. The sound of rain grew louder in the silence.

"Did you always want to be a patroller?"

"What?"

"Did you always want to be a patroller?"

Brook shuffled her position, bringing her tail close aside her. "I don't know." She admitted. 

"You wanted to be SkyWatch?"

Brook licked her paw. "No. I never really felt like I fit in there. Tundra tried to make me feel at home," she set her head down on her paws, "But I don't think it was meant to be. Patrolling just came more naturally."

Silence again.

"What about you?" Flash looked up at her as she asked. "Your brother became a member of the SkyWatch. Why did you decide to be a Patroller?"

"Same reasons as you did, I suppose."

Brook contemplated this new information with interest. They were so different, and yet similar circumstances had brought them to the same place.

Flash unsuccessfully stifled a yawn, tired from their long walk and lack of sleep. Brook was hit with a memory- a song that Tundra had once sang. She quietly sang the words:

"Lifahn si likial tih rithelit

Elitsli sti flowiya

Beritgerith un togedelirith

Wiyarith haliil or foelit."

Flash drank in every word. "What does that mean?"

Brook shrugged. "Tundra never told me. It is of the Old tongue."

The mottled fox rolled the words around on his tongue, eyes gleaming with curiosity. The Watch foxes knew very little of the old language, only knowing short words like Fahn'xyl, Elifahn, and haliil, which was the only familar word in the song.

The vixen hummed the song quietly as the rain thrummed on the leaves, until the sound lulled them both to sleep.

* * *

Brook pelted down a trodden path through the center of the woods. The trunks flew by as she ran, wind curling around her paws and ruffling her fur. Her paws skimmed across the dirt, then skidded to a stop where the path split. She glanced between the paths. The wind murmured incoherently to her, shoving her back and forth in small gusts. Shaking her head to clear it of the wind, she took her choice of a path. 

The vixen turned and followed it in silence. Time passed, until she came to a gnarled rosebush that was blocking the path with sharp, claw-like thorns. She stopped.  I need to go the other way... but when she pivoted to go back, she paused, paw suspended in the air. The path was gone. Where it had been was a cliff, soaring high above the trees and cloaked in mist, as was the rest of the wood. The fox turned her head slowly, observing her new surroundings with confusion. Was she lost? Did she take a wrong turn somewhere without knowing it?

A low growl emitted from somewhere ahead of her, coming from the cliff. The sound was unfamiliar, just like this strange and ever-changing forest. Lowering her paw to the ground, Brook tipped her head curiously, sniffing the air. A creature emerged from the rock wall, as though part of it. It had long gray and white fur and a thick tail. Its eyes were pale gold, and its muzzle was flecked with tawny brown. Broad and muscled shoulders were tense as it came closer, head low. It was easily twice her size. Its large paws crept silently across the pebbly earth with sprouts of little plants here and there. Her pelt became awashed with fear. Tundra had told her of this creature. It was a gray wolf, one of the predators of foxes. Not giving another moment of assurance, it lunged. 

With nowhere else to go, the light brown fox turned tail and darted toward the roses. Her fur was caught on the thorns for a heartbeat, but fear pushed her on. Ignoring the pain of a freshly inflicted wound on her shoulder, she closed her eyes as the thorns pricked against her muzzle. All of a sudden, she could not feel their pull. Reopening her light maya blue eyes, she gasped. She was in the sky, paws upon the clouds, looking down over a red valley speckled with green bushes. Walking across it were foxes, spread in a straggled line. In the lead was Brook. Or, at least, it looked like her. The clouds drifted over the figures, blotting them out.

* * *

A paw prodded her awake. She opened her eyes, bleary from sleep, to see sunlight pouring into the den. She got to her feet and shook a leaf from her pelt.

 "The storm stopped." Flash said, motioning outside. "Want to go hunting? I'm starving!"

Brook chuckled. "Fine. But only if you follow my rules."

"Will do!"